I saw Crash and really enjoyed it. The movie has kind of a Traffic meets Magnolia meets Training Dayfeel, tracing the intersecting stories of a diverse group of people in LA over a two-day period. It also has a distinctly LA feel to it and exudes a certain quiet intensity, which reminded me of Michael Mann's two best LA-based films, Heat and Collateral.

Based on the positive things I'd heard about the film I was expecting it to be good, but there were still some moments early in the film which played clumsily off some tired stereotypes. Dealing with race in a dramatic setting is always dicey, and in first meeting the rainbow coalition of characters it's easy to be cynical. And with an ensemble cast that aside from Don Cheadle had no one I would describe as an excellent actor, you kind of wonder whether they've got the chops to pull it off. But once the expository stuff is over it settles in quite nicely, with a good pace that manages to keep each of its storylines at least relatively interesting.

Cheadle (as an LAPD detective) and Terrence Howard (as a black TV director) were the standouts in my book. I've always considered Ryan Phillippe something of a lightweight, and he's got no business playing an LAPD cop, but he somehow does pretty well. Plus Brendan Fraser, Sandra Bullock, and Tony Frigging Danza at least manage not to embarrass themselves. In any case, certainly one of the best movies I've seen this year.

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The State's influence over Comedy Central increases this month, with the Reno 911! season three debut and the season two DVD hitting airwaves/stores on June 14. The show picks up in the wake of the entire department going to prison in the last year's season finale, check a preview here (note the Ken Marino cameo).

Moreover,Stella is starting June 28, and features David Wain, Michael Showalter, and Michael Ian Black. Apparently they wear suits in all the sketches, which reminds me of an old State sketch where MIB walks around in a tuxedo because tuxedoes are funny (wasn't a very funny sketch).

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The long and often overlooked history of the joystick.

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Random snack and beverage observations:

- JJ Nissen Canadian Multigrain bread converted me from white bread.
- Klondike Slim-a-Bear ice cream sandwiches are amazing. You can get vanilla and mint-flavored combo packs, and each sammich has only 130 calories and 1.5 grams of fat.
- With roughly a quarter of my net worth tied up in PepsiCo stock and as (regrettably) a large contributor to the revenues of soda producers, I have always had a strange interest in the beverage industry. Coke has repositioned their Diet Cherry Coke as Diet Coke with Cherry, which has become my favorite diet soda. I noticed this branding change at the store when they had bottles of both for a while. So now they have Diet Coke with Cherry, Lime, Lemon and Splenda, as well as Cherry Coke, but technically not Diet Cherry Coke. Both Pepsi One and Diet Coke with Splenda are pretty good. The lime stuff I don't care as much for. The half calorie sodas C2 and Pepsi Edge will probably be pretty redundant now that the Splenda drinks are out there because they taste rather sugary, and if you care about calories why not just go all the way? Further confusion is caused by the fact that Coke Zero is another Splenda drink that they will be offering, but is supposed to taste like regular Coke. So that means Diet Coke with Splenda is specifically for people who like the taste of Diet Coke yet don't want the aspartame, and Coke Zero is for people who like regular Coke but don't like calories. [Deep breath]

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I've sifted through most of Bliss Pop's playlist this month, and here are my picks:

Clor / "Good Stuff"

Editors / "Munich"

Mahjongg / "Hot Lava"

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Some clips courtesy of iFilm:

Muppets: Mahna Mahna. I don't know how it started, but references to this have been showing up lately. Namely, in the second season of BBC's The Office and in that Dr. Pepper commercial. I actually saw this a long time ago on the German version of Sesame Street, which for some reason used different characters, despite the fact that the song doesn't need to be translated.

Stunt City (commercial). This is flat-out awesome.

The Colbert Report. A preview of Stephen Colbert's new show. I don't regularly watch the Daily Show but it's a great show and Colbert is the best part.

Ricky Gervais: Animals. A clip from The Office's main man doing stand-up.

Triumph at the Grammys. They've got the fat gay kid from Jay Leno interviewing him.

Tom Cruise is weird, as seen on Oprah. Get ahold of yourself, man. I could understand your excitement if you were a ditchdigger who started dating Katie Holmes, but should Tom Cruise really be the one thrilled about this relationship? Chalk another one up to Scientologists being fucking crazy.

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No room for Barry Melrose at ESPN???