Friday, February 26, 2010

Simpsons Links

I've been behind in Simpsons links, so here are a some to enjoy, some are a bit...um...antiquated LoL:

IGN's Top 10 Sideshow Bob Episodes...I pretty much agree with order, see if you do.
Simpsons Scene It? I would cop it
Simpsons Treehouse of Horrors Monopoly...I would cop that, too. There should be a Rasta-monopoly and EdnaKrabopoly as well.
The Simpsons Should Go?! Hmm this is not what I call a fan...don't judge, just don't watch...enjoy :) Oh yeah this also features the Simpsons comedy tree.
20th Anniversary Simpsons Poster...I need this one.
Matt Groening Favorite Episode
IGN's Simpsons Arcade Review... I need it on my Droid

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Pop Culture: LOST, My Life as Liz, and the Bad Girls Club

My Life as Liz was new last night. Once I can't recall the story...it was generally about prom...but I do remember her outfits including that hideous prom dress.  Luckily, neither Liza nor her friend Taylor thought it was at all flattering. If haven't discovered this little hipster gem of show tune in now or at least check out the website.  By the way I'm starting to think I'm a hipster. Hipsters are supposed to be those people who are into alternative culture and clothing.  But now that the alternative is becoming more mainstream that must mean pop culture is becoming more of an alternative culture....hmm that made more sense in my head...guess I'll stick to just trying to dress like hipster.

Have you been keeping up with LOST??? Well my brother and I read a theory and now we are beginning to believe that the fake Locke is a bad guy. I was hoping he was good guy or anti-hero, but we're not so sure. If the castaways correspond with the numbers of the Valzenetti equation (the equation that equals to end of the world). Is it possible that the monster/fake Locke is trying to kill them off in order to guarantee the end of the world? ...you know since it seems like he is trapped in our world.  On the other hand, the others in the Temple are trying to keep them alive to save the world.  Plus look how scared Richard is of him and did say that he wants them dead.  Hmm I can't think of the rest of the reasoning behind this at the moment, but I will if I do.  Well a new episode is on tonight. Make sure you check it out. ABC at 9:00pm est.

Ooo and you know what else is on tonight...Bad Girls Club!!! The show I've been following since the first season. (I actually saw a clip of the fighting on the Soup and have been hooked every since).  Tonight is a clip show before the final episodes.  It should be interesting.  I mean, all the real bad girls have already left the house (Portia, Flo, Natalie), but it looks like Kate smacks or punches Annie. That won't be tonight, but I do hope the clip show is good.  Check it out on Oxygen tonight at 10pm and it repeats until like 2am.

 

Sunday, February 21, 2010

"The Color Yellow"


Wow...what an interesting tribute to Black History Month on The Simpsons this week. So, lets get straight to the recap.

The episode starts with Willy trying to get rid of a root in the Springfield Elementary school yard.  He tries some traditional methods, but eventually ends up using TNT.  It works and lands right on Skinners KIA ("My KIA!").  This gets the attention of Lisa's teacher, Ms. Hoover, and she decides to give the class an assignment on their family tree.

As Lisa researches her family tree she discovers that the majority of her ancestors were thieves, deadbeats and on some occasions alcoholics (Homer inherited that gene).  Worried she may not find anyone worth reporting, Lisa decides to go to the attic to find more information. As Lisa rummages through the attic we see where the Simpsons have stored everything from the Mr. Plow jacket to Funzo to the Tiki head that Mr. Burns gave them.  Lisa soons finds the diary of her ancestor Eliza Simpson. 

Lisa reads Eliza's diary in the kitchen to the rest of the family. Eliza begins by explaining she is having a good day because she geting her first slave. The Simpsons are in shock that anyone in their family had ever owned slaves or, as Homer put it, were in management.  But as Lisa continues they learn that Eliza intended on gooing to Mr. Burn's Ball to help a slave to freedom. Lisa is relieved to hear that her family were actually a part of the Underground Railroad (cue Bart: We ran a train station?!).  After hearing this Homer encourages Lisa to stop reading or as he puts it to quit while she is ahead. He pretty wants to spare her from any hurt that might result of her reading too much and learning her ancestors weren't as admirable as she thought. So Homer places the diary in the vent. 

Lisa attempts to leave the book alone, but the book beckons to come and finish reading it.  She soon retrieves it with the intention of using it for her Black History Month presentation.  The diary story continues with Eliza going to Mr. Burns Ball.  During a ruckus caused my Mr. Burns' demanding a four count waltz, Eliza goes goes to the stable meet and rescue Virgil, Mr. Burns' slave. She takes him North, but they are seen and chased by patrollers.  They flee into the woods, but the story is cut off because the last pages of the diary have been reduced to dust. 

