Having a few more birthday dollars to spend, I decided to head to Best Buy to get a few things that I've had my eye on. My first choice to buy the Ben Stiller Show on dvd was a simple choice. I'm a HUGE fan of the show and Ben Stiller's variety of humor. If there is a model type of humor that I emulate the most, it's the Ben Stiller-Andy Dick-Janeane Garofalo-Bob Odenkirk variety which can best be described as pop-cultural laden sarcasm. I can honestly say that besides "Saturday Night Live" and maybe "Mystery Science Theater 3000," no show has had more influence on my sense of humor than the "Ben Stiller Show." So that purchase was an easy one.

My other purchase was a bit more of a case of guilty pleasure being satiated. Having heard and been pleasantly surprised at how catchy his songs were, I decided to "go for it." I can now say that I've sold my soul, and am a proud owner of Justin Timberlake's "Justified." I know, I know, it doesn't seem right that I'm going to have a Justin Timberlake cd nestled between my Elliott Smith and Rufus Wainwright cd's. But at one time I was also a pretty big Michael Jackson fan. I still really like a lot of his music, especially his pre-Thriller albums like "Off the Wall." A LOT of Justin Timberlake's album sounds like something that Michael Jackson would have put out during the late 70's and early 80's. It's pretty good stuff, and yes, a definite guilty pleasure.

matt out