• In Memoriam
• The Movie Biz
• TV Happenings
• Random Stuff

In Memoriam

Losing a Lost Boy
Yesterday morning, I was saddened but not surprised to hear that 80s teen heartthrob Corey Haim had died of an apparent drug overdose. I had a huge crush on Haim after The Lost Boys and License to Drive. It is too bad that he was never able to get is substance abuse under control. Read another personal reaction here.

Merlin Olson, Football Star, Commentator and Actor, Dies at 69
Little House on the Prairie was one of my favorite shows (and book series) as a young girl. I remember the calming influence Johnathan Garvey often played. I am saddened to hear that he suffered from mesothelioma, a cancer often caused by exposure to asbestos. Find out more about the disease.

Movie Stuff

Behind the Scenes of “The Runaways”
I am typically not a theater-goer these days. I used to work in a theater (for five years in high school and college), so I am well aware of the joys of the crowd, the isolation, and the overall theater experience. But, I don’t always like the crowds, and I’d rather watch a movie on my big screen with my home theater system and with my dogs sitting on the couch with me. But this little movie about Runaways is almost enough to lure me out of my cocoon. I LOVE the Runaways. Are you planning to see it, either in the theater or on DVD? (Compare the movie girls with the real thing here.)

The MPAA Says the Movie Business Is Great. Unless Its Lousy.
The MPAA released a report about the state of the movie industry. Grosses are up. More technology is in theaters. But, of course, they never want to talk about the fact that grosses are only up because of inflation.

TV Stories

Comedy Leads the Way among 86 Pilots for Fall TV Season
It never fails. When one show succeeds, the copycats come out of the woodwork, and the networks bite. With the success of the ABC comedies this season, everyone wants to make a new 30-minute comedy. Hopefully, they won’t try to rip off Modern Family too much or focus on the things that don’t matter to viewers. (Really, do you care whether the show is a one-camera or multi-camera comedy?) Make good shows, and people will watch them.

The Mouse That Roared: Turning to the Internet to Catch a Favorite Show
I still think this is the way of the future, even though it is challenging now. For network shows, it’s easy. Pay cable, possible. Sports, nearly impossible. And the lack of easy access to sports online is why we keep the DirecTV subscription for now. Mr. Pop Culture Curmudgeon will not go without his sports.

Random Stuff

Exclusive: Co Co a-Go-Go: Conan Tour Starts April 12!
The rumored Conan O’Brien tour is a go. And it is starting in my old place of residence, Eugene, OR. That is weird to me. Are you gonna go see Conan live?

BTW, only two weeks until a new episode of Supernatural.

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• Supernatural Blog Carnival, Aug. 14 Welcome to the August 14 edition of the Visions of Winchesters blog carnival. It's summertime, so I'm keeping it loose in here. The posts are just kind of jumbled rather than grouped into categories. But, as always, spoilers are in a separate page. Alice Jester discusses the information (and lack......
• Bored The holidays, aka the time when nothing is on tv and sitting around doing nothing wears so thin that I actually start cleaning, are finally over. So although most of the new content on tv will be so-called reality shows that I have no interest in watching, at least a......
• We're Ready to Say Goodbye to Supernatural So, the readers have spoken. We are not willing to watch Supernatural limp along to an ignominious death. I have mixed feelings. I am at peace with the show ending on a high note, but I know that if it continues past season 5, I'll watch. I mean, I watched......
• Visions of Winchesters: Supernatural Blog Carnival, June 26 So, it's summer, and we're all like loosey goosey and relaxed, so I'm not going to force us into rigid categories for our Supernatural news. In this post, we've got the news items and fun stories. Then, we have a separate page of spoilers. Don't visit it if you don't......
• The Fall Season So Far So far, I think the new fall TV season has gotten off to a good start. There have been some misses (Accidentally on Purpose, to name one really big one), but I've been impressed with a few of the new and returning shows. The Vampire Diaries is fun, though it......

