Nominations for the 61st Emmy Awards were announced today and I’m excited.  Not only do I have a degree of expertise in this particular area (I watch a LOT of TV), but I find that the Emmy Awards are even more bitchy than the Oscars…and that pleases me.  Also, this particular awards show validates all my time spent on my couch (and youtube, hulu, etc.) being a lazy jerk and watching TV.  I can say I was “researching.”  Yeah.  Researching.

My “researching,” as it were, has lead me to spot a couple snubs and surprises in this year’s crop of nominations.  The first (and most important) surprise is the acting and series categories were expanded to hold more contenders.  This is awesome because shows (that I adore) that aren’t normally included now have the chance at major awards.  This is not awesome because now I will have a major identity crisis during the actual awards show.  For example, Family Guy has gotten a nomination for best comedy series.  That puts the show up against others like The Office, 30 Rock, Flight of the Conchords and more.  Well…crap.  I love all of those.  WTF am I supposed to do now??

The reality series category held more shockers.  As in, no Jon & Kate Plus 8?? No Real Housewives?  Does the world hold no meaning any more?! Those shows are some of the best on TV – how do those Emmy people not realize that? Sure, Jon and Kate Plus Drama…and Ed Hardy is getting a little annoying, but don’t you want to see who went with who to the awards show?

And what Kate would do to dress up that hair? Read More »

Flight of the Conchords released their most recent album.

As many of you have figured out by now, I just can’t get enough of Bret and Jemaine these days. For starters, I just bought the first season and then had to purchase their new album. I took a trip up to Portland, ME yesterday and couldn’t wait to listen to my new CD. Having bought their most recent album (the release date, as I said in my first piece about them, was April 22, 2008). In fact, the album was so funny, I found myself ignoring the scenery.

It turns out, this CD, not surprisingly, is as equally as funny as the television show. In fact, I was so distracted from its hilarity – my face actually ached after listening to all the songs and laughing so hard – I had to turn it off for a while. You see, I’ve never been to Maine, and this is the time of year to go (it’s breathtakingly lush and devoid of humans, which is odd for New England). So after touring parts of Portland and Portsmouth, NH, I had to get my FOC fix. Read More »

Thankfully, for the humorous and humorless alike, there’s a new show – the Flight of the Conchords, which is funny, smart, and entertaining. And hopefully it will serve as a remedy to all of you sourpusses out there. Of course, for those of you who do have a sense of humor and appreciate, as well as understand, your fellow slap-happy, slyly funny comrades, this show is just one extra treat that can be added to your endless and ever-growing collection of humorous things.

What’s the show about?

Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, a quirky musical duo, have brought their parodic folk band from New Zealand to the U.S. The two musicians have turned their previous stage show into a television series, which is available on DVD and also airs on HBO. Set in NYC, the show follows the two folk artists, Bret and Jemaine, as they struggle to succeed in the music industry.

Given the subject matter, NYC is the perfect location, a city that brutally demystifies the dreams and aspirations of most artists (much like L.A. crushes teems of hopeful, fresh, young actors). After hiring an incompetent manager (Rhys Darby), whose “real job” is with the New Zealand Consulate, Bret and Jemaine fumble to get “gigs,” buy food, and so on.

Although it’s a parodic take about two struggling musicians, FOC’s satire functions more broadly. Borrowing from wide-ranging and thematic concepts from their original songs, the duo cleverly undermines commonly held assumptions and inverts concerns related to broad ranging social problems, all the while seamlessly incorporating peculiar, goofy, one-of-a-kind topics. Read More »

News flash: Miley Cyrus is still illegal

…Which apparently Roger Clemens is into

Baggage that will blow a second date (hint: it ain’t Prada)

Shia Labeouf is hot. Literally.

It’s fatsploitation, ya’ll!

I unapologetically love Harold and Kumar

Dating site for intelligent people–oxymoron, much?

There is such a thing as going too far for a cause

I was worried Speidi wouldn’t make it to the White House!

And for an old-school, battle-rap throw down

Yes, we all know the supposed heart-throbs of our generation: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, blah blah blah blah. But aren’t there girls out there who yearn for a pair of boys with adorable accents, mad guitar skills, and who are also downright hilarious? If you answered no to that question, you need a wake up call, and here it is.

These two rather adorable boys are called Flight of the Conchords, and last Sunday they won a Grammy for best comedy album for their debut effort, The Distant Future.

They are, in their own words, “New Zealand’s 4th most popular folk/comedy duo“, and their songs are wonderfully quirky and insanely funny. In addition, they star in probably what is the most original show on television, called, you guessed it: Flight of the Conchords.

They star as slightly fictionalized versions of themselves, a folk duo from New Zealand trying to make it big in New York City. What makes this show unique, however, is the duo’s tendency to randomly burst out into song…about completely random topics. Read More »