TV Detail: True Blood review. Episode 3—Mine
In the second episode of True Blood, our hero Sookie (Anna Paquin) was visiting her friend Bill the Vampire’s house at night. The show ended with a trio of vampires greeting her at the door, baring their fangs and looking ready to bite. I was all prepared for Episode Three to open with Sookie holding her ground and the vampires having a good laugh and backing off. In other words, I expected them to be wicked, but much more complicated than just pure evil. I was hoping the story would once again mess with stereotypes and reveal nuance and complexity.... read more
10 Best Saturday Night Live Female Cast Members (#6-10)
We recently looked at the 10 best male cast members of Saturday Night Live. Now it's time to look at the show's funniest women. 10 Best Saturday Night Live Female Cast Members (#6-10)10. Ana Gasteyer (1996 - 2002) “Oh, I’m so sorry! If I wasn't such a nice person, I’d think I was a showoff!” The Groundlings alum was at her best as a talk show hostess, both with her fictional creations like Margaret Jo McCullen of NPR’s Delicious Dish, Gayle Gleeson of Pretty Living or MTV VJ Kinkaid, and impersonating actual TV celebs, Martha Stewart, Joan Rivers or Sally... read more
10 Best Saturday Night Live Female Cast Members (#1-5)
10 Best Saturday Night Live Female Cast Members (#1-5)... read more
TV Detail: Fringe review. Episode 2—The Same Old Story
Maybe it was that the most enigmatic elements of Lost were doled out slowly after characters were more fully developed, and after much more familiar, but still extraordinary, crises were faced—a plane crash, kidnappings, even the unseen creature. The most unbelievable aspects and plot twists were doled out over several seasons after I was already hooked.But already in Fringe, it’s less the events making up the Pattern that seem implausible—it's a sci-fi show, so I’m will to suspend disbelief that the bad guys could have developed a toxin that turns the flesh translucent or a growth accelerator that causes a... read more
10 Best Saturday Night Live Male Cast Members
After the brutally unfunny debut of Saturday Night Live last weekend, we thought it was a good time to remember that this show has wavered between periods of greatness and painful droughts throughout its 33 years. To commemorate the men and women responsible for the former, the staff at Paste voted on the 10 Best Male and Female Saturday Night Live Cast Members. First the men...10 Best Saturday Night Live Male Cast Members... read more
10 Best Saturday Night Live Male Cast Members (#1-5)
10 Best Saturday Night Live Male Cast Members... read more
TV Detail: True Blood review. Episode 2—The First Taste
The second episode of True Blood is better than the first. As stilted as Stephen Moyer was as Bill Compton in the pilot, he and Sookie’s budding romance seems more grounded this time. Bill is confounded both by Sookie’s innocence and her absence of fear. He lost his wife and children in the 1800s and has returned to Bon Temps to try to build an inconspicuous life, reclaiming the old Compton manor. Sookie has spent her life trying to quiet the voices in her head, but always feeling different. A moral compass and the gutter minds of her horny customers... read more
SNL Live Blog for 9/13/08
Check back here at 11:25 p.m. EST for a Saturday Night Live live-blog, where I'll be joined by Paste publisher Nick Purdy. Will Michael Phelps be funny? Will Lil Wayne meet FCC standards? Will Barack get an SNL bounce? And will Tina Fey come back to play her doppelgänger, Sarah Palin? (She looks more like Palin than Laura Roslin). We're just glad SNL doesn't suck these days.11:25pm: Well, Barack's not going to be a part of the show - Hurricane Ike making it in appropriate according to his spokesman....still thinking TIna Fey will do Palin but we'll have to wait... read more
TV Detail: Fringe Review
DHARMA Industry’s got nothing on Massive Dynamic, whose slogans ominously proclaim, “What don’t we make?” and “Your world is our world.” In J.J. Abrams brand new series Fringe, a large mysterious corporation is again at the center of conspiracy, intrigue and just plain weird occurrences. Fringe is the X-Files without the aliens, subtlety or skepticism—and with a healthy dose of grandeur. In the first episode that aired on Fox last night, “the pattern” of events that have occurred in the last year include small plane emitting high frequency that was responsible for the tsunami that killed 80,000—the same rough number... read more
TV Detail: True Blood review
Anytime I come across a TV show based in the South, I do so with a little fear and trepidation, always half-expecting the locals to be made into yokels. But what better place to set a vampire series than rural Louisiana? Alan Ball's new HBO series True Blood has an interesting concept—after a Japanese company manufactures a synthetic blood, vampires are finally able to “come out of the coffin” and into public view. Ball introduces this concept right off the bat with a vampire lobbyist on Real Time with Bill Maher.How the existence of vampires will mesh with Southern religion... read more
