Abbondanza!
for when you don't know what else to say

Friday, April 28, 2006

Shut Up Already, Crazy Pants!

E!Online had this item in their First Look section this morning:

"Katie is a young girl's name. Her name is Kate now; she's a child-bearing woman."
--Tom Cruise, explaining his reasons for renaming his fiancée to reporters at the London premiere of Mission: Impossible III.

Wow. Now that he has had a bitchy on-air slap fight with Matt Lauer, is he trying to start a feud with Katie Couric, too? She's not on the air much longer at Today, but hopefully she can interview him. I can't wait to watch him lecture her on the history of nicknames and how she's really going to have to change it to be a grownup on the nightly news. When the inner Couric Cougar is unleashed to claw his eyes out, I will laugh and laugh and laugh. Oh, Tom.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Links I Think You'll Appreciate

I've been remiss in sharing some links with you.

  • The Fug Girls rock my world on a daily basis. Their recent additions to the Crazy Tom Cruise Canon in particular have me laughing.
  • More news on The CW, and how Les Moonves will have his way with it - further underserving viewers. (Sniff)
  • Fametracker has Kiefer's number. Seriously, why would I pay money to see a glorified episode of 24 co-starring Grandma Michael Douglas and Eva Longoria? I love the Velvet Bedroom Whisper, but not enough to brave Longoria's attempt at law enforcement.
  • Ana-Lucia really is hardcore!
  • Apparently it's "hip" to be pregnant. Babies are a little harder to put off to the side than, say an ambitious knitting project, when the craze has calmed down.
  • It's a little early for Suri Cruise's Fame Audit, but that shouldn't stop you from checking it out.

The Wrong Idea

Clicking through cnn.com today, I was disappointed to see the headline "Senators to push for $100 gas rebate checks." I don't want a piddly $100 check. That's not going to help me or anyone else in the long-term. I'd like our inept leaders instead to do something about improving the conditions that make high gas prices such an issue.

First off, how about spending that $100 to support alternative energy source research and development efforts? Or maybe we can spend even more than that and actually get a workable solution started in the next few years? Oil drying up should be enough of an incentive. But when you think about the utter desolation and destruction doled out in toxic doses by our leaders in the name of (secretly) securing foreign oil, there should be no alternative. We have to get off the sauce. Do that, and the West can stop meddling in the problems of oil-rich countries for self-serving reasons.

How about coming down hard on the oil companies who have consolidated into behemoths and basically are accountable to no one? Gas prices rise regardless of the market, and "excuses" are contantly found to jack them up higher. I wouldn't have minded paying those exorbitant rates after Katrina if the gas companies were spending the money on relief for a region that has supported them. Instead, these companies post record profits and their CEOs run off with $400 million retirement packages. Being paid the equivalent of $6,000 per hour is a disgusting display of the greed that thrives in an unregulated industry. And the government lets them get away with it because they throw enough dollars into the campaign pool each year. They are above the law at this point, and they know it. It's time to change this.

And what about Detroit? If they made more hybrids instead of concentrating design efforts on creating larger and larger SUVs, we would make quicker progress. Hybrids should be more affordable and easily available. There's an untapped market out there, and consumers who are more than willing to purchase a greener car are dissuaded by high costs, limited availability, and paltry options.

There's other solutions too, such as providing greater access to mass transit and infrastructure improvements. It's much harder to attempt to work on a real solution, and there won't be any short-term results to focus on. A $100 check may impress some simple-minded voters on Election Day. It certainly provides a nice photo opp for the senators. But real change and lasting relief will only come about after a great deal of work and sacrifice.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Now This Is A Ridiculous Idea I Can Get Behind

Someone has gone through a lot of trouble to create the trailer below for Titanic 2, and I think it's awesome. This seems like a much more entertaining sequel than any idiotic idea an average writer/director could come up with. After all, did we really want to watch Kate Winslet fall in love with dreamy Jake Gyllenhaal on the final, doomed voyage of the Hindenberg? Wait, that sounds pretty good too.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

KITT is such a pip!

