It’s Friday the 13th, Overthinkers! Thrill at the terror of the spookiest season of all … mid-August!
In music news, those scrappy indie kids calling themselves The Arcade Fire have the #1 album in America. The smashing success of “The Suburbs,” their third studio album, comes as a result of a webcast concert in Madison Square Garden, promotional downloads and word of mouth among hipsters. This is what social media hath wrought, Overthinkers – and it’s pretty damned good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K7Sow5DKqA
Does Broadway count as pop culture in the era of dying theater attendance? It does when it’s Spider-Man The Musical, which announced a new lease on life this week and a definite premiere date this November. Despite the loss of Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming in starring roles, and crippling financial problems, and the most emo title ever (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark), this show just will! Not! Die! Or maybe it already did, and Julie Taymor made a deal with the devil and retconned history and we just forgot about it.
In the CIRCLE! The CIRCLE of LIIIIIIIFE!
Some fodder for the TFT podcast: Britney Spears will guest star on an upcoming episode of Glee. She’ll appear to the cast in a dream sequence while they’re getting their teeth cleaned at the dentist’s office, apparently. Slated for next season: the cast of Glee getting separated during anti-mosque protests in New York City, only to be guided to safety by a candy-striped Elvis Costello.
Can’t get enough pop culture? Netflix announced deals for online streaming this week with Paramount, Lions Gate and MGM. This would expand Netflix’s Watch Instantly library from a bunch of forgettable 90s sex comedies plus Lone Wolf McQuade to a huge range of classic and contemporary films. What are you turning your DVD player into? Mine’s a BattleBot.
Flip The Other Robot Over was the dominant strategy.
And finally, two hugely anticipated movies open today: Scott Pilgrim vs The World and The Expendables. Yours truly plans to see them both today; stay tuned for the scoop. If you don’t like movies with fun or action, you could also watch Eat, Pray, Love. Will the rich white woman find meaning in her life through quirky travel and a new set of material possessions? SPOILER ALERT: yes, but at a price.
Beat, Slay, Buff.
Will The Arcade Fire score Julie Taymor’s Broadway adaptation of The Expendables in ten years? Or do you want to chat about something we missed? Sound off in the comments, for this is your … Open Thread.
While I presume your comment about Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature was mostly facetious, I’d still like to stand up for it. They actually have a solid collection of movies and (particularly) TV shows on there. Although, there are certainly a plethora of heretofore unheard of sex comedies on there to be sure. Also, marijuana related comedies. And, presumably marijuana related sex comedies.
As for B. Spears on Glee, if what you say is correct, I only have one question: Why would those wacky kids from Glee all be getting their teeth cleaned at the same time? Who goes to the dentist in a group? Also, why are they dreaming while getting their teeth cleaned? Is it merely a day dream? They certainly wouldn’t put you under for a teeth cleaning, though that is apparently an option in many a dentist’s office. Plus, how can you day dream whilst somebody has their hand in your mouth as they are scraping your gums while HGTV flickers in the background. Lastly, this is egregiously cheap stuntcasting.
Everything Julie Taymor does is terrible, but at least it is brightly colored awfulness.
Follow up to my comment: My presumption about there being “marijuana related sex comedies” on Netflix Watch Instantly has been confirmed. There is literally a movie called “Sex Pot.”
I figure this is as good a place as any to say that now that Lost is over (finally… I don’t want to ruffle feathers but I’ll never understand the praise), I would love to see Mlawski get back to more posts on The Wire, after taunting us with an article at the end of January. There are far too few The Wire articles on Overthinking It in general, considering that the majority of the staff has seen the whole series most likely.
@Tyler: I grew up in Baltimore, can quote extensively from The Wire, and have a T-shirt in my drawer that reads, “IT’S ALL IN THE GAME” on the front and “OH, INDEED” on the back that I had custom made.
That being said: The Wire is one of those tricky shows for us. Our aegis is “subjecting popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn’t deserve.” But The Wire deserves all the scrutiny it gets – and more!
Of course, if our fans keep asking for it, we might be able to scrape something together. It’s tough to find an angle that hasn’t been covered, though.
This isn’t very overthought, but I saw The Other Guys this week and laughed pretty much the whole time. I’d been disappointed with movie comedies the last several years (the last good one was Tropic Thunder, already 2 years old), but this movie renewed my faith. The writers and cast were No Scrubs, and Hollywood, I Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg for more comedy of this quality.
In my experience, B-Spears is a better actress than you would expect – did anyone see her turn in How I Met Your Mother?
What Broadway needs is to tap into the unmistakable genius of our country’s greatest showstopper, our nation’s rebel pride, our siren of stage and screen…say it with me: “The Nanny: The Musical”
Okay, AF having the number-one album in the country means that I can no longer be their fan, as I got in when they put out “Neon Bible” and now they’ve just sold out…I kid, but don’t you think that, as you get older, the notion of your favorite band “selling out” by becoming more popular is kinda ridiculous and also borderline stalkerish? It’s like saying they’re your “precious” and no one else can like them, except maybe friends of yours in your immediate or online circle. Oh and Julia Roberts finding herself in other countries sounds like a chick flick to avoid.
I tend to like Glee better when they’re not quite as over-the-top, when the episodes deal with the real emotions that teenagers and young adults go through at that stage. That being said, an Elvis Costello-themed episode would be a godsend. Just leave the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band alone, though, Glee-sters. What did they ever do to you?
hoping you guys would Overthink Scott Pilgrim. i loved the movie ’cause i’m in the exact target audience (kinda hipster, play in a shitty rock band, crush on girls easily, like retrogaming) but i dunno… seems like it says alot about us that we can so easily represent emotional states as videogame symbols