One of the best shows currently on TV this season has to be AMC's Madmen. Set in the swingin' early sixties, the show is about a group of hard-drinking, chain-smoking advertising executives working in a Madison Avenue agency. Sixties nostalgia had traditionally been focused on the hairy, smelly, hippy years of the later sixties Woodstock generation, with the skinny-tie, martini-swilling, hifi jazz years relegated to squareness. No more, the suave cool has become cool once again, thanks to this excellent TV program.

Sharp scripts and clever plot-lines keep the show moving at a brisk pace, but one of the best features of the program is that it features the most beautiful woman currently on television - the lovely and curvaceous Christina Hendricks. In this age of skeletal, super-model waifs, it is refreshing to see a buxom, hippy and drop-dead gorgeous woman bouncing about on the screen. Her Marilyn Monroe style curves captivate popslant  every moment she is on the screen.

Oh, and she can act, too.

The incredibly gorgeous Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway.

David Letterman is in a snit because John McCain cancelled on him the other day. Boo freakin' hoo.

Letterman used to matter, but now he is the least of the talk show hosts. Remember in the seventies, when the progressive rock group Boston put out the same record twice? Letterman has put out the same show, night after night, thousands of times. He just doesn't matter anymore.

Get over yourself and retire already.

You would think that having the whole summer off would give you some time to come up with some spectacular ideas to kick off a new season of a popular TV show... Not so for the cast and writers of Saturday Night Live. Once one of the funniest shows on television, SNL is wallowing in the dregs of banality. Last night's season premiere was one of the worst SNL shows ever. I feel bad for Michael Phelps, who came off some spectacular Olympic achievements and landed in the heap of dung that was last night's show.

Of course, the season kicked off with some digs at Republicans, as Tina Fey made a cameo as Sarah Palin in the show's opening segment. It's ironic that the treatment of Sarah Palin by Fey, in which Fey portrayed her as a bubble-headed wing nut, showed Fey to be a bubble-headed wing nut herself. Such simplistic criticisms of our future Vice President reveal more about Fey than Palin.

Surprisingly, the show went downhill from there. Stupid character driven gag followed stupid character driven gag, with the few moments of brightness soon smothered by a miasma of uninspired drivel. I'm sure Michael Phelps did the best he could not to be embarrased by this show. As an athlete he cannot be expected to pull the show up to a higher level; that's the cast's job. And in this, they failed miserably. You may wonder whether they were trying to tone down their abilities as comedians to allow Phelps to stand out among them, but that's obviously not the case.

popslant  feels bad for Guy Fieri, the Food Network host, who was in the front row of the audience. You score some front row tickets for SNL, then they perform this miserably? Should've stuck with Plan B, dude. You could have been having some wings at TGI Fridays with some friends and had a more entertaining time.

As for the musical guest, Lil Wayne equals Little Talent. Are you kidding me? popslant  found listening to Lil Wayne's gratuitous, off key bellowing to be more excruciating than having one's fingernails pulled out. How does this crap warrant an appearance on SNL, let alone on any network TV program? From the moment he uttered the oh so original exultation to "let me see your hands," I knew that he was just another in a continuing line of no-talent rappers who think being able to string together couplets constitutes some higher art form. Give me a break.

So another dismal season of SNL gets underway, and once again, there's another reason to go out on Saturday and leave the TV off.

Late night TV is usually thought of as being dominated by Jay Leno, Davis Letterman or Conan O'Brien. Of course, to those in the know, the best late night host in the business is none other than TV's Craig Ferguson. While the others engage in the same safe and droll patter night after night, Ferguson is an impassioned newly naturalized U.S. citizen who is not shy about standing up for what he believes in. And he is consistently funnier than all the others combined.

Take for example his interview a few years ago with Bill Maher. When Maher said on his show it was less devastating for a child to be molested by Michael Jackson than to be beaten up by a peer, Ferguson ended the interview and sent him packing. Of course we couldn't applaud that action more, as Maher is a big-mouthed, foul little man with a TV talk show in his hand.

Ferguuson's passion was at the forefront last night, when he excoriated those who complain about their situation in this country but don't follow politics or bother to vote. As a new citizen to this country, his love for democracy far outweighs many of those who were born here and take it for granted.

Craig, we salute you!

Oprah Winfrey is apparently is "balking" at the idea of having Sarah Palin on her show. Despite a large volume of e-mails asking for Palin to be a guest, it seems Oprah is resisting the idea, even against the advice of her aides.

