How sad is it Britney will make millions this year… and this women won’t.

I have a student worker who might just be my long lost pop-culture twin. Of the many things we have in common, our love of Taylor Swift (Tay Tay) sits high on the list. It’s nice to know that at least someone in the office is willing to argue with me whether “White Horse” or “Love Story” is a more reality-based song. (Don’t judge… it’s better than the WoW talk.) Anyway, I was informed that Tay Tay was on CSI tonight and as part of the episode they played a remixed version of “You’re Not Sorry” from her album Fearless. I swear this girl is everywhere and so far without the usual teen star drama. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that she stays successful and doesn’t follow down the dark path of so many before her. Otherwise, you might have too severely depressed fans on your hands.

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From the first episode of the 8th season, Danny Gokey has been my favorite and the one to watch. This boy can sing without being too pretty or polished. Check out his Top 36 performance of Mariah Carey’s “Hero”. There’s a simple rule to American Idol… you don’t sing Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston songs unless you can sing. And as evidenced by this video… the boy can sing.

Coldplay ft. Jay- Z : Lost

TI, M.I.A., Jay-Z, Kanye, Lil Wayne – Swagga Like Us

Al Green, JT, BoyzIIMen, and Keith Urban – Let’s Stay Together

Jennifer Hudon – You Pulled Me Through

John Mayer, BB King, Buddy Guy, and Keith Urban in a tribute to Buddy Guy

And so many other amazing performances that I can’t find the videos for. Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl…. Lil Wayne and Robin Thicke, Estelle and Kanye, TayTay, The remaining member of the Four Tops with Jamie Foxx, Smokey Robinson, and Ne-Yo… amazing.

Grey’s may very well be back in the game. The McSteamy-LilGray storyline is hands-down my current favorite, and this week’s scenes were fantabulous.

Yeah, I’m talking to you, Office haters. I don’t know why exactly you’re still hesitant to give into the peer pressure of one of the funniest shows on tv, but I’m thinking that if I put it out there in blog form you might just take a peek… and it just takes one peek to get hooked. So indulge yourself in humor. You’re worth it.

Best opening season of the season.  It has to rank up there with the infamous Jim dresses as Dwight opening.

It’s been ten years since the entertainment phenomenon of Britney Spears arrived on the scene, and since then the world has been obsessed with her every waking moment. Last night after a busy week and busier weekend, Lauren and I finally sat down to watch the DVRed Britney Spears: For The Record documentary on MTV, and after watching I feel nothing but pity for her. Sure, she chose fame and made the choices that brought her to the place she is in, but that in no way means, I have the right to find pleasure in her pain.

The truth is if people didn’t read the tabloids or buy the magazines, Britney’s story would be different. I won’t lie… I’ve made fun of her in the past. Laughed at her 2007 VMA performance… stared bewildered at her shaved head… enjoyed watching the mighty fall. But after watching her, I can’t help but wonder when did I become so calloused that the brokenhearted (no matter who they are or how much they’re worth) don’t affect me anymore?

On the latest album of Bebo Norman (one of my favorite Christian artists), Norman wrote a song specifically for Britney as an apology to what we as the world have done to her and young women as a whole. We’ve taken everything that should matter as a person and replaced it with superficial fluff, and now we wonder why our 12 year-olds look 16. I’m just as much to blame as the next person, but I’m hoping the next time I start to find joy in someone else’s misfortune I’ll remember this song… and the broken girl we’ve created.

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Nothing says Thanksgiving like Turkey, football, naps, and John Mayer on Letterman before bed. This year with a lil coercing and benevolence some of my non-JM loving friends and family tuned in for me and might have enjoyed themselves. (I promised I wouldn’t out them though.) I don’t even need to tell you how much I loved this rendition of a Sinatra song with Chris Botti. If you’re too convinced he’s a douchebag to enjoy, you could always close your eyes and forget who it is.

