So me and my friend Jamie went to one of my least favorite places on Earth yesterday, NYC, for a special Kelly Clarkson show in Central Park (A Birthday present for Jamie). When we finally arrived in NYC it was decided Subways were the best route to reach 69th and 5th Avenue. This proved to be an error in judgement on my part. After getting on the wrong subway car at least once and then trying to relocate a subway entrance after walking around like lost tourist morons, we finally made it to the Central Park area...to discover Central Park is really big and I didn't know where the Concert was IN Central Park. A mad dash through the park followed (have you ever seen ME sprinting?) And we finally found the Rumsey Playfield. (Central Park really is very nice though)
We then pretended we were courteous New Yorkers and got in the line up front as people walked in. After getting some free junk from Allure Magazine we stood for an hour and a half waiting for Kelly. We did have some primo crowd positions though, as its easy to maneuver around 12 year old girls.
Kelly finally came out and did her routine, a rocking 45 minute set that kicked off with her big hit "Since U Been Gone". Kelly is quite the hotty, and I highly regret that I didn't get to charge the stage and seduce her, but she was wearing a crazy black dress and a single glove that looked like it came out of Madonna's closet circa 1984. Her new blonded hair also played well with my wanting to do her. Some set highlights were a covers medley featuring an eclectic mix of artists:Janis Joplin, BB King, and The Eurythmics. New single "Behind These Hazel Eyes", and the big hit from her last album, a rocking version of "Miss Independent". Look, I know how this all sounds, me, Justin, punk rawker giving a good review of American Idol Kelly Clarkson's show, but it did rock, her guitarists were good (the one dude was shredding like mad actually), she can sing pretty damn good, and god shes a fucking hotty.
After the show we tried to go to Serendipity, the restaurant featured in the John Cusack movie of the same name, but there was a 2 hour wait. Then we spent about an hour and a half trying to get back to the Penn Station area via the hellish subway system. Well at least we got out before dark...thats when the weirdos turn crazy.

Well Star Wars Episode 3:Return Of The Sith is out. So its time to move on. Star Wars is old news. Memorial Day, 2006...X-MEN 3! And Memorial Day 2007...Spider-Man 3! Comics:The Wave Of The Future.

Every May as season finales air we find ourselves wondering...what will next season bring? Well wonder no more as this year WWSG goes to the front lines of TV to bring you the annual upfront week report. Upfront week is when the networks announce their schedules for next fall, including the additions of new shows, schedule changes, and the dreaded axing of beloved favorites (like Fox's Quintuplets, sorry JGO). So without further ado...

New Shows To Look Out For:

The Ghost Whisperer - Jennifer Love Hewitt plays a young newlywed who can talk to ghosts...I can't make this shit up. (Friday 8:00 PM, CBS)

Barely Legal - The kid who played the main character in Undeclared returns in this Jerry Bruckheimer legal wrangler opposite a down on his luck... Don Johnson? A sure winner! (Monday 8:00 PM, WB)

My Name Is Earl - Jason Lee plays a recent lotto winner trying to turn his life around. Comedy abounds! (Tuesday 9:00 PM, NBC)

Freddie - Freddie Prinze JR's sister, sister in law, niece and grandma move into his bachelor pad...find a new job quickly jess. (Wednesday 8:30 PM, ABC)

How I Met Your Mother - My boy Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan star in this flashback sitcom with voiceovers by one Mr. Bob Saget. (Monday 8:30 PM, CBS)

Sex Lies and Secrets - Denise Richards and some other people live in California and suck up an hour of weekly tv time! (Tuesday 9:00 PM, UPN)

Prison Break - A guy gets himself arrested and tossed in jail so he can help his deathrow inmate brother break out....sounds like a great plan he had there. Worth at least 3 episodes. (Monday 9:00 PM, Fox)


Moves - Arrested Development heads to 8:00 on Mondays, Malcolm In The Middle goes to Fridays at 8:30, and for Brian M. Davis, Veronica Mars shoots on over to Wednesdays at 9:00.

Canned - Quintuplets, Joan Of Arcadia, Jack And Bobby, Kevin Hill, Life On A Stick, The shitty Siegfriend and Roy computer generated show

And finally Scrubs is nowhere to be found on the schedule, instead NBC opts to state it will be back at some point in the season. But The Office is coming back Tuesdays at 9:30 after My Name Is Earl. Wouldn't Jason Lee's new show be better served opening up for Scrubs (well actually it would be best served with the lead in it could get from Scrubs) than by opening up for the unproved The Office? What do I know? I'm no TV executive. Just a humble fan.

