The 11 Most Memorable Moments from "Buffy" Season 8

The final trade paperback from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Season 8 will be released on Wednesday, so now seemed as good a time as any to take a look back at the moments that defined Season 8. While I didn't review every issue, I obviously read all of them, and took the time this week to flip through them one last time to put together this list of what I think are the most memorable moments from the 40-issue run.

Now, I'm aware that there's a considerable portion of the "Buffy" fan base that likes to pretend these comics didn't exist because they disagree with certain decisions made in the storytelling, and those people probably aren't going to like my list either. But they happened, they're part of "Buffy" canon, and I think with time, we'll come to love them (well, SOME of them) as much as we love the great moments from the TV series.

Rather than try and rank them, I've presented them in chronological order, with a link to my review of the issue when available.

Oh, and obviously spoilers within for those who haven't read the entire run.

1. Buffy jumps out of a helicopter - Issue #1, Pages 2-3

This was the first image from the series, not counting the 1/3 page that came before it, and it definitely set the tone that this was going to be a different kind of "Buffy". I remember when this was released before the issue, and Buffy fans started freaking out because Buffy was jumping out of a helicopter and holding a gun. Some fans are still freaking out about that -- and various other things in Season 8 -- to this day.

2. "Buffy" dies - Issue #5, Page 22

Really it's the whole issue, in which we meet one of Buffy's decoys, and get the story of "her" life and death, without ever learning who she is. But the last splash page, with her dead body against the blank white background, is just visually striking.

This Week in Buffy History: May 31-June 6

May 31

1974 - Ara Celi born (played Ampata Gutierrez on Episode 2.04, “Inca Mummy Girl”)

June 2

1972 - Wentworth Miller born (played Gage Petronzi on Episode 2.20, “Go Fish”)

1997 - Episode 1.12, “Prophecy Girl”, airs on The WB

June 3

1987 - Lalaine born (played Chloe on Buffy)

June 61974 - Danny Strong born (played Jonathan Levinson on “Buffy”)

Jersey Monday: Dirk Nowitzki

The Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat are set to tip off the NBA Finals tomorrow night, and going through the rosters, I realized I have jerseys of six players who will be involved in the series, though not necessarily with these teams:

Miami Heat
- LeBron James
- Dwyane Wade
- Mike Bibby
- Juwan Howard

Dallas Mavericks
- Jason Kidd
- Dirk Nowitzki

Now, to this point, the only one I hadn't spotlighted in Jersey Monday was Dirk Nowitzki, which makes him an obvious choice for today's selection. It also continues the 2011 Playoffs tradition of shows a jersey related to the Heat's opponent, in hopes of somehow jinxing that team.

Personally, I think the Finals will go like this: Heat win games 1 and 2 at home. Dallas wins game 3 relatively handily. Miami wins Game 4 in Dallas to take a 3-1 lead. The Mavs stave off elimination in Game 5, then Miami wins the series back at home in Game 6.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile.

LeBron James 2011 Playoff Highlights - "Reminder"

With the NBA Finals set to start tomorrow, I thought I'd take a look back at LeBron James during the 2011 Playoffs with another highlight mash-up video, this one set to Jay-Z's "Reminder". I also set up a YouTube playlist for all my LeBron mash-ups, dating back to the 2009 postseason. Maybe this is finally the year I get to put together a championship video. Fingers crossed!

My 11 Favorite Songs from Season 2 of "Glee"

"Glee" went in a lot of directions this season, but at the end of the day, the show is really about the music, so much so that the show branched out into original songs this year and dominated the iTunes charts like no "artist" before (though I still thing that counting "Glee Cast" as a single artist for chart tracking purposes is a bit of a cheat).

So looking back at this past season, which songs stood out to me as my favorites? Well, going through my week-by-week reviews, re-listening to the music and re-watching some key episodes, I've narrowed my list down to the top 11. Apologies to "Me Against the Music" (from "Britney/Brittany") and "Valerie" (from "Special Eduction"), which I really wanted to get in there, but in the end I had to admit that they just fell short. But damn if I don't listen to them ALL THE TIME.

11. "Get it Right" - Rachel (from "Original Song")

This was the first of Glee's five original songs this season, and I'm still really impressed with how well it holds up.

10. "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" - Rachel/Kurt (from "Special Education")

It sucks that the actual performance from the show isn't available on YouTube, but the performance isn't the important part here, the vocals are.

9. "Born This Way" - New Directions (from "Born This Way")

I still don't think this is a great song overall (talking about the original here), but this performance is just so much fun.

Follow Up on Best Buy's Trade-In Program

Back when I wrote my original post comparing the three major video game trade-in services, I'd mentioned that I was also trading in my Nintendo DS Lite, but I had to do that by mail because Best Buy didn't accept system trade-ins at the store.

Well, after going through that process, I can safely say that it should be avoided at all costs.

I wrote that post on April 22nd. A day later, I dropped off the package to send the DS Lite to Dealtree (the company Best Buy uses to handle its by-mail trade-in business) at my local UPS Store, and I got a receipt confirmation from the Best Buy Trade In Center on April 25th.

Now, at this point in the process, I understood it would take some time to verify the item. The game trade-in I'd done through Amazon took two business days to process (four days overall), which seemed about right. I thought maybe a system would take a little longer, but no more than five business days. Well, fast forward to May 6th (12 overall days, 10 business days) and I finally received an e-mail confirmation that the value of my system had been verified and a gift card would be sent out to me in seven calendar days. Yes, in the body of the e-mail, it actually specified "calendar".

I thought it was kind of strange that it would even take them seven days to mail it, but I let that slide. What I didn't let slide was the fact that on May 20th, a full 14 calendar days after I'd received the e-mail, I still had no gift card, and the Dealtree Best Buy Trade-In site still showed the status of the trade-in as "pending." I e-mailed customer support, and received a response indicating my gift card had been mailed on the 17th, and I should receive it shortly.

IT'S THE ONLY ARGUMENT I NEED SHAWN!

The first time I saw this brief clip from the trailer for "Bad Teacher", I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. I can't even begin to explain how the "RINGZ!!!!" argument has dominated player-comparison discourse over the last few years, whether it was Jordan vs Kobe or Kobe vs LeBron or Duncan vs Malone or really any comparison between any two comparable players. Someone will try to compare LeBron to Jordan, someone else will say "RINGZ!" then someone chimes in with "RINGZ MEAN ROBERT HORRY > MICHAEL JORDAN" and someone else will add "ADAM MORRISON > LEBRON" and by that point the debate has devolved into lunacy.

Because that entire debate plays out in my head every time I see this clip, it'll never stop being funny to me. Ever. IT'S THE ONLY ARGUMENT I NEED SHAWN.

Review: "The Hangover Part II" starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zack Galifianakis

I can't imagine, given what's been shown in the marketing of "The Hangover Part II" that anyone expected a truly original movie. However, after seeing the movie, I can't help but wonder if the entire writing process involved opening the script for "The Hangover", doing a find-and-replace on a few key phrases, then running it through a blender before filming whatever got spit out.

That's not to say "The Hangover Part II" isn't funny, far from it. The movie is in fact quite funny at times. It's just nowhere near as funny as the first one, to the point that every time you're finished laughing, you start wondering, "hey, couldn't I have just saved some money and watched the first one at home again?"

(NOTE: I didn't even pay to see the movie and yet I kept having that exact thought the entire time, which can't be a good thing.)

