Jolly’s opening ceremony drew on all kinds of performing arts, stitching together musical phrases from The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Georges Bizet’s Carmen, and a thrilling set by the French heavy metal band Gojira at the Conciergerie. (Later on, in another engaging display of Paris’s cultural diversity, the rapper Rim’K, wearing a checkered … Read more
John Frankenheimer’s 1966 Formula 1 epic film “Grand Prix” kicks so much ass. This movie shredded the rulebook of filmmaking when it was created, and film became all the better for it. It’s three hours of incredible camerawork, impeccable acting, and powerful storytelling. As a piece of art it’s a bit messy, overlong, and plodding … Read more
I just watched “Twisters” in 4DX – something you all should be doing right now – and I wholeheartedly loved the movie. Everything about it screamed summer blockbuster fun, but something I really appreciated was the references to the 1996 original (one of my favorite films of all time). It had just the right amount … Read more
Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” became the first rap song to ever be transmitted into deep space last week when NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) beamed the Grammy Award-winning artist’s lyrics 158 million miles away to the planet Venus. Missy Misdemeanor’s iconic first single joins The Beatles’ “Across The Universe” as the only … Read more
Back in 2010, NASA made a video game. It was called Moonbase Alpha, and it was meant to simulate what it would actually be like to maintain a lunar colony. Just two weeks after its launch, however, Moonbase Alpha was famous for a different reason: The Microsoft Sam-sounding voice that read out your chat messages. … Read more
Like most human beings, I am a massive fan of gymnast Simone Biles, so when I heard that her life and road to recovery after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics would be the subject of a four-part Netflix docuseries, I was thrilled. Every part of Biles’s life is on the table in Simone Biles Rising, from … Read more
Gabbriette wasn’t always so comfortable in her own skin, but she was determined. She started modeling in her last year of school, appearing in an American Apparel ad. “I never got paid, but I was like, ‘Mom, Dad: I’m not going to college, because I’m going to be a model.’” The modeling career she’d promised … Read more
The best history podcasts actually have a lot to say about the present. After all, as novelist Pearl Buck once poignantly put it: “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.” With current global affairs shifting at an ever-quickening pace and an important election on the horizon, there’s never been a better … Read more
A few months ago, as I was leaving the Elysian Theater in Los Angeles, I noticed something unusual. When a comedy set is over, I’m used to seeing audiences file out of the venue looking mildly relieved to be free. But the people at Trans-It Girls, a show put on by Hayden Johnson and Nori … Read more
If you’ve ever heard an ice cream truck playing a little jingle as it drove down your street on a hot summer day, you’ve been touched by the marketing genius of Bob Nichols. You’ve never heard of him, but he’s the guy responsible for all of the music that gets played out of nearly every … Read more