The assumption that many are making is that she is against the idea because of her admiration and support of Barack Obama. After campaigning for Obama, why in the world would she help to promote his opponent? This is the danger of being involved in the supposedly non-partisan, watered-down, self-help infommercial known as the Oprah empire, and declaring support for a political candidate.

popslant  doesn't believe it is just political partisanship, though. We suspect the manin reason that Oprah doesn't want to feature Sarah Palin is that Sarah Palin would overshadow her. Even Oprah on her pulpit feels threatened by the newest popular woman on the scene, especially when that woman is strong, confident, and invalidates the "woman-as-a-victim" tripe she has been peddling for so long.

The Emperor wears no clothes.

popslant  has never had much of a problem with Jay Leno. We know that talk show hosts and comedians make their nut on jokes about everybody, but the recent partisan turn of Jay on the occasion of political conventions have given us pause.

On Wednesday, his cracks about the ethnic make-up about he RNC audience have led us to believe that since he will soon be losing his job, he is making a partisan attack on the heartland conservatives.

Sorry Jay. We won't employ you either. Good luck making wise-cracks to the homeless. Of course, we know you're such a penny-pincher that you'll never be homeless, but at least you can save enormous chin-dominated face with your liberal friends.

Brett Favre has been reinstated to the Green Bay Packers after a shameful episode of tantrum throwing, cry-baby antics. When told the Packers weren't interested in having him return, he acted like a baby until he got his way.

It's not surprising, after his womanly retirement speech where he blubbered like a baby. popslant  was embarrassed just watching it, and all Wisconsonians should be embarrassed as well. He may be a great quarterback, but he's not much of a man.

What kind of lesson does this teach those children who look up to sports figures? That if you cry and scream and whine, authority figures will just cave in and you'll get your way.

Welcome to 21st century America.

The game of pinball is alive and well, thanks to the Family Guy pinball machine! popslant  spent a few hours playing this machine, and could not have been more enthusiastic at the great features included!

Pinball machine used to be one ball, one level affairs that might seem staid in today's world of first person digitial video games, but The Family Guy pinball machine steps up to challange this video invasion with a multi-ball analog funfest that was hard to stop plugging quarters into.

Our favorite feature was the inclusion of "Stewie Pinball," a separate baby-sized mini pinball game that takes over from the main game when you score up to it. Mini flippers on a mini board, with its own set of targets and ramps, take the game of pinball to new levels. The main board features great multi-ball play, and if you really get the game going, you find yourself playing multi-ball pinball on the main level while playing the mini Stewie Pinball at the same time!

Hilarious quotes from the TV series, including some lines never actually uttered on the TV show, add to the fun.

Victory is mine!

The playing field of the Family Guy pinball machine	Stewie Pinball! A mini game within the big board.	3D character models from the TV series accentuate the play!

Fast food outlets have marketed the ubiquitous "Extra Value Meal" for some time, but popslant  recognizes it for the ploy that it is! Namely, a way for them to up-sell you to more merchandise!

We know that the most expensive items for these places to provide are the sandwiches, which could be termed "loss leaders." They make their money on the sides, especially the drinks, which cost them pennies to provide. So, if they can get you to buy these items in addition to the sandwiches, they make more money.

popslant  has no problem with that - if you want fries and/or a drink, it is great that you can save a little money by ordering them at a special package price. Of course, the fries and the drink are usually the most unhealthy part of the meal, nothing but empty calories and too much sugar and salt, so we choose not order them. In any case, what we object to is the heavy-handed approach in pushing these "value meals" onto the public. We are tired of ordering a sandwich and automatically being charged a full meal price.

Just last week, we were once again in a fast food outlet and ordered a sandwich. The total price was far beyond the price of the sandwich, and when we inquired why, we were told that's how much the meal costs. Of course, we didn't order the meal, we explicitly asked for a sandwich. We caught the mistake, and the order was corrrected and the proper price paid. The problem is that this happens way to often for our liking. English is english - if we wanted a "value meal" we would have asked for it.

The question we have is: how many people order a sandwich and don't catch the mistake, then return home with their order, only to find they bought and paid for items they did not want? By then, who is going to return extra items and obtain the refund? Few people, we assume. Thus, these "value meals" become akin to a scam, where people are automatically upcharged without their knowledge.

popslant  is sick of this. It happens almost every time. So, to these outlets we say: stop making assumptions and trying to upsell us! When we order a sandwich, just give us the sandwich!

popslant  was weaned on Budweiser, a great American beer, Now that it has been taken over by European company InBev, we are being forced to re-evaluate our priorities.

We like a good European beer like many people do, but if we're going to have an European beer, we prefer one that is actually European, such as Heinekin, St. Pauli Girl or InBev's flagship beer, Beck's. If we want to drink an American beer, we'd prefer that the company that owns it is actually American. Of course, they claim that the headquarters is going to remain in St. Louis, but where do all the profits go?

And the biggest question of all: what happens to the Clydesdales?

Without a doubt, Kevin Eubanks is the lamest of the late night bandleaders. The first rule in rock guitar playing is to stand up and play, yet he sits on his stool night after night like a boy instead of a man. Last night he played "Purple Haze," as the show went into commercial break. Wow, Kevin, way to reach for the low-hanging fruit—playing a song that is more appropriate for a high-school level garage band than a national late night TV show.

The Tonight Show theme song is a mess. The horns are decent, the percussion is good, but the guitar is abyssmal. Weedly wee goes Kevin, playing a lugubrious warble over the top of it all that has neither melody nor hooks. It's as if he's just trying to play guitar without the music. Hey! Look at me! I'm playing the hell out of this thing!

popslant  prefers Max Weinberg and his band of 7 over Kevin Eubanks any day. Or even Paul Schaffer, who has grown ever more bizarre over the years, but still does a pretty decent job.

Looking beyond the guitar playing is his smarmy personality. We know you think you're cool Kevin, as you make wise-cracks to Jay and treat him like a square, but you're not. Your self-indulgent quips just show how vain and egotistical you are. Oh sure, you may indulge Jay by being the butt of a joke in one of his skits, but through it all you are dripping with an annoying narcissism. No we're not making this up, all you have to do is look at one of your album covers. Get over yourself, or get a room and stop trying to remind us of how great you think you are.

I hope you're saving your money Kevin. Jay's run of the Tonight Show is over next year, so in 2009, you'll be out of a job. See ya...

Sacha Baron Cohen is back, and he's fooling people again. His latest victim is a former Mossad agent who was duped by Cohen's character Bruno, a fictional German rock star.

In an interview with former Israeli Defense Forces officer Yossi Alpher, Cohen made light of the the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and feigned confusion over the differences between Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization, and humous, the tasty chickpea spread. Another particularly amusing exchange was when Cohen stated that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict was not so bas as the conflict between Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston. It slowly dawned on Alpher that perhaps something less than serious was going on.

popslant  is happy to see Cohen return to his roots and back in fine interviewing form. Borat had its funny moments, but was mostly insipid. Let's hope this new film production is better.

You've no doubt heard by now that the creator of the Pringles' Potato Chip can was buried in one! Fredric J. Bauer was so proud of his accomplishment he made the request before he passed on.

Created in 1966, the can has become a bona fide pop culture icon. One reason may be is that they are like the duct tape of potato chip containers. popslant  has seen the empty cans used for pencil holders, strapped to drum sets to hold extra sticks, and even made into makeshift devices for smoking "tobacco and tobacco like substances."

We have to give the guy props for being the ultimate recylcer! But I don't think a Pringles Potato Chip will ever taste quite the same again...

We love Photoshopped images, and one of the best places to see some good Photoshops is at Pixeloo.Blogpsot.com. Pixeloo has some great "Untooned" cartoon characters featuring some great work. The creepiest is the realistic version of Homer Simpson, but we were drawn to the Jessica Rabbit image for some reason...

Visit Pixeloo to see more!

Heavy Metal magazine, a favorite in the late seventies and early eighties, is still publishing and still features some of the best comic art out there! I hadn't read Heavy Metal since the eighties, when I thought they began to decline somewhat, so out of curiosity, I picked up the latest issue.

The stories were fresh and enjoyable, and the artwork top-notch. One thing that is not missed is the preponderance of serialized stories, one of the things that made early Heavy Metal mags a bit of a drag. Almost every story was part of a serial. Not quite so anymore, and a welcome change.

Missed are some of the classic Heavy Metal artists such as Moebius, Phillippe Druillet, and Philippe Caza. Boris Vallejo has artwork in it though, and Richard Corben was seen in some recent issues. Oh well, the Moebius' of tomorrow have to come from somewhere, don't they?

