...For The Ride Home: Bill Simmons is starting a blog, Carey Mulligan is still an absolute doll and is the end of mixtapes here?

If you happen to wander over to a particular pop culture Web site (that may or may not rhyme with Schmop Smatters), you will find a review for this man's latest record, Foundling. That review may or may not have been written by myself recently. Because I couldn't find much from that particular album online, I offer to you, the fabulous reader, a video for the lead single from the man's album-before-the-most-recent, "Fugitive." Love how he shakes his head when he sings. Also love hearing from a publicist that the piece was "nicely written." Hate it when the review is played four reviews down, though. Makes me feel as though my work simply wasn't good enough. Frustrating day, this has been. I'll tell you what. In any case, welcome to Wednesday. It's the middle day of the week. Did you happen to check out our recap of this year's Video Music Awards? You ought to, you know. We've already started some great conversation, and I know you want to join in. Come on, now. You know you do. Before you add your two cents, we suggest clicking on a link or two below. Why? Because we would never steer you, the fantastically beautiful reader, wrong. Until tomorrow friends, be nice when other people aren't around. That's what honest nice people do. And we all want to be an honest nice person, right?

So…Bill Simmons is starting a blog? Under ESPN’s dime? (The Big Lead)

Jack’s Mannequin and Something Corporate will play the same show. My head is spinning just writing that. (Alternative Press)

A vote for “Nightline” to go back to the way it was. As opposed to where it is today. (Chicago Tribune)

Oh, wow. Apple wants to dabble into subscriptions for newspapers. And basically steal all the money made. (San Jose Mercury News)

Three of the Interweb’s most awkward phrases. (CNN)

Edwin Newman, newsman, dies. He was 91. (New York Times)

The end of the mixtape era. Very interesting. (All Hip-Hop)

When Carey Mulligan speaks, we must listen. Love, love the blonde hair. She’s a doll. Absolute doll. (Wall Street Journal)

...For The Ride Home: A new candidate for Michael Scott, Jay-Z & Eminem kick off their stint tonight and hello, college football. How are you?

A montage of "Saved By The Bell" photos. For no reason. I'm just tired. Really tired, actually. I can't understand why. Something about today that feels lackadaisical. It's hot. Really hot. In fact, it hasn't really been this hot since June, which, on some level is good because that means I didn't have to suffer through the hotness all summer. But it's bad right now, because, well, it's that hot. That said, I can't complain too much about the hotness. Much prefer hot over cold. And as we all know, cold is on its way. Anyways, hello, hello. Welcome to Thursday, the second-to-last day of the week, a week I have simply been begging to be finished with. One more day and then we sing, dance, take our clothes off, drink, eat, smile, laugh, and enjoy the other fabulous things life can offer from time to time. Until we get there, though, we must offer a few links for you lovely readers to ponder. From the bottom of our bottom-est hearts, we here at The Unusual Suspects headquarters hope that you have a wonderful evening and that you have sured up some Labor Day weekend plans, in spite of a possible hurricane that may just ruin lives. Be well, friends.

The college football season officially begins tonight. Here’s a look at USC before they travel to face Hawaii this evening. Man, the Trojans had an awful off-season. (SB Nation)

The other big thing going on tonight? Jay-Z and Eminem kick off their very limited string of dates in Detroit. Here they are, by the numbers. (MTV)

Interesting find: Paywall subscribers are worth a quarter of print readers. (Paid Content)

New York Times executive editor slams the Wall Street Journal. Love media fights. (Vanity Fair)

Late on this, but it’s a big deal: Paste calls it quits. (Journal-Constitution)

T.I. got arrested on drug charges. My goodness. After this guy tries so hard to recuperate his imagine with that idiotic MTV show, this happens. Joke city. (Billboard)

Ahhh, yes. Today is 90210 day. (Time)

Harvey Keitel throws his name in the hat to replace Michael Scott on “The Office.” (Entertainment Weekly)

Back To The Future

Early this week I did something I’ve never done before: I bought a laptop. And while this may seem like no big deal to most of you, I’ve always taken a bit of a hard-line stance against these machines – mainly because the cost to benefit ratio seemed positively ridiculous to me. But in the wake of stories like these, paired with the fact that my wonderful wife wanted one for some classes she’s taking, I figured now was as good a time as any to take the proverbial leap into 2005.

And of course, I bought the laptop right before I read the aforementioned article.

Such is my life.

But all in all, I’d say I’m happy with the purchase so far. We ended up going with a Toshiba Satellite something or other that was a steal according to the online reviews I looked up prior to (insert link to consumer reports post from a few weeks ago). The laptop was only $299! And in a rare stroke of good fortune, I checked a few days after I bought it and the same model went up to $369. Nice.

After looking at a couple different places, I bought the laptop at Best Buy. I would say my experience was good overall. I knew what I wanted before getting there, told the kid in the laptop section what I wanted and that I was in a hurry, he tried to sell me an extended warranty and the services of Geek Squad (two minutes tops), I declined, paid and was on my way.

The only hiccup was that I was paying in cash, which is apparently a new concept there. The kid ringing me out had to have a manager confirm that he counted my $316 correctly – and of course it took five minutes or so for a manager to make her way over to us. Really? You’ll let this kid sell high-tech equipment, talk about warranties and finance options but he can’t count less than $500? Lame.

And another question – I looked online for awhile the other day and I just can’t figure it out: When you buy a new computer from Best Buy, what EXACTLY does Geek Squad do? Last night I spent an hour or two setting our preferences, uninstalling the useless pre-set programs and favorites (who chooses that stuff anyways?), installing the anti-virus and networking the laptop to my wireless connection. Is that really worth $129 or whatever it costs? The only thing I haven’t done yet is create a Recover disk, and I’m sure Windows 7 will walk me through it pretty simply.

But I digress. There are obviously millions of people who would rather not spend the two hours setting it up, so Geek Squad, I suppose you win. Although I’m actually considering buying stock in the company just so I can get a peek at what they actually do. I picture this back room full of nerds playing cards and looking at Playboys from the mid 90’s, laughing at all the people who pay to give them their computers to work on for 15 minutes then sit on a shelf for a day and half.

Final question: Anyone know where I can get a cheap copy of Microsoft Office? Just kidding! I really don’t need Bill Gates’ legal team tracking me down.

See you at 4 p.m.., friends. Ride Ride Ride.