I've never understood people who don't like "E.T." (which I think is a frigging masterpiece about the end of a lonely boy's childhood, but I digress) but drool and slobber over "The Goonies." Probably says a lot about people's attention spans. ("E.T." is very deliberate and works its spell slowly and carefully; "The…

Yes, you do.

Harry Potter is…fine. It's in a very long tradition of British fantasy literature for children (something the U.S. is notably lacking for the most part, aside from Oz), including Carroll, Barrie, Travers, Lofting, Lewis, Tolkien, etc. etc. So when people breathlessly extol Rowling's "imagination" and "brilliance"…

I hate "no win" scenarios and bullies, and by default that's how most gangsters—and gangs—operate.

If you watch it with a degree of schadenfreude—those napping girls at Twelve Oaks look like a bunch of dolls waiting to be thrown on the floor and smashed—it's fascinating. These (white) people have no idea what's coming, and that their lives are based on a lie & subjugating people just like themselves aside form…

If I was giving out Emmys, Rob Lowe would be a walk for his plummy, self-satisfied brilliance on "The Grinder." But as good as that show is (VERY good), I think "Grandfathered" is warmer, sweeter, and is becoming more and more generous with its ensemble, and letting them shine in a wider variety of ways. Based on…

At its best, "Peanuts" walked a fine line between surrealism/deadpan humor, and vaudeville. One of my favorites had Lucy leaning on the piano while Schroeder plays and Snoopy is playing violin atop it; he eventually becomes wildly possessed by the music and dances for about 6 frames before finally bowing to…

Oh my God, I literally just quoted that strip at the gym the other day. :) "Well, what do you know—Joe Shlabotnik!"

Gary Marshall also did "Frankie and Johnny," which is absolutely wonderful and features one of Michelle Pfeiffer's best performances ever, as well as a last five minutes that are absolutely luminous. Give credit where credit is due. (And "Laverne and Shirley" still holds up, as sublimely performed slapstick goes.)

Riffing on a few other people's examples: when Ripley comes out in the loader armor in "Aliens" and drops her big line, the place erupted in cheers and screams. "E.T." (at a sneak preview) is the only film I've ever seen where not only did the audience burst into applause during the final bicycle flight, but they…

Pick up ":The Great TV Sitcom Book"—Esther Rolle was fit to be tied that JJ became the focus of the show, as he was everything you DIDN'T want in a role model. She left the series as well, but came back for the ending in a last-ditch attempt to save it (too late).

The gays do this too, trust me. (Especially if a hate crime turns out to be self-staged.)

I was waiting for them to address the interesting quirk in many Asian families of naming boys after US Presidents, as in "Better Luck Tomorrow."

I made the mistake of hanging out on The Grio the other day in a thread that started talking about Elvis. Yes, people are still very, very mad, as long as we're discussing cultural appropriation. (BTW, for everyone who dismisses Elvis' singing of "Hound Dog" as a rip-off of Big Mama Thorton: the song was written by…

Ironically, I was just listening to Streisand's droll "Marty the Martian" while driving the other day, which yokes 1950's/60's it-came-from-outer-space heebie-jeebies to Streisand's nice-Jewish-girl-looking-for-a-decent-guy comedic schtick. The punchline is ridiculous, yet absolutely appropriate and oddly romantic: ht…

Garland's version is such a blast, and the introduction to the song, though lengthy, is hysterical, making full use of her underrated, absurdist sense of humor.

Even in the 80's, I liked Prince more than Michael Jackson. Jackson seemed to be creating some sort of man-child-martyr persona that creeped me out (even then, I had an antenna), but Prince was so flat-out, "This is who I am and I will not apologize; get on the bus, or get left in the parking lot." It galls me that…

He was one of the few artists I had on my bucket list. :( Alas.

While wearing Raspberry berets.

I'm posting this here because I don't know where else to: 1) which episode had Barry going to Lainey's house, and her dad hollering something like, "Lainey! The boy with the weird eyebrows who yells is here!" So dead-on. 2) Is there going to be another episode soon with Adam spluttering "Balls!" anytime soon? It's…