I love my fancy new job, but it’s left my hair with awful product buildup. The messy ponytail just won’t work with my jackets and pantyhose anymore, so I have to wake up early and blow dry my hair to perfection. That’s left me with limp hair that gets dirty easily and feels crunchy, even after washing.

Of course, plenty of people suggest the ol’ baking soda treatment for hair buildup. In one way or another, rub a bunch of baking soda in your hair and your buildup will magically wash down the drain. While this may be true, I didn’t get such good results the last time I tried. In fact, I was left with a head full of poodle-like fuzz that was dull and tangled easily. Not good.

I devised this two step treatment to help with my problem hair. Here’s the process:

Step One: Baking Soda

In the palm of your hand, mix about half baking soda with half shampoo. Most shampoos will do. Mix them together. It will be thick like a gel, but should still spread. Wash hair as usual, gently spreading the mixture through hair. Rinse thoroughly.

Step Two: Lemon Wash

Next, make a weak lemon wash. This restores the acidity of your hair and scalp. If you look at your bottle of shampoo, there’s a good chance it contains citric acid. This makes the shampoo a little acidic, and the acid condition makes hair cuticles lay flat, leaving hair shinier and smoother.

Take a small lemon and mix with a gallon of water in a large mixing bowl. Take another small bowl or cup and pour the weak lemon wash through hair, letting them mixture run back into the bowl. Keep rinsing until hair has been thoroughly coated with the lemon water. Rinse again thoroughly. There might be pulp in there still.

Step Three: Finishing Touches

Finally, after rinsing out the lemon wash, I conditioned my hair as usual, concentrating on the damaged ends rather than the grease-and-dirt-attracting roots. Rinse with cool water for added shine.

The final result? Amazing! But, of course, your results may vary. So please leave your comments. What at-home treatments have you tried?

Since then, Carolla has created his own podcast empire, the Ace Broadcasting Network. He now produces his own flagship show five days a week in addition to Ace on the House, a show with Larry Miller, a parenting show, and more. Kevin Smith, another podcast pioneer, has also formed his own podcast network.

In addition, others have made great cultural impact with podcasts that make a difference. I’ve compiled a list of the ten best shows that deliver week after week.

1. WTF

Marc Maron talks to comedians in the long form format. What Tom Snyder began on television, many podcast hosts continue on the radio, minus the long arm of the FCC. Marc is especially impactful as he discusses mostly comedy and comedians. Sure we find out about the cliched “tears of a clown” but also learn about the wonderful stories of the road, the process of writing, and what it means to be a performer working today. Mostly insightful and sometimes legendary. Maron delivers, week after week.

2. The Adam Carolla Show

Adam’s flagship show still appears to be the best. Adam is no doubt a narrow-minded blowhard. Okay, let’s move past that. Adam still manages to get great guests and still tells his stories with gusto. If you can stomach the crap opinions, you’ll get wonderfully polished comedy gems.

3. The Smartest Man in the World

Greg Proops is a unique individual to say the least. You probably know him from Whose Line is it Anyway. He was also an announcer during the podrace scene of Star Wars: Phantom Menace. But let’s move past that. Greg has the most unique podcast show because he doesn’t have guests and does almost all his shows live in front of an audience. His show is not a show so much as a stream of consciousness with reader questions at the end. He’s opinionated and vacillates among old movie talk–yes, Greg, make more references to Kirk Douglas movies nobody’s seen–politics and the occasionally tasteless joke. Always funny, sometimes outraging, and a highlight of my week.

4. The Savage Love Podcast

If you’ve read Savage Love, you know that nobody gets questions nor doles out advice like Dan Savage. Because, really, who’s going to ask the Ann Landers of the world questions about HPV or polyamorous relationships. The fact that there are great numbers of  people in this world with wildly more adventurous and messed up lives than you is comforting, entertaining, and sometimes inspiring. His shows are also more bite sized than others so they rarely drag.

5. Doug Loves Movies

Doug Benson has a formula that he sticks with, week after week. No matter, so does Law and Order and I will still watch it. Doug Loves Movies combines guests, usually three comedians, filmmakers, or some combination thereof, in front of a live audience. They make witty movie banter and end each show with The Leonard Maltin Game, a game where you guess a movie title based on a few bad clues, a year, and some or none of the movie’s stars. Doug always delivers even though the jokes are the same, he remains an adorable host week after week.

Adam Carolla

Does the podcasting world yet have a superstar?

Podcasting as a medium is pretty small-time, but podcasting is growing as media moves online. Today, we can consume whatever media we want, whenever we want it. Terrestrial radio is being hit just like every other form of media as evidenced by the recent format switch of KLSX, the station that used to have Adam Carolla’s morning talk show. KLSX decided that they want to spin cheap records rather than pay for expensive personalities and, in that ugly shuffle, Adam Carolla was unceremoniously axed. 

Fans cried. Many a fan called on the last two day of The Adam Carolla Show to weep as Adam comforted each and every one of them, reminding them that change is almost always good. As a shot in the arm to those suffering, Aceman—he calls himself “Ace”—assured each of his listeners that he wasn’t going anywhere. Huge numbers of fans across the world were downloading his daily KLSX-sponsored podcast and streaming KLSX live. Adam knew then his potential: if terrestrial radio won’t have me, I’ll still have fans out there.

Carolla took a giant leap into the podcast-only world. Sure, other big personalities put out podcasts. These podcasts are almost always marketing for another vehicle—like a TV show or a radio how—or an in-the-basement kind of affair. The This American Life podcast, for example, wouldn’t exist without the NPR show already broadcasting nationwide on NPR affiliate stations. No giant star has tried to monetize or capitalize on the podcast-only medium. That is, until now.

The Adam Carolla Show ended on a Friday. That following Monday, fans all over the world took to their computers and found a podcast just for them. Carolla was using his own money. He had no sponsorships, no advertising. He was using his own equipment, his own domain name, his own electricity to record about 45 minutes of Adam being typical Adam, uncut as the marketers say. Often times, he says, he is in a bath robe. Sure, it was no four hour radio time slot and didn’t benefit from a studio full of equipment with people to run it. But the feeling was very raw and organic. The show was, indeed, that methadone to keep Adam fans satiated. 

Since then, Adam has pulled out all the stops to get guests, the usual suspects of Adam’s circle: Dr. Drew, his former co hosts Theresa and Bryan, Larry Miller, Bill Simmons, and David Allen Grier, all popular guests on the morning show. But from the moment The Adam Carolla Podcast went online, it was pretty obvious that Carolla has stumbled on something great. His first show, a sort of airing-out of laundry, certainly an uncharacteristically melancholy Adam, was downloaded over a quarter of a million times. Granted, the show wasn’t even on iTunes for easy download yet. 

Since then, ratings have been high for the show. It is ranked number 1 on the iTunes “Top Podcasts” list. In a little over a week of podcasts, the show has been downloaded over a 1.6 million times. This begs the question: have we found Podcasting’s first superstar? When Carolla was on a podcasted corporate radio show, he enjoyed the backing of a company to do the work for him. Today, he’s paying his own way just to connect with fans (and maybe get some bread down the road). It’s genius marketing and self-promotion. Most of all, it’s great talk radio, the kind of radio we’d actually like to hear over the airwaves.

2008, my husband and I both agree, was the worst year on record for both of us. Not only were we living in a new city, my husband got a job with a very long daily commute. We didn’t know anybody in town, and finances, being what they are, were also causing strife.

Sometimes life becomes a little more bearable with the introduction of a new hobby. In this case, we started listening to The Adam Carolla Show, a morning radio station syndicated from KLSX in Los Angeles. Adam’s multi-hour show had celebrity guests, two adorable sidekicks, and was the funniest thing I’d heard on the radio, well, ever. TACS didn’t actually air in St. Louis, so we would podcast the program and listen to it a day later. It made the long St. Louis commutes seem shorter and made our lives a little better.

Now the LA Times is reporting that KLSX is switching formats from FM talk to Top 40. Advertising dollars in the tough economy are harder and harder to come by, and KLSX has decided to cop out and go with what works: radio for teens.

Tomorrow, February 20th, will be the last day for The Adam Carolla Show, and will be a sad day. While I know it’s coming, I won’t be able to listen to it until I can sync up my MP3 player tonight.

Losing The Adam Carolla Show is like losing a best friend. Adam Carolla, Theresa Strasser, and Brian Bishop have become like family, a strange digital family that I never get to see but still feel I know. While I thank them all for the laughs, I hope to hear one or all of them again soon. After all, TACS is a very popular podcast. Perhaps go podcast-only? I’m just sayin’…

The lads of Top Gear

Hello again. I haven’t written in a while, but now I’m back! (Mild, condescending applause). I’ll get back to Arrested Development movie news soon, but today, we’re talking about cars. And television. 

I know you’ve heard me say this before, but one of the best television shows in the world is the BBC’s amusing car show Top Gear. One of the most popular shows in the world, Top Gear brings you three very different English blokes talking about cars, testing new models, and participating in various car-related challenges. 

Now, being from the land of well-refined car snobbery, the English have managed to get the world excited about cars, especially European  cars. The series has spawned versions in other countries like Australia, as well as the occasional copycat. Wikipedia tells me (and they would never lie) that about 350 million people watch Top Gear all over the world.

Now, let’s move on to NBC. The Peacock is struggling a bit at the moment. Despite having one of the funniest sitcoms on the air in Tina Fey’s 30 Rock, NBC suffered a blow from lowered Super Bowl ratings and has fallen into fourth place in ratings among the four majors. So it would seem that NBC would want to take a different approach, and approach that might, you know, produce programming that others might want to watch.

Adam Carolla

So last year, NBC ordered a pilot of an American version of Top Gear. At the helm would be Adam Carolla of The Man Show and Loveline fame, but also the very funny host of The Adam Carolla Radio  Show, a syndicated radio show out of Los Angeles. He also recently released a very funny and touching movie called The Hammer. Sitting alongside Adam would be Eric Stromer, star of Over Your Head on HGTV, and Tanner Foust, a stunt car driver. 

I’m sad to report that, despite sagging ratings (because everybody wants to watch more Howie Do It, obviously) and a built-in fan base, NBC has officially passed on an American version of Top Gear. So instead of funny car stunts and hot lap times in fast cars, NBC continues to do more of the same. Perhaps a cable network might pick up Top Gear but, in the meantime, fast car voyeurs in this country have to be satisfied with shows that just aren’t that entertaining.

I know American car companies are struggling, but perhaps there’s a good reason: today’s kids just aren’t excited about cars because there’s nothing to be excited about. Sure, it’s nice to foam at the mouth at the sight of an Astin Martin DB9, but how many eight year olds are excited about, say, a Cadillac or Pontiac? Wouldn’t it be nice to try and cultivate some fans for your product with, say, an entertaining TV show? I’m just saying…

Britons, if you are reading this, perhaps you could explain some things to me.

For Yanks, here’s the story. BBC Radio Two is apparently the most popular radio station in England. On Radio Two, listeners could tune in to a late night radio show hosted by none other than Russell Brand. Americans know Brand from the film Forgetting Sarah Marshall and American teens know him as the most recent host of MTV’s Video Music Awards.

Brits, however, have had quite enough of Brand’s antics, apparently. On Brand’s October 18th episode of his TV show, he and popular BBC presenter Jonathon Ross were having a bit of fun. Americans won’t recognize Jonathon Ross at all, so no point in trying to explain. Suffice it to say that Ross is one of the highest paid men on the BBC payroll for his work on both radio and TV.

Both men thought it would be a good idea to make cheeky phone calls to Andrew Sachs’s answering machine. Sachs is best known for his acting role on Fawlty Towers as the Spanish waiter. For those Americans who didn’t watch as much PBS as I did growing up, you probably don’t know who Sachs is, either.

Point is, Brand and Ross decided to joke that Brand had slept with Sachs’s granddaughter and told him just that. So, in a series of possibly-misguided comedy bits, the two men left several messages for Sachs claiming so, making it worse, and milking the moment for comedy.

