I haven't watched South Park in years, and I've always found that the show varies wildly between very funny and kind of blah.  That being said, I've enjoyed many of the public comments Matt and Trey have made over the years.

Word has it that a recent episode focusing on Scientology was pulled due to pressure from Tom Cruise, who threatened to pull Mission: Impossible 3 advertising, and it also caused Isaac Hayes, who did the voice of the Chef character, to quit the show.

In response to all of the Scientology pressure, Matt and Trey released this statement via their lawyer:

If you don't know much about Scientology, check out this Wikipedia entry on Scientology.  It gives some detail on what they're talking about with Xenu and Thetans and the like.

I've always wondered whether Jon can hear what Garfield thinks.  I mean, they appear to have conversations sometimes, so if Jon CAN'T hear Garfield's thoughts, doesn't that make him kind of crazy?

BoingBoing has a link to this funny site that has taken a number of Garfield strips and removed Garfield's thought balloons, showing the true nature of Jon, at least to an outsider in the "conversation".  There are some other sites with these as well, which are linked to from the BoingBoing posting.

Update:  According to Wikipedia, the trend seems to have originated at this site.

Update Again:  Wow.  It turns out there is even an entire site named "Arbuckle" that is devoted to people redrawing Garfield strips in a "realistic" style without Garfield's thought balloons.  From the Arbuckle introduction:

And for the sake of testing the theory, this is today's comic which I have just changed.

Kim, Abby and I had a deer-on collision last night on the way down to Lacona for Sheila (my step-mother)'s birthday.  None of us were hurt, but the front of my Touareg got pretty damaged along with some of the internals. 

Somehow the deer got up and limped off, jumping a fence and crossing a field.

I'll try and put some photos up later.

Deer Hair

The Broadway version of the Lion King is currently playing in Des Moines at the Civic Center, one of the bigger productions to hit our town in the past few years.  Kim and I have seen it twice so far - once as part of our "Broadway Series" tickets, and once with our friend Jamie who lives downtown.

The show is an amazing blend of acting and puppeteering, starting with a huge parade of animals during the opening Circle of Life song and continuing through the show with a great blend of African tribal rhythms, evocative lighting, great costumes that call out to the Disney characters while also highlighting the actors, and amazing vocal talent.

Our first time at the show we had seats about halfway back and right in the center giving us a direct view of the entire stage. I really enjoyed the music and spectacle of the show, but I didn't necessarily feel a connection to any of the actors like with some other shows I've seen in the past.  This was completely changed with our second time seeing it.

At last night's show we were fortunate to have seats right in front (while there was a row of two seats in front of us, they were left empty on purpose) to the front-right of the stage (is that stage left to actors?).  The experience from these seats was nothing short of amazing. It was as close as we could be without being an actor on stage.  During the Circle of Life, we had an amazing view of the parade of animals as they passed right next to our seats, and as the animals bowed to king and queen on Pride Rock, we were right there, looking through the animals straight up the stage to the rock.

The little details in the show make the difference.  On the Zazu puppet (Mufasa the king's right-hand bird), the puppet is held by the actor, alternating seamlessly between sitting the puppet on his head and hands while controlling the mouth, eyelids, etc, using a hand control.  The effect is amazing, bringing the animated Zazu to stage life.  Same with details on a character like Poomba the warthog where the eyes move left and right where they could have easily just been painted on.  And then there is Scar, whose mask is attached by a rod behind his neck, allowing the mask to sit on top of the actor's head while he's standing up right, but falling in front of his face for a good lion-effect while slinking around the stage.

If the opportunity arises, I would recommend seeing the show.  Even if you are not typically the "theater-type" or think of the Lion King as a children's show, go see it.  It's really an amazing specatacle.

[All photos are from the Disney on Broadway - The Lion King website]

Will Wright, the creator of Sim City and The Sims has a new game in development that I think looks about as cool as they come.

Imagine a game where you start off with a creature on a cellular level, where you float around eating things and eventually lay an egg.  This opens you up to the ability to make some changes to the creature and progress to the next iteration.  Further on you have a more complex creature in an ocean, swimming, eating and mating, which through the generations you refine to a land-based creature.  Eventually a descendant evolves sentience and you have tools and building, eventually going to a city level, a world level, solar system and galaxy.  And the entire game is created and descended from the creatures you evolve over time and populated with other creatures and civilizations from other players of the game.

There's a really cool video posted on Google Video that you can see by clicking here.  It's fairly long, but in it Will Wright goes through the levels of gameplay.

Pretty cool.

Spore Gameplay Video

Official Spore Website
The intro animation actually does a great and humorous job of conveying how far the game goes.

Each month, the Television Without Pity sister-store Glarkware has a few TV-show specific shirts available for that month only.  As a Battlestar Galactica fan, I found this month's shirt really funny.

Frakkin' Toaster shirt

And what really makes it funny is the description text going along with it:

A toaster is capable of a lot more than you might think at first glance. Even more than toasting your bread, actually. Treat it poorly, and it will find a way to collude with other toasters to overthrow humanity. But treat it well, and...well, you and that little old toaster might actually find love. It's not a love that either of your communities will sanction or even understand, but you know best: that seemingly simple appliance loves you from the coils of its heart.

Of course, if you don't watch BSG, you won't understand this at all.  If that's you, then you really should be watching the show.  Or don't you like good television?

Meghan has a blog!  You should read it.  Now.

Natalie Portman's SNL rap... now hosted directly on NBC.com. Click here or on the image above.

I'm not sure who took the time to make this, but it's got the right details!