Fikaked: Daily!

• EW's Doc Jensen lays out four possible scenarios for where Lost will be taking us in its final season. I'm already tired of waiting...
• Fuse.tv has about 30 mp3s from various Bonnaroo performances this weekend available as free downloads. There's also an option to just download all of them in one file (right click here and "save as"). Performers include: Bon Iver, Band of Horses, Phoenix, Neko Case, and the awesome Grizzly Bear.
• Another EW list: "21 Movie Remakes: The Best and Worst". Gotta disagree with their take on Vanilla Sky...
• A pretty sweet interview of Dana Carvey and Robert Smigel over @ The Onion's "A.V. Club".
• The Hangover isn't going away: it just wrapped up another weekend @ #1, and there's already talk of a sequel. As a direct result, the possibility of Old School 2 ever seeing the light of day is becoming less and less likely.
• One of the other Bonnaroo performers from this weekend, Animal Collective, have just released yet another super-trippy video, this time for "Summertime Clothes". Not as catchy as "My Girls", but still a great track:

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Fikaked: April!

1. Unfortunately, it sounds like NBC is planning to pull the plug on one of the best shows on television, Life. Apparently the "let's move the show to a different time slot every week and see if anyone can guess when it's on" campaign didn't turn out too well. Nice one, NBC. Boo.

2. Free Richard Alpert! Hopefully this is accurate. It's been a long time coming...

3. Jeremy Enigk's new album, OK Bear, is out there, finally, and it's really solid. Continues along the same lines as World Waits, but not as dramatic or produced. "Mind Idea" is awesome.

4. Best top 5 American Idol has put together since I've been watching the show. No question. They don't know how to shut up, and Adam is downright obnoxious, but all of them can definitely blow.

5. Finally watched Role Models this week. HILARIOUS.

6. Iron & Wine have released both an odds-and-ends compilation (Around the Well) and a live album (Norfolk). I don't have to tell you they're both great - it's Iron & Wine, isn't it?

7. I had a friend call me the other day to let me know that only about 5 people showed up to a Junior Boys show in Lexington, KY. I'm assuming people there are still trying to get their lives back together after the Wildcats lackluster basketball season. There really is no other possible explanation.

8. The new Dirty Projectors album, Bitte Orca is at best a grower, and at worst something that I'm never going to be able to figure out/get into. Their collaboration with David Byrne on Dark Was the Night and the first single from Bitte, "Stillness is the Move", are both pretty catchy, but evidently that isn't their m.o. Definitely not for everybody.

9. Is there anything cooler on the internet than Daytrotter? Here's a list of all the bands that have played for them (you can download their performances for free on the site, by the way).

10. Two other absolutely awesome websites: This is Why You're Fat & FailBlog. Go check 'em out. Guaranteed you'll be a repeat customer.

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Fikaked: March!

1. I can't figure out why, but some people just can't get into Junior Boys. Personally, Begone Dull Care is probably my favorite album so far this year, and Begone tracks "Hazel" and "Bits and Pieces" are two of the best tracks I've heard in 2009.

2. Sagarmatha is the record that The Appleseed Cast should have made about 6 or 7 years ago. Not that I didn't enjoy Two Conversations and Peregrine, but it's been a long wait for an actual follow-up to Low Level Owl. "The Summer Before" and "As the Little Things Go" are serious standouts.

3. The 5th season of Lost is still rocking. The "meeting younger versions of older characters" thing seems a little over-done at times, but it's highly likely that the writers are using it to set up some good things down the road. Speaking of the writers, they've been on their A game since it was announced last year that the show would be ending after the 6th season.

4. From what I've seen, the first month of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has gone ok. I just keep thinking how awkward Late Night was when Conan first started out. It'll be interesting to see how things go as Jimmy keeps getting more comfortable, and his old friends stop showing up to do him favors.

5. I thought Watchmen was a pretty decent movie, and parts of it were really well done, but I've got a few complaints as well. The biggest problem I had with it was the length. 3 hours is just an excruciating amount of time to try and sit in one spot. Not that they should have necessarily cut a bunch of stuff out, it's complicated enough to understand as it is. However, it might've been more digestible in two parts, and without the 5 minute, completely unnecessary sex scene. Also, the amount of blue genitalia was overwhelming. I know there's a point behind it, but it could've been done a bit more subtly; as is it's pretty distracting.

6. The Soup rules. Long live Joel McHale.

7. Living Thing, Peter Bjorn and John's newest album, is probably going to end up being the most disappointing album of the year for me. "Nothing to Worry About" and "Lay It Down" are both catchy in a goofy sort of way, but most of the album borders on flat-out weirdness. Definitely nothing here as good as "Young Folks" or "Let's Call It Off".

8. I finally got around to watching Oliver Stone's W, and it was more than a little surprising. The fact that it presented our 43rd President as an ignorant fool was in no way a shocker. But by the end of the movie, Stone has the viewer feeling sorry for a simple-minded guy who was driven to succeed by mindless ambition and a desire to prove to his father he's not a failure, and who's eventually duped into terrible decisions by the evil men he's surrounded himself with. Kinda reminded me of a figure from those Greek and Shakespearean tragedies we all have to read in high school. Definitely wasn't expecting that. By the way, believe all the hype about Josh Brolin as "W", it's totally legit.

