Party In The Parking Lot

If you live in Columbus you'll want to head down to the Surly Girl today, all day, for the 2nd Annual Here Comes Your Weekend Parking Lot Blowout. It's FREE, all ages, beer sales go to charity and it's chock full of musical goodness. The line-up consists of reunions (Preston Furman) to prodigal sons returned (Sweatheart) to friggin' world debuts people (Buffalo Corpse). Plus, pretty much the best bands in town all like stuffed and jammed up in there in between.

Here's the kick-ass line-up with links and approx. set times:

Terribly Empty Pockets 3 p.m.
The Exceptionals 3:45 p.m.
Sweatheart 4:30 p.m.
Good Company 5:15 p.m.
Earwig 6 p.m.
The Patsys 6:45 p.m.
Preston Furman 7:30 p.m.
The Lindsay 8:30 p.m.
Buffalo Corpse 9:30 p.m.
The Means 10:15 p.m.

Aaaaaand it's beautiful outside! Bring your friends... YES!

The Michael Showalter Showalter with Special Guest David Wain

The Spice Girls Are Back!!!!

BREAKING NEWS: The world’s most famous Spice Girls have just announced plans for a group reuniting and subsequent world tour! It’s official: The Spice Girls are reuniting for a world tour (11 dates have been announced, starting Dec. 7 in L.A.)!!

“This is like a unique experience; it might never happen again. This is like, this is a celebration, you know? Uh, okay, we’re gonna revisit this and experience it with different eyes. A little bit older. A little bit wiser.” – DD-Cup Spice

Will you be there!?

Derek & Simon: Peanuts!

Clark and Michael #5

COMFEST 2007: Friends!

"Friends" by Ween can be purchased here >>>

We Hate Mixtapes #12

via Dan Blocker...

We Hate Mixtapes #12: Technological Breakdown

1. My Flows Is Tight - Lord Digga
2. Love and Happiness - Monty Alexander
3. Ijuswannachill - Large Professor
4. Kiss The Sky - Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra
5. 2001 - Sugarman 3
6. Let A Woman Be A Woman - Dyke & the Blazers
7. Organ Donor - Lefties Soul Connection
8. Guiding Resolution - Poets of Rhythm
9. Night Lights - Time Machine
10. Aht Uh Mi Hed - Shuggie Otis
11. Beautiful Day - Spider Harrison
12. Beat It - Señor Coconut And His Orchestra

http://www.mediafire.com/?02fmxn24tb6

Basketball Returns

Tonight at 6 pm at 5th Ave. Elementary school on the corner of 5th and Highland. The court with the fence around it, not the nice one a block down. Bring water.

Mr. Sprinkles #8

Clark and Michael #4

Hail, Comfest!

If you live in Columbus, Ohio, you’d probably know that this weekend is when our annual Community Event takes place. Comfest is a three-day festival in a park with beer and bands and (people really seem to love these) fishbones. I will say that I have never had a fishboat. I don’t care much for seafood, but I digress. I love these beers! And it’s great to hang out in a park and drink beers and see what your friends look like in the sunlight.

I will potentially post my thoughts on the weekend throughout the weekend or maybe as one big round-up sometime next week or the week after. So, stay tuned!

What are you waiting for!? Slather on that sunscreen and go get yourself a corndog ya little knucklehead!

Black For More??

As I mentioned in a well-written piece last week about the upcoming summer television schedule there is a new program on HBO called Flight of the Conchords. It follows New Zealand's fourth most popular digi-folk parodists as they attempt to conquer America with witty banter and acoustic guitars. It is being described by many critics as Tenacious D with kiwi accents. The fact is I DVR’d the first couple of episodes somewhat pessimistically. Then, I finally got around to popping on the series premiere the other night right before bed and struggled through about 4 1/2 minutes before passing out cold (that’s what she said). I’ll give it another try soon when I’m feeling a little more spry -- and don’t blink or you’ll miss the segue -- as I will Jack Black (of the aforementioned Tenacious D, of course) who I admittedly got a little sick of right around that Nachos Grande movie. I’m not alone, right? Given a suitable project however, I might just be coaxed out of retirement. In that regard, The Variety blog has an exclusive, un-embeddable trailer for Noah Baumbach’s latest film Margot at the Wedding, which just so happens to star one Mr. Jackson Blackson. He plays the forbearing fiancé to Jennifer Jason Leigh’s free-spirited younger sister. Nicole Kidman and John Turturro are in it, too. Given Baumbach’s directorial track record (The Squid and the Whale, Kicking and Screaming) it’s a sure bet the whole thing turns out to be pretty smart-like with more than a few convincingly tender, bitterly funny and/or ruthlessly callous moments. But, will Jack Black be any good? Will he actually redeem himself? We’ll know more when the film is released on October 19th.

