Last night’s Ugly Betty was rather heavy, what with Ignacio being struck down with a heart attack and all. Which, by the way, was so completely tragic. Did anyone else squeeze out a tear or two during that final scene with the hospital and Willy and Daniel kissing their new loves and that sad, sad song playing? Anyway, all the drama made for an hour that wasn’t exactly exploding with the delicious quips that we dedicated Betty fans so dearly love. But I managed to come up with several that I thought were pretty good — Wilhelmina and Marc, of course, lead the way, with their genius bites on everything from friendship to, um, Hamm sandwiches. (If you watched, you know to what I refer.) My four favorites get video and poll treatment below (so please vote for your favorite!), and the rest of them are typed up after the jump.
Archive: January 2009 (261-270 of 354)
Attend Madonna concert or feed family this week? (Thanks, Live Nation!)
Been wondering what Live Nation’s gargantuan "360 deals" with artists like Madonna and Jay-Z will mean for music fans? Well, we just got our first taste: stomach-turning ticket prices. Live Nation has just launched its own in-house ticketing service and, like the evil Ticketmaster, is tacking on a massive double-digit service charge. Tickets for the Pretenders’ show at New York’s Roseland Ballroom on Jan, 31, for example, are sold for $49.50 with a $13.50 "ticket charge" added by Live Nation. $13.50! (Ticketmaster tacks a whopping $15 charge onto $35 tickets to the Pretenders show in Philly, by the way.)
Ticket prices in general are just out-of-control, and there’s plenty of blame to go around. Need more evidence? Motley Crue playing Atlantic City: $75. The Killers playing Madison Square Garden: $54.25. Lil Wayne at Kansas City’s Sprint Center: $44.75 – $130.75. Pop music (that’s "pop" as in "popular," as in "for the masses," not the elite) has become as expensive as Broadway and the symphony. You’d think all this nonsense would have fans flipping the bird to Live Nation, Ticketmaster and the bands they pimp. Mind bogglingly, that isn’t the case. Although the public bought 3 percent fewer tickets last year, revenue from those tickets was actually up almost 8 percent, according to this report, which means plenty of people are paying these outrageous prices. Wealthy people, anyway. People who haven’t lost their jobs. It’s a simple case of supply and demand, I suppose, and as long as the "more money/fewer tickets sold" model keeps increasing revenue, Live Nation and Ticketmaster will keep jacking up the prices until they find the sweet spot.
Anyone else fed up with climbing ticket prices and gagging on Live Nation’s entering the game with these huge service charges? Has the rising price of tickets caused you to see less live music? What can we do to stop this madness?
Enter the Fray: Back to reality (TV)
I gotta say — despite the subway breakdown that forced me to work from home yesterday, the first complete work week of 2009 wasn’t half bad. Back to the grind we went, and back to the Fray we will Enter. This week we recapped some reality TV premieres, watched some terrifying commercials (and dance specials), and doled out some awards.
10. Mandi Bierly’s grateful The Unborn is opening this weekend so she won’t have to see the terrifying trailer every ten minutes anymore.
9. Annie Barrett wondered why Superstars of Dance exists at all, calling it ”an excellent second-rate substitute for anyone who missed the Olympics and needed a two-hour recap.”
8. The Biggest Loser: Couples started off with nine (nine!) surprise ”eliminations.”
7. I wonder how the pitch meeting for the Snuggie went: ”How about we make a blanket, but with SLEEVES!” ”But…why wouldn’t people just buy a sweatshirt? Or a cape?” ”Shhhhh. Don’t worry about it.”
6. Chris Harrison, the latest reality show host-turned-PopWatch blogger, recapped episode 1 of The Bachelor.
5. You weighed in on yet another year-end list, only this time it was New York magazine’s worst movies of 2008.
4. You can finally download songs by The Beatles… if by ”can” you mean ”can’t.” Mike Bruno urges Apple Corp. to enter the 21st century and get online already.
3. Mandi’s holding on to a couple of DVR’ed episodes of Bones and NCIS for a pick-me-up watch; what are you saving?
2. What R movie were you too young to watch? Mandi remembers seeing A Night in Heaven (pictured) and Bachelor Party at an inappropriate age.
