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Television

'Downton Abbey' Season 3, Episode 5: The Dowager Countess Recap

By Judy Berman on

Now in its third season, Downton Abbey is more divisive than ever. Once almost universally acclaimed, the British period drama that follows the aristocratic Crawley family and their many servants faced accusations last year of descending into soap opera-style sensationalism. Although we don’t mind a juicy soap opera here at Flavorwire — and have, in fact, been known to defend Downton Abbey against its snobbier critics — this season we hope to unite the various factions by limiting our recaps to the one character everyone can still agree to love: Violet Crawley, that feisty, elitist grandma played by the one and only Dame Maggie Smith. Each week, we’ll recount the Dowager Countess of Grantham’s adventures. They may often be tangential to the main storyline, but they’ll always be among the most important Downton moments to us. … Read More

Design

Darkly Glamorous Posters for the Films of David Lynch

By Judy Berman on

The aesthetic of David Lynch is far easier to appreciate than to describe. Sure, there’s eeriness spike occasionally by true horror, a retro visual style, a fascination with the bizarre and uncanny. But Lynch is more than the sum of those parts. What’s particularly impressive about Sydney-based designer Jeremy Saunders’ LYNCHED posters is the way they contain both the darkness and the glamor of Lynch’s style. Minimalist in idea but not aesthetic, each focuses on a single object, highlighting the significance of details in the filmmaker’s work. Click through to see the series, which we discovered via BlackBook’s Tumblr, and visit Saunders’ website, where you might consider buying a print. … Read More

Art

Photorealistic Paintings of Enticing Book Spines

By Judy Berman on

There’s something about painterly realism that sparks the viewer’s desire. When we see renderings of sweets that look lifelike enough to eat them, we get a sugar craving. And, as book lovers, when we encounter enticingly real-looking paintings of stacked book spines, like Canadian artist Paul Béliveau’s, it’s impossible not to imagine paging through these lovely tomes. Click through to see a selection of works from his Les humanités series, which we discovered via Faith is Torment, and visit Béliveau’s website for more. … Read More

Television

Who Will Be the Next Liz Lemon?

By Judy Berman on

[Ed. note: In celebration of the series finale of one of our all-time favorite TV comedies on Thursday night, we're going to be celebrating 30 Rock all week long on Flavorwire. Look for a new feature each day, and be sure to check out all of our previous coverage of the show here.] Liz Lemon isn’t just a character — she’s an archetype, just as Mary Tyler Moore and Roseanne Conner were. And like those predecessors, her personality, career, relationships, and development over seven seasons provides a complex (if narrow and incomplete) portrait of what it’s like to be a woman in the 21st-century workplace, her struggles often embodying the successes, failures, and complications of contemporary feminism. Seemingly more than any other TV protagonist of her time, women relate to her, in ways both positive and negative. … Read More

Photography

Pleasingly Harmonious Photos of Our Stunning Array of Retail Choices

By Judy Berman on

We don’t tend to think of supermarkets and drug stores as gorgeous settings — in fact, they’re so much a part of daily drudgery that we rarely consider their aesthetic merits at all. But in his series Choices, San Francisco-based photographer Richard Stultz captures what he calls the “perverse beauty” of the patterns and color combinations in the everyday retail displays that reflect America’s vast variety of consumer products. Click through to see a selection of images from Choices, which we discovered via Faith is Torment, and visit Stultz’s website to find about more about his work. … Read More

New York

The Flavorpill Guide to This Week's Top 10 New York Events

By Judy Berman on

For our (unconscionably high) rent money, the best thing about living in New York City is its endless supply of fun, odd, and inspired cultural events. But with so many options, it can be hard to know where to even begin planning your week. To help you make sense of it all, Flavorpill has launched a new social discovery engine where users can create and share events with friends, as well as follow Flavorpill editors’ and plugged-in local curators’ picks. Below, you’ll find the very best of what’s on offer this week, recommended by Flavorpill NYC’s very own Managing Editor, Leah Taylor. It’s just a taste of what you can find on the new Flavorpill, so if you like what you see, be sure to sign up. … Read More

Television

'Downton Abbey' Season 3, Episode 4: The Dowager Countess Recap

By Judy Berman on

Now in its third season, Downton Abbey is more divisive than ever. Once almost universally acclaimed, the British period drama that follows the aristocratic Crawley family and their many servants faced accusations last year of descending into soap opera-style sensationalism. Although we don’t mind a juicy soap opera here at Flavorwire — and have, in fact, been known to defend Downton Abbey against its snobbier critics — this season we hope to unite the various factions by limiting our recaps to the one character everyone can still agree to love: Violet Crawley, that feisty, elitist grandma played by the one and only Dame Maggie Smith. Each week, we’ll recount the Dowager Countess of Grantham’s adventures. They may often be tangential to the main storyline, but they’ll always be among the most important Downton moments to us. … Read More

Television

'Girls' Season 2, Episode 3 Recap: How Real Was 'Girls' This Week?

By Judy Berman on

Accused by some of whitewashing Brooklyn and beloved by others for depicting the harsh truth of post-college New York life for over-educated women in their 20s, Girls may well be TV’s most talked-about comedy. Considering that most of those conversations hinge on how realistic the show is or isn’t, this season we’re recapping Girls by asking three writers who should know — our interns, Chloe Pantazi, Alison Herman, and Julia Pugachevsky — how real each episode felt. Read their responses to last night’s episode, in which Hannah attempts to emulate Cat Marnell, and let us know what you think in the comments. … Read More

Photography

Revealing Photos of Burlesque Stars Nude and in Costume [NSFW]

By Judy Berman on

As any burlesque performer will tell you, the art of striptease is about more than just getting naked. It’s about drama and glamor and imagination. That’s just what Brooklyn-based photographer Van Sarki suggests in his series, Burlesque Compére, which places nude and costumed photos of burlesque stars (many of whom fans of the form are sure to recognize) side by side, juxtaposing the vulnerability of nakedness with the flamboyance of… Read More

Photography

A Photographer’s Nude Self-Portraits Revitalize an Abandoned House [NSFW]

By Judy Berman on

In this time of rampant urban decay and home foreclosure, there are plenty of photographers capturing the desolate beauty of abandoned buildings. But few juxtapose these left-for-dead spaces with visions of life, as Australian photographer Jana Maré does in a new series of nude self-portraits taken in a deserted home. “To perform in front of camera – to appear sculptural and at times lifeless – makes me feel alive, especially inside forbidden environments with limited time to photograph,” she says in her artist’s statement. “The work is intuitive with a sense of urgency and spontaneity.” View a selection of NSFW shots from the series, which we discovered at Beautiful/Decay, below, and visit Maré’s website to see more of her work. … Read More