n act of revitalization as much as continuation, The Princess and the Frog seeks to breathe fresh life into both a moribund 2D animation field crushed under CG’s foot and a Princess brand that’s lucrative at the cash register but hasn’t made substantial big-screen noise since 1991′s Beauty and the Beast. Little Mermaid heavy-hitters Ron Clements and Jon Musker have been brought in to energize Disney’s latest royal saga while also carrying on—after Princess stepsisters Pocahontas and Mulan—the franchise’s “recent” trend of multiculturalism, here epitomized by the first African-American tiara-wearer Tiana (Anika Noni Rose).
Archive for November, 2009
Nick Schager Reviews The Princess & The Frog
Published November 30, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a CommentHayden Childs’ Music Library: J.S. Bach to John Cage
Published November 30, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Johann Sebastian Bach – from The Complete Works (date unknown): The Art Of The Fugue, Sechs kleine Präludien, Suite In F flat Major, Präludium & Fuge in A minor, Fuge in C Major, Präludium & Fuge in G Major, Präludium & Fughetta in D minor, Präludium & Fuge in E minor, Suite in A minor, Präludium & Fuge in F Major, Menuet in C minor, Menuet in E flat Major, Präludium & Fuge in A minor. Performed by Menno van Delft or Jan Belder on harpsichord. I’m always up for The Art of the Fugue, but I think I prefer a performance on piano or organ (a la the Glenn Gould performance in my collection) better than harpsichord. These represent about three discs of that megazillion-disc set that came out a few years back.
by Scott Von Doviak
Timing is everything, especially when it comes to the end of the world as we know it. It’s not The Road’s fault it arrives in theaters a mere two weeks after Roland Emmerich turned the apocalypse into the world’s biggest amusement-park ride; in fact, John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was originally due in theaters a year ago. Hillcoat’s film would have been a hard sell regardless of its release date, but it’s especially difficult to imagine moviegoers carving time into their Thanksgiving weekend for two solid hours of gray, grim despair.
o wretched that it should be unceremoniously put down (preferably via prolonged Marley & Me-style lethal injection), Old Dogs is a series of sub-sitcom sequences designed to destroy any affection once felt for John Travolta and Robin Williams. Walt Becker’s follow-up to Wild Hogs begins with one of those awful picture montages in which its stars’ young faces have been ineptly photoshopped onto other people’s bodies. That, alas, is the high point of this mind-boggling endeavor about sports marketers and best friends Dan (Williams) and Charlie (Travolta), whose lives are thrown into disarray when Dan discovers that a one-night fling seven years ago resulted in two kids and that circumstances—namely, their mom (Kelly Preston) having to spend two weeks in prison for political protesting—now dictate that he care for them.
by Leonard Pierce
The A.V. Club presents its 15 best vidya-games of the decade.
It’s a fine list, a solid list, a list with which I have little to no quarrel. Here’s my top 20 (absolutely reflecting my own tastes, which explains the general lack of team shooters, racing games, Madden, platformers, Japanese RPGs, MMORPGs, and anything made by Microsoft)…
Hayden Childs’ Music Library: From Jimmie Rodgers to Joanna Newsom
Published November 29, 2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Jimmie Rodgers – The Essential Jimmie Rodgers (recorded 1927 – 1931). As Allmusic points out, his plaque in the Country Music Hall Of Fame identifies the Singing Brakeman as the one who started it all. That’s right. Rodgers, born in Meridian, Mississippi but son of the railroad, played a music that blended all of the folk music sounds he heard while riding the rails and the result is basically the Rosetta Stone of 20th century popular music. That’s a little simplistic, but mostly true. Rodgers’s yodelling blues can be heard in country, nascent rock & roll, blues (Howlin’ Wolf was, legendarily, attempting a version of Rodgers’s yodel when he came up with his trademark growl), and folk music. And music so old and primal (relatively speaking) has no cause to be as enjoyable as it is, but it’s absolutely brilliant.
Surviving Samoa: Seventh Inning Stretch
Published November 29, 2009 Uncategorized 1 CommentTags: andrew osborne; survivor samoa; turducken
So, considering just about every second of Samoa airtime to date has been dominated by the wit and wisdom of Shamu and Evil Russell, I’d assumed the producers had simply broadcast every scrap of footage they had of Mullet and the Toad…but astonishingly there was still enough gloating and whining to fill most of this season’s traditionally unnecessary recap show.
Continue reading ‘Surviving Samoa: Seventh Inning Stretch’
Thanksgiving is meant to be a time when we all take a moment to appreciate good friends, supportive families, fulfilling relationships — and that’s all wonderful. But given the solemn nature of the day, you probably won’t get to hear about how much Uncle Joe cannot stop watching So You Think You Can Dance, and we here at Nerve think that’s a shame. After all, how many of us have been comforted after a hard day by Mean Girls? Or felt a deep, meaningful connection with Dr. Gregory House? In an effort not to take such joys for granted, we asked members of the Nerve family to tell us: what piece of pop culture were you most thankful for this past year?
On paper, Thanksgiving always looks like the best of all possible holidays, especially if you’re not responsible for the cooking. There are no presents to buy, no eggs to hide and no costumes to assemble — just a relaxing day filled with food and football, spent in the warm embrace of family. Of course, sometimes that embrace is not quite as warm as it appears in Norman Rockwell paintings. Maybe this is the year you don’t want to deal with Mom’s crumbly Tofurkey, drunken Uncle Jimmy’s recycled Glenn Beck rants, or sister Susie screaming at you all day just because you slept with her husband one freaking time.
With Turkey Day nearly upon us, it’s time to give thanks for some of our favorite parts of 2009, including:
