Eggers, Yelp, and Review Culture
If you’ve read Dave Eggers’s not-so-distant-future dystopian novel The Circle, wherein a Google-type company assumes total control of the world’s governments and privacy, at least one of three questions has probably crossed your mind: Can Dave Eggers get any preachier? Should we be afraid that we’ll all eventually be required… [Read More]
NBA Cross-Promotional Ads are the Worst
Okay, this is something that needs to be discussed. Why is it that the NBA has always approved horrible crossover commercials where in-game NBA clips are spliced with products and movies that have nothing to do with basketball? For clarification, watch this Kumho Tires commercial that’s been airing recently: HAHAHA…. [Read More]
Identity Crisis: A Russian-American Watches ‘The Americans’
FX is really killing it these days. They have three channels where before they had one, great comedies like Louie and Archer, and an all-star stable of dramas like Sons of Anarchy and the new Fargo. Rounding out those dramas and currently hitting its stride in Season 2 is The… [Read More]
Really, When Will Cable Die?
If you’re like most warm-blooded Americans, you hate your cable provider. It sucks your money, the quality of its product offerings is poor, and its customer service department is basically an endless maze that encourages you to give up at every turn. By comparison, your boy Frank Underwood, your girl… [Read More]
Let the ‘Cosmos’ Pump You Up
When I was 12, my seventh grade class went on a field trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. After dicking around like 12 year olds do for most of the day, we all quieted down when ushered into the planetarium to watch the new 20 min documentary,… [Read More]
Foster the People’s New Album is Actually a 20-Something Self-Help Book
Foster the People’s new album, Supermodel, was released two days ago. It’s their sophomore effort, coming three years after their debut Torches took them from indie sweethearts to overplayed rock stars in about the span of a month during the summer of 2011. That naturally puts a lot of pressure… [Read More]
Smiling Through Sadness With Wes Anderson in ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’
In a few words, Wes Anderson’s eighth and most recent film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, is funny, beautiful, quick, clever, star-studded, and strange. It’s the same description easily applied to any of his previous works, and also the standard veil for a strong undertone of sadness Anderson places at the… [Read More]
Hey Arnold! Still Informs Every Day of My 23 Year Old Life
When I was in the 4th grade, I was just like any other nine year old: naïve, curious, and impressionable. In other words, I was stupid. Sure, I could solve fractions. Sure, I could write in cursive. But outside of home, school, and the extra-curricular activities my parents forced me… [Read More]
Jimmy Fallon: Musical Comedian or Comic Musician?
The above video is from a Counting Crows show in 1999. Sometime during the performance, a young Jimmy Fallon was called on stage to perform some parodies of famous 90s bands centered on a very 90s object, the troll doll. If the combination of this doll and the bands that… [Read More]
Predicting Your Impending House of Cards Season 2 Binge
This Friday, which happens to be Valentine’s Day, Netflix will push all 13 Season 2 House of Cards episodes to its servers. As with all V-Days, this timing is either awesome or frustrating depending on your relationship status. Furthermore, due to this give-them-everything model of release, the collective pop culture… [Read More]
