After the jump, y'all.

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The "Sing Along Blog" officially begins on July 15. Details in Whedon's letter to fans, from the MySpace page, is included after the jump.

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Jim Caviezel as Number Six, Ian McKellen as Number Two. It's a reinterpretation of Patrick McGoohan's stunning original, dealing with "liberty, security, and surveillance, yet also showcase the same key elements of paranoia, tense action and socio-political commentary seen in McGoohan’s enigmatic original."
Full announcement after the jump.

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"Weekend," by Dutch group Earth & Fire, from 1979. Deeply awful video

I have all sorts of things to watch for work, but this turned into a weekend for other activities. The bride and I swam into the muck of competing cell-phone plans, since we're coming to the end of our current deal. How many minutes, how much texting, what about video streaming, which phone looks nifty, should we keep our land line — and, at the end, what will all of that cost? That alone could have caused some brain explosion, but we were also looking at kitchen countertops and flooring. Attention, cerebellum spatter in aisle two!

Also, combining our respective task lists: light housekeeping (pick up clutter, vacuum and dust), mowing the lawn — calling the threatened rainstorm's bluff — putting up a couple of electrical covers, rebolting the mailbox, laundry, ironing, grocery shopping, and the writing of Sunday and Monday columns.

A little relaxation: watching "Any Given Sunday" (a pickup during a cheap-DVD run), and I am finally getting a bit of understanding of Sudoku. I stink at logic games — could never figure out the killer at Clue — and was thoroughly intimidated just by the idea of that number puzzle. Have now figured it out a little, though not enough to declare myself unstinky.

If you haven't seen it already, take a look at this:

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

Harris earlier talked about the thing teased above on EW.com; link here. The "Dr. Horrible" discussion starts about 2:17 in.

By the way, if you decide to watch the entire interview, I should note that "Slappy and the Stinkers" is on DVD. And that "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" outperformed the second "Harold & Kumar," according to Box Office Mojo.

Tonight I saw "Hancock," which was both different and better than I expected. More about that later.

If you haven't seen my review of "WALL-E," which was posted online earlier today, you can find it here. I wasn't all that hot about "Ratatouille," so "WALL-E" was a pleasant surprise.

When writing about "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" sometime back, I mentioned that Chris Noth didn't fit the show's basic idea. So I'm optimistic about the news that Noth is leaving and Jeff Goldblum is coming in. I can see Goldblum as a detecting mastermind, and an intriguing complement to Vincent D'Onofrio.

We drove through storms to and from the movie tonight. Been like that in NE Ohio. So here's a little tune from the Dramatics that fits:

And a little bit of Ann Peebles to take you to dawn:

"Survivor" kicks thing off on Sept. 18, with most of the shows the week of Sept. 22. Some Thursday and Friday shows have been delayed into October, with CBS blaming the scheduling of presidential and vice-presidential debates. Full announcement after the jump.

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Full release after the jump. (Memo to Bravo: Snow is co-captain, not captain of the Cavaliers.) ..
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On the way to work this morning, I was thinking about Mose Allison. …

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– If you've seen one of the ads for the Lifetime movie "The Tenth Circle," you may think it got pretty good reviews. After all, there are these big quotes calling it "fascinating," "powerful" and other things. But there's a catch. The voiceover for the ad notes that it's based on "the book critics call…" with the quotes being about the book, not the TV adaptation (which, by the way, I didn't care for).

Ron Eldard in "The Tenth Circle"

Now, the ad is technically honest, but just barely so. It's clear that it's aimed at people who may be glancing at the screen and not really listening. It even shaves one bit of praise for the book, from Entertainment Weekly, down to "… will take your breath away." In fact, the voiceover says "it will take your breath away." While the EW review of the book is positive, the original quote is actually "the first three pages of this book will take your breath away."

– Justin Gaston is gone from "Nashville Star," and I can't kick. As he demonstrated again last night, he's good-looking but not much of a singer. (I'd like to hear the arrangement he used of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" done by someone with a better voice.) But last night's "NS" was so very weird. Not just because of the countrifying of pop songs — "Love Shack," "True Colors," "Umbrella" — but because the staging looked like a tribute to the "Hullabaloo" dancers. ("Hullabaloo." Sixties. Ask your parents.)

And speaking of old stuff, whenever the barely awake Billy Ray Cyrus made one of his many references to "pop goes country," did anyone else think of the syndicated show "Pop! Goes the Country." No? Come on, it wasn't that long ago. One of my references says it was on from 1974 to 1983. Which is only … well … 25 years ago. OK.

– Here's a little something to amp up your morning:

Saw D&B in the early '70s, interviewed Bonnie a few years later, always liked their stuff — with or without celebrity sidemen.

And here's a song that got stuck in my head on the way to work:

Anyone remember their version of "Pickin' Wild Mountain Berries"?

The comedian has died of heart failure at 71. Obituary here, with a nice photo gallery.

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Here's the official announcement from NBC today:

Beginning on Sunday, June 29, NBC News' Tom Brokaw will serve as moderator of "Meet the Press" through the 2008 presidential election. The broadcast will continue to originate from the NBC News Bureau in Washington D.C. The announcement was made today by NBC News President Steve Capus.

Betsy Fischer is the executive producer and Michelle Jaconi and Rebecca Samuels are the producers of "Meet the Press," which is seen on the NBC Television Network from 9-10 a.m. ET in most markets. In Washington D.C. and New York City, the broadcast is seen from 10:30-11:30 a.m. ET. Please check local listings or the "Meet the Press" website (www.mtp.msnbc.com) for television and radio broadcast times in your area.

This is an OK short-term move. In the long run, I think that Gwen Ifill would be a great moderator for the show.

The holiday in the Outer Banks ended today. Man, did it end …

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It's not Christmas in June.

For all of my adult life, a visit to the Outer Banks included the Christmas Shop in Manteo. …

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Good eats here.

If you saw me right now, you'd think I did a passable impression of a lobster. (Thank goodness for aloe vera.) …

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