American Picker star Mike Wolfe journeyed to the Barnes & Noble in Paramus, NJ, April 17, 2013, for a book signing. His new book is a children’s book called “Kid Pickers.” Here’s a video of his Q&A and some pictures!

So the great Jeff “It’s Me Barney” Bridges just released his second musical album Jeff Bridges, first since 2000′s Be Here Soon. This new album is sort of a continuation of Jeff’s work in the film Crazy Heart (2009), about a down and out country singer. He worked with highly successful producer T-Bone Burnett on the album. This album is definitely country, but it’s old school country, which is why the country music press hated it! I personally hate newer country, essentially everything made from Billy Ray Cyrus onwards. Anyway, Rolling Stone Magazine gave it 3 out of 5, which I’d probably agree with. Several of the songs were just way too slow and bogged down, although a few were very good, and one is now stuck in my damn head! Here’s a quick rundown of the tracks in the CD I got, with 2 Barnes & Noble bonus tracks:

• What a Little Bit of Love Can Do -> The signature track, very catchy, Bridges voice actually works quite well with this song.
• Falling Short -> This is a strange one, seems to go nowhere.
• Everything But Love -> Folksy, very pleasant.
• Tumbling Vine -> Like track 2, written by Jeff Bridges, in the tone of “The Dude,” and highly psychedelic.
• Nothing Yet -> Another slow one, put me to sleep.
• Blue Car -> A nice poppy folk song with a easy beat (though slow).
• Maybe I Missed the Point -> Easily my favorite track, and now stuck in my head. Wish he did the whole album like this.
• Slow Boat -> Spoken word? Why?
• Either Way -> Dullish love song.
• The Quest -> Old school country song.
• I Will Wait -> First B&N exclusive bonus, modest.
• Shotgun Bride -> Second B&N exclusive bonus, kind of falls off the cliff.
• Drag Me To The Party -> Amazon MP3 exclusive, more odd spoken words.

Oh, and surprise, I got to meet Jeff Bridges at the Fifth Avenue Barnes & Noble in New York! Here’s his signed CD cover and my picture just before getting it signed. We’ll talk about the encounter in Episode 177.

Jeff Bridges Signed CD

Greg meets Jeff Bridges

Normally one big time dimwit gets to win The Paunch Stevenson Show Lame Idiot of the Year Award. Well in 2010, one award was not enough for the cesspool of loserdom otherwise known as American politics. It was a banner year.

1) The “Tea Party” were in full force on the prime issues of the day, first and foremost, that President Obama did not have a birth certificate. Throughout the year, spillover from 2009 in fact, was the battle over Healthcare. Well, the lack of affordable healthcare. As the right wing screamed and yelled about socialism, working people continued to get the shaft. Get sick, don’t look at us, it’s your problem.

2) Those lovelies were egged on by the grand phony himself Glenn Beck of Fox News.

3) Let’s not forget the lack of climate change reform, which has led to a miserable winter where snow is everywhere. More importantly, who can forget the decades of political favors paid to the oil industry. They returned the favor by causing the worst oil spill in US history. BP Chairman Tony Hayward reacted by complaining about not being able to get back to his yachting.

4) And lastly, our wonderful home state of New Jersey has a new Governor, Chris Christie, who fought with everybody. That’s not what annoys us. He canceled a project that was long underway to add rail access, via a new tunnel from NJ to NYC. If there’s one thing we absolutely abhor, it’s our commute to and from work, whether on the roads or on the trains. Any project that lessens the congestion is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, the governor didn’t think so.

Our long time friend Jim and his girlfriend are part of this video for the Doritos and Pepsi Max “Crash the Super Bowl” video contest. Need as many views as possible!

The one, the only, Sir Sean Connery. Don’t worry, we paid him $1 million dollars!

This is what Connery had to say….

“I’m swimming every day and I’m even trying to get the golf swing working again – but that might take a little bit longer.

“During the summer, I wasn’t in pain but I wasn’t feeling great. I came to the Edinburgh Film Festival in June then, when I left for the south of France, I realized I’d lost a little bit of weight and needed to change my regime. I’ve done that and the last few days have been pretty special with the family here.

“We’ve eaten non-stop and it has been a great celebration.”

Other birthdays today include THE Regis Philbin, Gene Simmons, Elvis Costello, Tim Burton, and Billy Ray Cyrus.