I'm a little late in posting this, but three guys in Romania, Dragos, Andrei and Bogdan, have developed Subjoost – a Joost Widget with subtitles. It’s really good – sign up, log in and give it a try on one of these shows.

I loaded the English subtitles for the Ministry of Sound videos, and they’re right on. For those of you outside of the U.S., check out the Alliance Atlantis and History Channel subtitles.

When you think of Joost, you might not think of radio … but you should.

VH1 has a new show, “Free Radio,” that’s premiering on TV this week. Before it’s on TV, you can watch it on Joost. It’s kind of like “The Office” meets “The Howard Stern Show,” in that it’s about people that work at a radio show. The roles of Howard and Robin are played by a former weather girl and a clueless intern. The boss is slightly more tuned in than Michael Scott, and the office receptionist is a bit more Emo than Pam. And Angela Kinsey from The Office even makes a cameo on this episode.

Catch the sneak peak now on the VH1 channel.

Faithful readers (hello?) of this blog know that I am more than a casual sports fan. Like many of my fellow citizens, professional football is my favorite sport, and like 33 other people in a city of 8 million, I’m a Jaguars fan. But that didn’t keep me from rooting for the Giants on Sunday (Coughlin was at the Jags for years).

Anyway, football is over now (the Pro Bowl doesn’t count), and while there’s still basketball and hockey, and pitchers and catchers report in a manner of days, I thought this could be a good time for me to expand upon my sports fandom.

So today, I present seven new sports I have been watching. I’ve watched enough MMA and boxing lately that I’m not including it in this list, but you know where to find it.

World of Badminton

Possibly the most exciting racquet sport out there. It’s like ping pong, tennis and volleyball all in one, but without any balls. Plus, the women wear skirts. Here they talk about how badminton is a physically and mentally demanding sport. Is there a sport that isn’t?

TV4 Anytime Yoga

Why yes, Kerry, there is. Yoga. Despite the fact that you “practice” it, I don’t think this is a sport – and it’s really not a spectator sport unless you’re, you know, practicing. And by that I mean following along with the video. Disclaimer: this program is in Swedish. It’s especially fun to hear them say “hatha yoga.”

Boats on TV

In stark contrast to yoga, you have Boats on TV – which, I assure you, is much more entertaining than “boats in a glass bottle.” Actually sort of thrilling. And sailing combines two of my favorite things: boat rides, and men with (Australian) accents.

Cycling TV

Bicycles, on the other hand, are not something that I enjoy riding. For two birthdays in the last ten years I have bought myself a bike (the first one got stolen – probably because I left it in one place for a year), and I might have logged 10 miles total. I rode the one I got last year across town to meet my friend, realized the tires were completely busted, walked it home and it’s been collecting dust in my apartment ever since. One might argue that watching me try to ride a bike would be a lot funnier than watching these professionals, but they’re, um ... racing?

World Championship Sports Network

Aha – sports that I actually did, and not just in gym class (although that was the pinnacle of my volleyball career). I officially “retired” from swimming after my sophomore year of college, to great fanfare. Until that point, I spent approximately half my life in or around water. At some point, I dipped my toe in just about every aquatic event: diving, open water swimming, water polo, and yes, water ballet synchronized swimming.

Rugby de Chile

My brother somehow ended up hanging out with the All-Blacks once. About the next day, he started playing rugby. I have to admit this is the first time I’ve actually watched rugby, and it’s actually rather close to (American) football, now that I think of it. The commentating is in Spanish, which almost makes watching the action more fun.

Soccer

I’d be remiss to leave this out. The sport that the rest of the world calls football, and that people in the U.S. over the age of 13 think about once every four years, or when Zidane headbutts someone (still one of my all-time favorite moments in sport). There's lots soccer from around the world on Joost – Guatemala, Italy, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and the U.S. – and clips of great goals and moments in soccer. Perhaps it's time to start warming up my fandom for 2010.

There is a lot of music up on Joost, and it’s great to able to find any number of music videos, live performances and concert footage. However, if you’re looking for more than just a three to four minute burst of entertainment or some ambient background music, then here are a few things worth devoting your time to.

