This holiday season, Patrón Tequila came up with a great way to give something to your friends without emptying your wallet. With the “If” Tag app, you can select from a variety of hypothetical scenarios (such as, “If aliens invade, zombies attack, or the robots rise up, you’d be the John Connor to my Kyle Reese), and then select a friend who gets the honor of being your first choice for the gig. You can add a personal message, and then post the whole award right to your friend’s Facebook wall. We were having so much fun with it, in fact, that we decided to take it one step further and pick our top celebrity choices for a number of the “If” scenarios. Click through to see who came out on top for our editors, and why each pop-culture pick made the grade. And if you want to play too, just choose a scenario yourself and tell us who you want in on it in the comments.
Contrary to what some of the more curmudgeonly folks you might be reading have said, 2011 was actually a very good year for film, in which countless filmmakers either ignored the industry’s distrust of originality entirely, or found new and interesting ways to smuggle bits of revelation and surprise even into formulaic franchise pictures. You’ll see a lot of “best of the year” lists floating around that run down many of the same easy picks for the year’s best films, but since each film is an accumulation of small parts — scenes, lines, pauses, etc. — we thought it would be fun to pick out some of the little, specific moments that stayed in our movie-going memories over the course of 2011. Ours are after the jump; we hope to see yours in the comments. Read More »
We’ve been noticing a growing trend in micro-fiction in recent years, and particularly in recent months: in fact, two of the books on our list of new must-reads for December fall into this category, so we thought we’d better take a look at it.
Flash fiction or micro fiction is usually described as fiction under a thousand words, though much of it is much shorter — in fact, many traditions of flash fiction have self imposed word limits, like the popular 55 Fiction form. There are reigning masters of the field, like Julio Cortázar and Fredric Brown — and of course, everyone knows the most famous piece of micro fiction, supposedly penned by Hemingway: ”For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Though the form has been around for a long time, it seems to be having a moment. This past year, we became obsessed with a literary journal devoted to the form, Esquire held a flash fiction contest judged by Colum McCann, and several books of tiny fiction have caught our eye. Click through to check out some of our favorite examples of micro fiction from the recent past, and let us know what you think in the comments. Read More »
It’s the end of the year, which means we’re all up to our necks in Best-of-2011 lists, and everyone’s behind on their reading. But that’s no reason not to forge ahead and check out the new stuff hitting shelves this month — after all, we know you’re about to have some cozy holiday downtime to catch up on everything. In this month’s reading list, you can look forward to crime conspiracies involving thick liquids, ultra-cute microfictions, translated fables, and teary breakups involving pistachios. Click through to check out our list of the ten most interesting books coming out this month, and let us know which ones you’re most excited to dive into in the comments.
Child actors get a bad rap. In fact, even Flavorpill isn’t immune to making fun. But we have to admit that a good number of them have managed to avoid the stereotypical fate (drugs, nervous breakdowns, reality TV) and carve out pretty inspiring lives for themselves. For this list, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite former child actors who have done awesome things as adults; they aren’t all Hollywood A-listers (although some definitely are), and some aren’t even in the industry at all anymore, but they’re all making a great contribution to pop culture or the world at large. Check out our list — and tell us who we missed — after the jump.
If you are a fan of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jimmy Fallon, David Bowie, or Axl Rose — and even, maybe, if you’re not — get ready for the video that will make your day. It turns out that Gordon-Levitt, who was a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon yesterday, is a personal friend of the host, and the last time they got together, the guys did some karaoke. Because the experience was too wonderful not to share with the world, they re-enacted it for all of America to watch. First, Fallon performed Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” in the voice of a Let’s Dance-era David Bowie. (In our opinion, it was a real improvement over the original.) Gordon-Levitt responded by showing us what it might look like if Axl Rose covered Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” And finally… no, we’re not going to spoil it. Just watch the video.
Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and puzzling over what they may be hiding. We’ve got ten new trailers for you to feast your eyes on this week; check ‘em out after the jump.
We’re pretty sure we’ve made our feelings on Nirvana covers clear; in general, we’re against them. But rules don’t seem to apply to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has been consistently wonderful ever since the first time we saw him on 3rd Rock from the Sun. So, we’re not surprised that we actually find his cover of “Lithium,” performed earlier this week at Seattle’s Neptune Theater, endearing. Perhaps it’s because he’s so earnest, and perhaps it’s because his voice cracks a bit on the way into the first chorus. We don’t know. We only hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. This week, we’ve got eight new ones—everything from cancer comedies to Shakespearean dramas to, God help us, holiday fare. Check ‘em all out after the jump.
