We'll be honest, here; after last week's episode of Buffy (which was the emotional equivalent of a crowbar to the cranium), we were actually looking forward to a rerun. So we tuned in as usual, taking refuge in the comfy familiarity of events we'd seen before-- and while the exploits of the Buffster and her buds yielded no surprises, we wound up getting smacked upside the head by a new Apple commercial, instead. Go figure.

And when we say "new Apple commercial," we're not talking about those five new ads featuring the hippy-trippy swirling visuals of iTunes, either-- which, we might add, we haven't seen anywhere outside of Apple's web site to date. Nope, the shiny new commercial of which we speak was a sneak attack, plain and simple; here we've been keeping our eyes and ears open for the ad series introduced in Steve's last keynote, and instead we get walloped by something completely different. It's a full minute long, it highlights the Mac's newfound out-of-the-box ability to burn custom audio CDs, and it features an assemblage of musicians larger and more varied than anyone's seen since "We Are The World" first assaulted our sensibilities. (Nothing against the cause it helped, of course, but man that song was annoying.)

Indeed, the mix of talent showcased in Apple's new "Rip. Mix. Burn." commercial looks like "U.S.A. For Africa"'s cooler, hipper roommate. According to Apple's press release about the ad, the featured performers include "Barry White, George Clinton, Liz Phair, Steve Harwell of Smashmouth, De La Soul, Lil' Kim, Ziggy Marley, Chuck Berry, Dwight Yoakam, Exene Cervenka and Deep Dish." Exene Cervenka? Holy yikes, instead of triggering our gag reflex by signing the latest comer in the Backstreet-98-Syncs boy band legacy and whoever's trying to out-Britney Britney Spears this week, Apple threw a member of the legendary X in there. Somebody get us a paper bag, 'cause we're hyperventilating over here.

We hadn't seen Apple's press release before settling in to watch TV for the evening, but we caught two of the commercial's three airings anyway by virtue of our Tuesday night vampire jones; it aired once during Buffy and again during Angel. We missed the third showing, of course, since Frasier runs opposite Angel, but we do have it on tape-- still further evidence that Apple has given up on the mass market at large and is now marketing its wares directly to the AtAT staff. We're not entirely sure how wise a business decision that is, but heck, we'll take whatever extra Mac exposure in our regular viewing schedule that Apple wants to throw at us.