A Great Week of TV!

So my first full week of summer break just happens to be filled with some great TV events that I will actually be able to watch! (all times are CT)

SUNDAY (TONIGHT)


8PM: Saturday Night Live: Just Shorts (NBC)
Andy Samberg presents a two-hour special that highlights 34 years of SNL's short films.
(Link)

9PM: Dane Cook's 'ISolated INcident' (COMEDY CENTRAL)
Dane Cook performs his latest material on this Comedy Central special event.
(Link)


MONDAY

7PM: 24 [2 Hour Season Finale] (FOX)
"After 22 hellacious hours underscored by the loss of innocent lives, the evil betrayal of Tony Almeida, the First Gentleman's kidnapping and shooting, a vicious siege on the White House, heroic sacrifices, a conspiracy, exposure to a lethal pathogen and an unthinkable bio-weapon attack, Jack Bauer reaches an emotional breaking point as this remarkable day reaches its climactic conclusion. " (Link)

MONDAY / TUESDAY

10:35PM: Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC)
Blink-182 will be the musical guests on Monday and Tuesday. This will be their first televised performances in over four years!
(Link)

TUESDAY / WEDNESDAY

7PM: American Idol [Season Finale] (FOX)
The two remaining contestants, Kris Allen and Adam Lambert, go head-to-head for the title of Season 8's "American Idol"

Each contestant will sing 3 songs on Tuesday:
- Round One: The Contestant's pick - Favorite song from the season or a new song.
- Round Two: Simon Fuller's Pick
- Round Three: The Winner's Single - There is only one Coronation song this year (Rumored to have been written by Kara DioGuardi)

Artists set to perform: Carrie Underwood, David Cook, Jason Mraz, Lionel Richie, Carlos Santana, Cyndi Lauper (duet w/ Allison), Queen Latifah, Black Eyed Peas and Keith Urban (duet w/ Kris).

Artists rumored to perform: KISS, David Bowie (duet w/ Adam)

(Link)

My Week at a Glance

So it's been a while since I updated this. Here is a semi-quick update of what went down on TV, sports, music, etc. last week:

TV

24 - Jack gets naked in the middle of the street while being hosed down. It turns how he is indeed infected, but the pathogen is not contagious. Meanwhile, Greg (assistant to Jonas Hodges) fools Tony into thinking he wants to help stop Hodges. He ends up tricking the FBI and buying more time for Starkwood. Episode ends with Starkwood's men surrounding the FBI at gunpoint while sickly Jack is away from action, watching it via web cam. (Link)


American Idol - Megan Joy is finally voted off. She "caws" her way through the results show as if she knew her time was out. This week's theme will be 'Songs from the Year You Were Born'. I will try to do a quick recap after the performances on Tuesday. (Link)

Sports

NCAA - Michigan State defeats UConn, UNC defeats Villanova. Michigan State and UNC will face off tonight for the NCAA championship. (Link)


MLB - Last night was the first regular season game. Last years World Series Champs, the Phillies were defeated by the Atlanta Braves. Unfortunately one of my star fantasy players, Ryan Howard, went 0 for 4 and struckout twice. Today is opening day for all the other teams. Two games were postponed due to weather conditions (including the White Sox opening game) (Link)

Music

The Hold Steady - I saw The Hold Steady perform at the Union on Friday Night. Despite not being very familiar with their songs, I had a great time and they put on a pretty awesome show. (Link)


ACM Awards - Last night was the 44th Academy of Country Music Awards. Carrie Underwood (aka my dream girl) won Female Vocalist of the Year as well as Entertainer of the Year (making her only the 7th female in 39 years to receive this award) (Link)

Movies

Adventureland - I saw Adventureland on Saturday night. It was really not the type of comedy it seems to be marketed as. It's not exactly a laugh-out-loud kind of movie. Much more real and dramatic than more recent teen comedies. Sort of reminiscent of Almost Famous if it took place at a theme park, except not nearly as excellent as Almost Famous was. However, I thought it was overall a decent film and worth checking out. (Link)


Box Office - Fast and Furious had a $72.5 million opening weekend, making it not only the highest grossing opening this year, but also the best April opening of all time. WOW. (Link)

My Spring Break

So while many of you were vacationing in some beautiful warm climate getaway, I spent my week bumming around in the bi-polar Chicago weather here in Hick Hills. As much as I want to complain about it, I really can't...because doing nothing for a week sure beats the hell out of going to class. And despite having a later Spring Break than a lot of my friends, I was still able to briefly hang out with those who were available. So on my last day of doing nothing, I decided to write up a little blurb about all the wonderful things I did to waste my time here at home:

TV (SPOILER ALERT!)
24 - Another action-packed episode. Jack is constantly being mistaken as a bad guy. He really surprised me when he promised that security guard safety...luckily he kept his promise. But what will happen to Tony? And how badly will Jack be effected by that chemical exposure??

