I’ve been waiting for a long time to write about The Seedy Seeds on this here TV blog. As it is, I can only justify writing about music when there’s a video accompanying the song — otherwise I’d be straying a little bit from the point of the site (which, for the record, is to write about cute boys, dote over Tina Fey and periodically declare that Meredith Grey is a ridiculous trollop).

But now the wait is over — the band has finally made a video for their song “Drive Me To The Center,” off their most recent album “Count the Days.” It’s a galloping, synth-charged rock song that is a bit darker and tenser than most of their tunes. Most of The Seedy Seeds’ tracks have enough playful instrumentation and spirited delivery that it easily overshadows any sort of wistfulness in the lyrics.

One thing I like about The Seedy Seeds is that they have made the rare and risky step of embracing their cuteness (the boy/girl vocals, the kazoos, the banjos, the unrelenting optimism and affinity vegan baked goods) without seeming forced or affected. They just love making pop music in the Buckeye State.

But enough of me blabbing. Here’s their surreal clip for “Drive Me To the Center.”

from on .

It’s summer, it’s hot, and Vance’s brain can no longer think in more than 140 characters. He hasn’t blogged much lately, but he’s twittered the summer away. ()

This week, Jace had an exclusive interview with Bones showrunner/executive producer Hart Hanson about what to expect from Season Five of Bones, Booth’s mental state, Brennan’s Guatemalan trip, Angela’s celibacy vow, a possible return to London, Stephen Fry, and much more. (Televisionary)

Design Star — it’s no Project Runway, but it’ll do during the summer doldrums. Also, Nathan and Dan are good enough eye candy to keep tuning in. (TiFaux)

Dr. Gregory House trying to actually connect with people?!? Matt is excited to see if this House spoiler become a reality. [TV Fanatic]

Buzz geared up for Mad Men‘s third season with a little quiz about the first two years of the show. (BuzzSugar)

Sandie interviewed Michaela Conlin, who plays Angela on Bones. (Daemon’s TV)

For those that need some new music to discover, check out the debut album Bible Belt by Diane Birch. (Scooter McGavin’s 9th Green)

The TV Addict starting counting down to Fall with previews of PRIVATE PRACTICE, THE BIG BANG THEORY and CHUCK (The TV Addict)

While it seems like a perfectly charming channel, I don’t normally make a habit of watching Animal Planet.  It does have the must-see annual Puppy Bowl and it does feature those heart-breaking Pet 911 shows with the one-eyed kitty who has a kidney infection. I don’t even like cats, but those emergency vet shows have me curled in a ball on the couch, negotiating with God for the life of the animal.

But I’m not here to talk about cats.  Or even animals at all.

It’s come to my attention that Animal Planet has enlisted the help of a few preposterously hot hosts, namely Night’s Brandon McMillan and Into the Pride’s Dave Salmoni. It’s enough for me to immediately flip to Animal Planet while I’m on the treadmill at the gym, just so I can ogle them while feeling shitty about my own physique (all the while learning facts about animals!).

First, let’s address the issue of Brandon McMillan (right), who I only ever heard of yesterday. What you need to know about Brandon is the following: he’s an animal trainer from a family of animal entertainers and he hosts a night safari show. You can tell he’s hot even when he’s shot through the grainy, green night vision goggles. Of course, he’s a little douchey (think Jeff Corwin) when it comes to amping up the drama and being a ham. Such sins are easily forgiven.

Check him out in action here, encountering a baby hippo and her protective mother.

Now there’s the issue of Dave Salmoni, who hosts the show Into the Pride (and, much to my chagrin, the usage of the word ‘pride’ has nothing to do with floats, beads and drag queens). Dave embedded himself into a pride of lions for six month during the production of his show Into the Pride. While I’m a fan of the beard in general, he grew himself a monster of a one during the production — which sort of diminishes his Canadian hotness.

Here’s an interview with Dave done by the wonderful Michelle from Best Week Ever. She fully admits that it’s hard to pay attention to the adorable lion cub when you’ve got Scruffy McForearms charming his way into your heart.

