ALF CUP 2008: WEEK 11 GAME BALLS

Gotta give one to South Park for another fine new ep. Leave Britney alone! And one to Nathan Fielder for his latest "On Your Side" segment. I wouldn't be surprised to see a half-hour "On Your Side" compilation special on CBC after 22's current season ends. (Hint hint, Mr. Farrell!)

But the biggest game ball this week goes to a website. March Madness caused Dexter to start way late, so my DVR only got the first 5 minutes. My brother's DVR got the same. Panic-stricken, I searched the internet to find a download. No luck. It looked as though, after 3 first-place and 2 second-place finishes in its first 5 weeks, Dex was headed for a scoreless week. In desperation I googled "Watch Dexter season 1 episode 6" and found WatchDexterEpisodes.com, and Dex ended up winning for the 4th time in the last 6 weeks. It's now tied for 2nd, and if it ends up winning the Cup, we may look back on this as the turning point of the season. Incredible as it may seem, sometimes the internet actually doesn't suck!

ALF CUP WEEK 10 GAME BALL

Almost forgot, last week's Game Ball goes to 22's lovely and talented Cathy Jones for giving us what would make a good band name, fake DJ name, or racehorse name: Crunchy Sweatsocks.

ALF CUP 2008--WEEK 9 GAME BALLS

First GB to Raymond Cruz, who plays Tuco the drug lord on Breaking Bad, for his season-ending meth tweak during which he beats one of his henchmen (to death?).

Next one to the John Fogerty of TV comedy, Shaun Majumder, whose Unhitched character Freddy was said to have been plagiarized from his 22 Minutes character Raj Binder. The accusation, of course, came from Raj Binder himself during this week's 22.

And the last GB has to go to the entire cast of The Whitest Kids U'Know, who, standing on the shoulders of Monty Python and the Kids In The Hall, continue to advance sketch comedy even further into the future. The sketch about teaching a whale to jump out of its tail is an instant classic. What more can I say about the WKUK except "HOLY SHIT!"

OCHO DE MARZO* IS HERE, AND SO IS THE 2007 SOTY CHAMP

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED! THE 2007 SONG OF THE YEAR IS...

COMPASS POINT--LOWEN & NAVARRO (click here to listen and/or download the champ)

PAST SOTY WINNERS
2006--Pancreas--Weird Al Yankovic
2005--Start Wearing Purple--Gogol Bordello
2004--Thumbing My Way--Pearl Jam
2003--Thumbing My Way--Pearl Jam
2002--Trouble--Coldplay
2001--Song For The Stupid Raver Shithead Who Lives Underneath Me And Always Plays His Shitty Music Really Loud And Makes My Floor Vibrate And At One Point He Left His Room But Left The Stereo On And It Skipped And I Had To Listen To It For Four Fucking Hours--Taco The Wonder Dog
2000--Stuck On Earth--ALF (with Ben Liebrand)
1998--White Horse--Laid Back
1997--Drivin'--Henry Phillips
1996--1979--Smashing Pumpkins
1995--Bulbous Bouffant--The Vestibules
1994--Across The Universe--Laibach
1993--Jeremy--Pearl Jam
1992--Mississippi Queen--Sam Kinison
1991--X Y & Zee--Pop Will Eat Itself
1990--Def Con One--Pop Will Eat Itself
1989--Surfing With The Alien--Joe Satriani
1988--Mean Green Mother From Outer Space--Audrey II (Levi Stubbs)
1987--You're The One Who's Out Of This World--ALF
1986--I'm So Worried--Monty Python
1985--Marvin I Love You--Marvin The Paranoid Android
1983--Fish Heads--Barnes And Barnes
1982--Countdown--Rush
1981--Run Like Hell--Pink Floyd

* Footnote: Ocho De Marzo is what I now call my birthday. I don a sombrero and eat a lot of tacos.

ALF CUP/SOTY UPDATES

The 2007 Song Of The Year winner will be announced this Saturday, Ocho de Marzo.

Meanwhile, it's interesting to look at the shows that have held sway in the ALF Cup top 10 so far this season. Beside the fact that there are 3 pairs of 'drafting partners', and that 5 of the 10 air Sunday night, there are 4 distinct groups in there: the 3 CBC veterans (Mercer, 22 and Air Farce) and 3 hotshot Sunday night rookies (Whitest Kids, Dexter and Breaking Bad) in the top 6, followed by Fox partners F-Guy and Am-Dad and Discovery partners Mythbusters and rookie Smash Lab.

And lastly, to steal a page from Chris Berman, I'd like to start awarding "Game Balls" for the top individual performances each week. The first Game Ball this week has to go to 22's Nathan Fielder for his report on MP3 players. Other Game Balls go to Michael C. Hall who continues to shine as Dexter, and Bryan Cranston's 'explosive' performance on Breaking Bad.

"...TO THAT SAME OLD PLACE THAT YOU LAUGHED ABOUT..."

Funeral services for karaoke at Mutz have been cancelled. Or at least postponed.

We ended up going back this past week. I kicked things off with "Welcome Back". (It was either that or "Reunited". Bleah.)