In order to find more information about the story, Lisa and Marge go to the library.  There they find a cookbook by Eliza's mom. At the footnote of a recipe, they learn that Eliza and Virgil hide at a circus. Virgil hides as a clown in thick makeup (UnderClown Railroad) and Eliza hides as a bearded lady. When Krusty threatens to charge the patrollers for looking to long, the patrollers leave.  Eliza brings Virgil to her home and her father agrees to help Virgil after he makes the father some doughnuts. 

Lisa presents this story at the Black History Month assembly.  As she goes through her PowerPoint presentation, the presentation attempts close like in does in several presentations I have presented and watched. After telling the story of Eliza and her part in the Underground Railroad, Milhouse announces that her story is false.  He then reads from his ancestors journal about Eliza's father offering up Virgil's location for a precious suprise from Mr. Burns'. We later find out that this surpise is actually just shoes.  Eliza attempts to stop Mr. Burns, but when he encourages to be a good quiet girl she stops.  Lisa is in shock, but she is quickly escorted off the stage because there are two Jackie Robinson and multiple Obama presentations that have to be done.

Lisa goes back to the library and checks the film vault for more information.  She sees a video of elderly Eliza stating her only regret in life was holding her tongue to injustice.  Lisa concludes that there is no noble Simpson. After Grandpa Simpson hears this he decides to tell Lisa the remainder of the story.  After Mr. Burns learns that Virgil is the shed and goes to look for him, he finds Mabel there with shotgun prepared to protect Virgil.  Mabel decides to take Virgil to Canada herself.  After a perilous journey North, Virgil and Mabel make it to Canada..  There she decides her old husband and marry Virgil, but keeps the name Simpson.  Lisa and the rest of the family find out that they are 1/64th black.  Bart then says, "that's why I'm so cool," Lisa says, "that's why my jazz is so smooth," and Homer says, "that's why I earn less than my white co-workers." LoL that had to be the moment of the episode. They then ask Abe why he kept this a secret and he explains that there are people who are you know, kind of...and Lisa helps him by saying "racist."

Marge even brings up her French heritage which hasn't been explored and Homer says that it why he drinks.

Overall, I absolutely adored Black History Month Simpsons episode, (Black History Month hasn't been getting much recognition elsewhere). I especially adored the last line where the Simpsons explain how being 1/64th black has supposedly helped or hindered them. That was the funniest line of an episode that didn't have too many funny points. But I still loved it. I like how they show the whole historical research process. I also like the multiple Obamas (the students) and learning how there were few other noble ancestors of the Simpsons :-)

"Boy Meets Curl" Recap


I love the title of this episode because I get it. I used to love Boy Meets World, the television show. But this episode is more.

Well the episode begins with Homer and Marge trying to enjoy a date night, but Mr. Burns messes it up by having Homer, Lenny and Carl locate and patch a leak. Marge is forced to watch TV including the Real Housewives of Shelbyville. When Homer finally gets get home they go to see the movie Love, Formulaicly. LoL at that, I don't mind them taking swipes at Love Actually because I didn't particularly enjoy or even remember it. Homer and Marge don't mind too much that the movie theater is noisy, but once they see the movie is starring Ben Affleck it's a wrap for them. (Poor Ben Affleck, I'm starting to think his career may be a wrap). So yeah, they leave the theater and decide to go ice skating.

When they enter the skating rink they are told they can't skate because it appears that they are cleaning the ice. But they find out that different families are engaging in a sport called Curling. It is a perfect fit for Homer and Marge because Homer bowling skills and Marges sweeping skills are easily transferable to the sliding of the disc and the sweeping of the ice. Homer then has a long monologue about Curling that I didn't keep track of. Well soon enough, Homer and Marge try Curling and discover that they are very skilled at the sport.

Back at home, Homer and Marge describe Curling to Bart and Lisa who can't believe that it is even a real sport. Skinner then visits the house and tells Homer and Marge about the Winter Olympics Curling Demo and invites Homer and Marge to join his team. Homer response is "there's a Winter Olympics?" He then imagines a small Santa diving like in the Summer Olympics. As Homer imagines Marge finds out that they will be participating in the Olympic Curling trials.

At the trials Mrs. Skinner encourages Marge not to let love come in the way of winning. She then tells the story of how she lost the pole vaulting competition at the Summer Olympics because Skinner (as a baby in her stomach) kicked and knocked the pole, costing her the gold medal. All I could think is why would she blame Tamzarian when it was actually her son Skinner, who they kicked out of town LoL a while ago. But anyways at the trials Lisa becomes obsessed with Olympic pins because of the manipulation of a man dressed as a child. Also, Marge sweeps Homer's poorly thrown disk threw the food court to the center of the circle. As a result, they get to go the Olympics.

