A few words about NBC's giant parabola

After about 1990, game shows seemed to move away from one of the common elements of many of the best ones — a giant, flashy set piece (think Press Your Luck, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune). But NBC's big-money spectacle The Wall, while stealing a simple game concept from another show, gets the set piece right in a big way. Not only is its prop the centerpiece of the game, it impressively serves as a massive TV screen where Rice-A-Roni would probably love to be plugged as a parting gift. The Q&A aspect of the show is certainly nothing special, and it seems a bit absurd to watch someone answer two out of six questions correctly and walk away with more than a million dollars. I could also do without the sappy husband-and-wife contestant stories. But, in the end, everybody loves a little Plinko.

Goldfrapp's new single

I really wanted to love the new Goldfrapp single, "Anymore," because it appears this album will be one of the more uptempo ones, and the last one left me cold (Head First, Supernature and Seventh Tree are my favorites). I gave "Thea" some streams but never even bought Tales of Us. "Anymore," if we compare it to the past material, sounds like it could fit on Black Cherry, which is neither particularly a good or a bad thing, but the melody is lacking for me. Here's hoping the album, Silver Eye, sounds better.