P.S.

Speaking of Jack Black and how his overexposure made me begin to hate him. Is Steve Carell on the fast track to burnoutville, too? It crossed my mind recently when I saw the trailer for that new Evan All High And Mightys. I mean plenty have paved the way before him -- Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller to name but two. Who else? Really I just wish Carell would stop making movies (or at least skip a couple of years) because I don’t want The Office to ever suffer. Are you feeling me?

On The Boober Toober... AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies.

Tonight CBS will broadcast the American Film Institute's 10th Annual CBS Special in the 100 Years... 100 Movies series. The show starts at 8PM EST. Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman will host the countdown of the 100 greatest films of all time.

Give me your top five...

...starring Richard Dreyfuss.

Mr. Sprinkles #7

Clark and Michael #3

New Dark Ballerz

Starting tonight at 6pm, the NDBA begins it's first season of STRAIGHT UP BALLIN'. Currently, there is minimal to no organization involved. Basically, myself and Dave of Pleasure are inviting you to come get your faces dunked in every Sunday night at 6. We play at 5th Ave. Elementary school on the corner of 5th and Highland. It's the court with the fence around it, not the nice one a block down. We usually warm up for a little while and wait for everyone to show up, so tipoff is around 6:30. It's probably a good idea to bring a water bottle, because we play full court and it's hot outside. Let's do this.

Is There A God??!?!?

Think deep and respond in the comments section.

What Really Made Milwaukee Famous

Okay, we’re getting ready to head out the door for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, of all places. Turns out they’re hosting the 10th anniversary screening of American Movie and Coven tomorrow night at some townie theatre that I imagine will be a lot like our local Studio 35. They’re calling the event Covenigma... check it out. Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank will be there, as well as, the trouble-maker Kenny Keen, the mystical Sir Robert Richard Jorge, the filmmakers (Chris Smith and Sarah Price) and a whole bunch of the supporting cast. Shank’s supposed to play some of his music, too. I promise many pictures and a full report upon my return.

Until then, maybe Sam can offer us some light-hearted weekend content? No heavy-handed stuff, Sam.

On The Live Concert Venue... Christopher Cross, Ambrosia and John Ford Coley.

As you can see by this picture, a few friends and I went to a really intense soft rock concert last weekend.

We’re talking Christopher Cross, Ambrosia and John Ford Coley all on one stage! A triumvirate of barely rocking sounds cast against the even less rocking cement backdrop that is Dayton, Ohio’s Fraze Pavillion.

There is a nice little tree-lined pond outside the actual lawn and bleacher “concert-area”, as you can see in this picture:



That’s where they sell the beer and nachos. We spent a decent amount of time out there feeding the ducks old cigarette butts. I’m kidding.

Prices were reasonable. The weather was beautiful. The talent was of course, undeniable. Actually, my only gripe is that the crowd was, how do I say this, a little less than enthusiastic. They clearly left their soft rockin’ shoes at home. They sucked, in fact. Believe it or do, our other good friends from Dayton were yelled at and threatened by some of the concert-goers when they stood to dance to an especially heartwarming rendition of Ambrosia’s “Biggest Part of Me”. It didn’t take long to realize that Geriatric Law rules the Fraze. So, we made our way to the upper bleacher area where we could be a little more boisterous.

Oh yeah, before that we saw this guy with a really large mangina. Look for it in the video here:

At the end of the night I was triple-fisting Stellas while we waited in line to meet the musicians themselves! Some of the beer actually made it into my mouth, but you wouldn’t necessarily know that by looking at this next picture of Sean, Joshy and I sharing a laugh with the legendary John Ford Coley:


We also got to shake hands with Christopher Cross (kind of a dick) and Ambrosia founding member, Joe Puerta, among other people we didn’t recognize.

It was a nice, nice, very nice night that I will not soon forget.


For more soft rock reading, check out Doug Elliott’s excellent little blog over here on the recent VH1 soft rock special and remember: When you get caught between the moon and New York City the best that you can do is fall in love.

Original Programming

I’ve been chewing on a lot of these television-related ideas for several days, if not a good week or so, and I figured now is as good a time as any to get them off my chesticles. I will do so in three distinct acts.

Act I.

The Sopranos Finale

Okay, I guess if you haven’t seen it, you may want to skip this paragraph.

