'Community' Halloween

This clip shows exactly why the freshman sitcom "Community" is one of the funniest shows on television.

Jon Stewart Rips Fox A New One

Jon Stewart displayed perfectly last night why "The Daily Show" is not only one of the funniest show's on television, but also one of the smartest.

In this segment from last night, Stewart rips into Fox News, using quotes and clips from the network to show how ridiculous they are.

He frames it with a feud between the White House and the news network, and shows how Fox uses opinion as fact.

Stewart is always hilarious, but "The Daily Show" in general is one of the smartest and most relevant shows on air.

Links of the Day 10/28

- If you're a fan of the new Batman movies, here's a hilarious clip of what happens when his vanishing act doesn't quite work so well

- A nice dose of Matt Damon in new trailers for "Green Zone" and "Invictus."

- This Cinematical piece is of villains they love. This one is on William Atherton. Relevant? It is now that he just signed on to guest star on the final season of Lost.

- Death of the novel? Uh-oh

- If you like 'Pulp Fiction', you have to check out this video.

- A great article from Slate that wonders, is Joe Girardi too smart for his own good?

- See, Canada knows how to run a government.

- Man, ESPN and Deadspin.com are really into it now.

New Contributor

I just recently started contributing for the website DJBooth.net, which has music news, and tons of new tracks to listen to and check out. Here's a link to one I wrote, and another for a great track by Wale featuring John Mayer.

Great Sports Week

Some interesting stories from the weekend in sports:

• ...Adrian Peterson literally ran over a guy.

• ...A piece of news that is, for one thing hilarious, but also shows how much media scrutiny a New York athlete can get.

• ...I was at Yankee Stadium for Game 6, and it was exciting. And a completely dry night compared to the night before.

Mariners Catcher Johjima Opts Out

In some pleasant news for Mariners fans, catcher Kenji Johjima decided to opt out of the final two seasons and $15.8 million of his contract, allowing him to sign with a Japanese team.

Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik said Monday the decision came somewhat unexpectedly over the weekend, and that it was solely Johjima's decision. Zduriencik said the Mariners did not pay any money to buy out their former starting catcher, who said last season he was struggling to accept Seattle benching him in favor of rookie Rob Johnson.

Veteran starters complained about how Johjima handled games. And when Johjima wasn't injured this year, the Mariners chose Johnson's leading of the pitching staff over Johjima's offense. By the end of the season, Johjima only played when Seattle's newest and youngest pitchers started.

Johjima hit .268 in his four seasons with Seattle, with 48 homers and 198 RBIs in 462 games. He holds the AL record for hits by a rookie catcher (147 in 2006). His 18 homers in his first season tied the Mariners' record for most by a catcher. But Johjima slumped to .227 as part of Seattle's 101-loss collapse in 2008 and he hit just .247 in 71 games this year.

Seattle, run by franchise chief and Japanese billionaire Hiroshi Yamauchi, had re-signed the 33-year-old Johjima in April 2008 to a $24 million, three-year extension covering 2009-11. Johjima's contract gave him the right to end it by Nov. 15 for the purpose of finishing his career in Japan. He gave up salaries of $7.7 million next year and $8.1 million in 2011.

Former Mariner's GM Bill Bavasi's decision to resign the catcher to that contract was bashed around the league by executives when it was signed, but by losing the weight of Johjima’s two years and $16 million, the team has more financial freedom than they had just last week.

The Race is On

With temperatures dropping steadily and the autumn getting under was, it's time for awards season to officially begin. The Gotham Independent Film Awards gets things started this year, releasing their annual list of nominees.

The list includes some big names, like the Coen Brothers for their film "A Serious Man," as well as some other buzz worthy films including Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker," and Robert Seigel's "Big Fan."

The Best Ensemble Performance category has a great group of nominees including "Adventureland," which in my opinion was one of the funniest and underrated movies of the year, directed by Greg Mottola ("Superbad") starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart (picture, above), Martin Starr, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Ryan Reynolds.

The Iraq war drama, "The Hurt Locker" was also nominated for it's fantatsic cast which includes Jeremy Renner (who was also nominated for Breakout Perfoamance), Guy Pearce and Anothony Mackie. Also nominated was "Sugar," another underrated film about the hardships of minor league baseball, which was directed by the team of Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden ("Half Nelson").

For the full list of nominees, click here.

Links of the Day, October 20th

Here are some good links to help get through the day:

• A nice, in-depth article from the New Yorker about James Cameron and his new upcoming film, Avatar.

• An interesting article about screenwriter Avika Goldsman from the LA Times. The writer has had great successes ("A Beautiful Mind") and some utter failures ("Batman and Robin") along the way.

• A humorous article about the art of purchasing movie tickets.

• An article from Slate magazine commenting on how being overweight may affect the race for governor of New Jersey.

• The Telegraph's list of the 25 best book-to-film adaptations of all-time.
  

A Chunk of Slate

Slate, the online magazine, usually has some great articles, including reviews and commentary on culture and the media.

I stumbled upon two great, and hilarious articles the other day. One, "a dubious and far-fetched idea", about what the Seinfeld cast would say in regards to Twitter.

The other, was a funny take on Dan Brown's new book "The Lost Symbol" and about how his plots can be a bit formulaic.

Enjoy.

The Best New Show on TV

The new sitcom "Modern Family" on ABC is easily the funniest new show to premiere this season. It's shot documentary style like NBC's "The Office," and the format works. Here's the latest episode.

Links of the Day, October 15th

Here are some good links from the around the web that I stumbled over today:

• A great column on EW.com about the new Joel McHale sitcom "Community." They bring up a great question, what if a hilarious sitcom gets less funny, but is still funnier than most sitcoms on tv?

• Will he or won't he? Jon Faverau talks about the prospects of helming "The Avengers" movie.

• A review of Spike Jonze's new flick, "Where the Wild Things Are," which after years of development is finally (!!) getting released.

• Early Oscar news. Should "The Hangover" be nominated for an Oscar? Crazy maybe, but they do have a point.

• What's up with that cloud hanging over Moscow? You be the judge.

Southland Cancelled By NBC

Earlier this year I wrote a review for the new NBC drama "Southland". While the show wasn't perfect - some character story lines were just simply boring - I felt the show was shot in a unique and creative way and had great potential to be one of NBC's best drama's.

The show's acting and directing style received a lot of critical acclaim, so it was a shock when the network announced they would halt production on the show. But since NBC decided to air "The Jay Leno Show" five nights a week, they simply just don't have the time slots to air great shows like “Southland" anymore.

The news adds “Southland” to a long list of critically shows that have been canceled before they could fully develop. “Boomtown,” another police drama that aired on NBC a few years ago, shared a similar fate, getting canceled in its second season.

I was dismayed last week to hear that NBC decided to cancel the show, even though they had already shot six episodes. I just didn’t understand why. The show has received very good reviews, and the second season looked to build upon the foundation laid down in the first ten episodes.

Fortunately, there might be some hope for “Southland” fans out there with word coming out that the show may be picked up by TNT.