News: Aqua Teen terror plot?

You haven't lived until you've heard Charlie Gibson say "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." Seriously.

Why was Gibson talking about the Cartoon Network series on ABC News? Apparently an Aqua Teen marketing stunt threw Boston into a scare today.

About nine electronic devices planted at bridges and other Boston spots by the cable network to promote the show were mistaken for bombs, or other explosive devices. Highways and bridges were closed and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless. They were just boxes with magnetic blinking lights that formed the shape of an Aqua Teen character.

Cartoon Network: No. 1 in bonehead guerrila marketing ideas, G!

Art: Brownsville's Galeria 409 on TV news

oscar alvarez by liza longoria

The Rio Grande Valley's ABC affiliate News Channel 5 recently featured Brownsville's Galeria 409 in anchor/reporter Rick Diaz's weekly "Con Mi Gente" segment.

Diaz interviewed gallery owner Mark Clark about his 155-year-old building in downtown Brownsville. Diaz also spoke to artists Cande Aguilar and Oscar Alvarez. Both artists are now displaying their new work at the gallery.

Watch the Channel 5 segment here, and visit the gallery at 409 E. 13th St. It'll be worth it.

Music: Leonard Cohen on Veronica Mars

Looking for that Leonard Cohen (pictured) song from Tuesday's episode of Veronica Mars? Look no further.

It's called "A Thousand Kisses Deep" and you can find it on The Essential Leonard Cohen, a 2002 best-of release.

Below is a streaming MP3 link to the song. You can play it in your browser, but I reccomend picking up the album or heading over to iTunes if you really want to dig on this song all day. If anyone has a downloadable link, please let me know. Here's a taste:

Leonard Cohen - 'A Thousand Kisses Deep'

I'll try to post more music from VM in the coming weeks. A review of the latest episode should be up here soon.

TV: Battlestar Galactica (3.13) - 'Taking a Break From All Your Worries'

bsg 3.13

(Air date: 1/28/07)
Battlestar Galactica returned to form on Sunday with one of the best, rawest and most compelling episodes of the season.

Episode writer Michael Taylor -- who penned the great "In the Pale Moonlight" ep of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -- crafted a tense, edgy story worthy of the series that some say has faltered in its third season. Edward James Olmos' urgent direction only drew me in further as Baltar and Apollo were tortured in very different ways.

The dark-sounding nursery rhyme that opened the first scene was a nice choice. "This ep is something different, and it's not for everybody," the rhyme seemed to whisper. This episode was different, fiercely different, than anything else on prime time TV. It reminded me of why I love this series. At its best, Galactica goes for the mind and the gut, ditching most superficial notions of sci-fi to focus on conflict and character. This time aboard the Galactica, we focused on Dr. Baltar, one of the series' richest and most captivating characters.

It was a smart move to follow up all the Final Five and Eye of Jupiter junk with an economic ep mostly about Balter. It's always fun getting in side Baltar's head, whether we're given privy to his lurid fantasies-turned-nightmares about a slew of Sixes, or diving into even darker territory. It's been obvious for months now that Baltar wanted to be a Cylon so that he could absolve himself of his guilt. It turned out he's probably not a Cylon, but his conscious got a nice rubdown anyway thanks to Roslin and Adama's brutal, mind-altering interrogation method.

Watching Baltar spill his secrets and confront his demons made for great TV. Lost in a drug-induced black sea, he claimed his innocence, questioned the loyalty and existence of Imaginary Six and came up feeling his soul was absolved.

Did Baltar betray humanity? The answer remains ambiguous, and we were given the chance to consider both perspectives. From Baltar's point of view, As Adama pointed out, he's the victim. He was forced to aid the Cylon occupation of New Caprica and was deceived into abetting the destruction of his home world. He never intended to hurt anyone and, in his mind, he did not conspire with the Cylons. From Roslin and Adama's points of view, Baltar is a traitor. He contributed to the attempted genocide and lacked the strength, character and humanity to stand up to the Cylons, allowing many humans to be murdered on New Caprica. He spent months on a Cylon base ship possibly helping the Cylons find Earth. Also, they really really hate the guy and want to see him suffer. At least Roslin did, but she eventually felt sympathy for the man. Adama stayed militaristic throughout. His objective was only to retrieve information that would help the fleet.

