Big Gulps huh....

Sorry I haven't posted in almost two months, I have been somewhat busy. For the million of readers out there I have been ignoring, you deserve an explanation. I was busy getting engaged to the writer over at Elevated Ebenezer. I have been nodding my head as she plans a wedding and trying to keep my head above water in a pretty stressful year at the school. There have been SO many things to blog about in the entertainment world and I have found myself wanting to sit down and write but I haven't had the energy or the time. BUT I AM BACK!

So whats new with your media hero? I am still watching my main set of shows, and I have added one or two shows to the mix as well. Dexter is in the middle of yet another intense season and I will probably have to dedicate an entire post to where my head is with that show. So be on the look out for that.

The last two months have been sports crazy for me. The Burleson Bulls were playing for the championship, the Cowboys were falling off the face of the Earth, the Mavs are BACK, and of course the Texas Rangers basically shocked the world with a memorable run into the World Series. I was blessed enough to get to see Game 6 of the ALCS that sent the Rangers to the World Series as well as Game 3 of the World Series with my parents and my future father in law. All these sports things that were going on had me saying on a daily basis "I wish I had somewhere to talk about this sports happiness". One rough day at work I decided that I wanted to try my hand at this internet podcasting phenomenon. So I tweeted my interest and immediately heard from a buddy who was interested and now 5 weeks later we are actually gaining a little popularity. Check us out, The Win Column . We mainly talk DFW sports with a splash of the national coverage.

So, moving on... In entertainment the new season of shows is in full effect and I am gonna do a quick hit on a few shows that I have stuck with through the years. This is Media Hero right, I can't self promote my podcast TOOO much the whole....

1. The Biggest Loser - WORST cast yet, nobody left on the show is worth watching except maybe Ada or whatever her name is. All that is left is some spoiled fat people that aren't trying to change their life, they are just trying to play the game. I am all for game playing on shows like Survivor or Big Brother, but a life changing show it's annoying. Frado, Brandon, and all the others on this show, I know this is a little harsh but I hope you relapse into being fat harder than a 15 year crack addict relapses into drugs.

2. The Walking Dead - May be the next biggest show out there. Finally we are shifting past this
crap vampire phase and heading into something alittle more believable. ZOMBIES! /sarcasm. This show is pretty damn awesome. The make up and the effects are very believable and the story line is one that differs from other zombie flicks out there. My only beef with this show and AMC is why are there only 6 episodes planned for this season??? That isn't enough to get the full feel for this series. Also, will you still sell the Blu-Ray for 70 bucks for the first season like they did with Breaking Bad that only had like 7 episodes?

3. I will preface this next quick hit with a NO HOMO. But One Tree Hill officially should be cancelled. It sucks now, but I have watched it so long that I can't quit on it. My viewing of this show goes back to college and I struggle to admit that I do watch it. I have a gut feeling that I will get made fun for this on the Win Column at some point but oh well. Cancel the show, make this season the last one. Not even the pure hottness of Sophia Bush can save this show.

4. Black Ops - Everything I worried about with this new game has been proven wrong. Treyarch you did your thing. I hated your last Call of Duty and almost didn't buy this one but damn I am glad I did. Even the fiance somewhat enjoys it, when I let her wear the headphones and talk trash. The annoying thing with this game will shortly be the Remote Control Car kill streak. EVERYONE is using them and as cool as they were a week ago... they are not so cool anymore. The maps are challenging, the campaign is sick, and there are very few glitches in the game so far which is shocking for a game that hasn't issued an update yet. Stay Hard Black Ops.

5. The Win Column - Shameless plug. Hit Us Up. We are on Wordpress and also iTunes.

So there you go, I am back. I am going to make every effort possible to get more posts up here. Look for Dexter, Big Bang Theory, and other shows/movies/music that are on my radar.

Dexter is Back!

This week is almost over and it has flown by luckily because I am ready to see the next step in the life of our buddy, serial killer Dexter Morgan. He came roaring back in a season premiere that topped the charts for Showtime. It was the biggest ratings Showtime had received on a season premiere in like 15 years. This premiere, though, was something out of the norm for our friend Dexter. There was no initial chase of a new victim, there was no scheming and following like we have learned to love. For the first time ever we finally see Dex truly struggle with himself and what he is. We have heard Dex say he is a bad person numerous times in the past but never to the level of this last Sunday.

Dexter's behaviors in this episode were abnormal and honestly more 'scary' than I have ever seen him. He, for the first time, feels guilt over a murder. Granted he still feels no real guilt over any murder he has committed but he feels responsible for the murder of Rita. He should have killed Trinity the first time he had the opportunity. The absence of Harry for most of the episode, truly gives Dexter a feeling of being all alone. The only time we see Harry is when Dexter takes out the Redneck in what could possibly the nastiest bathroom in America. That was quite possibly my favorite scene of the whole movie, seeing Dexter finally just let loose and get his aggression, anger and even a little remorse out on that dude's face was AWESOME. This may be strangely demented on my part but I hope that this is the picture of the Dark Passenger this season. Just out for blood on anyone that has done wrong.

Moving on to my prediction for the season, Quinn (who looks frighteningly like Matthew Perry during his drug run on friends) will die. He and Deb are striking up this awkward sexual relationship, all the while Quinn is out searching for clues to lead to Dexter. Yeah I have said it in a previous post I know but dude is dead. Plain and Simple. Dead. I think Aster and Cody are going to start to question Dex more than ever but in the long run the kids and Dexter will be closer than ever over the tragedy of Rita's death.

This season is going to be an interesting one, mainly because of the whole Kyle Butler twist in the plot. I am hoping that this isn't the end of our friend Dexter, but I have trouble figuring out how he can escape this ordeal. Eventually, Dexter will either be killed, caught, or eliminated on his own... but please let it be like 3 or 4 years from now....

Lone Star Canned Already?

If you can't tell from the few posts I have posted here on Media Hero, I am not really into many shows that show up on your network stations. Lie to Me is a decent show but the lack of a real running story kills me, I am a fan of the dramatic story lines that carry on from week to week like that of Breaking Bad or Dexter. Every week you are left waiting for the next weeks episode to start. Most shows on network television don't do that for me, and the ones that try I just do not get into (Lost, 24). Every new television season I ask for input from my 'media friends' on new shows that they are hearing about and then I check them out if they sound interesting to me. A guy I work with suggested I check out Lonestar, a show about a Texas con-man, that is shot right here in Dallas and all over the state. So, I set the DVR, and I decided late Saturday to get the pilot out of the way before I set the rest of the season up to record.


This show was amazing. The pilot did exactly what a good episode of Dexter or BB would do, it left me waiting for Monday night's episode 2. Bob Allen, a conman who specializes in ripping people off with oil drilling leases and mineral right contracts, leads two lives with two women and two different yet similar money making schemes. He is married to one women in Houston and by the end of episode one is running off to Vegas to marry a lady from Midland. The plot twists and turns are all centered around his father in law's, played by the great Jon Voight, oil company "Thatcher Inc." and Bob's response to a job he is offered there. Long story short, he is going to try to rip off one of the largest oil companies in Texas. The first two episodes remind me of how I felt after two episodes of Breaking Bad. I still had no real clue of what was going on but I definitely wanted to keep watching to see what would happen.


Then the hammer came down yesterday, Fox has officially canceled 'Lone Star". Fox made the mistake of putting a first season show up against the powerful Monday night line up. In my opinion, they also dropped the ball on the advertising of this show. The only reason I knew about it was because of a friend telling me. They need to take hint from the people over at AMC and get the word out. AMC visually raped people's faces with their new show Rubicon. Every commercial break it was Rubicon and the Shake Weight. While Rubicon is a decent show that fills my time when nothing else is on, it is not the powerful show AMC is used to running out there like BB or Mad Men. It still got ratings though.



My hope for 'Lone Star' is that we aren't done seeing it, I hope the producers reorganize and pitch the idea to a cable network and we see it come back on TNT or AMC or anywhere. The show had potential to have a few good seasons, because lets be honest eventually the story would crash and burn because you can only do so much to keep the two lives separate.



My pick for next show dead is "No Ordinary Family" or whatever it is called, that just looks dumb and I don't think that the star power of Rita and the dude from 'The Shield' can save that crap idea for a show.

Coming Soon....

So, this time of year for the average guy is all about football, beer and brats. This guy is more than excited about the Cowboys, fantasy football and tailgating but I am more excited about five huge movie debuts, new series debuts and even a video game or two. Its gonna be a great fall season!

1. Dexter Season 5

So after the speed dating version of season 4, I was not happy that I had to wait 4 months to see how the life changing event left our friend. My speed dating attack of Dexter Season 4 was a 2 week nightly binged with Caty so I could finally be all caught up. Once the finale hit and Caty quit crying, we both wanted to jump straight into season 5 and see what happened. Dexter is going to a completely different character this upcoming season. Dealing with being a single father, a serial killer, and dealing with the fact that he caused the most traumatic event of his children life. My gut tells me that this season is it for the loveable Dexter. I just do not see how he can get himself out of this mess. We have seen him weasel his way out some complex situations but nothing like this! Dexter is the serial killer we love to support, kinda like the drug dealing badass that is Walt on Breaking Bad. To borrow an overused and misinterpreted saying of my high school students... this season is going to be uber epic.


2. Call of Duty - Black Ops

I know I am almost 30 and all that but I still love me some video games. It's strange but its like an amazing stress reliever for me after a frustrating day at work or a bad baseball game. I just want to get online and either shoot fake terrorist or dominate some 16 year old acne ridden punk in Madden. Yeah I said it, it makes this almost old guy feel good to whoop up on teenagers in video games! This Black Ops game is expected to be the biggest release of the year. Its the follow up to Modern Warfare 2. Although it is produced by a different gaming developer, and their releases have been less than appealing in the past, I still plan on purchasing this game and giving it a run through the old xbox. I will play with my 40-something year old brother, which his addiction to this game is WAY more embarrassing than my addiction, and his police buddies. We will lose to the little youngins, we will beat them sometimes, but overall we will just escape into the virtual world for an hour or two a night to relax from a crazy day.


3. The City

When we went and saw Inception, which I swear I will eventually give my review for (Kinda want to see it again), there was an action packed trailer for a new flick coming out that had me all sorts of excited. Then I saw who is directing it and I got nervous. Ben Affleck is directing himself again in a heist movie, but then I remember that Affleck directed Gone Baby Gone, which is in my top 5 all time movies. So I am expected big things out of this movie. Maybe my expectations are going to be to high, but I don't care. The trailer showed a few plot twists already and everything I am hopes it isn't going to fall into the category of the "trailer showed all the good parts" type of film. Jeremy Renner is also in this movie and after his performance in "The Hurt Locker", I have a man crush on him. He is an outstanding up and coming actor. This movie is going to be SICK...... I hope!


4. Mavs Kickoff New Season

Yeah so what if I am letting my sports side jump on the screen again here at MH. The Dallas Mavs are my team in the NBA, and other than baseball, basketball is my game. I enjoy a good football game don't get me wrong but I would rather sit through 3 and a half hours of baseball or a basketball game ANYDAY. The critics say the Mavs got worse but standing still in free agency, but me I see it as just more time for what looked to the best team in the NBA for a month or so to gel in the off season. We shall see, either way, if they go 82-0 or 10-72, I am still going to watch and still cheer. So hurry up Basketball season

5. Texas Rangers Playoff Baseball

Do you know how long it has been since the Rangers have played playoff baseball? Do you know how long it has been since they won a series in the playoffs? Both answers are very depressing in my opinion... BUT the night that the Rangers dumped champagne on each other in honor of their divisional championship, the new owner Chuck "Baseball Jesus" Greenberg stated this: "This is what success looks like, and be ready to see this often Rangers fans". I am geeked up that the new owners are so in touch with their fanbase. It's Time! Rangers Baseball! Get Healthy Josh.

30 for 30 - Jordan rides the Bus

As many of you know I am huge sports fan on the side and occasionally write on a few different sports blogs around the interwebs. Basketball has always been one of my favorite sports but by far my passion has always been baseball. ESPN, or as we call it The Network, is celebrating their 30th anniversary with a documentary series entitled 30 for 30. This week they finally returned to covering stories that are relevant to my sports love. They covered Michael Jordan's transition from basketball to minor league baseball. They looked at how Michael responded to the murder of his father and the transition from jumbo jets to riding the charter bus with a minor league baseball team. I saw the promo for this episode of 30 for 30 and immediately set the DVR to record.

Watching the first 20 minutes of this I seriously found myself a little upset with Jordan for making this attempt. By the way I am typing this as I watch the show so if my opinion changes dramatically don't jump on me. I have no clue what to expect. But anyways, I found myself very upset with Jordan. Some people try their entire lives just to make a name for themselves in baseball, a name that may make a kid get excited to get their baseball card. Jordan tried to show up and get that without any outside struggles or hardships. It looked like a huge publicity stunt by the White Sox and a major stretch for Jordan himself. Now I realize he says that his family issued the challenge to him to become a baseball player and I respect that but this whole circus they keep showing in this video is pretty insane.

The camerawork and editing in this documentary are very impressive, but the story so far is NOTHING new that hasn't been talked about. They were hyping this thing up to be the "insider" into Jordan's real days in Baseball. Not so much, ESPN hits on his father's murder, then his gambling problem, and then the relationship between the gambling and his father's murder. ALL things that have been talked about for years. Please give me something in depth here.

The second half of the documentary is more centered on the baseball 'career' of Jordan. I do like the mix of interview and authentic footage from back in the day but was it necessary to do interview the old real estate lady that got him his house in Birmingham? She makes people in that town look like country idiots. I will say that the interviews of his former teammates was very cool hearing about how they never made the majors but they felt like big leaguers when he was around.

My overall impression of this documentary was somewhat positive. I expected ALOT more from this but I definitely enjoyed it for the most part. For someone who has always played baseball and watched it, this was automatically interesting. Jordan's baseball career was insanely short but he did chase a dream/request of his murdered father. I applaud that dedication to his father but I also see it as somewhat of a media stunt just to keep his name in lights for a year or two until his big comeback in the NBA. Thats where Jordan belonged. In the NBA, dunking on people... not on a bus or wearing baseball pants. This may not be the usual Media Hero post but this is definitely a big entertainment event I looked forward to, if you don't wanna read this... not gonna hurt my feelings.

Endless Loop - The Top 3 iTunes play for this week

As I mentioned in the first post of this blog a few weeks back, I have a crazy taste in music. The playlist I play to work out with may range from the before mentioned Bob Schneider to Jason Aldean to Jay-Z. So I figured why not make a weekly (hopefully) post of the my top 5 songs in my iTunes that week. I will call it endless loop because they are probably some of the only songs I am listening to this week. These songs may not be new, popular, or even good but they are definitely the most listened to songs of the week. Some may be songs I hear on the radio, some may be songs I am sick of because I have heard them 1000 times while editing videos for the school or church. So here we go... in NO particular order.

1. Eli Young Band - Guinevere

This song is such a breathe of fresh air from a band I have been listening to for 7 or 8 years. they are from the Denton area, UNT Grads (not sure if they finished but we claim them) and used to drink at the bar I bartended at so I claim to know them. Anyways after hearing them release song after song on albums for the last 6 years that were songs they played in and around Denton, their big fans had to be tired of hearing When It Rains and Oklahoma Girl. This new album is the first of theirs where I didn't know a single song before the drop date, and this song here is by far the best one of the CD. It takes me back to their old emotional hits like Everything is You and Highways and Broken Hearts. Looking forward to catching them next time they come in town.

2. Incubus - Wish You Were Here

So a few weeks ago, while really diving into my dirty ass house, I decided I needed to make a new upbeat playlist to motivate me to do some DEEP cleaning... You can ask the chick over at Elevated Ebenezer she can attest to just how out of control my house had gotten. Back on topic, I was trying to remember my old school workout playlist I had on my old iPod and macbook that I got rid of and I realized I never reloaded all of my Incubus music I had worked so hard to download. Well, instead of cleaning for an hour or two, I downloaded as much Incubus as I could and loaded up a playlist. I used to never really get into this particular song, but this go around I love it. It's just a song I can jam to I guess. Needless to say I got a lot of cleaning done that day. Glancing around this room right now, its about time to rock out again!

3. Brandon Rhyder - Freeze Frame Time

This song was introduced to me in a clutch moment by a co-worker. We had a slideshow to show for another co-workers retirement party and the audio bailed on us during the burn to DVD. We were pretty screwed, but one guy stepped up with some audio cables and this song and saved the party. This song is beautiful. The lyrics are amazing. Rhyder needs to be more popular than he is. I bet I listen to this song at least once or twice a day. It makes me think of everything in my past ranging from sitting on the porch of my house in Virginia with my mom and dad all the way to the newest memories that I wish I could get stuck in that just happen in Boston with my dad and brother... it also makes me think of some other memories that are on the way... If I get a new guitar, I can honestly say this is at the VERY top of the list of songs to learn to play... Please if you skip the rest of the links on this page take some time and listen to this one. It is simply a beautiful song.

So there you go, those are the top 3 songs on my iTunes this week... maybe down the road I can push this up to 5 songs a week like a normal person would but really, who cares! Tell your friends about me. I am pretty cool

JD

Bob Schneider - HOB Dallas July 31st

So for the first time in probably 3 or 4 years I ventured out to see Bob Schneider play a live set. The back story on my addiction to Bob Schneider goes back to my college roommate Cody. He was a rabid fan of Bob and he started playing his music around the apartment and I started to like him. Once I saw him live the first time at RBar in Denton, it was ON! I have driven to Austin once or twice to see him, I have been to HOB at least 4 times to see him and I have seen him in 5 or 6 other venues. His shows are always upbeat, random and fun. So I decided to take the girlfriend out and introduce her to the greatness of Bob Live. We were joined by 2 good friends from the church.

So after some great food and a REALLY spicy margarita at the Iron Cactus, we walked over to HOB and settled in on the front row railing of general admission. Quiet Company took the stage as the secondary opening band. The first guy I can't remember his name, obviously he was memorable. Quiet Company was like a cool mix of Maroon 5 and Kings of Leon in my opinion. I rarely pay attention to the opening acts at concerts like this, but these dudes ripped the stage up. I can't find these guys on the internet anywhere. Their stage presence was off the charts. I am a new fan.... if I can find them anywhere. Not on iTunes either, sucks.

So once they got the stage set up, Bob took the stage with authority. I forgot my camera so please enjoy these wonderful iPhone pics. My bad. Mr. Bob rocked a lot of newer stuff that I wasn't 100% familiar with but it was definitely needs to be put into the rotation on the iPod. The crowd was very interesting and different from most of the crowds I am used to at a Schneider show. The concerts I frequented of his back in college were full of drunk college students, and a few of his biggest fans. This concert was pretty close to Douche Central. Alot of 30 thousand dollar millionaires and fake looking women. From the beginning I was wondering just how involved the crowd would get in this concert. It definitely wasn't your usual raucous Bob crowd but ah well. Bob did his thing, he brought his 'A' game. He brought a new addition I hadn't seen before into this concert. He had a hat one at the beginning of the show, just a normal looking top hat. Whenever he wanted to do a sing a long with the crowd, he would put on a PIRATE hat. Yes a PIRATE hat. It was hilarious. Like I mentioned earlier, I heard quite a few new songs I hadn't heard but the best new song of the night was definitely the Pants Song. Bob jumped back into the rap game on this one and brought the house down. '40 dogs', his current radio release, of course, brought the crowd alive and then his usual set closing rendition of 'Tarantula' was a festive as ever.

This concert from my personal standpoint wasn't the best one of his I have been to, but it definitely was not the worst. There is no concert that can top that first one at RBar in Denton, Texas. We were there with Bruce Hughes', Bob's bass player, daughter... did that compute? Anyways, we were front row and center, and Bob and Bruce both were interacting with our group the entire concert. This concert at HOB was very upbeat and fun but it definitely was missing that hardcore college feel of old. Overall, it was well worth the cost of tickets and the 3 miles we walked through downtown Dallas to get to dinner and then to HOB. Next concert is looking to be Kings of Leon in September!