The fact is, I haven’t watched this show on any regular basis since probably season two or three. Shit, I don’t even know what season this is for them, but I was still interested in watching the series finale as much as the next guy. I realize it’s sort of like reading the last page of a book before you finish it, but I was curious and I knew either way I probably wasn’t gonna read the book anyway. Bottom-line, I’m totally cool with the ending. I know a lot of people wanted it to end in some big shoot-em up bloodbath, but I thought the ending made sense on a couple of levels. First of all, the cut to black is essentially a cliffhanger. This gives them the opportunity, should they desire, to come back in a few years with a Sopranos movie -- which could be cool. Also, the ending gives us room to debate the demise (or not) of Tony and the family. Did the shady guy come out of the bathroom and start shooting up the place? Was Tony shot the moment he looked up and that’s why it went black? Did he just look up because Meadow had come through the door and they had their dinner and lived happily ever after? Lots of room for discussion here and I like that. I don’t always need the neat and tidy ending. But, maybe that’s just me.

Act II.

Summer TV

Now, I know this is the time of the year when you’re supposed to be out playing pick-up basketball games with your loser friends, but let’s face it, summer is fucking hot. That means a great deal of us will opt for a pick-up game with a nice cold Löwenbräu and the boober toober. It’s with this in mind I offer you a few thoughts I have on the summer television schedule.

Several of my favorite new shows return for a second season. This includes Big Love (premieres June 11 on HBO), Weeds (Aug. 13; Showtime) and, um, okay, well, Big Love and Weeds. But, that’s exciting enough because both of these shows are totally sweet. The only thing that might make these shows even sweeter is if they melted together and Paxson brought Mary-Louise Parker into his Utah fold. She could totally make bank selling weed to Roman.

Anyway, besides these two sure bets there are several new shows that look somewhat intriguing. For example: Californication (Aug. 13; Showtime). This is the new David Duchovny vehicle of which he says, “It’s the kind of adult comedy I’ve been searching for and think I can do well. It’s interesting to take a character who’s really unlikable and sell his lows as being real and funny.” Story of my life!

Meadowlands (June 17; Showtime) and John From Cincinnati (June 10; HBO) are two more cable TV series that look promising. Both of these tackle dysfunctional communities -- from the witness protection program to the supernatural surfer lifestyle -- with an odd twist. And the latter co-stars Luke Perry! Fuckin’ eh, dude!

I can’t decide yet if I am interested in this Flight of the Conchords (June 17; HBO) which is being described by many critics as Tenacious D with kiwi accents. I guess I’ll tune in this Sunday night and make some sort of decision. Stay tuned.

There are some more shows I’m supposed to care about, but I just don’t. These might include: Damages (July 24; FX) starring Glenn Close, Top Chef (June 13; Bravo), The Closer (June 18; TNT) with Kyra Sedgwick and Monk (July 13; USA).

Plus, a whole slew of idiotic reality programming that just looks absolutely terrible: Shaq’s Big Challenge (June 26; ABC – okay, this might be sweet, I’ve seen Kazaam, but still...), Big Brother 8 (July TBA; CBS), The “Fucking” Hills (Aug. TBA; MTV), America’s Got Talent (June 5; NBC), American Inventor (June 6; ABC), Mission: Man Band (Aug. 6; VH1) and Last Comic Standing (June 13; NBC). All of these shows should be taken out back and shot to death repeatedly. Axe’em all and put Clark and Michael on TV!

Oh, and holy shit! Paula Abdul has her own reality show on Bravo called Hey Paula (June 28) that producers are touting as a “docudrama”. I imagine it will be (un)interesting to watch this show, if nothing else, to see how they could ultimately describe it as anything but a sitcom.

Act III.

Bye-bye, Bob.

If you’re like me you grew up skipping school. This included an early morning array of blinky-fun game shows leading up to the early afternoon with Harry Caray and the Cubs game on WGN. Then, your friends got home and you went outside and played, but I digress. These game shows were your education. The Love Connection was your love connection. Wink Martindale was your Dad. Janice Pennington was your hot-ass Mom. And a certain Mister Bob Barker was your kind old grandpa pulling that bright and shiny Plinko chip out from behind your ear.

Tomorrow -- that’s Friday in America -- Bob Barker will take charge of his last Showcase Showdown. His 35-year run as host of The Price Is Right will sadly come to an end. That’s 6,586 episodes if you’re keeping score at home. I knew a girl from college who won the whole thing once -- including a brand new car! But, anyway, I urge all of you to take a moment to tune-in tomorrow and peep that silver fox with his skinny mic one last time. Kiss him on his cheek. Soak it all in. All things must pass.

Mr. Sprinkles #6