_x_ Buy tickets for Thursday
_x_ Brush dust off DVDs
_x_ Watch Episode 1
___ Watch Episode 2
___ Watch Clone Wars cartoon
___ Play Star Wars Battlefront
___ Prepare for disappointment
___ Rationalize that this one "will be the good one"
___ Master Jedi mind trick

So there you have it, we are only a scant few days away from the conclusion of the prequels. I think my anticipation is peaked higher than even before Episode 1..! To those going on Wednesday night, breathe not a word of it to me or your fate may be worse than that of Mace Windu.

New site design...WTF?

Anyways folks we've come to the end of another season of TV. But more specifically Scrubs has come to an end as the weather heats up, and the girls start to wear less and less clothing.
And oh what a year its been. I can't remember a show or a season I've delighted in more in my life. Never before have I counted the days until a new episode so feverishly.
Indeed for much of the first half of the season, I counted the half hour Scrubs was on as the only half hour a week I was happy.
Oh what delight I took in the adventures of JD (Johnny), Turk (Turkleton), Carla (I'm not Puerto Rican, I'm Dominican!), Elliot (Blonde Doctor), and Dr. Cox...Not to mention The Todd, Janitor, Bobbo, Dr. Molly Clock, Hooch!, Jordan, Ted, Lonnie, and all the rest. No show has interwoven such lovable characters with a weekly lesson so well since Full House...and these lessons tend to actually ring true in real life.
But more than anything this show just cracks me up. Dr. Cox's mad rants. JD's flights of fancy and episode ending sum-up narration. Hell just the visual style alone gets mad points.
Some highlights for me this season were watching Janitor's acapella group, "Hibbleton", seeing Dr. Cox blow up the Janitor's Van, seeing Elliot and Dr. Molly at a rap concert. ah hell the whole season. Of course the true high point would have to be ZB's gem of a directorial debut, "My Last Chance". As him and Turk scramble to get JD back from the desert in time to have sex with Dr. Clock before she moves. Ahh what a moment.
So to conclude I shall leave you with a line from the show that I found to be very poignant and timely in my own life. Thanks for a great season Scrubs. See you in the fall.
"I think the second you stop fighting it, time really is on your side, and you can go on being who you are."

Brian and I made the 100 mile trek to Philadelphia last night to catch the return of Weezer along with rock fanatic Justin and the good-to-go JGo. Weezer delivered an absolutely rocking set with their classics being dominated by a loud crowd sing-a-long. The set list:

Tired Of Sex
In The Garage
No One Else
Pardon Me
Buddy Holly
Photograph
Hold Me
Getchoo
Say It Ain't So
We Are All On Drugs
Island In The Sun
My Name Is Jonas
Peace
Beverly Hills
Hash Pipe
Haunt You Every Day
---
Undone - The Sweater Song
The Good Life

I thought it was interesting that Only In Dreams was finally taken out of the rotation, but I loved The Good Life as a closer. Also, pairing Buddy Holly and Photograph was a nice nod to the fact that they are practically the same song.
The new songs sounded decent live, but how does it all play out on the new CD, Make Believe? Here's my breakdown of each song, rated out of 5:

Beverly Hills - (1/5): I guess it's a pretty good riff, but that's about it. Rivers has a great voice, don't waste it on a half-assed talky track unless you have something really clever to say.
Perfect Situation - (2/5): This song flys out of the gate with a blue/pink era opening, but it goes on a little too long then stops dead. The piano bits remind me of some Queen song that I can't really think of, and the chorus is just a bunch of Oh-Ohs. The bridge and solo are OK, but overall this thing just moves too slow.
This Is Such A Pity - (2/5): Alright, so it has like a dance beat, that's cool, but it doesn't really offer much more. If you want to listen to a synth beat song, the Killers would run circles around this.
Hold Me - (3/5): A slow start crescendoes into a wall of sound chorus, overall a decent tune, but the lyrics are pretty unoriginal.
Peace - (2/5): The lead guitar in this song just bugs me, it's an absolutely un-thrilling riff. Too many Whoa-oh-oh-oh's provide a bunch of bland filler.
We Are All On Drugs - (3/5): A decently rocking tune, one of the faster moving ones on the album, but the sing-song rhyming scheme of the lyrics and the out of place 'Just Say No' message keep this song from being truly any good.
The Damage In Your Heart - (2/5): This one has a blue/pinkerton type of feel, but the chorus goes nowhere. Certainly not a hook that will be stuck in my head or I'll find myself singing along to.
Pardon Me - (4/5): Opens with a green album type of riff and then like many of the songs, stops dead with more unenthusiastic Rivers singing. The chorus is much more catchy though and the self-introspective lyrics are a bit more interesting than the rest on this album.
My Best Friend - (3/5): This is probably the most upbeat song I've ever heard Weezer release, but I think the lyrics are creepier than any of Rivers' perverse musings on Pinkerton. Catchy tune though.
The Other Way - (2/5): Kind of inversely-upbeat song, where the lyrics are somewhat depressing but the music is upbeat. Lacks a good hook, though.
Freak Me Out - (1/5): This song is just a whole bunch of nothing.
Haunt You Every Day - (4/5): Another piano opening, but a pretty good one. I think this song is a good blend of old and new Weezer styles and it's a shame the rest of the CD doesn't capture this type of spirit. Also, this song is a decent closer song, a bit dramatic, but it has some decent lyrics and is a solid piece of Weezer rock music.

So that's it. These reviews may seem kind of harsh, but I guess it's hard to review a Weezer song without comparing it to every other Weezer song ever written, of which there are many great songs. The problem with this CD, is that for the most part it's just background music. It doesn't reach out and grab you by the gut, force you to sing along, compel you to turn up your stereo until the car windows shake, or make you want to learn guitar so you can rock even a fraction as hard as Weezer. I think when a great band like Weezer has relegated themselves to making background music, it's a sad thing.

Hey readers hows it going? Thought I'd do one of those general updates we do when we have nothing else to post.

Whats In My CD Player Right Now:
Its a tough thing when you decide to listen to 4 new CD's all at once...Learning all the words to each of them starts to blend. But I digress.

The Format - Interventions and Lullabies - These guys are going to be superstars someday. And then people will look to this website and say, this guy heralded them as rock icons first. Or not. But this album is still awesome. At this rate everyone should include a keyboard/piano in their band.

Fall Out Boy - From Under The Cork Tree ...The first half of the album is pure Fall Out, and sounds similar to their last CD, Take This To Your Grave. However somewhere around track 6 it starts to lose some of its urgency and energy and sounds kind of Good Charlottey for a couple tracks. This might have been where bassist/writer Pete Wentz suffered his nervous breakdown. At least lets hope so.

Weezer - Make Believe - I do enjoy this CD. Lets see how it plays out live tomorrow night. Still getting used to it though.

Mae - The Everglow - Refreshingly epic and suitably rocking. Blends pianos and prog rock seemlessly into some beautiful music.

Still in my player even after all those spins:
The Academy Is... - Almost Here
Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
Jimmy Eat World - Futures
Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway (This CD is kinda rocking. Please don't make fun of me. Actually if I didn't know better, this would be kind of an emo rock concept album that was put in the wrong order and had a mass pop title track added that really doesn't go with the rest of the CD both soundwise and lyrically. Plus god shes a hotty!)


In some non music related news....
The REAL kick-off to the Summer Movie Season is just 10 days away when Star Wars:Revenge Of The Sith explodes into megaplexes nationwide. No one really counts Kingdom Of Heaven or xXx:State Of The Union as summer kick offs this year. It just doesn't cut the mustard.
Arrested Development will be back this summer! Praise jeebus!
Scrubs season finale' Tuesday night...Looks like Elliot is making her final appearance.
Look for Mike, TW, and I's 40$ A Day Baltimore (Take 2) post in the next day or so.
Also the pictures section is being updated, half of my Atlanta trip pictures are up, with more to come, plus Cinco De Mayo, and 40$ A Day Baltimore pictures to boot. And one really funny RJ pic.
In conclusion their is a lot happening in this crazy world of ours, and since your not out experiencing it, we're here to review it for you. Because What We Say...Goes. Thats how we roll.

Here is a brief Bamboozle recap... 4 days late!

-Me and Jgo arrived around noon just in time to catch the secret set I thought was going to be Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional. It was Motion City Soundtrack. It was raining. So we skip it and head right for the doors.

-We walk right inside past the massive line to see the beginning of the line at the main stage doors and discover we need to go down the street to go get our wristbands. Back out to the rain.

