Favorite Comic Fridays - Patton Oswalt

I think I may be a little bit late in appreciating Patton Oswalt, but I have to say I'm a fan now. I saw him once at Largo and he killed that night. He's also a comic book dork, so I appreciate any reference he makes to Power Pack or whoever he's talking about. You may recognize him from King of Queens, and he also supplied the voice of the rat in that Disney movie that was just okay. He's kind of rambling and random at times but he's definitely original, I think. Check out this clip about '80s metal:



And also this clip about a movie called Death Bed:

Everything I'm Cracked Up To Be

I finished reading Everything I'm Cracked Up To Be, the autobiography of '90s female singer Jennifer Trynin. You may possibly remember her biggest hit single, "Better Than Nothing" which she admits probably should have been titled "I'm Feelin' Good."

Overall, the book is pretty good and funny. Trynin recounts the big label bidding war that erupted over her debut album, Cockamamie. Her two albums garnered a lot of critical praise but failed to capture a huge commercial audience. She's incredibly honest in things she did to help mess up her own career, and that things didn't work out like she wanted them to. In the end, she's okay with that and she's happy with how her life turned out. There are some amusing stories from the road, like when a DJ left her alone on live radio and Jen ended up interviewing herself for a few minutes. She recounts how she flirted and made out with her bass player while she had a boyfriend back home. She has some funny stories about being put on tour with another female artist named Shalah! who, according to one blog is actually Paula Cole. I think any fan of the '90s alt-rock scene would enjoy it. In the meantime, enjoy her hit single "Better Than Nothing / I'm Feelin' Good."

Twihype

Generally speaking, I am not a fan of hype. In fact, anything that becomes too hyped up tends to turn me off. I don't want to believe in hype and I'd like to form my own opinion on my own time. Plus, I find hyped things are not as good as they're made out to be. Mostly I'm right (Superbad, Juno, Coldplay, Harry Potter), but I'll admit sometimes I'm wrong (White Stripes, The Office).

Alas, this is the reason I won't be going to see Twilight this coming weekend...or anytime soon. From what I know of the story (a vampire and a teenage girl fall for each other), it sounds like more of a teenage romance. My fianceé read the first book and admitted it was cheesy, yet it sucked her in. It sounded to us like the vampire could just bite the girl and turn her into a vampire and then they'd live happily ever after. After all, if he is capable of not being a scary, evil vampire, surely she can, too. Then they'd both be immortal and could spend every day together. Seems like we solved their teenage romance problem in once sentence.

I just wish this friggin' movie would come out already so I can stop seeing TV commercials, newspaper ads and blogs (mine included) all over the place.

Reaching Across the Aisle

Last week I helped shoot a funny video with my friends Ken and Chip. Check it out on Funny or Die. I did the camerawork and have a very minor cameo. Pass it along and vote for it as Funny if you think it's funny.

Razors

Why is it my crappy disposable generic drug store razor does a better job of shaving than my fancy schmancy Schick Quattro? Damn you, Quattro! Damn youuuuuuu!

Grey's Anatomy

I watched my first ever episode of Grey's Anatomy last week and was not impressed. I think it was mostly because I couldn't get over the fact that Katherine Heigl is a bad actress and she looks like "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. I'm not really sure but I'll go ahead and file this show under the Popular Things I Don't Get. It's currently in second place behind the Harry Potter empire, but may be surpassed once Twilight comes out.

The one shining light of that episode of Grey's was the appearance of Kevin McKidd, star of the awesome-yet-cancelled NBC show Journeyman.

Parking Wars

The A&E channel has a show on called Parking Wars, which follows the Philadelphia Parking Authority as they ticket, tow and put Da Boot on cars. Hmm...reality show about parking authority. Arts? Nope. Entertainment? Not even close. A&E, you fail!

Then again, given their programming in recent years with such faire as Dog the Bounty Hunter, Miami Ink and Gene Simmons Family Jewels, I guess this fits right in.

Libraries

My current pursuit of library school and careers of my parents notwithstanding, I am a fan of libraries. In these tough economic times, keep in mind that libraries are a great source for books on any topic, and most of them have CD and DVD collections, and free Wi-Fi access. Libraries not only make money from overdue fines, but checking out and returning a book on time helps them out, too. The more people that check out materials and increase the circulation, the more money can be set aside for its future and continued use.