Linda Holmes

In Slight Defense Of Miss Utah USA, A Little Bit, With Reservations

Linda Holmes — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:36:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx7TE7fCkrk

Pop Culture Happy Hour: Tony Awards And Shared Songs

Linda Holmes — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:46:23 +0000

We taped this week's podcast while still giddy from the effects of the very fine Tony Awards broadcast, so we begin by sharing some thoughts about that killer opening number, some of the other musical happenings, our feelings on Pippin, Phantom and other theater pieces, and whether we are suffering from, as Glen puts it, "Doogie Fatigue."

And then we open up a discussion about what we term the "he said/she said" song, which enco

At The Movies, The Women Are Gone

Linda Holmes — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:45:53 +0000

I live in the D.C. metro area, which is a very good place to find films. If you don't live in New York or Los Angeles, it's about the best you can do.

MTV Promises To Be About Music For An Entire Half Of A Day

Linda Holmes — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:11:19 +0000

Well, this is news.

MTV, VH1, and CMT sent out a press release this morning announcing that on July 4^th, which they're calling "Music Independence Day" (!) (!!), they will "dedicate their channels exclusively to music."

ALL DAY LONG. If by "all day long," you mean "from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern and Pacific." (Hey, what's a day, right? 12 hours, 24 hours, these are semantics.)

You might think that MTV, VH1, and CMT would not need a special declaration to devote a 12-hour block to music, but you would be wrong. IT'S MUSIC INDEPENDENCE DAY, WOOOOO!

Theater Of The Absurd: Have Audiences Lost Their Manners?

Linda Holmes — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:44:59 +0000

If you woke up this morning thinking, "I really need to hear NPR's Linda Wertheimer say the words 'noisily unwrapping her Twizzlers,'" have I got good news for you.

Margot Adler had a story on today's Morning Edition about Broadway audiences and whether they're getting ruder, given recent incidents involving the aforementioned Twizzlers, rude texting, talking and other interruptions.

Shoes, Romance, And Art: A Reader Walks With The Books She Loves

Linda Holmes — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 22:42:06 +0000

Longtime readers know that one of my favorite pop-culture blogs ever invented is Smart Bitches Trashy Books, which offers a home for romance readers (who are legion) to both love their books and laugh at their books.

The Tony Awards: Is This The Greatest Awards Show Opening Ever?

Linda Holmes — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 21:27:19 +0000

Unless you've seen every awards show since the dawn of time (which would make you The Unluckiest Person In The World), you can't really answer the question of whether last night's opener of the Tony Awards, hosted for the fourth time by Neil Patrick Harris, was the best opening ever.

But if you're talking about awards shows in recent memory, the answer is that not only was it the best opener, but it utterly embarrassed just about everything except maybe Jimmy Fallon's "Born To Run" at the 2010 Emmys.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: Funny Moms And Funny Pages

Linda Holmes — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:48:04 +0000

This week's show pauses to appreciate the truly awesome Jean Stapleton, who recently died at 90 years old. We recall her work as Edith Bunker and connect her to many other sitcom moms, from Mrs. Cunningham to Mrs. Cleaver to Jill Taylor and Claire Dunphy. Glen manages to connect Julia Sugarbaker and Tyler Perry (just go with it), and Trey figures out who the real "scoldy wife" on Modern Family is.

We then turn to the part of comics we've focused on less over the show's history: comic strips.

Jon Stewart Signs Off For The Summer With A Shove From John Oliver

Linda Holmes — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:41:03 +0000

As you may have heard, Jon Stewart is taking a hiatus from The Daily Show to, among other things, work on his first feature film, Rosewater. He'll be gone 12 weeks, and eight of those weeks will include new episodes of the show hosted by correspondent John Oliver.

Last night was Stewart's sendoff for the summer — the math suggests you'll see him again in early September — and Oliver wasted no time in making it clear that he's in charge now.

When Your Data Is Your Currency, What Does Your Privacy Cost?

Linda Holmes — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 11:03:00 +0000

There was considerable mouth-dropping from publications such as The New York Times at initial reports this week that NSA programs are gathering both telephone records and information gleaned from large tech companies like Google and Microsoft.