Since I missed the first few minutes of the MTV Video Music Awards tonight, I wandered over to trusty ew.com to see if Britney Spears did anything cool or disastrous. I was hoping for disastrous.

I found nothing on their live blog, but I did stumble across this blog about the Gayest, Greatest Albums and I just had to see if any of our local talent had been honored. And sure enough, both R.E.M. and The B-52’s were on the list.

The B-52’s 1979 album “The B-52’s” came in at No. 19 and R.E.M.’s 1992 album ”Automatic for the People” came in at No. 60.

So congrats to both R.E.M. and The B-52’s for making the list.

While scrolling down the entertainment page at cnn.com, I saw a link to this story about the best artists from each state. I was intrigued, so I followed the link. I clicked on each state I have lived in — Georgia, South Carolina and Connecticut — and was surprised by some bands listed and not so surprised by others.

Georgia's band was (obviously) R.E.M. and the solo act was Ray Charles. Not shocking on either account. I don't want to reignite the R.E.M. argument from a while back, but these sort of "best of" lists always seem to piss off someone. I am just the messenger on this one people … yell at the the Boston Phoenix if you think they chose the wrong bands.

Mixed feelings
I keep seeing previews for the Dark Knight and am simultaneously excited and sad about the movie and I am guessing that a lot of other people are feeling the same way. Excited because Batman Begins was great and the previews for the sequel look equally as good. But I wonder how it will feel to watch Heath Ledger's last completed film. When A Knight's Tale was on TV the other day, I'll admit I was a little sad. I'm not sure if it's because Ledger died or because I was remembering that my college newspaper got invited to the press junket when A Knight's Tale came out and I could have met him (and had a free trip to L.A.) if I had only answered the phone that day. So anyway, how is everyone else feeling about Dark Knight coming out? Will you see it? And if you do, do you think you might be a little sad?

R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe is jumping on the Mike Huckabee bandwagon.

The part-time Athenian, known for his liberal politics, said on Jane Pratt’s Sirius satellite radio show that he was shocked when he tuned in to a late-night interview with Huckabee and liked what he heard.

"Because he’s a creationist, he’s a Baptist minister, I can’t think of probably a single issue in which I am even remotely in the same universe as that guy,” Stipe said. “And yet, he was kind of charming and self-deprecating. … He was actually kind of a good sport, and funny, and I don’t know, anyway, I don’t know what that means.”