One Helluva Trip

Today Sarah asked me, “What is your favorite movie?” I only had to think for a moment before I responded: “The Trip.” When the movie came to Champaign, I saw it in the theatre three times in two weeks, twice …

WILW: The Rhineland

Here’s to Cincinnati, the Queen of the West A dirty old city, but still nobly blest. For it’s here that fine arts with the frivolous twine, A veritable Deutschland just Over the Rhine. toast to Cincinnati, from Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine by Kevin …

The Women (And One Very Funny Girl) of TV Comedy, Part Two

Parks and Recreation (NBC) and Outnumbered (BBC) boast two of current TV’s funniest casts, thanks largely to the female characters. Parks and Rec’s cast is an embarrassment of riches, and just about every character is funny in her/his own way. …

The ALIEN Series (1979-2012): Between Politics and Religion and Between Quality and Quantity

The Alien series which began with Ridley Scott’s film in 1979 has at least six installments. There may be more, but I simply do not have the interest or the patience to seek them out. Besides Scott’s film, the series …

Thanks for the (Somewhat Sexist?) Memories: Farewell to NBC’s The Office

As you might have heard, NBC’s once-beloved faux-documentary series will end it’s nine-year run on May 16th, and I’m having mixed feelings. I have always been a major fan of the show, and before it, the BBC version starring Ricky …

The Women (And One Very Funny Girl) of TV Comedy, Part One

Over the last few years on American television, and over the last five to ten years on British television, women have made significant achievements in the realm of comedy. In some ways, one could argue that TV women have never …

Not Just Another French Love Triangle: Eric Rohmer’s My Night at Maud’s (1969)

The loose cinematic “movement” known as the French New Wave may have begun as early as 1954, with Agnes Varda’s La Pointe Courte. Or in 1958 with Claude Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge (Handsome Serge). Or in 1959 with a stunning …

WILW: Art Nouveau

Lance and I have a fundamentally different approach to art: he likes French New Wave, I like reality television dating shows; he likes to discuss lofty concepts like agency in modern technology, I like to pretend the characters on It’s Always …

Don’t Say F*#! Howard the Duck: In Defense of a 1986 Cultless Classic

Sarah hates Howard the Duck.  When I mention it, she becomes physically ill and irate all at once.  She has the same feelings when I make her watch Giada at Home or Giada’s Weekend Getaways, or if she even hears …

Schlock Attacks!

[WARNING!: Spoilers will attack below.] When Mars Attacks! was released in 1996, it was overshadowed in its subject matter by one of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters of the 1990s in Independence Day and pitted against a lot of multiplex fare …