-We walk down the street and get our wrist bands and come all the way back. As we get in I express the desire to get find some socks to purchase. Lo and Behold the Made booth is selling socks! 2 pairs for ten dollars!

-We bypass the line and walk right into the main stage area, change into our dry socks, and set up on the floor to watch Say Anything. They put on an ok show to kick off the day.

-Check out the shopping area upstairs...Jgo finds 40 bucks on the floor!

-Back to the floor for Mae's set. They BLOW ME AWAY. Awesome set. Check out their music, they rock.

-Time to go back outside for The Academy Is...
TAI's set is fantastical and full of energy. They are joined by Pete from Fallout Boy, and my pally Gabe from Midtown. TAI was going to go over their set time and play a 6th song, but they said they would get in trouble, so they cut the set off after "Classifieds".

-All right...Its at this time we embark on a walk down the street to the decrepit Asbury Park Bowling Alley to see Allister's set. We arrive to find that Allister has cancelled and seemingly never even arrived and aren't playing anymore. Sad that we can no longer claim we saw Allister perform at a Bowling Alley, we head back to the Convention Hall.

-We talk to Chris, the guitarist in Hidden In Plain View. I explain we went over to see Allister, and they were nowhere to be found and I ask where they are, because they are on tour together. He says he doesn't know that they left the tour. So I say well they're scheduled right now at a bowling alley. So he pulls out his cell phone and calls Kyle from Allister and leaves the following message:
Hey its Chris, just wanted to tell you they're passing out schedules advertising you guys and you're supposed to be playing a bowling alley a half hour ago, so call me back. har har.

-Back inside the main hall to get ready for HIPV's set. Also catch the end of A Static Lullaby (they suck). HIPV is rocking as usual.

-Jgo gets his camera taken by security. The beefy bald unapolgetic man took his memory card and battery and claimed "Property of the tour now." Jgo is very upset by this development.

-We split up. Jgo goes outside to see Over It, while I remain inside to catch Rufio. Then we plan to meet at the paramount theater for Straylight Run's secret acoustic set.

-After Rufio's kick ass set (no Pirate, but they did play In My Eyes), I head outside to the BBQ pit and get a foot long and some fries. I burn the roof of my mouth on the Hot Dog horribly.

-We meet to go in for SLR's set but we walk inside to discover Hot Rod Circuit has just come on...Their acoustic set is very good, and is also special for it being the final show for their bassist, as he is leaving the band. They finish off with a cover of Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down".

-We decide that since I just saw SLR we should go catch Midtown instead.

-Security won't let anyone into the main hall. We are in a big blob of very pissed off people and they are telling us we can't come in. Its at this point I must point out Bamboozle sucks compared to Skate And Surf with the bullshit security check not at the front door but at the main stage doors. We stand there pissed off while some guy talks to his friend on the inside. He then says that his friend said Jesse Lacey of Brand New is the special guest and is doing acoustic songs. At this point I freak out and start a "Let us in!" chant. Then the kid gets word that the special guest is actually Jim Breuer. I calm down...somewhat. Eventually we get in after missing half of Midtown.

-Midtown rocks, I love their live show.

-Senses Fail plays. These guys are kinda lame.

-Further Seems Forever featuring Chris Carrabba hit the stage. I enjoy their set, but am saddened by no Dashboard songs at all. I also never got to meet Chris and get him to sign my poster (which would later become crushed to death in raucous crowd).

-Fallout Boy time. We go to the floor and I maneuver myself to the very front. Fallout Boy RULES it live. But I get kicked in the head no less than 6 times. And Jgo keeps throwing crowd surfers up, adding to the problem. FOB's new disc is great, check it out please.

-And finally The Starting Line plays. I like their new stuff as well, but I am tired and can't deal with crowd surfers anymore. I go stand in the back and enjoy the show. Afterwards I got the soundboard setlist.

-We drive home and out of the godforsaken pit of New Jersey, and more specifically Asbury Park.

-In conclusion, I miss Skate And Surf's better and more organized festival set up. And the rain sucked. But the music was pretty good, and in the end thats what its all about.