After the obligatory in media res opening (again, same as the last movie), the story starts off with Stu getting ready to get married to a woman whose family is from Thailand, so the wedding is being held in Thailand. After a "bachelor brunch" and some wrangling to get Alan invited to the wedding, against Stu's wishes and better judgment. From there, the movie shifts to Thailand, where the guys, minus Doug (conveniently) get "fucked up" again and wake up in Bangkok with no memory of the previous night and find Stu's future brother-in-law Teddy missing.

From there the movie plays out like a series of winks and nods to the first movie, only they aren't particularly clever. There's a mix-up where they think they've found Teddy, only it's not Teddy. Stu finds out he had sex with a prostitute, instead of marrying one. Instead of a missing bag, there's a missing piece of paper with a code. Instead of Phil getting clawed by a tiger, he gets shot. Again, to be clear, the things that happen are often funny, it's just that everything feels beyond familiar.

In addition, a lot of the clever humor from the first movie has been replaced by a significant increase in penis jokes. It's like the writers decided that if they couldn't make a new movie, they could at least make a more gross one. Also, rather than the characters growing, they regress to more one-dimensional versions of themselves. Phil is even more of an asshole, Alan is even more of an idiotic man-child and Stu is more of a milquetoast tight-ass who gets batshit insane when he's drugged. In the end, I'm not even sure you can call "The Hangover Part II" a sequel. It's really more of a remake of "The Hangover" with the primary difference being the setting.

"The Hangover Part II" is rated R for pervasive language, strong sexual content including graphic nudity, drug use and brief violent images. Runs 102 minutes. Starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Barthan and Ken Jeong. "The Hangover Part II" opens nationwide on May 26.

Charmed Comic Review, Issue #9: The All or Nothing

RECAP

The issue stars in the Manor, with Paige and Leo continuing the conversation from the end of Issue #8, about Neena's status as "The First Witch". Leo explains that Neena (as she's calling herself now) was born before names. Paige asks what she's doing now, and Leo answers "I wish I knew" as the issue cuts to a two-page spread of Neena's demon army attacking the Elders. Rennek, the Darklighter, tells Neena the demons aren't strong enough to defeat the Elders, and she responds that they won't realize that until it's too late.

Back in the Manor, Leo continues telling Neena's story, explaining to Phoebe -- who has retrieved the Book of Shadows -- that the sisters need to know Neena's history before they attempt to confront her. Leo assures them that Neena wouldn't have killed Piper, so Piper is likely safe for now.

Leo begins telling the story, which begins in the early days of humanity. The scene shifts to Piper, in some kind of dark limbo with a tree, who nearly acts out Leo's story. As Leo explains, there is an energy that runs through the Earth called "The All", which is significantly more powerful than The Nexus.

"Thousands upon thousands of years ago, a woman came across that nexus. She alerted her mate to what she had found. At first, they were too afraid to go near it. Even at a distance, they could feel its power. But she pushed past that fear.

Piper sees a shadowy figure by the tree and chases after it, but it's gone by the time she gets there. She picks a lone apple from the tree, and an Angel of Destiny arrives, warning her not to eat it. However, in Leo's story, the woman tapped into the power and "was infused with more of The All than any human was intended to possess."

The Angel of Destiny explains to Piper that they're in a place that shouldn't exist, and she arrived there the same way Piper did. She theorizes that only the magic that brought them there can allow them to leave.

Leo's story continues, as he explains that the woman shared the power of The All with her mate, making them immortal, and created a new state of consciousness: The Higher Realm. However, the magical bond between the two of them contained The All in the higher realm, and Earth started to die, so the only way to save it was to separate the powers. As Leo's explaining the last of this, Neena's attack continues against the retreating Elders. Kyle, who should have moved on, gets the Elders safely behind the gates, where Neena leaves a demon to stand guard, so her army can regroup.

Leo's story resumes, and he explains that the woman and man were forced to abandon the higher realm, never to return. Phoebe chimes in that the story sounds "kind of familiar", and Leo says many belief systems come from the same origin. He continues that once the woman was on Earth, she gave birth to a pair of children. The first had the mother's powers, but not as strong, and gave birth to the line of natural-born witches. The second "twisted the magic for darker purposes" and is responsible for the line of warlocks. The other children the man and the woman had didn't have powers themselves, but in rare cases their line could give birth to a full witch, upsetting the grand design. Leo explains that the Warren family is part of that woman's bloodline.

Back in Piperville, the Angel of Destiny explains that the realm they're in was a failed attempt to recreate the higher realm. The Angels of Destiny would have stopped Neena, but they misunderstood her plan. The realm starts to break up, as a side effect of creating an alternate plane. The Angel of Destiny says The First Witch (Neena) exists outside the grand design, so they have very little control over her, and can only witness her actions. She then bites into the apple, and disappears, as the shadowy figure observes.

Back in the Manor, Paige asks what happened to the mate of The First Witch, and Leo says he returned to the Higher Realm without her, which causes Paige and Phoebe to kind of see Neena's side of things. Leo explains that with every witch born, The All was weakened, and it needed one of the two to return. While that's going on, Neena marches her demon army to a set of giant golden double doors, and says "Let's crack this sucker open."

Leo continues, saying that the mate didn't choose to leave the first witch, just that one day, he was gone, and she was along for the first time. To save The All, the Elders had to pick one of them to return to the Higher Realm, and they chose him.

This is explained over Piper standing confused, before the shadowy figure emerges to hand her an apple. And that shadowy figure is...

Glee "New York" Reaction/Song Review

In the "Glee" season finale, "New York", there was so much time spent on music that there wasn't a ton of room for plot development. As it was, the Will Schuester broadway story, the Rachel-Jesse story, and even the competition aspect itself got resolved quickly -- even by TV standards. In the end, the Rachel-Finn story, which has been the centerpiece of the show for the better part of two seasons, dominated the finale, and hopefully reached a point that will allow for more time to be spent on other characters in Season 3.

I'm not saying I didn't like the Rachel-Finn stuff; in fact, quite the opposite. I thought it was done really well, and it all unfolded perfectly within the episode. It's just that they spent so much time on musical performances and then on top of that so much of the early part of the episode was just centered around everyone talking about how awesome New York was that some things ended up getting the short shrift. I kind of think the episode would have worked better as a two-hour finale, giving things more time to breathe.

Obviously aside from possibly getting Rachel and Finn together for good (at least until they graduate), this episode was about New Directions' performance at Nationals. And if anyone was surprised that they didn't place well (finishing 12th, missing out on the Top 10 Showcase entirely), then you were probably deluding yourself. Considering that this group is all coming back next year, at least as far as we know, they needed to leave another step for them to take, and they did that. And, being entirely honest, I thought having them not finish well -- whether it was for Rachel/Finn related reasons or not -- was one of the more realistic and well-handled things they've done this season.

Also, as much as the episode focused on Rachel and Finn, there were some other moments that stood out to me.

- As cheesy as it was, I adored the Patti Lupone cameo. Given how often they've mentioned her in the first two seasons, she was a natural to appear, and Rachel played the scene exactly like I would have expected her to -- almost too star struck to say anything -- which made it so much better.

- Santana's flip-out back in the hotel after they'd been eliminated was FANTASTIC. It might be my new favorite Santana moment of the series.

- Speaking of Santana moments, she and Brittany finally talked everything out, in what was kind of an out-of-character moment for Brittany (Santana even asked when she was done, "When did you get so smart") but it was so damn sweet that I didn't care.