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When I saw news of her lawsuit against the company saying that they copied her in creating their milkaholic character, my only thought was “What a pathetic way to solve your money problems.” Of course, I’m only assuming she has money problems because she hasn’t so much been acting and her fashion design career has not taken off. I’m sure self-tanner sales are just fine.

Do you think E-trade violated Lohan’s privacy?

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• The Kids Still Watch Live TV Nielsen did a study that proved that they really don't know what they are talking about. 18-34 year olds watched a lot more live TV than the brains at Nielsen thought, and 35+ use digital media a lot more. I could have told them that. The good news for TV......
• The Baldwins Are Trying to Resurrect Lindsay Lohan's Career Why? Why would they do this to me? Things were going well. Lindsay was fading into obscurity, and my happiness was growing in direct proportion. Then Daniel and Stephen Baldwin stepped in and helped Lindsay begin the steps to get her act together and (god I hope not) resurrect her......
• Chuck = Best. Show. Ever. The ultimate winner of the writers strike is Chuck, hands down. (Well, I'm pretty sure the studios won quite a bit monetarily, with that 17-day window and all, but creatively speaking, Chuck has come back bigger and better than ever.)Last night's episode contained enough shout-outs to video game geeks over......
• RIP Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money I just heard that Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, and Eli Stone were cancelled: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b69940_sources_daisies_eli_stone_dirty_sexy.htmlThis makes me very sad, even though I expected it. Pushing Daisies was so much fun to watch every week. I enjoyed the hyperintense colors, the fairy-tale narration, the occasional musical interludes, and the wonderful cast.......
• Reese Witherspoon Talks Relationships--Until She Doesn't Want to Any More In an upcoming issue of Elle magazine, Reese Witherspoon dishes on how painful and humiliating her divorce from Ryan Phillippe was. She tells how she is still occasionally broken up about it. When asked about Jake Gyllenhaal, though, she clammed up. I love how celebrities claim that they like to......

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It made me think about how porn is less important as an economic force. I was sure that HD would beat Blu-Ray in the recent format wars simply because Sony didn’t license Blu-Ray for porn producers. (That was the final nail in the coffin for Beta back in the 80s. Porn movies were released on VHS, thus Beta dies a slow, painful death.) But Blu-Ray beat the odds and succeeded without porn. This is likely because the Internet is now the main distribution channel for porn, both free and pay.

Now that the free sites have become so popular, people are cutting their porn budgets and enjoying the freebies. I personally don’t understand why people would release amateur porn pictures and video without expecting people to pay for it, but I guess a lot of people enjoy the thought of millions of Internet users … um … enjoying the view a lot more than they like the thought of making tons of money off those people.

What do you think? Are people crazy not to charge for their porn vids? Will porn become less of an economic force as more and more freebies abound?

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• Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Blog Carnival, Nov. 18 Welcome to the November 18, 2009, edition of Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Blog Carnival. Last Week's Episode This Week's Episode News Spoilers: On a separate page to protect the spoilerphobes Last Week's Episode On Supernatural, the Meta Outweighed the Mega Annalee Newitz shares her reaction to The Real Ghostbusters,......
• Is Slim-Fast Enough? I enjoyed last night's premiere of True Blood, especially Anna Paquin's performance. She inhabited her character so fully, that I completely forgot how much the blond hair bugged me in the promos. Some of the dialogue was a little corny, especially the dust-up over the vampire being named Bill and......
• Lost Makes Me Feel Dumb I watched the season premiere of Lost last night, and as usual, it made me feel dumb for not paying better attention. I typically read or write while I watch tv, but this is a huge mistake with shows like Lost that have a ridiculously rich mythology and 30 Rock......
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• And the Winner Is... texasheartland has won the Free copy of Cry Sanctuary by Moira Rogers. Congratulations! I've sent an email message to find out what format she would like to receive the ebook in. She has until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, May 27, to get back to me. [Updated: She has claimed her prize.......

