This Time Pronounce The "T"

Stephen Colbert does so many things these days -- in addition to his eponymous Report on Comedy Central, he's the voice of a couple of Cartoon Network cartoon characters, and the author of Stephen Colbert's Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure -- we're always glad when he can step out of his news-jerk persona for a good interview. Such an interview, with the famous Onion A.V. Club, is BlogPulse's no. 24 top link today. In it Colbert says fascinating things about the media, his show, and the mystic arts of comedy. Also, that he considers his former home, Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, as a mere 30-minute prelude to his own new program, a remark that we hope will precipitate a huge throwdown between those two comedy-media titans. Bloggers' responses to the interview have been positive, it's fair to say. SRWU enjoyed Colbert's comparison of his comedic stylings with those of George Carlin, and whereas this blogger just lazy-linked to the piece, the parody logo on the post is worth a look.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 12:00 PM | Permalink

Category: Celebs

Always Stay On Oprah's Good Side

We've tried to stay away from snarky rejoinders with respect to the recent Oprah-memoir-"no such thing as definitive truth" imbroglio, and today feel vindicated for doing so after seeing BlogPulse's no. 13 link. We're not really... ah... down... with the Oprah experience, which we kind of think is, y'know... kind of cynically exploitative... and so we don't watch her program. But we learned a lot from this live-blog Gawker coverage of Thursday's program, which shows how, just as The Maven of Michigan Avenue giveth, so too may she taketh away. To wit: The Chicago Tribune's banner headline this morning was: "Oprah Shreds Frey In A Million Pieces," which we feel is almost blog-worthy. Oprah brought on author James Frey, whose book "A Million Little Pieces" she boosted and now is deploring, and basically killed the guy. For the rest of his life he'll be known as the guy who humiliated the most powerful force in American book publishing, and, in response, was pilloried. For Oprah, this was personal.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 11:28 AM | Permalink

Category: Celebs

Today's Honor Roll

We just took a cursory spin through today's no. 30 top link, which we think you'll agree is an impressively exhaustive catalog of American wretchedness. And it's not just Bernie Goldberg deciding that Michael Moore is "ruining America;" this stuff is detailed. Some of our favorite listings include George Lucas, of whom the list says this: "Lucas has grown so accustomed to massive commercial success that he has no idea he’s putting out the worst work of his career, and no one dares to tell him." It's true, devastatingly true. Our other favorite loathesome personage is listed as no. 4, but you'll have to check it out yourself to see who it is. Reactions are all over the map. At least one blogger is praising the list for its cathartic properties: "It is quite a good read especially if you are feeling generally annoyed and want to channel it. Some of the top 50 must make it into the top most loathsome people in the world list." Agreed.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 11:56 AM | Permalink

Category: Celebs

A Recipie For Classic Television

When we saw today's no. 2 link, which details the merging of two anemic TV networks, UPN and WB, to form a network that will either be doubly anemic or 50 percent less anemic than the two were seperately, we couldn't help but think of ways to also combine some of their best programs. What they should really do is have just one three hour-long show that stars Tyra Banks, Alyssa Milano and the woman who plays the mom on "Gilmore Girls," as three sassy, sexy detectives who use magic to solve fashion show mysteries and are always there for each other when times get rough. And fair warning: We will sue for royalties if "The CW," as they're calling the new network, starts production on this show without us. Bloggers are kind of split on the announcement: This post is a sober dissection of possibilities and unanswered questions, whereas this one cracks wise. Full rundown of reactions is here, and we are not kidding about this Banks-Milano-woman from "Gillmore Girls" project -- it's getting made.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 11:42 AM | Permalink

Category: On The Telly

If You're Looking For Your MP3 Player, The RIAA Took It

Are geek bloggers secretly running the Recording Industry Association of America, making outrageously unpopular decisions so they and compatriots will have easy fodder for blistering criticism? For your consideration: Today's no. 34 top link, an ars technica piece detailing a proposed law that would strongly collar the way people can use and enjoy digital music, is the sort of thing that gives bloggers rage blackouts. (That's happened to us at least a couple times.) This blogger's post is headlined "They Will Take Your Mind," and brings out some decent invective; the volume's a little lower on this screed, but it's got a good sum-up of the whole situation: "This is so wrong, on so many levels it is absurd. Never mind stamping out innovation or the rights of people to make and sell their inventions and products. I think what burns me the most is the idiotic logic." This blogger is miffed that nobody seems too up-in-arms about the proposal, while this one probably has the most sober recap on the entire business. Fellas, fellas — calm yourselves a moment. Ok, now you're angry again.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 09:50 AM | Permalink

