The 11 Best Villainous Species in all of Science Fiction
Whereas your typical Bond villain only wants to take over the earth, most of the dreamed-up civilizations below eat planets like earth for lunch—though our homeworld itself usually lies just beyond their grasp, thanks to often unappreciated heroic maneuvers of the good guys. When we imagine the great beyond, it's not the benign creatures out there that get the blood flowing, but the monstrous, treacherous aliens that would enslave or destroy the galaxy. Science fiction allows us to take up the banner of Us Against Them, where we are free to see Them without humanity, pity or compassion. We long... read more
Extra Innings: 10 Films Proving Baseball is, in Fact, Life
Although consistently warm weather doesn’t hit Cleveland until about mid-June, Indians Summer began for me last Monday when the Rangers put a hit (OK, a lot of hits) on my team in a 9-1 blowout. Ouch. But even though they lost the next four games, I have to keep telling myself it’s a long season, comprised of 162 games averaging nearly three hours a pop taking place in the months where everyone is out doing something—enjoying life to the fullest. Yes, baseball is more than just another sport. It’s memories, nostalgia, friends, family, innocence, romance, scorching summer days, hometown pride,... read more
Celebrating Songkran in Chiang Mai, Thailand
While the Red-Shirts are out on the streets of Bangkok, clashing with riot police and clammering for elections, the people of Chiang Mai are storming the streets armed with water pistols, buckets and trashcans filled with ice water. It's Songkran, the Thai New Year, and along every road, Thai children and adults are hoping to share their blessing with a hose or water cannon. But the real action is in the northern city of Chiang Mai, specifically down at the ancient moat that used help protect residents from raiding Burmese. That's where we headed.... read more
Seven Questions About Parks and Recreation's Series Premiere
Thursday saw the debut of NBC's new comedy Parks and Recreation, starring Amy Poelher and Aziz Ansari as as a local government administrators every bit as ambitious and incompetent as one might expect from the likes of series creators Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, who adapted The Office for American audiences. Parks employs a similar mockumentary style, playing up humdrum moments and workaday minutia with expository interviews, steadicam field shots and pervasive awkwardness (which The Office does well) and already employing brazen silliness in lieu of plot and wide-eyed camera smirks in lieu of punchlines (which The Office increasingly does... read more
April Showers Bring to Mind These Rain-Themed Rock Songs
It's that time of the year when the May flowers are allegedly right around the next bend. But why not enjoy the precipitation while it's here, especially when there are so many great songs inspired by it? Below are six of my favorite rain-themed rock songs: ... read more
Good Friday, Good Music
Lately the CD pile has been swelling to unsustainable proportions. Sweet Talk receives anywhere from 50-75 a week and has been lagging behind separating the wheat from the chaff.... read more
Fly On, Sweet Angels: Songs In Memory of Nick Adenhart, and eight other California Angels ballplayers who died too young
The Anaheim-based California Angels baseball team has seen its share of tragedy over the last 40 years, in the form of fatal car accidents, cancer, suicide and even murder. Most recently, promising young pitcher Nick Adenhart, the Angels third starter this season, was killed in a car crash. Teammate Torii Hunter described Adenhart as a very funny kid, and said he would be missed. Our hearts go out to Adenhart's family and to all the Angels fans out there who are, in their own way, devastated by his loss. But it's also a story of triumph and of a lifelong... read more
A Short, Reductionist Kiwi Pop Primer
There was something magical going on long before Peter Jackson transformed the rugged wilderness of New Zealand into Middle Earth. In the early 1980s, Dunedin music impresario Roger Shepherd founded Flying Nun Records. The rest is history, although it's history that is surprisingly little known in the U.S. Perhaps it's time to change that. Because from the mid '80s through the early '90s, Flying Nun Records put out the best music on the planet. And yes, I'm looking at you, Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder.As with any "sound" associated with a city (Seattle, Athens, Austin), there is far more variety... read more
Top ten House-isms
Sure, Dr. Gregory House is a lonely, raging asshole. But he saves lives and he's pretty dang quotable. See for yourself:... read more
Paste's Double Life Playlist: The Actor/Musician
Jenny Lewis has recently released her Summer tour schedule, and we're amped about it. Many indie-music enthusiasts know her as the charming chanteuse of Rilo Kiley; however, any child of late '80s television knew the face well before the voice. Before jamming, Lewis appeared in Jell-O commercials. Before Rabbit Fur Coat, she pushed Girl Scout cookies in Troop Beverly Hills. And before romancing Jonathan Rice, she was on Fred Savage's radar in the 1989 film, The Wizard. All of this reminiscing got us thinking about some of our favorite actor-musicians, so we've created a playlist with a few faces you've... read more
Can you spot the fake Neil Young song titles?