So, the Simpsons family drive to Vancouver. Along the way they run into "Boob Lady" on the streets and she and Homer throat sing together. Homer tells Marge that she used to be his therapists and the Boob Lady yells, pay your bill! Homer characteristicallly speeds off.

At the Olympic opening, the annoucer who was on Ghostbusters reads out the name of each country by starting with "Who you gonna call." As you might expect by the time he gets halfway through the list he has lost his voice and sounds extremely groggy. They then release the Canadian dove, the beaver and the beavers chews the whole arena.

At the Olympic Village hoter Bart has made new Canadian friends who closely resemble his friends back at home. On the other hand, Mrs. Skinner tries to convince Marge to drop Homer as her partner. Homer overhears and bobsleds through town as Marge contemplates this decision. Meanwhile, Lisa's obsession with Olympic pins has reached new heights. She trades her pearls for pins and is forced to play her saxophone for money. When Bart she sees her in an old coat and tries to find out why she is playing for money she reveals her obsession. He encourages her to take the pins off her dress and vest, but it turns her dress was made of pins. So sad LoL.

Back at the Olympic arena where Homer and Marge are competing, Tom Brokaw speaks about Lisa's pin dilemma because he loooves Lisa :). During the competition Marge injures her right arm when trying to save one Homer's bad throws and Dr. Hibbert declares she can never curl again. Marge is very upset when she packing to leave.

Meanwhile, Bart is trying to get Lisa clean. Lisa thinks it's tough love, but Bart thinks of it as "soft hate" (Oh how I loveBart) He tells to give him all her pins and to put on her pearls, but he learns that she traded them for pins and she is nothing, but a big Maggie without them (very true). So, Bart takes Homer's drivers license and cuts out his mouth and part of his eyes turns it upside down and creates a pin that he names Fatov. He convinces the pin seller that the pin is for the 2014 Olympics. After the seller fantasizes dancing with Fatov he agrees to trade.

Back at the Arena everyone is watching the Olympic Mixed Curling Competition. Even those in Springfield are glued to the sport...well except everyone at Moe's who are watching Quidditch. A better choice if I do say so myself. Skinner breaks his broom mid competition, but Mrs. Skinner tells him that she is still proud of him. Marge, who is able to compete using her left hand after years of hiding her left-handness, and Homer also participate. They do well and win the Gold medal. As Lisa cheers we see her with a pin a chest suggesting that Bart hadn't completely cured her pin obsession.

Overall, I thought the episode was really good. The main curling story line succeeding in making one of the most boring sports in the world appear a bit more interesting. Well, at least now I can understand why it can appeal to more people. I loved the subplot with Lisa. It showed the marketing tactics that target children and that Lisa does still own and play the sax. I also enjoyed Bart's soft hate. He can be a good brother at times....oh yeah Bob Costas was in the episode, but I don't know who that is...that's why I left him out :-S

Sunday, February 14, 2010

"Million Dollar Maybe" Recap



This episode starts with Spiderpig web-slinging across The Simpsons title. Ughh I never liked Spiderpig. I enjoyed the commercials for The Simpsons Movie featuring the pig, but the constant ringtone commercials was a little too much for my taste. There was also a Iphone coach gag...umm I biased because I have a Droid. Ido what the Iphone doesn't. Now thats a commercial I enjoyed.

Well the episode begins with Marge and Homer practicing a toast/song that they plan to perform at Valerie and Dave’s wedding (their cousin). They plan to steal the focus from the bride of course. The other story has to do with Lisa going to volunteer at the nursing home as usual, but she finds them staring at white noise because they don’t have a digital converter. Lisa decides to get them a converter. However, once she gets to the store she sees Mr. Burns having an amazing time playing on ZIi ( a Wii in the real world…you know like MyPod vs. Ipod J. So, after witnessing Burns’ first smile Lisa decides to get a Wii, oops I mean a Zii. Where she gets the money for this, I have no clue, but I’ll just go with the flow.

In the meantime, Homer is at work reading Chinese Fortune Cookies with his friends Carl and Lenny. Carl’s fortune tells him that he will find something that he lost. A second later Carl declares that his faith in God had returned. Homer’s fortune tells him that he would have a lucky day. Suddenly, Homer slips and crashes into a vending machine and all the candy pours out, so the prophecy or the fortune cookie that is, appears to be true. Homer then finds a CD on his way to the car and it has music that he likes. On the way to the wedding, Homer decides to buy a lottery ticket because it his lucky day and he uses the numbers on the back of the fortune cookie. But by stopping to get the ticket and waiting on a super slow moving line, Marge is forced to do the toast alone and it is extremely embarrassing because she decides to only sing her part. She then starts to cry and tries to drag Bart into it. She is then booed and people begin to cry “Why won’t she stop?” Yep it was that bad.