- Oh, and Puckerman came through with the line of the year, when encouraging Finn to ask Rachel out: "Take her on one of those big awful dates you see in those unwatchable romantic comedies that you grow a vagina if you watch all the way through."

OK, now on to the last "Glee" song review of the 2010-11 season.

This Week in Buffy History: May 24-May 30

May 24
1984 - Sarah Hagan born (played Amanda)

May 26
1923 - Roy Dotrice born (played Roger Wyndam-Pryce on Angel Episode 5.07, “Lineage”)

May 28
1970 - Glenn Quinn born (played Doyle on Angel)
1982 - Alexa Davalos born (played Gwen Raiden on Angel)

May 30
1951 - Stephen Tobolowsky born (played Principal Flutie in the unaired pilot of Buffy)
1979 - Jenny Mollen born (played Nina Ash on Angel)

Amazon's Lady Gaga Sale Results in Failed Opportunity

I honestly was not planning on buying Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" today, or at any point in the near future. What I'd heard of the album so far had ben a disappointment, and I wasn't looking forward to shelling out $10 or $12 or $15 on the album.

99 cents? That's a different story.

So when I saw that Amazon.com's MP3 store was offering the entire album -- not just the single, but all 14 tracks plus the digital booklet -- for under a dollar, I figured it'd be the perfect opportunity to not only get the album, but give Amazon's key iTunes competitor a test run.

Apple's iTunes is of course the 800-pound gorilla in the digital music sales industry. I don't buy music as much as I used to, but when I do, I generally do it through iTunes. Part of that is a matter of convenience -- at this point my entire media library, including music, movies and TV shows is stored in iTunes -- and part of it is a matter of familiarity. I know how the iTunes store works, I'm used to using it, and frankly, I've never had any problems with it.

I figured the Amazon.com MP3 store would work just as well, but I quickly learned I was wrong. First, when you buy a digital song or album from Amazon, you can't just download an MP3 file. The site offers you up a proprietary Amazon-formatted file that opens a "downloader" application, that then downloads your MP3s from Amazon's server. You can bypass the downloader if you choose to have your music sideloaded to Amazon's cloud player, but that still requires a download process, then if you want to load your music into iTunes or your non-Android music player of choice, you still need the downloader application.

Still, that's really more of a "first-time buyer" pain, and now that my expectations of the process have been properly set, I'll be prepared for it next time I use the Amazon.com store. The bigger problem was something specific to today, and something that really could set Amazon.com back in this market share battle.

Jersey Monday: Kevin Durant

With the Heat and Bulls off tonight, I figured I'd take a look at the other conference finals series going on and shine a spotlight on one of my jerseys from the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Of course, I don't actually have a Thunder jersey, but I do have this spectacular Kevin Durant Seattle SuperSonics jersey from his rookie season. In support of Seattle, this -- and my green Durant jersey from that same season -- will be the only jersey I ever own to represent that franchise, at least until Seattle gets a team back.

I picked up this guy on eBay shortly after the Sonics announced their move to Oklahoma City. I think it ran me something like $40, as people were clearing out their inventory of Sonics jerseys. That's not a bad price at all for an NBA authentic, and I'll just keep it in storage until enough time has passed that it becomes cool to wear a Durant Sonics jersey as a throwback. Right now, that's really more the domain of hipsters, which couldn't be further from what I am.

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile.

Buffy's "The Gift" 10 Years Later

It's hard to believe that it's already been 10 years since the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" season five finale, "The Gift", aired on The WB. Fandom was left reeling after the episode, which saw Buffy Summers sacrifice her life to save her sister and the world.

I spent that night... I dunno? Watching baseball, maybe? I wasn't a Buffy fan yet, and wouldn't catch up with the show until about 3 1/2 years later. However, I think I've made up for time lost, getting a quote from this episode tattooed on my arm.

I wrote about my favorite moments from "The Gift" a few years ago as part of my March 10th Season Five marathon, and I think the thing that holds up the most from that list is actually the opening scene, which I still maintain is the thesis for the entire series.

As amazing as the end of "The Gift" is -- and you can see it for yourself by watching the clip above, I'm almost more impressed by the pure emotional anvil dropped on the season finale of "Angel", which aired later that night. Check it out after the jump.

Castle "Knockout" Reaction

I wanted to watch the season finale of "Castle" a second time before writing a reaction to it, because upon first viewing, it was easy to confuse the emotional impact to the events of the episode with a positive reaction to it. However, on second -- and third -- viewing, my opinion remains the same: "Knockout", the finale of season three of "Castle", was the best episode the show has produced to date.

The episode continues the ongoing case of the murder of Kate's mother, starting with the elaborate escape of hitman Hal Lockwood moving to the eventual discovery and sacrifice of the mysterious third cop who worked with Raglan and McAllister and then ending with Kate's fate up in the air, on what has to be the biggest cliffhanger I've seen this finale season.

I can't say I was shocked that Captain Montgomery didn't survive the episode -- in fact, in the previous episode when he announced he was retiring, I figured he wasn't long for the world (the "retiring cop dies just before retiring" cliché exists for a reason). However, when he turned out to be the third cop, that was a serious twist. There was a moment early in the episode, when Castle was going over the third cop theory, that Montgomery's facial expression gave the twist away, but I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it did, from all angles.

I thought the single best scene in the episode came not from Castle and Beckett (though I'll get to that), but from Esposito and Ryan, upon learning the truth about Montgomery. It wasn't subtle, or nuanced or light in any way. It was pure raw emotion, shining the spotlight on the differences between the two characters and what makes them work so well together. In particular, the fierce loyalty of Esposito was tested, resulting in one of his finest moments on the series.

Apocalypse? Buffy will save us!

"This is how many apocalypses for us now?"
"Six, at least. Feels like a hundred."
"I've always stopped them. Always won."
"Yes."

See, the world isn't ending today. Buffy Summers will save us. Obviously.

Desktop Girl of the Week: Ashley Tisdale

So last night was the series finale of "Hellcats", though obviously it was an unplanned series finale, because the writers ended the episode without knowing if the show would be canceled or not. However, since it has been, I thought I'd take this opportunity to give Desktop Girl of the Week honors to star Ashley Tisdale, since I don't know when she'll be on my radar again.

The former Disney Channel star left her Disney roots -- and her blonde roots -- behind when joining the cast of "Hellcats", playing a much more nuanced character than she had in the past. And while the show wasn't always particularly good, I thought Tisdale did her best with the material she was given. Toward the back half of the season, the stories drifted further and further from cheerleading and more into soap opera madness (which, to be fair, is almost expected from The CW), but Tisdale always seemed to bring her A game.

According to her IMDB page, Tisdale doesn't have much coming down the pipe, an obvious consequence of the fate of "Hellcats". Still, I can't imagine it'll be long before we see her on the screen again.

• Ashley Tisdale on IMDB
• Follow Ashley Tisdale on Twitter
• Hellcats Official Site

As always with DGOW, I’ll provide a widescreen (1680x1050) image for downloading. If you want to see past DGOW, then just check the archive album.

Glee "Funeral" Reaction/Song Review

Ever since I first saw the title for this episode, I speculated as to who would be the subject of the "Funeral" in the title and how the characters on the show would react to it. In all my speculation, I don't think the possibility of killing off Sue's sister ever crossed my mind, nor did I think that would result in one of the best -- but hardest to watch -- episodes of "Glee" ever.

