The Slug

It's Been Nice Knowing You

(AP Photo/HO/Disney/Gene Duncan)

In the year since launching The Slug, some unimaginable stuff occurred within the realm of popular culture. Anna Nicole Smith died. "Survivor: Cook Islands" divided their tribes by race. Bob Barker retired. And we blogged about it all. We hope we kept our original promise to "simultaneously investigate and celebrate all thangs pop culture." Even if you don't think we did, well, we've totally had a blast trying to, anyway. Remember folks: Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.

Happy Halloween from The Slug!

(AP Photo)

It's the day we've been excited about and/or dreading for months! Today is both Halloween and the death of our pimp: asap, The Associated Press' premium multimedia news service. Celebrate this bizarre day with this YouTube link to Tim Curry's performance from "The Worst Witch." For those of us privileged enough to have had HBO back in the 1980s, you can't deny you squealed fervently every time this came on.

Loose Ends

(AP Photo)

Look out! asap's endingstravaganza has begun! The Associated Press' premium multimedia news service is nearing its final hour with content all about conclusions. Online now, you can find a list of great literary outcomes, a story about the death of indie rock, an essay discussing the end of a meal and videos about the finales of wars and movies. Stay tuned. Later today, The Slug will reveal our favoritest TV finales.

The Beginning of The End

(AP Photo/HO/Lucasfilm)

Boo! As you may or may not have heard, The Slug's pimp — asap, The Associated Press' premium multimedia news service — is scheduled to die this Halloween. We're fairly certain asap is taking The Slug with it to the netherworld, so we're gonna spend the next few days looking back and examining the ends of thangs within the pop culture universe (as will all of asap). Don't get weepy on us just yet. The end isn't really always the end. Just ask George Lucas.

The Name of the Game

(AP Photo/HO/World Cyber Games/Marcus R. Donner)

As you might have heard, The Slug was in Seattle last weekend. One of the reasons we traveled to the Emerald City was to attend the World Cyber Games Grand Final. It's sorta like the Olympics for gaming geeks. More than 700 competitors from 74 different countries battled in games like "Gears of War" and "Counter-Strike" for $448,000 in prize money. Team USA ended up nabbing the most medals. You can see our report on the action in this week's "Up Down Left Right," the AP's weekly video game video.

"Heroes" Floats Our Boat

(AP Photo/HO/NBC)

That wacky computer-generated flying escapade aside, The Slug truly hearted the latest episode of "Heroes." Mostly because it marked the return of deliciously evil Sylar. We even appreciated Niki and Micah's appearance. Does anyone else think Uhura is a member of the superpowered mature folks club? Also, did you spot Claire's Nissan Rogue as Maya and Alejandro's getaway ride? As previously reported here on The Slug, the on-the-lam Dominicans will encounter Sylar in next week's episode. For more "Heroes" dish, watch us in this AP video.

Our Four Favoritest Moments from the Emmys

(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Despite our best liveblogging efforts, this year's Emmys drew the second-smallest audience in the show's history. Now that we've had more than 24 hours to digest exactly what went down in the round at the Shrine Auditorium on Sunday night, we're ready to reveal what we actually liked about this year's ceremony. (In case you were wondering, what we didn't like was that awkward in-the-round stage, Ryan Seacrest's lame jokes and the lack of loser nominee reaction shots.)  Our four favoritest moments:

Steve Carell's phony win. Our biggest and most genuine chuckle came when Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announced they were giving Ricky Gervais' Emmy to their "friend" Carell. If that wasn't funny enough, the "40-Year-Old Virgin" gleefully jumped up from the audience and embraced his "Daily Show" alums. Why can't the rest of the ceremony be this silly?

Ryan Seacrest's screen time. When we first heard that Seacrest had been tapped to host the Emmys, we were frightened that the ceremony would turn into an "American Idol" clone. Although he was ultra-annoying every time he appeared on screen, those moments were refreshingly brief. Thankfully, comedians such as Ray Romano, Lewis Black, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and even Wayne Brady picked up the slack.

Kathryn Heigl's name checking. Most stars would probably act like they didn't hear the the silky smooth Emmy announcer completely mispronounce their last name when introducing them. Not Heigl. Before she launched into her TelePrompTer presentation, the "Knocked Up" star corrected the announcer. Later, after Heigl won for a supporting actress trophy, she gave the announcer props for getting it right the second time.

Sally Field's acceptance speech. Like a typical mother, Field rambled on and on during her best actress acceptance speech. Just when we started hoping Field would be drowned out by the orchestra, the "Brothers & Sisters" matriarch sprang some saucy language and an anti-war rant on the audience and Fox censors, who cut away from the winner. We really, really liked Field for giving us something to talk about the next day. 

Justice and Online Videos for All

(AP Photo/HO/Sony Pictures Television)

Hello friend. The Slug hopes you had a loverly three-day weekend (or four-day weekend if you were greedy like us). In case you didn't see it before you left work last week, here's our asap video tour from the new "Judge David Young" show, which debuts in syndication next Monday. Judge Young was such a riot to interview. He's like "Judge Judy" but gay. And if you crave more mindless video, check out the latest edition of "The Hot List" co-starring moi.

They Were The Ones That You Wanted

(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Don't quit your day job, America. AP drama critic Michael Kuchwara doesn't think you did such a keen job casting the latest Broadway revival of "Grease," you know, that "High School Musical" grandparent that starred John Travolta back when he was hot. Personally, we knew this whole thing was a train wreck from the beginning. Here's what Kuchwara has to say about your picks:

"As Danny, Max Crumm gives a cautious performance, vocally OK but short on swagger and sex appeal. Laura Osnes nicely gets Sandy's transformation, morphing with enthusiasm from good girl to bad babe. Check out her skintight outfit in the last scene, courtesy of designer Martin Pakledinaz. Osnes also sings well and throws herself into Marshall's spirited choreography."

The Slug to Paris Hilton: Call Us! Collect!

(AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

Dear Paris: If you can somehow read this on a smuggled-in Sidekick or your mama is printing out blog posts for you or whatever, call us! We'll accept the charges! We desperately need to know if you were acting dumb when we interviewed you in your hotel room in 2005. If so, how would you have really answered our questions, you know, now that you're vowing not to act dumb? Also, forget everything we said in this asap story. We totally wrote it during your briefer-than-brief house arrest last week. Now that you're back in the clink, we think you're gaining street cred each passing day. Seriously! Now that you're in with Babs, you just may get Rosie O'Donnell's spot on "The View."