It Didn’t Really Bother Me at All
Have you ever had this experience? You go to a movie with a friend, a movie that perhaps has some content that’s a bit edgy. But as you walk out, you’re thinking something like, That wasn’t too bad. It didn’t really bother me at all. In fact, you’re already thinking about where you’re going to […]
‘Battleship’ … and Bulgaria?
In its first five days in foreign theaters, Marvel’s The Avengers raked in a whopping $185.1 million. That’s right. By the time the latest supersized superhero flick spools up in American theaters this Friday, it will likely have pocketed somewhere north of $200 million—all before a single ticket in the good ol’ U.S. of A. […]
Girls With Bows
Call it the Katniss Effect. Around the country, anecdotal evidence suggests that a fair number of girls are picking up Hunger Games heroine Katniss Everdeen’s weapon of choice: the bow. “All of a sudden, sales of bows have, like, tripled,” Paul Haines, a salesman at the Ramsey Outdoor store in Paramus, N.J., told the Associated […]
‘Sinners’ in the Hands of Seductive Pop Stars
Madonna and Nicki Minaj represent different generations. But both singers know a thing or two about provoking the status quo for the sake of generating attention. Madonna’s been perfecting her shock shtick since the mid-’80s, of course. And with her latest album (not to mention her controversial, demon possession-themed performance at the Grammys in February), […]
Titanic and Sexting
I have a confession to make. There are a couple of pretty big movies that I’ve never seen (at least not in their entirety in one sitting): The Wizard of Oz (the monkeys and the witch terrified me as a kid), The Sound of Music (I could sing all the songs, but I don’t think […]
Movie Monday: Filled (Again) With Hunger
Let me be honest: I’ve had my fill of The Hunger Games. Nothing against the movie, mind you. I haven’t seen the thing—which may make me one of only three dozen people in the United States that haven’t. It only feels like I have, given what I’ve heard and read and even written about the […]
Bye Bye Britannica
One of my fondest memories of growing up is reading our family’s New Book of Knowledge Encyclopedia set. It’s geeky, I know, but as a child I spent countless hours exploring our 1974 set. Whatever I wanted to learn about, it was in there: peregrine falcons, cheetahs, manatees, attending the Air Force Academy in Colorado […]
Run! Zombies!
The only reasonable thing to do when you see a zombie—if you don’t have a large-caliber weapon, a flamethrower or a bazooka handy, that is—is to run. Countless zombie flicks have been built on the premise of shambling, scraping, rotting undead creatures pursuing their brain-carrying prey: us. See a zombie, you better get out of […]
Adele’s Authentic Appeal
It’s been a while since we’ve seen someone like Adele, someone who transcends that humble descriptor “artist” and becomes something more like … a phenomenon. Exactly one year ago today, this modest British singer with the jaw-dropping neo-soul voice released her sophomore album, 21. She’d had one reasonably solid hit from her debut effort (19) […]
What Drives Millennials?
Once upon a time, getting your driver’s license was a cherished right of passage, a ticket to freedom few self-respecting teens would pass up for very long. That was certainly the case with me. Growing up in a small town in Iowa, I couldn’t wait to get my license. I got my learner’s permit the […]