Best line from the finale of How I Met Your Mother:
Robin: Oh, I love Springsteen! He's like the American Bryan Adams.

Here's a quick blog post about Tom Waits, one of the artists I most admire. First of all, you need to read this blog post at his record label, Anti. Mr. Waits interviews himself and the results are quite entertaining.

Secondly, he's playing at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta in July and I pray I'll be there to see it. So close, yet so far away.

And lastly, there's a lot of chatter online about the new record from actress Scarlett Johansson. She's teamed up with Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio (a band I like and respect) to make a record consisting almost entirely of Tom Waits covers. A) This seems like a horrible idea. B) I've heard pieces of the record (not the whole thing) and it will take some convincing to persuade me that this is not a horrible idea based on what I've heard. C) The samples that I did hear made me want to stop listening to what I was hearing and go put on original Tom Waits recordings. So, I guess that's a good thing.

This is the first time I've ever seen this and once I get a four-hour block to myself, I'm gonna figure out exactly what it actually means:
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
(Thanks Scott)

I know some folks who just figured out how to spend their economic stimulus check...

Dragon Fire!

If you have eight minutes to spare today, check out this early muppet footage for La Choy Chow Mein. It's great.

Watching some video online of Obama. I said to Matthew "who's that?".
"Bomama...rhymes with momma". Perhaps there's a second poetry major in the Townley family's future?

Thanks Feist

Matthew counted to ten perfectly for the first time yesterday. He doesn't do it correctly every time yet and when he does make a mistake it's often this: He skips seven and eight. Erin and I have a theory that this is due to that ubiquitous Feist song that we've been playing for him in the car. He loves it.

1,2,3,4,5,6, 9 & 10...

I read on her site that she's recently recorded a version of it for Sesame Street. Let's hope Elmo corrects her before the country's run by a generation of children for whom the numbers seven and eight are completely foreign.

Funny

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.