8...Days...

It seems like every time I have an extended period of work, I lose all motivation to blog. I just ended a stretch of eight consecutive days of work. I got screwed over because my off days were in the beginning of the week last week and at the end of the week this week. The OutKast review only got posted because most of it was already finished earlier.

That eight day stretch has left me with a large backlog of stuff to do for the blog. My head will be spinning after I finish the large amount of music reviews I want/need to do. They include Justin Timberlake, Lupe Fiasco, Beyonce, Sleepy Brown, DJ Shadow, Ludacris, J. Dilla, and possibly Basement Jaxx and Fergie. I've wanted to do posts on various things such as Aaron McGruder deciding not to return to The Boondocks comic strip but I haven't had the energy to do so.

I haven't even felt the need to tackle TV in-depth, so I'll summarize: I like Studio 60, Help Me Help You, and Heroes so far. I'll need another episode to see if I actually like Six Degrees and I don't really care for Brothers and Sisters. Prison Break is a lot of fun in Season 2 even if it's convoluted. My Name Is Earl and The Office are still two of the funniest shows on television. I miss Scrubs.

I need to immerse myself in TV, music, and anime. When I come up for air, there will be a new post.

CD Review: Idlewild by OutKast

In the months, weeks, and days the release of the movie and album Idlewild, the media's focus was not focused on either. Instead, all that was talked about is whether or not OutKast had broken up or was about to break up. The media cited the numerous delays in getting the album and movie out and rumors flew that they bickered over how to market the album and movie. Many wondered how Big Boi and Andre 3000 could do another album together after Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Solo discs (even those packaged together as a double album) usually mean the beginning of the end for a duo or group.

One question remained about Idlewild the album...what kind of album would it be? Would it be a welcome return to the pre-Speakerboxxx/The Love Below OutKast of Stankonia, Aquemini, and ATLiens? Would it be a soundtrack to the film, what with its supposed 1930's influences or would it be another Speakerboxxx/The Love Below where Dre and Big Boi do mostly separate tracks? Well, Idlewild is not a single one of those things...it's all of the above. However, the end result is not as good as their previous efforts.

When you listen to the first two of Idlewild's sprawling 25 tracks, you might think you're going to listen to a normal OutKast album. There is a typically odd (but funny) skit that opens the album followed by “Mighty O,” a song that features both Dre and Big Boi rapping over a beat produced by Organized Noize, the production collective that produced most of OutKast's earlier efforts. Even though this fun song (with its take on Cab Calloway's “Minnie The Moocher”) is one of the weaker efforts on the album, it's just nice to hear them rapping together. “Hollywood Divorce,” featuring Lil' Wayne and Snoop Dogg is a bit better. The other skits on this album (the ones that don't features lines from the Idlewild movie, anyway) are also reminiscent of older OutKast. I laughed at “No Bootleg DVDs” where a bootlegger claimed that he could make a grill in three minutes and it reminded me of the nutty interludes on Stankonia. That's where the comparisons to old-school OutKast end, though.

Most of the songs on Idlewild fall into two categories. Either they feel like they could've been on Speakerboxxx/The Love Below or they are Idlewild soundtrack songs. “Morris Brown,” one of the best songs on the album, may have been the best song to not get on Big Boi's Speakerboxxx disc. Produced by Andre 3000 and featuring a great performance by the Morris Brown College marching band, it's an incredibly fun song to listen to. Even Bryan Barber's colorful, cartoony video doesn't do this song justice. Turn this song up on a good stereo and try not to jam along with it. Dre's “Idlewild Blue (Don't Chu Worry 'Bout Me)” is pretty good as well with Dre's signature electrofunk combined with a bluesy acoustic guitar. Just like on The Love Below, Dre's singing is bad yet at the same time good enough to not be annoying.

