The jokes pretty much write themselves with this one. You can almost envision chapters like “How I Made My First Million Selling Grilled Cheese Sandwiches in Dirty Parking Lots”. But once you get past the jokes about endless jams and white-bearded, tie-dyed hippies, you soon realize that the author is much more than a Grateful Dead obsessed fan and that the band knew how to make money – lots of…
Michael Winterbottom’s latest film The Trip contains quite possibly the funniest three-minutes of any movie released this year. Witnessing two comedians (played by Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon) trying to one up each other with Michael Caine impressions elicits a laugh-until-it hurts response. Not sure the same can be said about any scene from The Hangover II. The independent comedy follows Coogan (24 Hour Party People, Tropic Thunder), playing himself,…
On the surface, In Treatment shouldn’t work. Aside from Gabriel Byrne who plays therapist Dr. Paul Weston, there are few reoccurring characters to attach to; just about every scene takes place in either Weston’s office or the office of his own therapist; and there is very little action, putting all of the pressure on the dialogue. But somehow – and almost exclusively thanks to the brilliant Byrne, as well as…
From the sounds of their self-titled debut in 1995, it was clear Ben Folds Five was going to more than a flash in the pan alt rock band. At the time a guitar-less trio with singer Ben Folds more than making up for the void with his piano, the group sounded both comfortably familiar (everything from Elton John to The Beatles) and shockingly original over the span of just a…
Wylie Overstreet’s The History of the World According to Facebook is likely not the only book to satirize the wildly popular social networking site and it certainly won’t be the last but, at least for now, it may be the wittiest. The germ for the book originated with an August 2010 online article by Overstreet (“If Historical Events Had Facebook Statuses”) and has evolved into a quick read paperback that…
The second season of HBO’s most underrated comedy is brought to you be the New Yorker and pot. I can’t prove it, but based on the number of mentions of the magazines and number of times someone flames up a joint, spread out over the eight episodes, there has to be some kind of product placement deal that was made. Regardless, the season is still extremely entertaining. The show follows…
In 1956, a 21-year-old Elvis Aaron Presley was on the verge of becoming a phenomenally influential music icon. Recently signed to RCA, 1956 was the year his debut came out and more importantly the year his (big gasp) lewd hip movements on The Ed Sullivan Show created massive amounts of controversy and cemented his legacy as the first real badass of rock and roll, a legacy that even bloating and…
Let’s get Holly’s World out of the way first. With plenty of plastic surgery and a grating voice she heads off to Mecca for those who like to disrobe for strangers: Vegas! The show follows Madison and her dim assistant (even for realty show sidekick standards, she is jaw-droppingly ditzy) in their new city, where Madison has taken up residency at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino where she headlines…
Listening to Pink Floyd’s three decade spanning, 14 song catalog, two things are clear; One: they were more than a tad bit pretentious at the beginning. With droning organ solos and album titles like A Saucerful of Secrets and The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, you can almost imagine that scene from Spinal Tap with the little people dancing around the replica of Stonehenge actually came from the acid-soaked…
It’s been said before, but needs to be said again: Tom Perrotta knows suburbia. In his previous works (Election, The Abstinence Teacher and Little Children), Perrotta used his unique perspective to tackle the everyday challenges and worries – both real and ridiculous – of his characters that populate the suburbs of America. And nowhere is that done to better effect than his latest novel The Leftovers. Absolutely absorbing from the…