After the jump, enjoy a gratuitous/unnecessary clip of a beardy Salmoni taking an open air shower with the pride.

This is the new commercial going around where some gymnast repeatedly catches a laptop in his ass crack to prove just how thin and portable it is.

And I understand why they chose this campaign. As with all my electronics purchases, if I can’t comfortably lodge it in my anus then I’m going to keep looking around.

On the serious, though, this really doesn’t make me want to buy their computer. But it is getting schmucks with blogs (like me) to write about them on the internet, so I guess any publicity is good publicity, right?

It’s like we’re constantly following Mitch Hurwitz and Will Arnett, eager and full of hope that their next respective projects will bring us all the joy that they did with Arrested Development. So far, this has brought us (or at least me) nothing but heartache — Sit Down, Shut Up, the movie “Let’s Go to Prison.”

But Arnett and Hurwitz are co-starring Arnett as a “rich Beverly Hills jackass” who falls in love with a hippie who hates his lifestyle.

I plan on thinking of this project like I do the theme of “hope” in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign — skepticism mixed with an earnest optimism.

In the meantime, here’s a stardust memory from Arrested Development.

You’re probably not watching much television right now.  And, frankly, I support you in that.  You might consider catching up on some DVDs worthy shows like Damages or Weeds before bed, but right now all we’ve got right now is reruns and programming that’s really only acceptable if you’re in a full body cast, agoraphobic or being paid to write about television.

Which, of course, I’m not. Any of those.

But, HGTV’s interior design reality show Design Star is on again and perhaps you may find it worth watching. It’s probably more satisfying than The Fashion Show, if only because it doesn’t really aspire to be more than it is — a Project Runway-inspired competition show that doubles as a commercial for the basic cable network it’s on.

The personalities are a bit more subdued this time around — the women are slightly less catty, the gays are less flaming, straight men are less grunt-y and visceral (except for Antonio who has stars tattooed on his neck — not a turn-on).

There are, remarkably, only two gays on this season — Nathan and Jason. Nathan is a crush-worthy hipster-ish guy in his mid-twenties. To boot, he also seems very nice — true boyfriend material. I don’t, however, dote over him to the unhealthy degree that I did with last season’s runner-up Matt Locke. I definitely had to keep myself in line with a mantra of “you need to remember that this is a person on television.”

And Jason kind of looks like Perez Hilton. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the even-tempered, gigantic-armed Dan (bottom right in the group shot), whose fitness and keen fashion sense belie his heterosexuality.

One of the biggest changes this season has been the abrupt dismissal of the show’s two female judges, replacing them with old Trading Spaces designer Genevieve Gorder and HGTV host Candice Olson — who has a blonde bob and a pitiless disposition. Vern Yip is also around.  While there was nothing wrong with the previous co-judges, the Gorder and Olson are worthy successors.  On the whole, they’re probably one of the most fair, articulate judging panels I’ve come across on this type of show. Also, the likably bland Clive Pearse is around again as host.

They did, however, make a total dick move on the most recent episode when they eliminated DC native Tashica. While I wanted to root for Tashica because of her hometown roots and fighting spirit, she was admittedly the weakest contestant and a bit unaware of her own incompetence. But during this week’s double elimination, they didn’t even perform the formality of deliberating — opting to call Clive over and have her sent home during the judging session.

It was a surprisingly tacky move from Yip and company — who normally construct a (very) thin veil of niceties before laying into the contestants.

Design Star is on Sundays on HGTV.

That thud you  hear? That’s us running head-first into the end-of-summer TV doldrums. Sure, when I turn on the ol’ tube, there’s stuff there–but is any of it worth watching? Anything? Is anyone psyched that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is back on? Did anyone catch the premiere of Shark Tank? Who tuned in to the Teen Choice Awards? I’m getting a distinct “null set” vibe from these questions.

