House of Lies
With Love Island, a sleazy British dating show making its stateside debut on CBS recently, television viewers have been reminded of an important truth: Reality TV is just the worst. Is that a fair statement? Most of us instinctively think it is. We think about Big Brother or RuPaul’s Drag Race or even The Radkes, […]
Culture Clips: The Upside Down Edition
Netflix will face some pretty serious challenges in the coming months. Right after NBCUniversal announced that it’ll pull The Office from the popular streaming site when its contract runs out (in 2021), Time Warner chimed in and said it’ll yank another wildly popular sitcom, Friends, in 2020 and slap it on HBO Max. Forbes’ Stephen […]
Spider-Man Swings to No. 1
Last week, I asked this question: Will superhero fans still flock to see a post-Endgame web-slinger? Answer: Yes. Boy howdy, yes. Spider-Man: Far From Home, the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to land in theaters since the MCU’s climactic Avengers: Endgame, has earned a huge $185.1 million since its unusual Tuesday opening. That’s […]
Culture Clips: Fireworks Galore
We shan’t be talking tomorrow, so let me wish you all (or, at least, you Americans) a very happy Independence Day. But I also need to let you know right off the bat that according to Gallup, pride in our home country is at an all-time low. Why are we so glum? That’s a complicated […]
Tech Tuesday: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Big Tech?
Are you worried about how Facebook or Google might be using their information about you? If so, you’ve got company. According to an IBD/TIPP poll released just yesterday, 89% of us worry that huge tech companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple will misuse the reams of personal data they collect. Nearly as many […]
Toy Story 4 Boxes Up Another Win
Little Bo Peep and her plasticine pals from Toy Story 4 sure didn’t look sheepish at the box office. In fact, for the second-straight weekend, the gang from Pixar did its peeping from the chart’s tippy-tippy top. Toy Story 4 earned an estimated $57.9 million and held off a couple of newcomers to win its […]
Culture Clips: Too Smart For Our Own Good?
We’ve been inundated with anniversaries both happy and sad this weekend. Both Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died on June 25, 2009—almost exactly a decade ago. Nicholas Sparks fans will be toasting the 15th anniversary of The Notebook. The 1989 version of Batman (you know, the one with Michael Keaton) recently celebrated its 30th anniversary—and […]
Toy Story 4 Goes to Infinity, But Not Beyond
Not many businesses would consider a $118-million weekend a disappointment. But that’s Hollywood for you. Disney had expected Toy Story 4 to fire up its rockets, flip its little space wings open and fly to the upper reaches of the financial stratosphere—$140 million at least. Some suggested that even a galactic $200 million opening wasn’t […]
Culture Clips: The Currency of Social Media. Literally.
Facebook has always been a go-to social media site to spend time—and sometimes way too much of it. Now, it’s hoping to give you something else to spend: its own cryptocurrency. That’s right, Mark Zuckerberg and Co. hope to create a bitcoin-like digital monetary system called Libra. And it’s partnering with businesses such as PayPal, […]
MiB: International’s Win Is Less Than Stellar
The Men in Black organization is perhaps the most secretive in the world. No one knows who these men (and women) in black are or, really, who they work for. Its headquarters are better hidden than Kim Kardashian’s moments of introspection. And should anyone get too close to them, zap! An agent will whip out […]