I know there’s at least one of you out there…

If you go to her official website (which does not have permalinks) and head to the “news” section, you’ll find a link to a free download, “Love is the Law” being offered as an apology for canceling her concert tour. As far as I can tell, it’s not geolocked, so go get your free song. (Maybe if they get a lot of downloads from the states, they’ll start selling her music here and I won’t have to tour the import music shops… Trip the Light Fantastic is a…well, fantastic album, by the way.)

(Via Oh No They Didn’t!)

Fox may have given TV the worst view of humanity with its reality TV but in the rare cases where its shows are a hit, they usually don’t last past a season — see the one-season wonders like Joe Millionaire and The Swan. (For what it’s worth, I think American Idol falls into a different category for going from being all lowest-common-denominator to becoming a chipper little cheesefest.) Even better, look at shows that imploded in their first season like Unan1mous.

So. Anyway, the latest newest bit of sleaze, the truth and consequences game show Moment of Truth, had a huge debut last week, one that managed to hold onto nearly 95% of the audience that watched blockbuster American Idol. That episode got buzz for a scene where a man admitted he didn’t think he would be married to his wife in the long term, with the camera happily catching her reaction and later coldness to him when he walked away without a prize.

And in its second week, Moment of Truth lost a fifth of its audience and a similar amount of its lead-in Idol audience. Will this one sink the way Unan1mous did last year?

Hoo-boy, every time I write about Orson Scott Card (which, thankfully, isn’t often) it means I have to do some research into his homophobic statements and that’s diving into a well of crazy. But, he was controversially given a lifetime achievement award by a major library occasion, so I thought it was worth revisiting the subject.

Somehow, I managed to find a new well of insanity this time around. Maybe I never tried googling the man’s name before (I wanted to see how long it took before you encounter his political views).

For one thing, this account of meeting and interviewing Card is more than a little disturbing for the way that Card seems to have a hard time grasping the interviewer’s points and for some of the ways he comes off as a little disconnected to reality.

But really surprising was this recollection of Card’s popular days, from someone who’s friend wrote an analysis of Ender as a Hitler stand-in. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to look at Speaker for the Dead the same way again after reading this:

“You are not gonna believe this,” I said. “Ender ends up on a planet settled by Brazilians.”

“Brazilians?”

“And he’s angling to prevent the genocide of the badly misunderstood aboriginal natives of Planet Brazil. And it’s hinting that he’s gonna pull some Buggers out of his ass before the end of the story.”

“Wait a minute. You are telling me that if I wrote a story where Hitler escapes to Brazil, prevents a massacre of some Native Americans, and then raises a bunch of Jews from the dead, that this would be about parallel?”

I have so got to get my hands on Ender and Hitler: Sympathy for the Superman. I’m quite fascinated.

When I first saw The Soup, I didn’t care for it finding it full of obvious sarcasm.

However, after seeing Joel McHale on Thank God You’re Here (yes, something good came out of that trainwreck) and seeing him bringing some smart commentary on Countdown, I relented and gave it another chance. I have no idea if my original impression was wrong or if the show has improved, but The Soup is now one of my favorite things on TV.

However, after this week’s episode, I’ve got a lifetime of respect for Joel:

• The @#$%? Did a LA Times writer really say that a scene of child molestation is something that GLAAD should have praised in it’s annual media awards?
• Really, NBC? This is the great reality programming that shows you don’t need scripted programming? Nashville Star? It seems like every time I hear about it, the show’s gone under some kind of revamp and, uhm, it’s co-hosted by a guy who calls his music “hick-hop”. (The day someone discovered his website at the office… we laughed all afternoon, easily.)
• Dear Adamo Ruggiero, You’re much younger than the guys I usually find attractive so could you please stop looking so cute? If you could constantly wear sunglasses for the next nine years, that’d be totally appreciated. Kthxbye.
• Oh the humanity, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet will be back for a second season. It is easily the worst morning show currently on the air (yes, I would sooner watch Maury). Imagine if Fox and Friends were remade by a former A Current Affair producer who thought the show needed to be less intellectual.
• Rumor watch: If the upcoming Dead Like Me movie does well, the series could make a return. That makes me happy, though the fact that I only know of the existence and plot of this movie and not when or where it can be watched worries me. (Yes, I can look it up — and I probably will — but if a Bryan Fuller fanboy like me has to look it up, they aren’t getting the word out.)

