This week's baddie is EVERYBODY on the 4400.


OMG SRSLY. I can't tell who's a goodie and who's a baddie any more. A few weeks ago I thought Jordan Collier was definitely a goodie, but then he started talking about using promycin for racial cleansing and sounding more and more like a Nazi. And NTAC agent Tom has been bodysnatched by the Tiny Machines and is going around punching his friends in the face. And Kyle is too stupid to figure out that his "ability" is telling him obvious lies! AAAAGH!

But I think Sean is definitely still a goodie. And probably Dr. Herbert West from Reanimator. Yeah.

Supposedly Owen Wilson has a "sober companion" who follows him around all the time to make sure he stays on the wagon. The sober companion gets $750 a day. Supposedly. Which begs the question...

Dudes, where can I sign up for this? Sober is my middle name. In the interest of keeping the market competitive, I am willing to offer reduced rates. Let's say... $500 a day. I'M A BARGAIN, PEOPLE. A FRIGGING BARGAIN.

Here is a musical interlude which is sort of related to the topic at hand. But mainly, it's posted because I heard it on the radio today and was reminded how awesome it is. Almost as awesome as getting paid mad cash to be a sober companion. Word.

Just because I'm in a good mood, here's an awesome music video. This takes me all the way back to the seventh grade. God, I'm old.

This week's baddie is The Comics Code.

So like back in 1996 or something, I bought a CD of a benefit concert given by Pavarotti and some pop groups to benefit the children of Bosnia. It was great. But I think the highlight for me was always Mr. P's duet with Simon LeBon on the mediocre 90s Duran Duran song Ordinary World. Until today I'd never actually seen this performance, only heard it. But the visuals add so much.

Observe as Pavarotti blows Simon LeBon completely away. Duran Duran can't keep up on his own song. Pavarotti is just casually standing there singing as easily as if he's reading the newspaper aloud, whilst Simon LeBon is croaking out the chorus and sounding like he's been kicked in the nutsack. I imagine that he went home and cried.

Here it is, kids. Enjoy.

I had the privilege of seeing Pavarotti perform a few years ago. He was a powerhouse, for serious. The Three Tenors got a lot of stick for "commercializing" opera, but I personally never saw it that way. If you ask me, they made it more accessible. I was never really into traditional opera, but I had The Three Tenors playing in my car. And I think Pavarotti's duets with various pop stars probably introduced a lot of people to opera who otherwise wouldn't have given it a second thought.

Rock stars more likely to die prematurely (Yahoo News)

I never would have figured this out on my own, so I'm glad someone spent a truckload of money conducting this study. That's money well spent on a real genuine social problem, and totally could not have been put to better use.

In which V. shares one of her favorite songs, and hopes y'all like it too.

So I was talking to M earlier about how I like a lot of rather suspect music. While it's true that I like a lot of quality music (I like Tom Waits! And Johnny Cash! And the Killers!), I also have to admit that I like a lot of crap (see also: Expose).

Sometimes I really love a song, and I honestly don't know whether most other people will think it's crap or not. This is one of those songs: Peter Schilling's 80s space epic Major Tom. I never get tired of listening to this. The sound is a bit dated, I suppose. And the video is bizarre. But I just love it, the chorus especially. This song definitely makes my all-time top ten.