When Darth Met Mickey
The calendar yesterday may have read Oct. 30, the day before Halloween. But for Star Wars fans everywhere, it was more like an early Christmas. Yesterday afternoon, surprising—nay, shocking—news began to circulate with the speed of the Millennium Falcon making the jump to hyperspace: George Lucas had sold his beloved, privately and wholly owned Lucasfilm […]
Movie Monday: Argo’s Third Try
Normally, if a movie has any hope of securing the top slot at the box office on a given weekend, it happens the first week that film is released. Every now and then, however, a big-screen story comes along and bucks that trend—which is exactly what happened over the weekend. Argo, which currently sits at […]
Lebanon Vs. ‘Homeland’
Beirut, Lebanon, was once known to tourists as “the Paris of the Middle East.” Then came a 15-year civil war from 1975 to 1990 that, for many people, made the country’s capital city seem synonymous with terrorism and death. So much for the tourism. But that was more than 20 years ago. And in the […]
Need a (Facebook) Hug?
Sometimes you just need a hug. And sometimes there’s just no one around to give you one. So what do you do? Well, MIT Media Lab researcher Melissa Kit Chow has brainstormed a decidedly 21st-century solution to this age-old problem, one that creatively combines Facebook’s “Like” feature with … an inflatable vest. Really. Chow’s Like-A-Hug […]
No Country for Old Lyrics
Quick: What is Led Zeppelin’s most famous hit, “Stairway to Heaven,” actually about? In the nearly 41 years since Zeppelin’s epic eight-minute opus was released, there’ve been plenty of attempts at interpreting the cryptic lyrics penned by the English band’s frontman, Robert Plant. If you Google the phrase “‘Stairway to Heaven’ lyrics interpretation,” you can […]
Happy iPhone Day!
Today’s the day! What’s that, you say? You’re not sure what makes Sept. 21 “the day”? Well, then, it’s probably—no, it’s certainly—too late for you, my friend. Too late, that is, to be among the first to purchase the latest Apple smartphone, the iPhone 5, which hits Apple stores this morning. Briefly, that is. Until […]
The Connected Concert
A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to see Linkin Park (along with Incubus and MuteMath) in concert at the oh-so-strangely named Comfort Dental Amphitheater in Denver. (Or, as I like to call it, the amphitheater formerly known as Fiddler’s Green.) A friend of mine had won tickets and invited me to tag […]
Magazine, oh Magazine, Wherefore Art Thou, Magazine?
I am not a packrat. Okay, okay, my fellow Plugged In staffers might scoff at that statement, given that my cubicle is the most clutter-strewn of anyone’s on our team. Still, I’m not a compulsive saver. I have no problem throwing things away. I just don’t get around to it as often as some people […]
Shiny Vampires Were Just the Beginning
I don’t know if you pay much attention to the book sections at Barnes & Noble. For the most part, I don’t. But today I was in my local store looking for a particular title, and I happened to notice a section I’m certain I’ve never seen before: “Teen Paranormal Romance.” Now, it wasn’t that […]
How Teens Get Their Music
How do teens today get their music? In this interconnected Internet age of digital downloads, ubiquitous iPods and music-playing smartphones, the conventional wisdom goes something like this: Teens don’t listen to the radio. That’s so 20th century. Nor do they actually buy music, because they’re too busy illegally file-sharing to be bothered with purchasing something […]