Mookie Of The Month - April

Mookie The Snow Dog

Fox News Best Of The Worst!

It's a sad statement on the state of American journalism when a FAKE news show is recognized for excellence in election coverage.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=529&e=1&u=/ap/20050407/ap_en_tv/peabody_awards

Congratulations John Stewart and Co.!

Boooo! to the rest of the mainstream press!



So now The Daily Show has two Peabody awards, just like Bill O'Reilly. Oh, wait a minute...

http://www.booktv.org/ram/feature/0603/btv060803_4.ram

(The whole clip is pretty good. But if you just want to watch Bill O'Reilly get skewered, here're the instructions:

The link should bring up Real Player.

The total clip is an hour and a half, but to get to the stuff I'm referncing, Skip about 41 minutes ahead. Al Franken recalls how Bill O'Reilly claimed to have one a Peabody award while working for Inside Edition, a claim that turned out to be false. Bill O'Reilly is on the panel while Al Franken recalls the story, and he is visibly outraged by what he's hearing.

Franken tells the story well, taking about 5 minutes. He then continues on a somewhat different track for a couple of minutes, and then gives up the podium.

O'Reilly responds by yelling "Shut up! You took 35 minutes you had your chance. Shut up!")

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C88364%2C00.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/03/print/main556715.shtml

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0308/25/se.20.html

Bonus Mookie!

What.?

Review: Jennifer Lopez' album, "Rebirth"

Jennifer Lopez got her big break as a dancer on "In Living Color." While that was a really funny show, the Wayans family should still publicly apologize for launching a career that gives J.Lo the opportunity to release 12 tracks of nonsense every other year. She has the vocal range of a mute swan and she'd have come up with more complex lyrics if she had taken a box of Alpha-Bits and dumped the contents onto the floor. "Regurgitate" would have been a better title for this disc, as by the fifth track, even my dog was vomiting. Grade: F

Review: The Zuton's album, 'Who Killed The Zutons?'

This CD reminds me of those tiny foil-wrapped chocolate eggs found at the
bottom of Easter baskets. There's nothing wrong with them, but they're not
going to get anyone particularly excited either. This might be a fun CD to
pop in while driving, but the songs are not especially memorable or
stirring. The Zutons are better than average but not quite great. The
question isn't "Who Killed The Zutons?" but rather, why'd they bother?

Grade: C

Review: Ani DiFranco's album, Knuckle Down

Ani DiFranco, the anti-Ashlee Simpson. You'll find more meaning in one of her songs than by listening to Z100 for an entire day. She's a heroic figure, not just for feminists, but for anyone who sees merit in fighting the corporate, capitalist machine. She's built an incredible career without the help of a record company and never once dipping her toe into the mainstream.

Grade: A+

Mookie Of The Month - February

Welcome!

Mookie Of The Month - February

Don't Go.

Review: '24' - Day 4

"24" is basically "Die Hard: The Series." Is the show over the top? Absolutely. Does being a fan require viewers to suspend disbelief? No question. But this is still the most riveting hour on TV. Still completely unpredictable (except that Jack will save the day, several times) and lots of fun, the only thing this season is missing is screen time for Elisha Cuthbert.
Grade: A

Review: ESPN's 'Tilt'

For ESPN to justify showing anything other than sports scores and highlights, it should be first-class entertainment. "Tilt" felt more like a B-list movie. I know poker is really popular now, but do we really need a dramatic series related to the game? This will be off the air faster than I usually lose my money in Vegas. Grade: C-

Review: Meet The Fockers

Chewing on a piece of aluminum foil would have been less painful than sitting through this cinematic train wreck. Like budget horror movies, there were a bunch of corny jokes, and it was one sequel too many. The highlight of the dreadful experience was that I spotted Hulk Hogan in the theater. It made me nostalgic for the late '80s - when he was WWF champ, De Niro and Hoffman made movies that were tolerable, and Barbra Streisand had taken a break from making any movies at all. Hand me and the Hulkster some Reynolds wrap and get us a refund.

Grade: F

Mookie Of The Month - January

Happy New Year.

Review: Ludacris album - Red Light District

I like Ludacris for a lot of reasons, but the fact that he's feuded with Bill O'Reilly doesn't hurt. Ludacris doesn't break any new ground on his fourth album, but he does deliver exactly what his fans expect: solid rhymes over danceable beats. Basically, he is Coolio with more street cred. There probably aren't any hits as big as "Stand Up" or "Yeah" here, but there are enough radio-friendly tracks with club appeal to keep him off the game-show circuit for the time being.

Grade: B

Review: U2 album - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

If you're like me, and your favorite U2 album is "Achtung Baby," you'll find this CD absolutely splendid. If you yearn for the days when the band waxed poetic about lemons over lucid dance tracks, you might wish this record was more daring. Of course, if you're like the guys at the pub who stopped listening after "The Joshua Tree," you don't know what you're missing. This is a great album with memorable, rousing songs and will be in my personal rotation for years to come.

Grade: A

Mookie Of The Month - December

Can I Help You?

Mookie Of The Month - November

Review: The O.C.

Now I understand why people love reality television. This time-waster continues the dismal legacy of mind-numbing shows set in California featuring beautiful yet oh-so-tortured people. Overly dramatic, and yet still tediously dreary, shows like this give scripted television a bad name. I give it an extra letter grade for the pretty girls in small bikinis. Grade: C-

Review: Shark Tale

How does a studio afford to make a computer- animated flick with six A-list celebrities? Easy. Hire cheap writers to concoct a weak, unfunny script and then saturate the film with product placements. I haven't seen a more pathetic movie about sharks since 1999's "Deep Blue Sea." As a bonus, this underwater fiasco also features the worst example of Robert De Niro playing a caricature of himself since "Analyze That." I'm waiting for "The Incredibles," then I'm giving up on this genre. Grade: F

Mookie Of The Month - October

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Review: 'Joey'

NBC is hoping for spin-off magic, a la "Frasier," but my guess is "Joey" will be forgotten quicker than "The Tortellis". The sad truth is that even though he was the best character on "Friends," without the eye candy of Jennifer Aniston and the dry wit of Matthew Perry, "Joey" is just plain dumb. Grade: C+