9. Phoenix is a French Pop/Rock band who has a knack for writing those songs that are catchy enough to appeal to just about anyone who likes music. You've heard them if you've seen the movie Shallow Hal (you know, the part where Jack Black is getting down with all the large women on the dance floor). Their new album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, is probably the best thing they've ever done, and "1901" would probably be my track of the year for 2009 if I had to pick one right now. I don't see anyone beating them out for album title of the year, either.

10. Discovery Health, easily the most depressing/disturbing channel on television, has a show called I Didn't Know I was Pregnant. The women literally have no idea they're pregnant until the kid starts popping out. Seriously, what is wrong with people?

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Fikaked: January!

My daughter turned 8 weeks old today; hard to believe...

Since we've got her home:

1. She's put on almost 3 pounds and 3 inches.
2. She can actually see things.
3. She looks more like her beautiful mom every day.
4. My wife has become addicted to Discovery (un)Health(y). That channel seriously airs some of the most disturbing (and depressing) programming I've ever seen.
5. She's actually slept through the entire night several times.
6. She's learned to like baths.
7. We figured out she likes to listen to Jay-Z.
8. Her mom has changed about 1,000 diapers (I've changed a few, too).
9. She's developed a kung fu grip.
10. She looks more like me everyday.

I'm definitely looking forward to the next few months, and all the months after that.

Some other observations from the past couple weeks:

1. The new Loney Dear album, Dear John is really good. I've absolutely been wearing it out. "Airport Surroundings" is my favorite song of 2009 so far.

2. Gran Torino was the first movie I've gone to the theater to watch since Hadley was born, and it was worth the wait. I thought the story was great, and Clint Eastwood is the man. There are a lot of young actors involved, and some of them aren't great, but it doesn't really matter because Eastwood just dominates the screen the entire time. Awesome movie.

3. Lost is finally back on. It's been a long wait, especially since last season was so good. I thought the 2 hour premier last Wednesday was pretty exciting, albeit confusing at times. Let's just hope the writers have been watching how complicated, ridiculous, and stupid Heroes has become over the past two seasons and that they do everything they can to steer clear of a mess like that...

4. After seeing those Geico commercials featuring their new mascot "Kash" about ten times, I realized that I was hooked on the background music for said commercials. I did some investigating and found out that it's actually a cover of an 80s song (no wonder it sounds so familiar). "Somebody's Watching Me" was originally recorded by r&b artist Rockwell, who happens to be the son of a Motown founder. Anyway, it's been remixed by a production group named Mysto and Pizzi. Evidently, they have done work with some real big-timers like R. Kelly and Justin Timberlake. You can get a free download of the track here. I can't stop listening to it.

5. As long as the wait for Lost was, the wait for my all-time favorite show, 24, seemed like an eternity. The strike prevented the show from airing any episodes last year, so the 7th season really has been a long time coming. It wasn't all bad, though. To be quite honest, season 6 sucked really hard, and the writers needed all 18 of those months to get their crap together. So far, it's paying off. The first 6 episodes have been intense, and just seem way more fresh than last season's. I'm keeping my fingers crossed everything stays on track.

6. As much as it hurts me to say this, Deerhunter's second album is the bomb. It's called Microcastles, and I really didn't want to like it. I certainly didn't like their first record, and the amount of hype it received (especially from these guys) got on my nerves, frankly. I'm sure there's a reason it got so much attention, but it sounded like a bunch of noise to me, and I just couldn't get into it. Luckily, my friend Kyle talked me into giving them another try. I don't plan on going back to Cryptograms anytime soon, but Microcastles is rocking my world right now.

7. Why can't NBC just leave Life in one friggin' time slot? It's literally been moved 5 or 6 times from Monday to Wednesday to Friday to Wednesday and back to Friday again. It's almost like they're pulling a prank or something. The only time they've ever left it at the same spot for an extended period of time, it did very well in the ratings. It's probably my favorite new show from the past two years, but it doesn't stand a chance of being renewed if NBC doesn't let viewers figure out when the hell it's going to be on.

8. I've gotta admit, sometimes I find my self uninterested in hearing a new band because I don't like their name. I don't know why, and no, I don't know what the formula is for a good name or anything like that. Whatever the reason, Animal Collective fell into that category, and, despite the buzz around them, I've avoided listening to them for a long time. When I finally gave in and listened to their new album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, it was good enough to make me feel stupid for avoiding these guys for so long. If you've never heard them before, they've kinda got that retro 60s sound (heavy on the harmonies and reverb). Highly recommended. Besides that, look at the cover art. It looks like it's moving, doesn't it? Freaky...

9. American Idol has been more interesting so far this year. The new judge has had her share of stupid comments, but at least she's got some common sense.

10. History is in the making, people. The Big Red are in the Superbowl! I've spent my entire life rooting for the Cubs of the NFL. My dad's been following them for 20 years longer than I have. The last time they won a home playoff game and more than a single game in one post-season was 60 years and two cities ago.


Oh yeah, and that new guy moving into the White House is a pretty big deal, too.

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