New York Times media columnist David Carr has an intriguing piece today about a wonky but potentially influential Columbia Journalism School report on how to how to save newspapers—or, more specifically, the newsgathering that those papers do—as it becomes more apparent that their advertising-based business model is threatened.
A …
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, spray on your Aqua Net and watch last night’s Mad Men.
Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the ubiquitous Obama “Hope” poster, admitted over the weekend that he had lied about which photo he used as the basis for the image. Ouch.
As I mentioned yesterday, my visit to the Monty Python reunion means I have a greater Thursday-TV backlog than usual. (I did catch the weak, overly wacky “Mafia” episode of The Office, which doesn’t require much comment.) So use this space to discuss any of last night’s shows. In the meantime, I’m thinking of taking the advice of one …
You don’t know how adorable it can be for a 10-year-old girl to impersonate a Spanish Inquisitor until you’ve seen it in person. Last night, as the five surviving members of Monty Python reunited on stage at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City, they were temporarily upstaged by Talia, a girl they invited onstage to perform her …
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI6UONWCq7A]
For a few horrifying hours yesterday, TV news and its audience thought they might be witnessing the death of a child in real time. Instead, it turned out we were literally distracted by a shiny object. The silvery experimental balloon hurtling through the air over Colorado did not, it …
In this week’s print TIME magazine, I review the cartoon empire of Seth MacFarlane, who dominates Fox’s Animation Domination with three animated sitcoms on Sunday nights. (And in his spare time, besides appearing in FlashForward, is going to do a variety special for Fox and Microsoft.) Regular readers will not be surprised that I am …
As I write this, we don’t know if the story of the Mylar balloon that went sailing over Colorado, attracting wall-to-wall TV news coverage, was tragic or not. We don’t know if it was real or a hoax, if six-year-old Falcon Heene was ever in the balloon. But it is undoubtedly a strange story. And, it turns out, the Heene family has been in …
Because there was a heavier than usual influx last week of art stories that needed fast attention I postponed comment on the design for the new home of the much-fought-over Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, which was unveiled last week. So, taking a deep breath…
As Jamie Weinman at MacLean’s has noted, there seems to be a little bit of a critical backlash out there against 30 Rock, which returns tonight on NBC. Having seen the first two episodes of the season, I both get the pushback and don’t get it. On the one hand, they show off the show’s brilliance at topical commentary and throwaway jokes, …
With last night’s episode, Modern Family cemented its claim as strongest new comedy of the fall. A few thoughts:
* I hadn’t really realized, before last night, that we hadn’t seen any meaty scenes with Claire and Mitchell interacting as brother and sister. With the arrival of Mom (Shelley Long) providing the excuse, this episode added …
First a little programming note: I’m going to be at the Ziegfeld Theater tonight,where the five surviving members of Monty Python will be honored for their 40th anniversary, after a screening for the theatrical cut of the new Python documentary, Almost the Truth: The Lawyer’s Cut. (The full, six-hour version begins airing on IFC Sunday …
Spoilers for last night’s Glee coming up after the jump: