Hayden's new Album, The Office, Party Down, Rafa v. Fed, Simmons v. Gladwell II,

• I can't believe it, but Hayden has a new album coming out The Place Where We Lived, May 26. Yeah, that was fast...

• How 'bout the Office? What a nice finale. I'm not sure whether its the mockumentary format, but 5 seasons in and its still going strong (not sure how long they are going to be able to keep this together). Ordinarily I'd be a little worried about the PB&J pregnancy thing, but they handled the couple getting together so well....

• I've started watching Party Down, and I gotta say, its growing on me. I do like Rob Thomas (mostly, that he created Veronica Mars), and the fact that he's bascially re-hired the cast of V-Mars (minus Kristen Bell). There've been some great cameos by Rob Coddry (Daily Show), Juno's dad, Breckin Meyer (Road Trip), and a bunch of other "that guys". Oh, did I mention that the show is being directed by Fred Savage (Kevin from the Wonder Years)?

• There was some great tennis on this weekend - Masters Series Madrid. Normally I don't watch anything outside the Grand Slams, but the Nadal v. Djokovic semi was probably the best match I've seen since the epic Nadal/Fed Wimbledon final. And it was great to see Federer get a win under his belt this year (especially over Nadal on clay), even though the courts were/are supposedly much faster. Does the win boad well for Federer going into the French? Sure, but its going to take a hell of an effort to take 3 sets off Nadal on a slower court...
  

• If you haven't caught the Simmons v. Gladwell II email exchange do...

• And I was all excited about the Lakers/Rockets & Celtics/Magic game 7s... gawd... that was disappointing...
  

"I declare BANKRUPTCY!!!" ... some thoughts on a few TV shows

1/The Office - The Office, in my opinion, has been the best show on network TV over the last couple of years, but I was horribly, horribly, worried that the Pam and Jim getting together storyline would absolutely destroy the show. Well, turns out it hasn't, and has actually provided some hilarious moments for the show: Kevin and Oscar debating whether or not they've gotten together, their first night away to Shrute farms, and most recently Kelly's smack talk ('it's happening right now') vs. Pam. Since the end of the third season the show has developed a pile of other really interesting storylines: Ryan becoming an A-Hole, the Dwight-Angela-Andy love triangle, Michael and Jan's financial problems, etc. so it looks like they don't have to keep producing shows centering around Pam and Jim exclusively. It looks like its going to continue to be the one show on TV that I never miss, and always make sure that I'm up on. Oh and kudos to the girl who created the Finer Things Club on Facebook.

2/ Kid Nation - I've been watching this every week now based on my buddy Kyle's recommendation on his blog, that he found it 'strangely compelling' or something, and I really like it also. It kind of reminds me of working at the John Hatch Sports Camp through high school with slightly less crying and kids confessing how much they miss their family and want to go home. At first I was taken aback, normally I like reality TV because I like watching stupid people cry (see: every season of the Bachelor). But, since the show is composed of exclusively kids, hence 'Kid Nation' when I saw them cry, it wasn't much fun. After I got past the fact that watching kids cry isn't fun, the show was, in fact, 'strangely compelling' I think mostly because of the sheer honesty of the kids in Bonanza city i.e. they aren't as conscious of their appearance as adults, there's no passive aggressive comments, backstabbing, etc. Also, I'm looking forward to Kyle's running dairy from the season finale ... (Wasko, if you're reading this... you promised. This is also the part in my post where I pressure Kyle into fulfilling my request to watch the finale together so that we can relive watching the Bachelor re-runs in Korea after Tuesday Night Football.)

Another sidebar, I love how the host of the show raises his arms in triumph after the kids successfully do anything. Something I'm thinking about integrating into my daily life.

3/ Pushing Daisies - I tried watching a couple of episodes of Wonderfalls (also created by Brian Fuller), but could never really get into it. I think because I couldn't really identify with the main character (a teenage girl - she was no Buffy or Veronica Mars), and the premise of the show (her talking to figurines). So, at this point I've got through three episodes of PD now, and I've come to the conclusion that I like it significantly better because:

i) the production value is significantly better;

ii) Ned (the main character), while bland, is surrounded by two really likable supporting characters 'Chuck' and 'Emerson Cod' - I love Chi McBride in this role;

iii) I've come to the conclusion that all things are better with narration - see Ron Howard - Arrested Development, Daniel Stern - The Wonder Years;