Category: The Soundscape

That Poor Woman

Today's no. 40 top link reminds us of those grim post-disaster stories that Time and Newsweek often do in the weeks after a plane crash -- they have drawings of the plane, photos of the mountain it crashed into, snapshots of some of the poor souls on board, etc. Link no. 40 is like that: it's the cover of the most recent Us Weekly with a headline that reads: " Angelina Was Pregnant Before The Divorce Was Final." It's been awhile since Brad and Jen's relocation to splitsville, but surely nobody thought this story was so full of deception. Bloggers are all over this, and Gawker reports the additional tidbit that Brad and Angelina's children's last names now will all have "Pitt" attached. Defamer speculates that Brad and Angelina's "real" child — yeah, the one she was carrying before Brad had really left Jen — will be some kind of super-baby, too attractive for mortal eyes to gaze upon. All this is well and good, but we wonder how Jen is holding up.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 09:44 AM | Permalink

Category: Celebs

These Guys Just Can't Take A Hint

Many people thought that Joss Whedeon's "Serenity/Firefly" franchise had finally gone to that great cemetery in the sky, to join "Star Trek: Voyager" and "Dark Skies" and all the other sci-fi properties nobody loves anymore. But people apparently do love "Serenity" — as if you couldn't tell by the frothing, reaver-like devotion of its fans — and they love it so much they could shell out to bring it back. Yes, that's what they tell us in today's no. 6 top link; they want to raise $24 million to give to Fox or the Sci-Fi network to pay for another season of "Firefly," which could explore storylines about gunslinger Frank Miller, sheriff Rooster Cogburn, or the myth of Curly's gold. Bloggers all love "Serenity"/"Firefly," and this Web site has inflamed their deep, personal feelings about this television show. This blogger hopes the fund-raiser works, as does this one: "I believe it deserves funding as much as any work of art needs funding to be developed." Can the legions of "Serenity" fans raise $24 million to buy themselves more fantasy time with their favorite drawling space cowpokes? We reckon not, but then again, you can't take the sky from them.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 10:08 AM | Permalink

Category: The vast electric lunchroom

You Mean You Didn't Know It Was Trogday?

When it comes to burninating, few on the Internet are better — or better-known — than Trogdor, the s-shaped dragon with the beefy human arm coming out of his neck for good measure. As revealed by our no. 26 top link, today is Trogdor's third birthday , and the burninating is still goin' strong. The third-birthday celebration has pictures of the beast sent in by fans and a snippet from the original Strong Bad cartoon where he first appeared. Strong Bad is another character who's managed to achieve as much currency as Trogdor, although if you watch the cartoon where he creates Trogdor, you'll wonder how he can hold a pencil with his boxing-glove hands. Bloggers, of course, are responding to Baddie and Troggie. He's "one of the great viral entities of the Internet," says this blogger. Are there cooler animated characters out on the Web? Maybe, but their burninating is insufficient by comparison.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 12:05 PM | Permalink

Category: The vast electric lunchroom

Chuck Norris: Man, Myth, Legend

Actor Chuck Norris is a towering figure in the American cultural landscape — when audiences saw him ride a missile-equipped assault motorcycle in 1986's " The Delta Force," which he used to kill bad guys and then race after an airliner as it took off down a runway, climbing on board at just the last minute, his place in the pantheon of film stars was secured. Veneration has followed him ever since, and the Internet especially has been a repository of admiration, as evidenced by our no. 8 top link today, which has some helpful facts about Norris. Were you aware, for example, that Norris' birthday is March 10? He campaigned for George Bush's presidential campaign in 1988? That Norris drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls? It's all "true," as much as anything else is anymore... and bloggers are really responding. Our favorite tidbit about the man? His chief export is pain.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 11:25 AM | Permalink

Category: Celebs

Can Someone PLEASE Offer Her Fashion Advice?

