TRL Moment of the Week
On Wednesday we did a show in which we attempted (unsuccessfully) to talk to every single person in the audience. Some kids were shy, some were talkative but boring, and some were absolutely fascinating. Such as the girl who said that she was mad at her two friends because they had been making fun of her the previous night.
VJDamien: Why?
Girl: Because she couldn't pronounce the word espraing.
VJDamien: What?
Girl: Espraing.
VJDamien: Maybe because that's not a word.
Girl's Friend: She's saying sprain. Like you sprained your ankle.
VJDamien: Really? Say it again.
Girl: Espraing. Espraing. I'm not saying it right.
VJDamien: Well there's no e in there. And no g.
Girl: Espraing.
VJDamien (to girl's friends): Does your friend wear a helmet?

In a couple hours I'm off to Mission Beach, San Diego for this summer's MTV Beach House. Back home on June 3rd. Things get pretty hectic out there, so posts may be few and far between. Just giving a heads-up...

Two not-very-good photos from Alice in Chains @ Bowery:


The band in action, new singer and all.

Jerry Cantrell, stoic as ever. The crowd burst into repeated chants of "Jerry, Jerry." Well earned, no question about it.

They're putting hidden messages into 24 now? Let's hope Jack isn't really dead... those fictitious Chinese need a good ass-whooping.

(Click on the picture to make it easier to read)

No Excuses (But I Blame Alcohol)
I should write a very long, detailed post about my amazing adventure last night seeing Alice in Chains at Bowery Ballroom and then drinking with the band til the early morning at Plumm. But I am such a wreck today. Don't know why I even came to work. I've been told I look like I've been shipwrecked on a desert island for weeks. Guess I can't party like I used to.
I will say that the concert was excellent. The band was tight and seemed thrilled to be playing again. The set was short but included all the hits plus "Dam That River," "Love Hate Love," and other choice album cuts. New singer William DuVall is no Layne Staley, but he has a great voice and did the songs justice. And they were all totally cool and friendly at the afterparty.
I'll try to post photos later or tomorrow.

Get a Gob
Arrested Development was officially cancelled last week, but at least I have this to help ease the pain.

My Old Kentucky Blog has become a bit obsessed with covers lately. Today? 14 versions of The Beach Boys's "God Only Knows" (including the awful version from the movie Saved). Not my favorite topic, covering Beach Boys songs. But this site could come in handy the next time Tommy TSP and I make Covers Mix CDs (in retrospect, mine should have been much Much MUCH better than what I gave him).

Gnarly Barkley
Anyone who watches basketball on TNT knows that Charles Barkley has a neverending supply of amazing one-liners. This site collects almost all of them. Brilliant stuff.

A crazy Japanese game show called Silent Library has been making the rounds on the internet... but in case you haven't seen it, I recommend watching it.

TRL Moment of the Week
perennially unfunny Jamie Kennedy dropped by on Tuesday to promote his unfunny new MTV show, Blowin' Up. Surprisingly, he was unfunny.
His co-star (and co-guest) Stu Stone? Also unfunny.
They refused to rap on TRL, even though their show is about Jamie trying to become a hip-hop star, so we kept their visit short.
Very short.
Too short, in Jamie's mind.
After we said goodbye to them, I overheard Jamie complain to Stu "Man, that was too fast. We should've had more time out there. Too fast."
"It's okay. We were funny," reassured Stu.
Jamie looked at him for a second and said, in all sincerity, "We were funny!"
They were not.

The Fake Slim Shady
Wow, I'm so proud of my alma mater right now...

Well I blew another golden opportunity yesterday. Seth MacFarlane was on TRL to promote the season finale of Family Guy. I planned on asking him to record my cell phone's outgoing voicemail message as either Stewie or Peter (yes, it's a total geeky fanboy thing to do, but I don't care). But during the commercial break, I suddenly had to start cutting copy from the cue cards and adding in results of a poll… and by the time I finished, he had left. I can't keep blowing these chances… what else is the point of working here?

Maxim's Not 100
The new list of Maxim's Hot 100 has been revealed, and it's utterly ridiculous. I've always thought Eva Longoria was overrated. But Kristen Bell at #11? Fergie higher than Shakira? Kelly Clarkson higher than Brooke Burke? Avril Lavigne higher than Emilie de Ravin? Sarah Silverman higher than Evangeline Lilly? No Rosario Dawson, Rihanna, or Kate Beckinsale on the list at all? What a disaster.

This video of Pete Doherty shooting a syringe full of blood at an MTV camera is one of the craziest things I've seen in a long time. What is still doing walking the streets? Why is he not in jail or a drug rehab? How much longer can he live like this? Simply unbelievable.

Stupid Crappy Camera Phone
Who's the woman on the right? Jamie-Lynn Sigler. The one on the left? Shannon Elizabeth (who arrived with Lance Bass, of all people). Like me, both of them were rocking out to "Sweet Child Of Mine" last night. And sadly, this is the only photo that came close to looking like anything because the fucking camera in my fucking phone is awful. So I apologize for the lack of photos of Axl and the band.
I can tell you that, by the standards of this B-Level GnR, last night's show was pretty awesome. Axl's voice was strong when it wasn't drowned out by the band (the audio guy sucked), and the band sounded good, although it's very telling that it takes 7 current members to recreate the sound of the departed original 4. They hit the stage around 11:10pm and played until 1:30am, getting through most of Appetite* and other assorted hits mixed in with 4 new songs. Axl was in a great mood, with lots of smiles and banter, and even messed with the audience by saying that Izzy had called him to wish him a good show, leading everyone to believe Izzy would come out (he did not). As he's done every night, Sebastian Bach joined Axl for "My Michelle." The crowd loved every minute of it, even singing along during a bizarre guitar solo of Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful."
Yes, this concert was nothing compared to the glory days, but at least I fulfilled my dream of seeing Axl perform live. Hopefully the next time I do it, he'll be joined by Slash, Duff, Izzy, and Matt.

* Quick side story: when Appetite for Destruction came out in 1987, I was in 3rd grade. I went to Camelot Music in the Coral Square Mall with my mom to buy the cassette. At the cash register, the cashier said to my mom "You know this has curse words in it, right?" My mom looked at me and said "It does?"
"Only in one song," I lied.
"No, they're in almost every song," the clerk interjected. So my mom refused to let me get the tape, and I had to copy it from a friend.
To this day I cannot fathom why the cashier would do something like that, except to go on some lame power trip. And were that chain still in business, I would never again shop at a Camelot store.

Congratulations to my sister (whose screenname has been changed to protect her) for finally embracing technology, if not vocabulary.
LSTT-Sis: you there
Greeneneon: yup
Greeneneon: what's up?
LSTT-Sis: just testing to see if this works
LSTT-Sis: my first IM
Greeneneon: congratulations
LSTT-Sis: I'm officially a techny
Greeneneon: you mean a techie?
LSTT-Sis: whatever-gotta run

While Axl and Fergie are starting to look very much alike, I hope that he doesn't sound much like her.

I'll find out in about 11 hours...

Yet another big star is playing a small venue in NYC (or in this case, a series of small venues). Joan Jett is playing 4 nights in a row in the beginning of June, moving from Bowery Ballroom to Southpaw to CBGB's to North Six. You can get presale tix here; the username is joan and the password is jett. I just got tix to the CBGB's show, which means I'm doing pretty well: yes to RHCP @ Irving, GnR@ Hammerstein, AIC @ Bowery, and Jett @ CBGB's; no to Pearl Jam @ Irving, Radiohead @ MSG Theatre, and Sonic Youth @ CBGB's.

By the way, it's about 55 hours until my GnR show (depending on what time they get on stage). Here's a short recap of their opener last night.

Congratulations to me for making* New York magazine's list of The Influentials!

* (Well it's not really me, but enough people send me mail thinking I'm him that I have no problem taking credit for it)

TRL Moment of the Week
On Wednesday we had 3 Victoria's Secret supermodels on the show: Gisele, Adriana, and Karolina. Since they're paid to make anything look sexy, we took boring products and made the girls model them. Adriana had a fishing magazine, Karolina had oatmeal (sorry no photo), and Gisele had fertilizer. Lots of fun, those girls.

Not nearly as fun were the AFI fans who invaded Times Square to catch the world premiere of the band's new "Miss Murder" video in Nokia Theater. Too cool for TRL on any other day, they spent their time booing other TRL artists, heckling the VJ's, chanting in unison, and looking depressed underneath pounds of foundation and eyeliner. As I was prepping a fan to help interview the band, another fan growled at me, "Do you even like AFI?" Um, no, I actually have taste (although some find my taste questionable... see #6).

All you Scrubs fans (our numbers are dwindling but I know you're out there), show your love by ordering this Dr. Acula t-shirt.

It's been a long time, but I've decided to bring back an old favorite: Strangest Keyword Searches That Led People To My Site. Here goes:
#3: don mattingly song myspace
- Is this a song about Don Mattingly that's posted on MySpace? Did Mattingly record a song that's posted on MySpace? Did Mattingly record a song about MySpace? Too many questions...
#2: getting a colonic in thailand
- Of all the things one can do in that country, getting a colonic should be waaaaaaaaaaaaay at the bottom of anyone's list.
#1: boner express
- No comment. Although I hope the person who did this search isn't a friend of mine.

What's most embarrassing about this: that Dennis Haskins will always be referred to as Mr. Belding? That he doesn't mind, even when someone screws up the name? Or his karaoke singing?

Can't Stop (the ringing)
A co-worker yesterday hooked me up with a last-minute ticket to catch the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Irving Plaza. How amazing to see a band like them, at this point in their career, playing an intimate venue. And I had a blast. The only problem is, the show was loud. Painfully loud. To the point where I had to leave my prime spot about 25 feet from the stage to stand in the back near the bar. My ears are still ringing. It's embarrassing to say, but maybe I'm getting too old for a show like this. Is 26 old? Didn't The Sopranos just say that 26 is the new 21?
Anyway, getting back to the show, they played for about 90 minutes, with a lot of new material, which sounds like a lot of their old material. They peppered the set with hits, including "Can't Stop," "Soul to Squeeze," "By the Way," "Scar Tissue," and "Give It Away." John did a fine solo rendition of the Bee-Gee's "How Deep Is Your Love." Flea attempted a solo rendition of Neil Young's "Needle and Damage Done," but gave up about 15 seconds into it. The band was on fire, although it drowned out a lot of the vocals. They are also nothing but energy, with Anthony spinning like a top, Flea's head constantly bopping and dripping with sweat, Chad pounding away on the drums like Animal, John tearing up the guitar. Their sound isn't as good live as on their albums, but they still put on a helluva show.
As for celebrity sightings, the only one I glimpsed was Wanda Sykes. And I can't stand her. Oh well.

I was at a bar Saturday night watching the Yankees game with the sound off. Fortunately the closed-captioning was on, so I was able to "hear" the commentators make this brilliant comment about the Rangers stranding Phil Nevin on 2nd base after a leadoff double:
"Usually after a leadoff extra-base hit, particularly a double or triple but certainly a homer, the team is able to score a run."
I see. So what extra-base hit makes the situation not particularly true? And it's only usually that a run scores in a leadoff double?
Sometimes I wonder how viewers survive without announcers and their brilliant insights.

TRL Moment of the Week
On Wednesday, Tom Cruise kicked off his trek around NYC outside of TRL. 10 minutes for the show, I went outside with the hosts and crew, where we found thousands of fans eagerly waiting for Cruise. As we were outside, one of our hosts tried to interact with the crowd, but got absolutely no response. Frustrated, VJ started audibly complaining that everyone looked like they were sedated on drugs. Once Cruise did arrive and waved to everyone from the top of his SUV, the crowd went nuts.
Later, backstage inside, VJ was talking to our guest Jeremy Piven and starts describing the crowd outside as full of "crazy cult people." Then VJ compared Cruise's arrival and wave to the crowd to Hitler in Nazi Germany.
Yeah, that's not the best topic of conversation with a Jewish celebrity who, having worked in Hollywood for 20 years, may be friends with Cruise or associated with Scientology. And there's no reason to get upset that people weren't responding to you outside. You're an MTV VJ. He's Tom Cruise. 'Nuff said.

Speaking of Cruise, he showed off some crazy dance moves on 106 & Park.

And speaking of crazy dance moves, Kanye caused quite a stir when he did the "Carlton dance" to "Take On Me" during his set at Coachella. Apparently it's not the first time.

The video for Chicago's "You're the Inspiration" is on VH1 Classic right now. It reminds me that when I was a kid, I thought that the real Madonna and Billy Idol were making out in it. I had a huge crush on Madonna back then, so for a long time (at least in youth time) I hated Billy Idol out of jealousy. Looking at it now, the actors in the video look nothing like their real counterparts. So Billy, you're off the hook.

Warm Body in the TRL Graveyard
Had this cold open approved for today's show:

(CLOSE-UP ON JAMIE FOXX ARM-WRESTLING. WE CAN'T SEE WHO IS OPPONENT IS, BUT HE IS OBVIOUSLY STRUGGLING)

JAMIE
-DAMN, WHAT YOU BEEN EATIN' ON THAT ISLAND?

(PULL OUT TO REVEAL HIS OPPONENT IS MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ FROM "LOST." SHE FINALLY SLAMS HIS HAND DOWN)

MICHELLE
-THAT ALL YOU GOT?

JAMIE
-OH PLEASE GIRL, I LET YOU WIN

MICHELLE
-WANNA GO AGAIN?

JAMIE
-NO CAN DO
-TRL STARTS NOW

Then it turned out that we need to be selling our big online show (as in we've got live content running on both TV and on trl.mtv.com today) in the open, so this got killed.

Speaking of killed (don't read if you haven't watched last night's Lost and plan to!!!!), great job by the show of killing off 2 major characters. Nicely done! And for once, the rumors got it right.

One final TRL note... Time Out New York, thanks for promoting Friday's show in this week's issue:
Total Request Live 3:30–4:30pm, MTV
True, Disney World is awfully popular with victorious Super Bowl quarterbacks, but if we were about to graduate from high school we’d rather go somewhere less tame. Be that as it may, the kids who attend TRL’s graduation event at the Orlando theme park probably won’t look their gift horse in the mouth. Fall Out Boy, Omarion, Teddy Geiger and the Pussy Cat Dolls provide the entertainment for the grand finale of the show’s annual high-school week.
Next time, please get your facts right. The show isn't happening at Disney World. That event was Grad Nite 2006, which doesn't have anything to do with TRL except that we filmed there. The Pussycat Dolls have nothing to do with it. We're actually running that package today, not tomorrow.
But again, we appreciate the love.

Gotta give credit to SportsGuy for suggesting I watch these clips... they're pretty damn good.
- Bad NY Jets draft picks
- Mike Tyson wanto to eat children
- A-Rod waxing it

Larry Charles has allegedly been hired to direct the movie adaptation of Motley Crue's book The Dirt. Larry Charles, who is best known for writing for other popular foursome Seinfeld. Should he decide to model the movie after that show, I wonder which band member would correspond to which character? I think I'd break it down like this:
Jerry - Nikki Sixx: the center of the group who takes things most seriously, does the most work, yet gets less acclaim than the others. Although he does score hot chicks.
Kramer - Tommy Lee: the unpredictable, loose cannon known to have crazy side-projects and a crazy sex life.
Elaine - Vince Neil: the pretty one, prone to getting into fights and dancing awkwardly.
George - Mick Mars: the ugly one nobody wants to be around.

Or maybe he'll model it after another foursome he's written for, Entourage.
Eric - Nikki Sixx: responsible for keeping the gang together and stuck with a lot of the shit work, but still reaps plenty of benefits.
Vince - Tommy Lee: the most popular one.
Johnny - Vince Neil: seemed much cooler 10 years ago, now comes off as just lame. Ponders questionable cosmetic surgery.
Turtle - Mick Mars: the ugly one nobody wants to be around.

Feel free to agree or disagree.

Whew, good thing Pete Doherty cleared up the whole injecting-heroin-into-a-passed-out-teenager thing. I was really concerned for a bit. But now it's all good.