Before the computer, the animals, mortal though not sentient, seemed our nearest neighbors in the known universe. Computers, with their interactivity, their psychology, with whatever fragments of intelligence they have, now bid for this place.
Here's Ben Folds and Regina Spektor tearing it up on Conan. (BTW, the new album is sweetness incarnate.)
It appears there may be a compatibility problem with either new content being posted to the iTunes Store, or iTunes 8, and the 5th Generation iPod. After playing 3-4 songs from any new album purchased recently, the iPod crashes and reboots. See the (many) reports that are starting to pour in:
Lois (holding Stewie) and Peter confront Chris about murdering his hot teacher's husband:
Lois: Chris, we know what you did.
Chris: You mean that I lied about my age to get into an Indian casino?
Lois: No.
Chris: You mean about the time I had hard gas and pooed myself?
Peter: Close, but no.
Stewie: How is that close?
"Those pictures that came out of Abu Ghraib were considered torture, yet Anne Geddes can shove a naked baby in a watermelon and call it July."
Well, seeing as how my previous "hot women" post is by far the most popular thing on this blog, I figure it's time for a sequel. Besides, there's some new hot women on the TV shows that I watch that make those shows even more, well, watchable. With their hotness. Once again, fair warning to my female readers: this is pure, unadulterated guy talk*, so if the thought of your man drooling over some PYT causes you mental trauma, just keep walking. I hear there's a sale at Target.
Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother, CBS) - To be honest, I couldn't believe that Ms. Hannigan didn't make it onto my prior list. I've been a fan since her breakout role in American Pie. Geeky hotness? Funny coolness? To be honest, I'm not sure what it is about her--but she's got an adorable smile and great hair, which she changes often. In fact, if you've watched How I Met Your Mother closely, they track her hairstyle closely so that they can get it right in flashbacks. If you're not a fan yet, get on board the Hannigan express. You won't regret it. (Okay, unless you see Date Movie. Then you'll regret it.)
Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory, CBS) - Never thought much of her in 8 Simple Rules, but I think she's really come into her stride in Big Bang (which, BTW, are you watching? If you're a fan of my blog, you need to be watching this show). Oh, and I love how the costume people take every opportunity to put her in push up bras, lingerie, midriffs--or sometimes all three! I suppose it makes sense--she's the hot eye candy for all of the geeky guys on this show. No one wants to see her in a hooded parka. Like Suzanne Somers before her, she's there to make you drool first, laugh second. Except nowadays, there's quite a bit more skin
Julianne Hough (Dancing With The Stars, ABC) - Alright, let me just state the ridiculously obvious: Julianne is why men watch Dancing With The [D-List] Stars. In fact, my interest in that awkward, painful-to-watch abomination is directly proportional to if Julianne is still on it, and what outfit she's wearing. Don't talk to me about the other "hot chicks" on the show; one looks like a boy, one looks like a man, and one has a full mile-and-a-half of forehead. (I'll let you figure out which-is-which.) No, no, Julianne in a Pulp Fiction wig is molten iron hotter than any of them. QED.
Paget Brewster (Criminal Minds, CBS) - Stick with me on this one. 1) Miss Brewster does not photograph well. I'll just come right out with that. Her striking features just don't translate that well into two dimensions. However, this is a blog post about TV, and in high def primetime, she looks great. 2) She's chummy with the Suicide Girls website and has even photographed for them. 3) She's self-deprecating! She once said of herself: "I'm like this wiry freak they pulled out of a bar two months ago and said, 'Let's throw it on the wall and see if it sticks.'" 4) She's stizzacked.
April Bowlby (Two and a Half Men, CBS) - I'm not going to say much about her other than she's the eye candy on this abysmal comedy that my wife enjoys, and she's got a ridiculous body and great eyes. It's criminal how much they exploit this poor girl for cheap laughs, but frankly, I might as well be bitching that Chipotle's burritos are "just too big." If she wants to parade around in front of millions of people in this, the least I can do is watch.
