Archive for May, 2011
30
May
Posted by NPI in Monday Medley. Tagged: mets, Yankees, Sports Illustrated, Lester Freamon, Tyler Cowen, Bob Dylan, Bernie Madoff, wright thompson, jorge posada, Jeffrey Toobin, tiki barber, time magazine, facebook, the awl, oprah, Rolling Stone, Harvard, phil hartman, spelling, Parks and Recreation, Bill Clinton, Amy Poehler, Bob Dylan birthday, Phase Two, Fred Wilpon, David Cone, Othello, Jimmy McNulty, Clarke Peters, Dominic West, Iago, The Wire and Shakespeare, Gil Scott-Heron, godfather of rap, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Who Will Survive in America?, crack, The Village Voice, l. jon wertheim, tom verducci, harvey updyke, Business Week, conjoined twins, genderless child. Leave a Comment
What we read while Oprah commenced Phase Two… Bob Dylan celebrated his 70th birthday last week, and John S wasn’t the only one to mark the occasion. The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and American Songwriter were among those to rank his best songs. Time also included a list of his worst. The Independent listed 70 reasons why [...]
Continue reading »
26
May
Posted by John S in Comedy, Film. Tagged: Bridesmaids, Comedy, female comedy, grand extrapolations about society, gross out humor, humor, Judd Apatow, Kristen Wiig, laughs, male comedy, nervous laughter, noise, toilet humor, volume, vomiting and defecating. Leave a Comment
The popularity of “toilet humor” is a commonly accepted, and often lamented, fact of comedy. Some—particularly fans of “smart” comedy—complain that a meticulously well-crafted punchline will sometimes get less of a laugh than a hackneyed fart joke. People also tend to read a lot into the popularity of crass humor, citing it as an example [...]
Continue reading »
24
May
Posted by John S in Culture, Music, Ranking Bob Dylan Songs. Tagged: birthdays, blues, Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan birthday, Bob Dylan Rankings, Down the Highway, Exodus, happy 70th bob, highway motifs, I'm Not There, Italy, Ranking Bob Dylan Songs, Rankings, Suze Rotolo, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Todd Haynes. 1 Comment
http://www.vbox7.com/play:1ccec3f1?r=google The Bob Dylan Rankings have been on an extended hiatus, but they’re back today—in honor of Dylan’s 70th birthday— with “Down the Highway,” from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. It’s something of an odd selection: In addition to not being a particularly memorable song, it’s also incongruous with Dylan hitting an age so neatly associated [...]
Continue reading »
23
May
Posted by NPI in Monday Medley. Tagged: airplane!, Alan Sepinwall, Amy Poehler, Barack Obama, Beatles, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bradley Manning, Community, Dan Harmon, Hendrik Hertzberg, Israel policy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, ken jeong, Ken Tremendous, Legal Writing, Lenny Dykstra, Louie, Louis C.K., Michael Schur, New York City, New York Magazine, Parks and Recreation, Paul McCartney, photography, Sentencing, Sheryl Sandberg, showrunners, showrunners issue, the rapture. Leave a Comment
What we read while believers got their comeuppance… With the end of television season, New York Magazine published a “showrunners” issue, including interviews with Dan Harmon of Community, Louis C.K. of Louie, and Amy Poehler of Parks and Recreation. Another Parks & Rec star talks about his most famous television role. Meanwhile, the show’s co-creator, Michael Schur, [...]
Continue reading »
17
May
Posted by NPI in NPI Comes Alive!, TV, TV on the Radio. Tagged: anticlimaxes, best Survivors ever, boston rob, Boston Rob perfection, Christianity on Survivor, Grant and Rob, jeff probst, just v. unjust Survivor outcomes, Ometepe, parvati shallow, redemption island, survivor, Survivor reunion, Survivor romance, Survivor: Redemption Island, Zapatera. Leave a Comment
As if Tim hasn’t written enough on the subject, today he’s teaming up with John S to break down the finale (and reunion!) of Survivor: Redemption Island. Was this season exciting? Was Rob a villain? Was Philip actually crazy? Who was better looking: Andrea or Ashley? And will Parvati be back next season? Click here [...]
Continue reading »
16
May
Posted by Tim in TV. Tagged: andrea boehlke, ashley underwood, boston rob, grant mattos, matt elrod, medals of intrigue, mike chiesl, natalie tenerelli, philip sheppard, redemption island, rob mariano, survivor survival guide, Survivor: Redemption Island. Leave a Comment
“I obviously have the most to lose.” —Rob “Let’s just focus on relaxing today.” —Natalie In the end, it was bound to be disappointing. There were two ways the Survivor: Redemption Island finale could have gone last night: It could have been just and unexciting, or it could have been exciting and unjust. It was [...]
Continue reading »
16
May
Posted by NPI in Monday Medley. Tagged: Adam Scott, Bob Dylan, China, commencement speeches, Community, Dan Harmon, david foster wallace, drive-thrus, Google, Joe Posnanski, kansas city, Osama bin Laden, Parks and Recreation, Taco Bell, witty headlines. Leave a Comment
What we read while trying to replace Tim with Ashton Kutcher… It’s graduation season, which means commencement speeches! It’s doubtful, though, that any new ones will top NPI’s favorite (which we’ve assuredly linked to before, but probably not in audio format). Also, here’s what the graduates actually thought of DFW’s speech. Joe Posnanski is moving to [...]
Continue reading »
15
May
Posted by John S in Culture, Literature, Sunday Book Review. Tagged: boredom, david foster wallace, DFW, fact psychic, hell, heroism, Infinite Jest, IRS, Leonard Stecyk, Literature, memoirs, posthumous novels, silence, Spackman Initiative, stuff happening, taxes, The Pale King, The Spackman Memo, Toni Ware, uncontrollable sweating, wiggler. Leave a Comment
“He felt in a position to say he knew now that hell had nothing to do with fires or frozen troops. Lock a fellow in a windowless room to perform rote tasks just tricky enough to make him have to think, but still rote, tasks involving numbers that connected to nothing he’d ever see or [...]
Continue reading »
15
May
Posted by Tim in TV. Tagged: andrea boehlke, ashley underwood, boston rob, grant mattos, matt elrod, medals of intrigue, mike chiesl, natalie tenerelli, philip sheppard, redemption island, rob mariano, survivor survival guide, Survivor: Redemption Island. 1 Comment
It’s really the finale already? Sure doesn’t seem like it, does it, what with the eight castaways still having a chance and only a single big move made all season, way back in the third episode, right? It’s nigh impossible to judge this 22nd season of Survivor and its concomitant introduction of Redemption Island now, [...]
Continue reading »
Tim
John S
Pierre Menard
Josh
NPI
Jake
