The Top 9 Super Bowl XLIV TV Commercials

Honorable mentions to Bud Light: “Lost” island party and Emerald Nuts and Pop Secret: “let’s get aquatic”. Now here’s your Super Bowl 44 advertising champions!

9. Motorola: Megan Fox bathing

8. Doritos: “keep your hands off my momma”

7. Kia Sorento: toy’s night out

6. Bridgestone: whale in a pickup truck

5. Boost: Boost Mobile Shuffle

4. Snickers: “playing like Betty White”

3. truTV: Punxsutawney Polamalu

2. Late Show with David Letterman: Dave, Oprah, and Leno

1. Denny’s: Free Grand Slam screaming chickens

Why the Top 9? Because 10 is too many and 9 is better. 3 X 3 = XLIV

The Week in Tweeview – 01.30.10 to 02.05.10

Okay, we’re trying something new here today at the AudioShocker. Instead of doing the largely pointless one-Twitter-review-per-week format, we’re stepping things up and introducing a new Saturday post that recaps an entire weeks of tweets.

What can you expect to find in our rejuvenated Twitter feed and this weekly recap? My Jean-Claude Van Damme movie reviews will be here with at least three flicks reviewed per week. Neal’s taken to the format pretty quickly, and you can see that he’s shouting out a lot of his favorite media.

In the future, we’ve got a lot of interesting and ambitious plans (hint: a year of electric blue), so watch this space every Saturday as Tweeviews continue to evolve!

Culturology 055 – Back from the Dead

Well, kids, it looks like your ol’ Uncle Culturology fell off the ol’ wagon there for a little while, but I’ve stood back up, brushed the dust off of my trousers, shaken my head around to try and gain my bearings, and wouldn’t you know it? Here I am, writing a column again, number fifty-five! And so much has happened since 054, hasn’t it? Beyond my personal troubles waking up in massive illegal  burned-down firepits with a faceful of mescaline-soaked charcoal, only to phase back out into the ether for another week, having so desperately wanted to write a column here and there these weeks… but I digress, I’m not going to make excuses, rather I’m here to persevere. Despite my run-in with a case of Scotland’s finest “Wreck the Hoose Juice,” and subsequent transatlantic tomfoolery… golly, I’m just getting too distracted here, aren’t I?

So what can I culturologize today? How about the fact that Avatar sucked? I guess that’s not really that interesting, and a moot point, and just kind of blandly hater-ish. But such terrible writing, gah, that any time I actually managed to be sucked into it’s Imax 3-D world, I was pulled right back out by the utter crap of its writing. But my favorable opinions of the continued recession-era 3-D craze continues. The future is now, people. Now now now now now (or, hmm… despite being “back with a vengeance” here at Culturology, I seem to still be half-assing it… though I feel bad about this…)

One thing I don’t feel bad about is Conan O’Brien losing his job. I think I stopped really caring about late night TV just in time for that whole hullabaloo (despite my one hemi-post trying to speak of the issues there-involved). Really, now that football is over (football ended when the Steelers didn’t make the play-offs and once I had already one my fantasy football league’s championship game (that’s right people, not only am I a hot-shit cultural critic, but I also kick ass at fantasy football)), I don’t watch hardly any TV at all, except for some occasional snippets of international news on my local PBS station (German TV news on Wednesday nights!). And find myself, remarkable, having better things to do from 11:30-1:30 than watch desk-based interview television.

So let’s see… what else happened… oh! I finally read (finished reading) Richard Powers’s Generosity: An Enhancement, which readers might recall as my choice for the not-suck-y book of the year. It was really pretty good, definitely worthy of the prize (though I’m now reading another nominee, Dan Chaon’s Await Your Reply, and it’s really pretty good too). Not Powers’s best book, but a good book.

Alright, well, here at least, we see that Culturology is alive, if not kickin’, and re-dedicating itself to getting its shit back together and having, like, real fine vintage-quality posts again soon enough.

Ingrid vs. Sakura Hyper Combo Wallpaper!

DOWNLOAD WALLPAPER :: 1280 X 1024 :: 1440 X 900 :: 1600 X 1200

Ingrid and Sakura welcome you to Capcom Fighting Evolution month numero uno. This game might be the least deserving of a Hyper Combo Wallpaper feature, but damn that character art sure looks good! Catch you next Friday.

Super Haters #31 – Under Construction, pt 5

A Podcast with Ross and Nick #35 – The Book of Rachael

Unicorns, TalkShoe, Ross is ruining the AudioShocker, Nick really hates the 4thletter!, grammatic stylization, Pandorum, Dennis and Randy, JCVD, Ross loves Replicant, Daybreakers, Avatar nominations, long wait in Netflix queue, Book of Eli and Rachael Ray, pull list chopping, Hulk, and Bugles. Next week: the poopcast!!!

