question of the day: Where is the dividing line between art and advertising?
Can the two ever be separated? Do you find it harder to appreciate something as art if its primary purpose is to sell something to you?
Washington Post
question of the weekend: Does it freak you out to hear that scientists have discovered a “second Earth”?
If you’re any kind of proper geek like me, you probably squee’d at the news. But apparently it bothers some people immensely…
must reads: “Why Is TV Suddenly Overstuffed With Buxom Bunnies, Sexy Stewardesses, and Charlie’s Angels?”
Gosh, it’s like the 60s — the early 60s — are returning with a vengeance.
Will Smith as Robin Hood?; a Wolverine with depth?; ‘Narnia’ upsets Jesus-y types; more: leftover links
Plus: a whole ton of stuff about Wikileaks and Julian Assange…
Mark Wahlberg admits ‘The Happening’ was terrible; Billy Bob Thornton says Hollywood is terrible; a female Old Spice Man spoof; more: leftover links
Plus: first-grader teased over her Star Wars water bottle; journalistic ethics getting a workout; saga of a film critic banned from screenings who got her buddies at The New York Times to intervene; more…
question of the day: Was Stephen Colbert’s in-character testimony before Congress last week inappropriate?
Did Colbert’s right-wing gasbag routine have a greater impact than it otherwise would have if Colbert had testified as himself?
question of the day: Does it help or hurt when real-life cops connect the Times Square would-be bombing to Jack Bauer and ‘24’?
It was bad enough when politicians and pundits hellbent on turning the United States into some sort of Orwellian nightmare of vanished civil liberties, all in the name of keeping us “safe,” invoked the right-wing wet dream that is Jack Bauer and 24. From high-tech toys that spy on anybody to the right to torture … more…
get your Easter candy sugar rush early
And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for: the announcement of the winners of the fourth annual Washington Post Peeps Diorama Contest. It’s not this one, riffing on Mad Men: Nor is it Alfred Hitchcock’s The Peeps: You’ll just have to click through to find out which entry won. (It is movie-related, as well … more…
question of the day: Is ABC’s aerial stunt to promote ‘V’ worth getting our green panties in a twist over?
Lisa de Moraes in The Washington Post takes on ABC over an announced scheme to promote the about-to-debut series reboot of V: The next time ABC and its parent company Disney start thumping their chests about how they’re “going green,” please spit in their eye and remind them of Monday’s announcement that the broadcast network … more…
question of the day: How come so many people don’t understand the purpose of film criticism?
Here’s something else we can blame Michael Bay for: making film critics the most hated people in America, at least for the moment. This is not at all ironic, because Bay’s movie panders (as all his movies do) to the most unthinking, uncritical, unself-aware reflexes of lowest-common-denominator audiences. I am not saying that everyone who … more…