As much as I’ve been frustrated by Torchwood, I’m giving it another chance tonight. I’d like to think that early indicators point to an improved series. There’s some charming humor to the preview clips that are out there and in interviews the show’s creative team seemed to realize the problems with the first season. Hopefully this means Torchwood will be the show I hoped for originally.

Maybe, even, the hubby will even forget about “Cyberwoman” and stop yelling “Why isn’t he dead or fired?” every time Ianto appears on the screen.

With Life on Mars over even in the states, here’s a teaser for spin-off series Ashes to Ashes:

Hm, I was expecting it to be to Miami Vice what Life on Mars was to Starsky and Hutch. It sounds like it’ll play up the surreal aspects of Life on Mars, which might be interesting. Just don’t make any more David Bowie songs something that inspires a bucket of tears, eh guys?

Viewers my age, who grew up with MTV’s prototype reality soap The Real World, often look at the current state of the show with sadness. The series, which debuted back when MTV was known for its exploration of how issues affected young people, used to depict the lives of young people we could admire. They had career ambitions, they discussed (and sometimes argued about) hot-button topics.

Now, however, we get dramatic personalities who hit on hot button issues mostly by accident, like when Hawaii’s Ruthie almost tried to drive home drunk or when someone says something that reveals their prejudices. Originally, when we encountered Real World cast members again, it was because their careers would take them into prominent roles. Now we can encounter them again on repeated seasons of The Real World/Road Rules Challenge.

But maybe those damn kids are ready to get off our lawn and do something with themeselves? Today, Reality Blurred noted that the series is currently casing and seeking “people with career goals”. The yet-to-debut Hollywood season also perused ambitious young people. Could the show finally be attempting a return to the days when it got noticed for substance and relevance? The upcoming Hollywood season just might be worth checking out.

For a show I expected little from Gossip Girl has been a surprisingly solid show, with characters who manage to have the kind of depth not often seen in soaps about privileged youths.

Even the show’s core concept has the potential to reveal interesting layers of character (layers I understand might not be found in the source material) — who is the blogger who narrates the series with the voice of Kristen Bell? Where does she get her information and what’s her motivation for making other people’s dirty laundry public? A New York gossip columnist recently claimed to know the narrator’s identity, with another media outlet being quick to disagree. However, I’ve had my eye on the show’s only nonwhite characters. Sure, they’re meant as nothing more than a a stupid sight gag, but those two silent characters seem to get to observe a lot without anyone noticing them or getting dragged into the drama. They seem to be in a prime position for the role of the seemingly-omniscent blogger.

Besides, it would certainly be a step towards making amends for the offensiveness of the characters’ origins.

Once again, I quote at you a little bit from Rachel Maddow’s radio show, an exchange from Tuesday’s show with producer Vanessa Silverton-Peel:

Maddow: In being on the news shows that I’m on, part of the reason I can do that is because their not being struck, because Writers Guild writers don’t write for those shows. But I have, since the writers’ strike started, I have been called and asked to be on shows that I have never been asked to be on before. Because — I think — by process of elimination, because so many people are saying ‘No, they won’t appear.’ So I’m getting calls which is doubly insulting because that means they’re only calling me because they’re run out of other people who won’t cross the picket line and show up. And, also, they think I’ll cross the picket line.

Silverton-Peel: It’s not just you, though. Mario Vitale had the same thing. He’s been trying to get on Jay Leno for years and years and years and years and they just called him. He was so excited, did a little dance, like, you know shook around, then realized it was because of the strike and called an canceled.

Maddow: Really?

Silverton-Peel: Yeah.

Maddow: Well good for him! It’s a bummer to have to say no, but that’s exactly the right thing to do. Otherwise people would look at his delicious food and think, ‘Hm, scabby.’

So, mixed emotions here. I’m happy to hear about Rachel making a moral choice but it’s still disappointing to hear that she’s refusing TV appearances. Bummer for you, Rachel, bummer for us.

For now, I guess I’ll have to take comfort in the podcast of her radio show made available by her San Francisco affiliate. Maddow strikes a nice balance between snarky irreverence and a solid ability to independently analyze current news… and I’ll take comfort in the reference to Maddow as an “MSNBC Political Analyst” that came on last night’s Countdown.