American Idol - Motown Week. Typically a boring, overdone theme on the show. However, it ended up being a lot more exciting than I thought. My quiet favorites (Kris, Anoop, and Allison) all had great performances. Somehow Matt Giraud ended up in the bottom 3 (should have been Megan Joy), along with Scott and Michael (who should have been there). Michael Sarver ended up going home, and seemed rather happy about it since he will now be able to spend time with his family.

The Office - Michael's two week notice. Really disappointing episode. Angela trying to flirt with Charles seems so out of character. Michael has completely lost his mind. He decides to start his own paper company and asks (almost) everyone if they want him to join. Surprisingly Pam decides to join him?? A preview for next week's episode shows (a bleach blonde) Ryan working at a bowling alley? Perhaps he will be joining the Michael Scott Paper Co. gang as well?

Movies
I Love You, Man - A rather simple, predictable story but overall pretty funny. If you like Judd Apatow films, you will definitely enjoy it (surprisingly Apatow had nothing to with this one). Great performances by Paul Rudd and Jason Segal.

American Graffiti - Probably the most influential teen film of all time. Classic story and character types...a great look at the struggles of life after high school.

Chinatown - One of the greatest "private-eye detective" films of all-time. Everything about this film is incredible, from Jack Nicholson's wonderfully entertaining performance as Jake Gittes to Roman Polanski's outstanding directing.

Million Dollar Baby - Not your typical "Rocky wanna-be boxing movie". This film is both entertaining and emotional. Outstanding performances by the entire cast. I still have mixed feelings about the ending, but overall I think it is a must-see movie.

Unforgiven - Clint Eastwood does a great job as both the star and director of this new take on old-time Western films. The intense action and violence along with themes of death, morality, and revenge sets this film apart from others of it's genre.

Watchmen - Mixed feelings about this film. I felt it was too long, some of the violence was a little too much, and some of the acting was a little mediocre. However, the story is great and it was visually fantastic. Perhaps if I actually read the graphic novel, I would have a much different opinion.

Fantasy Baseball Draft
So I randomly decided to participate in Fantasy Baseball this year. I figured it would give me an excuse to actually keep up with the baseball season. The draft was a little hectic since I only did a little bit of research and didn't have much of a strategy. But here is my roster:

Batters
C – Benjie Molina [Giants]
1B – Ryan Howard [Phillies]
2B – Brian Roberts [Orioles]
3B – Chipper Jones [Braves]
SS – Derek Jeter [Yankees]
OF – Ichiro Suzuki [Mariners]
OF – Nick Markakis [Orioles]
OF – Raul Ibanez [Phillies]
Util – Chris Young (OF) [Diamondbacks]
BN – Nick Swisher (1B, OF) [Yankees]
BN – Jim Thome (DH, 1B) [White Sox]
BN – Juan Pierre (OF) [Dodgers]

Pitchers
SP – James Shields [Rays]
SP – Kevin Slowey [Twins]
RP – Joe Nathan [Twins]
RP – B.J. Ryan [Blue Jays]
P – Kerry Wood (RP) [Indians]
P – Joel Hanrahan (RP) [Nationals]
P – Johnny Cueto (SP) [Reds]
BN – Jose Arredondo (RP) [Angels]
BN – Aaron Cook (SP) [Rockies]

Epic Fails
Four Square - I attempted to get a game of Four Square going on one of the nice days this week. I even made a Facebook event, and 7 people confirmed. Only 3 people showed up =/

Working out - The lack of a free gym in my front yard caused me to only work out like 3 times this week. Working out everyday next week is going to kick my ass. Boo.

Drive By Insults - After watching a funny video of some kids driving by people and yelling absurd things at them, a couple of my friends and I decided to try to recreate this. Too bad pretty much no one was outside.

Reading - In effort to convince myself that I still know how to read a novel, I attempted to read Nick Hornby's High Fidelity. However, I always tried to read late at night and ended up falling asleep. Maybe I will try again in the summer (Perhaps with a different strategy.)

Homework - Didn't even look at it.

And that was pretty much my entire Spring Break. Hopefully you guys had much more eventful week. Feel free to share your experiences and/or your thoughts on anything I mentioned!