The devastating news came pretty early in the episode, and set the tone for what can only be described as Jane Lynch's Emmy episode. I never though the character of Sue Sylvester could be sympathetic in any way, but the way she had so much trouble processing the death of her sister, then having such an emotional breakdown at the funeral itself, it was just so powerful.

Being someone that has trouble dealing with death myself, I could relate to what Sue was doing, particularly in the early scenes in the episode where people -- most notably Kurt and Finn -- were trying to help her. The entire thing was really heartbreaking (and I'm not afraid to admit I cried a could times), but the scene near the end of the episode where Sue allowed Becky back on the cheerleading squad, and then they shared a hug, was just flawless.

Obviously it's going to be hard to see the character of Sue Sylvester the same way ever again, but given the strength of this episode, I'm willing to let that slide.

The only thing that kept this from being a perfect episode was the awkwardness of having the "nationals preparation" plot running concurrently with the Jean's funeral plot. I know they had to both keep things somewhat light and get music into the episode, but every time they flipped from Sue being all dark to Jesse comically insulting the glee singers, it was just really jarring. Plus, Sue's serious drama drastically reduced the impact of the Quinn-Finn high school drama, because the latter didn't have nearly the life-and-death implications of the former.

Still, overall, this was a great episode with some very good music too. Now, on to that music:

Happy 31st Birthday to Me!

See you in 24 hours...

This Week in Buffy History: May 17-23

May 18
1999 - Episode 3.21, “Graduation Day, Pt. 1” airs on The WB

May 19
1997 - Episode 1.11, “Out of Mind, Out of Sight” airs on The WB
1998 - Episode 2.22, “Becoming, Pt. 2”, airs on The WB
2004 - Angel Episode 5.22, “Not Fade Away”, airs on The WB

May 20
1956 - Dean Butler born (played Hank Summers, Buffy’s dad)
2002 - Angel Episode 3.22, “Tomorrow”, airs on The WB
2003 - Episode 7.22, “Chosen” airs on UPN (series finale).

May 21
2002 - Episode 6.21, “Two to Go”, airs on UPN
2002 - Episode 6.22, “Grave” airs on UPN

May 22
1974 - Sean Gunn born (played Lucas on Angel Episode 1.09 - “Hero”)
2002 - Episode 5.22, “The Gift” airs on The WB (final “Buffy” episode on The WB)
2002 - Angel Episode 2.22, “There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb”, airs on The WB

May 23
1971 - Laurel Holloman born (played Justine on Angel)
2001 - Episode 4.22, “Restless” airs on The WB
2001 - Angel Episode 1.22, “To Shanshu in LA”, airs on The WB

How I Met Your Mother "Challenge Accepted" Reaction

I thought we were done with Zoey, I really did. After she and Ted broke up last week, I figured we'd seen the last of her, but then came "Challenge Accepted", which spent nearly an entire episode lingering on her, when we already know she's not the mother, and has no connection to the mother, and I just don't care about her anymore.

In fact, this episode seemed to be entirely about lingering plot threads, and wasted about 18 minutes of our time messing around with them before getting to the last three minutes of the episode that served to set up all the major themes of Season 7.

So, here's what we learned:

• Lily's pregnant, which was the cause of the profuse vomiting that dominated the episode and made for a terrible recurring joke
• Barney is the groom at the mystery future wedding shown multiple times throughout this season, though we still don't know the bride. Is it Nora, who came back into Barney's life at the end of the episode, or Robin, who seemed to be sad about that because of her feelings for Barney, which bubbled back up because of the whole Ted and Zoey thing.
• Zoey isn't the mother (duh), and neither is the random blonde girl who got the orchid, leading to one of future Ted's annoying "and that's how I met your mother... NOT" jokes. 

I could live with the show being coy about its major plot developments on a regular basis if it were consistently funny, but it stopped being that about two seasons ago. It's not entirely unfunny either, it's just that some episodes work and some don't, and the only consistency you can count on from the show is that major developments in the characters' lives will happen at a snail's pace. And I'm no longer sure that's worth dealing with 24 times a year.

For more coverage of the 2010-11 television season, visit the AdamReisinger.com TV Reviews home page.

Jersey Monday: Michael Jordan

I continue the 2011 Heat Playoff opponents theme this week, with a jersey from way back, my Michael Jordan authentic Bulls alternate from 1996-97.

You can't tell from this picture, but this jersey is specifically tied to that season through its gold NBA logo, which the league used exclusively for the 50th anniversary celebration that season. This was also one of the first NBA authentics I ever purchased, though I didn't wear it that often (and probably not at all since high school).

I know there were a lot of Bulls fans -- and even players -- who didn't like this jersey, but I thought the black and red pinstripes were an interesting tribute of sorts to Chicago's seedier past. It's kind of a gangster look, though I'm sure that's not what David Stern wants to hear. The Bulls ditched the pinstripes on their black alternates the following, and now they're just kind of boring.

I will say this: as cool as I think this jersey looks, Michael Jordan never looked right in it. Your mental image of Jordan is always going to be in Bulls red, and anything else just looks wrong (though this doesn't look nearly as wrong as this).

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile.

"Fame: Britney Spears" Comic Review

The "Fame" series of comics from Bluewater are something of an anachronism in the industry. While "Fame" is technically an ongoing series, recurring characters don't exist, as the book focuses on a different celebrity each month. And the books themselves aren't like an issue of "Spider-Man" that throws Barack Obama into the action, or imagining what a celebrity would be as a superhero. Instead, they serve as an illustrated biography of the celebrity (or celebrities) being featured.

This month's edition focuses on Britney Spears, with writer Patrick McCray taking us through Britney's life from age 8 to now, through mostly a first-person retelling (with a three-page framing story featuring two fairies, but that's not really that important).

Now, the book doesn't exactly cover EVERYTHING Britney's been through over the various ups and downs of her career -- there are no illustrated crotch shots -- but it's not a glossed-over retelling either, which I have to admit surprised me. The breakup with Justin (including the "Cry Me a River" video), the failure of "Crossroads", the hard partying, the failed marriages, the horrible reception of her VMA "comeback" performance, it's all in there. Of course, the good is also in there too, both at the beginning and with her recent resurgence, and in addition to the first-person writing, there's lot of little "pop-up" facts that appear throughout the book, enhancing its value for Britney fans who already know this story in and out.

Ricardo Jaime handles art duties and does a good, but not great, job. The righthand cover image of Britney has slightly too many facial lines, making it look less like Britney now and more like Britney at 40, which is a shame because the cover really needs to pop with something like this, to get fans to notice it on the shelves. I think I'd be more of a fan of the interior art if Jaime didn't go so overboard on the facial shadows. Still, he does a pretty good job with likenesses, considering both how many he has to do, and how often Britney's has changed in her career.

I think Britney Spears fans who aren't comic fans will at least find this an enjoyable read, and younger fans who want to learn about Britney's whole career will get something out of it too.

Grade: B

Smallville "Finale" Reaction

Look, I could nitpick every little thing about the two-hour "Smallville" series finale, including the plodding first hour, the surprisingly fast resolution the Darkseid plot and the overuse of Jonathan Kent, but when it comes down to it, I needed exactly four things from this episode:

• Clark had to fly
• Clark had to put on the suit
• Clark had to fly in the suit
• There had to be a scene where Clark ripped open his shirt to reveal the suit underneath

"Finale" delivered all four of those. Was it a bit of a tease that all of that came in the final 15 minutes of the episode? Sure, but after a 10-year run that at time has drifted too far from Superman mythology into typical WB-then-CW melodrama, those 15 minutes of pure geek fanservice were absolutely perfect.

