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NY Mag has harsh words about “Amazing” and “Tell Everybody That You Know” two tracks leaked from Kanye’s upcoming CD. I love a lot of what Kanye’s done. Everybody knows he’s an excellent producer and lyricist … but his vocals and flow are suspect at times. I actually like both songs and they will probably be popular, but you can’t call this an improvement on his past work.  “Amazing” almost sounds like a Kid Rock’s “Only God Knows Why” mixed with the Gangsta’s Paradise choir. And everybody still talks about Kid Rock’s slowed-down vocoder song… oh wait, no they don’t. Thankfully Young Jeezy is a good addition — he had a slick appearance on “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” from Graduation.

I don’t know how to feel about these songs though. They’re worth listening to… but they aren’t really “Kanye West songs”. When I heard them, I immediately thought either 1) somebody close to him died or 2) he and his girl split. Apparently, it’s both.  His mom died about a year ago from botched plastic surgery and because he and Alexis Phifer broke up a few months ago. The title of Mr. West’s upcoming CD is 808’s and Heartbreak. The former referring to the drum machine nicknamed the “808″ and the latter presumably referring to Phifer. Maybe Kanye grew up. He surprised me the most by failing to mention a single brand (I think). In 2004, he topped the American Brandstand list with mentions of 19 different brands in 4 of his songs (19 brands in 4 songs - Avis, Boost, Cadillac, Cartier, Cool Whip, Ensure, Geico Insurance, Hennessy, Jacob the Jeweler, Lexus, x2, Mercedes, MTV, Nike x2, Pepsi, Rolex, Toys R Us, Versace).  Although, the new “maturity” didn’t stop him from claiming he’s the “voice of a generation”.

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Gap creates potentially the most annoying celebrity holiday song commercial of all time

• NBC to air 3-D episode of Chuck after the Super Bowl… and then realize Chuck will never be popular. This is reminiscent of INCESSANT My Own Worst Enemy promos during the Olympics.
• Obama to resign from Senate on Sunday.
• Viewers of election coverage like and dislike O’Reilly the least. Katie Couric sandwiched between O’Reilly and Fox News (in general) on disliked list. Ouch.
• Heidi and Spencer will appear on “How I Met Your Mother”. Ugh.
• 60 Minutes books first post-election interview with Barack and Michelle Obama on Sunday.
• NYT says Obama dresses like Jerry Seinfeld.
• Preview Kanye’s competition… The Killers Day & Age
• TMZ says it best, “Travolta Shaves Head, Leaves Beard“. Scary but kind of awesome.  John called it the “Stone Cold” look.
• Chinese government decides to “name and shame” artists that lip-synch.
• Quantum of Solace locations for your James Bond tour.
• Paulson urges automaker aid. Soros: “Hedge funds will be decimated.”
• Bin Laden “cut off” from Al Qaeda operations. I think we’d actually be less safe if he died. At this point, he’s just a trophy.

Unfortunately, this post is not about how The Election, Heroes, and Bill O’Reilly are related. That would be an amazing post though. The OCD Late Edition will be a new effort to post on a near-daily basis on this site. The common thread will be that there is no common thread — except for it’s all stuff that I care about.

• The Heroes Showrunners have been FIRED. This is a sign that NBC knows that the show is dragging ass lately. I told my friend John that I could see this show making a “graceful” transition to Sci-Fi after a couple more seasons. NBC Universal owns both NBC and Sci-Fi.
• Watch the Election (and know what you’re talking about): Election Tools #1 and Election Tools #2
• Being a jackass has caught up to O’Reilly. Also, did you know that Bill O’Reilly uses a vibrator on himself? I feel the need to bring that up as much as possible.
• Joaquin Phoenix is going to retire from acting. Who knew that actors retired? My two initial theories are that he 1) will start a porno career or 2) he will go the way of Harry Connick Jr. and release a jazz CD.
• Boondock Saints will have a sequel
• Pepsi might have a new logo (in addition to a new marketing/PR scheme)

I was watching the O’Reilly Factor the other night. Don’t worry — it’s purely for entertainment purposes. I actually used to watch it somewhat regularly about four or five years ago (I also used to watch a lot of MSNBC’s broadcast of Imus… I’m a weird guy). The Factor was spot-on as usual (kidding) when they decided to discuss the ENTERTAINEMENT business.

I might put more stock in FoxNews entertainment coverage if they could spell the word correctly

After bringing up Heath Ledger and showing some video of a throng of paparazzi outside of his house, O’Reilly clumsily segued to Oscar nominees. Reviewing the list, O’Reilly declared that he wouldn’t see Atonement because it’s British and he “doesn’t understand the accents” … ok. He went on to say that Juno was the best movie on the list (haven’t seen it, can’t disagree) and that There Will Be Blood was unwatchable because people can’t “watch oil” for nearly three hours. He also dismissed No Country for Old Men because he didn’t understand the ending. Insightful.

The next part was the most entertaine-ing though. Along with his FoxNews cronies (read: scrubs) Jill Dobson and Bill McCuddy, O’Reilly launched into a diatribe about how the Best Picture nominees don’t match up with the top box office earners of the year. Huh? So what? I guess it was an attempt at his usual “sticking up for the common man so nobody can challenge me unless they’re against America argument, but it really made no sense at all.

O’Reilly jumped the shark in 2002. He used to actually be able to at least provide entertainment value, but now his subjects (whether people or topics of discussion) are just punching bags. Although, I still get immense pleasure from reading his sexual harassment complaint. I mean, what guy doesn’t masturbate with a vibrator?