Homer rushes to the wedding, but accidentally drives off the cliff. We also see the newest character, La Bomba, driving on that hill and he chooses that moment to say his signature line, “Soon you will be mine” just before he crashes his car. Homer wakes up in a hospital to a broadcast where he learns that he won the lottery. He’s excited, but because Marge and the rest of the family are there he decides to calm down...to the point of accidentally dying. But his soul makes his way back to his body and he finds the right level calmness. So his family won’t find out he missed the wedding toast to buy a lottery ticket, he has Barney claim the ticket. Homer then hides the money in the tree and gets advice from Barney to use the money to buy his family gifts and hide them, so they don’t know they are from him. To repay Barney for his help he allows him access to his adult magazines like The Economist.

Meanwhile, the seniors at the retirement home are enjoying the Zii. They just don’t understand it very well. They call the remote a wand and their characters puppets. After they play they begin demanding Bengay and meds for aches they develop. The nurses do not like this.
At home, the Simpson family is finding nice little gifts all around. But after Homer dislocates his arm the tree and Bart discovers that he has a tree full of money that he is trying to hide from Marge. Bart then encourages Homer to spend some of the money himself. So he gets a personal concert from Coldplay (guest star Chris Martin said something that wasn't memorable) and they go on Zero Gravity Plane Rides. When Homer realizes that he is spoiling Bart he threatens him, but Bart blackmails him into continuing to spoil him.

Back at the old folk’s home, Lisa sees that the seniors are once again watching static. She asks the nurses about the Zii and they tell her that the Zii was not dishwasher safe. Lisa realizes that they ruined the Zii on purpose and hate their job and they let her know that they already had the worst job before Lisa made things harder with the Zii.

Meanwhile in the Simpsons house, Homer is trying to stay on Bart’s good side. He even asks Marge about the gifts and we learn that she assumes she got thing like her Panini press from the “Gummint” as part of the Economic Stimulus Plan. Homer is also forced to be a Neanderthal for Bart’s presentation. Homer finally decides to confess to Marge that he missed the toast while playing and won the lottery while on a balloon ride. Marge then says screw the toast for 1 million, but Homer reveals that he already spent all the money. But he shows her a cherry blossom garden that he planted for he that says Love of My Life from above. She lets him off the hook and they sing the toast song. In the background, we see another Cherry Blossom garden with Homer saying “phew.”

Overall, this was a okay episode. It filled with some with some things that are hard to believe. Like where did Lisa get money for a Zii and why would Marge be upset with $1 million now in her pocket. But then again they make Marge so annoying sometimes that she might’ve been upset with $1 million. But in the real world it doesn’t make sense, but would like to know how Lisa would have felt about it all. But the episode definitely had it’s funny moment though.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Pop Culture: Lost Premeires Tonight!

To all of you Lost Fans, the sixth and final season of Lost starts tonight! Are you as excited as am?

I am hoping that some of the top mysteries are solved for example:
1. What is the big deal with Walt?
2. What exactly is the Smoke Monster?
3. Why did Jacob select this group of people?
4. What is the reason for this feud between Jacob and the Man in Black?
5. What is the Island?
6. Who are the others?
7. What is the deal with Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking?

There are a million more questions but I can't think of anymore at the moment. Check out the season premeire tonight at 8 on ABC.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Pop Culture: "My Life as Liz"

One of my current obsessions is an obsession with Hipster Fashion. It started after I spent a semester abroad in Europe and was exposed to fashion that you would only find in Europe or among the smaller subcultures of America. After that I began to realize that there were even a handful of students in my college whom I had never noticed before wearing interesting outfits and shoes. Recently, this style has come to the forefront on certain music artists and other people in the spotlight like Kanye West, Katy Perry, and Ke$ha among others. There are even sights like thecobrasnake.com that photograph what I consider to be Hipster Parties.

The latest face in Hipster Fashion is the girl from a show called My Life As Liz. The main girl, Liz, is a super fashion hipster. She shops in vintage shops, combines unthinkable pieces, and wears the most interesting outfits. You might disagree, but it's probably because you don't get hipster fashion.

But if you're interested in seeing some hipster fashion on TV check out My Life as Liz on MTV. Thats the only reason why I watch it.