By Drew Grant 2/27 5:33pm

Double Threats

Video

Alison Brie and the Girls (YouTube)

Community’s Alison Brie’s Band Covers White Stripes, With Draco Malfoy on Guitar [Video]

We imagine that anyone who attended The Girls show in L.A. earlier this week was reminded of that Kurt Vonnegut quote from Slaughterhouse-Five: “Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt, and there was no soft-shoeing from Daniel Radcliffe, thank God.” Community and Mad Men star Alison Brie–also known as being the most perfect actress and real-life crush in the entire world–told Jon Stewart recently that her cover band’s sound is “classic rock and some country. We do a little Hall & Oates, a little Springsteen, some Dolly Parton …”

And some White Stripes, apparently. Though Alison Brie and the Girls is formally comprised of all women (d’uh), Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) joined the ladies on stage to perform “We’re Going to Be Friends,” a single from White Blood Cells. Read More

By Foster Kamer 6/14/12 5:07pm

WELL PLAYED

f81fe0c8bfd5be0d42462828bc86f796_0

Shell Oil Currently Under Assault by Social Media Pranksterism, Gone Viral

In the summer of 2010, besides yielding enough oil to effectively kill off part of the Gulf ecosystem permanently, B.P.’s oil spill also yielded some decent satire. This manifested most famously in the form of the BP Global PR feed on Twitter, which ended up in the oil company’s aggravated sight-lines. Especially upsetting to the company was the fact that people were mistaking the satirical feed for an actual B.P. feed from their communications department.

Well now, Shell’s getting it, too. Read More

By Daniel D'Addario 1/25/12 8:55am

enthusiasms

A 'Downton Abbey' confession (downtonabbeyconfessions.tumblr.com)

Check Out These Nutty ‘Downton Abbey’ Tumblrs

Downton Abbey, the PBS British acquisition about lives and loves among the British ruling class, has inspired a smaller-scale but equally devoted following of, say, the Twilight series. The series’s presence on Tumblr is far beyond that which its creators could have envisioned was possible for a lengthy period drama–to say nothing of its characters, for whom a typewriter is a terrifying novelty. Read More

By Daniel D'Addario 7/12/11 7:01am

Art

Lady Gaga, performer or performance artist? (Getty Images)

Is Lady Gaga a Performance Artist?

The name of the exhibition says it all: “David Bowie, Artist.” The Museum of Arts and Design’s upcoming retrospective intends to demonstrate how Mr. Bowie’s work “has become the blueprint for contemporary artists working in performance.”

What does it mean for a contemporary recording artist to “work in performance”? Consider a star who has absorbed Read More

By Robert Gottlieb 2/02/11 12:10am

ballet

City Ballet Shows What It’s Made Of in Two Uneven Programs

The all-Balanchine opening night at City Ballet this season was a discouraging affair. To begin with, it was ridiculously short–less than an hour and three-quarters. And then it was ridiculously slight. And ridiculously programmed. A satisfactory ballet program is more than four ballets flung serially onto the stage.

Walpurgisnacht Ballet is one of Balanchine’s lesser Read More

By Una LaMarche 2/01/11 11:53pm

movies

Review: Don Roos Puts Natalie Portman Through the Ringer in “The Other Woman”

Anyone suffering from Natalie Portman overexposure, or silently cursing her for being glowingly pregnant, newly engaged and Oscar-nominated in addition to being one of the most genetically perfect creatures currently walking the earth, will be pleased to know that the actress spends much of The Other Woman, Don Roos’ upsetting, uneven, engrossing adaptation of Ayelet Read More