Whereas ABC typically gets its shows online at 2 a.m. the morning after they air, and NBC and CBS put the shows up hours after they’re on the television, viewers of “House,” “Nip/Tuck,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”–any Fox or FX series–have to wait eight days for the shows to venture online.

I mean, it’s good that the channels make use of Hulu.com and the video hosting site on Fox.com is fairly user-friendly, but the time delay counteracts all of these positive aspects. Eight days later, the next episode in the series will have already aired, so it’s entirely possible that some poor “House”-watcher will face the choice between watching the next episode live without the previous episode’s background or continuing this unfortunate cycle of online watching a week later.

This is ridiculous. Any reasonable person with basic internet skills will be forced to leave stable sites to watch the shows illegally on xd57dsl.com (not real) or another sketchy Asian video hosting site. This reduces the number of people going to the websites for Fox and FX, and shrinking the internet traffic cannot be good for them at all. (Click here to read more…)

Warning: This “From the Vault” is not showcasing a great musician from the past. It is in fact showcasing a terrible musician from the past. It is a bit bizarre--but oddly, inexplicably fantastic. Naturally I couldn’t resist sharing it with you all.

Last week I saw the play “Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins” at A.C.T. in San Francisco. The play dealt primarily with one fact: Most people who like to sing out loud are aware of the fact that the beautiful voice you hear in your head when you belt it out isn’t exactly the same thing everyone else is hearing. Florence Foster Jenkins, as you will notice from hearing this recording, most definitely didn’t realize this. The play relates the strange but true story of this woman, who in the 1940s, gathered a considerable following for her horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad singing. (Click here to read more…)

Desiree Matloob, Thursday columnist for “The Daily Californian,” wrote an article today about the joys of trashy reality television. She references such well-respected and highly-lauded shows as “elimiDATE,” “I Love New York” and “Real World.” She claims that reality TV teaches you to make use of your resources, and it makes you a more philanthropic person because you’re “helping someone who’s obviously dying for attention get exactly what they want.”

With my expert credentials as the television blogger, I say NO to Desiree. (Click here to read more…)

So, last Sunday, the Oscars tried to tread into musical territory with a big number that was meant to salute the movie musical. At first I was excited, but mostly because I always get excited when hear a few strains of any song from “West Side Story.” But is it just me, or did Hugh Jackman and Beyonce’s performance at the Oscars last Sunday get pretty weird pretty fast?

After opening with the song form the movie “Top Hat,” originally performed by Fred Astaire, they proceeded to sing a clunky mish-mash of a few lines what seemed like every popular movie musical made in the last 50 years. In two minutes, they sang from something like 14 different movie musicals, all while costumed like they where straight out of “A Chorus Line” or something.

(Click here to read more…)

It seems that Opening of the Week has been rather Russian lately, first with “Philistines” and now with Berkeley Rep’s latest show: a stage version of Dostoevsky’s novel, “Crime and Punishment.” The novel follows the murderous path of a very depressed and possibly psychotic student, the detective that seeks to apprehend him, the mother that wants to save him, the landowner who wants to destroy him and the prostitute who wants to love him.

The Berkeley Rep website claims the production is 90 minutes with no intermission. My first thought was, “wow, that is going to be an intense 90 minutes.” What I mean is, it will be interesting to see how Marilyn Campbell and Curt Colombus’  adaptation of the 500+ page long psychological thriller will fit on stage in an hour and a half–without compromising too much of the heavy philosophy, social commentary, and down-right craziness that makes Dostoevsky’s original work so utterly fantastic. Especially since they’re not even going to give us an intermission.

(Click here to read more…)

Come on guys, everyone and their dog is going to be lining up at midnight to see “Watchmen.” If the comic’s rabid fan base wasn’t enough, the extraordinary hype that’s been stirring for the past year should be more than adequate to break box-office barriers.

Apparently it wasn’t enough–the Bros. have released Watchmen themed coffee and condoms to add a little marketing pizazz to the release of the year. Really?

Coffee I understand. But condoms? “We’re Society’s Only Protection?” At least they’re blue.

I heard they were handing them out on Sproul on Friday afternoon. I missed it. Ah me.

Image Source: Comic Vine

With a fifth studio album, Thursday makes another prestigious appearance in the post-hardcore scene. Even with some interesting production changes, a nonpareil style persists. Now signed by Epitaph, Thursday has been working with Dave Friedman, a curious producer choice. Friedman has made himself known as a producer through his work with many indie rock bands such as MGMT, Tapes ‘n Tapes, the Flaming Lips, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, but … Thursday?