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• The Movie Biz
• TV Happenings
• Random Stuff

Movie Stuff

The Bechdel Rule
How many movies have you seen that include female characters who talk to each other about something other than men? According to Adele at Persnickety Snark, unless you like teen movies, the number of films you have seen that fulfill this requirement is probably pretty small.

On Alice in Wonderland
An interesting look at how the movie biz works, from the point of view of screenwriter John August.

TV Stories

Lost: Jack and Hurley Go to the Lighthouse
Because I always need a little help with Lost, I am including Ryan’s Zap2It recap again. He goes into the level of detail with this show that I used to go with Twin Peaks when it was on and I was a youthful, idealistic college student with boundless energy. I am almost too tired right now to really remember what that boundless energy was like.

The Trouble with Glee
Adele at Persnickety Snark critiques our favorite little new show and offers good suggestions for making it even better.

Random Stuff

Elizabeth Moon Must Love Me
Like Chrissy Olinger, I am a long-time fan of Elizabeth Moon, especially the Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy. If you haven’t read the books, I recommend them highly. And, now Elizabeth Moon is returning to that world to share a new story with us.

That’s all for this week. As you may have noticed from the lack of Twitter chatter, I have been pretty much down for the count with some sort of cold or flu virus. I am doing better, but I didn’t spend a lot of time online over the weekend or earlier this week.

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• Visions of Winchesters: Supernatural Blog Carnival, Oct. 7 Welcome to the October 7, 2009, edition of Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Blog Carnival. Last Week's Episode This Week's Episode News Spoilers: On a separate page to protect the spoilerphobes Last Week's Episode Supernatural: The End Suzanne presents her recap posted at Damsel Undistressed. Suzanne used to recap Supernatural......
• Comedy Movies Are Too Long I am tired of comedy movies that clock in longer than 2 hours. (Cue old codger voice.) I remember when a comedy was 90 minutes and a drama was 2 hours. Occasionally, dramas were longer, but 2 hours was the norm. (Old codger voice ends.) The Judd Apatow movies started......
• Plans for 2010 With all of the new and returning TV shows this month, my head is spinning! What have you seen so far that you are excited about? And, what are you looking forward to this week? I'm enjoying Chuck's long-awaited return. They've done a great job keeping Chuck who he is......
• The Return of Happy TV I like dark shows. Porbably more than the average person. I loved the seedy underbelly of the small Pacific northwest town Twin Peaks. I couldn't get enough of the depressing and violent near-future depicted in Strange Days. But even I have to throw up my hands sometimes and say, "Please......
• We're Ready to Say Goodbye to Supernatural So, the readers have spoken. We are not willing to watch Supernatural limp along to an ignominious death. I have mixed feelings. I am at peace with the show ending on a high note, but I know that if it continues past season 5, I'll watch. I mean, I watched......

• Avatar The Movie Goes Beyond What You Have Ever Seen Before If I had two hands full of thumbs, Avatar the Movie,  would be a "TEN THUMBS UP" movie. I saw...
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• Weekly Weigh-In: 3.4 lbs Lost Week two of being under 300 lbs. Another week and another few pounds lost. This time I lost 3.4 lbs,...
• Weekly Weigh-In: Another 3.8 lbs Lost, 70.4 lbs Total I. Am. On. Fire. I've lost another 3.8 lbs this week. That brings my total weight lost to 70.4 lbs....
• MEL GIBSON TOP 10: The movies that prove he can act, direct and entertain better than anyone 1) BRAVEHEART (1995) Mel Gibson’s lesser known and much under-appreciated directorial debut. It is plain, straight to the point and...

I used to believe that all sporting events belonged on ESPN, where they didn’t cause preemptions of what I like to call real  TV. Now I understand that some people don’t want to pay for cable but might also be sports fans. Why can’t we have a special ad-supported, free broadcast network to show only those sporting events?

Or, my real dream: true on-demand programming delivered to my television from the Internet.

