On the preview of MTV's Skins: Dear God, please no. Please

Many of you know that I'm a huge fan of Skins, a British show about the extreme lives of teenagers. I was introduced to the show by a friend in Boston back in late 2007 or early 2008. He handed me some CD-ROMs with video files on them and said, "Watch this. You're gonna love it." He was absolutely right. It's safe to say I became obsessed. I actually made a digital mixtape of nearly all the music in Season 1 as a gift for a fellow fan. That's 110 tracks, people!

My short description of the show is that it's a cross between Gossip Girl and Kids, that is silly, meaningless, lighthearted combined with soul-crushing, heart-breaking super depressing. The adults are caricatures, and the teens are completely out of hand. In general, the show is dark. No one is happy. These kids have a non-stop string of seriously heavy problems, and the only way they make it through is with each other. Oh, and drugs, lots and lots of drugs.

While it's not a reality show, it has a realistic feel for the way it takes on heavy issues: homosexuality, parental neglect, pregnancy, a broken education system, to name a few. The music is stellar, and for a while was my primary way of discovering artists. The writing is sharp, with much of it done by actual teenagers, and it's hilarious.

Now MTV looks like it's going to ruin it with a U.S. version of the show, airing in January 2011. Check out this extended trailer and exclusive clip in the player below. It's in multiple parts, so wait through all the segments before continuing.

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The marketers behind NBC's "The Event" are geniuses.

The Event is a new show on NBC, and it has the best marketing ever. First, notice how the second 'E' in the word "EVENT" is actually backwards? That indicates that this is no ordinary event but rather an extraordinary one. Anything is possible. Up is down. Left is right. Good is evil. And letters can be reversed! 

Second, notice the super subtle letter-play in the "what will you believe?" line. See, they buried the word "lie" inside the word "believe" implying that all is not as it seems on this show. You could believe a lie!

I met Vincent Kartheiser (aka Pete Campbell of Mad Men) in Minneapolis

It was at Clubhouse Jäger in Mpls just after the MIMA Summit. Here's a writeup. I'm the unnamed "Onion exec."

It was strange. I saw the dude throwing darts and vaguely thought he looked familiar, but it was a faint feeling. Later, Erin Rauk (MIMA Summit organizer) asked me, "Do you know who this is?" I was like, "No. Your cousin?" 

At that moment, Vincent breaks out into a perfect Pete Campbell voice and goes on about his father and the Dyckmans, and I yelled, "Oh snap, it's Pete Campbell! You were in my bed last night!"

I had just finished Season 2 of Mad Men on my iPad the night before in my hotel bed. That's all people. Anyway, Vincent was great, and the entire encounter was swell.

On to season 3.

Day-starting music: Skins Theme Song by Fat Segal

I am obsessed with the TV show "Skins" and love this eletronica/dub-step-infused track. The full song is even better than the clip they use for the show open. The reward is really at around 2m40sec