Most people would consider Kris Kristofferson’s accomplishments as a songwriter and musician enough to qualify his as one hell of a life well-lived. But Kristofferson has succeeded at everything he’s tried in his life, whether it be acting ( Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia , Convoy , The Wendell Baker Story ), sports […]
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German Engineering
Forget Harley-Davidsons and 20-something girlfriends — the newest trend for male leads having their second mid-life crisis is action films. Two years ago, 50-something Liam Neeson starred in the surprisingly OK Taken , a high-body-count revenge flick that had him practicing his “combat roll and reload” sequences. His latest foray is Unknown , a good-enough-for-February […]
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Cutting Room for February 23
It’s official, Baz Luhrmann’s impending favor to high school English students (aka, a new remake of The Great Gatsby) will be shot in 3D. You know, because social allegories are more wicked awesome when things fly at your head. Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan are rumored to star, so at least the faces […]
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Death and Debt
Set in a dismal-looking Barcelona and following a character with amazingly bad luck, Biutiful slathers on the misery like few other movies do. But misery is nothing new for its director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, the man behind several other bleak pictures, including Amores Perros and 21 Grams . Biutiful is a big movie that’s slightly […]
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Daily Dump for Tuesday (February 22)
Last week’s unexpected absence was…unexpected… Riiiight. Look, I’m not going to pretend I’m not slightly off my game. I could go into the blah-blah-blah and rigmarole that has resulted in more disruptions in my publishing schedule in the last 3 months than in the last 3 years, but you come here to be entertained and […]
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Truckers’ Narrator
Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood has garnered a well-earned reputation for his songwriting by telling detail-rich accounts of southern rock, methamphetamine addiction and George Wallace’s final damnation, among other things. So when the Reader was offered a chance to send Hood some questions, we jumped at the chance to crawl into one of rock ‘n’ roll’s […]
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It’s True spills release show details
* Mark April 2 on your calendar because it’s going to be the show of the spring. Queens of the Stone Age are playing the Sokol Auditorium, 2234 S. 13th St., as part of a run-of-date celebrating the re-issue of their long out-of-print self-titled debut album. The show will feature entire albums, non-album cuts from […]
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Hotter Than a Pistol
Listen once to Smith Westerns’ Dye It Blonde to pick out all the reference points, then listen some more for the gleeful abandon evident as this young Chicago band makes The Beatles, T. Rex, Brit-pop, David Bowie and power-pop signifiers in their own slapdash image. Guitarist Max Kakacek doesn’t dodge those influence questions, but instead […]
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Monsters Vs. Illegal Aliens
Don’t let the generic title of Monsters fool you — it’s really a pretty unique film. With an estimated budget of 0,000, which is the latte and donuts budget for most Hollywood movies, Monsters offers some surprisingly big-time special effects. (Lorazepam) But the real story behind the film’s creation is its super-cheap on-location guerilla shooting […]
Posted inFood
App-etizer for chocolate lovers
* Would-be chocolatiers have a new weapon in their arsenal via the latest iPhone app from master chocolate-maker Jacques Torres. His new app, MrChocolate, offers a virtual tour of his Brooklyn chocolate factory/retail outlet, a chocolate glossary, and the history of chocolate, all for free. An upgrade will get you access to how-tos, techniques and […]