 
 A Podcast with Ross and Nick #35 [43:40m]: Play Now | Download

AudioShocker Podcast #116 – Burning Hot Oils

Nick’s too loud, Justique’s too mum, and Neal’s too choppy as they talk about the luther burger, donut ice cream sandwiches, Book of Eli, Mila and Macaulay, R.I.P. Pauly Fuemana (OMC was awesome), Gaga’s perfect mate, Green Monk by Brandon Dayton, and, of course, some burning hot oils. YEAH!

 
 AudioShocker Podcast #116 [27:57m]: Play Now | Download

Donuts, Groundhogs, Salinger, and the Indian Diaspora

I’ve rewritten this article about 4 times now, and I’ve decided to incorporate everything from the last three drafts into one.

A. I spent Saturday morning meeting noted writer Ved Mehta at his UES residence. I also met former PM of India, Inder Gujral’s son and grandson. BTW, the tea was great as was the coffeecake. It was like basking in the bright sunny rays of the Indian Diaspora. And what was casting those rays you might ask? Perhaps it was master painter M F Husain’s rendering of Mehta’s two daughters. (My mom and sister are big Husain fans, the dude is crazy awesome. They’d kill for a MFH original). It was a rather pleasant morning. I apologize for all the namedropping, but I am continually impressed by the company my dad keeps.

B. Speaking of writers, JD Salinger died last week. I find it hard to empathize with the Twittards though, because I *gasp* never read Catcher In The Rye, nor do I feel moved to do so now. I did however see Igby Goes Down, and I am comfortable with that experience and the funny joke Kieran Culkin makes about my alma mater, Choate Rosemary Hall.

C. Groundhog Day is tomorrow, and I’ll be damned if that little bastard isn’t going to crap all over us with another six weeks of winter. Obviously, I’m getting a little sick of Punxsutawney P. How come he can’t just pretend to not see it – or how about this: LOOK UP!? That furball has the most famous shadow ever to slank around Pennsylvania. Bill Murray should be furious that we’ve learned nothing from all this endless repetition. I mean come on, you KNOW he’s going to see his shadow and then we’ll all end up using it as an excuse for our seasonal depression.

D. There is a new ice cream spot near my place called Holey Cream, that serves a homemade donut ice cream sammich. Take a minute to comprehend that and then RUN to 9th Ave in Hell’s Kitchen for your own.

E. And most importantly, Nick and I decided that the AudioShocker is going to start running ads on the site (and potentially the feed) in the near future. I know I know I know. But here’s the thing, this website costs us money and we’d like to make a small fraction of that money back. We haven’t picked out a formal ad scheme yet, but we are working on a rate card and we’d love to have your business. Ads will likely run in the sidebar and will be as unobtrusive as possible. Additionally, we are accepting sponsorship offers for the main Tuesday podcast. If you are interested, please email neal, nick, or audio @audioshocker.com.

To the fans, I PROMISE, ads will never change what we are about: music, movies, comics. Why? Because, media is kind of our thing. Podcasts will always be recorded in verite. Pete’s columns will remain late, lame, and halfassed. Justique will continue to  put Nick in weird positions and make background noises. Nick will work even harder to find new JCVD movies. And I will never stop hating flash/vocoders.

Thanks and have a great week!

The Top 9 Greatest War Machine and Rhodey Rhodes Stories

(NOTE: Most of the series below are marked with “v1″ to indicate which run the stories come from — basically, every book listed here has had multiple #1 issues released under the same title except for Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. (yes, even U.S War Machine had two volumes))

For the back story on these tales and more, check out Superhero History: War Machine.

9. Iron Man v1 #169-171 (first Rhodey as Iron Man, along with his second adventure in the Iron Man armor)

8. War Machine v1 #1-7 and 11 (first solo War Machine run minus crossovers; Rhodey leads Worldwatch)

7. The Crew v1 #1-7 (Rhodey avenges the death of his sister and makes some new friends in the process)

6. War Machine v1 #8 and Iron Man v1 #310 (first War Machine vs. Iron Man)

5. Iron Man v1 #281-283 (first appearance of the War Machine armor, worn by Tony Stark)

4. Iron Man v1 #300 and Marvel Comics Presents v1 #151-155 (introduces a street gang called the War Machines and events send Rhodey on a crusade to clean up the streets)

3. U.S. War Machine v1 #1-12 (alternate MAX continuity with a fleet of War Machines working for S.H.I.E.L.D.)

2. Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. #33-35 (a.k.a. War Machine: Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D.; War Machine vs. Skrulls)

1. Iron Man v1 #284-291 (first Rhodey in War Machine armor; first Iron Man and War Machine team up)

Why the Top 9? Because 10 is too many and 9 is better. 3 X 3 = War Machine.

Tweeview – The Quest (1996)

The Quest (1996) – 6/10 – Though his character is weird, Van Damme’s directorial debut is a HUGE success especially during the fights.

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