The Shallow End of the Pool

So I spent my 35th birthday today working a double shift at work, but that's okay, because the New York Rangers gave me a nice birthday present last night. I know it was only the first game of the season, but it was still very promising. Everybody looked sharp, and with new captain Jaromir Jagr scoring just 29 seconds after the puck was dropped, it didn't take long for the Rangers to show they mean business. The longest three months of the year are the ones when there is no hockey, so it's good to have it back. Especially when my team is considered an early favorite by many to be among the NHL's elite this year.

Another reason it's great to have hockey back is because I am currently watching the Yankees losing to Detroit 3-0 in the top of the 6th. A loss tonight puts one foot in the grave, and first-round elimination this year would be a travesty. Hopefully you all will be reading this tomorrow after the Yankees came back and scored 5 runs in the 7th and won the game. I can dream, can't I?

Quick note: Try and catch the 10th season premiere of South Park this week (it actually aired Wednesday, but Comedy Central reruns it about 97 times during the week, so check your TV Guide). The first single off Paul Stanley's upcoming solo album, "Live To Win," is played during a montage as the boys are playing a marathon session of "Worlds of Warcraft." Hell, even if you don't care about the Stanley song, you should be watching South Park anyway.

I promised you all some KISS news, so here it is. In addition to the long-awaited release of Paul Stanley's solo effort, "Live To Win," later this month, there is also a new DVD that looks to be absolutley outstanding. The following comes straight from kissonline.com:

"For the KISS Army, the release this Halloween of "KISSology: Volume One 1974-1977" marks the arrival of nothing less than a Holy Grail: 6 solid hours of vintage KISS going all the way back to the deep early roots of the band's classic line-up -- Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss -- captured and re-mastered on 2 state-of-the-art DVDs featuring more than 70 live performances and four full concerts bundled along with unreleased tracks and never-before-seen footage. The mind-boggling first volume of a definitive three part collection (Volumes Two and Three are being readied for release in 2007) presented by VH1 Classic, "KISSology: Volume One 1974-1977" is a showcase of pristine digitally-restored video coupled with a 5.1 audio mix to provide both stunning visual quality and powerhouse finely-detailed sound designed to meet the approval of the most demanding KISSmaniac. "KISSology: Volume One 1974-1977" goes all the way back one of the band's earliest live performances in the New York pre-punk glam rock bar scene of the early 1970s before tracing the rocket-paced transformation of KISS into international rock gods who filled the world's largest arenas as the undisputed hottest band in the land by 1977. A dream come true for the KISS Army, "KISSology: Volume One 1974-1977," contains seldom seen high points of KISStory including significant never- before-available material drawn from the band's own personal video vaults. In addition to four full concerts from the peak of the band's first golden era, the DVD set also features notorious television interviews, early KISS music videos and rare unreleased tracks. Included in the lavish "KISSology: Volume One 1974-1977" package are spell-binding eyewitness liner notes penned by the members of KISS themselves. Disc One of "KISSology: Volume One 1974-1976" takes a look back at an early bar-band KISS (freshly risen from the shards of Wicked Lester) already thinking much bigger than any of their contemporaries. 1974 is covered with a live concert in Long Beach as well as KISS's televised appearances on ABC's "In Concert" and an interview/performance on "The Mike Douglas Show." By 1975, KISS was playing San Francisco's fabled Winterland, headlining NBC's "Midnight Special" and making videos for "C'mon & Love Me" and their signature "Rock and Roll All Night," all included on "KISSology." In 1976, KISS came to Detroit for an incendiary concert at the Motor City's Cobo Hall, captured on Disc One of "KISSology." Disc Two of "KISSology" picks up the threads of 1976 with the band's interview and performance of "Black Diamond" on "So It Goes," a must-see and much-discussed interview and performance of "King of the Nighttime World" on "The Paul Lynde Halloween Special," and personal band footage from May 1976. The 1977 material on Disc Two captures the band at the pinnacle of its international fame, performing to tens of thousands of fans at the legendary Budokan Hall in Tokyo in April '77 and, a little more than a month later, headlining "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert." Disc Two closes with scorching concert footage from The Summit in Houston, Texas on September 2, 1977, showing KISS laying down the creed that still beats at the heart of the band: Rock & Roll All Night and Party Every Day!!!"

Needless to say, this looks like a can't-miss item. I'm sure I will be getting it as soon as it comes out and will share my thoughts here.

I haven't updated in a couple of weeks, but a lot has been going on. In addition to recently going back to college after a 15-year (!) absence, I also have moved into a new apartment AND taken custody of my daughter from my ex-wife. So, yeah, I've had a pretty full plate. But now all my boxes are unpacked and I'm starting to get into a daily routine, so I should be back to updating more frequently.

In keeping with the theme of my last few posts, and in honor of the impending new fall TV season that is kicking off as we speak, I will give you my thoughts on what I'm looking forward to on TV this year.

