Have You Seen Junior's Grades? A Pop Culture Blog

RIP Steve McNair

runningback — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:22:17 +0000

I have to say that I am deeply saddened at the passing of Steve McNair (no pun inteneded). Despite winning the 2003 league MVP I thought for much of his career he was underrated. The guy wasn’t afraid to play hurt and is one of (maybe the only) few “running quarterbacks” that learned to become a classic drop back QB.

The one enduring memory I will have of him was his Randall Cunningham-esque escape act in the Super Bowl against the Rams.

Posted in football, sports Tagged: nfl, steve mcnair, tennesee titans

The Philanthropist: Series Premiere

runningback — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:10:49 +0000

I was a big fan of HBO’s Rome so the fact that James Purefoy was starring in his own show I had to give it a shot. I thought he was pretty incredible as Mark Antony. So the premise of The Philanthropist isn’t ground ground breaking. Rich dude has an apiphany then decides to become Dudley Do-right. The plot line was pretty much by the numbers, but you know what? I still super dug it.

It was totally carried by Purefoy’s charm and some really nice looking shots. I will tip my hat to NBC for getting creative with the product placement of Bing.com making it part of the show. Basically they would cut to commercial, mention that the show was brought to you in part by Bing, then it would immediately cut to a scene where the characters utilized the new Microsoft search engine.

I won’t lie, I liked the concept of the show more than the actual show. So much negative crap going on in the world that if one has to turn to the idiot box for some escapism, why not make it totally feel goody?

Posted in tv

True Blood Season 2 Episode 2: Keep This Party Going

runningback — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:57:51 +0000

“I don’t normally cuss, but you have completely fucked me here.”

Sookie Stackhouse’s desperate words to Jessica Hamby after an ill advised trip to see her family pretty much sum up the first two episodes of season 2 of True Blood. There has been more gore & profane scenes in the first two episodes this season than I remember in ALL of season 1, and that’s a good thing. Not since the Anne Rice’s vampire novels/bad movies of the early 90′s has there been such hype around the idea of vampires. Of course the majority of this is thanks to Robert Pattinson’s hair. This is why it was a stroke of genius by Allan Ball to transform True Blood from a well written vampire series that concentrated more on the inference of blood/gore/sex of the genre to a well written vampire series that realized “Hey, we are on fucking HBO!”. Leave the sappy lack of the sexy side to being a vampire to the Twilight saga and let’s rock and roll.

Where to begin. The four story arc’s we have going on so far are all equally as interesting and alluring.

Maryanne (The human vibrator): The fact that she turned a boring night at Merlotte’s into pretty much an orgy was great. The highlight of which was watching Detective Andy Bellefleur do his self proclaimed “epileptic on meth” dance after he swore he would never dance in public again.

Bill & Jessica: I usually don’t think gay jokes are ever funny, mainly because they are so low brow, but the look that the lady who worked at the clothing store gave Bill & Eric after discussing Eric’s “new look” was pretty priceless. Jessica is much more a part of the show than I thought she would be and when she threatened her father who had obviously abused her when she was “alive” was pretty powerful. The last scene where Bill is invited into the house seemed to be an attempt at a cliffhanger, but I don’t think Bill is going to do anything to f’ed up to Jessica’s family.

Lafayette Reynolds as a vampire: I liken this very much to Jason Stackhouse’s storyline, but more about that in a bit. Lafayette said it himself. He WILL be a badass vampire. In a rare move, I actually cringed a bit when he grabbed that homophobes lower body to yank out the metal replacement hip in an effort to free himself. Another bit of comedic gold was when on the way down from getting shot in the leg he simply stated “BITCH!!”.

Jason Stackhouse & The Fellowship of the Sun: Is it me or is Rev. Steve Newlin the spitting image of Will Forte in any number of SNL skits? What I find most interesting about his transformation thus far is that it’s pretty much the exact thing that Lafayette is going through for the most part. An attempt to atone for his previous transgressions/fuck ups albeit in the polar opposite manner. His showdown with the “Lukinator” next week should provide some good stuff. Also, and I am in no way trying to get controversial or anything, but I got chills during the scene when they had that pop princess/Britney wannabe singing at the leadership conference. I once tried to go to a “contemporary” church service and it was eerily similar.

In the end, I have to agree with Sookie’s advice to Jessica: “Fuck your vampire control issues”. The Twilight saga True Blood certainly is not.

Posted in tv Tagged: anne rice, hbo, sookie stackhouse, true blood, twighlight saga

True Blood Season 2 Premier

runningback — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:15:37 +0000

True Blood’s second season premier had an interesting theme. Humanity. From Bill Compton lecturing the just made 17 year old Jessica Hamby about recycling glass & paper products to Lafayette pondering all that he had done wrong with his life. Another interesting scene was Tara trying to convince her mom that the exorcism was a sham when sham or not Lettie Mae was cured of her drinking problem. And what the hell was up with Maryann turning into a a human vibrator while banging an underaged Sam Merlotte. Gives new meaning to the term “doggie style”. That coupled with the steam scene after Bill professes his very human emotions to Sookie makes me thinking that Alan Ball wasn’t kidding when he said that this season was going to be sexier than last.

Anyhoo, it’s safe to say that my addition to True Blood remains. Can’t wait to see more about Jason Stackhouse’s trip to the Fellowship Of The Sun and I am also thinking that Lafayette would make a pretty badass vampire. Metaphor of the week: Sookie’s blood on the inheritance from her uncle that Bill killed. Blood money!

Posted in tv Tagged: bill compton, hbo, sookie stackhouse, true blood