Another element missing would be cover art that does not feature a pin-up girl on every single issue. I like to look at the ladies as much as anyone else, but early issues had covers featuring all sorts of subjects, in addition to the occasional voluptuous sexpot. Viewing the covers for the recent issues made me think I was looking through nudie mags rather than comic books. The last issue not to feature a pin-up girl was 10 years ago.

August 1978	March 1979	November 1998
Artwork by a classic early HM artist Philippe "Caza" Cazamayou. Globular!	Here's one for the gearheads! "S*M*A*S*H" by Angus McKie features a crazy tank battle!	This cover by Zook is the last HM cover to feature something other than a pin-up girl.

The winner was actually David Cook in a stunning upset to puppy dog David Archuleta. It was pretty much a toss-up anyway, but here at popslant  we thought Archuleta had it locked, even though Cook is by far the more engaging performer.

By choosing Cook, America shows it has some semblance of dignity after passing over the most talented of all, curvy diva Carly Smithson. Smithson showed once again that she was the best singer in the competition during her performances on Wednesday night's show. Her version of "Jesus Christ Superstar" a few weeks back, was the best performance of the season. Ironically, that was the performance that got her cut from the show. Maybe American pop culture has a problem with Christianity? Or maybe some just don't want to be reminded....

The final show was a taste of what fans are going to get on the summer tour. All top 10 performers were there, some we've missed, such as Smithson and the beautiful Kristy Lee Cook, and others we were happy to see left behind, such as Jason Castro and David Hernandez. And those who fall somewhere in between, such as Chikeze, or of course, this guy:

Note to Jordan Sparks: Your song was awful, horrible, complete and utter total dreck. That style of singing, which we here at popslant  like to call double trochaic sucktameter is overdue for a quick merciful death. Besides the fact that such vocal histrionics generally sound rhythmically clumsy, the whole singing genre is overdone, overused and does not impress.

Note to Carrie Underwood: Keep up the good work. You've become sort of the Alanis Morrisette of country music, and it works. You're our favorite American Idol winner.

Of course, Carly Smithson is our favorite Amercian Idol who didn't win.

American Idol wraps up tonight, and it's down to the two Davids.
popslant  has predicted a David Archuleta victory, and we still do, although it could easily be David Cook. The winner is definitely a David.

The Tuesday performance goes to David Archuleta, who tried harder and worked it a bit more than the far more interesting David Cook. Neither of them are the best contestants we've seen this season, but they are the only ones left.

Missed: Carly Smithson, Kristy Lee Cook.

Syesha Mercado was eliminated from American Idol on Wednesday, as we predicted in an earlier post. While she was an interesting and sometimes sexy performer, she was uneven, sometimes sounding silky and smooth, and sometimes sounding like finger-nails on a chalk-board. Still, we have to give her props for her amazing performance when she lost her voice and still belted out "Chain Of Fools."

The god-awful "phone-in questions" segment was thankfully missing from the show. That particular segment was usually like a huge sucking sound for 7 minutes of the program. Of course, the show was not absent a huge sucking sound, thanks to a performance by Fantasia, the Chris Tucker of pop music.

So now it's down to the Davids. David Cook, the better than Daughtry but still not anywhere near as good as Carly Smithson rocker guy, and David Archuleta, the talented but really only 3/4 full puppy dog boy.

popslant  still picks David Archuleta to win and David Cook to take second, by virtue of the former's huge teeny girl fan base, and the extra Vote For The Worst votes he picks up.

David Archuleta's father gets the boot! Jeff Archuleta lost his backstage privileges at the American Idol performance show, presumably for meddling too much... We had heard the buzz about this showbiz dad, and it looks like things have finally come to a head.

So now that its official, just what category of showbiz dad is he? Is he the Displaced Wannabe or the Surreal Proud Poppa? The Over-Involved Control Daddy or the Gold-digging Limelighter?

popslant  believes he may just be a Really Surreal Over-Involved Wannabe Gold-Digger.

Or something like that.

Suspected child pornographer r.Kelly was in court today, asking for yet another delay in his upcoming trial. Thankfully, it was not granted.

How can this trial still have yet to take place afters 6 years of delays? Will this thing ever go to trial? Apparently so, as jury selection will resume on Monday. It's about time.

our call: While of course, r. Kelly should be presumed innocent until actually found guilty, based on evidence we know about, popslant  believes the final outcome should be a judgment of guilty.

Of course,
we could be wrong.

