Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (Vie héroïque), Directed by Joann Sfar

By Ann Clarke

Being a diehard Serge Gainsbourg fan, I have wanted to see this film since I heard it was being made like three to four years ago. It was just so long overdue!

Eric Elmosnino as Serge Gainsbourg
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, 2010

Many biopics suck, but that’s usually because they are about people who aren’t even that interesting or they are poorly cast and scripted. Sometimes they suck because the person in question was not only an asshole in the limelight, but even worse in private. Serge Gainsbourg embodies those traits to a degree, but that depends on your definition of an asshole. In many ways he was, but at least he was an interesting asshole! What I will give him credit for over many other dead asshole celebrities: he lived out loud. His antics were never candy-coated. He did what he did, and didn’t really give a fuck about how it was received—but, he actually DID care (he just didn’t let the world know that he did).
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Assemblog: May 25, 2012

The Great Gatsby, 2012
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

New this week on Popshifter: The Monks; reviews of The Quintet: Jazz At Massey Hall, Max Payne 3, Ernie Kovacs: Percy Dovetonsils . . . thpeaks, and The Lowbrow Reader Reader; plus When Community Is A Commodity

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When Community Is A Commodity

By Less Lee Moore

A couple of weeks ago, Community fans rejoiced when the ratings-challenged show was renewed for a fourth—albeit truncated—season, but the relief was tempered with concern, as by May 17, it was still not confirmed whether showrunner and creator Dan Harmon would be returning.

On May 18, Deadline reported that David Guarascio and Moses Port would be the new showrunners. It was disappointing for fans of the show, admittedly a group of people more aware of and invested in the behind-the-scenes goings-on than your average TV viewer.

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The Lowbrow Reader Reader

By Michelle Patterson

Let me preface my take on The Lowbrow Reader Reader which a bit of nostalgia: When I think about the candy I had as a child—the kind that I tried to sneak under my parents’ radar because of the illicit pleasure of spending my allowance on the various toxic-looking treats at the corner store—I only get nostalgic for a few of them and upon closer inspection, my choices were pretty telling. The soda candy, in which the soda-type-liquid is encased in tiny, hard plastic bottle-shaped blobs, was some of the foulest-tasting candy on this earth, both past and present, but I still sucked that down with joyous glee. Candy cigarettes, in both hard and gum form, actually evinced a chuckle from my mom when she did find a pack in the back pockets of my shorts, while doing laundry, because she used to “sneak them,” as well.
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Ode to a Poet’th Poet: Ernie Kovacs, Percy Dovetonsils . . . thpeaks

By John Lane

Let’s start the proceedings with a heartfelt ode to Omnivore Recordings for bringing to light a long-lost and rumored (but now real!) holy grail in comedy history. That grail is Ernie Kovacs: Percy Dovetonsils . . . thpeaks
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More Modern Noir: Max Payne 3

By Paul Casey

Noir has been having a good time in video games, over the last few years. Quantic Dream’s high profile Heavy Rain, and last year’s L.A. Noire (which we reviewed here) both used noir as their foundation. Max Payne 3 arrives as the third in a trio of story-driven, highly stylized games indebted to the classics—Raymond Chandler, John Huston, anything starring Humphrey Bogart—as well as modern creators who have ensured that noir and hardboiled fiction stay vital—James Ellroy, Frank Miller, Michael Mann.

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Charlie Parker; Dizzy Gillespie; Bud Powell; Max Roach; Charles Mingus; The Quintet: Jazz at Massey Hall

By Jemiah Jefferson

This new remaster of The Quintet: Jazz At Massey Hall—a truly historic convergence of five of the most celebrated musicians in jazz—is so classic, so iconic, that at first it’s hard to understand what’s so special about it. It really does take some schooling, and some careful and studied listening, before the true magic trick is revealed. For anyone with an interest in jazz, however, this album is essential listening, and can be enjoyed without knowledge of its importance.
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Things I Love: I’m a Monk, You’re a Monk, We’re All Monks

By Emily Carney

Remember the hilarious bowling alley scene in The Big Lebowski, in which Walter goes insane and brandishes a gun telling some poor sap with a mullet to “mark it zero”? The background theme forever passed into ubiquity—it is called “I Hate You,” and was one of The Monks’ signature songs.

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Assemblog: May 18, 2012

Donna Summer, 1948 – 2012

New on Popshifter this week: Reviews of the remastered reissues of The Bill Evans Trio’s Moon Beams and Thelonious Monk’s Misterioso, plus some righteous indignation about women and guitar culture.

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A Riot Of One’s Own: Women & Guitar Culture

By Kai Shuart

OK now, I’m gonna spout off about something very, very near and dear to my heart. Since I was about thirteen, I have loved guitars. I own a few. I play them. I find them sexy. You want to really see me geek out? Get me in a Guitar Center. I’ve been told I drool. Yet, while I have worshiped guitars from a very early age, there has been something I don’t worship: Guitar culture.
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