Jon Stewart is the new Cronkite. And thats the way it is

In maybe one the most hilarious social tragedies i have ever seen, it states that Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, is the most trusted name in news. This is bittersweet to me.

Let's start with the sweet. I love Jon Stewart. Although he is very Liberal, at least he is honest about where he stands. This is contrary to Fox News who claim to be "Fair and Balanced" (insert puking noise here) yet are more right-sided than Ronald Reagan's balls. Also, when i first started watching his show, i realized i had been accidentally learning. All of a sudden i could join in on political conversations that i had avoided before with the risk of looking foolish. I also found myself finding particular stories interesting or bizarre and researching them to look for the facts. I enjoyed seeing Stewart call people out on their hypocrisy. Sometimes to the general audience by showing two contradicting statements made by the same person in clips, other times to the person themselves. This man was educating me on things that i had never been aware of, or even cared about before...and was making me laugh while doing it. Even on depressing issues like war and recession, Stewart managed to squeeze some laughs out of us. And this is no easy feat. Satire, bathroom humor, high-brow, and interviews were all weapons in informing the public. Although my political views are on the other side of the map, this liberal had more honesty than Rush or O'Reilly. In painful interviews with Jim Cramer or his appearance on CNN's Crossfire (which Stewart gets the credit for getting it canceled after the interview. also he called Tucker a "d***" on national TV), you can trust what this man is saying (keeping in mind that it comes from a left mindset) and know that he is not lying to the public. He calls out democrats and republicans alike on their political B.S.. In fact, some conservatives are prefferring to be interviewed by him than some of the jackasses on the "news". Cliff May said of Stewart, ""There is genuine intellectual curiosity. He's a staunch liberal, but he's a thoughtful liberal, and I respect that.". John Bolton (Bush's ambassador to the U.N.) said "He always gives you a chance to answer, which some people don't do", he continued to say "He's got his perspective, but he's been fair. In general, a lot of the media, especially on the left, has lost interest in debate and analysis. It has been much more ad hominem. Stewart fundamentally wants to talk about the issues. That's what I want to do." Real discussion happens on the Daily Show, not just scripted fluff.

As mentioned, this show is on Comedy Central, a cable channel with other shows that have obese kids eating cheesy poofs and prank calling puppets. Not the place i would go to for news. So it is actually really sad (this is the bitter part) that i would have to resort to coming here for a trusted source. And i am not alone. According to TIME 44% claim to trust him over Couric and Williams. This is the public making a statement. Like when fellow comedian Stephen Colbert ran for president in South Carolina and was actually ahead of real politicians in the polls. The public was saying they would rather vote for a comedian than another lying politician. It's depressing that in the world of 24-hour news networks, at least a significant part of the American public would rather tune in to a half hour comedy show for their information. Fox has to be able to admit that not everything that Obama does is evil. MSNBC has to realize the good that Bush did do. But both sides are so set in their ways that America is starting to lose taste for that kind of reporting.

http://www.timepolls.com/hppolls/archive/poll_results_417.html

Still Sunny

The new season of "It's Sunny In Philadelphia" is in full swing. i have laughed hysterically thus far. from Charlie becoming a crab-man, to milksteak, to playing "nightcrawlers" (the visual picture that comes with this when you watch it is amazing), to baby surrogates, to danny devito hanging himself, to bird law and fillibuster. i beg of you to watch this new season. all of the episodes are on Hulu.com right now (although they are 8 days behind the date which it originally airs). this new season has not dissapointed. in fact, i think it has set the bar higher. if you have never seen Sunny, please make this a priorety in your list of TV shows to watch. although it can run on the risky side of the fence, i think this is what we love about it. its unpredictability. also the characters and their lack of decency is a factory of endless laughter. i have come close to pissing myself multiple times because i have laughed so hard and is definately great to quote.

Wild Thing

tonight i saw Where The Wild Things Are on its opening night. Not knowing what to expect from a movie based on a short picture book, but placing my trust in Spike Jonze's hands, i went along for the ride. i will try to stay away from spoilers as much as possible. Max Records plays Max the main character with the imagination style that i remember having as a kid his age. It was actually a very personal movie for me because in a lot of the harder things i experienced in my childhood, i always had this make-believe land that i could run away to.

The film itself is visually stunning. the Wild Things are all amazingly done. the great part about it is that the book doesnt even name the wild things, yet here they all have names, personalities, and work as a dysfunctional family. the dialogue is hilarious and i was seriously not expecting it to be as funny as it actually was. the cinematography and camera angles are top-notch from a director who clearly knows what he's doing. i couldnt have been more impressed. the imagination that went into bringing this full legnth film out of a small picture book is unfathomable. There are a lot of callbacks between the real world and this place of where the wild things are. the movie is about imagination, so all of the Wild Things have a characteristic of Max that he is subconciously displaying and finally seeing the for what they really are. he learns a lot from hanging out with these wild things because of their similarities to him.

You grow to love every single one of the Wild Things (except the bull, he only speaks once) who are voiced by an all-star cast. James Gandolfini voices Carol the main Wild Thing form the posters, others include Paul Dano(There Will Be Blood, Little Miss Sunshine), Forrest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland), and Chris Cooper (Bourne Identity, Seabiscuit). A very emotional movie with a lot of heart and soul to accompany it. it brings out the inner-child and the inner-wild thing out of all of us. i was anticipating this film at first mainly because of the use of Arcade Fire in the trailer, but i was seriously impressed. also Max Records is astounding in it.

The music by Karen O (lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), was also beautiful and very fitting in every area. it set the mood to each scene. after the movie was over i went home and bought the OST on iTunes.

Fall TV

Well, its that time of the year again. A beautiful and glorious time when that box in the middle of your living room comes to life. The new seasons of the best shows on television are returning. 30 Rock is on its way to us, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is on its 5th season that premieres on the 17th (the kitten mittens preview on hulu has me laughing hysterically already and its only 30 seconds long), Michael Scott makes his way back to our homes (and our hearts) after giving me a scare that the series was ending when he quit last season. The Office does have a challenge though to keep its viewers because the Jim/Pam (Jam?) relationship is going so great that people are beginning to lose interest in that area of the show which was their biggest draw. Personally i always thought that the Jam(yes, i went for it) relationship was getting in the way of the good comedy. the 30 minute long episodes would be filled with 15 minutes of "will they, won't they" and i just wanted to see Dwight pepper spray someone, or Andy Bernard harmonize with himself. How I Met Your Mother is possibly the only current show that i love that still has a laugh track. I think laugh tracks are silly and outdated. i dont need a crowd of people telling me when to laugh (be sure to thank Ricky Gervais for getting us past those into a new era of sitcoms). But still, Jason Segal as Marshall practically makes the show for me (and i wouldnt mind seeing him in more movies seeing as "I Love You Man" and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" were both fantastic) but the other characters are strong and the show is original. The Simpsons come back and hopefully this season they will come out of that 4 year slump they have been in. I do still chuckle and laugh at the episodes, but they are nothing like the golden years (Season 3-Season 8).

Interestingly enough, "Sit Down, Shut Up" is back for a new season i think (they were supposed to be cancelled but a new episode just hit Hulu). Mitch Hurwitz(Creator and writer of Arrested Development) is the writer of this offbeat cartoon which features the voices of Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Henry Wrinkler (barry zuckercorn on AD. he's very good), Kenan Thompson, Will Forte, and Cheri Oteri. Its nowhere near the greatness of Arrested Development, but it is still a fresh cartoon that isnt constantly trying to put us over the edge like Family Guy. Also unlike Family Guy, it doesn't rip off half of it's material from the Simpsons. So watch this before it gets cancelled (again. its bound to happen. the american public cant handle mitch's creativeness as they have shown time and time again).

VMAs, MTV and a nice surprise

So last night i decided to momentarily lift a personal boycott that i have had on MTV for as long as i can remember. Before you scoff in judgmental preconceptions, hear me out. MUSE made their american television debut on the Video Music Awards last night. So i decided to catch it. It was a great performance of a new song from their recently released album "The Resistance" with a great but brief guitar solo from Matt Bellamy, and lived up to my expectations. Surprisingly, it wasnt the highlight of the night. More on that later.

But since i was already on that channel, and since i happen to like russell brand a lot, i decided to keep watching. i would flip back and forth from this and other channels so i didnt catch the whole show, but it was a pretty eventful night. All of you have heard of Kanye's outburst and Beyonce's heart of gold (funny thing about kanye is that he swore never to come back to MTV a few years back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-631TgPP2s but yet there he was) I'm not gonna beat that dead horse. Janet Jackson paid tribute to her late, great brother, and the man who practically owned MTV in the 80s. Sadly they didnt give Russell Brand enough of the show, but when you compare the time he did have to his stand-up, this didnt really...stand up (all puns intended). And Mr. Brand also called Jimmy Fallon the "David Letterman of our generation" which i dont know if he meant sarcastically, but i hope he did.

What stole the night away for me wasnt the Kanye and Taylor Swift's "feud", or Beyonce's single ladies, or even the highly anticipated MUSE performance. It was Jay-Z and Alicia Keys(whom i highly underestimated) performance of "Empire State of Mind". Alicia Keys seriously killed onstage as an amazing counterpart to the Mayor of New York who in this song calls himself "The New Sinatra". It was a phenomanal. Chills went down my spine. here is a link to the best part of the night.

http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/435686/empire-state-of-mind-live.jhtml#id

BTW watch out for the girl's outfit sitting next to Beyonce. i think its lady gaga. also here is a great article addressing the stupidity of the girl who went onstage at the end.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1621469/20090914/keys_alicia.jhtml