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• TV Turn Off Week Is Coming to an End As an avid TV viewer, I think TV turn-off week is the stupidest thing ever. I don't feel guilty about the amount of time I spend watching TV. In fact, I revel in my shows. I love to talk to other viewers here, on Twitter, and in person. In a......
• My Fall TV Viewing Schedule [digg=http://digg.com/television/My_Fall_TV_Viewing_Schedule]Now that the fall lineups have been announced, my viewing plans are falling into place. Mondays and Thursdays are still full, especially now that NBC has announced that they will not move Chuck to Fridays. Mondays, I'll be on CBS, watching How I Met Your Mother at 8 and giving......
• Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Blog Carnival, Nov. 18 Welcome to the November 18, 2009, edition of Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Blog Carnival. Last Week's Episode This Week's Episode News Spoilers: On a separate page to protect the spoilerphobes Last Week's Episode On Supernatural, the Meta Outweighed the Mega Annalee Newitz shares her reaction to The Real Ghostbusters,......
• Looking Forward to the Upfronts I don't know what happened in the past 24 hours, but it completely improved my outlook on next week's upfronts, when the major TV networks (and The CW <cue rim shot>) unveil their fall line-ups. Perhaps it was the news that Reaper may become a syndicated Sunday show. Or perhaps......
• Pop Culture Roundup, March 11 Welcome to this week's collection of fun pop culture stories. In Memoriam The Movie Biz TV Happenings Random Stuff In Memoriam Losing a Lost Boy Yesterday morning, I was saddened but not surprised to hear that 80s teen heartthrob Corey Haim had died of an apparent drug overdose. I had......

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I will continue to watch the show, but I fear that it will limp into a slow death spiral rather than going out when it is on top.

How do you feel about it? And do you think the devil will continue to try to use Sam as his meatsuit in new and exciting ways? Or will the idea of Winchester versus Winchester fade out as the boys prevent the devil from new and different ways of taking over the world?

Edited to add: Here’s a link to a story that discusses the showrunners’ plans for the sixth season.

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• Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Blog Carnival, Sept. 30 Welcome to the September 30, 2009 edition of Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Blog Carnival. Last Week's Episode This Week's Episode News Spoilers: On a separate page to protect the spoilerphobes Last Week's Episode Supernatural: Free to Be You and Me Suzanne presents her recap posted at Damsel Undistressed. Suzanne......
• Visions of Winchesters: A Supernatural Blog Carnival, May 6 [digg=http://digg.com/television/Visions_of_Winchesters_A_Supernatural_Blog_Carnival_May_6]Welcome to the May 6, 2009, edition of Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Variety. Last Week's Episode Suzanne presents Supernatural: The Rapture posted at Sci Fi Chicks. Suzanne opens: "Sera Gamble once said in an interview something to the effect that one of the fun parts of writing was creating......
• Visions of Winchesters: Supernatural Blog Carnival, Oct. 7 Welcome to the October 7, 2009, edition of Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Blog Carnival. Last Week's Episode This Week's Episode News Spoilers: On a separate page to protect the spoilerphobes Last Week's Episode Supernatural: The End Suzanne presents her recap posted at Damsel Undistressed. Suzanne used to recap Supernatural......
• Visions of Winchesters: Supernatural Blog Carnival, April 22 [digg=http://digg.com/television/Visions_of_Winchesters_Supernatural_Blog_Carnival_April_22] Previous Episode We'll start out with Television Without Pity's recap of The Monster at the End of This Book, well, because I need a little refresher, and Demian and Raoul give good recap. Sylvia Bond shares her take on the episode at Pink Raygun. She likes it. She really......
• Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Blog Carnival, Sep. 16 Welcome to the September 16, 2009 edition of Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Blog Carnival. Last Week's Episode This Week's Episode News No New Spoilers This Week: If you've got a good source for spoilers, please share it in the comments. My sources have been tapped out. Last Week's......