Overall, I thought the two-hour episode was solid, though really it was almost two separate episodes packaged together. The first hour was very much a "Lois and Clark" centric episode, as they hashed out their relationship and wedding drama, including a painfully long scene where they talked to each other from opposite sides of a door. The episode got much stronger as it shifted into the second hour, as Clark finally embraced his destiny to battle Darkseid and save the Earth from Apokolips. 

Really, for all the small problems the episode had (the ones mentioned above, plus much too frequent use of clip montages, particularly the extended one in the middle of the Darkseid fight), there was only one big thing I had a problem with: the handling of the Lex Luthor situation. 

Bones "The Hole in the Heart" Reaction

Before I get to the meat of this week's "Bones", I just wanted to say how much I adore Tina Majorino, and getting a guest appearance from her -- just a few weeks after her guest spot on "Castle" -- was a nice suprise.

Now, with that out of the way, let's focus on what I think was the best episode of the season. "The Hole in the Heart" was the continuation -- and seeming conclusion -- of the ongoing Broadsky story, which itself was a spinoff of the Gravedigger story that spanned multiple seasons. And for the second time, a major ongoing story ended in tragedy for a Jeffersonian Intern.

During the past three seasons of watching "Bones", I've never connected with the rotation of interns like I did with Zach Addy, but that didn't make Thursday's episode any less emotional. After some typical posturing between Booth and Broadsky over untraceable phone calls, Broadsky took the fight too Booth -- who he no longer considered one of the "good" guys. He set himself up to take a shot at Booth, only he was relying on thermal imaging to see into the Jeffersonian and couldn't see that he was actually taking the shot at Vincent Nigel-Murray.

I was incredibly impressed with how well all three actors involved in the scene -- Ryan Cartwright (Vincent), David Boreanaz (Booth) and Emily Deschanel (Brennan) -- played it. Cartwright's pleading reminded me so much of Amy Acker's death scene on "Angel", and ranks among the better death scenese I've seen on TV.

Better With You "Better With the Baby" Reaction

In my initial review of the pilot of "Better With You", I said the show felt too formulaic -- particularly in its similarities to a sitcom from a about 20 years ago -- to succeed, and throughout this season, that opinion hasn't changed much. Wednesday's season finale, "Better with a Baby", didn't stray far from the formula of carefully zigzagging between "idiot ball" zaniness and moments of sentimentality, and though it was a solidly funny 22 minutes, there's nothing about the show that sucks you in to keep you keep coming back week after week.

In the season -- and likely series -- finale, Mia went into labor, and decided that she wanted to be married before giving birth, mostly because her reasons for putting off the wedding (a couple episodes back) were so superficial. From there, the episode was incredibly predictable, even as the writers worked hard to continually outdo themselves in the wackiness department. There was never any doubt that Mia and Casey would get officially married, literally at the last second possible, and even the revelation with Maddie seemed telegraphed from the beginning of the episode.

With some failed sitcoms, the jokes just aren't funny, and that's why the show fails. That's not the case with "Better with You". The greater problem with "Better with You" is how forgettable it is; you'll laugh at a joke, and then minutes later not be able to recall it at all. Great sitcoms have lines, and sometimes entire scenes or even episodes, the audience can recite from memory years after they've gone off the air. While I know I laughed watching this episode, I couldn't for the life of me recall a single line that made me do so. It's like the sitcom version of the bread they serve at restaurants: good enough while it's there, but utterly forgettable the minute the main course (or the next show) arrives.

For more coverage of the 2010-11 television season, visit the AdamReisinger.com TV Reviews home page.

R.I.P. Robert Traylor

Sad news today from the world of basketball where 34-year-old Robert Traylor -- a 1998 first-round pick who played seven seasons in the NBA -- was found dead in his apartment in Puerto Rico.

Traylor hadn't played in the NBA since 2005, after failing a physical with the Nets, but had continued his career overseas. He also had a tryout with the Lakers at one point and played with the Cavaliers summer league team in 2008. At that time, he was in the best shape he'd shown in years -- though no one was going to mistake him for Dwight Howard -- and I really thought he'd get back into the NBA at that point. He didn't make the Cavaliers roster, and never really got another shot with an NBA team, spending the last few seasons with teams in Turkey, Italy and Puerto Rico.

In NBA circles, Traylor's name is always going to be linked with one of the worst trades in NBA history, when he was swapped on draft day for Dirk Nowitzki. He was also one of the major figures in the Ed Martin scandal, which forced Michigan to vacate multiple seasons worth of wins and remove Traylor's MVP performance in the 1997 NIT from the record books. Personally, though, I always had a soft spot for Traylor. I love big guys, and Traylor was among the biggest -- though in the end that seemed to have big a major part of his early demise.

Rather than focus on that, let's enjoy the highlight of his career: when he shattered the backboard while playing at Michigan.

Glee "Prom Queen" Reaction/Song Review

I didn't go to my Junior Prom -- I was the kind of kid who hated high school and held my own silent rebellions against its traditional constructs -- but I definitely understand the importance of the event in the life of a high schooler. And I think "Glee" did a solid job of capturing all the different perspectives through the various members of the glee club.

It would have been easy for "Glee" to be way too serious about prom, like it's been about just about everything this season, but there were some really funny moments mixed in with the show's typical melodrama. I did think the moment when Karofsky had his little breakdown to Kurt, then before things got too sappy, he just sort of snapped back into "this isn't how a man is supposed to act" mode, was outstanding.

Of course, in the end, this ended up being another one of Kurt's big issue episodes, though it went in a direction I wasn't expecting. Karofksy was voted prom king and Santana expected that shed be voted queen, but instead the winner was Kurt, in a write-in campaign. Only rather than being proud and owning his moment, Kurt ran from the gym embarrassed. It was a stunningly introspective moment for an overly extroverted character, and a rare moment of vulnerability for him.

It also led to some major drama in the glee club, with the Quinn-Rachel tension coming to a head, Santana breaking down in frustration and Kurt and Blaine facing some serious realities. Did things get worked out a little too quickly? Sure, but it was kind of adorable, so I'm gonna let it slide. And the fight between Finn and the suddenly returned Jesse St. James didn't have an instant resolution, and will hopefully hang over the rest of the season, so it's not like "Glee" had one of its "everything is back to normal" endings.

Also, it helped that this was one of the stronger episodes of the year from a humor perspective. Finn's description of Kurt's original prom outfit was outstanding. "It's like gay Braveheart" is one of the lines of the season. I adored Brittany's plan to just dance with everyone else's dates, and Puck's obsession with spiking the punch was a nice bit of classic high school mischief.

I really wanna hear more of Sue's list of the worst songs Glee has ever done; I agree with Run Joey Run and the Hair/Crazy in Love mashup. And her "Alias" style interrogation/almost torture of Artie after he was caught "spiking" the punch (with lemonade) was fantastic.

Oh, and it wouldn't be a prom episode without dresses, so lets grade those:
Quinn: her dress had that classic prom princess look, a definite A+.
Mercedes: A little too much pink for my tastes, and sparkly in weird places. B-
Rachel: The dress was a solid B, though I wasn't a fan of the strapless look on her.
Zises: Her original yellow abomination was an F, but the blue was a serious upgrade to solid C+/B- range. Would've been higher, but the sleeves were weird.
Santana: I really want to give the "Satan" red an A, but the ruffled floral sash downgrades it to a B.
Tina: On just about anyone else, this is a C-/D+, but with Tina's style, it's a solid B.
Brittany: She can do no wrong in my book. An A just for being Brittany.