I'm definitely going to be checking out "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," Aaron Sorkin's latest brainchild. It looks incredibly promising, although I hope it doesn't grow to be as tiresome as Sorkin's last NBC show, "The West Wing," which I loved initially and grew to become severely disinterested in after 2 seasons. NBC's other show about the inner workings of a sketch comedy show is also at the top of my list. "30 Rock" with Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, and Rachel Dratch, is a can't-miss proposition in my book. I'm also intrigued by "Heroes," although I'm not entirely sold yet. I honestly haven't decided yet whether or not to watch, mostly because it's occupying the same time slot that "24" will be on when it returns in January. If I get hooked, I'm screwed when "24" comes back. My DVR can only record two things at once (Monday Night Raw also occupies this spot, folks).

As for returning shows, two have already started. "The Simpsons" kicked off its 18th season last week with an amazingly strong episode. It certainly didn't hurt that I noticed these words in the opening credits: "Written by Bob Odenkirk." Great way to start off the season. The all-new racially-charged "Survivor" also started this past week. Despite all the media attention the show has received in recent weeks, it still looked like the same old "Survivor" to me. I'm also looking forward to the impending season premieres of "The Amazing Race," "How I Met Your Mother," "My Name is Earl," and "The Office." Of course, the one I am waiting for most anxiously, "Lost," is premiering the latest, on October 4.

That's all for today, kids. Tune in next time for some exciting news in the world of KISS!

I don't have as much to say about the drama categories as I did about the comedy categories, simply because I don't watch that many dramas. It is both a shock and a shame, however, that the best show on television this past year was almost completely ignored by the folks who pick the nominees.

"Lost" actually won the award for Best Drama at last year's ceremony, but isn't even in the running this year. Umm...say what? "Lost" was even better this year and had me literally on the edge of my seat each and every week; it is a complex, compelling, and positively riveting series with both popular and critical acclaim and deserved recognition. It does have a very large cast, so it would be difficult to single any out for acting awards, but Terry O'Quinn (John Locke), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Mr. Eko) are all standouts in a very talented ensemble.

As far as the actual nominees, "24" had an absolutely stellar season this year; in my opinion, it was the best ever and I'm pulling for it to win in every category. In particular, Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart as President Logan and the First Lady were fantastic and should win Best Supporting Actor and Actress.

A few weeks back, after this year's Emmy Awards Nominations were announced, I mentioned that there were quite a few surprising omissions and promised to talk about it more when the awards got closer. Well, the damned awards snuck up on me; the show is this Sunday already so I'd better get cracking. I've decided to not bother trying to predict who's going to win (I'm notoriously bad at it, anyway-go pick up Entertainment Weekly if you want predictions). Instead, I'm going to run through the major categories and tell you who I WANT to win, plus who I thought should have been nominated that got left out.

One note: I'm not a TV critic and I make no claim to watch everything on television. This is just one man's opinion based on what I watch regularly.

LEAD ACTOR - COMEDY
No contest for me. Steve Carell for "The Office." Out of the other nominees, only Larry David deserved his nomination. Kevin James, Tony Shalhoub, and Charlie Sheen (!) should have been left out. In their spots should have been Jason Bateman for "Arrested Development" (R.I.P.); Jason Lee, who was positively brilliant this past year on "My Name Is Earl"; and Josh Radnor, from the criminally over-looked "How I Met Your Mother."

LEAD ACTRESS - COMEDY
To paraphrase Apu Nahasapimapetilon, "OK, I have seen none of these." For the record, the nominees are Stockard Channing, Jane Kaczmarek, Lisa Kudrow, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, and Debra Messing. It wouldn't be fair to pick a winner in a category I don't give two shits about and, quite frankly, all my favorite female comedic performances this year were in supporting roles, so: no comment. Sorry. Get your refunds at the front desk.

SUPPORTING ACTOR - COMEDY
REALLY tough call on this one, as both Will Arnett ("Arrested Development") and Jeremy Piven ("Entourage") are both deserving. But Piven's Ari Gold is so off the charts, I have to go with him on this one. The other folks-Bryan Cranston, Jon Cryer, and Sean Hayes- should have made room for Neil Patrick Harris (the role of a lifetime on "How I Met Your Mother"; John Krasinski (whose impeccable comic timing and interplay with Jenna Fischer on "The Office" is the highlight of that show every week); and, for a wild card, how about Robert Ben Garant from "Reno 911!"? Deputy Travis Junior kicks ass.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS - COMEDY
Another easy call. Jaime Pressly was a revelation this year on "My Name Is Earl," and I really hope she wins. I would dump all of the other nominees (Cheryl Hines, Megan Mullally, Elizabeth Perkins, and Alfre Woodard), as there were much better candidates that got ripped off. As mentioned above, Jenna Fischer on "The Office" is fantastic. My #3 pick would have to be Alyson Hannigan ("How I Met Your Mother"), and I swear it has nothing to do with my love for all things associated with Buffy. The last two spots should have been taken up by Jessica Walter, who was fabulous on "Arrested Development," and Alia Shawkat, ditto.

COMEDY SERIES
Another close one, but I give it to "The Office"- just barely- over "Arrested Development." Nothing against "Curb Your Enthusiasm" or "Scrubs," both of which are fine shows, but I'd put "The Simpsons" and "My Name Is Earl" in those spots. Sure, you could argue that "The Simpsons" isn't as funny as it used to be, but "The Simpsons" at 75% strength is still a hell of a lot funnier than most of the shit being passed off by the networks these days. As for the 5th spot (it should go without saying that "Two and a Half Men" isn't staying there, at least not on my watch), I say "Entourage." If you don't have HBO, it's worth it just for this show. And just because it's my blog, I'm creating a 6th slot and giving it to "How I Met Your Mother," because it deserves to be here.

That's enough for one day, I think. Check back later this week and I'll tackle the Drama categories.

I had a busy day yesterday (Sunday) as far as music is concerned. It all started when I took my daughter to the mall to see the Jonas Brothers, whose debut CD was just released. If you've never heard of them, well, then you're not a 12-year old girl. Think Hanson, but with a slightly harder edge. They played a four song acoustic set at FYE and then did a meet-and-greet afterwards. All three were extremely nice and signed my daughter's CD and thanked her for coming out and supporting them. Anybody who makes my daughter happy is OK in my book, and their music wasn't actually half bad. Very catchy pop tunes.

Sidebar- for those keeping score at home, my daughter has now met 2 of her favorite bands in the space of about 9 months (I've written previously about The Click Five, who we've actually met twice now) which hardly seems fair. I mean, I've been a KISS fan for longer than I can remember and had to wait over 25 years to meet them! These kids today don't know how easy they got it. End sidebar.

So after we finished up at the mall, I rushed to get home. Why? Because it turned out that Poison and Cinderella are playing at the Wildwood Convention Center, which is walking distance from my apartment. I hadn't bought tickets in advance because A) I wasn't sure about my work schedule, B) I wasn't sure if we'd be back from the mall in time and C) I actually didn't find out about the show until 2 days before.

A band I'd never heard of before, EndEverAfter, opened the show and actually were really good. They ripped through five songs, a nice slab of the kind of swaggering "Cock Rock" that you just don't hear anymore. You can hear a few of them at the link above.

Cinderella was next, and I was actually excited because I had never seen them live before even though they were one of my favorites in high school. Tom Keifer's voice was in rough shape; it turns out he actually has major damage to his vocal chords and needs to have surgery but didn't want to cancel the tour and elected to tough it out instead. I really felt bad for the guy- it was obvious that he was in severe pain. He must not speak for the rest of the day just to save his voice. In the end, the vocal difficulties didn't stop the band from delivering a high energy hour-long set that I really enjoyed, opening with "Fallin' Apart At The Seams" and "Push, Push." They also did "Night Songs," "Heartbreak Station," "Shelter Me," "Coming Home," "Don't Know What You've Got Till It's Gone," "Nobody's Fool," and "Gypsy Road" before closing with "Shake Me." Great stuff.

Poison I saw once before, about 15 years ago when they were at the peak of their popularity, and actually didn't think the show was very good (Warrant, who opened up, blew them off the stage that night). So I wasn't sure what to expect yesterday. My fears proved to be unfounded as I thought they put on a great show. My daughter is actually familiar with Poison and knew most of the songs and gleefully sang along as the band ran through "Look What The Cat Dragged In," "I Want Action," "We're An American Band," "I Won't Forget You," "Cry Tough," "Ride The Wind," "Fallen Angel," "Something To Believe In," "I Hate Every Bone In Your Body," "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," "Your Mama Don't Dance," "Unskinny Bop," "Nothin' But A Good Time," and "Talk Dirty To Me."

Then I went home, fell onto my bed, and passed right out. I think I'm getting too old for this shit.

I meant to post this yesterday, but it's OK because it's not too late.

"Gene Simmons' Family Jewels" debuted last night on A&E network. Gene's latest endeavor is a reality series in the same vein as "The Osbournes" and "Hogan Knows Best." For those that missed it, it is being re-run many times during the week; check your local listings! There were two episodes last night, although I'm not sure whether or not that will be the case every week. The normal time to catch it is Mondays at 10:00.

As far as a review? I thought it was great. You always have to take these shows with a grain of salt and wonder how much is for the benefit of the cameras, but despite Gene being his usual pompous (yet strangely lovable) self, you can see the difference in his demeanor at home as compared to when he's working a red carpet. He can be the total rock star when he needs to be, but knows when to turn it off (Sebastian Bach, take notes). Here is a man who genuinely loves his family, and his kids, thankfully, seem to be incredibly intelligent, well-adjusted, and grounded...unlike other celebrity reality-TV offspring.

Whether you're a KISS fan or not, check it out.