Melanie Lynskey (Two and a Half Men, CBS) - The other pair of the pair that makes this half-assed comedy worth watching. She plays a stalker, and the crazy kind of turns me on. Well, that and the low-cut tops. And the pale skin with red lips. Really, it's all a winner.
Honorable Mentions
Kristen Bell (Heroes, NBC) - I actually had Kristen on my list, but I cut her. Yes, she's beautiful. Yes, she seems into geeky stuff. Yes, it's hot to watch her play a sociopath. But I just can't quite get on the bandwagon. For one thing, she's a little too skinny. For another, I get the feeling she's not completely genuine. I almost, almost get the feeling like this whole "I love geeks" thing is just a carefully crafted ruse to ensure that she'll always have a loyal following. Maybe I'm wrong (and I have no doubt the Veronica Mars army will come rallying to her defense), but I've gotta go with my gut on this one. This is who I am. Take it or leave it.
Alright, so that wraps up another installment. Who do you agree with? Who'd I miss? Who are you tuning in to see every week? Leave a comment and let me know!
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*Yeah right. You'd swear off men forever if you ever heard that.
This is the second part of my interview with Palmer, creator of the always fascinating podcast, WPLMR. In this part, we talk about music and podcast production.
GuyBehindtheGuy: I'm always impressed by the production values of the episodes. What kind of rig do you have?
Palmer: Episodes 1-4 were all recorded on a six-year old HP laptop. Just a POS laptop--probably $300 nowadays off of Craig's List. My mic is probably the most expensive component. I use a MXL-USB 006 that was about $130. I use $20 Sony studio headphones from Wal-Mart, and they work great. I use Audacity, which is amazing, for all of the audio production, and Inkscape for the logos--I'm big on open-source. And I host all of my mp3's on libsyn, which costs me $10/month. So, all-in-all, it probably cost me about $250 to start this podcast, since I already owned my laptop.
For sound effects, I use the Freesound Project. I have never not been able to find a sound effect there. Now granted, some of them I might have to build. For instance, just for the news reel, that's like ten different sounds, and I have to give credit for each one in the show notes.
And I have to say, that hands down one of things that's made the quality of the show so good is Audacity. There's just so much in there that you can do. I mean, I don't know dick about what I'm doing at all. But, it's just an amazing, well put-together, solid program that should cost $400-500, and it's free.
G: Obviously, the highlight of the show is the music. How do you go about choosing it?
P: The show is very formulaic--I have four sketches, four blocks of music, an opening song and a closing song; plus the news and the homework assignment. To choose the music, I go to Jamendo and I start with "Popular This Week." I also further restrict the search to albums that I can "edit or build upon," because I'm not sure with Creative Commons if just putting it in a podcast is the same as remixing, or if it just counts as transmitting the song. So I do that, and I get something like 350 pages of results.
Fan of indie music? Like to laugh? Then give WPLMR a try. With genuinely funny skits and killer music, WPLMR is the best podcast you're not listening to. I had a chance to sit down with its creator, Palmer, and talk about podcasting, the Internet, and other important things. It's closer to a magazine article in length, so I've split it between two posts. The first part of my interview is below:
GuyBehindtheGuy: What do you like about the podcast medium?
Palmer: I remember first getting on Prodigy, and there really wasn't anything you could do. It was this information platform, but really, that was about it. But now, it's turned into this huge conglomerate of connecting with people. I think in our everyday lives, we find things that try to pull us away from interacting with people, but with the Internet, we can be whoever we want to be. So, there's this huge interconnection for everyone to communicate in all kinds of ways. And podcasting is a piece of that.
Good friend Michael wrote an interesting take on where to place the blame for the current real-estate crisis. Read his article, and then my comment below it--consider it canon.
The price of stamps is going up next week from 41 cents to 42 cents.- Amy Poehler, SNL Weekend Update
"Awww...that's cute," said oil.
