Our friends over at Urlesque have posted a series of videos of epic Wheel Of Fortune fails, with the disclaimer that they know from first experience that ‘losing on Wheel of Fortune is never easy. Sure, some may claim the game show is a glorified, glittery version of Hangman, but there are, indeed, specific strategies to make it or break it. You blow your dough on vowels just to win a prize; you choose an unusually-placed consonant to throw off the competition; you throw Vanna a wink in the hope that she’ll turn that one extra letter’.

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From the what will they stink of next universe comes this gimmick from Mattel to capatlise on the unwavering fandom around the Madman TV series and release an exclusive range of customised Ken and Barbie dolls, styled after four characters in the show. With a recommended retail price of $74.95 each, these will be for hardy collectors — and the absurdly curious — only.

This guy is a legend in my eyes; up there with the Tom Waits’ and Dr Johns’ of the zimmer-frame generation. My only hope when I hit my late 60s is to still be rocking it as convincingly as Mr Steve, perhaps strutting a pair of denim dungarees and having perfected that deep, deep Southern drawl. He’s still giving as good as ever, make no bones about that. Watch him laying waste to a whole history of one-man band performances with this little rendition on his Three String Trance Wonder and the Mississippi Drum Machine (or MDM for those in the know).

With all of the reality shows cropping up on the set these days, I rarely get sucked into anything. But when I saw the first season of David Simon’s The Wire, I realized there may be hope for TV yet — mostly because I forgot I was even watching a show. Tackling every urban institution, from schools to police to news media and cops, there are truly no ‘good guys’, and after having lived in Baltimore myself on and off for ten years, it broadened my perspective on this city’s and other cities’ issues that lie beyond the newsfeed. In my opinion, it is hands-down the best-scripted and acted show I have ever seen. And now all seasons are available on DVD.

Since vanity albums seem to be back in style, Leisha Hailey’s Uh Huh Her released their Common Reaction debut on August 19 through Nettwerk. Uh Huh Her is a collaboration between former Mellowdrone bassist and keyboardist Camila Grey and Hailey, who’s better known as Alice Pieszecki on the Showtime television series, The L Word. Their eleven-track disc was produced by Al Clay (Blur, Pink). The band recently shot a video for their single Not A Love Song, which you can preview along with Explode [audio below] and a remix of Say So on Uh Huh Her’s MySpace page.

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