Wednesday TV Credit Series Part 3: Knight Rider. Do I really have to say anything?



P.S. To see The Hoff and KITT's banter put to good use by Madison Avenue, click here.

Car Songs

As I was driving along listening to the adult contempo station yesterday evening, I found myself a little ashamed when a skater dude caught me belting out the inappropriately titled hit "Ironic" by Alanis Morrissette. Not only was I ashamed that I had been discovered, but discovered rocking out to a song I have long declared to be an exercise in stupidity. Then again, there are several songs that I enjoy singing along to in the car that I wouldn't want to listen to anywhere else. And surprisingly enough, they're all played on soft rock radio. Here's a list of the top 5:

  • 1) "Because You Loved Me" by Celine Dion: "My Heart Will Go On" gets all the hateration, but this insipid little slice of cheese is probably the finest Celine has to offer in her specialty: bombastic odes to bombastic love sang bombastically by a French Canadienne diva.

  • 2) "Anything For Love" by Meatloaf: The full title is a lot longer, like all of the titles of his songs, but you know what I'm talking about. The song makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, because we never find out what is the "that" he won't do for love. It's fun though, you must admit.

  • 3) "Careless Whisper" by Wham!: Right off the bat, any band with an exclamation point in the name gets a lot of points with me. But the soulful, swooning misery of a supposedly straight George Michael and the catchy chorus are the perfect accompaniment for the tragedy of traffic on 309.

  • 4) "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" by Elton John: First off, it contains the words "sugar bear," so you really can't go wrong. Then there's the fact that he wrote this about the most hilarious attempted suicide in history. Good times.

  • 5) "How Will I Know?" by Whitney Houston: This reminds me of when I was a young girl and I had exactly the same questions as Whitney about boys, but I had no one like Dionne Warwick or Aretha Franklin to really ask. This video is still so cute and joyous when I see clips of it on 80s album commercials. Those were much better days for our girl Whitney, whom I loved unapologetically for about two decades. I miss that voice.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

TomKat's False Stomach Handler Falls Asleep At the Wheel

I'm as exhausted by TomKat news as the next person, but I can's believe they let her out of the compound with her fake stomach out of wack. His cult minions are really falling down on the job. I haven't always been on board the completely fake pregnancy train, but this seems so blatantly wrong. I feel so badly for poor Katie Holmes. Is this the price she has to pay for ending up with Pacey at the end of Dawson's Creek? Our girl is totally lost. Once M:I3 comes out and the baby is produced, at least they'll go away for a little while.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Wilford Brimley, B-Boy Extraordinaire

Gawker.com and its brilliant Gawker Stalker feature are under attack, from George Clooney of all people. Readers can text message or e-mail their encounters with famous people on the street. I don't know how providing a map is any more dangerous to celebs than listing the sightings, some of which are probably put their by their own publicists anyway. Anyway, it has Clooney's panties in a bunch so his publicist is encouraging others to submit fake celebrity sightings. Fametracker has come up with some excellent ideas. I'm taking it as a shout-out that several involve Jennie Garth (see below).

David Silver: Pop and Lock Pioneer

It's Wednesday, and that means another TV show opening. Beverly Hills, 90210 is an all-around classic. It perfectly captured the zeitgeist of that perfect moment in history where enjoying the musical stylings of Color Me Badd was socially acceptable and wearing neon day-glo t-shirts with rolled up sleeves was the norm. Ah, such fond memories of high school.

This clip is from the golden age when Brenda was still on the show. I think that Brian Austin Green must have been one of the first actors anywhere to attempt popping and locking through his credit sequence vignette. And he does it so embarrassingly too. You've got to admire that. As well as Steve Sanders/Ian Ziering's bold, yet ridiculous tight pants/fro-mullet combination. I wish I was at home right now learning a valuable lesson from the geriatric gang at West Beverly.