What I’m about to show you may scare you. What I’m about to show you may hurt you in a place that strangers shouldn’t touch. Are you sitting down? Do you have supportive friends nearby? Are you at least drinking a diet soda? Don’t say you
The South by Southwest Music Festival is a never-ending stream of bands, booze, and laminates that barrels through Austin, Texas, each spring. Just because you're not going doesn't mean you can't review it.
When I lived in Austin, one of the best storefronts was a place on South Congress Avenue called Just Guns. How Texan is that? It not only explains what’s for sale, but does so with an ounce of humility. Or is that authority? “Aww, it’s just guns.” vs.
Last week, Video Digest brought you classic regional commercials of the ‘70s and ‘80s. It was a smorgasbord of egg-laying eagles, rapping spokespeople, and beautiful Mount Airy Lodge. A few of you sent in gems from your own traumatized childhood, and I’d love to see more. Please send
No matter where you grew up, if you watched television, there was always that one commercial: the commercial that annoyed you so profoundly that at some crucial juncture, annoyance swerved into fascination—perhaps for some tic, some incongruity, or for the very fact of the commercial’s existence. Somebody—somewhere—
Last year, I predicted that American Idol had peaked. I did this over a plate of cheese enchiladas, laying out the reasons why the phenomenon had undoubtedly run out of steam, including but not limited to: Abdul’s obvious drug abuse, the inclusion of “rockers,” and the cultural triumph of
What better way to start out our Valentine’s Video Digest than with an ode to the old ticker itself. Spanish-language comic singers Hard ‘N’ Phirm offer up an anatomically correct power ballad that can teach all of us a thing or two about the ground zero of relationship
My favorite piñata story—yes, I have one; you don’t?—involves a particularly murderous season on Days of Our Lives. It was Thanksgiving in Salem, and there was a Thanksgiving piñata—because along with turkey and stuffing, the traditional piñata is one of the most heartwarming American traditions. So
The world MTV depicts is anything but real. But we don't watch to escape, we watch because we can't look away.
I love that there was a moment in time when we all watched The Golden Girls. Four single senior citizens, living and loving in Miami: I’m in! Obviously one of the coolest of the GGs—if not the coolest—was sparkplug Estelle Getty, who made a workout video to