It was intense watching an incensed Roslin drag Baltar out of his cell and to the Caprica memorial. The treatment of Baltar was ugly and extreme in this ep, but it was also fascinating to watch. I was glad to see the Starbuck-Apollo arc take a backseat, since the Baltar arc is what's really driving the series right now, but both stories complimented each other well.

Apollo is now in a world of pain. He's in love with Starbuck, but he loves and respects Dee. His marriage is crumbling and he's resigned to drinking with Tyrol and spinning his wedding ring on the wet bar. Sure, having to choose between Katee Sackhoff and Kandyse McClure might not sound like a tragic situation, but Jamie Bamber really sold Apollo's torture and self-pity. I felt sorry for the dude, especially in that tail-end scene where he's trying to patch things up with Dee.

And what about Starbuck? Why did Sam bring up points that will eventually lead to the big question: Is Starbuck a Cylon? I'm not sure about that, but I will agree with Starbuck in that she's a "two-timing bitch of a wife."

Is Gaeta a Cylon? It makes sense. In another searing scene, Gaeta attempted to kill our man Baltar after Baltar whispered something in his ear. He only succeeded in stabbing Baltar in the neck (thank the gods), but ot looks like he's still out for blood. Baltar's definitely on to something here, especially if he's accusing Gaeta of being a bigger traitor than he is. Also, it was interesting to find out that Baltar allowed Gaeta to feed information to the resistance on New Caprica.

In the end Baltar is hauled off to sick bay, again, and Roslin visits Caprica Six in an extended bonus scene that SciFi.com is streaming in its entirety here. It seems Six will only talk if Baltar is given a trial. Roslin seems pleased with that response, since she was already planning to give him a trial anyway.

With Baltar back on the Galactica and major suspicion cast on major characters, Galactica is showing signs of a late season rally.

Memorable quote:
Starbuck: Kara Thrace and her special destiny? That sounds like a bad cover band.

TV: Veronica Mars (3.10) - 'Show Me the Monkey'

vm 3-10

Air date: (1/23/06)
Uh-oh. It looks like someone might have nabbed Veronica's "perfect murder" report and followed it step-by-step to get away with killing Dean O'Dell, who's death was officially ruled a suicide. Sounds like we got us a mystery arc for the rest of this season (I only wish it hadn't cost us Ed Begley Jr., he was great in this series).

So, who's the murderer? After two and a half seasons of series creator Rob Thomas proving he's way smarter than I am, I've learned to stop guessing so early on. NeptuneSite has a list of possible suspects, if you're into that sort of thing.

Instead of depositing my murder theories here, I'd rather dive into what this episode was really about: conviction (personal and political), relationships, and a monkey.

We catch up with Veronica six weeks after O'Dell's death. Veronica and Logan are still split, and she's hired by a couple of campus lab techs to find their stolen lab monkey.

Many primate jokes abound, including a "the case of the stolen monkey" jab courtesy of Piz, but only Veronica Mars can start an ep with such a basic mystery plot like "find the stolen monkey" and end up being one of the most engaging, fun and complex things to watch on TV.

Veronica goes undercover at the hilariously named PHAT (People for Humane Animal Treatment) group on campus to find the monkey nabbers. We get the usual role-playing and sneaky tactics she's used to great effect in the past, but it was obvious and a little disappointing to find that the guy behind the mystery turned out to be one of the techs who reported it. Also, there was a little too much "girlyness" going on in this ep for my comfort level -- and that's coming from a guy who's been watching Gilmore Girls for years. Plus, we had to sit through a few minutes of sad music scored animals right proselytizing (Blech), but those were small prices to pay for a damn fine hour of television that delivered a love interest for Mac, a LoVe reunion and the definition of "Manila."

The LoVe reunion that capped this ep was nice, but I really enjoyed Veronica's earlier scenes with Piz. They have a good dynamic, and I really related to their talk about not dating just to date. It's better to stick with what you like, especially when you know what you like, Piz said. True. Too bad for him then, since that means Veronica must go running back to Logan. Piz is cool, but there's tons more drama and conflict with Logan. I still felt for Piz in that last scene, though (Been there dude). But remember, Veronica's interest was peaked when Parker mentioned that he might have a girlfriend "back home," so the door was left a little open there.

