I had a remarkably similar experience. It sounds weird to say, but I really didn't realize until around that point that coming from a somewhat poor family was, like, something that I specifically was supposed to be ashamed of. My response was basically, "yes, I did get these shoes at Payless, because shoes are a lot…

That's a great example.

This might be a weird comparison, but I have the same problem with this Adele album (and half of her last one) that I have with a lot of mid-career Nas records. Adele is an incredible singer, one of the very best in pop music; Nas, even in his lesser years, is an incredible rapper, one of the best in hip-hop. And yet…

The positive to take away from all this is that, had he been making this announcement 25 years ago, Charlie Sheen would have been more or less announcing his own imminent death. Now, there's no reason to think he won't live comfortably for another several decades (unless his inherent Charlie Sheenishness accelerates…

I have a good friend who's been involved in concert production for years. He's worked tons of big concerts, the Eagles, Coachella, Britney Spears, Usher, etc. I once asked him what the most difficult act he'd ever had to work with was, and without a moment's hesitation he said "Kidz Bop Live." I asked him why, and he…

It's an important clarification. Government agents murdering someone because of something he said is a Stalinist tactic. Government agents making vague yet ominous threats to destroy someone's livelihood because of something he said is more like an East German Stasi tactic.

I was honestly a bit confused by my reaction watching Brooklyn. The whole time I was thinking, "all of these characters are…nice people. Like, really nice, almost all the time. They don't drink or swear or screw each other over, they volunteer at the church, everyone's really sincere and no one has a dark past. And…

Exactly.

What I find interesting is the fact that Gamergate has actually caused an enormous uptick in the amount of credible, objective journalism about video games from traditional media outlets. Of course, almost all of that uptick in ethical video game journalism comes from the flood of articles about Gamergate itself,…

It's truly bizarre. I honestly had never streamed any sports illegally until the European soccer team I follow disappeared from all cable packages, and then my *hometown* MLB team decided fighting with cable carriers was more important than having its games on TV. (Seriously - I can actually see the stadium from my…

What saddens me the most about the Village Voice is that its old editorial structure would have been an ideal fit for the online landscape. Not just because of its tone, but also because it always mixed very established writers with very young writers getting their first bylines. So you would have these young…

NOOOO!

Couple things:

At least 15 of these are surprisingly good ideas.

Whenever I see a particularly pointless internet mashup or supercut — and they're all pretty pointless, but some, like this one, are considerably more pointless than others — I can't help but wonder about the psychological health of the person who made it. What would have compelled them to do this? When they first…

Here's what I think happened with the Doors: they were always a pretty good rock band with several great songs, some filler, and some crap. But then somehow, at some point, the rock cognoscenti decided that: A) The Doors should be elevated to the pantheon of Great Bands; and B) Jim Morrison should be taken at least…

As a general fan of really dense, tangent-heavy literature, I'd always scoffed at people who talked about skimming through long paragraphs of description to "see what happens next."

I wish I could hear that emotion. I know everyone else seems to hear it…I am totally open to the idea that the problem is me. When I went to see them, I seemed to be the only one out of thousands who wasn't having fun.

Pavement — all day, every day. I have had at least half a dozen friends over
the years who've made it their mission to get me into Pavement. People with very similar musical tastes to my own tend to like Pavement a lot. I love a great number of newer bands who have cited Pavement among their biggest influences. I…

So a guy we've never heard of, who has absolutely zero say in the casting of major motion pictures, gives a stupid reason for why he theoretically wouldn't cast a certain actor — who has never expressed an interest in the role — into a role that is currently filled. Confronted by the internet for the stupidity of this…