The songs that act like a soundtrack to the movie Idlewild are good enough to wonder what a true Idlewild soundtrack would've been like. “PJ & Rooster,” the song played in the TV commercials for the Idlewild film, is a nice 1930's influenced song with a style similar to “Roses” where Dre sings and Big Boi raps. “Makes No Sense At All” is, as the song says, “Bull shit / Yeah, pretty much” but it has a goofy charm fueled by the way Andre 3000 (in character as Percival) talks to himself. However, the stand out “soundtrack song” is most certainly “Call The Law.” Although Big Boi makes an appearance, the song really belongs to Janelle Monae, a singer on Big Boi's Purple Ribbon record label. If that song is any indication, she could have a nice career ahead of her.

Even though both Dre and Big Boi have denied that OutKast is breaking up, a three-song sequence on the album seems to tell another story. The songs “Chronomentrophobia,” “The Train,” and “Life Is Like A Musical” seem to be OutKast's way of dealing with their seemingly imminent breakup. On the second verse of his song “Chronomentrophobia,” Dre says some things that hint at the end of OutKast: “Hope that when I'm gone / Ya'll remember this / What we stood for / Fuck that fame and that glitz / Well it's / Beginning to look a lot like the ending...”

While “Chronomentrophobia” is pretty subtle, Big Boi's “The Train” is a little more straightforward. With lush production (provided by Big Boi himself), snippets of dialogue from the Idlewild movie (“God don't make no mistakes”) and vocals by Scar and Sleepy Brown, Big Boi seems to give OutKast a grand sendoff. The sung chorus, with lyrics such as “It's been a good long road / Now it's time for me to go” and “Gotta spread my wings / And fly up high” drive home the point and Big Boi makes references not only to OutKast's past but also the fact that he readily goes on stage by himself to perform OutKast's music.

Unlike the previous two songs, “Life Is Like A Musical” doesn't hint at a breakup. In fact, it almost acts as a response to “The Train.” If “The Train” is OutKast's big send off, then “Life Is Like A Musical” is the epilogue. On the song's only verse, Dre sings about reassuring Big Boi that despite anything that happens, they are still friends. The song ends with Dre singing “Don't let 'em / Don't let 'em / Don't let 'em / Don't let 'em / Change us / Change us/ Change us / Change us...”

The best words to describe Idlewild the album are “not quite.” It's not quite a “real” OutKast album, not quite a rehash of Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, not quite a soundtrack to the movie Idlewild, and not quite up to the level of their previous albums. This album is also not as bad as some music critics have made it out to be. There are plenty of good songs to be found here, even if many of them aren't all that radio-friendly. If there is one constant running through the album, it is that no matter how much the two of them differ, Dre and Big Boi will probably be friends for life. Friendships like that are rarely seen in artists, let alone regular people. I guess what's said in “A Bad Note,” the final song on Idlewild, really is true for OutKast: “A bad note ain't a bad note if it's a good note.”

Thoughts And Things

Various Stuff:

The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin commemorates the recent 10-year anniversary of 2Pac's death with an article calling him one of the most overrated rappers in history. Even though I like 2Pac's music, I can't say that I disagree with him that much.

Jim at Patriside has put up details on the next Mixmania as well as the links to the blogs that participated in the 9/11 Mixmania. I put a lot of the songs that scare me on my Evil Mixmania mix, so the new topics should be a bit challenging.

My review of OutKast's Idlewild is almost done and will be up soon. Look for the next "big 4" review to be Justin Timberlake. Also, I'm going to pick up Lupe Fiasco's album soon, so that will be reviewed too.

Finally, here are some articles from Blog Critics I enjoyed recently:

Clayton Perry meticulously uses statistics to prove that Beyonce is not the diva we think she is in "Ring The Alarm: Beyonce Is Not A Diva"

Mat Brewsters wonders "Can Season 18 Save The Simpsons?" and given that the two episodes shown so far have been pretty good, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Last, but not least, Megan Giddings of The Modern Pea Pod gets her review of OutKast's Idlewild in before me. Some of the themes I thought about exploring in my upcoming review are in this one.