1. The People have spoken, and they said ”Just show up and you can have a People’s Choice Award!” (Kid Rock pictured at the ceremony)
Best Accessory in a Motion Picture, Drama: Benjamin Button's glasses
I’m not sure if it was the vintage, plastic, two-toned frames that were so adorable or the fact that Brad Pitt was wearing said frames, but about five-and-a-half hours into The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, when Brad Pitt shuffles up to Cate Blanchett back in New Orleans for his "look how hot I got" moment, I could NOT STOP OBSESSING over these glasses. I mostly just loved the way they looked — but as I became more and more mesmerized, my mind wandered into dangerously banal territory. Did Benjamin Button pick these frames out himself? Such a devastatingly fabulous choice would certainly indicate a heightened level of mental maturity, finally. Did Benjamin Button shuffle around nervously at the glasses store and explain to a sweet old lady how he was really 20 but appeared to be 40, and wouldn’t mind looking like he should waltz onto the set of Mad Men as Sterling Cooper’s new art director, you know, if he felt like it? This crap was all I could think about. And then: Would the glasses look good on me? Do I need new frames? Would certain people think I’d look better in similar frames? Maybe new frames could change my whole perspective, man.
It ate up at least 10 minutes of the movie, these "thoughts." I had no clue what was going on. So the question is: Are Benjamin Button’s glasses really that mesmerizing, or was my attention deficit the movie’s own damn fault?
Site of the Day: Cardavenue
Are you still wondering what to do with that Frederick’s of Hollywood gift card your Uncle Sal gave you for Christmas? Head on over to Cardavenue, where for a small fee you can sell or trade your unwanted gift cards. You can also buy cards on the cheap through the site’s auctions. Thanks to Cardavenue I’ll be devouring a great new novel from Borders instead of a bowl of cheesy pasta from the Olive Garden. Yay for a free market economy!
'Lord of the Rings' + '30 Rock' = awesome
What kills me is that this line is funny enough to kill on its own, but the 30 Rock gang thought to themselves, "You know what would be the icing on this particular Tracy Jordan cupcake? If he was dressed as Legolas."
Kelly Clarkson's new single: What do you think?
Is it possible for 30 seconds of music to make your day? Hell yeah — if that 30 seconds is a snippet of a new Kelly Clarkson song. MJsBigBlog is streaming a clip of ”My Life Would Suck Without You,” the first single off of Kelly’s upcoming album. From the sound of the lyrics — ”Maybe I was stupid for telling you goodbye/Maybe I was wrong for tryin’ to pick a fight” — it’s the flip side to ”Since U Been Gone”. I’m gonna cut this post short because I need to find a dancefloor (or a treadmill) stat. But what do you think of it? Does it sound as promising as ”Since U Been Gone”? Or are you on team My December? Check it out here.
Sound Bites: Trolling for love on '30 Rock,' 'The Bachelor,' and more!
Kate Winslet, Ricky Gervais, Pauley Perette, and various hammer-toed sluttons for punishment would all like you to press play for this week’s EW.com Sound Bites!
Watch last night’s excellent 30 Rock, guest-starring grown man Peter Dinklage as Senor Macho Solo, on Hulu if you missed it. You’ll laugh your ass off. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go prowl for men on the street. "You know me — spend my lunch hour walkin’ up and down Sixth Avenue, lookin’ for a hot meal…[Cat sound!]"
Let us know your favorite TV moment from the week, or if it’s that kind of day, let Ken Tucker know the worst thing you saw this week over at his Watching TV blog.
Clip du jour: Paul McCartney's '222' video
Do I know why we’re getting a video for a bonus track off the special edition of Macca’s Memory Almost Full now, two years after that album came out? Nope! But this McCartney fan won’t be complaining. "222" is a cool little vibed-out song that I would never have gotten around to hearing otherwise. And the clip’s exploding fireworks and kaleidoscope effects are mesmerizing, so this is a total win-win. I hereby nominate this clip to become the next iPod ad. Anyone want to second that?
More on Paul McCartney:
Memory Almost Full was one of EW’s Best Albums of 2007
Sir Paul’s latest album, under his The Fireman alias, got a B+ review
The Beatles catalog is finally downloadable!…Oh wait, no it isn’t.
Was McCartney in Missouri this summer to plan a Beatles museum?
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