With the dresses all graded, let's move on to the music.

"Chuck Versus the Final Details" Reaction

This hasn't been the best season of "Chuck". The show has had a strange obsession with guest stars, continued the "superhero-ing" of the main character and expanded the spy circle to include practically everyone in Chuck's life. Despite all that, Monday's penultimate episode of the season, "Chuck Versus the Last Details" clicked on nearly every level.

I don't think the episode was quite good enough to simply dismiss all the problems with the season, but without everything that all the characters had gone through this year, this episode wouldn't have worked quite as well. The episode centered around Chuck and Sarah attempting to focus on the final details of their wedding, while simultaneously recovering the rebuilt Norseman Device from Vivian Volkoff -- a mission that Chuck's mother had undertaken and failed at, resulting in her being taken custody by Volkoff.

The episode could have easily collapsed under its own weight, with multiple plots taking center stage at various points, but there was a perfect balance between the lightness of the interaction among the characters and the severity of the consequences of failure. Also, it didn't hurt that the episode was full of overt references to "Star Wars", which really helped to recapture some of the geeky charm the show had back in Season 1.

My favorite part of the episode was Morgan -- going undercover as an Italian arms dealer -- getting psyched up for the mission when Chuck started humming the Imperial March to him. Sarah had this look on her face like "Oh my God, I can't believe I'm marrying this dork", but Morgan and Chuck totally got into it. And Morgan's fake "evil" phone call ordering the kill of a puppy was so absurd that it actually worked.

In the end, everything seemed to have worked out nicely, despite some missteps along the way, but there are no happy endings in "second-to-last" episodes, and this one ends on a tragic cliffhanger: Vivian calls Chuck, pissed off about his and his family's betrayals, and tells him she's going to make him feel exactly like she does... then she uses the Norseman (the one that Chuck and Sarah DIDN'T recover) on Sarah. She starts bleeding from the nose and collapses into Chuck's arms and... TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR THE EXCITING CONCLUSION!

Now, do I think they're going to kill Sarah off permanently? Not at all. But a good show rises above the inevitability of the survival of the main characters to build drama in other ways, and I'll be interested to see if this show can do that next week.

For more coverage of the 2010-11 television season, visit the AdamReisinger.com TV Reviews home page.

This Week in Buffy History: May 10-16

May 10
1954 - Michael G. Hagerty born (played bartender on Angel Episode 2.13 “Happy Anniversary”)

May 11
1975 - Riff Regan born (played Willow in unaired pilot episode)
1999 - Episode 3.20 “The Prom” airs on The WB

May 12
1948 - Lindsay Crouse born (played Professor Maggie Walsh in Season 4)
1997 - Episode 1.10 “Nightmares” airs on The WB
1998 - Episode 2.21 “Becoming (Part 1)” airs on The WB
2004 - Angel Episode 5.21 “Power Play” airs on The WB

May 13
2002 - Angel Episode 3.21 “Benediction” airs on The WB
2003 - Episode 7.21 “End of Days” airs on UPN

May 14
1983 - Amber Tamblyn born (played Janice in Episode 6.06, “All the Way”)
2002 - Episode 6.20, “Villains”, airs on UPN

May 15
1982 - Alex Breckenridge born (played Kit Holburn in Episode 7.01, “Lessons”)
2001 - Episode 5.21, “The Weight of the World”, airs on The WB
2001 - Angel Episode 2.21, “Through the Looking Glass”, airs on The WB

May 16
1969 - David Boreanaz born (played Angel)
2000 - Episode 4.21, “Primeval”, airs on The WB
2000 - Angel Episode 1.21, “Blind Date”, airs on The WB

Where Does "Thor" Rank Among Marvel Comics Movies?

"Thor", which came out this weekend, is technically the fourth movie in the ongoing "Avengers" saga and the 22nd major motion picture based on a Marvel comics character released since 1998. Some of those movies have been big budget runaway successes, while others have been flops, but where does "Thor" rank among them.

When I started to rank the movies, I was doing it completely subjectively, based solely on my opinion, but I realized there's a better way to do it. By coming up with a formula that takes into account the movie's success at the box office, critical reaction and audience reception, I can make an objective ranking that takes personal bias out of the mix.

The four pieces of my formula:

Domestic Box Office Gross
I considered going for net profit, or counting the international market, but it was just easiest to simplify this to total U.S. gross receipts, not adjusted for inflation. Is that the most accurate way of doing it? Not really, but it was quick and gave a good jumping off point. Also, to be fair to "Thor", I've given the movie an estimated $160-$175M gross, based on the opening weekend estimate of $66M. I'll explain how falling short of or exceeding that estimate could impact Thor's ranking when I get around to it.

Rotten Tomatoes Average Critic Score
I first considered going with the "freshness" rating, but as it turns out, movies can have very similar freshness percentages, but vastly different average scores. For example, both "Thor" and "Fast Five" are rated 78% fresh, but Thor's average score is half a point higher than Fast Five's, which is a pretty big difference.

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Percent Liked
Conversely, because the audience "score" is compressed to a five-point scale, the scores don't vary enough to make for a good 22-movie ranking. The "liked" percentage works as a better metric here.

IMDB Rating
Just one last 10-point score to give a different take for balance purposes. Also, IMDB ratings do tend to fluctuate wildly in the period shortly after a movie's release, so Thor's could go up or down from its current 7.6.

Each movie is ranked 1-22 in each of the four metrics, and assigned the inverse number of points for that ranking (#1 is worth 22 points, #2 is worth 21, etc.). The four point totals are summed, and that's how I come to the final ranking. The maximum point total a movie could get is 88, and the lowest is 4.

Also, one last note: I know "Kick-Ass" and the "Men in Black" movies came from Marvel imprints, but for the purposes of this ranking, I'm only looking at movies with the Marvel name attached. OK, on to the list.

22 - Elektra (2005)
7.5 Points
Even if I hadn't done any research at all into box office and scores and such, I would have put this movie last. It ends up ranking last in two of the four metrics (IMDB score, Critics score), and made a dismal $24M at the box office.

21 - Punisher: War Zone (2008)
15.0 Points
Honestly, I would have had this higher. I really enjoyed this darker, more violent take on Punisher. Still, the box office was last, the critics hated it and even the Rotten Tomatoes audience wasn't a fan. It wasn't in the bottom five in IMDB rating though, which I think is more reflective of how I feel about it.

Fringe "The Day We Died" Reaction

I had to go back and watch the season finale of "Fringe" a second time to make sense of what I'd seen. I was hoping that upon second viewing of "The Day We Died", I'd find something in the first 30 minutes of the episode that connected the brilliant character study to the confusing final 10 minutes, but that's not the case. The episode really plays out as an incredibly strong, set in the future episode of "Fringe", with an epilogue that rapidly ties up many of the loose ends of Season 3 while establishing a baffling new status quo for Season 4.

After seeing last week's previews for this episode, I was worried that this was going to be similar to the penultimate episode of "No Ordinary Family", with Peter bouncing back between the future and the present, trying to fix things, but that wasn't the case at all. Aside from a little initial confusion, Peter settles into the role of "Future Peter" as if there's no connection to him using the machine 15 years prior.

