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(04/27/09 4:00am)
Last weekend, I had the epiphany that there is hardly a more pleasurable way to pass two hours waiting in line than by debating the ethics of stage diving. As I waited in line to enter Lily Allen's concert at the 9:30 club, I realized I had drastically overestimated my ability to occupy myself for such a large expanse of time with only a copy of the New Yorker. After emerging from the comic captions of the week, I looked around and realized the 30-something woman in front of me was likewise alone. She appeared to be passing the minutes watching the 12-year-old preceding her in line play Nintendogs on her DS while arguing with her mother over what seemed to be her mother's suggestion that she wear a dress, while the rest of the girls in line were clearly in skirts.
(04/23/09 4:00am)
The Soloist: C-
(04/20/09 4:00am)
A sold-out crowd seized the 9:30 club Friday night, dancing for the right to acceptance and the power to party on its own terms. British songstress Lily Allen and Seattle-based indie pop/techno band Natalie Portman's Shaved Head (NPSH) played to a crowd that collectively raised its middle fingers in the air in rejection of small-mindedness and sexual frustration.
(04/20/09 4:00am)
There's no more assured way to make yourself miserable than by playing The Beach Boys in the wintertime. There are certain songs, movies and even books that should be banished from your shelves or iPods during the snowy months of the year. Playing the classic strums and "oo-ee-oos" of "Good Vibrations" with anything more than shorts and a T-shirt on is the musical equivalent to the electric chair. But now that the mercury is beginning to hit the upper '60s and '70s and tank tops are replacing sweaters and scarves, it's an appropriate time to pull some trademark warm weather indulgences from the attic and remember why you fell in love with those summer nights all over again.
(04/06/09 4:00am)
Elizabeth Bennet has never been so appealing as when she is bashing out the brains of Satan's zombie army. Seth Grahame-Smith's novel, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," out April 8, is nearly 85 percent of Jane Austen's original romantic comedy but with the added infusion of viciously graphic battles with the walking dead on every page.
(03/30/09 4:00am)
Stingy corporate suits in skyscraper cubicles might control the content of mainstream television, but in cyberspace, it's the geeks who run the agenda. This weekend, their queen was officially crowned. Saturday marked the first celebration of The Streamy Awards, a ceremony honoring online video series of three episodes or more. While the online broadcast of the show started nearly two hours later than originally advertised, once the party got underway, it was a parade of subculture and the Web celebrities who Felicia Day, the most winning player of the night, categorized as formerly square pegs "trying to fit into the round hole of Hollywood."
(03/23/09 4:00am)
"Monsters vs. Aliens" is a relentlessly entertaining, 98-minute thrill ride; pure fluff without any of those pesky life lessons that typically accompany movies aimed at the pre-teen set. Sure, there might have been a few mentions of self-confidence and it's what's inside that counts, but if there's any significant point to be made in the movie, it's that 3-D animation has now reached the capacity to be absolutely mind-blowing.
(03/23/09 4:00am)
It was the late witching hour of a rainy and moonless night last December. The streets were deserted but for the idle couple staggering home from a night at the bars. My hands were starting to freeze inside my gloves and I was 20 minutes from the nearest Metro station, but none of that mattered. My pilgrimage was complete. I was staring up at the immensity of a place I had merely dreamed of actually seeing since my youngest days. It was my birthright. My destiny. My fate to be here. The "Exorcist" steps.
(03/02/09 5:00am)
In 1978, Christopher Reeve made us believe a man could fly, but nowadays, you'll be hard-pressed to find a self-respecting adult who will admit they weren't always looking for the wires. Comic books and superheroes have nearly always been classified as the property of adolescent folly. So as theaters prepare for the Friday release of "Watchmen," an R-rated political and social commentary set against a backdrop of Cold War tension, which - oh yes - also happens to be about superheroes, studios are preparing to see whether or not "grown-ups" are finally ready to accept costumed do-gooders.
(02/23/09 5:00am)
If you've ever wondered what Rainn Wilson occupies himself with when he's not beet farming as his persona of Dwight on "The Office" or how Tina Fey spends her time between takes as "Girlie Show" producer Liz Lemon on "30 Rock," you need to seriously update your Tweeple.
(02/16/09 5:00am)
Hell hath no fury like a woman in skintight leather. Or at least that's what Hollywood seems to make of the classic William Congreve quotation. With the remake of "Friday the 13th" coming into theatres this week, it's as fine a time as any to look back and remember some of the more striking villainesses in movie history. Much like vengeful über-mommy Mrs. Voorhees, female baddies often get swept under the film sprockets in favor of their more iconic male counterparts. But while the boys certainly have the upper hand in quantity, the girls make up for it by having played a hand in some of the monumental - and sinfully pleasurable - motion pictures in history. Here are the four ladies who I feel have taken up arms and left the most indelible impressions in the history of fictional mischief-makers.
(02/09/09 5:00am)
Another day, another battle against the Big Bad. Joss Whedon's trademark seasonal villain was first widely used throughout "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as a method to ensure a note of finality and fulfillment at the conclusion of each chapter of the show, due to the unceasing threat of cancellation that hung over the production. While these villains ranged from a vengeful goddess to the first conception of evil itself, the one demon that the multi-talented producer, director and sometimes composer Whedon has never quite been able to conquer is the television network.
(02/02/09 5:00am)
Sitting in the darkness and munching on popcorn as you stare up at the screen with the greedy desire that you will be moved by the images that will soon appear before you, the thoughts occupying your mind typically aren't the physical people or location that currently surround you. Still, oftentimes the occurrences directly nearby implore more scrutiny than even the most ridiculous fictionalizations in celluloid. You see, much like the various films that pass through their rattling projectors, not all movie theaters are created equal.
(01/26/09 5:00am)
Following the boozy lounge show of the Golden Globes, the upcoming Academy Awards are the pinnacle of movie award season, rewarding the best films of the year in a celebration worth watching as much for its frequently cringe worthy awkwardness as for its glitz and glamour. While the obvious winners may appear to be those who go home with statue in hand, the real champions are those who manage to depart with their dignity still intact.
(11/24/08 5:00am)
In the eyes of today's politically and socially divided youth, the '60s and '70s were a period of idealistic activism on the part of both the celebrated musical artists and those still struggling in the streets for their craft. People revered composers and performers not only for their talent but also for their ability to make an impact upon the greater society.
(11/17/08 5:00am)
Much like the scrawny, bespectacled nerd that you and your punk buddies perpetually used as a lunch money-ATM throughout elementary school, movies have a way of eventually coming back to haunt you. The monotonous biopic you couldn't take seriously after watching "Walk Hard" ends up sweeping the Oscars and becoming the film of the year. The overblown action flick you watched while in a popcorn-and-candy induced stupor breaks all box office records.
(11/10/08 5:00am)
"Thanks Dad, a new Nissan Rogue!" The line from the television show "Heroes'" shark-jumping second season, which spawned a million facepalms from entertainment bloggers across the world, is one of the more groan-inducing pieces of evidence that Hollywood is growing visibly desperate to reach consumers bloated on over-exposure to conventional advertising and with a quick thumb on the remote.
(11/03/08 5:00am)
The concrete outside of the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles is dry and cracked, and the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame are now no more than a place for streetwalkers to spit their gum and stomp their cigarettes. Both are obsolete monuments to the long-faded glory of the "Golden Days" of entertainment. The real mark of fame for the brightest and most noteworthy American actors today isn't a handprint or plaque but rather being at the head of a political or social movement.
(10/27/08 4:00am)
Everyone has a ghost story to tell. In the dim light of the campfire, neither a spook nor a phantasm can arise that is too ridiculous to stir the senses of wonderment and doubt that are so easily aroused when the afterlife is brought up. While to the casual follower spirits may seem merely a cheap way for a jump in the latest psychological thriller, those more passionate on the subject can be drawn to any material relating to their paranormal fixation.
(10/13/08 4:00am)
Beginning in the late 1970s, doing the Time Warp and throwing objects that ranged from toast to toilet paper became a notoriously scandalous right of passage into the unascertained realms of sexual exploration - all because of the classic cult flick "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." While the quirky audience "call backs" and bizarre rituals of "Rocky Horror" are now almost eerily familiar to generations of ex-"virgins," the precise reasons behind this as of yet unequaled phenomenon in movie-going are more difficult, if not impossible, to pin down.