Monday, February 14, 2005

THE NAUGHTY POST: Like you, I'm watching Supernanny, but don't you wish that the episodes would somehow break out of the formula of Observe Bad Behavior, Lecture The Parents, Teach Them About The Naughty Place And The Schedule, Watch Them Screw It Up and Jo Tries To Save The Day?

So, it's sweeps month, and I figure the following special episodes are in order:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Supernanny: We see a family gradually deteriorate as they unlearn all of Jo's lessons and regress to a Hobbesian state of nature.

Diff'rent Supernannies: Jo helps out a sassy black child.

Supernanny 90210: Jo discliplines teenagers. Welcome to the naughty room!

Celebrity Supernanny: Courtney Love and Frances Bean Cobain are visited by Jo. Who needs the structure more?

The Crossover Episode: You know that kid Dr. Phil identified as having 9/14 the characteristics of a serial killer? Let Jo fix him.

Any other Very Special Supernanny episodes?
THE PROMISED LAND? Backstreets.com is reporting that a new Bruce Springsteen album, Devils and Dust, may be in stores as soon as April.
BARGAIN O' THE WEEK: If, like me, you've bought a lot of Warner Bros. TV on DVD, it's well worth checking out this offer. As I read it, as long as you buy at least one WB TV series on DVD during the rebate term, you can get the rebate for any and all series you own (provided you have the proof of purchase that's part of the packaging). For instance, I already own three seasons of "West Wing," the first seasons of "Everwood" and "Gilmore Girls," and bought "Murphy Brown" yesterday--from that, I get $50 back, effectively making "Murphy Brown" free. And there's a bunch of good stuff subject to the rebate, including "The Ben Stiller Show," "Night Court," "Nip/Tuck," "The O.C.," and "Without A Trace," in addition to the above-mentioned stuff. (And watching "Murphy Brown" now, 17 years after its debut, it's still shockingly fresh.)
"IT TAKES SEVERAL CAMERA ANGLES, SOME YOGURT, AND A MACHINE:" The New York Times explores the magic of televised faked vomiting with an effects specialist, the "vomitor," and the one vomited upon (bizarrely, the recipient of vomit is Amanda Seyfried, best known for playing "the dumb one" in "Mean Girls").
GOD SHOW ME THE WAY, BECAUSE THE DEVIL'S TRYIN' TO BREAK ME DOWN: Your complete list of Grammy winners is here, if you want to discuss.

As an awards show, it was, as always, meh, and feel free to big out the biggest disappointments of the night -- including, but not limited to the fact that Britney Spears and Zach Braff now have Grammys, but the Talking Heads and Jimi Hendrix don't.

However, as a live music showcase, it was, again, outstanding: from the Alicia Keys/Jamie Foxx duet on "Georgia On My Mind" (yeah, I was surprised too) to Green Day bringing the punk to Kanye West representing for God to the James Brown/Usher duet, there was something for everyone, and even the slightly lame moments (John Mayer, "Across the Universe", Tim McGraw's third performance) didn't seem to last very long.

Biggest props of the night, however, go to Melissa Etheridge, for her emotional tribute to Janis Joplin with Joss Stone, but mostly, just for being there.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

CARLOS SANTANA WILL WIN SEVEN GRAMMYS: And he's not even nominated tonight.

Open thread for all things Grammy. Let's be democratic and all liveblog this together, shall we?
MO CUISHLE: Matt already reviewed Million Dollar Baby, and I have very little to add to it here. This is spare, devastating storytelling which everyone ought to see. It embraces formula, but since there's no new stories to tell, it's all in the how, and M$B is utterly compelling.

More than that, I can't really say here. As I've complained before, the anti-spoiler bias is so strong in American film criticism that it's difficult to find space to talk about the movie as a whole -- not just whether you should see it, which is what opening day reviews are for -- but about how it functions as a complete artistic creation, including consideration of the ending. And I respect that enough that I don't want to get into further considerations here, but if people still want to talk about it in the Comments, I am glad to.

Grammys tonight. We'll either be liveblogging, or at the least have a thread open.