A Month of Junk: Collectable or Collecting Dust?
On the corner of my desk here at Plugged In headquarters, I have a stack of empty Mountain Dew cans. The size and shape of the stack varies from week to week and month to month (depending on where I am with my recycling). I was in the process of building a shiny, aluminum pyramid […]
Whitney Houston: The Voice of the Age
Whitney Houston’s body was flown to New Jersey last night in preparation for a Saturday funeral in Newark—the city in which she was born and raised. The private service will be held at New Hope Baptist Church—the place where she first started singing at age 11. Houston, 48, was found dead Saturday in the Beverly […]
Movie Monday: The Vow
Last year, it seemed as though the movie-going public had forgotten its collective love of film. Oh, sure, there were a few blockbusters here and there. But more weekends than not, folks looked at what was playing and shrugged—unable to recall the magic of greasy popcorn, overpriced drinks and a big story writ large on […]
A Month of Junk: Stuff Touched by a Celebrity
I own a record player. We don’t use it, of course. We can’t. It was made in 1928, and the crank handle that wound the turntable doesn’t wind anymore. The record player is part of a massive piece of furniture—the nifty-keeno home entertainment system of the day. The record player dominates one side. On the […]
Movie Monday: Chronicle
And you thought the Super Bowl was close. In a box office battle not quite for the ages, the sci-fi popcorn-muncher Chronicle pushed past Daniel Radcliffe’s horrifish The Woman in Black by the slim margin of $22 million to $21 million—a veritable pop-culture squeaker, according to the estimates. Granted, the overall numbers weren’t huge. It […]
Leave the Past in the Past? Not Facebook.
It’s Groundhog Day, people. And really, it’s only natural that on this revered holiday, my mind turns its attention to … Michael Bolton. What? The connection isn’t obvious? Let me explain. Ever since the 1993 film Groundhog Day was released, most of us no longer associate Feb. 2 solely with a large, skittish, rodent meteorologist. […]
Oscar Nominees: We Like Them! We Really Like Them!
The year’s Academy Awards nominations were released this morning. Let me be honest: Since I’ve been doing this gig, I don’t think I’ve seen a more positive collection of films in the running for Best Picture. First, let’s run down the nine nominees for Oscar’s top honor: The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud & Incredibly […]
Movie Monday: Underworld Awakens Box Office
The setup of the Underworld franchise sounds like something that a couple of 12-year-old boys would plot during a lazy Saturday afternoon. “So what if, like, vampires and werewolves hated each other?” one might say. “Yeah, and they, like, had a secret war! And used grenades made of silver and stuff!” His friend would opine. […]
The (Bleeped) Things Kids Say These Days
You’ve heard about it. We’ve talked about it. Some folks begged ABC never to air it. But air it did. On Wednesday, Modern Family presented to the world “Little Bo Bleep,” an episode in which a cute little girl utters the infamous f-word. The girl in question is Lily, the travel-size adopted daughter of gay […]
Tim Tebow and the Gift of Losing
Tebow time is over, at least for now. Last weekend, the Denver Broncos suffered a humiliating 45-10 defeat at the hands of the New England Patriots—a score that could’ve been far worse had Tom Brady felt a bit more vindictive. So while we still have a few more weekends of football left, some Broncos fans […]