Of Montreal and the Magazine Office Olympics
People sometimes ask me what a typical day looks like for the editor-in-chief of Paste, and all I can think is that there are few typical days. But I'd like today to be typical. As I write this, I'm sitting in our a/v studio, watching Kevin Barnes pose for our November cover. One of my favorite photographers, Jeremy Cowart, is in town from Nashville, and Kevin is dressed like he's ready for Cirque de Soleil. We're listening to a mix of Shuggie Otis, Isley Brothers and Danger Doom on the stereo, and a filter casts magenta lighting across the room—which... read more
5 Biggest Libertarian Musicians
We believe in equal time here at Paste, so after naming the biggest Republican and Democratic musicians earlier this week, I thought I'd look into who's supporting third-party candidates. The libertarians claim some fine musicians, including the first one I ever interviewed back in 1990—Mojo Nixon.... read more
5 Biggest Democratic Musicians and 5 Biggest Republican Musicians
photo by Danny ClinchPaste has tried hard not to turn our magazine or website into a platform for our own various political opinions. We recognize that people look to us for cultural guidance but generally think there are better places to find political commentary than a music magazine. For the sake of full disclosure, I'll be voting for Obama/Biden, but beyond that, I'll just refer you to The Economist. But music at the conventions is fair game, and it's hard not to note that last week in Denver featured pro-Obama concerts from Death Cab For Cutie, Stevie Wonder, Nada Surf,... read more
Dragon*Con 2008: A Video is worth 1,000 pictures
Our crack A/V department has put together the following video from Dragon*Con. If I look at a loss for words from time to time, it's because I'm at a loss for words. Next year I'm going to the parade.... read more
Dr. Horrible & The Buffy Horror Picture Show
Once more, with feeling... Having missed all panel discussions Friday at Dragon*Con (including the intriguingly titled "Lake Monsters I Have Known," "Becoming a Goddess" and "Lights! Camera! Cthulhu!"), I decided to take a break from the awesome people watching and jump wholeheartedly into the Whedon Universe. First I joined hundreds of people for a live version of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Despite the fact that Nathan Fillion was at the fest, amateur actors filled the roles of Dr. Horrible, Captain Hammer and the whole Sing-Along gang, while the original video played on a screen beside the stage. The crowd indeed... read more
Best Costume at Dragon*Con 2008
OK, apologies to Lego Man, Rosie the Riveter and the Yip-Yip Martian Muppet, my vote for costume of the year at Dragon*Con 2008 (at least on Friday) goes to this Aaron Eckhart look-alike, who shaved part of his head, singed his collar and spent a couple of hours putting on his latex mask. All in the name of looking exactly like Harvey "Two-Face" Dent.... read more
20 Things I Learned at Dragon*Con 2008
I attended my first Dragon*Con (or anything remotely like it) yesterday with no idea what to expect. Here's what I learned:1. That the costumes generating the most excitement among fans are sometimes the most simple and innocent—like the Yip-Yip Martian Muppet or Lego Man. 2. That the woman walking around carrying this is very disturbed.... read more
Prepping for Dragon*Con 2008
Today, I head downtown to explore new worlds, seek new life and civilizations, and boldly go where, uh... I've never gone before. I'm headed to Dragon*Con, and I'm simultaneously excited and little scared.... read more
September Movies That Look Promising
I've only seen a couple of these ahead of release, but here's my premature opinion on what we've got to look forward to in September:... read more
Call+Response Trailer
I've said it so many times, but it still sounds surreal: There are more than 27 million slaves on this earth, more than existed in during any point in the trans-Atlantic slave trade 200 years ago. About 80% of those are women and children. No government officially condones it, but even in America, kids are trafficked from other countries or from state to state, forced into prostitution with the threat of harm or death. My own city of Atlanta is one of the Top 10 in the nation for human trafficking. There have been several good fictional films dealing with... read more
The 20 Best Gadgets of the Decade…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
The 50 Best Albums of the Decade…
The 25 Best Movie Performances of the…
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Kim Taylor - Days Like this
Gregory Alan Isakov - The Moon Song
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
David Bazan - Hard To Be
