South Park recently aired it’s 200th & 201st episodes. The plots were full of classic South Park references highlighting some of the funniest – and most irreverent – situations of the show’s fourteen season history. A subplot of these episodes revisited a storyline about an appearance by The Super Best Friends, a parody super-hero group of the world’s religious icons Jesus, Buddha, Joseph Smith, Moses, and Muhammad. As it did on a previous occasion, Comedy Central censored the Muhammad character for fear of backlash from the Muslim community. While preventing the Islamic backlash, Comedy Central came under heavy fire by others defending the creator’s – and viewer’s – First Amendment rights. (Read more about the fallout here.)

I’m a season pass holder of South Park over at the iTunes Store. While Apple initially made episode 200 available to subscribers, it was ultimately pulled and episode 201 never made an appearance. This sparked a bit of outrage of my own resulting in the creation of the following review:

As a Season Pass holder of South Park for many years now, I find it highly disappointing that recent episodes “200″ and “201″ have not been made available through the iTunes store. Whether this is a decision made by Comedy Central or Apple, the unnecessary level of censorship supported by both companies is disheartening. While South Park episodes have been readily available for free (both by Comedy Central and other avenues on the Internet) I have been an ardent supported of paying for quality television. My reward for this support? Two companies deciding for me that I’m not intelligent enough to understand the satirical use of a religious figure as a cartoon character. I call on both Comedy Central and Apple to immediately release episodes “200″ and “201″ via the iTunes store or issue an immediate refund of my Season Pass payment. This is neither “uncensored” nor “complete” as promised.

(The rant is currently the highest ranked review for South Park: Season 14 on the iTunes store and has received 162/163 positive feedback! Whoa!)

Last night I received the following email from Apple:

Dear John,

Thank you for purchasing a Season Pass for South Park, Season 14. Episodes “200″ and “201″ are currently not available for download. We do not know if Comedy Central will make these episodes available at a later date.

We appreciate your understanding and have issued two free video credits to your account.

While ultimately not what I asked for it does highlight the source of the censorship to be Comedy Central. From the network which has promoted a show with a history such as South Park, the nightly social commentary of Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, and at one time allowed Dave Chappelle to dominate it’s airwaves, this is so extremely disappointing. It’s not as if the parodied character Matt Stone and Trey Parker were drawing was doing anything other than standing there and being present (as opposed to say, Buddha doing lines of cocaine)

So if Comedy Central doesn’t have the guts to show to a cartoon character of the prophet Muhammad standing around doing nothing, someone should.

Trying to build a list with such an air of superiority titled “best albums” or “best songs” of the year seems to pretentious. Not that it really stopped me last year, but I digress… It feels like a better approach to this time around is to go over my favorite albums and live performances I caught through the year. It truly has been fantastic on all fronts, so let’s just get into it… (more…)

This evening I was preparing the house for visitors over the holiday. My media shelves in the living room were in bad shape with CDs & DVDs stacking up. I started rummaging through a spindle of old discs and came across an item that made me pause a moment.

A year ago we lost a good friend named Phil Palousek. There’s a lot to say about Phild0g, especially how much he is missed. I thought it would be great to let Phil speak for himself in a way he did most of the time… with a mix CD.

I checked Phil’s site over at WaxDJ and didn’t find this mix. So it seems appropriate as we remember him now around Christmas that I share my find.

Click here to download Phild0g’s Grinch Beats

We miss you, Phil.

Go Trent:

First, there’s the critical acclaim and two Grammy nominations, which testify to the work’s strength as a musical piece. But what has got us really excited is how well the album has done with music fans. Aside from generating over $1.6 million in revenue for NIN in its first week, and hitting #1 on Billboard’s Electronic charts, Last.fm has the album ranked as the 4th-most-listened to album of the year, with over 5,222,525 scrobbles.

Even more exciting, however, is that Ghosts I-IV is ranked the best selling MP3 album of 2008 on Amazon’s MP3 store. – Creative Commons 01.05.2009

Amazon’s best selling album of 2008 was available for free. Anyone who tells you the music you listen to should cost you something is wrong. Make music because you love to do it; get paid when people want to see you perform it live.

Every forecaster on the local stations first said rain would come on Saturday. Then they bumped it to Sunday. Well, it finally hit the LA basin this morning with better aim than a shoe-tossing Iraqi journalist. *rimshot*

So how exactly are we supposed to plan when we can’t trust the over-tanned-bleach-teethed-shiny-suit leprechaun on the telly? How about a pig spleen?

Divide the spleen into six areas, each representing one month. The top of the spleen (closest to the pig’s head) shows the current month. The bottom indicates the end of the upcoming six-month period. Where the spleen thickens, a change in the weather is indicated, usually pointing to a cold spell. Where there’s a pronounced bulge, expect even more inclement weather. Gus can even read wind and rain into the variations in the spleen.

I’ve seen the prints are already putting out their Best Record of 2008 lists. So, sorting the iTunes library of this year’s release let me take a quick stab at my own:

The Nightwatchman – The Fabled City
Nine Inch Nails – The Slip
Razorlight – Slipway Fires
Kings of Leon – Only By The Night
Secret Machines – Secret Machines
Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
The Verve – Forth
Jack Johnson – Sleep Through The Static
David Byrne & Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Happens Today
Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid

No order to the list above; that was a bit tough to even consider. I may get questions about Radiohead or Portishead’s 2008 releases, but honestly they didn’t have tracks I loved 100% through the records.

Noteworthy mentions:

Margot & The Nuclear So-So’s – Not Animal
My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
The Mars Volta – Bedlam in Goliath
Panic At The Disco – Pretty Odd
M83 – School = Youth
The Herbaliser – Same As It Never Was
The Kooks – Konk
Gnarls Barkley – The Odd Couple
Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
Neil Diamond – Home Before Dark
TV On The Radio – Dear Science

It really was a great year in music.

Yes, yes… someone else is in pain. Yes, it’s wrong to laugh at that. But really, how can you not?!:

Page Six is reporting that right-wing agitator and controversy-seeker Ann Coulter’s jaw is wired tightly shut.

Apparently it was broken, but by whom, no one seems to be sure. We could hazard a guess, but why throw roses yet. – LA Times 11.24.2008

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *break for tear wiping* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *wipe coffee snorted off of screen* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

(CBS) Best-selling author and filmaker Michael Crichton died unexpectedly in Los Angeles Tuesday, after a courageous and private battle against cancer, according to a statement released by his family. He was 66.

I haven’t liked anything he’s written in years, but his loss is certainly worth mentioning. (For those who want to know, his best every written IMHO was Sphere.)

Tickets went on sale this morning at 10AM.

Got a pair.

Dec 9 @ The El Rey.

Hell yeah.

This just in: The bowtie-wearing, tuba-playing, onetime vice presidential candidate on the National Radical Meadow Party ticket is headed for that great comic strip in the sky; cartoonist Berkeley Breathed announced today that he is giving up his Sunday comic strip Opus to focus on children’s books instead. – NPR 10.09.08

The signs were appearing in recent strips, but it seems here is the final word.

Thanks for all the years of wit and fishnuts, Opus.