Author Archives: Mark Humphrey

“Treehouse of Horror XVII” “The Simpsons” Fox Sunday, Nov. 5, 8 p.m. “The Simpsons’” 17th annual “Treehouse of Horror” contains a line which aptly encapsulates the episode. In it, Krusty the Clown tells jokes for his upcoming “Desperate Houseflies” sketch in which he drools over the hot exterminator. He then delivers his trademark groan and […]

“Freshmen Volume 1″ By Hugh Sterbakov and Leonard Kirk TOP COW PRODUCTIONS College, next to puberty, is easily the most life-changing experience people go through before adulthood. Co-creators Seth Green (yes, that Seth Green) and Hugh Sterbakov have taken this fact of life and put a superhero spin on the rite of going off on […]

You could barely hear yourself think with all the crowing. “Four stars!” raved USA Today. “Fearlessly funny and introspective!” declared The Miami Herald. “The potential to be a small screen classic!” screamed the Chicago Tribune. Things were going well for Aaron Sorkin. His new show, NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” was getting eye-popping […]

Square Enix “Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria” PLAYSTATION2 “Valkyrie Profile,” released in 2000 for the Sony PlayStation, threw role-playing conventions out the window in favor of bold innovations: side-scrolling dungeons, time-sensitive game progression, a depressing story heavy on Norse mythology. It’s little wonder that the game didn’t register a blip on the sales radar. Six years […]

Am I the only person who’s been paying attention to “Lost” the past two years? That can’t possibly be the case; the show routinely averages more than 15 million viewers a week since it premiered in September 2004 and has maintained its coveted “cultural phenomenon” status. It’s routinely the subject of watercooler conversation, its DVDs […]

I’m a big fan of wretched excess. Seriously now, I own a 60 gigabyte iPod. Who needs 60 gigs of music? The only thing anyone ever needs 60 gigs for is porn, and that might not even be enough. That’s without mentioning my habit of buying things in bulk. One frozen chimichanga? Borrrrrrring. A crate? […]

Twenty-first-century society subscribes to a culture of shortcuts. So much information is thrown at individuals at any given time that people often feel they have no choice but to describe things they’re unsure of through generalizations and categorical dismissals. Music is no different, as musicians and bands are often described as having, say, the swirling […]