The scenes that play out in the future are among the best we've had from "Fringe", particularly the relationship development between Peter and Olivia -- and their debate on the morality of bringing a child into a doomed world, a world they're partially responsible for dooming. Nothing tops the emotional moment where Peter tells Walter, now incarcerated for his universe-destroying experiments, that no matter the mistakes Walter's made, Peter considers THIS Walter, and not Walternate, his father.

Meanwhile, Walternate is now also living in "our" universe, fronting a terrorist group while plotting more specifically against Peter for the destruction of his universe. That plot results in the killing of Olivia, leading to a touching funeral scene. While the shooting of Olivia was a bit of a "holy crap" moment, the emotional impact is lessened by knowing that this future won't stick.

30 Rock "Respawn" Reaction

Normally I'm a big fan of the season finales on "30 Rock", particularly last year when they went out with probably their strongest episode of the season, but this year's season finale, "Respawn" fell flat for me. There were three major story lines -- Tracy ruining Liz's vacation, Jack using Kenneth as a surrogate Avery and Jenna and Paul trying to be normal to secure Jenna's wool endorsement deal -- and the latter two were a little too strange even by "30 Rock" standards while also dominating the screen time in the show.

Even with Victor Garber featuring prominently in the Jenna/Paul story, I just found myself wanting to fast forward through the entire thing. The Jenna-imitating Paul character works best in very small doses, and the weird sexual fetishes the two have as a couple have gone to unnecessary extremes. I get trying to push the envelope, but at some point it just stops being funny, and the show reached that point with the two of them awhile back.

Still, that story was practically comedy gold compared to the Jack/Kenneth debacle. I really thought Jack could hit no lower as a character than his weird fear of his nanny earlier this season, but using Kenneth as a creepy stand-in for Avery was just bad. Jack kept giving off a weird pedophile/serial killer vibe too, which I'm not sure they were really going for.

There were three things that kept this episode from being a total miss in my mind:

• Everything with Liz and Tracy. That whole story -- Liz going on vacation in the Hamptons, where it turns out Tracy is her crazy neighbor, forcing Liz to get sentenced to community service to get away -- captured the right level of crazy for the show.
• The writers playing "Halo" and constantly self-killing to avoid letting anyone get the upper hand. Not only did it give Liz the whole community service idea, but the joke in the tag with them having played the entire summer was great.
• Kenneth finally ending the madness with Jack by channeling Avery and standing up to him. Oh, and also, we got another "Give me mor time, Jacob" from Kenneth, which was also pretty solid.

OK, now for the top lines in the episode, though I warn you, there are fewer than usual. And if it weren't for Tracy Jordan, there might not be any.

Review: "Thor" starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman

Ever since "Thor" was announced, I had my doubts as to whether anyone could make a "Thor" movie work within the constructs of the expanded Marvel movie universe. There's no getting around the fact that Thor himself is a god, or at the least a god-like being, and has always seemed to be to be something of a strange fit in The Avengers and their continuity. Plus, I doubted the movie would be able balance Asgard and Earth, and find a way to humanize the character without completely depowering him.

After seeing the movie, I can admit that my doubts were unfounded, as director Kenneth Branagh and the team of writers who crafted the story have put together a movie that works amazingly well as a standalone Thor vehicle, establishing both sides of the character, while also working towards placing him in a larger Marvel continuity.

The movie starts off much like "Iron Man", with the scene of Thor's arrival on Earth, then bounces back to Asgard to establish the character's pre-Earth history. We're quickly introduced to Odin (Thor's father), Loki (his brother) and the war between the Asgardians and the Frost Giants. I wasn't a huge fan of the Anthony Hopkins narration over the establishing scenes, but it was necessary to condense all that mythology quickly and get into the meat of the story.

From that introduction, "Thor" essentially becomes a movie about family, betrayal, revenge and redemption, so it's easy to see how Branagh was able to find a Shakespearean undertone to the proceedings. The story does slow down a bit when Thor is banished from Asgard and lands on Earth, with the romance between Chris Hemsworth's Thor and Natalie Portman's Jane Foster feeling a little forced. The reasons for the two characters falling for each other -- outside of "that's how it is in the comics" -- are never really well-established. Surprisingly, Hemsworth is charismatic enough to make it work despite the script falling a bit short in this regard.

Hemsworth is something of an unknown quantity here in America, but he really shines in the movie, bringing what could have been an outlandish character to life. He balances the warrior's immaturity in the early Asgard scenes with the eye-opening experiences on Earth without falling too far into the territory of turning him into an Earthbound buffoon. Plus, he really does look the part, which is pretty damn important with a character like Thor.

Tom Hiddleston is also fantastic as Loki, the primary villain of the movie. His ability to express so much without saying a word goes incredibly far to establish the character without having to overtly make him the villain from the beginning (though the villain being someone close to the hero at the beginning of the movie is becoming something of a staple of Marvel movies).

Desktop Girl of the Week: Kate Middleton

Normally I have a rule for Desktop Girl of the Week selections: the subject being picked must have some kind of discernable talent. Acting, singing, web producing, whatever. The specific talent doesn't matter, nor does the level of talent, just that it exists. Models don't count. When your talent is "being pretty", you're immediately ranked behind the pretty girls who are capable of doing something else.

Of course, there's a corollary to this rule, that I just made up this week: if you can be called "Princess" unironically, it doesn't matter what your talent is.

Thus, this week's DGOW selection, blushing British bride Kate Middleton. I honestly didn't watch a second of the Royal Wedding (it's true! I swear!), but I saw the photos of Kate in her gown circulating on Twitter and I was blown away. She really did look amazing. So, congrats on the nuptials Kate, and remember, you're still not in charge of us.

• Official Royal Family Website
• Kate Middleton coverage at The Guardian
• "Kate Middleton FTW" Tumblr

As always with DGOW, I’ll provide a widescreen (1680x1050) image for downloading. If you want to see past DGOW, then just check the archive album.

Review: Rachel Platten "Be Here"

Sometimes when you hear music live before listening to the album, the album can be a letdown, either because it doesn't sound as good, or it sounds too different from the live performance.

That is definitely not the case with Rachel Platten's debut album "Be Here", which sounds amazing in any form.

Interestingly, when I went to import the CD into my iTunes library, Gracenote had tagged the genre as "Country/Folk". I'm not sure I'd call it that. In fact, after listening to the album multiple times, I'm not exactly sure what genre to place Platten in, aside from "good music that you should totally take the time to listen to." I spend so much time listening to so many over-produced artists that its refreshing to hear an album like "Be Here", where the music that the artist is creating is what's being pushed to the forefront. Platten's voice is strong without being overwhelming. There's a sweetness that comes across in every song, but that doesn't prevent her from hitting the lower notes just as well, particularly on "53 Steps," probably the highlight of the album.

In place of the drum machine that dominates my iTunes Library these days, Platten uses strong piano skills to back her vocals. She manages to change up the style from song to song seamlessly, going with a more upbeat tempo on songs like "Nothing Ever Happens" and "1,000 Ships", an almost-R&B sound on "Don't Care What Time It Is" and a bit of a jazz/pop sound on "You Don't Have To Go" and "All I Seem To Do". Platten either wrote or co-wrote nine of the 10 songs on the album, and there isn't a clunker in the mix. This is truly an ALBUM, not just a collection of singles mixed in with filler.

Buy "Be Here" on iTunes or Amazon.com.