CD Review: Game Theory by The Roots

After 2004's The Tipping Point, The Roots make their return with Game Theory, their first album on new label Def Jam. You might think that by moving to Def Jam that The Roots decided to make easily accessible, more mainstream hip-hop music. That's hardly the case. Game Theory is a hard-hitting, musically complex album that is not just one of the group's best albums but also one of the best of the year.

The first thing you'll notice upon listening to Game Theory is that it's actually an album. What I mean by that is that it's really meant to be listened in one sitting. The marketers at Def Jam obviously knew this as they decided to put three songs in the first video from the album. There is a consistency in the quality of the songs on this album that is admirable and rare. That's not to say that the songs on Game Theory are so alike that they are indistinguishable. Each one of them is quite memorable.

After a very short intro, the album gets off to a blistering start with "False Media," an indictment of the current state of America from kids being on Ritalin to the Bush administration. Like most of the songs on this album, this song could not be described as conventional. The chorus is done in spoken word, the beat changes completely towards the end of the song, and Black Thought only does one verse. Despite that, the song never feels like it's meandering or even "experimental." It does what it set to do and makes way for the next song.

Throughout the album, samples are cleverly used. You may not even be able to tell that Kool And The Gang's "Jungle Boogie" and The Ohio Players' "Ecstasy" are even sampled as short vocal bursts from the songs are woven into the tapestry of "Don't Feel Right." The song is driven by a deviously simple piano riff and the vocals of Maimouna Youssef on the chorus. Radiohead's "You And Whose Army" is turned into a laidback jam on "Atonement." Then, there is "Can't Stop This," the album's final track which was produced by the late J. Dilla. Musical and vocal samples are interwoven in a brilliant, almost seemingly random way that will really make you wish J. Dilla was still alive. The second half of the song is turned into a tribute to the producer as voice mail messages are put over music.

Although Game Theory is firmly a hip-hop album, other genres of music make appearances in some of the songs. "Here I Come" has a Nine Inch Nails-esque feel to it created in part by the guitars and the electronic elements. "Baby" has a very old-school R&B feel while "Clock With No Hands" has a modern soul feel to it. "Livin' In A New World" has a sound reminiscent of light, 1960's pop which is ironic considering that Black Thought's lyrics are decidedly dark: "Yo, they got high powered lenses on the cameras outside / It ain't nowhere to run, it ain't hardly nowhere to hide."

With all the varied and interesting music on display, it's easy to overlook just how good Black Thought is on this album. His anger is evident on many songs. "Take It There" talks about how bad things are in his hometown of Philly without glorifying things: "I'm from the side of town / Where shots get sprayed around / Where the expectancy rate be twenty-eight around...Have your whole view on life beyond jaded." He also reminisces on growing up and thinks about where he is now on "Clock With No Hands": "Sittin' in the staircase, holding back tears / Lookin' over mad years of photographs / Pictures of some places, I ain't ever goin' back / Some people I used to love, why I ain't show 'em that."

Game Theory is The Roots' best album since 2002's Phrenology and certainly one of the best albums of the year, hip-hop or otherwise. With a running time of only slightly more than 47 minutes, this album doesn't waste time with interludes or even a hidden track. Even with the variety found here, it never feels like a collection of songs. It always feels like a cohesive album. It's one that is often dark, angry, and challenging without sounding like an art project gone wrong. If you're sick of the direction hip-hop is going today with the likes of Yung Joc, Rick Ross, and "snap" music, listen to Game Theory and have your faith in the genre restored again.

9/11 Mixmania

I'll never forget the night before September 11, 2001. I probably went to bed at around 1 or 2 in the morning. As I went to sleep, the last thing I thought about was the anime DVD I thought I was going to get in the mail the next day. I was looking forward to getting it and watching it the next day. That thought has stuck in my mind five years later because it just seemed so damn frivolous compared to what ended up happening the next day. I guess when a life-changing event like the September 11th terrorist attacks happens, everything before it just seems a little less important.

