Politics and Christianity

An interesting article in the NY Times about a pastor in Minnesota.
Read it here.

Ben Ball on McSweeneys!!

My friend Ben submitted a piece to McSweeneys.net and I'm happy to tell you, it's now online!
Check it out here

Where's Dwight??

This is why I don't put much stock in the Emmys.
Look at the ridiculous supporting actor (comedy series) nominees this year:

Arrested Development - Will Arnett as Gob Bluth
Entourage - Jeremy Piven as Ari Gold
Malcolm In The Middle - Bryan Cranston as Hal
Will & Grace - Sean Hayes as Jack
Two And A Half Men - Jon Cryer as Alan Harper


Where's Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute in The Office?
Where's Ethan Suplee as Randy Hickey in My Name is Earl?
The only nominees in the category that make any sense at all are Will Arnett and Jeremy Piven.

You want a third suggestion to round out the category? Give it to the widely over-looked Michael Cera, who subtly held his own comedically in an amazing cast as dutiful son George Michael Bluth on Arrested Development.

They did get one thing right though. Jaime Pressly MUST win for playing Joy in My Name is Earl. Every role she's ever played has been a sub-par version of this character and she finally got a job where the writing equals her comedic talent and it's comedy gold.

Ash Valley

I wanna let you know about a new band called Ash Valley. The record should be out soon. You can listen to a few tracks on their MySpace page. Let 'em feel the love, people.

Hustle

If you're not watching the BBC program Hustle on AMC, give it a try. It's a show about a group of con artists in London starring Adrian Lester and Robert Vaughn. We're half-way through the six-episode season in the U.S. and it's a lot of fun. Of course, the season's already finished across the pond, so if you just can't wait to see what happens, you can read about upcoming episodes here on the BBC site.

TiVo's iPod support

TiVo recently introduced an updated version of their desktop software which allows a networked TiVo to transfer its recordings to a PC and automatically convert them for playback on an iPod. Great, right? Yes. After a week of testing this feature, I can confirm that it is great. The video quality is good, it syncs up perfectly with the audio (a problem I've had with freeware transfers), and it's easy to get the newly transferred files onto the iPod. The show name and episode name are carried over from the TiVo's information making for easy organization.

What's NOT great is that I had to pay about $25 extra to use it. It seems the feature is built into the upgraded software, you just have to purchase a license to unlock it.

BUT...that gripe aside, it works very well and I think it's worth the extra cash. Now I can watch Austin City Limits and even uncut, commercial free films from TCM on the bus on the way to work.

Found this guy in the sewer...

 















Never thought I'd hold a gator. Wild. 

Daily Show segment on NJ service stations

One of the strangest laws I've encountered is the New Jersey law outlawing self-service at the pump. Every service station in the state is full service. I know people from New Jersey who don't know how to pump gas. Since moving here, I've nearly driven my wife mad with my rants about the absurdity of the law and I'm glad Ed Helms at the Daily Show had the guts to take this issue head on.

What's a Funny Word?

For some reason, we started doing the scene from When Harry Met Sally when Meg Ryan repeats after Billy Crystal "waiter, there is too much paprika on my poppykosh". Well, Matthew thought the word paprika was very funny so we did this video.

Superman Returns...and so do Transformers

I saw Superman Returns over the weekend and enjoyed it thoroughly. So much better than X-Men 3. I'm glad Singer abandoned ship for this one. And to think it was shot digitally. Anyone who believes you just can't get a "film" out of DV will be rethinking everything after this. Stephen, I think it's time.

The new tease for Transformers was posted recently. Michael Bay's directing. His previous film, The Island was one twenty minute chase scene too long for my taste. I'm not quite sure what to think yet. I saw some supposed test footage of a transformation on YouTube and it's intriguing. The teaser, however, leaves much to be desired.

Spider-Man 3

The Spider-Man 3 trailer is now online.
You can watch it here.

Fingers Crossed

Every year around this time, we're shown bits of shows that make us think the next great comedy is coming this fall. Despite the fact that NBC has completely cannibalized the SNL cast to make it (Fey / Dratch / Morgan / even frequent host Alec Baldwin!), 30 Rock on NBC actually looks pretty funny.
Watch a preview here.

Of course, they've got Aaron Sorkin, a great cast, and an uncomfortably similar idea over at Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip too, and if I'm a betting man, my money goes there first. You can watch that preview too.

Matthew Laughing

800 Lb. Gorilla

There's this commercial, you may have seen recently for Axa Equitable. (CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT) There is a couple in bed and there's someone talking to them about their finances. We cut to a Gorilla. He gets ready to leave and says something like, "but don't listen to me. i'm just the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room".

Now, I think there are two expressions that come into play here:

A) There's a joke that goes something like "Where does an 800 pound gorilla sleep?" The answer is "Anywhere he wants to!".

B) When there's an important issue that folks aren't talking about it's known as "the elephant in the room".
Is it possible that the creators of the commercial got these two things confused? Can someone explain this to me?

My boy rolled over!

John Scurti's blog

I followed a link to the TV Guide site to read an article about 24 or something, and came across their "celebrity blog" section. Now, I'm not a TV Guide reader, but my impression of the magazine is that it's fluff-promotion city and not much in the way of substantial...substance.

That's why I was surprised when I found this "anti-blog" by John Scurti who plays Lieutenant Kenny "Lou" Shea on the best show of the summer, Rescue Me. This is funny stuff.

John Scurti's blog.

Blogged with Flock

Picasa web albums initial review

Wow. I got my invitation to Picasa's web album today and I have to tell you it's so easy to post. I'm now using Flickr, Yahoo! photos, and Picasa (AND Kodak Gallery for some older stuff). Out of all of them, i think Picasa is definitely the easiest to manage. Obviously for exploring other people's photos, Flickr has an edge, but for easy uploading, simple sharing, and features, Picasa's going to be tough to beat.

Blogged with Flock

Matthew & Al

DSC_0057
Originally uploaded by Stownley.

Matthew had the pleasure of meeting Al Gore on Friday. Who knew the former VP does an awesome Donald Duck impression?

Picasa Web Albums (and iPod update)

I found out today that Google has added an online photo-sharing component to their free Picasa software. It's available now by invitation only so I'm waiting my turn to try it out, but I like Picasa and I'm glad to see Google taking this step to complete its functionality.

...and on a separate note, for those of you keeping score at home, the folks at Best Buy informed me that my iPod was un-repairable (yeah, no kiddin') and told me to come on in and pick up a new one, which I did a couple days ago. Glad to have my music, photos, and video back where they belong...everywhere.

Infradig at Bonnaroo

Infradig is part of the incredible line-up at this year's Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee. Check it out here. (June 16-18 in Manchester, TN)