Sam Hancock’s Big Day
What will you be doing on Sept. 8? Odds are it won’t be as life-changing as what’s in store for Sam Hancock. Although the 25-year-old Luminate lead singer (in the center of the photo) is used to having crowds focus on him while four of his best friends back him up on stage, this Saturday […]
Test Your Quiz Show IQ
I love quiz shows. Grew up on ’em, really. As a preschooler, I played at my mother’s feet while she watched Jeopardy!. In my teen years, when my friends were doing their homework with music in the background, I often did mine to the sound of bells, buzzers and hysterical housewives. You might ask, “Was […]
Punk Rebels Face Prison
My grandfather used to say, “If you don’t think, you feel.” He was right. A case in point, the birthday-party parent on America’s Funniest Videos who decides to adjust the piñata after he’s handed the stick to a blindfolded 8-year-old. Ouch! But sometimes acting without weighing the consequences can lead to more than just a […]
Worst Earworms Ever
Have you ever had a nasty case of earworms? Don’t get grossed out. That simply means you’ve had a catchy song stuck in your head that keeps looping uncontrollably. Like dinner guests still showing off their vacation photos after midnight, it just … won’t … leave. The harder you try to get rid of that […]
Seventeen’s Pledge: Do You Buy It?
Julia Bluhm is one of my heroes. Recently, the 14-year-old took on Seventeen magazine, armed only with an online petition and a passion for seeing the mag publish more authentic photos of young women. And she seems to have won that battle. At least that’s the impression we got this week from articles in the […]
Bugged by Spidey?
Will the real Spider-Man please stand up? OK, color me conflicted. I’m a long-time Spider-Fan who, on one hand, really enjoyed the new Andrew Garfield reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man. As a film unto itself, Amazing delivers 137 minutes of popcorn-gobbling fun that, in some ways, actually improves upon Sam Raimi’s 2002 blockbuster starring Tobey Maguire […]
Trashing Icons of Innocence
In June of 1989, rocker Don Henley struck a chord with his melancholy musical commentary “The End of the Innocence.” In that song, guileless idealism runs headlong into harsh realities of adult life. Divorce. Deception. Duplicity. But Henley’s Top-10 hit didn’t chronicle the final, dying breath of sweetness and naïveté in America. Twenty-three summers later, […]
Not Worth Mentioning?
Want to watch a trailer? They’re all on YouTube. Need to know where you’ve seen that balding character actor before? Cross-reference him on IMDb.com. It’s the rare factoid that’s not available online. Yet even in this age of endless information, getting all the facts we need to choose movies wisely can be a challenge. Even […]
Actresses Without Makeup
Every parent of a teenage daughter has, at some point, wrestled with the makeup issue. Should it be allowed? If so, when? What kind? And how much? Contrary to popular belief, World War III will not be waged with nuclear warheads; it’s already being fought in homes around the globe with lipstick, mascara and rouge. […]
Touring From the Grave
A 2004 Disney Channel movie called Pixel Perfect involves a tech-savvy teen creating a holographic lead singer for his rock band, the Zettabytes. All goes smoothly until a concert glitch exposes their secret. At first the crowd mutters, “She’s not real.” Within seconds, however, everyone applauds, deciding it’s the coolest, most “unreal” thing they’ve ever […]