It’s a miracle that Ozzy Osbourne is still alive. And yes, I realize exactly how much of a cliché that statement is, but it deserves to be repeated. And often. This guy did cereal bowls of cocaine for decades; was so blotto that he bit the head of a live dove (and bat) and was not aware of what he was doing; heard voices telling him to strangle his wife;…
By some fluke, Neil Diamond – the once cheese-tatstic singer that pretty much defined the 70’s, sequenced shirt and all – has managed to not only remain relevant more than four decades after his first record, but has gotten everyone from housewives to hipsters to look beyond the sideburns and Vegas-ready stage show and see him for what he really is: a damn great songwriter. As The Very Best of…
If you’ve been following the HBO series Big Love up to this point, you can’t help but blame most of the problems the polygamist Henrickson’s family is facing in the final season on anyone but the clan’s patriarch Bill (Bill Pullman). That doesn’t make the scenarios any less entertaining, just hair-tuggingly frustrating when he questions why God is testing them. Job was tested – Bill Henrickson was just idiotic in…
In perhaps the best casting in an indie film since Pulp Fiction, Hamish Linklater (as Jason) and Miranda July (as Sophie) are absolutely perfect as the quirky LA couple in The Future. The movie, also directed by July, follows a couple who pledge to quit their menial jobs and do whatever they’ve wanted to do for one month, while they wait for the convalescing injured cat they have rescued to…
Don’t feel too bad if you’ve never heard of Butch Walker. The musician/songwriter/producer and now author even admits himself that he will always be a mid-level entertainer, someone big enough to sell out clubs, but not a well known enough draw to pack stadiums. You have, whether you realize it or not likely heard his songs on the radio. If not his one alt rock hit with his former band…
Film maker Errol Morris (Fog of War, Thin Blue Line, etc.) has a knack for making documentaries that feel more like Hollywood dramas (that’s a compliment, by the way). His latest movie Tabloid is no exception. The documentary centers around an incident in the mid 70’s where a former beauty queen falls in love with a Mormon missionary and, depending on who’s telling the story, either kidnapped him for a…
The writers for The Simpsons clearly gave up any sense of relevancy years ago; Family Guy is essentially the same laugh-free joke week after week; and Fox’s new Jonah Hill-voiced series (which is so dull I can’t even be bothered to remember the name) is dead on arrival, leaving South Park as one of a few adult cartoons that still elicits a chuckle every now and then. But HBO’s brilliant…
Five seasons into it, if you’re not watching Robot Chicken by now, you probably never will. But for those who are fans, Season Five is a good reason why. The pop culture obsessed stop motion skit show done with old action figures manages to spoof some their old reliable targets like He-Man and the rest of the Masters of the Universe crew and Batman. There is also a particularly filthy…
There are bookshelves crammed with tomes about the origins of punk rock and just as many, if not more, about how hip-hop first began. It’s refreshing then that Will Hermes, a long time music critic, manages to cover both genres as well as disco, salsa, jazz and other aspects of the music world from his unique perspective growing up in New York in the mid 70’s. Love Goes to Buildings…
For decades, the follow up to The Beach Boys brilliant Pet Sounds was one of rock and roll’s best urban legends. Sure they eventually threw up their hands and released the so-so album Smiley Smile in 1967, but there was always talk of what was almost released. A sonically-layered masterpiece, bootlegs dripped out in the years that followed and in 1993, Brian Wilson finally released, a newly recorded version of…