Springtime is here, Iron Man is in the theaters, but I'm already looking ahead to... Christmas? That's because that's when the Frank Miller version of the The Spirit hits theaters, and it is quite an anticipatory thing indeed.

For those of you who may not be familiar with The Spirit, let me just say that it was one of the most cerebral newspaper comic of its time. Created in 1940 by Will Eisner as the lead feature of a comic book insert to Sunday newspapers, the stories evolved from crime-fighter vs. criminal plot-lines to include such diverse themes as a momentary stoppage of time (A Time-Stop!), the tense environment of quiet sounds or the absence thereof (Quiet!) or detailed character studies of the psychosis of a criminal (The Meanest Man In The World). The artwork was executed in a dark and moody film-noir scheme uncommon in Sunday newspapers comics of the time and which suited the story-lines well.

popslant  believes that taking this character and adding the current film-noir innovation of Frank Miller should result in one of the best film releases of 2008.

Bill Maher has picked his 15 "Biggest Dickheads of 2007," which he also freely interchanges with the word "Assholes." The sheer hypocrisy of someone like Bill Maher calling someone else an asshole is beyond comprehension. I guess it takes one to know one.

Bill Maher certainly could top his own list, for being a loud-mouthed, ill mannered shill for Libertarian (or should I say "libertine") talking points. And for booking a group of three liberals so they can harass one conservative. And for ending just about every debate with a smarmy "oh come on." And for the Steve Irwin Halloween costume - oh wait, that was 2006.

But most of all, for making a "Biggest Dickheads of 2007" list in the first place.

The phrase "thrown under the bus," has been bandied about quite a bit lately, but it's usually in conjunction with the Reverend Wright controversy. How refreshing to see that celebrities throw people under the bus too! Barabra Walters is a current example, as she details an explicit affair with retired Congressman Edward Brooke.

Once regarded as a icon of class, Barbara Walters has done a pretty unclassy thing in shaming Brooke and his family just to sell a few more books. Word is that Barbara wrote to Brooke informing him of the inclusion of their affair and he did not protest. It's still in pretty bad taste, considering the Congressman is retired and is currently married to his second wife. You know Barbara, some people think "once a cheater, always a cheater..." Brooke himself, when asked, refused to comment, stating that he does not talk about his or other people's private lives.

Of course, Barbara doesn't seem to see what the fuss is about. Could it be that she is so used to being the center of attention, she seems to forget that other people matter at all?

And so, the obvious has occurred. I don't even think Jason Castro was the slightest bit surprised as he was stopped from making the top 3 American Idol contestants. note: to the American Idol producers: When Bo Bice was talking about the David who was taking chances with the arrangements, he was not talking about David Archuleta, as your director seemed to think.

our call: popslant  picks David Archuleta to win, David Cook to take second, even though Cook is by far the better performer, if not the best singer.

The first thing I noticed about this week's American Idol performance show was the horrible sound production. The music was buried and the vocals were pushed right to the front of the mix. Could what I thought at first was a mistake be a concerted effort by the producers of the show to change it back from being a popularity contest? The vocals were certainly front and center. It actually changed my opinion on the singing ability of the performers, as puppy dog David Archuleta actually was shown to be the best pure vocalist, even if he chooses sappy songs, looks like he belongs on the cover of Teen Beat, and is so syrupy that you just can't stand to hear him speak, let alone sing. I don't care for his voice, but I think last night, with the aforementioned sound production, he did show himself to be the best singer. The best singer left in the competition, that is.

I still would have preferred Carly Smithson. Her version of Jesus Christ Superstar was incredible. I think the producers were as shocked as the rest of us, and that really suggested that it was actually a popularity contest at that point. A less deserving, but more popular (for reasons probably other than his singing) contestant is still left, that being the dread-locked (or should we say dreadful?) Jason Castro. popslant  believes that he should be cut tonight, although he may still have some life in him because of his popularity. Syesha Mercado and David Cook both sounded pretty awful with the vocals featured so prominently in the mix. It could be anyone's game, but I say that whether he gets cut tonight or not, Jason Castro is the least talented of the four remaining contestants.

Pop Culture is speeding at us at virtually all times! Cable, WiFi, iPods, iPhones, Digital HDTV, DSL and even dial-up, the slow gray hair in the fast lane! popslant  is here to wade through some of the muck and mire of this culture to find choice nuggets worthy of consideration. Reviews, previews, old views and new views are to be included in a fine bill of fare from popslant !