Until the fall TV shows start rolling out–or at least until the Degrassi made-for-TV movie (this Friday!)–let’s see what else is going on, shall we? Here’s a brief check-in with some other areas of popular culture that may not be experiencing as much of a lull.

Movies: The big blockbusters are mostly behind us, but the Internet has nothing but raputorous things to say about this weekend’s District 9. Quentin Tarantino is always good for a larf, so we should all expect some craziness from his absurdly spelled .

Movie Trailers: An artform in and of themselves, you’d be remiss if you didn’t watch the new trailer for , as well as the trailers for and .

Music: Dan and Jesse might know better if any great albums are coming out before the end of summer, but right now I’m pretty happy about Heath Ledger’s video for Modest Mouse’s King Rat. (Hey, a music video is kind of like watching TV!)

Books: I just read the Time Traveler’s Wife in preparation for the awful-looking movie this weekend and it was wonderful, but in case you’re not looking for books that are four years old, there’s a new Thomas Pynchon novel out that’s supposed to be pretty good, and another one of those Philippa Gregory books comes out soon if that’s your thing.

Internet Nerdery: Facebook bought FriendFeed? Who cares–we’re Twitter people. That reminds me: Follow us on .

There, that should tide us over for the next couple of weeks, when we can go back to being couch potatoes (as is our natural state).

In his first retrospective of the closing decade that he will be releasing over the next year, Scooter counts down The 100 Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s. Sadly Flavor of Love just missed the cut. (Scooter McGavin’s 9th Green)

One more month until Glee!!! Whee!!! Can you tell Vance is really excited? (Tapeworthy)

This week, Jace had an exclusive video interview with Doctor Who and Torchwood writer/executive producer Russell T. Davies and director Euros Lyn about what’s coming up on the final David Tennant Doctor Who specials, a possible fourth season of Torchwood, the return of some familiar faces, and many, many other things. (Televisionary)

It’s fun and it’s quippy! Enter to win the first season of Leverage on DVD by e-mailing us with the last thing you stole. (TiFaux)

Matt can’t wait to see Rachel Evan Wood on True Blood. As if this show could get any more fun/ridiculous! (TV Fanatic)

Kate wondered which oldie but goodie The CW will tackle next (TV Filter)

Buzz headed backstage at the So You Think You Can Dance finale and reported 10 things you didn’t see on TV. (BuzzSugar)

This week, Sandie took at first look at Syfy’s Alice, a re-imagining of “Alice in Wonderland.” (Daemon’s TV)

The parties, the stars and all of your favorite show. Follow the fun as the TV Addict covers TCA 2009 direct from Pasadena California (The TV Addict)

Dudes!  I haven’t posted all week! I’m sure both of our readers are disappointed.

I’ll try to do better. No promises though — there’s nothing on TV and it’s going to take some time for me to come up with something worth writing about.

In the meantime, here’s something that can be enjoyed by at least me and Sara (who, curiously, seems to enjoy watching boys kiss as much as I do).  Scott Evans (the openly gay brother of walking six-pack Chris Evans) is apparently playing a gay cop on One Life to Live and recently had a much-hyped kiss with a hot-in-a-mousey-way medical student.

This scene could be classified as hot if you took these kinds of things seriously. And if it didn’t feature dialogue like “Why are you doing this to yourself”/”Because I’d lose everything!”

Hello, friends! We have things to give away! The nice folks at TNT are offering a box set of the first season of Leverage, which, as I have told you, is quippy and fun.

TNT is also throwing in a poster of the cast of their new show, Dark Blue. It’s autographed by the cast, which includes pretty, pretty Dermot Mulroney Dylan McDermott and this guy who was Ryan Atwood’s thiefy brother on The OCk and also dates Marisa Tomei.

So if you’d like to win these lovely prizes (and I think it’s worth entering just for the horse heist episode of Leverage. It was AWESOME), send an email to tifaux – at – gmail – dot – com with the subject line “The Free Stuff Job” and describe the last time you stole something—a heart, a lipstick, $90 billion from the government, whatever. Your emails can and will be used against you in a court of law.