Yeah, she has a great navel and consistenly appears among BlogPulse's list of most-blogged-about people. But Britney Spears is all the rage today because, well, the girl just doesn't know how to go to the closet in the morning and throw on something that looks good. Or fashionable. Or sometimes even normal. That's in the opinion of Mr Blackwell, (today's 11th burstiest person) who each year issues his list of the year's best- and worst-dressed people, usually celebs. Britney's No. 1. "Was there any doubt?" asks the blogger at A Socialite's Life. The headline at Modern Fabulosity blog? "When Beating Paris Hilton Isn't a Good Thing."

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:31 PM | Permalink

Category: Celebs

Jim Davis Has Got To Be Angry His Secret's Out

Don't get us -- or famed cartoonist Bill Watterson, for that matter -- started on the pathetic state of American newspaper comic strips. Most are terrible, few are bearable, and only about four are actually funny. But if nothing else demonstrated the awfulness of today's factory-produced cartoons, designed around empty spaces in the panels that enable writers across different language to just fill in culture-appropriate jokes, it's this: a random Garfield panel generator, our no. 26 top link today. Try it out. The thing brings up three randomly selected panels from Garfield's 845-year run, and when you've got them set, check out the strip in your local newspaper. You will likely find your randomly created Garfield gag is as good or better than the officially one disgorged by Jim Davis' manufacturing plant. Bloggers are going to town with this thing. This gratified blogger came up with his own amusing strip and wrote: "At last technology has finally reached the point that it can even make Garfield funny." Too bad it only works with recycled material.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 10:35 AM | Permalink

Category: Creative Endeavors

Flashpoint: 'Brokeback Mountain'

Entire regiments of Culture Warriors have been waiting on nonstop alert for the battle to really be joined over "Brokeback Mountain," but so far, neither side has had to attack. Conservatives have carried on their business of running the country and liberals have carried on talking about how good the movie is supposed to be, what with its buzz and whatnot. The battle they've been waiting for, however, could begin now that a Utah movie theater has yanked it from its screens, as detailed in BlogPulse's No. 18 top link today. Come blood! Come iron! Sound the horns! To war! "Sometimes I'm just so proud to live in Utah. So proud I could stick a fork in my eye," writes this ashamed blogger. A more moderate, but still anti-movie-cancelleation viewpoint here: "Yeah, I think the entire concept of gay cowboys in a movie called 'Brokeback Mountain' is pretty over-the-top laughable." And the hostile rejoinders continue. This battle will continue until the Oscars are destributed -- maybe even one to "Brokeback " -- and long after. The war rages on.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 11:17 AM | Permalink

Category: Moving Pictures

Most Anticipated Product Rollout... Ever?

Who among us with an Internet connection and a pulse could forget last summer's most famous piece of then-vaporware, the Optimus Keyboard? The answer: No one. Everybody in the entire world has been looking disgustedly down at their current keyboards since seeing the Optimus, with its hundreds of keys that are also LED screens, each one of which can be customized to display different things and perform different functions, depending on the program or the operating system. Well, do we even have to tell you that today's top link refers to a rollout date for the Optimus? Can you even contain the unbridled, childlike excitement bubbling up inside you at the prospect of owning such a keyboard? The answer to both: no. Here it is, with an expected ship date of Feb. 1. Can they do it? Can they really transform imagination into reality in less than a month? Everybody and they mama hopes so. Engadget already has its credit card out, they write, and this guy is going Harry Potter-style crazy over the prospect of getting this keyboard. That's understandable, though. (And there's still no word whether you can stream text or video across all the LED keys, though this says individual keys could be animated...)

Posted by Philip Ewing at 11:17 AM | Permalink

Category: The Gadget Scene

And the Oscar (MC) Goes To...