• Glucosamine For Dogs Provide Relief From Arthritis Pain by Timothy P. Writchell We all love our pets, and in most cases they are considered a special part of...
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• Movie Stuff
• TV Stories
• Supernatural
• Random 80s Flashback

Movie Stuff

Dune Film Finds a New Writer
I haven’t decided if I want to see the new Dune movie. I was such a fan of David Lynch’s version (and, yes, I would sit through the entire 13 hour director’s cut) that I am afraid to read the books because they may ruin my perceptions of that movie. I love Lynchs style, and Dune was a great early example of the director who would create my favorite TV show of all time. But, I really enjoyed Taken, so I think this writer has a good chance of making a film I could enjoy. That Sci Fi Channel adaptation was booooooooring.

TV Stories

Why I Caved, Bought Cable TV, and Gave Up on My “Hulu Household”
We’re not there yet, but man, when we can get all of our television content over the Internet, I am so there.

Women Can’t Create, White Men Can’t Jump: Worst Network Pilot Season for Women Pt. 2
Nikki Finke looked at the dearth of female writers in this season’s pilot pickups in this post. Neely Swanson posted an interesting response/further research on the issue. It’s a nice look at the realities of the Hollywood system and the fear that women are not reliable at bringing in audiences.

Dancing with the Scars
Leave it to Chelsea Handler to make me want to read a story about a washed-up Playboy bunny and her stint on a reality show I have never and will never watch.

Friday Night Lights: 10 Reasons Why Season 4 Is the Series’ Best
I know that not everyone agrees with me (and that’s okay, Katie), but I think season 4 has been a return to what makes FNL great. It has felt like season 1 to me, with the depth of storylines and the great acting. I hope all of you who haven’t been watching this show on DirecTV catch it when it premieres on NBC this April. Last night, we said goodbye to some favorite characters and saw others get hurt, get punished, and play some football.

Supernatural

Let’s Talk Supernatural, The Song Remains the Same
Maureen Ryan’s recap and review of last week’s episode. She also includes information about a charity auction to benefit the relief efforts in Haiti.

Supernatural: The Song Remains the Same
Another recap/review of last week’s episode, this one from the San Diego Tribune blog.

Supernatural: The Song Remains the Same
Suzanne has our final recap over at Damsel Undistressed. She loved the episode, but I think she might have been basking in the afterglow of the amazing season premiere of Last last week.

Supernatural and Vampire Diaries Taking a 5-Week Hiatus
Sadly, My Bloody Valentine is our last episode of Supernatural for a while.  They had best come back from this hiatus with an episode in which we get to see Death. That was my biggest disappointment with this set of episodes. They didn’t resolve the cliffhanger.

Two Previews of Supernatural’s My Bloody Valentine
Need to get the scoop on tonight’s episode? Here are two clips to whet your appetite.

From Smallville to Capain America
More rumors that Jensen Ackles might be Captain America. Make of it what you will. 

Supernatural: Preview of Episode 5.13 “The Song Remains the Same”Get ready for tonight’s episode with a synopsis and a clip.

Random 80s Flashback

Secret Admirer
Most movies from the 80s just don’t hold up. The humor was too steeped in the time frame, and the jokes no longer work. The exceptions, though, are great. All of the John Hughes teen films remain awesome. And Secret Admirer, starring a very young Lori Loughlin, Kelly Preston, and C. Thomas Howell (we called him Tommy and looked at his dreamy photos in Bop and Tiger Beat back then), is another timeless comedy. It centers around misplaced love letters, and the stellar cast of adults and teens help keep it from being too formulaic. Rent it from Netflix or catch it on the Reelz Channel.

