culture
The Week in Movies: The Heat, White House Down, and I'm So Excited!
Maggie Lange · 06/28/13 04:42PMHere's a Bearded Larry David and Jon Hamm in Glasses in Clear History
Maggie Lange · 06/28/13 04:37PMHere's the trailer for Larry David's upcoming HBO movie, Clear History. Basically, Larry David's character has a crazy frizzed-out hair-beard combo. He works for Jon Hamm who is sporting a suit, also so wild. Anyways, David's character quits because he thinks Hamm's character is dumb and then he loses out on millions and Hamm is rich and happy and married to Kate Hudson. After a decade of bitterness, David's character launches a madcap revenge plot.
The David Lynch-Directed NIN Music Video Comes with a Seizure Warning
Maggie Lange · 06/28/13 11:29AMDavid Lynch directed a music video for the new Nine Inch Nails song, "Came Back Haunted." In case you want to take my word for it, it's all flashes, shaky cam, forced metaphors, and aggressive flickers. Here's the key image:
Detroit, Punk, and A Band Called Death
Maggie Lange · 06/27/13 03:31PMMark Covino and Jeff Howlett's documentary, out on Friday, is simply titled A Band Called Death. It provides a thorough biography of an under-appreciated protopunk garage band that existed on the cusp of punk. They were called Death, obviously. The Detroit band, founded in 1971 by three brothers—David Hackney (guitar), Dannis Hackney (drums) and Bobby Hackney (bass, vocals)—was disbanded in 1977, but managed to record an album's worth of songs in demo sessions. When the band was rediscovered by record collectors, punk obsessives, and underground DJs in the 2000s, the Hackneys were hailed as visionaries.
Paula Deen Is Getting A Museum But America Is Her Masterpiece
Caity Weaver · 05/24/13 04:00PMHi, y'all. Do you detect the scent of warm buttery toast, wafting in on a humid breeze from way down South? What you're smelling is the glorious butter-birth of the Official Paula Deen Museum, a tourist attraction recently proposed for Deen's hometown of Albany, Georgia. Just kidding. You're smelling toast because you're having a stroke.
France Will Tax Smartphones to Fund Exceptional French Culture
Maggie Lange · 05/14/13 08:42AMHere Is Your Tasteless Muslim Terror-Bomber Birthday Greeting Card
Adam Weinstein · 05/03/13 09:07PMWalking through a Chicago store, a Muslim activist spotted the perfect birthday card for the Fox News-hounds in our lives, featuring an adorable hijab-wearing doll with an explosive secret. Why is a tasteless greeting card newsworthy? Well, it turns out there's a little more going on behind the veil here.
Tom Scocca · 03/08/13 01:48PM
David Brooks Wishfully, Wrongly Believes the Chinese Have No Word for 'Nerd'
Tom Scocca · 03/02/13 03:07PMNew York Times columnist and culture scholar David Brooks had some thoughts this week about the difference between hardworking Chinese students and lazy American students. The Chinese, he wrote, see education as a moral enterprise, built around the cultivation of discipline and other internal virtues, while Westerners focus on learning about things and are hung up on "critical inquiry" and "sharing ideas."
All the People Working in Television More Significant Than Lena Dunham That We Could Think Up in Four Minutes
Hamilton Nolan · 02/15/13 03:07PMCharles Manson: America's Greatest Living Reality Star
Rich Juzwiak · 08/09/12 03:05PMLook at this guy. Like it or not, he's an American icon.
Acquiescent Nothingness Incessantly: A Glossary of Mariah Carey's 10-Cent Words
Rich Juzwiak · 08/03/12 11:20AMYesterday, Mariah Carey released the first single from her as-yet-untitled 14th album, “Triumphant (Get ‘Em).” She’s an odd nonfactor in her own song, singing the chorus, a bridge and some backup while guest rappers Meek Mill and Rick Ross do the heavy-lifting (she does the driving on a house remix, though).
If You Don't Want Your Daughter To Be a Little Asshole, Don't Send Her To Rushbiddies
Drew Magary · 07/17/12 03:20PMIn this world—the real world, where human beings are made of skin and bones and plasma—you are one of the many poor souls out there fighting to get (or keep) a job, to keep your bank account in the black just so that you can keep the water running and the lights on. You worry about the long-term future. How will I support a family? Is true success beyond the average American? Two decades from now, will I be even worse off than I am now? That's the real world.
Why Community Is the Most Popular Show on the Internet
Max Read · 04/11/12 03:00PMYesterday, Community, NBC's sitcom about the odd and endearing relationship between a diverse group of community college students, was named TV Guide Magazine's fan-favorite comedy, and its fan-favorite ensemble. Its time slot competitor Big Bang Theory, the Caltech-set CBS comedy about a pair of nerd genius roommates, didn't win in any category.
Little Girls Protest Iran Barbie Ban: Alternate Doll 'Ugly and Fat'
Maureen O'Connor · 01/18/12 12:50PMOoh boy. Here's a quote that speaks volumes, from Reuters' article about Iran's morality police "cracking down" on the sale of Barbie dolls, which is forbidden. Stores have been instructed to sell Iran's specially-designed, ultra-demure Sara and Dara dolls instead, to the disgust of the superficial girl tykes of Tehran:
Chinese Town Cancels Dog-Eating Festival
Lauri Apple · 09/25/11 11:26AMUkraine's First Nuclear Missile Museum Opens
Jeff Neumann · 08/25/11 04:26AM To celebrate its Independence Day, Ukraine yesterday officially opened the first, and most likely only, nuclear missile museum in the world there, the Pervomaisk Strategic Missile Forces Museum. Visitors can check out intercontinental ballistic missiles like "Satan" and "Sandal", as well as have a look around original bunkers. In the ITN video tour above, you also see a Soviet shitter that was used when the present day museum site was an active nuke silo. I'd go.
Marines Ban Noisy Farts in Afghanistan
Lauri Apple · 08/23/11 10:07PMIt Sucks When Link Can't Talk
Brian Ashcraft · 07/08/11 03:00AMLink is the strong, but silent type. Really, really silent. Like, he doesn't talk. Sometimes that's a good thing, because he's not blabbering on about stupid thing. Sometimes, it's really bad.