(Lev Grossman writes about books here on Wednesdays. Subscribe to his RSS feed.)
I wanted to start this post by saying that everybody’s done it, at least once or twice, but probably that’s not true. I know it’s a weakness. …
Willy Loman’s Legacy: Broadway’s Soaring Prices
How premium seating and critics have fomented a class divide on Broadway
Grizzly Bear Announces New Album Will Drop September 18
The acclaimed indie group’s first album in three years “represents the band’s most charged and concise collection of music to date”
Tuned InAdvertising
Disney Nixes Junk-Food Ads Aimed at Kids. Can Good Health Be Good Business?
Children’s TV programming and junk food have been tied since the beginnings of the medium, as in the above video of an early Mickey Mouse Club, sponsored by “your friendly neighbor who bottles Coca-Cola.” Now, however, the Disney corporation plans to kick ads for many sugary and fatty foods off its programming (including ABC Saturday …
It’s His Prerogative: Bobby Brown’s Comeback Album Pays Tribute to Whitney Houston
Brown’s first solo album in 14 years discusses ‘loss’ and ‘healing’ after ex-wife’s death
Prometheus: Alien Minus One
Ridley Scott, director of the 1979 horror-space classic, revisits the franchise with a prequel so close to the original in its scare tactics, it’s practically a pre-make
Tuned InTelevision
The Morning After: Wheel Women
Cable TV has given us reality shows about attractive young urbanites in all kind of permutations: geographic (The Real Housewives of Your City Here), ethnic (Shahs of Sunset), and occupational (Million-Dollar Listing, et al.). …
The Bachelorette Watch: Bermuda Bound
The Bachelorette travels to the Bermuda Triangle and no one disappears
Post Script: Mad Men‘s Jared Harris on Lane Pryce’s Final Act
Until very recently, Jared Harris held major roles in two popular TV shows — as David Robert Jones on Fringe and as Lane Pryce on Mad Men. Then, in less than a month, the respective show runners killed off both of his …
Beach Boys’ ‘Radio’ Tunes Into Summer Nostalgia
The Beach Boys’ That’s Why God Made the Radio — the first collaboration in decades between founding members Brian Wilson and Mike Love — proves harmony never gets old
Hangin’ Up the Guitar: Do Bands Ever Retire?
Recent reunions — by everyone from Afghan Whigs and The Stone Roses to The Beach Boys and Megadeth — prove bands don’t go away. They just hibernate
Tuned InRemembrance
Richard Dawson, 1932–2012
Richard Dawson, actor, game show host and professional charmer, died Saturday at age 79. Dawson first came to fame on American televisions as good-humored British POW Cpl. Newkirk on Hogan’s Heroes, but he was best-known as a sly, saucy daytime TV conversationalist on Match Game and, most famously, Family Feud.
On Match Game, that …
Jane on the Brain: Austen Advice-Book Trend Peaks
Why didn’t it take much Persuasion for today’s self-help readers to turn to 200-year-old guidance?