Apparently that sort of thing doesn’t go over well with Brits.

Because of a joke phone call, Ross has been suspended for about three months without pay. That means he can’t do his radio show, and he can’t present–or “host” as we say in the States–on his or any other BBC television show. BBC News reports claim that this gaff could cost Ross about 1 million pounds.

Brand has quit his show as well. Damn, I was really starting to enjoy his podcasts.

Now the station director at Radio Two, Lesley Douglas, has quit her job over the incident.

So Britons, I want to know: what’s so wrong with that?

I realize it’s not technically polite to call an aging actor and make obscene claims on his answering machine. However, have you ever heard the raunchy talk on American morning radio shows?

Perhaps one of you could explain what in the world was so wrong with a crude joke? I mean, they may be rude, but Ross and Brand are certainly no Opie and Anthony.

UPDATE: Seems like we get away with much more on our airwaves here in America. Plus, we don’t have that English propensity for perpetual politeness. I guess our ability to spread out and have more personal space is a contributor to that, making us, in the minds of the space-cramped Europeans, rude, loud, and obnoxious. And so the cultural divide continues.

A Mini Cooper S

Blame it on Top Gear.

For those that don’t know, one of the funniest, coolest, and entertaining shows on television worldwide is a show out of the UK called Top Gear. Top Gear invovles three presenters, all former car journalists, talking cars. They perform crazy stunts, test hot cars, and have an in-house racing driver only known as The Stig. While this might not seem like the formula for great television, the formula is rife with laughs and chemistry. Yanks, of course, don’t know this show very well, but an American version of the show is coming, starring the very-funny Adam Carolla. The British version, however, has changed my life.

The lads of Top Gear

At one point, I could care less about cars. Today, I love talking and reading car news. My head whips around every time I see a beautiful, exotic car passing by. And, naturally, I’ve begun to love European cars all the more. As you can probably imagine, the middle-aged blokes on Top Gear don’t care much for American cars or, in the case of Jeremy Clarkson (the one in the brown jacket), Americans. A car, what was once just a tool, is now a passion. I need, NEED a sweet ride, and the Mini seems to fit the bill.

Unfortunately for us, my husband and I made a recent trip to a Mini dealership here in St. Louis. My husband is a large man. We figured that our love for the British racing car with character, the Mini Cooper or the turbo-charged Cooper S would be asuaged once we found that my husband couldn’t fit in one. Nope. He fit just fine with room to spare.

These cars may be boxy, but they are delight on the inside. The interior has quite a bit of space for a car that small. The racing pedigree gives a nice flavor to the interior, and the racing-inspired seats and dials make you feel like it’s the sixties and you’re racing around a twisty track, even if you’re taking the kids to school. Even the seemingly-annoying options are charming. Imagine if every Saturn came with the option of an American Flag roof. Minis, however, have the option of an American flag, the Union Jack, or a checkered pattern on your roof and rearview mirrors.

Unfortunately, all this soul does come at a bit of a price. Now a Mini isn’t terribly expensive compared to, say, a Bimmer. However to Cooper base model starts at around $19,000 while a Cooper S starts around $22,000, not including all the fun options. Compared to other compacts, thought, it’s a bit of a stretch. Plus, what fun is a racing car without all the options?

So, my friends, I’m back on my blog with this note: I’ve got a fancy new job in an office, and I vow to brown bag it until the day I can buy the perfect Mini for me. I accept contributions to my cause.

You can build your own Mini here.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is one of my favorite UFC fighters. He’s the guy who wears a huge, industrial-looking chain around his neck. He’s the one who beat up Chuck Liddell for the title win in UFC 71. He’s the guy who, up until his stupid loss to Forrest Griffin, was the UFC Light Heavyweight champ. He’s got one of the funniest mouths in MMA.

Well, turns out Quinton is a bad man indeed.

Yesterday, while driving around in a monster truck emblazoned with a Toyo Tires logo and his own picture, Quinton led Newport Beach police on a chase after a hit and run accident. Police arrested Rampage at gunpoint, as these shocking pictures from TMZ can attest. Apparently Jackson was driving erratically, swerving lanes and driving on the sidewalk.

