Blog Goes POP.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT UP.

Tonight is the big audition - myself and two other purveyors of pop-cultural potpourri go for broke as we join together Wonder-Twins style to form team Camp Anawana - and audition tonight for VH1's World Series of Pop Culture. I admit, I've always wanted to be on a gameshow. I mean, I don't think I've ever been condifent enough in my general trivia abilities to compete on, say, Jeopordy ... but I've always thought that, given the chance, I could rack up some nice winnings on Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, or, by God, Super Sloppy Double Dare.

But one thing I do know about is pop culture. Sure, being 24 puts me at a disadvantage compared to people who lived through the 70's and were seeing R-rated movies in the 80's, but I still have a scarily large part of my brain devoted to random factoids about movies, TV, music, comics, etc. And, I'm really competitive, and I haven't been involved in any real competition of this kind in a long while. I'm all about winning, baby.

So wish me and the rest of our team luck tonight. If nothing else, our shining personalities and irresistable charisma and charm should put us over the top ... ummm, yeah.

- A quick shout out to the team of BU alumni who put together a great event last night at Sushi Dan's in West Hollywood, a low-priced, laid-back alternative to officially-sanctioned BU alumni events that tend to be pricey and cater towards the older big spenders rather than us up-and-coming young Hollywood playaz on the rize (I like Z's). I ran into many quality people who I had not seen in a long while, and saw many other BU friends, AND even walked away with a nice little gift bag. Good times.

TV STUFF:

- Due to last night's eventfullness, I didn't see Smallville or The OC, though I don't really have high hopes for either's latest episode, as both shows of late have mostly been mired in mediocrity. Still, I have a certain soft spot for both, in light of my geekiness for Superman and my total inability to stop watching a once-great show even after it's long-since jumped the proverbial shark.

- I'd like to give a shout-out to one of my all-time favorite shows, KING OF THE HILL, which returns to the FOX Sunday night lineup this week. Not only does it return, but it reclaims its rightful place in the lineup, at 8:30 pm, following The Simpsons (as oppoesd to being relegated to the oft-prempted 7:30 pm slot). King of the Hill, to me, is one of the most remarkable shows on TV. Like many, I didn't even like the show when it first premiered. It had crude animation, odd pacing, and wasn't all that funny. But amazingly - those of us who stuck with it found that each season, the show got better and better. It wasn't even until its fourth or fifth season that the show really even began to hit its creative stride. And now, ELEVEN seasons in, King of the Hill returns from the brink of being canned by FOX and shows no signs of slowing down - in fact, it's already renewed for a twelfth season! Unlike the other remaining shows from the heyday of FOX comedy (Simpsons, Family Guy), King of the Hill is just as good as it ever was, if not better. This show, at its best, is one of the best portrayals of real, American family life. The characters are anything but glamorous, and have a great balance of modernity with down-home conservatism. The jokes can be roll-on-the-floor funny at times - this is Mike Judge we're talking about after all, but more often than not I'm just amazed at what a great, feel-good show this is, that tells its stories and develops its characters with amazing nuance and skill and even a little bit of poignancy, in the way that classic episodes of The Simpsons could do. So here's to King of the Hill - welcome back!

- I did finally see this past Monday's HEROES. Overall I enjoyed the ep, though I hope that the show picks up the pace even more, as a few of the plotlines seem like they have the potential to get dragged out a bit. I give Ali Larter some real credit - she showed some legit acting chops in her dual personas of Nikki and Jessica. For some reason she was much more entertaining in the confines of a prison cell than in her domestic life ... Hiro as always had some great lines ("Whooosh ...". ) and was a lot of fun to watch. Claire I also feel is a bit more interesting now that she's proactively seeking out the truth about her origins. The Petrellis and Mohinder are still probably the weakest links of the show, as none of the three leasing male characters really has the gravitas necessary to give much weight to their lines. And man, that wannabe, psuedo-intellectual opening and closing narration is still godawful. Please, make it stop. Things look to pick up now that Christopher Ecclestion is, what, the invisible man? He's easily gotta be one of the better actors on the show now though, so I look forward to the full introduction of his character. Overall, Heroes continues to entertain as basically mindless fluff serial storytelling, but I am still hoping and waiting for it to emerge as something more.

My Grade: B

- Alright ... lots to do so I gotta run, and mentally prepare for tonight. Quick, ask me anything!