I've been living in New York for almost six months now, but I still get a little nervous when someone asks me where I'm from. I know exactly what their reaction will be: a quizzical frown followed by a hardy chuckle. Would someone please tell me what is so funny about the great town of Walla Walla, Washington (the place so nice they named it twice)?

After the laughing subsides, I usually get one of two responses, depending on their age. If it's someone in their 40s or older, I usually get an, "Oh yes, like that  'ting tang, walla walla, bing bang' song!" But if it's someone closer to my age, I get a much more irksome reply.

The first time it happened was during a summer study tour in London. I ended up chatting with a fellow American I met in my dorm, and when she heard where I was from, she affected a semi-disgusted frown and sneered, "You mean like Tonya from the Real World?" Yes, my town's pop culture claim to fame is its brightest celebrity star, the trashtastic Tonya Cooley from Real World: Chicago (pictured).

During one especially poignant RW episode, when Tonya returns home from Chicago, the producers decided to be cute and created a Walla Walla montage full of grazing cows, water towers, and onion stands set to a Deliverance-worthy soundtrack. After all these years, I'm still sore about that one. We have a Starbucks, for goodness' sake! We're darn near cosmopolitan!

While I continue to lick the wounds Tonya and RW producers have inflicted upon my fine city, I want to know what silly/dubious/ridiculous claim to fame your hometown has.

Listen here, Vanessa Hudgens: I've got more than enough disposable pop on my iPod. And you've probably got a sickeningly large bank account from all your High School Musical successes. So the bottom line is, you can take your new single "Sneakernight" (what kind of wonky title is that anyway?) and your pop-star aspirations and...oooh! That's a jazzy little beat you've got there. Nice organ riff, too. What's that lyric, Vanessa? Did I eat? Do I have the energy? Well, that's very considerate of you to ask, but fret not: I had a nice bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats earlier this morning.

Wait a minute. Cut that out. I'm wise to your game. And this is not how it's going down. Although, I have to admit, your accompanying video is awfully cute, what with your nuclear shoelaces and the amusing side plot with the resident geek busting a move to try and win your attention. Kid's got some moves!

But no...away from me, teenage temptress! I'm not parting with 99 cents to download your hypnotic three-minute ode to getting one's boogie on. Yeah, I just attempted the robot while sitting in front of my computer, but don't read anything into it. Nor should you get your hopes up just because I'm about to sing along with the "Sneakernight" chorus. Because I'm not the musical equivalent of the horror-movie victim who runs up the stairs instead of out the front door. I am totally in control of my purchasing power. And...Basically what we're gonna do is dance/ Basically what we're gonna do is dance / Basically what we're gonna do is dance / Yeah that's right it's sneakernight...

* Do head to the comments section below and let us know if you have better luck resisting the charms of "Sneakernight."

You know the drill: Click here to vote for the funniest moment from last night's TV broadcasts.

Neil Patrick Harris was gracious enough a couple months ago to tell us about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, the online musical minisode series he's starring in for Joss Whedon, in which he plays a hapless supervillain opposite Nathan Fillion (natch) as a stalwart hero named Captain Hammer and Felicia Day as the cute gal from the laundromat who Dr. Horrible can't muster up the nerve to talk to. Now comes a teaser for the project (the official MySpace page is here). Suit up, folks, this one looks like fun.

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

While watching last night's premiere of VH1's I Love the New Millennium (more on that to come), I caught a promo for what could be the most blatantly honest reality show ever: I Love Money. Starring some of the best (and by "best," I mean most ridiculous) VH1 reality also-rans from Rock of Love (including slap-happy Heather, pictured), I Love New York, and Flavor of Love, the show pits contestants in a series of physical challenges, with the winner hauling away $250,000. The show premieres July 6, and I couldn't be more excited (and not just because I've been missing those whackjob Rock of Love girls). I'm glad VH1 has finally greenlit a reality show that cuts to the chase. Because, really, why should contestants waste time pretending they're looking for true love when all they want is a fat paycheck?

Here are the 17 contenders:

12 Pack (I Love New York)

Brandi C. (Rock of Love)

Chance (I Love New York)

Destiney (Rock of Love)

The Entertainer (I Love New York)

Heat (I Love New York)

Heather (Rock of Love)

Hoopz (Flavor of Love)

Megan (Rock of Love)

Midget Mac (I Love New York)

Mr. Boston (I Love New York)

Nibblz (Flavor of Love)

Pumkin (Flavor of Love)

Real (I Love New York)

Rodeo (Rock of Love)

Toasteee (Flavor of Love)

Whiteboy (I Love New York)

Who will you be rooting for?

Alf! Okay, it's just wishful thinking, but the dude's been MIA for a frakkin light year, and he could probably use the work.

