November 25, 2011
The Idler is taking the week off for Thanksgiving, so we’ll be re-posting some of our favorite posts from the past few months.
After Danish film director Lars Von Trier’s remarks at the Cannes Film Festival in which he called himself a “Nazi” and “sympathetic to Hitler,” Kevin Mattison reflected on his own conflicted history watching Von Trier’s films in “A rock in the shoe: my love-hate relationship with Lars Von Trier, Pt. 1”
And Kevin continued his gentle dissection of Lars Von Trier, finding evidence of his unique brand of aesthetic sadism in 2003’s The Five Obstructions and finally taking a close look at what might possibly have motivated him to call himself a Nazi at Cannes in “A rock in the shoe: my love-hate relationship with Lars Von Trier, Pt. 2”
November 24, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving!
The Idler is taking the week off for Thanksgiving, so we’ll be re-posting some of our favorite posts from the past few months.
You’ve read the Harry Potter books, you’ve seen the movies, you know all about what happens at the end. Except you’ve got it all wrong. J. K. Rowling says that Harry becomes an auror, but Gavin Craig lets you in on what really happens in “After the end: a Harry Potter counterfictional”
November 23, 2011
The Idler is taking the week off for Thanksgiving, so we’ll be re-posting some of our favorite posts from the past few months.
Sarah Werner watches the films of Paul Newman and comes to an inescapable conclusion. Read “Paul Newman is hot”
November 22, 2011
The Gamers’ Club is playing EarthBound. Read “Dungeon Man in the sand” by Daniel J. Hogan
November 21, 2011
The Idler is taking the week off for Thanksgiving, so we’ll be re-posting some of our favorite posts from the past few months.
Jill Kolongowski doesn’t just look at you, she looks at what you’re drinking, and she judges you for it. Find out “What that drink says about you”
November 14-18, 2011
While clever dialogue often dominates contempory filmmaking, when directors let a well crafted silence do its work, the results can be extraordinary. Kevin Mattison shares some of the better examples in “The silence that says everything”
In her new column “Over the Boards,” Yael Borofsky revisits the moment that she fell in love with hockey, and tries to figure out why such a fast-paced, physical, fan-friendly sport struggles to find a broader audience. Read “Hockey and the machine”
Shane and Chris Houghton’s Reed Gunther Volume 1 came out last week, the first graphic novel for their hit comic book series about the affable misadventures of the beguiling, bear-riding cowboy of the same name. Rosemary Van Deuren talks to the Houghton brothers about why “all-ages” doesn’t mean “kids only” in “Reed Gunther: An interview with Shane and Chris Houghton”
Sarah Pavis says that Parks and Recreation is one of the funniest shows on TV right now, but if you’re going to dig up old episodes on Netflix, you should skip the first season and start with season 2. Find out why in “From cringe to cheer: The evolution of foible in Parks & Recreation”
The Gamers’ Club is playing EarthBound. Read “Oh, Poo” by Daniel J. Hogan and “Taking dad’s advice” by Gavin Craig
As winter approaches, new Californian Jill Kolongowski finds that she doesn’t miss the snow so much as the winter rituals, so she pulls out the crock pot. Read “Winter in California: turkey white bean pumpkin chili”
November 7-11, 2011
Mike Vincent watches Pearl Jam Twenty and looks back at a band that he’s loved, and not loved. Read “The shadow of the 90s”
A tattoo is a way to inscribe one’s history, one’s family, one’s self on one’s own body. Ana Holguin traces those inscriptions in “Skin writing”
Are you looking for some Shakespeare that’s a bit off the beaten ruffled-cuffs-and-iambic-pentameter path? Or are you possibly looking to smuggle some of the bard into a loved one’s film diet without them realizing? Either way, Sarah Werner hooks you up in “Shakespeare with a difference”
The Gamers’ Club is playing EarthBound. Read “Cut!” by Daniel J. Hogan
To cheese, or not to cheese? Gavin Craig traces the way tastes can change over time (and solves a bit of a mystery) in “A tale of two cheeses”
October 31-November 3, 2011
Peter S. Beagle is a novelist, poet, screenwriter, songwriter and — in the words of Tad Williams — “a bandit prince out to steal readers’ hearts.” His best-known work is the novel and fantasy phenomenon The Last Unicorn, which has sold over five million copies, been translated into twenty languages, and was adapted for the 1982 animated film of the same name, for which he also wrote the screenplay. Read Rosemary Van Deuren’s “Interview with Peter S. Beagle”
The Gamers’ Club is playing EarthBound. Read “Getting somewhere (sort of)” by Gavin Craig, “Problems” by Daniel J. Hogan, and “Expectations” by Andrew Simone
You may or may not trick-or-treat anymore, but you’ll end up with Halloween candy anyway. (How does that happen, every year?) Jill Kolongowski helps you sort through your stash in “Trash or treasure: Halloween candy edition”
October 24-28, 2011
Kevin Mattison doesn’t know how it happened, but he nearly missed Halloween, and AMC’s Fear Fest horror movie marathon. Fortunately, nearly missing and actually missing are totally different things. Tune in at the last minute with him in “I almost lost Halloween, or, How AMC saved my Halloween…again”
Mike Vincent has found himself a bit distracted lately, but he has a few samples of what’s been running around in his head (including video) in “Missing in action”
Can’t find your favorite childhood Halloween special on TV this year? Chances are pretty good that it’s on YouTube. Lindsey Malta gives you a guide in “Very special Halloween specials”
Ana Holguin wraps up her round up of her favorite new fall TV shows in “What I’m Watching: Roundup finale”
After The Dirty Dozen, but before The Expendables, there was Play Dirty, an action movie about Michael Caine pulling together a ragtag buch of recruits with troubled pasts to. . . oh, I’ll just let Daniel J. Hogan tell you about it in “Play Dirty”
The Gamers’ Club is playing EarthBound. Read “Hokey Pokey” by Daniel J. Hogan, “Make or break” by Gavin Craig, and “I loathe this game” by Andrew Simone
Gavin Craig launches a new column, “The Friendly Foodie,” with a non-apology for jerks and snobs. Read “Food, foodies, and jerks”
October 17-20, 2011
Lindsey Malta loves a good fart joke (who doesn’t?), but even her sense of humor has its gross-out limits. Find out what they are in “Bad swag”
Ana Holguin continues her round up of her favorite new fall TV shows in “What I’m Watching: The New Girl”
The Gamers’ Club is playing EarthBound. Read “They call me Mr. Saturn” by Daniel J. Hogan and “I don’t feel well” by Gavin Craig
Jill Kolongowski gets backs to vegetables by taking on broccoli rabe. Only one of them emerges. I won’t tell you which one. Read “Broccoli robbed”
