Last Friday, I met a friend at Mohegan Sun to see Barenaked Ladies, for which I had complimentary tickets. The show, in a nutshell, was great.

I left work promptly at 5pm and made it to Mohegan Sun in an hour and 40 minutes. Not too shabby. My friend arrived shortly thereafter and we went to the ticket window to get the tickets about a half hour before the start of the show. No offense to the first opener, Angel Taylor, but our first priority was getting dinner rather than catching the opening act. Luckily, we were able to get an immediate seat at Big Bubba’s BBQ and had a nice meal (I opted for the chicken and ribs combo, and she had meatloaf. Because two out of three ain’t bad.).

After dinner, we headed into the arena in the middle of Ben Kweller’s set. He was pretty darn good. I especially enjoyed Sawdust Man. After Ben Kweller, though, it was the moment of truth. Barenaked Ladies were going to take the stage and this was my first time seeing them without Steven Page.

And you know what? I didn’t miss him at all. They opened their set with Who Needs Sleep? (an always odd choice, in my opinion), and then broke into The Old Apartment. It was as it always is with them. They rocked the house. It wasn’t long before Ed Robertson was freestyle-rapping about playing at Mohegan Sun, and then him and the band started talking about how he’d gotten schooled at poker that day. It appears he played a $200 buy-in tournament and learned a couple lessons along the way. Lesson 1: Trip 9’s aren’t worth a damn (“I was outkicked!”), and lesson 2: Queens full of 10’s? Fold ‘em! (“He slowplayed me!”). All was right with the world. I’m not familiar with much of the new stuff, but Angel Taylor did come out to sing with Ed on one of the songs I DO know, Every Subway Car, and it sounded really good. They even played a song called Eraser from their kid’s CD Snack Time, which was great fun. The other band members (mainly Kevin Hearn) took over a lot of Steven Page’s vocals, and his absence was barely felt. In fact, the only time I really thought about him was when they played You Run Away, off their new All in Good Time album, which is clearly about him.

And as always, as I was hoping, they did their famous medley finale. It started with Kevin Hearn playing the piano and singing Magic by Pilot. This led into the band doing a song and dance routine that included Empire State of Mind by Jay Z, I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas (who were coincidentally playing the XL Center in Hartford the very same night), Baby by Justin Bieber, and California Gurls by Katy Perry, topped off by “Mohegan Sun, won’t you come” at the very end to the tune of Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden (which they’ve done at their previous Mohegan Sun shows). The crowd, of course, clamored for an encore, and BNL gladly obliged. They played 3 songs for their encore, and for the first, Ed Robertson played drums while Tyler Stewart stumbled across the stage belting out Alcohol (that song was made for him to perform), and they finished the night with Brian Wilson (the song, not the Beach Boys singer).

We left thoroughly satisfied with the show, and continued to do a little gambling on the penny slots. And even though it only took me an hour and twenty minutes to get home, it was still 2:15am. But who needs sleep, right?

This morning on the way to work, I passed a billboard that I’ve probably passed countless times before. For some reason, I never really noticed it like I did today. It was for Basketville in Putney, Vermont. And all I could think of is that right out front, Justin Timberlake is dressed up in a giant ridiculous basket costume, pressing play on a boombox, singing basket-related lyrics to some kind of current pop hit like Ke$ha’s Tik Tok, and then shouting, “Bring it on down to Basketville!” All thanks to the Omeletteville skit from years ago, and then the follow-up, Homelessville:

Yes, these are the things that go through my head on the drive to work…

Over the past few days, my wife has been re-watching her all-time favorite TV show on DVD, thanks to Netflix. Degrassi High. I watched the series with her once years ago (I had bought it for her on VHS tapes in the dark ages before DVD’s were all the rage), and it’s really something else. Let’s start with the opening theme:

You have to admire any TV show that has the gall to open the show with a gratuitous shot of a jeans-clad teenager’s asscrack. You don’t see that very often. As I watched some of it with her, I’m reminded of all the old (horrible) characters (some of which appear as adults in the next generation series).  However, I had forgotten about the 3 dorky main characters (Joey, Snake, and Wheels) and their band, The Zits. And their terrible song. Which I’ve had stuck in my head for the past couple days:

What a sweet, sweet tune. And after watching the video, it reminds me of Matt’s high school band, Gemini (or was it Detour? Or Poppo Smiley?). This video seems totally like something they would have done back then. Only instead of Everybody Wants Something, it would be Future Shock.