Tireless bard Neil Young recently released his eight-millionth album, Fork In The Road, which includes such songs as “Fork In The Road,” “Hit The Road” and “Off The Road.” Though we’re joking about how many albums Neil has released (it’s really nine million), we are not joking about these song titles. And we wondered whether you, the devoted Paste reader, could tell the difference between other real song titles on the new Neil Young record and a bunch we just made up. Five of the below are real, and the rest are fake. Get to guessing, and scroll down for... read more
Five Great American Beers
I was born in Germany, and as proud as I am to have started life in the land of Octoberfest, I've long since recognized that Belgium was the best beer nation in the world. Westmalle, Westvleteren, Chimay, Rochefort, Orval and Achel—God's love is in the beer from those abbeys. But while the Belgian company InBev recently bought that American icon of horse piss known as Budweiser, smaller breweries in the U.S. have made an argument that America is finally the true King of Beers. Here are five beers that help make the case: ... read more
Perez Hilton's Three Musical Acts to Watch in 2009
Gossip-site honcho Perez Hilton is best known for slamming "celebutards" like Mushy Fartone and Slutty Cyrus, drawing coke noses onto photos of Amy Winehouse with MS Paint and coining new phrases that his fans promptly incorporate into their vocabulary. Viva La Drunkst!, anyone? ... read more
Soundtracking NASA's new Constellation Program: Great Space Songs You Haven't Heard a Million Times, Part 2
After this year, NASA will officially be retiring the space shuttle. So what's next for America's space program? This week, the National Mall in Washington has been hosting an exhibit featuring a mock up of the Orion capsule, which will be NASA's new space vehicle of choice come 2015. Along with the ARES rocket array (pictured above), the Orion capsule is part of NASA's new Constellation Program, an undertaking as ambitious as the 1960s' Apollo Program that first sent a man to the moon. Eventually, NASA plans for the program to take astronauts back to the moon, and perhaps even to Mars.On... read more
Soundtracking NASA's new Constellation Program: Great Space Songs You Haven't Heard a Million Times, Part 1
After this year, NASA will officially be retiring the space shuttle. So what's next for America's space program? This week, the National Mall in Washington has hosted an exhibit featuring a mock up of the Orion capsule, which will be NASA's new space vehicle of choice come 2015. Along with the ARES rocket array, the Orion capsule is part of NASA's new Constellation Program, an undertaking as ambitious as the 1960s' Apollo Program that first sent a man to the moon. Eventually, NASA plans for the program to take astronauts back to the moon, and perhaps even to Mars.On April... read more
The Top Eight Post-Collegiate Movies for the Aimless Grad
The thing about college graduation is that you’re expected to do something afterward. As always, though, the movies are here for us. Young filmmakers have long exorcised those one or two (or seven) years after graduation, wherein caustic anxiety about the future leads well-educated twentysomethings to enter an extended period of uselessness on their way to whatever’s next. Thus emerged this talky cousin of the coming-of-age movie, which exists mostly to comfort new generations of grads and depress older ones. To mark the release of the canon’s newest title, Adventureland, here’s a quick rundown:... read more
Nine Eco-Friendly Garments
So you’re using cloth bags at the supermarket, eating tomatoes from your own garden and reading by the light of energy-efficient bulbs. Maybe you even traded in your Ford Explorer for a Prius, or better yet, you’re walking to work. But what about the environmental impact of the clothes you wear every day? Check out socially responsible companies like Apolis Activism, Patagonia and TOMS, as well as handmade-good outlets like Etsy, for clothing with a conscience—and don’t forget your local thrift store! We couldn’t fit all of our favorite socially conscious garments in the Issue 51 style guide, and we... read more
Paste's Signs of Spring Playlist: Running
There are many signals that usher in the changing of the seasons (celestial equinoxes, changing sleeve lengths, authoritative groundhogs), but the big tell will always be the absence or presence of outdoor exercisers. Here at Paste, we can tell it's springtime, not from the pollen that covers Atlanta in a frustrating yellow layer, but rather the spandex-clad runners who fill the sidewalks and our side-view mirrors. Atlantan runners, joggers and walkers serve a dual purpose: They remind us that the chill is over and that it's never to late to start that New Year's resolution. Then again, they could just... read more
Predicting the Final Four Based on School Fight Songs
The basketball fan in me believes that a successful Final Four comes down to fundamentals—the team that wins the tourney will hit free throws, box out for rebounds and contain the gawky awesomeness of Tyler Hansbrough.The music fan in me believes it’ll all come down to fight songs. Here, I rank the four remaining teams based on the quality of their fight songs. ... read more
Five Reasons Why Phineas and Ferb is the Best Kids Show on TV
Finding Phineas and Ferb tucked among horrific shows like Wizards of Waverly Place and Hannah Montana is a little like finding the savior of humanity in Nazareth: No good thing is supposed to come from Disney television. But there it is, an 11-minute show packed with intersecting plot lines, adventure in suburbia, intrigue and a pet platypus doubling as a super agent. It's the only show that all three kids (ages four, eight and 10) plus both parents actually like (my wife is the lone hold-out on The Simpsons). And here are five reasons why:... read more
The 50 Best Movies on Netflix Instant
The 25 Best Movies of 2012 (So…
The 50 Best Movies of 2011
The 30 Best TV Shows on Netflix…
The 50 Best Movies of the Decade…