You know, maybe SNL has more to offer than political satire. Mr. Justin Timberlake stopped in Saturday night and killed it as always. He’s one of my favorite hosts of the past few years and with good reason. Remember the Nick and Jessica: Newlyweds sketch? Brilliance.  Or how about this musical video classic… in a box.  So wrong but so right.  Saturday he just stopped in briefly during Paul Rudd and Beyonce’s episode to lending a supporting hand.  Apparently, you can host SNL in two minutes.  But the shining moment of his impromptu appearence involves Andy Sandberg, Beyonce and four pairs of high heels.  If you missed either, here they are. Now, put a ring on it and enjoy!

After fourteen seasons, MadTV is finally being taken off the air. Most of the time, MadTv was more than a tadbit painful and unfunny to me. However, over the years they have had a few sketches that were pretty stinking funny. Michael McDonald, Stephanie Weir, Mo Collins, Will Sasso and Alex Borstein were among my favorite cast members in the amazing sketches. At least with the goodness of youtube, these gems will never be forgotten. So because I have a feeling you’ve missed them… Here are a few of my favorite MadTV sketches. (Each is just one in a sketch arc, so please please please checkout all of the others.)

Dot:

Stuart:

Miss Swan:

What did I do this weekend???

ALL of Season 1 with a certain blonde who shall remain nameless. *cough*Lauren*cough*  I wish I was more ashamed than I am, but I’m not.

Notice something wrong with this picture?  Oh, yeah.  The Internet light is off on my DSL modem.  Still.  Qwest somehow didn’t transfer my service but instead disconnected it.  To add insult to injury, the normal time to reconnect a disconnect service is 7-10 days.  Even after raging at four supervisers, I’m still not able to be connected until Thurs or Fri.

So for now I’m blogging and connecting on 52Kbps dial-up.  Thank you free university dial-up.  I remember a time not too long ago when I could only dial-up from my parents house at less than 19.2Kbps.  Yet, somehow that seemed worlds faster than this speed.  I’m definitely learning to appreciate high-speed connections.  At least until I have DSL again, I have Bravo and the new joys of Shear Genius and Project Runway.  Talk about addictive.

Every once in a while my familial insomnia gene rears its ugly head, and I find myself lying awake for hours each night when I should be sleeping. No matter how exhausted I am I find myself pondering the state of my world and compiling countless lists of things that must be done in the next rotation of the earth. Lately, my cerebral obsession has been the millions of things that need to be done by July 31st to officially move out of the apartment I’ve called home for the past four years. However, thanks to a late night channel surfing escapade I’ve discover one of my all-time favorite shows and secret joy is now on the Fine Living Network each night at midnight.

Four years ago as I was preparing for college graduation, I stumbled upon the show Iron Chef on the Food Network and immediately became enthralled by this cooking sensation. The formula for this show is simple. A challenger who has made a name for themselves somewhere in the world challenges one of Japan’s Iron Chefs to a 60 minute battle in Kitchen Stadium where both competitors have to make 5 dishes featuring a secret ingredient chosen by the Liberace-wannabe Chairman Kaga to be judged by Japanese celebrities. Originally filled in Japanese, the English voice-overs make the show feel like a cross between MXC, Julia Child, and the World Wrestling Federation. Ingredients like roe and foie gras that result in dishes like trout ice cream and truffle sake add to the marvel of entertainment anomaly.

In recent years, the Food Network has created their own versions of the Iron Chefs. The American Iron Chefs include chef all-stars like Bobby Flay, Cat Cora, Wolfgang Puck, Masaharu Morimoto, and Mario Batali with food trivia genius (and my personal favorite Food Network star) Alton Brown as the omniscient show host.  Unlike the original, ICA focuses more on the battle and education its viewers and less on the theatrics of television. However, despite the number of food celebs on this American version, I still prefer its Eastern counterpart.

Either way, the simple fact is there’s just something about this show that both entertains and lulls me to sleep.  For the past week and a half, I’ve turned it on with a racing mind and not even made it to the end to watch the final judging.  I’ve even considered taping it so I can play it earlier and be asleep before 12:45am.
Well, it’s almost time for Chairman Kaga to read me my Iron Chef bedtime story.  Goodnight and in the words of the chairman, “Allez Cuisine!”