New Orleans Gets Wired: David Simon Turns His Sights on the Big Easy
On a late spring day in the early 1990s, a Baltimore Sun reporter named David Simon wandered into the now-defunct Funky Butt jazz club on North Rampart Street in New Orleans, where Bo Dollis & the Wild Magnolias were burning through a scorching set of percussive funk. “From the outside, it was like some kind of Tex Avery cartoon,” Simon says, “where the house is dancing and the window shutters are popping out to the beat.”... read more
The Best TV Theme Music
The little ditties that open TV shows keep growing littler and dittier, almost disappearing into Lost’s single sustained chord. The assumption may be that we’re just going to fast-forward through them anyway, but part of the charm of shows like Cheers, M*A*S*H and Sanford and Son was the musical intro. Fortunately, not everyone has given up on the theme song. Here are 10 current shows with tunes that make us put down the remote.... read more
High Definition: After 3 Seasons, Mad Men Is Just Getting Started
I was born a couple years after the 1960s ended, but the decade’s shadow loomed with import over the ones I first encountered. It was the second half of the decade I always heard about, though—Viet Nam, the moon landing, the summer of drugs. So one of my favorite things about AMC’s Mad Men is watching the forgotten beginnings of the ’60s, before John, Paul, George and Ringo touched down in an airport that had recently been named for the just-assassinated president John F. Kennedy.... read more
The Best Albums, Movies, TV & More From the 2000s
When this decade began, Paste’s website was barely a year old, and the magazine was still a twinkle in its daddies’ eyes. So looking back over the first 10 years of the 2000s feels like looking back over our own history. There hasn’t been a new album, film, TV show, video game or book Paste has covered that wasn’t eligible for our “Best of the Decade” consideration. We had dozens of critics vote in each of these five categories, and then we argued some more until we’d focused our spotlight onto the very best pop culture created during the aughts—whether... read more
Where Have All The Weird Girls Gone? Gone to the Big Screen, (Nearly) Every One
Her clothes aren’t right. Her old man doesn’t understand her. And her love life? Nonexistent to abysmal. She’s too cool for the nerds, too square for the cool kids. She’s the alterna-girl, one of television’s most beloved archetypes—and she’s in trouble.... read more
Readers' Picks: Best TV Shows of the Decade
We spent a lot of time brainstorming, voting, arguing and refining our list of The 20 Best TV Shows of the Decade. But, of course, we got it wrong. Here’s what our readers chose as the 10 Best TV Shows of the Decade:... read more
High Definition: Modern Family Finds Its Funny
Despite my high hopes for Joel McHale, John Oliver, Ken Jeong and the rest of the cast of NBC’s hit-and-miss Community, the funniest new comedy this season is Modern Family on ABC. The story of three inter-related families works because its characters seem familiar to life but fresh to the screen.... read more
Reed. Adam Reed: Adult Swim Alum Launches Animated Spy Show
"James Bond was actually a bit of a dick," says the former director/producer of Sealab 2021... read more
Catching Up With... Battlestar Galactica's Edward James Olmos
Admiral Adama talks about directing Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, nuclear annihilation, God and how bloggers influenced the series. read more
High Definition: Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
Today marks the release of Battlestar Galactica: The Plan on DVD and Blu-Ray, and for a couple of hours, the show’s fans can relive the best sci-fi show in TV history from the perspective of the Cylons who almost completely annihilate humanity. Without answering the series’ biggest unresolved questions (like, what exactly was Kara Thrace?), it certainly adds a layer to the show’s first two seasons.... read more
Community's Donald Glover: Class Act
Hometown: Stone Mountain, Ga. Show: Community For Fans Of: 30 Rock, Upright Citizens Brigade, Encyclopedia Brown Donald Glover has never personally experienced the world of junior colleges laid out in NBC’s new sitcom, Community, but the 26-year-old wunderkind—who plays dim-bulb jock Troy—finds the premise familiar. “It’s about forcing people to interact with each other that you normally wouldn’t hang out with,” he says. “That was college for me.”... read more
