hoboken

Kenley Bradstreet joins the show to fill in Justin's shoes, after he has an unfortunate accident with a missing bike seat. On today's show, Jeff rants about Digg's new ads while he gets new Hoboken Twitter followers. Wilson doesn't feel too hot about James Cameron's new movie "Avatar." Violet Blue starts her own URL shortner. And Kenley brings us a story about a murderous Brazilian talk show host. Yes, it is yet another episode of The 404.

Before we get too ahead of ourselves, let's explain today's show title. Apparently, there is a blog called "Skanks in NYC," and someone called a Vogue cover model, Liskula Cohen, a skank. Using words like "psychotic," "lying" and "whoring" to describe Ms. Cohen, a judge ruled that the model has a right to know who was defaming her. Beyond the First Amendment questions that this ruling raises, Kenley wonders if this undermines the whole point of the Internet?

James Cameron has been on hiatus for the last couple of years after his massive success with "Titanic." Turns out, he's been working on "Avatar" for the last 10 years, inventing all sorts of new technology to bring his vision to the big screen. While the project has been hyped in Hollywood, The 404 gang remains unimpressed with the blue people with tails. Kind of looks like a cross between a PS3 game and Halo, doesn't it?

Before we leave, we mention the new URL shortening service from Violet Blue, sex educator and columnist. At first, we were a bit confused as to why one would need another URL shortening service, but after a few hints from the chat room, we figured out that it's a warning that the link you're about to click on might be a bit NSFW. Bravo! Finally, Kenley alerts us to Wallace Souza, a Brazilian television host. On his top rated show, he features crime busts. Turns out, he was calling hits on people to get the ratings in the first place. We think the police were tipped off when a Steadicam operator, crane and lapel mic were found on scene.

Everyone have a great weekend! Wilson will be out for most of the week next week, so expect more awesome guests to keep his seat warm. In the mean time, please, please, please call in and leave a message at 1-866-404-CNET (2638) or write to us at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com.

Today's show welcomes Eric Franklin, host of the Inside CNET Labs Podcast, who comes on to talk about the new Watchmen Blu-ray/DVD. We also talk about Xbox Portable, Hoboken's newest mayor, Comic-Con, and, of course, Beck's Beer/Last.FM Audio Draft!

The first half of today's show features Eric Franklin, the better half of the Inside CNET Labs Podcast, AKA The 404 West Coast Continent. Like me, Eric is a huge "Watchmen" fanboy, so he joins us to talk about the 3-hour long "Watchmen Director's Cut" Blu-Ray and DVD, which features deleted scenes from the original theatrical release. If you're obsessed with the graphic novel, we recommend waiting for the "Ultimate Cut" edition to be released this holiday season; that one is 3 hours and 25 minutes and intercuts back and forth between the movie and the comic within the graphic novel, "Tales of the Black Freighter." We also talk about the movie's reception, critical acclaim, and what you should know before checking it out. Read Eric's fanboy review on Crave.

We also talk with Eric about the "Alice in Wonderland" trailer that debuted at Comic-Con this year, along with a few more disappointing sequels that prove the well of original stories is long dry.

Today is Friday, which means it's time for yet another 404 semiweekly audio draft sponsored by Beck's Beer in conjunction with Last.FM, a subsidiary of CBS Interactive and CNET News and Reviews 5000! My pick for today is Why?, an established group on SF's own avant label Anticon Records. The group dug its roots in what some people call "post hip-hop," but its first album "Oaklandazulasylum," can be more accurately described as spoken-word-style poetry with more poignant lyrics and instrumentation. Out of the three full-lengths released to date, today's highlight "Alopecia" stands proudly as Yoni Wolf, Josiah Wolf, and Doug McDiarmid's most harmonically "indie rock" record, but in my opinion, Why's best trait is the relationship between the three essential instruments: vocals, melody, and percussion. Yoni's vocals and lyrics explores rhythms with diction and imagery that might sound delineated, but, in fact, it layers seamlessly with the music behind it. "Fatalist Palmistry" is today's draft pick, so give it a listen and let us know what you think!