Shore-ing Up Reality TV
With the success of MTV’s Jersey Shore, it was only a matter of time before reality show makers scoped out the other 49 states to determine what sort of regionally stereotypic, debauched twentysomethings might be exploited for a reality show. Alas, it seems they’ve had to cross Alabama off the list—at least temporarily. Jodi Redmond […]
Trading Tweets for Sweet Art
Singer/songwriter/Twitterer extraordinaire John Mayer stopped tweeting back in February, leaving his 3 million-plus followers adrift and leaderless in a great digital wasteland. He never returned to the medium that helped make him one of pop culture’s most colorful, controversial stars. At the time, we thought Mayer left because the whole electronic media circus had gotten […]
Movie Monday: The Social Network
Sony “likes” The Social Network—and a whole lot of other folks do, too. The movies most folks are calling “the Facebook film” topped the box office this week, snagging $23 million. The bevy of holdovers that followed weren’t within shouting distance of the Jesse Eisenberg-helmed vehicle. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole came […]
Underground Entertainment
For nearly two months now, 33 Chilean miners have been living a half-mile underground, waiting for rescue. Experts say these miners will see the sun again—eventually. Until then, the miners are cobbling together a new reality down under—and that reality, I think, says something pretty interesting about entertainment: What it’s good for, and what it’s […]
Movie Monday: Money Never Sleeps
Money really doesn’t sleep. Sometimes at 2 a.m., I think I hear the sound of laughter and music from my billfold, as my tiny collection of George Washingtons boogies down until dawn. If my money is lonely—as it often is—I’ll sometimes find it sitting on the couch watching television, working the remote with its dog-eared […]
Circumstantial Evidence
I don’t think jury duty would’ve ever made my bucket list. But if it did, for some reason, I can cross it off now. I spent the day at the local courthouse yesterday, one member of a six-person jury deciding whether a man was guilty of assault or not. The experience, for me, was a […]
Movie Monday: The Town and Easy A
After a couple of zombie-like weekends at the box office, a trio of new movies brought some life back to the cineplex. Ben Affleck’s crime drama The Town nabbed box office honors this week, stealing $23.8 million. Easy A had to be content with a solid B, scoring $18.2 million, while M Night Shyamalan’s Devil […]
Making Tables
We can’t all be at our best all the time. I wish we could. But sometimes, we drag a little, let our focus sag a little, and we forget for a moment that everything we do in our lives is, in a way, a reflection of and an offering to God. I was dragging a […]
Movie Monday: Resident Evil: Afterlife
All was deathly quiet at the cineplex. Wind whistled through the box office. Tumbleweeds slowly trundled through the concession stand, branches sweeping up long-forgotten puddles of faux butter as they rolled toward the exits. And then, from underneath the theater’s matted carpet, something claws its way upward, moaning piteously as it makes its way from […]
The Smarmy Charm of Disney
I’ve found myself on Disney duty lately here at Plugged In. I’ve been buried underneath what seems like a mountain of inoffensive pop tunes, happy endings and Jonas Brothers. My work computer has played so much Disney lately that it now assumes I’m a 12-year-old girl. In reality, I’m a 41-year-old man who likes films […]