This mix was by far the most difficult one I've done of all the Mixmanias I've participated in. It was a combination of procrastination and a lack of inspiration. I thought of a couple of songs immediately, but for the longest time, I drew a blank on what other songs I wanted to include. In the end, I settled upon 11 songs. This mix is the shortest one I've done for Mixmania. Usually, I'm not happy with a mix if it's not at least an hour long. This mix is less than an hour long. In fact, it's less than 50 minutes long. In the end, this mix is a little unusual for me but September 11th was not the usual either.

Before I start naming the songs and talking about how they relate to how I spent September 11, 2001, let me give you a little more background. Even though I was enrolled at Northwestern at the time, I was at home because NU's new school year hadn't started yet. NU has a quarter system in which the year starts in mid-September and ends in June. With my grandmother's birthday being the day before 9/11, my mom had stayed overnight at my grandmother's house. My uncle and cousin had come into town a few days earlier to celebrate my grandmother's birthday and they were staying over at her house.

Now, my mix:

1. Fatboy Slim-“Star 69” (Sterfish WTF Mix): If there is one thing I will never forget about September 11, 2001 is the way I found out about the attacks. With my sister gone to school and my mom staying over at my grandmother's house (with my aunt taking her to work), the only people in the house were me and my dad. My dad was working nights at the time (and still does at the moment), so he had come home early that morning and gone to sleep. Meanwhile, since I had stayed up late the night before, I too was asleep.

At about 10-something in the morning, my dad came by my room and woke me up. He had just gotten up himself as he didn't even have his glasses on. The look on his face kind of betrayed that something big had happened. He told me to turn on the TV. I asked him why. He told me to turn on the TV again and said “I've never seen anything like this in my entire life.” I turned on the TV in my room. I had left it on FOX the night before. The very first thing I saw was the ruins of the World Trade Center. I sat in my room in silence. My dad sat on my bed and also looked at the TV in silence with me. We watched the coverage for at least 5-10 minutes without saying a word. I remember flipping through the various channels and seeing the same thing. Even non-news channels had stuff on. It was surreal. It was scary. And although I never said it out loud, I wondered “What The Fuck?”

The majority of Fatboy Slim's song “Star 69” consists of artist Roland Clark saying “What The Fuck?” For this mix, I just cut this song down to the final minute or so.

2. The Go! Team - “Air Raid Gtr”: In the moments after I found out about the terrorist attacks, I became worried thinking about what they meant. Would this mean another World War? Would this mean there would be a draft? Those thoughts scared the hell out of me since the only war I had lived through until that point was the first Gulf War.

The Go! Team is a happy, upbeat kind of group, but I picked this song because it consists of guitars played to sound like an air raid siren.

3. Thom Yorke - “The Clock”: With the worries about the implications of war also came worries that these attacks were only the beginning. For a while that day, I did wonder if another terrible thing was going to happen that day. In some respects it felt like time was running out on our country and this song, with the lyric “Time is running out/For us” seemed like a good choice for this mix.

4. DJ Shadow - “Blood On The Motorway”: Death certainly invaded my thinking as I thought about all the people whose lives were lost on that day. Even though I'm not sure if this song really reflects something I thought about on September 11th, it was one of the first songs I considered for this mix. It's one of DJ Shadow's great epic songs (right behind the “What Does Your Soul Look Like?” songs) and it's all about death. This song came out in 2002, so I have to wonder if September 11th was on DJ Shadow's mind when he put this line into the song: “You have not betrayed your ideals/Your ideals betrayed you.”

5. Pharrell - “Our Father”: I know I prayed on September 11th. I prayed that everyone in my family was safe. I prayed for the families of those who died. I picked this song because Pharrell is simply thanking God for everything he has. I don't think you can get much simpler (and truer) than a line like “Thank you for my mother/Thank you for my father.”

