The Gaylord Texan is gay…and bright Ongoing The Gaylord Texan on Lake Grapevine has taken everything that’s big and lavish about a Texas Christmas and made it bigger. Who cares about snow when you can bask in the glory of 2 million pounds of hand-carved ice, right? The 14,000-square foot…
Hands down (and hands down her pants, from the sound of it), the funniest bit from the summer’s raunch smorgasbord The Aristocrats was hearing Sarah Silverman tell the infamously profane family-act joke at the center of Paul Provenza’s documentary. Where Robin Williams, Drew Carey, George Carlin and a hundred other…
With nearly 9 percent of the U.S. retail market to itself and $288 billion in annual sales, Wal-Mart takes in more revenue than most countries. And despite a swelling tide of allegations regarding unfair and illegal labor and environmental practices, Wal-Mart’s reign continues unmolested. In his latest documentary, director Robert…
It begins with a very literal cliffhanger. Five snowboarders–the best in their field, we’re told–are dropped via helicopter atop an Alaskan mountain called 7601, imaginatively named for its height above sea level. Swooping aerial shots around the peak convince us that it’s steep, high and dangerous. All they have are…
Boys will be girls in the British “panto” tradition, carried on again this holiday season by Theatre Britain in their intentionally over-the-top and utterly delightful production of Jack and the Beanstalk. The Brits do love putting actors in women’s wear. In panto (short for pantomime, though the silent aspects of…
The government gets a lot of flak for the things it allegedly does wrong. The most recent flub, of course, is FEMAs response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. There are also the mistakes of years past, like botching the investigation of John F. Kennedys assassination and arresting just one killer,…
Thursday, December 1 For 364 days and 22 hours out of the year, Starbucks is perfectly content charging you an arm and a leg for bad Ray Charles duet albums and frothy, fattening Frappucinos. But for two hours on Thursday, the coffee chain opens up its quick-beating caffeine-fueled heart to…
The word “vintage” often brings up thoughts of something old, dusty and set aside in someone’s basement. It can also refer to something timeless and sturdy, with just enough quirks to keep it fresh year after year. We bet we can guess which reference Dolly Parton’s crew was inspired by…
Eve Ensler brings us a new Body of work 12/6 Eve Ensler is moving up. So long, vagina–now she’s tackling the stomach. In physical distance, she’s traveled mere inches. But in terms of recognition and success, she’s staring down from a pretty tall peak. The Vagina Monologues, whose title is…
The Heads of State campaign for rock and roll 12/7 If I had my druthers, every wall of my room would be covered by Heads of State posters. No, not Bush, Cheney and Tony Blair–I’m talking about THE Heads of State, the coolest illustration and design shop in the U.S…
Santa parades for the kids 12/3 The morning after Halloween, I stepped off an airplane in Newark and was assaulted by the sounds of Alvin and the Chipmunks singing their obnoxious Christmas song. This was not OK on several levels, the least of which being my wicked hangover and foul…
Hall of Fame salutes athletes 12/3 From Kenya to Mississippi, black athletes have had a tremendous impact on the wide world of sports–for better or for worse. Remember the Ben Johnson 1988 Olympics scandal? How about NFL player Rae Carruth offing his woman? And of course you can’t have a…
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Fox) The pairing of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, both in real life and on celluloid, is so obvious as to be almost cartoonish. So even though both are better actors than they need to be, they perfectly belong in this goofy, explosiony world. Married assassins,…
If Hollywood wants to learn from the videogame industry — which outgrossed the box office last year — it should pay careful attention to Shadow of the Colossus, a game with the epic scale of a summer blockbuster but the emotional heart of an indie flick. Shadow is brought to…
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Empire) Caterina in the Big City (Empire) CSI: Five-Season Pack(Paramount) Death to the Supermodels (Columbia/Tristar) Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (Columbia/Tristar) Empire (Buena Vista) Family Guy: Volume 3 (Fox) Formula 17 (Strand) The Frighteners: Director’s Cut (Universal) The Hives: Tussles in Brussels (Universal Music) Hollywood…
Nashville and Little Rock have the Trail of Tears. Lower Manhattan has its African slave burial site. The North American Plains lay claim to the mass slaughter of that antediluvian woolly quadruped, the buffalo. And, in more recent time, Dallas calls its own the brain-shattering assassination of one very young…
Punishment Park (New Yorker Video) This 1971 movie from director Peter Watkins could have been made yesterday, which is no doubt why it finally sees video release long after accruing cult status. Born out of the filmmaker’s outrage over the Kent State killings, the war in Vietnam and other abominations…
A few weeks ago, Harold Ramis was sitting in a hotel conference room discussing the subtext of The Ice Harvest, his new film based on the novel by Scott Phillips and adapted by Robert Benton and Richard Russo. Ramis explained he took the project, which Benton (Nobody’s Fool, The Human…
There are two audiences for the movie New York Doll: those who know the lyrics to such songs as “Vietnamese Baby” and “Pills” (and probably formed a band or two after memorizing them), and those who know David Johansen only as the brassy retro showman Buster Poindexter (if that). The…
For those of us who dug Rob McKittrick’s recent comedy Waiting… , Just Friends offers up some good news: Ryan Reynolds and Anna Faris are together again as a dysfunctional couple. He’s a slick music executive named Chris Brander, still traumatized at having gotten the “Let’s just be friends” speech…
Ever since its Broadway debut in 1996, Rent has generated a loyal, almost cult-like following. Showered with praise, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical touched a nerve among the young, artistic, gay, urban and alternatively dressed people who identified as outsiders and wondered how they would make their way in the world…
The press notes for Pulse would have you believe that it predates many of the recent Japanese horror films that have been remade for American audiences, but that doesn’t seem to be true. It predates the U.S. remakes, yes; but according to the Internet Movie Database, Pulse came out in…
