A few years ago, filmmaker Christopher Guest—the brains behind This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting For Guffman, and A Mighty Wind—was asked to speak at a retrospective on his films. So he phoned Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, costars of those films, and asked them to show up and play a few Spinal Tap songs—acoustic, and not in costume. The songs were well received, and now the threesome has launched a tour that continues the theme. “Unwigged & Unplugged” kicked off April 17 in Vancouver, and features low-key versions of Spinal Tap, Guffman, and Wind songs, sung by the comedic masterminds who originally penned them. The A.V. Club asked McKean, free from the faux-British accent, to share the stories behind the satirical ditties of Spinal Tap.Read the rest here.
[T]hanks to a digital flash flood in the media age, the 47-year-old unemployed woman who claims to have never been kissed is suddenly a global sensation.
Last weekend, the frizzy-haired, squarely built Boyle walked onto the stage of "Britain's Got Talent" to barely suppressed snickers from the audience and skeptical eye rolls from Cowell, the unfailingly caustic judge on both "American Idol" and the British TV show.
The audience laughed mercilessly as Boyle did a saucy hip wiggle and said she'd like a chance to prove she could be as good as Elaine Paige, a legendary singer often called the first lady of British musical theater.
Those present were clearly prepared to howl.
Then Boyle opened her mouth. And within the first few bars of "I Dreamed a Dream," from the hit musical "Les Miserables," the audience was standing and applauding. The judges pronounced themselves shocked and impressed with Boyle's soaring vocals, and millions watching knew they had just seen a rare gem of a moment on live television.
Read the rest here.According to executives, Warner Bros. settled on Bay after a 12-month search of Hollywood's most reviled directors, including Joel Schumacher, Roland Emmerich, and Brett Ratner. In the end, the studio decided only Bay could be relied upon to deliver a 220-minute cinematic clusterfuck with enough tedious performances, overblown cinematography, and CGI explosions to make even the most casual fan want to scratch their eyes out.
"No filmmaker working today has Bay's ability to somehow direct his actors to be both emotionless and melodramatic at once," Warner Bros. CEO Barry Meyer said. "And I personally can't wait to see how he needlessly overcomplicates the plot."
Comedian or performance artist, I think Andy Kaufman was a genius.Kaufman grew up admiring professional wrestlers and the world in which they perform. Inspired by the theatricality of kayfabe, the staged nature of the sport, and his own tendency to form elaborate hoaxes, Kaufman began wrestling women during his act and was the self-proclaimed "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World," taking on an aggressive and ridiculous personality based upon the characters invented by professional wrestlers. He offered a $1,000 reward to any woman who could pin him.
Later, after a challenge from professional wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler, Kaufman would step into the ring (in the Memphis wrestling circuit) with a man—Lawler himself. Their ongoing feud, often featuring Jimmy Hart and other heels in Kaufman's corner, included a broken neck for Kaufman as a result of Lawler's piledriver and a famous on-air fight on a 1982 episode of Late Night with David Letterman. For some time after that, Kaufman appeared everywhere wearing a neck brace, insisting that his injuries were worse than they were. Kaufman would continue to defend the Inter-Gender Championship in the Mid-South Coliseum, and offered an extra prize, other than the $1,000.00: that if he was pinned, the woman who pinned him would get to marry him and that he (Kaufman) would shave his head bald as well.
Kaufman and Lawler's famous feud and wrestling matches were later revealed to have been staged, or a "work," as the two were actually friends. The truth about its being a "work" was not disclosed until more than 10 years after Kaufman's death, when the Emmy-nominated documentary, A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman, aired on NBC in 1995. Coincidentally, Jim Carrey (who also shares Kaufman's birthday) is the one who reveals the secret, and would later go on to play Kaufman in the 1999 film Man on the Moon. In a 1997 interview with the Memphis Flyer, Lawler claimed he had improvised during their first match and the Letterman incident. Although officials at St. Francis Hospital stated that Kaufman's neck injuries were real, in his 2002 biography It's Good to Be the King ... Sometimes, Lawler detailed how they came up with the angle and kept it quiet. Even though Kaufman's injury was legitimate, the pair pretended that the injury was more severe than it was. He also said that Kaufman's explosion on Letterman was the comedian's own idea, including when Lawler slapped Kaufman out of his chair.
Lawler also revealed in his autobiography that after Kaufman's death, family members discovered numerous uncashed checks from his wrestling tenure, suggesting that Kaufman participated in wrestling purely for the love of the sport, and not for money.
Wish me luck guys -- I'm flying solo this weekend for the first time, while the wife yucks it up in New Orleans. A2 sure is going to like watching golf on TV by the time she gets back!
Are hot tarts better? Generally speaking yes, but they are also harder to find and usually more expensive. If you haven’t had a tart in a while it may not be worth holding out for a hot one.
Are ethnic tarts worth trying? In many cases yes, but be careful! I’m quite partial to Indian and Latin American tarts (I enjoyed a very fresh little Mexican tart just last weekend), although some people find them too spicy, and of course the French are famous for having very attractive tarts. Eastern European tarts, however, while cheap, are often tough and rather stale.
Where can I find the best tarts, especially in a strange city? This is largely a matter of experience. In many of the older European cities there are specific districts where it is easy to find a good tart. In New Orleans and other warm weather cities, you can often track down some fantastic tarts just by following your nose. If in doubt, the concierge of your hotel will usually be able to tell you where to go.