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• If You Like Friday Night Lights, You'll Love Homefront I'm a huge fan of Friday Night Lights. There are myriad reasons for this, but one of the big ones is Kyle Chandler. I first saw Chandler on a little show about a family growing and changing after World War II. Homefront ran for two seasons in the early 90s.......
• Pop Culture Roundup, March 11 Welcome to this week's collection of fun pop culture stories. In Memoriam The Movie Biz TV Happenings Random Stuff In Memoriam Losing a Lost Boy Yesterday morning, I was saddened but not surprised to hear that 80s teen heartthrob Corey Haim had died of an apparent drug overdose. I had......
• Is There Anything Other Than True Blood to Talk About? I guess I could talk about Eddie Cibrian and LeAnn Rimes' date on Saturday, but I find it bizarre and boring at the same time. Or I could talk about Ryan Alexander Jenkins, but that story is gross and upsetting. So, I'm gonna follow the trend and talk about how......
• Visions of Winchesters: Supernatural Blog Carnival, Oct. 14 Welcome to the October 14, 2009, edition of Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Blog Carnival. Last Week's Episode This Week's Episode News Fun Stuff Spoilers: On a separate page to protect the spoilerphobes Last Week's Episode Supernatural: Fallen Idols Suzanne presents her recap posted at Damsel Undistressed. Suzanne used to......
• Win a FREE Copy of Cry Sanctuary by Moira Rogers ****The contest is now closed. To find out who won, please visit this post.**** I'm so excited to bring you a glimpse of two very fun ladies, Bree and Donna. As Moira Rogers, they write books about "things that go bump & grind in the night." In addition to telling......

• The Biggest Loser Couples Season 7, Episode 12 Video Recap with Pete Thomas Tonight’s show starts with the group right after the elimination round. Kristin is still crying since her mother sacrificed herself...
• Go on, cut that cable! Websites for Watching Free TV Full Episodes, Movies and News Online I will be the first to admit that I LOVE television and movies. I have been an avid TV-watcher since...
• Its A Carnival Round Up Time And You Are Invited. This morning two great money carnivals went up - The Carnival of Personal Finance over at Get Rich Slowly featured...
• Apple iPod touch 8 GB NEWEST MODEL NOTE: This is the 3rd generation 8 GB iPod touch that comes installed with iPhone OS 3.1 Software; it physically...
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Anyway, here are the links from the past week that I found interesting and amusing.

• Random Pop Culture Stuff
• TV Stories
• Supernatural

Random Pop Culture Stuff

Men at Work Stole Tune in 80s Hit “Down Under” from “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree”
The lovable guys from down under could end up owing a lot of money to the company who owns the copyright to this song (no, not the person who wrote it or even the descendants of the writer, some company). They are asking for 60% of the total royalties earned since the release of the song.

Colin Firth: By Anyone’s Measure, a Leading Man
This is a nice interview of Firth by NPR, focusing on his Oscar nomination and the role that earned it for him.

Why Are There So Few Female Film-makers?
In this Guardian article, Kira Cochrane explores the issues that keep women out of the director’s chair. She provides an interesting history of the treatment of women in popular cinema that made me think back to a paper I wrote in college comparing the lesbian characters in lesbian cinema with those in mainstream film. I always meant to gussy it up and submit it to an academic journal, but I never got around to it. Perhaps one day, I will revisit the topic with a longer-term focus.

TV Stories

Scoop: Heroes Star to Play Alcide’s Sister on True Blood
The casting announcements for season 3 of True Blood are coming fast and furious. This article includes links to the other recent additions to the cast, including Alfre Woodard as Lafayette’s mom. (Have I mentioned lately how happy I am that Lafayette didn’t die at the end of season 1?)

Lost Faces a New Reality in the Final Season Premiere
Need a little help with Tuesday’s season premiere? Ryan at Zap2it has detailed and understandable recaps each week.

Supernatural

The Hardy Boys Are Both, Like, Stuck in this Suckfest
Demian at Television without Pity gives the best recaps. Useful if you missed the last episode, and great fun to read in full even if you didn’t.

Inside the Supernatural 100^th Episode Party
How many times over the years did we worry that our awesome show wouldn’t make it until 100 episodes? But it did, and this is your TV Addict-sponsored look at the party.

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Supernatural: Scifi Series Spins Bible Stories into a Final Fantasy
An interesting look at the mythology of Supernatural and the Bible.

