108747998260188265

Things That Caught My Limited Attention Span
Last weekend, I commented on CMT Fan Festival’s taking place here in Nashville and the new artists looking to find their way into the mainstream of country music. Three potential up-and-coming artists were profiled (well, at least in the stories I linked out to). This morning in USA Today there was an article along the same lines. One part of the article that caught my attention:

“So many artists are hitting the scene at the same time, there’s simply not room for all of them to break. Many — even some widely regarded as substantial talents — will get overlooked, at least for the time being.”

Now, I know music is a business and one of the cornerstones of Nashville. But I wonder who these “substantial talents” are who are being “overlooked.” USA Today also has a related sidebar about Newbies wowing Nashville. Interesting reading.

Man says he will give foul ball to boy
Matt Starr, it’s too late…the whole world thinks you’re a jerk.

Quintuplets
I guess they figured if they had half the number of mismatched siblings trading insults and barbs with one another, that it’d be twice as funny as Just the Ten Of Us. Unfortunately, someone forgot to clue them in that Just the Ten of Us wasn’t really that funny. (OK, sure I tuned in, but that was because I was a teenager and the older girls were cute!) Poor old Andy Richter–someone over at FOX must just out and out hate the guy. First he loses the brilliantly funny Andy Richter Controls the Universe and now he’s starring in this show. The premise of harried parents trying to raise quintuplets is interesting, but they do nothing with it. Mom and Dad are worn out by taking care of the kids and get tickets to a Springsteen concert. This just happens to be after Mom ruined the big party so the quints can now throw a party and regain their cool status–well, at least the two out of five that are “cool.” Oh yeah, and Dad eats a plate of “special” brownies at the concert. Let the hilarity commence. As Saavik said in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, “Humor, it is a difficult concept.” This show needs a remedial course…

The Drew Carey Show
First of all, I know that this was the season ABC didn’t want but had already paid for, so they’re burning off the episodes during the summer. But that really doesn’t excuse ABC showing these episodes in a haphazard order. Now, I know that Drew Carey isn’t 24 where continuity is everything, but what ABC has done, so far, this season is just a travesty. Last year when we left Drew, his bride had left him at the altar, his brother was around and married to Mimi, his father was still alive and Kelly was secretly pining for Drew, but he had no idea she was in love with him. Suddenly this year, Drew and Kelly are dating (now expecting a child together, but she won’t marry him due to Drew’s bad track record with engagements), the brother is AWOL, Drew’s nephew has pulled a Andrew from Family Ties and grown up five years between seasons and Drew’s father has passed away. This would be like NBC in the second season of Friends skipping from Ross getting off the plane with Julie to Ross and Rachel kissing in the rain at the coffee shop. And yet, I keep tuning in each week. It’s probably because when it first started, Drew Carey was a pretty funny show and one that I really enjoyed and I keep hoping for maybe a glimmer of that again. But if this is the way it’s going to keep going, I wish ABC would pull these final episodes and give us some new episodes of Whose Line Is It Anyway? It features Drew and I know there has to be more footage there than EVER made it to the airwaves. Or better yet–bring the show back. It was always good for a laugh and it’s not like they’re ever going to run out of hilarious material to improv.

South Park
Time travellers from the year 3045 come back in time, willing to work for literally pennies a day which they invest in savings accounts and then be rich beyond their dreams in the future from the interest. And as more and more immigrants from the future arrive in our time and the town is slowly put out of jobs, the hilarity increases as they try to find a way to destroy the future, thus eliminating the immigrants. I have to admit that the past two episodes of South Park I’ve seen have been dead-on funny, even now eight seasons into the show. I love how things quickly spiral out of control on this show–the men all deciding that the only way to destroy the future is everyone to turn gay was hilarious. I can’t believe I missed all of these new episodes this season, but that does at least give me one funny show to watch during the summer that is completely new to me.