While tributes keep pouring in for George Carlin - including two particularly sweet ones: he's still going to be awarded the Mark Twain prize, announced just last week, and HBO2 is going to play 11 of his 14 comedy specials Wednesday and Thursday night - there's one thing that rankles me about many of the obituaries and eulogies: the references to Carlin as a "counterculture" comic. (See here, here, here, and here, among others.) This is exactly the sort of phrasing that would have set off Carlin's own highly sensitive BS detector. First, the word's association with the hippie era implies that Carlin and the battles he fought are safely relegated to the distant past, that he was not an artist who was still relevant and vital, and that the issues he raised years ago weren't still in play today. Second, the word implies that he was some kind of fringe radical standing outside the mainstream. A look at the highlights of his career shows that to be false. He appeared numerous times on Ed Sullivan's and Johnny Carson's shows, he won four Grammys, he wrote several best-sellers, he did children's TV and a voice role in a Pixar blockbuster cartoon, he played Vegas as recently as last week, and he was one of America's most popular comics for 40 years. He wasn't the counterculture; he was the culture.

Relegating Carlin to the counterculture is the sort of divisive misdirection Carlin often railed at; he was more interested in the common experiences that united us. Which is why I'll let him say the rest, in the clip below. (Some of the language is, naturally, NSFW.)

After VH1 decided to debut its inappropriate, way too soon, but already completely addictive I Love the New Millennium, we decided to take it to the blog by way of good ol' AIM. You can call this just another posting of a friendly conversation, OR the first installment of Live from Our Adjacent Cubicles: The Amy & Lisa Show (cue music!). Either way, here's what we think about Hal Sparks and friends' newest marathon-ready look at a decade - er, the last eight years...

Amy Wilkinson: ugh, so I caught I Love the New Millennium Monday night

Amy: I'm not lovin' I Love the New Millennium so far

Lisa Raphael: I missed it! Even though those Britney ads are all over the place - which, by the way, make me want to call up a séance for her career

Amy: I don't understand why you're still rooting for her ??

Lisa: WELL, speaking of - the year 2000? Britney Spears VMAS

Lisa: doesn't get any better than that

Amy: OK, they did show her "Oops..." red jumpsuit moment again

Amy: Which I put in the plus column in my notes

Amy: Really the highlight of 2000 was TiVo

Lisa: okay, I can dig it, DVR has transformed my life

Amy: What would I do if I couldn't record The Golden Girls?

Lisa: Um, watch all the repeats that are on all the time...

Lisa: (do you really record The Golden Girls?)

Amy: But now I can watch the repeats at my leisure

Lisa: So what were the pros? According to Amy...

Amy: Well, besides TiVo and your fallen Britney, CSI premiered, which I dig

Amy: But that's about it

Lisa: Over it

Amy: For the most part, total cultural wasteland

Amy: NOOOO!

Amy: You can NOT be over CSI

Amy: It's so good

Amy: "Who are you...doo doo...doo doo"

Amy: love the theme song

Amy: by the Who

Lisa: No idea

Lisa: ooooh. Maybe a little

Amy: what??!

Amy: Lisa, seriously?

Amy: I'm worried about you?

Lisa: Scroll up, gurl! I was learning the dance moves to Britney Spears in 2000

Lisa: I wasn't even a fan of Justin Timberlake yet

Amy: dance moves? you mean you became a child stripper?

Amy: you were what, like 14?

Lisa: I was a huge Napster fan!

Lisa: That should be one of your pros!

Amy: Oh, I'm too much of a goody-two-shoes for Napster! Totes!

Amy: I buy my tunes legally

Lisa: Could you even buy music legally back then?

Amy: yeah, I don't think so

Lisa: I STILL have songs that have survived and are on my iPod today from the Napster days

Amy: oh gosh!

Lisa: (I always know because they have DJ Clue yelling on them)

Amy: you shouldn't say that in a public forum

Amy: you might have the FCC after you

Lisa: oh yeah...

Amy: you were just kidding, right?

Lisa: Just putting on a show for the cameras, you know!

Lisa: So what were your biggest disappointments of the show?

Amy: Basically, 2000 sucked, which made the show suck. Here are some examples:

Amy: 1. Richard Hatch (pictured)...naked

Lisa: that was a BFD!

Amy: BFD?

Lisa: I'm trying to be PC for the PWers

Amy: I gotcha

Amy: 2. those whaaaazup commercials for Budweiser

Amy: so annoying

Amy: and not funny

Lisa: But everrrybody's done a "whaaazup" in their day

Lisa: even you?

Amy: Lisa, you've seen me. Do I look like a "whaaazup" kind of girl?

Amy: I don't think so.

Lisa: not so much...Why do you think the show was a bomb?

Lisa: Is it just too soon?

Amy: That's part of it, but really, the year just sucked

Amy: I'm looking forward to 2001

Amy: It was the year of Moulin Rouge

Amy: My friend Dennis and I had a Moulin Rouge coming out on DVD party

Amy: Yeah, we're those people

Lisa: hahaha yes! I've never seen Moulin Rouge

Amy: WHAT!?!?!?!

Amy: NO!!!!

Amy: That Britney ruined your formative years.

Lisa: It's possible.

Lisa: Who were the best pop culture pundits Monday night?

Amy: Normally I really enjoy Hal Sparks, but that mullet was blinding me!

Amy: major bird's nest

Lisa: yes I Google image searched it

Lisa: Terrifying

Amy: I'm always surprised at how funny wrestler Chris Jericho is.

