I remember, vaguely, the surreal worlds, the constant bevy of funny characters and the refreshingly low-budget aesthetic, as if some sort of phenomenological process were taking place within comedy, within television and within my life. I remember Nancy Kerrigan getting attacked and everybody making fun of her, including, I think, a dude at the Academy […]
* There’s a 1966 play by Tom Stoppard referencing two characters from Hamlet, titled “Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead.” The titular information is provided, ipso facto, as a plain fact attached to no emotional undulation, such as, hearing, say, in true postmodern fashion, “Jimmy Kimmel is slated to host Sunday’s academy awards.” .. Around the […]
Starting around Christmas and leading up until a couple of days ago, I was unemployed, languishing around my apartment, many a day, with nothing but my thoughts. As a result, I started to gather certain sort of lofty, idealistic ideas of what to do with my life, one of which was being one of the […]
In the downtown area of South Bend, Indiana, my hometown, the State Theater sits conspicuously empty, and now, even boarded up. It’s a minor disappointment — probably not as grave as the giant, still-vacant College Football Hall of Fame, which, to my knowledge, hasn’t had any foot traffic in about 13 years or so. Still, […]
It’s January 12, 2025, and Michiana braces for a deep freeze. We’d been due for a cold winter, and we’re surely getting it, with highs in the next few days in the teens, and some forecasted single-digits within a week or so. A stately, tranquil, white blanket of snow cloaks the landscape. We all, as […]
I had some professor one time, I think in grad school, who pledged this bizarre, incredulous allegiance to “kid a,” apparently a reference to the 2000 Radiohead album. That’s kind of like how Rumours is, Fleetwood Mac’s apparent commercial and artistic breakthrough from 1977. It’s like there’s this puzzling level of pride at mentioning “rumours” […]
In one of the more caustic SNL impersonations of all time, Jimmy Fallon handled MTV’s Carson Daly, once long ago. His take on Daly, at the time, struck me as a little ham-handed and excessively brash, as he even assigned to him the words “I’m Carson Daly and I’m a massive tool” [1] [2]. Unfortunately, […]