Jackson was then taken to the hospital. Some say Rampage was visibly not well, and cops forced the champ to go to the hospital before taking further action.

Well, Jackson was picked up again today, supposedly for his erratic behavior. He is currently in the hospital. Now word yet on his condition or the cause of his erratic behavior. TMZ reports that friends have claimed that he’s not been well lately.

As a fan, I would never condone Jackson’s actions, but I do hope he gets well soon and seeks treatment for his problems.

Also, enjoy some of Rampage Jackson’s famous quotes (definitely R rated). He’s quite the dirty Yogi Berra, that guy.

I’ve just learned the sad news that George Carlin passed away. He was 71.

Carlin had a chat with my husband backstage at a concert once. George was performing at our college’s performing arts theater. George was waiting around for his showtime and my husband was doing some security, a boring job that amounted to keeping people from coming in a certain door. My husband had his homework in hand, a book of short stories.

George, who couldn’t have been nicer, signed a record for our mutual friend, talked to my husband about literature, and reccommended a book that my husband loved, the short stories of Breece D’J Pancake. This was, apparently, one of George Carlin’s favorite authors.

Everyone else might remember George Carlin from the seven words you can’t say on TV or from his movie roles in Dogma, Jersey Girl or Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Still others will remember Carlin as a counterculture icon with an ascerbic tongue, a witty pen, and a knack for knowing what’s funny.

Words can’t describe how much the pioneering comic will be missed among fans of movie, comedy, or the counterculture.

The first album in three years to have debut-week sales at over a million physical copies–as in CD’s–has reminded us that the music industry is truly dead. Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III just had some bang-up sales this past week, surpassing the million-copy mark. Sales like that haven’t been seen since 50 Cent’s The Massacre three years ago.

I’ll put this in perspective for those who aren’t hip to what the kids are listening to these days: Lil Wayne and 50 Cent are rappers and this is a huge indicator of the change in the music industry. The only music that’s selling well is niche music like hip-hop, contemporary country, and the occasional indie rock disk. This explains why the Billboard charts are often littered with the likes of Death Cab for Cutie and Taylor Swift, the teenage contemporary country phenom. That’s not to say that people no longer like more mainstream formats like modern rock or pop, but these artists no longer sell well.

On the other side of the coin, digital purveyors have reported sales that are steadily increasing. CNET reports that Apple’s iTunes service has recently hit the 5 billion sales mark. Ten years ago, music executives were certain that nobody would use a service like iTunes and were adversaries of digital music. These were the same executives that told everyone that nobody would every consider buying digital music. I hope those executives no longer have jobs.

Thing is, the music industry is changing, and often in very bad ways. Niche music is often overrepresented because the assumption is that nobody listens to rock or rock radio anymore. This couldn’t be further from the truth, but unfortunately, rock and pop listeners aren’t buying records. Rock and pop listeners are downloading or burning from others, stacking the industry against them.

Remember the good old days of the mid-nineties, the days of the super-album? Albums like Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, Hootie and the Blowfish’s Cracked Rear View, and Dave Matthews Band’s Crash could sell tens of millions of copies, have five radio singles from a single album, and still retain the interest of fans? Those were the days.

In the meantime, I say the music industry has wrought much of this misery on themselves. First, they fail to quickly act in order to embrace the inevitability of digital music. Even today, there are still record labels and artists who remain off of digital music formats for one reason or another. Radiohead only recently allowed services like iTunes to carry their back catalog. So when the music’s not there and the music appeals to a young, tech-savvy crowd, they steal rather than buy. Plus, young music fans know what the record companies are all about. They continue to sue the pants off of kids in college, and sometimes grandmas and children. According to the RIAA, the threat of a lawsuit makes you more enamored of the industry you devote so much time and energy to.

Perhaps the slow death rattle of the record companies is a good thing. With digital music, anyone can distribute their own tunes and promote themselves without a huge record company budget. Ultimately this may be the best thing that’s ever happened to quality music in this country.