If the Oscar organizers thought Chris Rock was a little too political as host of the 2005 Oscar show, they've certainly calmed nerves inside the Beltway by choosing that harbinger of understated (ahem) political commentary and muted (cough! cough!) personal commentary: Comedy Central's Jon Stewart. His choice ranks among BlogPulse's top news stories today (No. 2) and puts Stewart himself ("who? moi????" you can hear him asking) at No. 4 among the most-blogged-about people of the day. "One very good reason to watch the Oscars," nods Twitchfilm.net, calling Stewart perhaps the best MC choice since comedian Steve Martin filled in. In a play on The Daily Show's own award-winning "Indecision 2004" political coverage, Metafilter calls it like it sees it: Decision 2006. Of course, Stewart himself ("star" of many bombs) had the choicest reaction: "As an avid watcher of the Oscars, I can't help but be a little disappointed with the choice."

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 05:35 PM | Permalink

Category: Celebs

FLASH! TomKat On The Rocks!

Heavens no! TomKat, the celebrity megacouple that took us all by storm last year, could be foundering on the shallow rocks before it even reaches the sheltered harbor of marital bliss! Our no. 35 top link today quotes the MSNBC gossip authorities as wondering aloud if the wedding has been called off — Tom's in the doghouse, it seems, and Kat's in tears. Did he tell her he needed some space? Did he tell her it wasn't her, it was him? Did he tell her about Xenu? (Our money's on Xenu.) Bloggers' responses seem to be adhering to the blog-party line, of taking pleasure in other peoples' misfortune. To wit: "All I can say to Katie is run girl, run! And take the little one with you...no one needs an egomaniacal brainwasher for a "father"! Life is tough enough without added drama and issues that don't have to be there to start with. You can do so much better than this loser!" Defamer's got some additional dirt, but we're not reveling in a potential TomKat split — these days, if you can't believe in love, what can you believe in?

Posted by Philip Ewing at 11:11 AM | Permalink

Category: Celebs

Another Mel Movie

The Meta Filter blogger sums it up quite nicely in a short, one-line post: "Mel Gibson Creeps Me Out," (BlogPulse's 29th-most-cited post today). The trailer for Gibson's Summer 2006 flick, Apocalypto, about the demise of the Mayan culture, is now out, amd speculation begins about just how strange the flick can be. Just what are Gibson's motivations are for pondering the deep, dark secrets of ancient religions? Ponders one LiveJournaler, "if Tom Cruise starred in a Mel Gibson movie....Would Hollywood implode finally?" View the teaser clip for Apocalypto now. Decide for yourself.

How does a BlogPulse trend graph rank the various big-name directors of epic movies?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:41 AM | Permalink

Category: Moving Pictures

An Inauspicious Beginning

Welcome to 2006! This is going to be the year when PC and Mac users bury the hatchet; when Jennifer Anniston finally rebounds with somebody great; when TomKat's little squab finally enters the world (to Kat's complete silence, we all hope) and when Michael Mann's new movie finally comes out. Some remnants of 2005 — you remember, that year of graft, death, greed, incompetance and broken dreams — are still holding out, however: Our no. 7 top link today reports that the new Coldplay CD comes with some massive and devastating DRM protection, with a photo of the sheet explaning it that comes with every CD. Our favorite sentence from this slip is this: "In order for you to enjoy high quality music, we have added this special technology." It then unhelpfully adds that the CD can't be played "in some players, in some DVD players, in some portable players, etc." Supposedly, of course, it can't be copied to a computer hard drive, and, pointedly, it says the CDs don't work at all with Macs. What do you think bloggers' reactions to this would be, now that it's 2006? Well, surprisingly similar: " It's amazing how the labels always seem to come up with new ways of screwing artists: if they're not cheating them out of royalties, they're systematically alienating their fan-base," writes Cory Doctorow in the BoingBoing post. A more legalistic response, which we find completely sound, available here: "If I were to buy a copy of the CD at my local Borders or Barnes & Noble or WalMart, take it home, open it, discover the “rules” and realize that the CD won’t play on some or all of my playback devices, don’t I have a good contract claim against the store under Section 2-314 of the UCC (implied warranty of merchtability) and maybe even 2-315 (implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose)?" The answer is yes. When somebody finally serves a record company with this lawsuit, it'll be a great day for music listeners.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 11:19 AM | Permalink

Category: The Soundscape