6. Terence Blanchard - “Opening Titles” from 25th Hour Original Score: I know I had a song about death on this mix, but I felt that I needed something that would be dedicated to the victims of 9/11. This piece is from the opening of the Spike Lee film 25th Hour, a film that ended up being one of the first films to show a post-9/11 New York City. The images that accompany the music are those of the temporary memorial of lights that was at Ground Zero.

7. The Notorious B.I.G. - “Somebody Gotta Die”: Let's be real. On September 11th, most of America wanted the sons of bitches who did it dead. Not tried in a courtroom, not “brought to justice” or anything like that. We wanted the people who organized such a heinous act dead, plain and simple. As Biggie says on this song: “Somebody's gotta die/If I go, you gotta go.” Now, why the hell isn't Osama bin Laden dead yet?

8. Gang Starr - “Moment Of Truth”: September 11th kind of made us as a country stop a bit. The U.S. is widely regarded as the world's last superpower and yet it took only a few people to take down the World Trade Center and attack the Pentagon. That is one unsettling thought.

I picked this song because it's all about facing the moment of truth that all of us face. It's incredibly unfortunate that our country's moment of truth about our safety resulted in the loss of so many lives.

9. Common - “Love Is...”: It's corny to say that all we need is love, but really we do need it. For a brief time after September 11th, many things that separated us seemed petty. We really felt like one for a little while. Now, of course, we're bitterly divided again. I want to scream whenever I hear the terms red state and blue state. Why can't we love our fellow man?

10. Sean Paul - “Never Gonna Be The Same”: After an event like the September 11th attacks, one thing was very clear...we would never again be the same country we were on September 10, 2001. We all feel the effects of the events of September 11th even today. I remember one time where my dad and I took my uncle to the airport in the times before September 11th. We were able to go into the airport and go all the way to the terminal before saying goodbye to him. The last time I went to take him to the airport after a family visit, we just had to drop him off and say goodbye. I will never be able to go into an airport again unless I'm catching a flight or working there. That's just one way that things have changed.

11. Gorillaz - “Demon Days”: After such a terrible day, ultimately you realize that you're still alive, that time will still keep going, and that tomorrow is a new day. I'm not saying that you forget. I'm saying that you deal with things and move on. I did not spend the days after September 11th gloomy. I went right back to living my life. You can't dwell on things that have already happened. You just have to hope that you've learned from them and continue to live as best you can.

The message of this final song (which is also the final song on the album it came from) is the same as what I mentioned above. The choir in the song sings “It's a brand new day/So turn yourself/Turn yourself/Turn yourself around/To the sun.” That's what we all did in the days after September 11, 2001. We went back to work and school. September 11, 2001 joins moments like the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and JFK and the Challenger disaster as something that will forever stay in the minds of those who were alive to see it. Our country was able to recover from those moments and it will recover from September 11th and hopefully, it will come out all the better.

Snakes On A Plane

Sometimes, I enjoy watching terrible movies and laughing at them. I don't do it all the time but if there's nothing on and I see a B-horror movie or just a random action flick, I may watch it. I fully expected to see one of these types of movies (only with more recognizable people) when I went to see Snakes On A Plane. Fortunately, my expectations were met.

Snakes On A Plane has a plot (and a title) that only B-movie fans could love. A man witnesses a murder by the hands of a powerful drug dealer. Samuel L. Jackson plays the FBI agent assigned to protect him as they fly from Hawaii to Los Angeles so that he can testify against the drug dealer. The drug dealer, in an apparent “desperate” move, decides to take down the flight the FBI agent and witness are on by unleashing a cargo box full of incredibly dangerous, poisonous and (thanks to pheromones) pissed off snakes.

Like every B-movie and bad horror movie, Snakes On A Plane is filled with a bunch of random, one-dimensional characters. They include a Paris Hilton-ripoff, a germphobic hip-hop star and his crew, a couple on their honeymoon (and the husband is afraid of flying), two young unattended kids, a flight attendant on her final flight before leaving her job, and a male flight attendant who is seemingly gay. A few of these characters are played by recognizable actors including Julianna Margulies, Flex Alexander, and Kenan Thompson.

Although a little too much time is spent on establishing these characters (after all, we don't really give a damn about them), things get moving once the snakes are unleashed. Snakes On A Plane was directed by David R. Ellis. He directed Final Destination 2 and he brings the same light, “you wouldn't want that to happen to you,” style to this movie. The snakes in the film bite in every single place you'd never want them to which generates laughs and shocks instead of actual scares. Most of the snakes in the film are done with CG and bad CG at that. The bad CG only stands to make things funnier.

As the world's leading on-screen badass and star of the film, Samuel L. Jackson has the best lines and the best non-snake biting scenes. He plays the role at the right amount of seriousness. He's obviously not trying that hard, but he tries just hard enough to make the ridiculous sound semi-believable. The film overall takes itself seriously but not serious enough where scenes like the one involving a snake and a little dog aren't funny. Part of me wished that they played up the silly elements a little bit more. For example, one of the characters in the film is a kickboxer. In a film such as this, I'm amazed that they didn't have one scene in the movie where the kickboxer kicked one of the snakes. If the movie had a little more fun with its premise, that scene probably would have happened in the film.

Overall, Snakes On A Plane is definitely a fun time at the movies, especially with the right kind of crowd. Don't go into this movie expecting a legitimate thriller, a scary horror film, or a Scary Movie-esque comedy. Snakes On A Plane is just simply a bad movie that will make you laugh and there's nothing wrong with that. Can you imagine how much fun you could've had at other movies if you knew the movies were going to be bad before you went in?

Busy Yesterday

I am now a T-Mobile customer. Yesterday, after a day of visiting various cell phone companies, I settled upon T-Mobile. They seem to be the only company that lets you get unlimited nights and weekends for less than $49.99 a month. I got a new number and my parents and I decided that they would take my old number and use it with Cingular's cheapie, only-available-over-the-phone plan.

I also sent my 9/11 Mixmania mix to my match yesterday. It took me a while to do this mix and even then, I'm not sure if I'm fully happy with the tracks I put on there. I'm betting money that when I end up reading everyone else's track listings, I'll realize what good tracks I didn't put on mine.

Yesterday was a pretty eventful day since I also shipped my sister's computer back to HP for repairs and sent off the rebate paperwork for said computer. I helped pay for my sister's computer so I think that HP should send me double my rebate back given that it couldn't go a month before messing up.

My review of Pharrell's new album is now up at ThaHipHop.com The version on the site is slightly different from what I posted on my blog and on Blog Critics. In fact, I think it's a little bit better. Thanks to Fivefold for streamlining that review a bit and posting it on his site.

I'm sorry for another one of “these” posts. Somehow, I will have something of substance to post on this blog later today. Although I'm tempted to write my glowing review of The Roots' Game Theory already (it's good, dammit!), I'll probably write something else if I can stop playing with and learning my new phone.

When I Get Off My Lazy...

-I've got four fairly big CDs that I'll be reviewing soon: Idlewild by OutKast, Game Theory by The Roots, B'Day by Beyonce, and Future Sex/Love Sounds by Justin Timberlake. I've never really reviewed anything by Justin or *NSYNC, so that one should be interesting.

-My belated review of Snakes On A Plane is also on the way. Also, more Anime Thoughts too.

-September 11th Mixmania is coming up as well. I will recount what I remember about that day in addition to revealing my mix (which I'm still in the process of creating).

-Finally, check out this piece that appeared in the September 1, 2006 edition of the Christian Science Monitor. Not only is it a great article, it was written by my cousin.

R.I.P. Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin

Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, is dead.

It's sad because he always seemed like a fun guy who loved what he was doing. I'm going to miss his familiar "Crikey!"