Amy: He's a pretty witty fellow

Lisa: who was there besides the usuals?

Lisa: Which member of NSYNC was on the panel???

Amy: I think there may have been a Lance Bass moment

Lisa: I feel like Lance is too big for it now

Lisa: hmm. I would have gone with Chris Kirkpatrick

Lisa: I think I'm looking forward to 2003, otherwise known as: the year of McGriddles and Joe Millionaire!

Amy: I think the 80s and 90s had much more genuine cheesiness

Amy: The 2000s seem so forced

Amy: Joe Millionaire?

Amy: Yuck.

Amy: Punky Brewster? Yes!

Lisa: We probably need to be a little farther removed from the decade we're currently living in to understand its cheese/kitsch value

Amy: true true

Lisa: Hal Sparks can try again in 10-20 years and maybe I'll DVR it

Amy: Nope, DVRs will be old hat then.

It was just a month ago that the "teaser" for September's paranoia thriller Eagle Eye debuted in front of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Disappointing Climax, and already DreamWorks has unleashed the full "trailer" onto the Internets (and, one would assume, in front of the somewhat similarly themed Wanted this weekend).

One question: Um, why? I mean, I guess it's cool to know that, along with Shia LaBeouf, co-star Michelle Monaghan (Made of Honor, M:i:III) has also had her life suddenly turned upside-down by an eerily omniscient voice on the other end of her phone.

But really, I was fine not knowing. In just a few quick, efficient shots - Shia discovers his apartment stuffed with a super-deluxe DIY terrorism kit, he gets arrested, that voice tells him to duck, a construction crane crashes through the wall - the teaser had me hooked. I knew right then, I am going to see this movie. I did not need to learn that LaBeouf and Monaghan, thrown together, must do what the mysterious voice tells them to or they die. Or that they enter a room that looks vaguely like the set for the next Kanye West video. Or that, as blink-and-you-miss-her Rosario Dawson intones, perhaps all this chaos is just "a decoy to distract [the authorities] from something 50 times bigger?" (Hmm. I wonder.) Besides, like a third of this new trailer just rehashes what we'd already seen in the teaser anyway.

After the jump, I've embedded both the teaser and the new trailer. You tell me, PopWatchers - is the second, 2:30 clip really all that necessary? Or does the first clip do the job in nearly half the time?

The teaser:

The trailer:

Okay, yes, it is nice to see Ethan Embry's still getting work. But before y'all get to the message boards, here's one final thought: If there must be a second trailer, what if it had only followed Monaghan's character, until LaBeouf comes crashing through her car window at the very end? LaBeouf: "Are you the one who called me on the phone?!" Monaghan: "She called you too?" Eagle Eye. Boom. Done.

Was the writers' strike a blessing in disguise for Rescue Me? After the glorious ballpark finale to a maddeningly uneven, all-over-the-map season 4, this fan at least was ready to call it a game. A creative breather for this once-great series seemed entirely in order, thanks be to the Writers Guild. Yet now Denis Leary is back from counting chads on HBO, and Tommy Gavin & Co. are back...in 10 five-minute "minisodes" on FX (also available at crackle.com/rescue me). And darned if it isn't good to see the crew, albeit in small doses.    

The premise of last night's kickoff minisode was niftily bare-bones: feast vs. famine in the firehouse. The feast being a platter of homemade fresh doughnuts (courtesy of Kenny "Lou" Shea), and the famine...Sean's self-purifying "cleanse" from food, booze, and caffeine. (To rid himself of the accumulated toxins from his misbegotten marriage to Maggie, perhaps?) The outcome of the clash between appetite and abstinence was, of course, predictable. Less predictably, Denis Leary took a backseat to John Scurti (pictured) as the rascally voice of temptation and to Steven Pasquale, looking like the pained recipient of a high colonic. Also to my surprise, the best line of the minisode came not from Leary but from Larenz Tate's Black Sean, who pegged reformist Sean as a "white Gandhi." The rest of the minisode, to my mind, could've used a dollop more of that George Carlin-esque venom sprinkled among the toilet humor, but all in all, it was refreshing to see Rescue Me return to its true-blue-collar heart: guys sitting around jawing (and drinking, and smoking, and cussing).    

Questions, of course, linger. Who, or what, gave Sean the notion of fasting? (Oddly enough, I was recently privy to a conversation between two colleagues on the putative health benefits of the practice.) Who knew Mr. Dipspit, i.e., Needles, chewed tobacco in a house of incorrigible smokers? And where was crusty Chief Feinberg? Off to fetch Amy Sedaris' legendary home-baked cupcakes? (Consider this a plug for their return, along with Gina Gershon, Artie Lange, and, yes, Tatum O'Neal.)    

So what's your verdict, PopWatchers? Did last night's minisode leave you patting your stomach and holding out for seconds-or running for the bathroom? (Should Buffalo Wild Wings reconsider its commercial sponsorship, given last night's queasy potty talk?) Who are you yearning to see in future installments? And was FX on the mark in slotting in Rescue Me before Morgan "Super Size Me" Spurlock's meaty docuseries?