culture

The Week in Movies: The Heat, White House Down, and I'm So Excited!

Maggie Lange · 06/28/13 04:42PM

Welcome to Annotate This, where we gather reviews, trailers, and annotate the posters for movies coming out this week. It will help you decide what to avoid, what to see, and what to pretend to see. Click on the image above to add your comments to the mix.

Here's a Bearded Larry David and Jon Hamm in Glasses in Clear History

Maggie Lange · 06/28/13 04:37PM

Here'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.

Detroit, Punk, and A Band Called Death

Maggie Lange · 06/27/13 03:31PM

Mark 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 04:00PM

Hi, 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.

Here Is Your Tasteless Muslim Terror-Bomber Birthday Greeting Card

Adam Weinstein · 05/03/13 09:07PM

Walking 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.

David Brooks Wishfully, Wrongly Believes the Chinese Have No Word for 'Nerd'

Tom Scocca · 03/02/13 03:07PM

New 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."

If You Don't Want Your Daughter To Be a Little Asshole, Don't Send Her To Rushbiddies

Drew Magary · 07/17/12 03:20PM

In 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.

Little Girls Protest Iran Barbie Ban: Alternate Doll 'Ugly and Fat'

Maureen O'Connor · 01/18/12 12:50PM

Ooh 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 11:26AM

If you've been gearing up for the annual dog eating festival in Jinhua City, China, you'll have to find something else to do that weekend: "Internet-savvy" animal rights activists and dog lovers convinced the local government to cancel the fest, originally scheduled for October.

Ukraine'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 10:07PM

As if being separated from their families while they defend their country and having to memorize Britney Spears lyrics weren't stressful enough, Marines serving downrange in Afghanistan can no longer fart loudly anymore. Noisy farts offend Afghans, reports the Marine Corps Times.

It Sucks When Link Can't Talk

Brian Ashcraft · 07/08/11 03:00AM

Link 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.