Online overkill – week of April 12

Good, bad and inspiring, these are some of the items that filled my RSS feed this week. 

Susan Boyle. Wait. You mean unattractive people can sing too? I’m with Jordan Green. The reasons the video is so inspiring and capturing millions of hits on YouTube are kind of sad. 

Ashton Kutcher. Now, if Dude Where’s My Car got all million of his Twitter followers to give money to the poor that would be a good story. 

Tea partying. If you’re disgusted with the sexual innuendo used in the coverage of the tax protests this week raise your hand. 

New Yankee Stadium. Plenty of people weighed in with opinions about the grossly expensive new home for the recession-what-recession Yankees, but Jeff Passan did a bang-up job making me feel sick to my stomach. 

Torture memos released. The details of the abusive interrogation techniques included in the memos and the right-wing talking point defense of the human rights violations made me sick to my stomach for another reason entirely. 

Online overkill – week of April 6

Good, bad, unnerving and tragic, these are some of the topics that made frequent appearances in my RSS feed this week.

The Palin family circus. File under: stories that should be left to the tabloids and Jerry Springer.

Nick Adenhart. The Angels pitcher and three others were killed by a drunk driver in an accident shortly after the rookie pitched six shutout innings. Utterly senseless and sympathetically commented on in just about every corner of the Web I frequent this week.

Everybody poops trailer. A clever take on the massively popular trailer for a real film adaptation of a popular children’s book. I don’t know about you, but it hasn’t gotten old for me yet.

Billy Bob’s Interview. There’s really only one word to describe this: asshole.

Arrgh. Like I’ve said before: non-Disney pirates really aren’t very cool.

Average Andy

It seems likely that Richter’s averageness is the font of both his artistic successes and his commercial failures. Too square to be hip, too well-kempt for slob comedy, and too principled to pander, Richter exudes a normalness that renders him a misfit. But, though as wholesome as Garrison Keillor on the surface, he is as weird as anybody. In the moments that require his zaniest self, he suggests a subtle Chris Farley, with the crucial difference of seeming to prefer malted milkshakes to speedballs.

–Troy Patterson

FNL rumor is true?

According to a NY Post blog, that rumor we reported on last week about Friday Night Lights getting renewed for two more seasons is more fact than fiction.

The real-life ‘slumdog millionaire’

Only one contestant has ever won the grand prize on India’s version of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. His name was Harshvardhan Nawathe and while he wasn’t a “slumdog,” he now devotes much of his time to impoverished children in Mumbai.

Salon.com shares the inspiring true story of how Nawathe escaped the relentless glow of celebrity, started a family and decided to fight for the rights of his city’s most vulnerable residents.

Saved by the FNL 90210

Rumors are swirling that suggest diehard Friday Night Lights fans might not have to beg, plead and send light bulbs to NBC to keep the show on the air for two more seasons.

As much as I love this show and would like to see it continue, I too wonder what would happen with some of the main characters if it does survive as it did this year through a DirecTV/NBC partnership.

Will it get the 90210/Saved By the Bell treatment where characters inexplicably repeat grades and stretch the suspension of disbelief that they are young enough to be in high school even further?

Online Overkill – week of March 8

Good, bad, annoying or indifferent, these are the stories that got the most play or not enough in my blog reader this week.

The coming evangelical collapse. As much as I enjoy Michael Spencer’s Internet Monk blog, I thought he went a little thick with the sensationalism on his evangelical collapse posts back in January. This week, thanks to a condensed essay based on the blog series in the Christian Science Monitor, it was everywhere I looked.

Twitter. I’m with Helen Popkin. Shut up about it already.

Bristol Palin. A story about the Alaskan governor’s daughter and her grandbaby’s daddy splitting was the top news item on the Web site for my local newspaper Thursday morning. And we wonder why newspapers are dying?

Michael Steele. If I were a Republican I’d be furious; If I were a Democrat I’d be thrilled. Since I’m neither, I’m bored with the endless coverage of the foot-in-mouth prone GOP leader.

Cramer vs. Stewart. I have to agree with Megan Garber. Jon Stewart’s battle with cable business news network CNBC shouldn’t be front page news but there’s a reason why everyone’s been talking about it: it’s good craic.

The Netherlands. I realize the World Baseball Classic isn’t as important as the latest scoop on Terrell Owens, Alex Rodriguez or the places Roger Clemens had steroids injected into his rear-end, but The Netherlands beating the mighty Dominican Republic twice should have been beaten to death. Save for some scattered AP headlines, an SI.com column I linked and a post three days after the fact on First Things, it was mostly ignored by many blogs, sports-focused ones included, I read.

Frank TV’s cancellation

Hallelujah! Look, I don’t doubt that Frank Caliendo is a great guy and I never want anyone to lose work, but for the simple fact that TBS annoyed us with Frank TV ads for the last two MLB Playoffs, this is great news.

–Awful Announcing

Oscarness

If you managed to watch more than 45 minutes of tonight’s Oscar broadcast, you’re either far more patient than I or stuck in a studio apartment with a television that won’t turn off and only gets ABC. The appeal of the ceremony is along the same lines as the appeal of American Idol, and while I suppose I can understand it in some abstract way, it’s not something to which I can relate.

–Peter Suderman

I love Jesus but I drink a little