RJ Mitte: The White Heart Of Breaking Bad
Roy Frank “RJ” Mitte is hard-working young man and a dedicated actor, and if he occasionally has to swallow some fake vomit to bring his show some added realism, then that’s what he’s prepared to do. For Season 2 of the award-winning AMC drama Breaking Bad, Mitte was filming a scene... read more
Found in: Movies, FeaturesBowie: Starman by Paul Trynka
Ch-ch-changes, just gonna have to be a different man Pablo Picasso once described to a friend how he had noticed a handlebar and bicycle seat in the corner of his studio, lying in such a way as to look like a bull’s head.... read more
Found in: Books, ReviewsPortugal. The Man: In the Mountain, In the Cloud
Portugal. The Man hasn’t sold out. Sure, they’ve signed with a major label. But if the new record is any indication of what that means for the Alaskan psychedelic-rockers, the outlook is good—very good, actually.... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsDelicate Cutters: Some Creatures
This Birmingham, Ala., band takes its name from a Throwing Muses song, which took its title from the term used to describe mentally ill young people who gave themselves shallow cuts. Delicate Cutters frontwoman Janet Simpson shares with Kristin Hersh a penchant for detailed, lived-in lyrics and a steely charisma. More crucially, the group unsurprisingly fills its songs with references to deep emotional scars, often alluding to harrowing events just off camera—as if they can’t bear to confront them too directly.... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsAmy LaVere: Stranger Me
Don’t cross Amy LaVere. The Memphis singer-songwriter-bassist-actress can add badass to that long string of hyphens, as she writes about the sorts of things that would land most women in jail. On her previous album, 2007’s Anchors & Anvils, she sang about murdering the object of her conflicted affection, but discovered, in a sickening twist, that “killing him didn’t make the love go away.”... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsBreaking Bad Review: Episode 4.1
Unlike other television dramas that have an anti-hero protagonist, Breaking Bad doesn’t rely on a crutch to give you permission to like and root for the villainous main character. Take for instance Dexter. The blood splatter expert/serial killer lives by his own moral code. He generally only kills those that “deserve to be killed”. In other words, he preys on those that prey on the innocent. The fact that Dexter kills other terrible people gives the audience a free pass to root for him and the violent things that he does without feeling morally compromised.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsThey Might Be Giants: Join Us
They Might Be Giants are, along with Matthew Sweet and a handful of others, what I remember of college radio from the early ‘90s. TMBG stand out for me not so much because of their so-singular-it-borders-on-proprietary sound, but because they were the first band I encountered that spawned superfans. I was pretty young in the early ’90s, and at best my peers loved classic rock in that early, holistic, passed-on-like-a-hair-color way. At their worst they loved whatever everyone else loved that day or week or minute. They Might be Giants were different, they were the preeminent backpack band patch, the... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsTrue Blood Review: "I’m Alive and on Fire" (Episode 4.04)
“Aw, poor Bill, power is so hard.” Season four of True Blood is about change and rebirth. Bill, the compassionate vampire that swept Sookie off her feet in season one, is now the King of Louisiana, ruling with an iron fist. Having just sent a vampire to his True Death for feeding on a human that willingly wanted to be fed on, he sarcastically tells Nan Flanagan of the A.V.L that the execution went “smooth”, “totally justified”. We’ve seen his new transformation take place in the first three episodes of this season. Bill is more cunning, ruthless and do I... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsFriday Night Lights Review: "Always" (Episode 5.13)
Dear anyone who has ever been involved in the production of Friday Night Lights: Technically, this is supposed to be a recap of your series finale, “Always.” More realistically, this is going to be a love letter to your series as a whole. It’s not often that a viewer—a passionate viewer at that—has the opportunity to extend her thanks for entertainment that has impacted her life, and I’m not going to squander my opportunity here. Let it first be noted that I delayed viewing this episode for as long as possible—running right up to my deadline for this recap because,... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsWinnie the Pooh review
Sometimes the old things are the best things, and the best thing about this new Winnie the Pooh is that its spirit is very much like the films that came before it—timeless and wholesome. Based on the classic series of books by A. A. Milne dating back to the 1920s, Winnie the Pooh (2011) is a welcome and unique animated entry into a marketplace crowded by 3D and computer generated offerings.... read more
Found in: Movies, Reviews
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