Lost and Supernatural: Have They Become the Same Show?
Maureen Ryan looks at the parallels between Lost and Supernatural. I was thinking the same thing when I was watching Tuesday’s Lost premiere.

Supernatural: Preview of Episode 5.13 “The Song Remains the Same”
Get ready for tonight’s episode with a synopsis and a clip.

Supernatural Countdown Number 12: Driver Picks the Music
More of the countdown of all that is awesome about Supernatural, with some clips of the most effective and fun uses of music on the show.

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• What's Up in Pop Culture Land I'm looking forward to the advent of the summer TV season. Not, as I'm sure you have surmised, for the glut of crappy reality shows on the big networks. What I want to see if the awesome stuff that comes on the cable nets, True Blood (HBO, premiere 6/14) topping......
• 90210 and Melrose Place: In a word, meh So, I watched 90210 and Melrose Place last night, and I was underwhelmed. I don't expect a lot from 90210, so it was fun but not as fun as some of last season's episodes. The Annie story seemed disjointed and bizarre, and very little else caught my attention. Melrose Place......
• Visions of Winchesters: Supernatural Blog Carnival, May 13 [digg=http://digg.com/television/Supernatural_Blog_Carnival_May_13]It is with great sadness that I welcome you to the final Supernatural blog carnival of the season. I am still reeling from last week's episode, and I do not look forward to a long, hot summer without new episodes. But, enough of the maudlin crap. Welcome to the May......
• Pop Culture Roundup, February 11 So, my laptop spent some time in limbo these past few days, deciding whether it would die or whether it just needed a good reformat. The reformat worked, but I still need to do some work to get it to recognize that it does, indeed, have a DVD drive installed.......
• My Fall TV Viewing Schedule [digg=http://digg.com/television/My_Fall_TV_Viewing_Schedule]Now that the fall lineups have been announced, my viewing plans are falling into place. Mondays and Thursdays are still full, especially now that NBC has announced that they will not move Chuck to Fridays. Mondays, I'll be on CBS, watching How I Met Your Mother at 8 and giving......

• The Biggest Loser Couples Season 7, Episode 17 Video Recap with Pete Thomas It’s down to crunch time now with just five players left. Every person is now thinking about how they will...
• Watch Top Gear Season 14 Episode 2 Hey there car fans! Episode 2 is now out and I am sure you would want to watch this episode....
• Weigh In #4 -- One Month and 34 Pounds Lost After 1 month on the Jumpstart Medicine medically assisted weightless program I have lost 34 pounds... This week I lost...
• Sunday Money Madness Welcome to a new edition of Sunday Money Madness where another portion of the financial blogosphere is illuminated. I found...
• Go on, cut that cable! Websites for Watching Free TV Full Episodes, Movies and News Online I will be the first to admit that I LOVE television and movies. I have been an avid TV-watcher since...

People will be voting for the best butt. There are already many butt shots posted on the main contest page.

I find this contest odd and disturbing on so many levels, but if you have a weird sense of humor and are kinda strangely proud of your butt, feel free to enter.

(Bonus points to the first person to name the character who said that line and the movie or TV show it is from.)

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• Saving Two Good Shows So, two of my favorite shows are on the bubble. If you like TV that is good, feel free to join me in my efforts to save them.Friday Night Lights: http://www.savefridaynightlights.tv/Donate to buy mini footballs, ship them to NBC and support some sort of charity, too.How I Met Your Mother:......
• View One of My Fave Movies Free at Hulu Metropolitan (and its companion pieces Barcelona and The Last Days of Disco) is one of my favorite movies. If you haven't seen Whit Stillman's first film, you can watch it free at Hulu: http://www.hulu.com/watch/30659/metropolitanAfter that, you'll have to get the other two from your local video store. Netflix has Barcelona,......
• And the Winner Is... texasheartland has won the Free copy of Cry Sanctuary by Moira Rogers. Congratulations! I've sent an email message to find out what format she would like to receive the ebook in. She has until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, May 27, to get back to me. [Updated: She has claimed her prize.......
• Plans for 2010 With all of the new and returning TV shows this month, my head is spinning! What have you seen so far that you are excited about? And, what are you looking forward to this week? I'm enjoying Chuck's long-awaited return. They've done a great job keeping Chuck who he is......
• Will Philip Jose Farmer's Dayworld Series Be Adapted for the Big or Small Screen? I watched the 2003 adaptation of the Riverworld series on SyFy over the weekend, and all it made me wonder is why they haven't yet made Dayworld into a movie or TV show. SyFy is releasing a new adaptation of Riverworld next year, so I think it is time for......

