Beirut, The Rip Tide

By Chelsea Spear

Zach Condon, the jet-setting mayor of indie pop band Beirut, knows how to set a mood. Before listeners hear so much as a note of his latest album, The Rip Tide, the song titles suggest a travelogue instead of a mere collection of tunes. They are named for locations both exotic and quotidian; the ones that aren’t suggest a skyline broader than that of his Santa Fe home. Which journeys does Condon invite his listeners on with this album?
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Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark

By Less Lee Moore

Horror fans of a certain age surely remember the 1973 TV movie Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark. To me, it was always known as “the movie about the things in the fireplace,” which was enough to keep a scaredy-cat kid away for many years. Although I didn’t see it until more recently, I quickly became a big fan; the movie still provides plenty of genuinely creepy moments which make me glad I never saw it as an impressionable youth.

Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who produced the terrific remake that’s out today in theaters, has called the original “the most terrifying on earth.” But the new Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark isn’t a movie full of jump scares like the also-terrific Insidious, which came out earlier this year. It’s more of an old-fashioned haunted house movie, where the unease and dread build slowly and inexorably towards a horrible climax.

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Delivered Poetry: Jenny Lewis’s “Rabbit Fur Coat”

By AJ Wood

I’m not much into music. Top 40, R&B, jazz, indie rock, punk: It’s mostly just background sound to driving or typing. I can freely admit that. The trouble is that I’ve always found myself hanging out with, dating, and loving very musical people. Since moving to Portland, OR this has only gotten worse, what with indie music being the lifeblood of this town, like movies are in my home of Los Angeles. Invariably, there is that time in a relationship where I am subjected to a long string of “OMG you HAVE to hear this SONG, it’s so GREAT”s and thanks to YouTube, I’m subjected to just that. For hours.

I’m not saying I’m above such antics: I’ve kept many a fourth date pinned and wriggling to the couch doing dramatic readings of writings I enjoy, or forcing him to listen to spoken word, or—no doubt worst of all—demanding he read something while I watch him read it. I know it: I’m not better, just different.
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The Middle East, I Want That You Are Always Happy

By J Howell

It’s a rare thing when a band comes along whose music is an instant game-changer, the kind of band that’s simultaneously comfortable but complex; easily understandable but somehow nearly indescribable, like an old friend. The Middle East is just that. (Well, was . . . more on that in a moment.)
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Hungry For Love, Part Three: More Music Videos So Bad They’re Good

By Jim R. Clark

This is Part Three in our series on bizarre videos you may have forgotten about or never seen. Don’t forget to check out Parts One and Two.

Yes friends, it’s time for another installment of horribly bad music videos that I have combed the web to find for you. Suffering in obscurity no more, these videos will leave you humming some new tunes. In addition to the usual weird New Wave videos I include in these lists, this edition features a Beatles tribute band from India and a special Goth section at the end! Please enjoy!
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Neil Young’s Music Box, Here We Are In The Years

By Danny R. Phillips

Doing an unauthorized DVD of any artist, let alone on someone as historically cantankerous as Neil Young, can be a real bitch. Little to no music or performance footage from the artist can be used, forcing the filmmakers to turn the film into a history lesson instead of a flat-out celebration. And sadly, that’s exactly what’s happened with Neil Young’s Music Box, Here We Are in the Years.
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Our July/August 2011 Issue Is Out Now!

July/August 2011 Issue – My Dream Is On The Screen

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to read the issue!

Issue 023—My Dream Is On The Screen—Staff Picks: Supernatural, TV Ad Tropes, Canadian Public TV Idents; Features: My Little Pony, Mad Men, South Park, Deadwood, Days Of Our Lives vs. EastEnders, Lace, Wallace and Ladmo, You Can’t Do That On Television, The Crystal Maze, Go Ask Alice, When “Based On The Movie” Goes Wrong, Daytime Talk Shows, Aeon Flux, The Rock Band Sitcom, SCTV.

In Defense Of Television

“There are only two things I love in this world: everybody, and television.”
—Kenneth the Page on 30 Rock

“Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
—The Bhagavad Gita, as quoted by J. Robert Oppenheimer

TV is bad for you, right?

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The Supernatural Drinking Game

By Lisa Anderson

Here’s a drinking game for you fans of Supernatural! Perfect for a DVD marathon or one of the new episodes coming out this Fall. Because it is Supernatural, after all, I decided to go for 13.
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Commercial Appeal: Three TV Ad Tropes That Have Littered My Life (and everyone else’s)

By Jesse Roth

Television, for better or worse, has always played a significant role in my life. Its influence, however, did not stop when my favorite shows would “take five” for the benefit of their sponsors. A good portion of my TV-related memories seem to involve the various ads clogging the airwaves, some of which were far more memorable than the shows they were sponsoring. Though I was rarely motivated enough to buy the products they were promoting, the following commercials have found a permanent home in my mind, no matter how hard I try to forget them.
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