And speaking of Logan, why does he hang around with every scuzzy guy on the planet? He goes surfing with Dick and who do they meet at the beach but none other than Chip Diller, the biggest panty waste on campus. So far, Logan's rolled with a fun loving but brain dead frat boy (Dick), a convicted rapist (Mercer), and now an accused rapist and misogynist (Chip). Come on Logan, I think it's time to find some new friends. Why don't they pair Logan up with Wallace? I've always dug watching them together. At least then Wallace might show up in a few more eps this season.

Besides the last act, episode highlights included the Ted Nugent digs, Veronica's mock rock out to Barenaked Ladies, the Canada room at the "around the world" party and, of course, Keith's scene with Landry at the bar.

What did Keith's "scotch" comment to O'Dell's widow mean? I'm sure he's talking about more than O'Dell's untouched bottle. Like I wrote before, I'm not guessing yet, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

Catch a video preview of the next ep here. Also, the CW is now streaming episodes of Veronica Mars online here.

Memorable quote:
Mac: OK. I get cruelty free, but I'm an animal too. The no bathing thing and the clove cigarettes is cruelty to me.

Gilmore Girls note:
I've decided to stop writing Gilmore Girls episode reviews after watching last Tuesday's ep. I probably won't even follow the show like I used to; it's just become so charmless over the past year. I might start blogging about it again if it gets any better, but I doubt it will.

Update:
This review was picked up for national newspaper Web site syndication!

TV: Heroes (1.12) - 'Godsend'

hiro

(Air date: 1/22/07)
There’s been tons of Heroes news since the series returned with a new episode on Monday.

TV Guide -- who will publish issues with four collectible covers featuring Heroes cast members next Monday -- reports that one of the series’ regular characters is heading for the grave. Also, Eric Roberts will join the cast in an upcoming sweeps episode and George Takei (Star Trek’s Sulu) is slated to guest-star as Hiro’s father. The series introduced another hero online, and NBC.com launched the Heroes 360 experience (more on that after the review).

Heroes did well in the ratings battle against 24 on Monday and has been getting more attention from the press than ever before. It seems America has really fallen for one of our favorite new series. Is all this praise and attention deserved?

Well, yeah dude.

Heroes returned with one of its strongest, most entertaining episodes to date with “Godsend.” We picked up two weeks after the last episode with Hiro trying to steal a sword, Niki frightening jail guards, a comatose Peter having scary prophetic dreams, and a doped up Sylar stuck in a roach-ridden cell.

Continue reading here.

Friday Video: Beck - 'Cellphone's Dead'

Dig on the Michel Gondry-directed clip for "Cellphone's Dead" from The Information.

Morning Dose: Deluxe Beck; No Holmes in Dark Knight; Heroes death; Luke Cage movie; more

beck

- Intercope is giving Beck's The Information the super massive deluxe treatment. Due Feb. 27, the three-disc release will include the original album plus three bonus tracks, remixes by Bumblebeez, David Andrew Sitek (of TV on the Radio) and others, and a DVD featuring a music video for every track, including Michel Gondry's clip for "Cell Phone's Dead."

- Giving more evidence to the Katie Holmes is brainwashed theory, the actress is skipping out on the Batman Begins sequel to star in something called Mad Money with Queen Latifah.

- EMI has merged the Capitol and Virgin record labels to form The Capitol Music Group.

- Which comic book-based films are nominated for Oscars? (Not X-Men 3).

- Speaking of comic books, fans can nominate their favorite comics and comic book creators for Eagle Awards, the comics industry's longest established awards voted on by fans. One question: Why is Vincent Gallo up for best comic villain?

-Tyrese and John Singleton talk about the upcoming Luke Cage movie.

- A major character is supposed to die on Heroes this season. God, please let it be Niki.

- Some idiots are circulating this petition to arrest Dakota Fanning's parents because of this movie.

-Will Britney Spears play a "raunchy bunch of sex mad aliens" on Dr. Who?

- Finally, somebody buy me this T-shirt. (Thanks Wil Wheaton!)

TV: Battlestar Galactica updates

In a recent interview with Backstage.com, Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell (pictured) chatted about their relationship on the set of Battlestar Galactica and about how rewarding the series has been for them as actors.

Olmos said the pilot script for the series reminded him of Blade Runner, the 1982 Ridley Scott film in which he appears alongside Harrison Ford. Olmos says he also liked the post-9/11 themes inherent in the script.
Read more here.