Neil...no the other one

I started listening to the automatically-produced "top 25" playlist on my iPod yesterday and was a little surprised to see a bunch of tracks from Neil Diamond's 12 Songs. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It's a great record. If you haven't heard it, forget everything you know about Neil Diamond and give it a listen. He's got a new one coming out next tuesday called Home Before Dark. It's also produced by Rick Rubin and I'm anxious to hear it based on the single streaming on his site. It's worth a listen.

A.V. Club

Every now and again, I'll re-discover a website. The Onion's AV Club is one of those sites. Check out the "primer" on Elvis Costello and the article about the wisdom of Kurt Vonnegut as examples of the cool work they're doing over there.

826 Valencia

Just saw a UPS commercial featuring music by...The Postal Service.

This is pretty awesome. You wanna contribute to the Watchmen film?
There's a contest going on asking you to create a tv commercial that looks like it was made in 1985 for Veidt products. The winners may actually be used in the movie. Check it out here.

We saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall this weekend and while it's not for everyone, I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard in the theater. The cast was top-notch, especially Russell Brand, Jack McBrayer, and Mila Kunis (who knew?). I recommend it to those not easily offended by male nudity.

I've seen a lot of odd things online but I can't imagine the time it must have taken to coordinate this one.

The "One Week Only" feature at the new site Pitchfork.tv is now playing the 2004 documentary loudQuietloud about the Pixies reunion and if you're a fan or curious, it's worth a look. But if the "one week only" name is to believed better get over there today.

Muppetmaster

Here's a very interesting tidbit from the NY Times piece on Jason Segel, the amusing co-star of one of my favorite current sitcoms, "How I Met Your Mother" and the new film, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". By the way, Richard Roeper suggested he'd have to make room on his list of 50 funniest movies for this one so I hope he's right.

And despite his regular appearances on prime-time television, it is only in the prelude to the release of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” that he has found he can now take meetings with the studios, production companies and casting directors who previously shunned him.

In one such meeting, with Disney, he offhandedly mentioned that he would like to write a new movie for his childhood idols, the Muppets; within days the studio had signed Mr. Segel and Mr. Stoller to write the script.

(“I want to revive them to their previous glory, before they became a novelty act,” Mr. Segel said. “When it wasn’t, like, ‘Muppets Underwater.’ ‘Muppets in the Sahara.’ ‘Muppets on the Moon!’ ”)

Wanna have some fun? Next time you meet someone and invariably the conversation turns toward American Idol, pretend like you have no idea what they're talking about. A few ways to go?
A) Is that a movie?
B) Oh, I LOVE American Chopper!
C) Hmmm...sounds blasphemous.
D) I just watch PBS.

I very nearly cried watching this...
Someone's slowed down a 1999 mac commercial featuring Jeff Goldblum. The Huffington Post referred to it as "drunken hilarity". And I concur.

Battlestar Returns

Battlestar Galactica begins its final season tonight. If you're a fan, I'm sure you already knew that. If you "don't like space", just think of it as a soap opera.

Weary

Ever notice folks sometimes use the word "weary" when they really mean "wary"? The wife and I think we've figured out why. They're taking "wary" and combining it with its synonym, "leery".
Wary + Leery = Weary.
Yup. We're that boring.