LOST: New episode tonight, November 9
Resident female and TV enthusiast Danielle here to share my recap on the last episode ABC’s hit series Lost and my insights into tonight’s brand new episode.
After a torturous three week break, LOST is back tonight and the previews point to serious action. But first, a recap:
If you are not caught up on the most recent episodes, or don’t want me to spill the beans on tonight’s episode, read no further. Continues after the jump »
Trapped In The Closet - Chapters 1-12
- Trapped In The Closet - Chapters 1-12
- R. Kelly's ridiculous fever dream revives the musical serial format.
- You know you want to buy it at Amazon
Unless you’ve been living in a hole upside-down, you’ve heard of the unbelievably strange ‘Trapped In The Closet’ saga that everyone’s favorite bukakke pedarest R. Kelly unleashed upon the masses this past summer. As a precursor to his curiously titled album TP3: Reloaded, Kelly created a mini-drama of 5 songs performed over the same music bed, where a cheating husband is found by a gay preacher and then is pulled over while driving home by the police officer that is sleeping with his wife. The public was so ridiculously excited to hear each of the next installments, each released to radio 2 weeks after the previous, that stations were touting the premiere of the next episode as if it were the most important thing ever given to aural transmission. Consider the whole situation a viral marketer’s ultimate wet dream.
The success of the saga led to Kelly premiering the ‘Closet’ videos in a theatre in his hometown of Chicago before vowing to make more chapters. This promise is fulfilled in the recently released DVD Trapped in the Closet: Chapters 1-12, an unbelievable mind-fuck of a collection that is so bizarre that I can’t imagine any person NOT owning it.
Let me know if this puts you to sleep
Thomas Haden Church is finally cashing in on his career-changing turn in “Ned and Stacey” despite a little bump in the road called “Sideways.” Church, as some of you might already know, has scored a role as a villain in the upcoming “Spider-Man 3” (2007).
Well, it’s just been confirmed that the villian Church will be playing is the Sandman, and if you’re the type that gets excited about press photos being released way before the actual movie, there’s a fresh picture on the web to prove it.
Looks like someone has been working out and shopping at J Crew.
Touching the Box
Finally, I got to experience the Xbox 360.
Mr. Moneyballs (my personal, internal nickname) went to pick up a cheap television at Circuit City this morning. My apartment is finally being sanctified with digital cable, and my roommates and I felt that there was no better way to enjoy digital cable than having a television on which to watch it.
The cable guy was scheduled to arrive as early as noon, so I forced myself to get up at 9am and trek to the Circuit City in Union Square. I got there at 9:30am, and it hadn’t yet opened. Fast forward 40 minutes, I’m full of coffee and a very disappointing Egg BLT. Au Bon Pain? More like Au Shitty Pain. Oh dip!
‘Street Fighting Man’ by Rage Against the Machine
- Renegades
- Rage fails to be born in time for the revolution, and we get stuck with B-sides. This is the epitome of breakup collection. The Rolling Stones got Street Fighting Man right on the first try.
- Buy it at Amazon
There are few better ways to be gently guided back to the world of the waking than a song that starts off with guitars that sound like sirens. Well, maybe there are a few, especially when the source of the music is crappy little speakers in the next room, but that’s not really the point.
Street Fighting Man isn’t the best song off an album that’s certainly not Rage’s best or most cohesive work. It is, however another great experiment from a band whose sound is arguably just one grand experiment. “Renegades” is pretty much exactly that: the stuff that didn’t make it onto the albums. Live stuff, B-sides, experimental stuff, stuff that’s not very good — you get a little bit of each musical renegade on this CD.
The idea of politics is music goes back centuries, but Rage famously took it a step further — making most of their work overtly political and usually listenable. Rage’s cover of the Rolling Stones classic, however, probably sounded better on paper. Tom Morello’s guitar siren sounds more like a weird techno beat than anything that could actually get listeners rioting in the streets. It’s hardly background music to a revolution.
While their sound may always be distinctive, and Rage definitely makes the song their own, it just doesn’t come close to waking up the revolutionary in me, as evidenced by the fact that I fell back asleep while it was playing and had to go back and listen to it again. Look, I even got out of bed in time to catch the end of The Thanksgiving Song on Tuesday.