Whether Friedman was the most appropriate producer or not, Thursday’s sound remains as impassioned as ever. The album starts off with a “Resuscitation of a Dead Man,” which is supplemented by the vocals of Rise Against’s, Tim McIlrath. The duo creates an excellent counterbalancing sound, with Mcilrath’s raspier yells alternating with Rickly’s eminent melody. In “Last Call” we start to see where Friedman’s input had an effect. Instances of vocal layering are heard throughout the song along with lengthy solminated phrases. These techniques are new for Thursday but have been introduced expertly. Though there are many instances throughout the album where the music is clearly modified tremendously post-recording, there are few moments with a sense of artificiality.

Lyrically, Thursday’s writing is as poetic as ever. The language Common Existence speaks in is similar to that of past albums. Most songs are written metaphorically, though there are some exceptions with more well-defined intent. These include “Friends in Armed Forces” and”Resuscitation of a Dead Man,” which address feelings about friends and loved ones fighting in Iraq. Friedman’s work with the band has been extraordinary for a producer with little experience with bands of the like. Everything good from past albums is still there, and some obscure talents may have just gotten the coaxing they needed.

Thursday is headlining the annual Taste of Chaos tour and will be using it to debut Common Existence.

Man the Oscars were fun. My friend Ben wanted to give “Slumdog” the Academy Award for Best Academy Award. He’ll have fun in Hollywood. Heath won Best Supporting Actor, which was sweet. And this ridiculous clip from “Kung-Fu Panda” got shown literally every 30 seconds.

But what about the new movies, you ask me? I’ll get right to it! In first place with a whopping $41.1 million is the new Tyler Perry film “Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail.” I am wholly impressed by Tyler Perry as an individual–that man can put out three films a year and still find time to do theater. It’s about time he knocked one out of the park, and “Madea” was by far the biggest hit this weekend.

In second place by a incredible margin, Liam Neeson’s “Taken” with $11.4 million. I’ve mentioned it before; Neeson kicks ass and takes names for most of the film.

Third is “Coraline” with $11 million even. Fourth is “He’s Just Not That Into You” with $8.5 million. They’re both box office veterans, and it seems like they’ve settled down after three weeks.

Fifth is “Slumdog Millionaire” with $8.1 million. I might feel bad, but since “Slumdog” won the Oscars tonight I have a feeling DVD sales will be … substantial. Congratulations again to that team. Danny Boyle deserves an Oscar, even though I personally thought “Wall-E” should’ve won best song. If you’re aching for Oscar results, by the way, I have a link for you.

1. Scraggly beard, awkward silences
Ben Stiller’s side-splitting rendition of Joaquin Phoenix, reminiscent of the actor-turned-rapper’s latest bizarro appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman.”

2. “You commie, homo-loving sons of guns!”
“I want to be very clear that I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me,” continued the self-deprecating Sean Penn moments after accepting his Best Actor statue for “Milk.” Never missing the chance to wax ardent on political matters, Penn railed against Prop 8 and toasted Barack Obama as an “elegant man” before saluting fellow front-runner nominee Mickey Rourke as his “brother.” Classy and heartfelt.

3. From the old … to the new
The newest format of presenting the acting awards, with previous award winners paying tribute to this year’s nominees. Brilliant, innovative and touching: living legends passing the torch to a new generation of acting giants.

4. Hugh Jackman
Gave the shortest opening monologue in Oscar history, commanded the stage admirably in a top-hat-and-tails tribute to movie musicals and sat in Frank Langella’s lap; maybe the most engaging performance by a host since the days of Fred Astaire and Johnny Carson.

5. “Departures” wins
In what was probably the most stunning upset of the night, Japan’s “Departures” upset Israel’s “Waltz with Bashir” for Foreign Language Film honors: an unforeseen turn of events in a category that’s slowly losing any credibility it’s had to begin with. (Click here to read more…)

Monday, February 23

8 p.m. “House” on Fox. A teenager has both male and female DNA–a fact his parents have been keeping from him his whole life. House starts acting nicely. What a kuh-razy episode.

8 p.m. “Chuck” on NBC. Watch on Hulu.com a few hours after it airs to watch Jeff and Lester form a band called Jeffster!, which they insist Ellie use as her wedding band. (Click here to read more…)