Honestly, in the back of my mind, I thought that he might get seriously injured once because he always took risks in dealing with dangerous animals. However, you don't really think someone like him would die from an encounter even if the danger is there. His death really makes you understand how dangerous nature documentaries of any kind can be.

Condolences go out to his wife and young children.

Thoughts On The 2006 MTV Video Music Awards

Back in NYC for the first time in years, the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards featured Jack Black as host, fans voting in the major categories for the first time, and no major surprises. Still, it was a lot better than last year.

-I enjoyed Jack Black as host of this year's show. His opening, in which everything went wrong, was hilarious. While much of his antics were pretty much Jack Black being Jack Black (along with a running storyline involving his Tenacious D partner Kyle Gass), it was pretty fun. Hell, anything that could keep Diddy or Dane Cook from hosting the show would be great. Oh, and seeing Justin Timberlake building shelves in Jack Black's dressing room is easily one of the funniest things I've ever seen on the VMA's.

-It was certainly an interesting idea to have The Raconteurs be the show's “house band.” I wished I actually liked their music, though.

-The performances were pretty decent for the most part, although most of them were lacking the spark they should have had. When the biggest guest stars to appear during performances are a guy from ZZ Top, Lou Reed, Jim Jamursch, and The Pussycat Dolls, things must be pretty bad.

I liked Beyonce's over-the-top performance of “Ring The Alarm.” From the sudden start to the Janet/Michael Jackson-esque dance and the finale on top of a rising platform, it was good stuff. I think some may hate on it, though. Let's face it...she will never top that BET Awards “Crazy In Love” performance, so get over it.

I also really liked Christina Aguilera's anti-VMA performance. Instead of doing “Ain't No Other Man” or one of the many upbeat tracks from Back To Basics, she does a ballad. That made it stand out among a sea of uptempo performances.

The single funniest performance, though, had to be Missy during the Hype Williams tribute. Dressed in the black plastic suit of her video for “The Rain” and stuffed into a Power Wheels Escalade, Missy already looked funny. However, I cracked up when the Power Wheels broke down and Timbaland had to push her off the stage. And I cracked up AGAIN when she couldn't even get herself out of that damn toy.

-Speaking of Hype Williams, I think he deserved that Video Vanguard award although it's probably five years too late. His best videos are creative, stylish, and memorable. I can count his collaborations with Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliott as some of my all-time favorite videos. At the same time, many of his videos helped continue hip-hop's objectification of women. Ultimately, though, the best thing Hype Williams did is help pave the way for directors such as Chris Robinson, Little X, and Bryan Barber to pick up where he left off.

-I don't think Paris Hilton can go anywhere without being the butt of at least a few jokes. Sarah Silverman's “message” to Paris was a slickly vicious slam at her. Pink managed to get a few laughs out of me (and a smile out of Nicole Richie) when she did her best Paris impression while accepting her award for the Paris/Lindsay-bashing song “Stupid Girls.”

-Many of the headlines I've read online about the VMA's mentioned that many winners were “upsets.” Let me just say that that's the biggest load of crap I've read. I think everyone forgot that MTV allowed fans to vote for everything online but the technical categories. Fans never vote for the best artist or the best song...they always vote for the most popular. So, it really should be no surprise that “My Humps” would win for Best Hip-Hop Video. That song was incredibly and inexplicably popular. As for Panic! At The Disco winning Video Of The Year? Same deal. That group is more popular among MTV fans right now than any of the other nominees. If MTV lets the fans vote every year, the same thing will happen. Whatever is most popular in the time closest to the VMA's will pretty much win every category, quality be damned.

-Whose idea was it to close the show with The Killers? Don't let them near next year's VMA's.

Overall, this year's show was better than last year's. My expectations weren't very high for this year's show, so a little improvement is good enough for me. It may be asking too much for MTV to at least fake spontaneity next year.