Last night's episode of The Colbert Report, the heavily promoted "shred-off" between Stephen Colbert and The Decemberists' guitarist Chris Funk, was an amazing way to wrap up the show's 2006 run. It was a star-studded affair and, although I was a little disappointed in Colbert (read on and you'll see why), I quite enjoyed it. By the way, did anyone else expect the actual "shred-off" to be a few rounds of Guitar Hero?

Remember the days when alternative music and indie movies were actually alternative and independent? When I was in high school in the late 80s and early 90s, you got beat up for liking Hal Hartley movies, listening to bands from Athens and thinking Crispin Glover was the best part of Back to the Future. Members of Generation X that had taken a liking to punk rock or arty movies had to wait until college to find like-minded folks. This may, of course, be my romanticizing memory at work, but if your glory days were anything like mine, than The Adventures of Pete & Pete was your show.

The Nickelodeon show started out as a series of shorts and developed into a show which ran for three seasons between 1993 and 1996. The show's eccentric cast of characters included two brothers named Pete, their mom, the metal plate inside mom's head, dad, the eldest Pete's best friend Ellen, Artie the strongest man in the world and little Pete's tattoo Petunia. The show followed the kids' adventures in the suburban town of Wellsville.