Tonight in lieu of Scrubs and on a certain recommendation, I watched Veronica Mars, here's my review:

The Nasty Side of Incestual Date Rape

So I guess the premise of Veronica Mars is that she is a precocious high school girl who goes around solving mysteries while also trying to solve the season-long mystery of her best friend's death. Tonight she was solving the mystery of her own rape at a party a year ago. I guess she just started worrying about her own rape after a year or so, but hey I'm sure she had a lot on her plate. So, Veronica runs all over the place trying to piece together the events of her drunken night with intense questioning of her classmates and blurry flashback scenes. Turns out she was drugged by some rowdy guys trying to drug some other hottie. Oh yeah, then she had consentual sex with her own brother. Not really sure what the deal is with that, but apparently they had a thing back when they didn't know they were related. Kind of like in Star Wars but without Chewbacca. So, this is all well and good, but then she decides that the case is closed and she should hook up with one of the aformentioned drug peddling hooligans (hey, at least he's not a blood relative). It's then that he confesses that he also drugged her brother which lead to the nefarious sexual encounter! Following? Well, just when my eyes started to glaze over, our still-seduced-for-some-reason heroine discovers that this kid has some cameras located above his bed, ready to record their whole sexual transaction. So she gets rescued by a friend and returns home to discover some pivotal character is back in her house! End scene...

Uhm, where to begin? I guess this basically tells us that acting like a drunken hussy is OK as long as no one rapes you. The acting was passable and I guess Veronica is kind of cute. The plot felt like it was pulled from a Lifetime movie, minus the cheesy ending. Also, these kids were acting a little crazy for high school kids. Furthermore, the whole thing felt a little awkward. Who goes around asking investigatory questions of all their friends? Well, at least she wasn't carrying a pad and paper. This show would be a lot more tolerable if it had the least bit of self-referential humor, but the whole thing seemed to play out with dead seriousness.

So in conclusion, will I be tuning in next week? You bet.

Last night, I had the good fortune to attend Family Guy Live, a promotional reading of a Family Guy script by the cast, plus clips, and Q&A.

The event kicked off with a quick clip show followed by a music video featuring Stewie super-imposed into some rap video. It sort of reminded me of a Do-The-Bartman type of thing, but it did have Stewie going off on an entertaining tirade about how Banana Republic employees always ask you if you want to open a credit card with your purchase.

After that, the cast was introduced... Mila drew a great deal of hoots from the crowd, the rest of the cast seemed visibly intoxicated, especially Seth Green.

The cast proceeded to read 'To Live and Die in Dixie' which features such great lines as "Where's the paperboy" by the creepy old man, "Financial transaction benefits you today... Ooo weird", and "it's everywhere! it's in my raccoon wounds!" The reading contained a lot of improv and the 22 minute script stretched well into an hour. Occasional scenes were backed up by animation while the actors did a decent job of filling in the voices.

Following the reading, a song from the new Family Guy CD was performed and then the first act of the new episode was shown. Then there was a Q&A with the audience which featured questions ranging from "How did Seth MacFarlane's college education help him get to where he is today?" to "Mila Kunis, I want to eat your poop." On the subject of Mila Kunis, she was looking pretty amazing live and in the flesh, although not quite as hot as on TV. Apparently, for all interested, she occasionally bartends somewhere in the lower east side. She would not reveal where to the anxious crowd.

Speaking of the crowd, they were rowdy as hell, which made for quite the hilarious night. The cast took it in stride, noting that this was the bunch of jerks that made it possible for them to have jobs again. One thing that was great about the crowd was that whenever the evil monkey made an appearance on the screen, the crowd went nuts... that crazy critter collected the loudest applause of anyone.

While keeping it loose, the cast was still out to give the audience their money's worth. Alex Borstein brought out her Ms Swan character from MadTV, Seth Green reveled in every line he delivered as Chris and was acting crazy all night, and the writers were hilarious with both commentary and voicing. Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein sang a song from the new Family Guy Live in Las Vegas cd which was also pretty entertaining.

Other facts of note to come from this evening were that among others, Carrie Fisher and Robert Downey Jr would be guest voicing this season, and a Family Guy video game would be in the works. Seth MacFarlane suggested that one level would feature the Griffin house, with a different family member masturbating in each room. Along the same lines, when the issue of censorship came up, MacFarlane reported that the Fox censors biggest problem was with poop related jokes. He wasn't sure how Janet Jackson's bare breast translated into a need to censor poop jokes.

Oh and the new episode? By now you've probably seen it, but they only showed the first act last night. It looked funny so far... I think the funniest thing about this was the guy from the crowd who yelled out "I already saw it on the internet" and then suffered a bit of mocking from the cast.

Wrapping this monster post up, I'd just like to say although I wish it could be Futurama, I'm glad Family Guy's back.