• VoIP - Low Cost Phone Calls There has been a number of positive developments in the telecommunications domain in the past couple of years. The competition...
• Free Online TV and Movie Watching for Baby Boomers Although this post talks about watching television, it is really about saving money for retirement. If you are like me,...
• Brip Blap around the web As part of my effort to keep growing Brip Blap, I've written a few guest posts. I was very, very...
• The Art Of The Dinner Party I love being the hostess. That is no shocker to anyone that knows me. It doesn't matter what is going...
• Obama Calling For A Second Stimulus Income Tax Rebate Check. And the dumb idea keeps getting dumber...another stimulus package coming soon? Seems Barack Obama has had too much of GW...

If you’re watching a TV show or a movie, no problem. Just go to the IMDB and look it up.

But, if it’s a commercial, you’re pretty much out of luck. Perhaps you can get lucky doing a Google search, but that rarely works for me. We need a database we can search for actors in recent commercials. I know it would be a challenge to pull together, but I’m sure the collective wisdom of the Interneterati can do it.

Until that glorious day, I need to know who the dumb husband is on the Yoplait commercial where the wife is telling her friend about all of the awesome yogurt flavors she has been eating to lose weight. It’s driving me crazy.

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• The Kids Still Watch Live TV Nielsen did a study that proved that they really don't know what they are talking about. 18-34 year olds watched a lot more live TV than the brains at Nielsen thought, and 35+ use digital media a lot more. I could have told them that. The good news for TV......
• Pop Culture Roundup, March 11 Welcome to this week's collection of fun pop culture stories. In Memoriam The Movie Biz TV Happenings Random Stuff In Memoriam Losing a Lost Boy Yesterday morning, I was saddened but not surprised to hear that 80s teen heartthrob Corey Haim had died of an apparent drug overdose. I had......
• Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Blog Carnival, Sept. 9 Welcome to the September 9, 2009, edition of Visions of Winchesters: The Supernatural Blog Carnival. Last Season Season Premiere Season 5 Previews News Fun Stuff Spoilers Last Season Arieanna at Gilmore Girls News shares her thoughts on season 4 with some nice shots of Jared Padalecki in the finale.......
• Update on the 10:00 Hour Jeff Zucker's pronouncement yesterday that NBC might but its primetime hours was just greasing the skids for the real news: Jay Leno will move his show to 10:00 five mights per week.This definitely works for me. I don't watch Leno at 11:30, and I likely won't watch him at 10:00.......
• Thoughts on the new fall season so far Perhaps my sights were set very low, but I have been loving my little teen soaps so far this season.Two episodes in, Greek has been fun to watch, full of pop culture references, and even full of life lessons--sometimes you just need a new R.A. to remind you why you......

• Fall TV Schedule It's that time of year again folks! The time of year where all my favorite shows are new again, and...
• 35 Ways To Watch Television Without Cable Or Satellite. At my house, basic digital cable TV cost over $69 per month (plus taxes) and we watch maybe 10 of...
• Baby TV Gets Parental Warning In France; We Need It Here. My wife passed along this story she saw over at The Not Quite Crunchy Parent titled "French Government Adds Warning...
• Things I Love Thursday: Netflix! It's Things I Love Thursday Over at The Diaper Diaries today, and today I want to talk about my love...
• The Story Behind Prescription Drug Advertisements Logically speaking, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to advertise prescription drugs to consumers. All the ad money...