Oh no! According to E!, Steve Carell confirmed that he’s leaving NBC’s The Office for greener pastures. My guess is that Michael Scott will get transferred to Nashua so he can be near Holly, but I’m just pulling that out of my butt.

Can The Office survive without Michael Scott? Maybe not the fake tv office, but certainly any normal office without its Michael Scott could.

Mind us. We’ve been busy doing things outside instead of posting much on Songspeak.

We don’t love you any less. Promise.

Reggie Watts is an awesome beatboxer looper rapper theater actor dancer comedian whose album, Why $#!+ So Crazy is hilarious. Get it.

As evidence, I present to you the profanity-generous Fuck Shit Stack

So as we all know, LOST has its series finale this past Sunday. Like all series finales, a lot of people pissed and moaned that it was horrible and that the final few minutes really sucked, blah blah blah. But you know what other iconic show series finale people complained this much about? The Sopranos.

Even if you haven’t watched the whole series yet, you probably already know how it ends because someone told you (Basically no-one knows how it ends and they play “Don’t Stop Believin’” on a jukebox in a diner while they’re eating onion rings or something).

Here’s the original:

As much as people didn’t like the finale at the time, I think naysayers have come around a bit, realizing that in the context of the whole show, the writers did a respectable job. It’s certainly quite a memorable finale, which is why when Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse put together the “3 alternate endings for LOST” shown on Jimmy Kimmel, they of course spoofed The Sopranos finale.

(video will jump to the scene in question)

This isn’t the first time that The Sopranos series finale has been spoofed, though. Check out the final scene from Season 4 of the terribly terribly underrated “Everybody Hates Chris“.

My favorite part is when they all get really into Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer” and they start singing along with gusto. With gusto! (At least Terry Crews, who played the dad on Everybody Hates Chris is doing Old Spice deodorant commercials now.)

But you know who else did a Sopranos finale spoof? (more…)

Let’s get this straight. I don’t watch American Idol. I only found out the winner because I googled it today. Great job America. You did it again. Pick the most bland, soundalike contestant of the season as the winner. Seriously…is anyone going to be able to tell the difference between Lee Dewyze, David Cook, and Kris Allen 10 years from now? Can they even tell the difference now? As Bob from Bob’s Furniture would say…I doubt it! Crystal Bowersox may be a rotten-toothed, dirty dreadlock-wearing hippy, but at least she had a unique look and sound. The good news for her is that much of the time, runners-up tend to be more successful in the long run. Oh, and apparently it was Simon Cowell’s last night or something. Who cares. Maybe with his departure, the show will fade into obscurity where it belongs.

Awhile back, Jason Alexander joined Valerie Bertinelli as a spokesperson for Jenny Craig. This was all well and good. I mean, I’m all for losing weight and getting healthier. And then, this happened:

I saw this on TV the other day, and, well, my jaw just dropped. Did I really just see what I thought I just saw? As if the singing wasn’t bad enough, did he really have to get naked? And then throw his crotchsweat stained shorts on Valerie Bertinelli’s face? What does getting thinner have to do with exposing your genitals to the world? And was anyone really clamoring to see Jason Alexander naked? This commercial raised more questions that the entire series of Lost, as far as I’m concerned. And I think we can all agree, this isn’t even Jason Alexander’s most compelling musical number for a commercial. That little gem can be found here.

If Jenny Craig’s goal is to make us lose our appetite so we don’t want to eat and therefore lose weight, well, then, mission accomplished.

Last night was L O S T finale night at Matt’s. I won’t bore you all with the details of the show, as that’s been covered fairly extensively on the interwebs. This story takes place before the recap show even aired. Matt had grand plans to order takeout from El Guanaco. We all looked over the menu, made our decisions, and everything was coming together. Then, the unthinkable happened. When Matt called to order the food, there was no answer. He tried for 15 minutes, 5 or 6 times. Nothing. Even though their website said they would be open for business, we were being ignored. A plan B had to be made. That plan B was D’Angelo’s. So we started looking over that menu, and I caught site of their sandwich simply entitled “Number 9“. When I saw this, I started singing the Wiggles tune, “Dr. Knicker Bocker, Knicker Bocker, number 9…” (having a 5 year old makes one do strange things). Matt had no idea what was happening. I tried to explain, but he doesn’t even know who the Wiggles are. It was one of my favorite numbers from the Wiggles show that we saw many times at Six Flags last year. So, without any further ado:

Oh, and for those who just can’t handle a story ending without answers (you know who you are)…I got the roast beef cheddar melt (with a free cup of extreme broccoli and cheddar soup; coupons rule!) and Matt and Kristen opted for the Number 9. It must have been my singing.