Ananas

The official release date for Harry Potter And the Deathly Hallows is July 21st. What with OotP coming out on July 13th, this is going to be a good month.

I just heard Clenching The Fists of Dissent. If the whole album is like that, it's gonna be awesome.

The upside for this is that Sub Pop has a hit record. The downside is that the band that has the hit record just finished their deal with the label. Oh well, they'll always have The Postal Service. For now.

Silly Ringo. You should know by now that all CW promos are 100% foilers. Okay episode. The "Maybe Tom Waits" music during one of the scenes was the best part. It's not as funny as episodes from previous seasons now, but Veronica and Keith at the start were good. Every episode they do in season 3 seems to make saying goodbye to it a lot easier though.

Seriously, this is the least disappointing follow up to an amazing record ever. "Intervention" is now my favorite Arcade Fire song (even more so than "Rebellion (Lies Lies)") and a bunch of songs (the names of which I can't remember as I listened to the record on my way to school on my iPod Shuffle) are instant classics. Everything sounds fucking anthemic too, and there's no question whether there's substance to back it up. I've only heard like 4 albums so far this year, but this one is going to have a very good shot at being the best of the year.

Epic > Shifty.

I see the Prison Break writers were reading their Les Miserables this week.

Veronica Mars was renewed for a second season pretty much because of an E! poll that asked which show in danger of being canceled deserved to be saved.

FOX did this for "The O.C.". It got cancelled two weeks later. Best just let this one go, if by some miracle it gets renewed then that's great but hey, at least it got more total episodes than "Arrested Development".

I liked last night's episode over last week's. The Lucy-Tom-Kim stuff was good for Nate Corddry and Lucy Davis just being awesome. Danny/Jordan and Matt/Harriet were great, Darius/Simon were great and the Cal side plot was inoffensive. Hopefully part three is a big finish though.

Harry Potter And the Philosopher's Stone - 5.5/10

Smokin Aces - 5/10 It was decent escapist action popcorn for the first 90 minutes, but a ridiculous and unintentionally silly ending ruined it for me. If the ending had been lighter or the rest of the film had been a little heavier I could have been okay with what was, for the most part, a pretty cool action flick. But both being the way they are, it's a marginal fail and a BIG disappointment.

For calling someone a fag? Yeah, that's not retarded or immature at all. I like your style, Pete.

Wow, FOX is swinging a big legal stick there. You'd think they were overcompensating for something. Like the fact that their President hasn't developed a single hit show yet. Oh, to be in the Gail Berman days again.

Pan's Labyrinth - 8.5/10 Film is clearly the best indication right now that outsourcing to Mexico works. 3 of the best films of the year all directed by 3 of that country's best. This film is no exception. Visually exciting, vividly directed and performed and written in a familiar yet unique style, a movie like this holds a mirror up to American cinema to show what it's so sorely lacking.

It's funny, because Disney, or rather Disney and ABC's parent company Buena Vista, didn't have a problem distributing Apocalypto after Mel Gibson said what he did. I guess there are more economic than ethical concerns when it comes to who they punish. And wow, Dakota really wants that Oscar eh?

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, but Joseph Arthur's "In the Sun" is awesome and yet Peter Gabriel's is even better.