AMC's Walking Dead ad placements should be thought out a little better

AMC is promoting the hell out of The Walking Dead, which is a good thing, because it's a great show. But today, I saw this on AMC, and I had to pause my DVR and grab a shot.

Whenever there are ads in Standard Def on AMC, they have been filling the black bars on the left and right sides of the screen with ads for The Walking Dead.
Great in theory, but when the commercial is for Humana's Medicare plan, it might not be the best idea.

"click image to view larger"

Does this ad advocate DUI?

I just got this stupid ad while I was checking my email...

"If you haven't had a DUI, you are paying too much for auto insurance".
So what it is saying is that if I want to get the right price on auto insurance, I should get a DUI.
In my Rob Schneider impersonating Seinfeld voice: "Who are the ad wizards who came up with this idea?"

I always wondered where my Mandibula was

Kids, when I was your age, we didn't have the internet. We had to have our parents take a second mortgage on their house so they could buy us these giant sets of books called "encyclopedias". And by the time you got them, half of the information was obsolete, another third was just wrong. So we would get F's on reports because the book said that Alexander Hamilton shot Lincoln on the grassy knoll. We didn't have your newfangled "Wikipedias" and your play stations and your 28 skidoos. We had microfiche. We'd have to look up a subject at the library, and then get it on this big film roll thing and put it in a machine, and then try and find the info by scrolling through page after page of old newspaper pages projected on this crappy screen. And you think you have it so hard? Anyways what was I talking about? Oh yeah, encyclopedias. If you wanted to order them, you had to call a 1-800 number on the telephone, and not a cell phone, because we didn't have those either. Well some people had them but they were the size of your backpack. You used to wear backpacks on your back, and that's why they are called backpacks. Now your backpack has wheels and a handle on it because you're too much of a pussy to carry it on your back. But that's a whole other story (which I'll tell you the next time I'm drunk, but not this time) You couldn't order it online, because there was no internet, and if there was an internet, you wouldn't need encylopedias. Anyway, here's an old commercial for encyclopedias. It was probably recorded on betamax, (a type of VCR, which stands for video cassette recorder, which is a whole other story) because we didn't have tivo, or DVRs, or the internet. I swear this is not fake. Encyclopedias are a real thing. You can look it up on your wikipedia. Watch the commercial, and you'll know where your mandibula is.

Trixie Whitley at Rockwood Musc Hall

Trixie Whitley is a great up and coming artist from Belgium. She recently played Rockwood Music Hall in NYC, and has another show coming up there on July 26th. She has a very soulful voice, and is an adept guitarist and pianist. I highly recommend checking her out if you have a chance.
Here are a few photos from her last appearance at Rockwood:

Mark Olson @ Rockwood Music Hall

The othe lead singer of the Jayhawks, Mark Olson played the intimate Rockwood Music Hall in support of his new album "Many Colored Kite". His set consisted of songs from the new album, as well as music from the Jayhawks, and his other band The Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers.

Gary Louris at Le Poisson Rouge

Gary Louris brought an alt. country all-star backing band to Le Poisson Rouge in NYC as part of a short solo tour. The show opened with Kraig Johnson, bandmate of Louris in Golden Smog (and briefly in the Jayhawks), and lead singer of Minneapolis band Run Westy Run. Johnson was joined by G. Whizz (Autumn Defense) on drums, and Jim Boquist (Son Volt) on guitar. A few songs into the set, he was joined by Joseph Arthur, who took over as lead for a couple of songs as well.

After a brief intermission, Gary Louris took the stage, notebook in hand. His set covered his solo work, as well as songs from the Golden Smog and Jayhawks catalogs. Dar Williams, who was a last minute announcement for the show was also a last minute cancellation, as her son was sick. Throughout the set, Louris was joined by a revolving combination of Johnson, Boquist, G. Whizz and Joseph Arthur. He sounded great, and the set list was terrific.

Only in New York

Here is a photo I took yesterday:

Nowhere else in the world would you see a Wet Paint sign with an accent, and a little bit of an attitude.
Full Size here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcow/4516927430/

American Idol is like watching a car crash

I'm trying really hard to not watch American Idol, but I guess I can't look away from a train wreck.
Last night I tuned in and just got angry at myself and the TV for doing so.
The good singers aren't really that good, they are just good compared to the other people on the show. None of the contestants this season are good enough for me to pay for their music. In fact, none of them are even good enough for me to download on bit torrent.
And the bad singers....whoa are they bad. They auditioned tens of thousands of people, and this was the best they could find? Pretty sad.
How exactly did Paige Miles make it this far? She is an awful singer, and a little freaky looking to boot. She took a great Phil Collins song (not something I say too often), and decimated it. To add insult to injury, if you watch the results show tonight, you will probably have to hear her sing it again. Why do they do that? "Let's take the worst person on the show, and make them sing the song again that got them kicked off the show". Brilliant! I hated it last night, and I am going to hate it even more the second time around. At least give them a chance to sing a different song. Give them a chance to go out in style, since it is the last time anyone is going to probably see most of these people ever again.

When I think American Idol, I think Elvis Presley. I think of thousands of teenage girls screaming and crying at the mere sight of their idol. Calling this show American Idol is a bold statement. It should just be called Pop Star or something that is little less aspirational. Several of the winners haven't even had any hit singles. Is Taylor Hicks or Reuben Studdard what you would call an idol? Taylor Hicks and his harmonica are playing Traffic covers to middleaged crowds, and Reuben is constantly saturating towels with buckets of sweat in quantities that would make Springsteen jealous.

Once Simon leaves, this show is toast. None of the other judges have any credibility. Ellen? If you like 40 second long pen analogies, she's your man...woman. Cara? She's turning into Paula. She tries way too hard to be deep and meaningful. Just tell us whether you liked the song or not. Randy? You can write a computer script in five minutes that would auto-generate Randy's critique. It'll go a little something like this: "Listen up dawg. You know what I liked about you dawg? You really sounded like Jeff Buckley on that song. It started out a little pitchy, but it turned out aight. You were 10 gajillion bazillion million percent better than last week, and I'm a fan dawg. YEAH YEAH!"

The only way to save this show is to bring in Howard Stern.

The Pixies performed Doolittle at Hammerstein Ballroom

Last night the Pixies played the first of 4 doolittle shows at Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC. They opened with 3 B-sides from the album, and then played Doolittle straight through. During their encores they played a few hits from other albums. They sounded excellent. Really really tight. Brooklyn band Black Gold opened the show to a lukewarm reception. Originally Bernard Sumner's new project Bad Lieutenant was scheduled to open. Tonight Jay Reatard opens. Tomorrow, Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio's side project Rain Machine Opens. Tickets are still available for the 11:45 PM late show on Wednesday. The Pixies will be on Fallon tonight.
Here are some videos from the show:

New Dashboard Confessional album cover looks a lot like an ND cover

I am a huge fan of the now defunct (in print, but still online) No Depression magazine. I can't help but notice how much the new Dashboard Confessional album cover looks like old covers from the magazine.
The fonts are indentical, the texture on the fonts was used often on the covers, and the B&W photography is similar. ALso, both have "ESSION" in the names.
Compare and contrast: