Miss: Dunkin Donuts’ French Cruller, 2.0. A few years ago, the french cruller at DD was my favorite donut, edging out even the fresh-baked Krispy Kreme glazed. Then Dunkin’ took the donut off the shelf as part of an effort to expel all trans fats from the menu. When finally the donut showed up again, I was excited, then deeply, sorely disappointed. The new version is disgusting. I’m not sure what they used to replace those delicious trans fats, but I suspect it might be some sort of fossil fuel. I’ve tried to eat it twice (from two different DD locations), and haven’t even been willing or able to finish it—something that is completely new to me when it comes to donuts.

Hit: Glee (Fox). The pilot to this new serial dramedy debuted on Fox (and online via Hulu and on-demand) last spring, though the series itself will launch in the fall. It’s a self-aware and hugely entertaining show about a high school teacher trying to reclaim the glory of his alma mater’s show choir. It’s got a great cast and is chock full of cheesy ’80s anthems. What’s not to like? What remains unclear is whether the show can maintain its momentum as a weekly serial. It could be a challenge, but I’m willing to watch it try.

Miss: The 2009 pennies. In commemoration of Lincoln’s 200th birthday, you may have noticed some new one-cent coins in circulation. The front is the same, but in place of the Lincoln memorial on the back are a couple of scenes from Lincoln’s life. The first (and most hideous) shows Lincoln taking a break from splitting rails and sitting on a log reading a book. By his side is a sledgehammer that doubles as a carnival prop, and Lincoln doesn’t yet have the beard, but he does sport a bitchin’ blow-dried hairdo. The second shows a log cabin (presumably an artists rendition of Lincoln’s birthplace). Neither seems right to me, particularly because Lincoln himself was never fond of the “rail splitter” nickname or the born-in-a-log-cabin, though he tolerated them during elections. Plus, something about the pictures just seems off, like a gag gift or an arcade token. (As an aside, how is it the government is still making pennies? Is it even conceivable that it costs less than $0.01 to produce our lowest monetary denomination?) UPDATE: Some Googling reveals that there are four new penny designs, not just the two I mention in this post (and that I’ve actually seen in circulation). One of them (professional life in Illinois) I’m somewhat indifferent about, and the other three I think are awful.

(Actual spoilers and potential ones below. If you don’t want to know anything about how season six ended or anything revealed at Comic-Con, don’t join us after the jump.)

Links from the Lost Comic-Con panel:

• Doc Artz claims to have every last second of the panel on video.
• Whitney at PopCandy attended the Lost panel and has republished her Twitter feed, with additional links.
• This website is its own kind of genius: a fan created some killer black velvet art featuring
  Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindelof and a polar bear, and for his trouble got to present it at Comic-Con.
• This year’s ARG appears to be Lost University. Meh. I’ve never gotten much into the ARGs, and this one seems the least compelling yet.

The videos:

Hurley’s Mr. Cluck’s commercial.

This was promo’ed at Comic-Con, and it raises a lot of questions. Either the producers are just messing with us (as they are wont to do on occasions like this), or this video is a huge clue about the final season. Think about it: Hurley starts out the video saying “Ever since I won the lottery, I’ve had nothing but good luck,” then proceeds to talk about his recent vacation to Austrailia. In other words, Faraday’s plan (carried out by Jack) to detonate a hydrogen bomb was a success (?) and in the final season we’ll see what it would have been like if Oceanic 815 never would have crashed (?) (!).

That would certainly explain this video:

There was also a third video showing Kate as a fugitive on America’s Most Wanted. I’ll update this post if I can track down a high-quality copy of the video.

All three of the videos explore the same scenario: Oceanic 815 never crashed. Surely it won’t be as simple as that, but it’s an interesting (and frankly, frustrating) premise.

I also like this promo video from ABC quite a bit, created in the style of a ’70s/’80s mysteries-of-the-unexplained television show.

The ABC.com website promises more episodes in the future.

At some point before the start of next season, I promise* to do an in-depth analysis of where things stand in the show. But this stuff at least gives us something to chew on until then.

(*Yes, I was crossing my fingers behind my back when I typed this. You should try it some time. It’s not easy.)

The subtext—and, in some cases, the text—of these reports is that there may be a backlash coming if her fans feel they’ve been snookered. I’d like to go on the record now that if it turns out Susan Boyle knew what she was doing all along, my admiration for her will increase exponentially: she goes from being a dowdy-looking English Scottish** villager with a good singing voice to a dowdy-looking English Scottish villager with a good singing voice and an amazing ability to exploit pop-culture media expectations. The latter is much more interesting and, yes, even admirable.

Go back and watch that clip again and see Simon Cowell’s reaction. If you look into his cold, dark eyes, you can see him figuring it out. There are very few people more media savvy than Simon, and he knows something’s up. That doesn’t stop him, of course, from giving Boyle a standing ovation—maybe that’s why he gave her one.

**Edited to account for my typical American ignorance of British sensitivities.

And I have been going bezerk record-collecting ever since.

I’ve had a normal turntable for years, and it’s out in my dining room/kitchen/living room, so I really only put records on it when I’m doing the dishes or cooking (as long as no one’s watching TV, which is rare).

Now I can listen to records through my computer—and record them onto my computer, as well.

I’ve been hitting all kinds of garage sales and used record shops and picking up tons of vinyl for only $1 each. It’s so hard to resist buying anything for only a $1. Which explains why I’ve picked up these:

I’ve been reveling in a lot of 80s stuff, I’ll post a few songs to the radio.blog:

The The – “Infected”
Psychedelic Furs – “The Ghost In You”
INXS – “Don’t Change”
David Sylvian – “Nostalgia”
B-52′s – “Legal Tender”

If you care to make a request, I’ll do my best to fill them. Here’s a list of almost everything I’ve got.

What do (or did) you have on vinyl?

- Jonah Goldberg isn’t too happy with the current season of BSG.

- After tonight, no new BSG until 2009 (I’m not sure if this counts the promised webisodes).

- The writer of “The Hub,” Jane Espenson, answers questions about last week’s episode here. Interesting exchange here:

Q. What happened to Boomer after D’Anna killed Cavil? Did she escape?
Espenson: A. She certainly would’ve had time to. Heck, there was even time for Cavil to download, I suppose. Huh. How ’bout that.

- Some interesting tidbits from a SciFi Channel Wednesday night screening of tonight’s episode at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood (no spoilers here, some in link).

While cast members admit they routinely use “frak” even when away from the cameras, Sackoff prefers [****] in her everyday life. “Nothing works like a good f-bomb,” she insisted.

- Also, in the above link: “The Final Five do not have numbers,” said Moore.

Meaning, the “seven” known Cylons are 1 – 6 and 8. There’s no 7 and no 9 – 12. Which just confirms my theory Moore made the whole final five thing up late in the game. Way too late, actually, and I think it’s made the whole series suffer. Yes, the “final five” thing has allowed for some great drama (such as tonight’s episode), but overall I’m coming to the conclusion it was a mistake.

Look at this early statement by Moore on the 12 Cylon models:

” The idea was that these models of Cylon were sort of developed out of their own study of us. The Cylons on some level looked at humanity and said ‘You know what? There’s really only 12 of you.’ If these are the 12, and sort of if you look at them they each represent different archetypes of what humanity is.”

It’s hard to reconcile that quote with the idea of a “final five” that predate the whole shebang. Not impossible, but hard.

Now, to tonight’s episode:

* At the beginning of the episode: The FOUR Cylons? The FOUR Cylons? Did I miss a scene somewhere where D’Anna said she only knew four of the five or that the fifth was not in the fleet? This makes no sense, really. If she knows all five, and all five are somewhere in the fleet, then there’s no reason to talk about four instead of five. If the fifth is dead or somewhere else, how is D’Anna supposed to know that? She’s not omnipotent, after all.

* Considering the religious nonsense that Baltar has been spouting all season, it was . . . interesting to see his as the voice of reason for once. Amazingly, he was right when talking to D’Anna. Of course, his self-preservations was at stake, and Baltar was more likely trying to save himself rather than humanity.

* My wife’s review: “Well, that stinks.”

* My review: Some great drama, some excellent acting, and a totally predictable ending. I called this back in season one (it was either this or dinosaur planet. There was no way they were going to find a populated Earth. Too many new characters and situations would be introduced).

Frankly, I found the episode to be something of a let down, given the ending, though I’m at a loss as to what type of ending would have satisfied me.

Let me call the ultimate ending right now: Cylons and Humans repopulate Earth as some sort of hybrid race. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong. Add your guesses below.

* No more BSG till 2009. At least there’s Burn Notice on USA this summer.

Before the show, Phoebe had decided to collect the band’s autographs. A cute 8-year-old girl is the perfect thing to be if you want to get autographs, it turns out. The band was very accommodating. Rhett Miller told her that she had the same name as one of his favorite characters from literature, Holden Caufield’s sister, which is funny because that’s exactly where the name came from. (It’s nice to know that not everyone automatically thinks of “Friends” when they hear the name.) This led to a confusing autograph that I had to explain to her later that day.

Rhett had taken the title of the song “Rollerskate Skinny” from a description that Holden gives of his sister in Catcher in the Rye. Thus, “Phoebe, keep roller-skating.”

The next song requested by the kids up front was “Valentine,” off the album Fight Songs. Normally, this is a song that Murry Hammond, the bass player, does solo on Rhett’s acoustic guitar, but this time Rhett and the rest of the band played along—they said for the first time ever—while Murry played bass. I don’t think I had ever before heard Rhett harmonize on the song, despite seeing the band play this song four or five times live. Rhett may have been making up the harmonies as he went along.

We talked to Murry a little bit before the show and I mentioned that our kids were probably even bigger fans of his wife than they are of him. Murry is married to singer Grey DeLisle, who also has an impressive resume as a voice actor for cartoons, including the voice of the evil Azula in our kids’ (and my) favorite animated show, “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” (DeLisle’s other credits include “Clifford,” “The Fairly Odd Parents,” “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends,” “Kim Possible” and “Scooby Doo,” as well as many, many more.) Phillip Hammond, the drummer, mentioned that his kid is getting good at picking out Grey’s voice and will always tell him when “Murry’s wife” is on TV.

The new songs sounded great live. Dallas musician Salim Nourallah produced the new album and all the songs were recorded live in is home studio. This is a good approach for the Old 97′s, a band I’ve always thought sounded better live than on any of their records. There was a funny dialogue between Rhett and Murry before they played the song “The Easy Way.” Rhett was explaining that even though the song has a lyric that goes “Big D, little D, a.k.a. the city of hate,” it should not be taken as an anti-Dallas song, as some have interpreted it. Murry chimed in that it was just one of those “shitty record reviews.” Rhett chastised him for using such language in front of the children (after which Murry obliviously repeated the line, and was chastised again). Rhett pointed out that he’s going to have to watch himself around the house with his 16-month old running around.

All-in-all it was a great little show. Sometimes I think I like in-store performances better than full blown rock shows.

They both happen to be bands that I’ll get stuck on one song by and have trouble listening to their entire albums. Right now, it’s “Lovecraft in Brooklyn” from the Moutain Goats Heretic Pride, and “I Don’t Always Know What You’re Saying” from Ladyhawk’s Shots.

Someone told me in an email that “Lovecraft in Brooklyn” might be the song of the year, and I have to agree with him. The rest of the album is good, but to be honest I’m so stuck on this song I can’t really take the rest of it in yet.

Some favorite lines:

Some kid in a Marcus Allen jersey
Asks me for a cigarette
Companionship is where you find it
So I take what I can get

And:

Woke up afraid of my own shadow
Like, genuinely afraid

Ladyhawk are a band that describes themselves as “campfire rock,” and I can totally see that. They’re very Neil Young influenced. Their first album had a variety of moods to it, upbeat as well as more darker songs. Shots has pretty much all the darker vibe to it. I’ve switched the one song I’ve been stuck on three times now. First it was “Corpse Paint”—I got obsessed with trying to figure out what corpse paint might be a metaphor for. Then came “Fear,” with these awesome lines:

Well I just want to feel something other than fear
I don’t want to go back but I can’t stay here
And I just want to taste something other than tears
I don’t want to go home but I can’t stay here

It also borrows a line from the Beatles, “I was alone, I took a ride, I didn’t know what I would find,” and it blends in wonderfully.

Now I’m stuck on “I Don’t Always Know What You’re Saying,” which I can really relate to, since I often have trouble understanding what people are saying.

I’ll post “Lovecraft” and “Fear” to the radio.blog.

P.S. What does “lovecraft in Brooklyn” mean?

Iron & Wine’s latest album, The Shepherd’s Dog, is one of my favorites of the entire decade. The songs all flow together so well, yet stand perfectly on their own, too. And the lyrics are so awesome. One of my favorites is “House by the Sea.” (All songs are posted to the radio.blog.)

There is a house by the sea
Two jealous sisters, they’re waiting for me
And one is laid on the floor
And one is changing the locks on the doors
And I’ve been buying their time on my knees
And I’ve been selling them blankets to bleed on

Around the house by the sea
The scent of roses and raspberry leaves
And there is smoke in my clothes
Too much time with just smoke in my nose
But I’ve been making the meaning they lack
And I’ve been burning that book they come back to

There is a house by the sea
And an ocean between it and me
And like the shape of a wave
The jealous sisters will sing on my grave
And I’ve been living to run where they’ve led
And I’ve been dying to rise from their bed
But I’ve been sparing my neck from their chain
And they’ve been changing the sound of my name
And I’ve been swimming to them in my sleep
And I’ve been dreaming our love and our freedom

One of the problems with poetic lyrics is figuring out what they mean. Or part of the fun, I guess I should say! I think this song can be interpreted to mean many different things, but I tend to think it’s about drug addiction. Or something that makes you feel trapped, anyway. My favorite line is “They’ve been changing the sound of my name.” He has a real knack for expressing things in interesting ways.

Gillian Welch’s lyrics amaze me. They’re usually very easy to understand, unlike I&W, who can sometimes make no sense to me. I could have chosen any number of songs to share, but I’ll go with something short—but not sweet. It’s amazing how vivid a picture she can paint with such few words.

One morning, one morning as work I begun
What did I see riding out of the sun
On the road from Lexington?

One rider, one rider bent in the breeze
Down on his saddle, low to his knees
Coming through my willow trees

Now closer, the terrible work of the gun
Was stiffened and black where his blood all had run
But I knew my wayward son

One morning, one morning the boy of my breast
Came to my door unable to rest
Even in the arms of death

Rather gruesome, but so powerful.

Low is kind of funny. I always feel like their lyrics are saying something really significant, but I’m not always sure what it is. One of my faves from their most recent album, Drums & Guns, is “Violent Past.”

All I can do is fight
Even if I know you’re right
All I can do is fight
Pretty fingers holding fast
Maybe it’s your violent past
Maybe it’s your violent past
All you can do is hide
God bless the darkness of the night
All you can do is hide
Pretty fingers, the golden calf
Maybe it’s your violent past
Maybe it’s your violent past
Maybe it’s the violet path
Maybe it’s your violent past
Maybe it’s the violet path
Maybe it’s your violent past

So what is the violet path? And why the reference to a golden calf? I did a search for “violet path” and only found World of Warcraft references. Well, that, and apparently Low were originally thinking of naming the album Violet Path. Any ideas? My favorite lines in the song are “All you can do is hide, God bless the darkness of the night.” Sometimes just going to sleep is the only way to escape.

I’ll post a couple to the radio.blog that I *think* are in a minor key. Correct me if I’m wrong:

“Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key” – Billy Bragg and Wilco featuring Natalie Merchant
“Gold Dust Woman” – Fleetwood Mac

Very Thin Lizzy-ish. I can sort of hear Boston, as well. So much so that they could be considered a total rip off.

I don’t care. I love it.

What surprises me is how amazingly good they are.

I shouldn’t be surprised—the two guitarists were originally in the metal band Three Inches of Blood (as was the drummer for awhile, he’s also the singer in Pride Tiger). They’ve been playing together forever and you can tell. The drummer does most if not all of the singing. He has a terrific feel to his voice. Very Thin-Lizzy.

My favorite song has to be the title track, “The Lucky Ones.” It has that same 70s bittersweet quality that Thin Lizzy’s “Boys are Back in Town” has. I’ll post a couple songs to the radio.blog.

What other bands do you love that could be considered total rip offs? My first thought is Interpol. And Overwhelming Colorfast, if anyone remembers them—they were very Husker Du-sounding.