Mick Jagger knew there was no place for a revolution in the streets even in turbulent 1967, so since he couldn’t kill the king, he settled for singing in a rock ‘n’ roll band. To Zack de la Rocha, every song is a chance for a revolution. Street Fighting Man isn’t really a revolution as a song, and it was probably about three and a half decades too late to cause one among apathetic Gen-Xers. Maybe he’d have better luck today.
How can we sex this up a bit?
Everybody secretly hates the news.
I’ll let you in on a little secret: The only reason people even bother to watch the news is the off chance that something involving cheerleaders having sex in public or pirates might just crawl across the bottom of the screen. The world rejoiced this week when conditions came together to form the perfect storm of pirate and cheerleader non-news.
Here’s a little secret of the news business that they tell you on the day you get your journalism degree: When it comes down to pirates or cheerleaders, go with the pirates. Unless it’s cheerleader pirates, but even a second year journalism student could tell you that.
The works got significantly gummed up this week when the No. 3 news item, sonic death rays, got involved with the pirate story. The No. 1 pirates and No. 3 sonic ray averaged out to a 2, which meant that some poor schlub at Local 6 had to make the difficult choice of sex cheerleaders or sonic pirates. They went with the cheerleaders. Continues after the jump »
Say it ain’t so, Larry
Did I just watch that? Did HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” without a doubt one of the most original comedy shows running today, just do a tired Playboy Mansion episode?
Has “Curb” jumped the, er, is “Curb” creatively tapped?
This past Sunday’s “Curb” — “The Smoking Jacket” — was without a doubt the weakest episode of the current season and probably the worst ever (slightly edging out the season 4 finale — “Opening Night”). Larry David and a few of his friends went to the Playboy Mansion — an 80’s-style relic where rock stars like Fred Durst go to die.
Here’s what I’m guessing happened: Hugh Hefner’s people made a call to David’s people, saying that the magazine mogul was a huge fan of the show, and that he would very much like to be in an episode. And David obliged because he figured what other chance will he get to check out the Playboy Mansion. He probably assumed that he could put an ironic twist on it too. Continues after the jump »
Train wreck gets in car crash
Since these things seem to be happening by the day now for celebrities, I’m not really sure if Paris Hilton getting into a car crash qualifies as news.
Then again, it is actually rare to catch a crash on tape. Special thanks to TMZ.com.
I’m no Jeff Gordon, but I think the driver’s problem (other than being Paris’ new boyfriend) was trying to drive with a jacket over his face.
Bowie and Arcade Fire make a great team
The man of a thousand personae, David Bowie, is apparently teaming up with Canadian hipster magnets Arcade Fire for a cover of their song, Wake Up, which they performed together at September’s Fashion Rocks event in New York.
The song will be available on iTunes for one week, starting Monday. As one of the few artists who started in the ’60s and survived the ’90s without inserting an awkward rap in the middle of one of his songs, Bowie is solid gold as far as I’m concerned. I saw him perform last year and it was one of the best shows I’d seen in a long time.
I’ll probably also make an effort to see Arcade Fire next time they come around now that I realize they have Bowie’s seal of approval. Wake Up is a solid song to start with, so I’m confident that I won’t be disappointed.
Respek to TUAW.
‘Capote’ is another bio drone
- Capote
- Philip Seymour Hoffman stands out in typical biopic about author Truman Capote.
During the latter stages of last year’s Oscar season my mom suddenly came up with the declaration that Jamie Foxx wasn’t really acting in his stunning portrayal of legendary musician Ray Charles in “Ray” — he was merely doing an impersonation. “Yeah, what’s the difference?” I asked. “It’s still a great performance.”
We went back and forth like this for weeks, ultimately agreeing to disagree.
Then, after seeing “Capote,” my mom brought it up again, saying, “Now what Philip Seymour Hoffman did, that was acting, unlike Jamie Foxx in ‘Ray.’”
My mom isn’t the only one who I’ve heard make the argument. From what I’ve read in snooty film magazines, a lot of serious actor types weren’t exactly impressed by Foxx’s work in the movie either.
I’m still not sure I get it. I guess they’re trying to say that there’s a difference between just copying a person and doing an interpretation, which would be the more artistic route. And acting is all about art. Continues after the jump »
