This week the Tate Modern in London opens a Damien Hirst exhibit that it’s calling the “first substantial survey” of the British artist’s work in twenty years. So if you have a hankering to see a dead shark suspended in formaldehyde—that would be his curiously titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living—or a human skull covered in 8,601 diamonds—the Tate is your place. And if you have £36,800—that’s nearly $59,000–to spend on a plastic skull dripped with multi-color paint, don’t miss the gift shop on your way out. You can also pick up a Damien Hirst-ian set of plates for £10,000 ($16,000) or, if you’re feeling cheap, a scarf for a mere £125 (a steal at $200). Continue reading
Dorothy Barker
23 posts
In a subway station in Tokyo you will find a tiny, windowless, sushi restaurant called Sukiyabashi Jiro. If you are lucky enough to get a reservation, you will pay upwards of $300 for a meal of fish and rice—the restaurant serves no appetizers; no miso soup, no salty bowls of edamame. The ten seats are booked months in advance. Foodies come from all over the world. Because this unprepossessing little underground establishment is one of the only sushi restaurants in the world to have garnered a 3-star (highest) rating from Michelin. After watching David Gelb’s delightful new documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, you’ll fantasize about booking a ticket to Tokyo. Continue reading
Sunday night is the 84th Academy Awards, ladies and gents, so get ready to indulge in our favorite love-to-hate-it yearly Hollywood ritual of glamour, self-love and flaccid jokes about how long the show is. Set your DVRs (the show starts with red carpet nonsense at 7EST/4PST on ABC) and start planning the themed snacks for your Oscar party now! (Poi for The Descendents? Hot dogs for Moneyball? Ah, hell, nothing’s gonna beat 1993, when in honor of The Piano, my brother made Lady Fingers.) Read on, will you? Continue reading
Showtime just ordered a second season of its newest “quirky/awful protagonist” series House of Lies. Well, congrats, I suppose, to the writers and producers, the cast and crew, the executives and transpo guys. You have a job for at least another year. And the network has what passes for a hit these days on television. But I wonder if this “quirky/awful protagonist” business—practically patented by Showtime with series like Weeds, Californication, and Nurse Jackie—is starting to fray around the edges, turning from something fresh and interesting into something curdled and coarse. Maybe it’s just over-exposure; these protagonists seem to be turning up everywhere, not just in these half hour cable “comedies” but in feature films as well. At what point do we go from thinking, “Wow, I’ve never seen a character like this before! As the lead! How delicious!” to thinking, “I just want to have a nice cup of tea and make it go away.” For me, I think, that turning point has happened. I’m done. I love you, Don Cheadle—I love you even more, Kristen Bell—but I’m done. Continue reading
During winters when I was a kid, my Dad insisted we wear real, proper shoes to school. I have no memory what type of shoes these were. Desert boots? Penny loafers, complete with shiny penny? Wee, child-sized Oxfords? No clue. I do vividly remember, however, the footwear I was desperate to wear to school instead. The footwear my father thought too flimsy to keep our feet warm through a New Jersey winter. The footwear I put in my bag and a few blocks from home, changed into, so desperate was I to have them on my feet, always. Sneakers. Continue reading
Unnerving, brutal and relentless are hardly words most people would use to describe sex. All of them apply to Steve McQueen’s new film Shame, but then, despite what you may have heard, the film isn’t actually about sex; it’s about addiction.
Sex happens to be the protagonist’s self-medicator of choice, Continue reading
“In one of the most unusual twists in niche programming, the global fast-food chain is launching the McDonald’s Channel, a digital network of exclusive original content targeted at dine-in customers.”—L.A.Times 10/17/11
Let’s program this thing, shall we?
6-10am: Good McMorning! As comforting as an Egg McMuffin, as sweet as a Cinnamon Melt, Good McMorning! is newsfotainment at its best! Greet your day with uplifting stories, interviews and cooking segments. That’s not heartburn you feel, that’s heartwarming. Hosts: Dave Coulier and Jenna Von Oy. Continue reading
It’s practically heresy to admit it in critical “cineaste” circles, but this is the truth: I like Romantic Comedies. When done well: There’s romance! There’s comedy! What’s not to like? Continue reading
She’s blonde. She’s pretty. She’s upbeat. She’s sweet. And she may be the most transgressive fictional character on screen right now, big or small. Her name is Leslie Knope. And I love her.
Confession: when Parks and Recreation first hit the airwaves in 2009, I didn’t quite get the show—or its central character played by Amy Poehler. I wanted to like it more than I did. It came with great auspices (Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, both of The Office), so I watched it, but something didn’t quite work for me.
I thought Leslie was a little too broad (starting with her joke of a name) and bordered on the silly. She was so happy. She didn’t seem all that smart. She couldn’t “read a room”. It felt like the creators were making fun of her, a comic technique that always leaves me cold. (If you don’t love your protagonist, why should I?) But as the show found its footing and improved (an oft reported ascension), and as the creators and Poehler refined and deepened the character, I started to see Leslie as something utterly fresh and new on television. Continue reading
His name is William Boyd. Anything? Though the British novelist has written twelve novels, numerous books of short stories and non-fiction, is a contemporary of Ian McEwan, Martin Amis and Kazu Ishiguro, has been short-listed for the Booker Prize and won the Whitbread Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, Boyd seems to fly under the radar of much of the literary cognoscenti. People I know who wouldn’t be caught dead not having read Atonement or Remains of the Day have often never even heard of Boyd. I’ve been doing my part, believe me; whenever anyone asks for a smart, gripping novel to read, I push Boyd on them. No one’s ever been disappointed. In fact, I think I’ve made more than a few lifelong fans. Continue reading