Just a few interesting facts in the world that we may not have foreseen a year ago: A 16-year-old boy named Justin Bieber is the most popular human being on earth; Conan O’Brien has a show on TBS; Jimmer Fredette and the BYU men’s basketball team are ranked No. 3 in the nation (for now); Charlie Sheen is a crack addict (Okay, you saw that one coming — Two and a Half Men is awful, by the way); and finally, the Provo culinary scene is booming with new, delicious restaurants that are worth trying.

There seems to be a throng of fresh, creative restaurants springing up all over Utah County — places like Communal, Pizzeria 712, Station 22 and Rooster, just to name a few. I recently discovered a new restaurant that made me even more proud to be a Provo-ite: La Jolla Groves. Tucked in the newly enhanced and bustling Shops at Riverwoods, La Jolla Groves is using fresh, locally-grown ingredients to prepare their insanely delicious dishes. In fact, the restaurant’s slogan is “Insanely good food, healthier ingredients” — very appropriate, if you ask me.

Despite my personal disdain for BYU’s Honor Code, I still understand — and, in fact, appreciate — what happened to leading rebounder and part-of-the-reason-why-BYU-lost-to-New-Mexico-at-home, Brandon Davies.

Charles Dickens once wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” — and for the BYU men’s basketball team, the last 24 hours have certainly been the latter. Starting center Brandon Davies was dismissed from the team Tuesday after he violated the school’s Honor Code. What happened? What does this say about BYU and its fairly stringent standards? And what does this mean for the Cougars’ chances as they head into the NCAA tournament later this month? All great questions. Thankfully, the boys from The PB&J Report are here with a new podcast, ready to analyze yesterday’s events and provide some perspective on what this means for the near future of BYU basketball.

Suspended BYU basketball player Brandon Davies obviously let down his team and community, but an equal share of culpability should go to the university for its opaque enforcement of a bizarre and arcane set of rules. In other words, Davies screwed up because he broke the rules, but BYU did the same when — by implementing and enforcing those rules — it set the stage for Davies’ failure.

The 2011 Grammy awards drew more than 26 million viewers, its biggest audience in over a decade, and it shows on this week’s Hot 100. The entire top five is comprised of songs performed during the show, led by Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.” The fact that “Born This Way” is No. 1 for a second week is significant, and we’ll get to that in a second.

In the two spot is Cee Lo Green’s “F**k You,” a song that won’t die. The track was released last summer and it slowly but surely began climbing the chart, reaching the top 40 in September. The next month, the track was censored and performed on Glee by Gwyneth Paltrow, sending Green’s version to a new peak of No. 9. “F**k You” has yo-yoed up and down the chart, but Green’s Grammy performance with Paltrow was the rocket fuel that has sent the song to new heights. It went 16-7 last week and then reached its new peak of No. 2 this week. The track registered a 178 percent sales increase and added enough radio spins to be the week’s airplay gainer.

Its new high of No. 2 makes it the highest charting explicitly titled song since … oh yeah, Pink’s “F**kin’ Perfect,” which was No. 2 only a few short weeks ago. Pink’s song is No. 6 this week and add that to Enrique Iglesias’ “Tonight (I’m Lovin’ You)” (which is the clean version of “Tonight (I’m F**kin’ You)”), and the past few weeks might be the only time in chart history that three songs with the f-bomb in their uncensored titles have been in the top 10.

Because sometimes Oscar is just mean. And so if the world were a fair place, and if I were in charge, the following films would win at Sunday night’s Academy Awards show (as compared to those that will).

The PB&J Report guys recorded an emergency podcast on Wednesday to hash out their thoughts on some of the biggest NBA trades right before the league’s deadline. The big ones are all here, including Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks and Deron Williams to the Nets. Are the Jazz smart or stupid for shipping D-Will out early? Did the Knicks overpay for an underperforming Carmelo? Click on the link below to get the PB&J take. Enjoy!

If it hadn’t been for the two weeks worth of teaser clips released on Britney Spears’ Twitter account, the Jonas Akerlund-directed music video for “Hold It Against Me” would have been a complete shock when it was released. Rather than portray the song literally by setting it in a club or having Spears chase a love interest, Akerlund took the video in a different direction and created something unlike any else in Britney’s catalog of videos.

The video is dark, deep, and can be interpreted many ways, as her manager Larry Rudolph pointed out in an MTV broadcast after the video premiered. Regardless, the overriding theme of the piece is the trials and trappings of celebrity.

This is posting a little late — this podcast was recorded on Friday — but it’s all good. The PB&J Report guys rap about BYU basketball and The Jimmer (of course), as well as the weekend’s (at that point) upcoming NBA All-Star festivities. Sure, most of these things might have changed since Friday — but [...]

On Friday afternoon, I was shocked to see online buzz among the Provo music community over an article published in The Daily Universe about the “exclusiveness” of the Provo scene. At this point, I hadn’t even read the article — I was simply shocked over the fact that The Daily Universe, known for its sparse (if not bland) coverage of Provo music, had anyone talking at all.