I'm partial to The Tempest' for 'Prospero's Books' and its influence on Kamau Brathwaite's postcolonial critical theory but the best Shakespeare depends on the situation. For example, I'm all for teaching Shakespeare in high school—and I have gotten to do so with mixed results—but certain plays are better left for…

I'd love to see Scofield as Lear—I used to teach 'The Crucible' to 11th graders and the highlight was getting to see how he embodied Puritannical power and authority in the film version.

I saw Buzzcocks several times in the mid 90's and they always put on a great show. The crowd would be aging Punks just like them but everybody sang along on the choruses in a feel-good way that I've never seen at any other Punk show.

Let me assure you Lovecraft they do exist.

"Remember the 1340's? We were doing a dance called the Catapult."

'The Spin Doctors…back when people liked them unironically" Anyone interested in doing the research could pinpoint the night of that prom to within a month.

Forget Durst, does Limp Bizkit's guitarist still look like a sleestak?

Rubbing it in for Generation X: Grunge was just the last (and the least) of what what we had. We had the late 70's and early 80's both for Pop and Punk, experienced the peak of College Rock/Alternative, saw the return of serious Club muisc and bore witness to the rise of Hip Hop through to the end of its Golden Age.…

Oddly enough the song 'Dazz' was by a band called 'Brick', while the Dazz Band is responsible for the similarly awesome 'Let it Whip':

Clarification—I never meant that the Punks were down on on Green Day for being like The Buzzcocks or The Jam, but for their own undeniable Poppiness and financial success. But I also think that if The Buzzcocks had come out in the late 90's they would would have had the kind of chart success in the US that Green Day…

More importantly, what's her man got to do with me?

It's not unlike advice I give in writing classes—both creative and essay writing. A lot of times people use the first paragraph or so to dance around the fire and only later do they jump in. It's often necessary work for the author to do to get in the right mindset, but it's not something the reader needs to be…

I hate American money. Greenbacks—whatever. Why can't I spend cash that looks like this?:

But you never know, sometimes they remain casual to retain amateur status, you know, for the Olympics.

Not to come to Tom's defense—he's not exactly an actor with range—but he's not the smartest guy in 'Eyes Wide Shut' either. He's a bankable face—that both works for and against him. At this point he's either acting with or against type. I'm reminded of one of the reasons why Kathryn Bigelow chose relative unknowns for…

Did someone really just say "J Malk"?

Which Twin has the Toni?
I'm not so old that I remember that actual campaign, but I'm old enough to remember it referenced in other media. It was kind of a catch phrase I think.

Most good Rock acts get about ten years and maybe five albums, but most Hip Hop acts get about three years and two. If they are lucky, they get to parlay their stage persona into a minor acting career (because it is an act most of the time) and continue to make a living in showbiz. If they are somewhat less lucky,…

Ludacris' Prosody
"when the battle of the sexes leads to a sweaty truce between the sheets, everyone emerges a winner"

That would be a funny joke, Joe, if the British hadn't given us all the greatest Synthpop acts in history (after Kraftwerk).