Guitar World isn’t just about rock bands and sexy trade models (although you can find both on this channel). What’s really surprising and impressive are the mini-master classes by some of today’s most well-regarded players. Take for example, Joe Satriani on Modes. I thought music theory was something lost or cast to the wayside by the many who probably found it too mentally cumbersome or abstruse. And who talks about modes anyway, let alone know what they are? The mention of words such as Phrygian, Dorian, Ionian, or Mixolydian would strike most as some bizarre medieval incantation or maybe even a song title vaguely reminiscent of Radiohead (Myxomitosis anyone?) – not as an integral part of a guitarist’s vernacular. This just goes to show, if you wanna play like Joe or anyone of the like, do your homework.

Associated-Rediffusion had a few musical gems as well in the form of documentaries. These are even more esoteric – Artie Shaw, Quest for Perfection, is great kick-back to old school jazz and an instrument that I have a personal bias towards, the clarinet. Follow the journey of Artie Shaw, a player of virtuosic talent who rivaled the chops of Benny Goodman. Who is the greater of the two? You can be the judge.

And if thinking outside the box – or inside it, or beside it, or any other position for that matter – is of any particular interest to you, then check out Here’s a Piano I Prepared Earlier. Delve into the often polemical world of experimental music. This program serves as a great overview of the movement that started to take shape in the ‘60s as well as to highlight some of its pioneers.

Here’s a big wink to the pursuit of musical intellectualism.

My life changed forever on October 4, 1990. Humor me for a moment while I set the stage.

Early in my freshman year of high school I got in trouble when I told my parents my friends and I had gone to see Goodfellas (rated R! the horror!) instead of The Gods Must Be Crazy 17. I got in even more trouble when I succumbed to my guilt and admitted I hadn’t gone to a movie at all, but had been aimlessly wandering the dangerous streets of downtown Westport, Connecticut (home of Martha Stewart , Paul Newman, and yes, at that time, Tom Cruise and Mimi Rogers – remember that marriage?).

Anyway, that Wednesday night, my life changed forever when Beverly Hills 90210 premiered on TV. Their Beverly Hills High lives were so glamorous – if my family had only moved to Beverly Hills, I was convinced I would find myself in a hallway of Dylans, Brendans , Kellys and Donnas. The thought petrified me.

Two years later, Wednesday nights got even better when Melrose Place premiered. Now we could see what our lives would be like if we had grown up in Beverly Hills and gone on to become successful – I don’t know, TV stars? Okay, so the story line did get way convoluted as the years went on – I think that every TV soap star of the ‘80s engaged in at least one tryst on the show – but Wednesday nights remained the cornerstone of my guilty pleasure viewing.

This is to say that I think these were exactly the type of shows my parents (read: mother) didn’t want me to watch, but I found my way to them nonetheless.

In a “my life has come full circle” kind of moment, we now have Melrose Place on Joost. Just listening to the theme song sends me back.

Nostalgia can be a powerful force. I should know. I just hooked my up old, dusty NES over the weekend and played Bubble Bobble with my cousin until we both had neck cramps, watery eyes, and a condition that I believe was aptly dubbed “Nintendo thumb.” This was done in a fit of what can only be described as mild insanity. Only the sight of the sun rising in the distant horizon (and perhaps the fact that our motor skills were quickly deteriorating) was enough to force us to go to bed. Naturally, we picked up where we left off as soon as we woke up and beat the game! It was, sadly, über gratifying. I believe we even high-fived one another ... more than once. Yeah. We were feeling pretty damn good about ourselves.

In light of this, you could imagine my excitement when I came across the following comedy shorts on CHTV: CollegeHumor Original Videos. No, it’s not Bubble Bobble, but jump forward about a decade to heyday of the fighting genre in video games. How many hundreds of quarters did you go through trying to beat Street Fighter II? Will the words “Hadouken” and “Yoga Fire” hold a special place in your heart forever? And did you ever wonder what the next iteration of Street Fighter would look like?

Well now you can. We have Street Fighter: The Later Years – Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3 .

It’s live-action! Or “action” is probably more like it. But don’t worry because it’s nothing like that Jean-Claude Van Damme movie – a sad moment in Street Fighter history. Think of it more as a light-hearted look at the popular franchise á la “Where Are They Now?” meets bad reality TV. Well, except that it’s really neither. Just watch it. If you were ever a fan, you’ll have a good chuckle at the very least.