● Have you read Mike Albo's "The Junket" yet? Why not? It lovingly details Albo's career as a freelance writer, how the New York Times made an example out of him for going on a Thrillist swag trip, and his love/hate/love relationship with commercialism in general. Worth it. [Amazon] ● Jay-Z and Kanye are putting the DIY-ed Maybach from their Spike Jonez*-helmed "Otis" video up for auction to benefit famine victims in the Horn of Africa. We'd also be interested in bidding on Jay-Z's pocket brooch or on one of Ye's two watches. Just saying. [Act MTV] ● iCarly star Miranda Cosgrove broke her ankle in a tour bus accident. Everybody else on the bus was fine, but Cosgrove's injury means she has to postpone the rest of her "Dancing Crazy" tour. Sorry kids. [People]

Ever since culture became commoditized, savvy entrepreneurs have taken successful foreign trends (Kombucha!), put a slight spin on them, and managed a tidy profit off domestic audiences -- without so much as a hat-tip to the original. But something about days which force even Wall Streeters to become new-age storagistas make the latest uptick in this trend seem especially dire. Even the early 1990s' ill-conceived stab at a mildly sensuous filmic adaptation of Super Mario Bros. didn't reek of such desperation. It's not that people didn't rip off ideas during sunnier times (American Idol! The Office! Mariah Carey!), but those rip-offs were at least a little palatable. There's something patently heartbreaking about trying to watch Molly Shannon and Selma Blair forcefully banter their way through the paper bag that is the Americanized Kath & Kim. And if that particular rehash was a sign of things to come, I regret not purchasing a timeshare on a Gawker-less vacuum in the middle of nowhere (Idaho!) when I had my chance. But in case you need a little goading, consider these spectacularly frightening carbon copies of once-lovable pop songs and TV shows that influential types will be trying to jam through your frontal lobes in the months to come.