?uestlove Talks Jimmy Fallon, Declares Love of Yacht Rock
For our Fall Guide to Good TV, we spoke with Roots co-founder and drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson about his group's seemingly unlikely gig as Jimmy Fallon's house band... read more
Lea Michele: No Business Like Show Business
Hometown: Tenafly, N.J. Show: Glee For Fans Of: Wicked, High School Musical, Freaks and Geeks Listening to Lea Michele gush over her new role in Glee—Fox’s much-hyped new series about a high-school musical ensemble—is eerily similar to witnessing the jazz-handed optimism of her character Rachel Berry, a teenaged vocalist with a scorchingly sunny disposition. In fact, Michele openly admits that playing the diva-in-training doesn’t require much acting at all. “I definitely have a lot of Rachel in me—her level of projection is pretty much the same in a small classroom as it would be on a Broadway stage,” she says.... read more
High Definition: Dexter, 24 & The Fallenness of Man
For the longest time, I resisted watching Dexter. I didn’t want to find myself rooting for a serial killer, justifying his murderous appetite with the fact that he only kills bad guys, that he’s really a nice guy who brings doughnuts to the office each morning, that there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing justice served to the most wretched of criminals who had thought they’d beat the system. I’d already got caught up in a season of 24, and it left me feeling a little icky.... read more
Fall Guide to Good TV: The Guild
WatchTheGuild.comIf fans of The Guild’s creator and star Felicia Day can be considered a cult following, that cult is quickly growing into a full-on religion. Her web series has been streamed more than 25 million times, and she’s already eclipsed the million-followers mark on Twitter. Not bad for a show about a group of online gamers that was considered too niche when the Buffy the Vampire Slayer actress originally pitched it to the networks.... read more
Fall Guide to Good TV: Wainy Days
WainyDays.comIf dating in New York seems daunting, David Wain’s absurdist comedy series Wainy Days may terrify. Wain (writer/director of Role Models) plays himself serial dating his way through Manhattan. His suave pickups (“Champagne usually knots up my colon, but let’s throw caution to the wind!”) somehow always work, but rarely last past the first night.... read more
Fall Guide to Good TV: Ctrl
NBC.com/Ctrl Arrested Development’s Tony Hale stars in a new NBC web series about a beaten-down office worker with a very literal keyboard—CTRL Z creates a real-life do-over, CTRL B gives him boldness. But these newfound quickly get out of control.... read more
Fall Guide to Good TV: Alive in Baghdad
AliveInBaghdad.orgIn 2005, Brian Conley launched Alive in Baghdad as a counter-point to the soundbyte-driven news coverage of the American occupation of Iraq. The series features weekly video vignettes about daily life in the country, told from the civilian perspective. As our collective attention has shifted away from the war, funding problems have slowed the series' production to a halt, but the 150+ archived episodes are worth checking out.... read more
Fall Guide to Good TV: The Roots on Jimmy Fallon
Weeknights at 12:35 p.m. on NBCAs the the house band for Jimmy Fallon, the hardest working hip-hop band in the world takes a much deserved break from incessant touring for the comforts of 30 Rockefeller. We talked to the band’s co-founder and drummer Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson on the show’s 100th episode, and here’s what he had to say about his new gig:... read more
Fall Guide to Good TV: Embedded
Check local listings for time and networks, beginning Oct. 14Join Mos Def as he freestyles through the streets of Osaka, Japan; Death Cab For Cutie’s Nick Harmer as he follows his passion for photography; or Amanda Palmer as she goes thrift-store shopping in San Francisco with Lykke Li. This new series aims to peak inside the everyday lives of musicians like Common, Silversun Pickups, Ben Harper, Thievery Corporation, Passion Pit and The Decemberists.... read more
Top 10 Best Debut Novels of the…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
The 50 Best Movies of the Decade…
The 25 Best Movie Performances of the…
Frightened Rabbit - Good Arms Vs. Bad…
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
B.O.B. - Put Me On
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