2011 Boston Comic-Con Roundup

This is the second consecutive year I've been to Boston Comic-Con, though this year the show moved to the Hynes Convention Center -- where last year's New England Comic-con was held -- and was significantly larger in scale. My two main goals in attending this year's show were getting sketches from Adam Hughes and J. Scott Campbell, and while I got neither, I still had a great weekend.

It didn't seem like it would be that way at first. When I got into the show on Saturday morning, I missed out on getting onto Hughes sketchlist and wasn't selected off of Campbell's list, which left me with two full days at the show and no real plan outside of getting some books signed (which I got taken care of within the first few minutes after trying to get the sketches). So I shifted gears and did something I've never really done before. Instead of trying to get sketches from artists with whom I was familiar, I instead walked artists' alley and looked for art styles that caught my eye and set up comissions with those artists. So instead of getting two pieces (not even a guarantee, with the way Hughes's sketch list worked), I ended up leaving the show with three great-looking original pieces of art, a whole mess of prints and some overall fun experiences.

The first piece, pictured above, is a full-color watercolor 11x17 by Sara Richard. I was passing by her table on Saturday and was so taken by her art style that I had to get something (I also purchased a Jean Grey print from her). Plus, I've got such a large collection of pieces of female characters, but none of them were done by female artists, and I wanted to rectify that.

The other two original pieces of art (both of Mary Jane), are pictured after the jump.

This Week in Buffy History: May 3-9

May 3

1978 - Christina Hendricks born (played bar maid on Angel Episode 1.15 “The Prodigal”)

May 4

1999 - Episode 3.19 “Choices” airs on The WB

May 5

1926 - John O’Leary born (played a watcher in Episode 5.12 “Checkpoint”)

1979 - Vincent Kartheiser born (played Connor)

1997 - Episode 1.9 “The Puppet Show” airs on The WB

1998 - Episode 2.20 “Go Fish” airs on The WB

2004 - Angel Episode 5.20 “The Girl in Question” airs on The WB

2010 - Season 8, Issue 35, "Twilight, Pt. 4", released by Dark Horse Comics

May 6

2002 - Angel Episode 3.20 “A New World” airs on The WB

2003 - Episode 7.20 “Touched” airs on UPN

2009 - Season 8, Issue 25, "Living Doll", released by Dark Horse Comics

May 7

2002 - Episode 6.19 “Seeing Red” airs on UPN

2003 - Angel Episode 4.22 “Home” airs on The WB

2008 - Season 8, Issue 14, "Wolves at the Gate, Pt. 3", released by Dark Horse Comics

May 8

2001 - Episode 5.20 “Spiral” airs on The WB

2001 - Angel Episode 2.20 “Over the Rainbow” airs on The WB

May 9

2000 - Episode 4.20 “The Yoko Factor” airs on The WB

2000 - Angel Episode 1.20 “War Zone” airs on The WB

Jersey Monday: Mike Bibby

With the news today that the Kings are staying in Sacramento for at least the 2011-12 season, if not longer, today seemed as good a day as any to spotlight the lone Kings jersey in my collection, this authentic Mike Bibby jersey. Bibby, currently a member of the Miami Heat (and, for some inexplicable reason, a starter, despite showing an amazing ability to miss shots during the postseason), spent 6+ seasons with Sacramento, and was a key member of the 2002 team that came within a game of reaching the NBA Finals.

I never intended to get a Mike Bibby jersey, much less an authentic one. I don't particularly like Bibby -- and I'll really dislike him if his general inability to play defense or make shots costs the Heat a title this year -- and I'm not a huge fan of the Kings jerseys in general. However, during a 2004 trip to the Basketball Hall of Fame, the Reebok store that was then in place was running a "buy one, get one free sale." I was already buying the Kevin Garnett authentic jersey that I showed off last week, so I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity for a free jersey. The store's selection in my size was limited, and I wanted to fill a hole in my NBA collection -- in which I'm still missing a handful of teams -- so I went with the Bibby. I'm not sure if there's a Kings player for whom I'd get a current jersey assuming they stay in Sacramento, but I know if they move to Anaheim, I definitely won't be getting one (I still have three Sonics jerseys and no Thunder jerseys, in support of that fan base).

Jersey Monday will continue every Monday until I run out of jerseys to spotlight. And since I’ve got more than 150 of them, that could be awhile.

Heat-Celtics Game 1: A Schrödinger's Cat View

When I watch sports, I do so live, or at least plausibly live once accounting for broadcast, HD and DVR processing delays. And while I can't really have an impact on the game sitting at home on my couch, watching live at least gives me the impression that I can.

That was not the case on Sunday, when I was in Boston for Boston Comic-Con (and a post on that will be coming later today), and couldn't watch the game live. So for the second time in my life -- the first was in 2007, when Warriors/Mavs Game 6 conflicted with the midnight release of Spider-Man 3 -- I recorded a game on my DVR and avoided any news or score updates so I could watch it unspoiled.

It was a weird experience watching the game unfold, even though it was already complete. As I was watching, there were ebbs and flows where I felt like each team could have won, and I resisted the urge to check the final score at any point, for fear of "confirming" my suspicious at that particular moment. The first came at the 6-minute mark, where both teams were struggling to score (it was 6-6 at the under-6 timeout), and I was convinced that the Celtics would win a game played like that. Weirdly, part of me is still convinced that if I'd checked the score at that moment, it would have turned out that the Celtics won the game, even though the result had already been decided long before I reached that point in the game.

For me, the entirety of the game, sitting inside my DVR felt a little like Schrödinger's cat inside that box -- until reaching the end, to my perspective the game existed in a state in which both teams had won. It wasn't until I observed the final score (or really, with about a minute left, when a Heat victory was assured) that the outcome was decided. It's a mind game of perspective. If I'd checked the score before watching the entire game, would the outcome have been different? I have no way of knowing.

I will say that while I enjoyed the ability to fast-forward through commercials, timeouts and halftime, I'd much prefer to watch the game live, experiencing events as they unfold. Strangely, there's a much more nerve-wracking feeling that comes with watching something that's already happened without knowing the outcome.

As for the game itself, I don't really have anything to add beyond what's already been written in countless places. I don't think the Heat can expect to get 25 points from James Jones every game (or, possibly, ever again), nor can they expect Rajon Rondo to only play 32 minutes. However, the defensive philosophy they showed was solid, and I'm sticking by my prediction of Heat in 7.

Lucy Woodward Live in Boston

I came up to Boston this weekend to attend Boston Comic-Con, and while the show was fun -- and I booked some nice pieces of art from some great artists -- it wasn't even close to being the highlight of my day. No, that came Saturday night, when I went to see Lucy Woodward live in concert.

I've been a fan of Woodward's since I first saw her on The Caroline Rhea Show way back in 2004, back when she was more of a pop artist on Atlantic. She's since gone through label and genre changes, with her latest Verve album having a mature jazz sound, but one thing hasn't changed: she's awesome.

This was the first time I'd seen her in person (finally get to cross that one off my bucket list!) and she totally lived up to all my expectations. The venue, Cafe 939 in Boston, was very intimate, with room for probably about 200 people, and the whole set had kind of a classic MTV Unplugged or VH-1 Storytellers vibe. Woodward didn't do any songs off her first album (though she talked later about possibly adapting some of those to her newer jazz sound), but did a mix of songs off 2008's "Hot & Bothered" and 2010's "Hooked", along with a mix of covers. My favorite of the covers was Jace Everett's "Bad Things", best known as the theme song to "True Blood".