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Film

Ranking Cinema’s Spring Breaks From Worst to Best

By Jason Bailey on

Harmony Korine’s controversial Spring Breakers goes into well-timed limited release this weekend. Reviews thus far have been mostly positive — to the befuddlement of your Flavorwire, since we found the film to be both a mixed bag quality-wise and a little troublesome from a messaging point of view. Then again, it could just be a matter of expectations — viewers aren’t just surprised that a Korine movie is sort of accessible, but that a movie about spring break isn’t just all-out terrible. You see, it’s not an event with a rich cinematic history; most movies about spring break are, for lack of a better word, stinky. But if you’d like to get in the mood for Spring Breakers, or just enjoy the debauchery from the safe, STD-free confines of your living room, here’s a roundup of spring break in cinema, ranked from worst to (relative)… Read More

Celebrity

Here’s What Clive Davis Actually Wrote About Kelly Clarkson

By Chloe Pantazi on

Following today’s release of The Soundtrack of My Life, the memoir of music mogul and Chief Creative Officer of Sony, Clive Davis, Kelly Clarkson issued a statement via Twitter to say that Davis was “spreading false information about me and my music” with his book. “I refuse to be bullied and I just have to clear up his memory lapses and misinformation for myself and for my fans. It feels like a violation,” she added.  … Read More

Music

Hilariously Awful T-Shirts for Your Favorite Bands

By Judy Berman on

We’ve all been there. You go to see a band you love, the show exceeds your already astronomical expectations, and when it’s all over, you feel the need to take home a memento of the evening. But then you get to merch table and the T-shirts are inexplicably awful. Thankfully, as the excellent Low Times has proven, terrible band T-shirts can be a whole lot funnier than they are disappointing. The site asked its audience to use CustomInk to create the worst designs they could think of, and the results — which feature tributes to the likes of Animal Collective, Bon Iver, and even Kelly Clarkson — are hilarious. Click through for a few of our favorites, and visit Low Times to see all 31 of the finalists (including a design submitted by one Steve Albini). … Read More

Books

Literary Mixtape: Arya Stark

By Emily Temple on

If you’ve ever wondered what your favorite literary characters might be listening to while they save the world/contemplate existence/get into trouble, or hallucinated a soundtrack to go along with your favorite novels, well, us too. But wonder no more! Here, we sneak a look at the hypothetical iPods of some of literature’s most interesting characters. What would be on the personal playlists of Holden Caulfield or Elizabeth Bennett, Huck Finn or Harry Potter, Tintin or Humbert Humbert? Something revealing, we bet. Or at least something danceable. Read on for a cozy reading soundtrack, character study, or yet another way to emulate your favorite literary hero. This week: George R.R. Martin’s feistiest heroine, the indomitable Arya Stark. … Read More

About

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Here’s an extended sneak peek at the new episodes of Community, courtesy of Joel McHale, who debuted the footage on The Soup. Things are looking mighty dark for the Greendale Seven! The NBC comedy finally returns to the air on Thursday, March 15th at 8pm.

2. Another day, another TV musical competition.… Read More

Music

A Selection of the Weirdest Political Endorsements by Musicians

By Tom Hawking on

“Everybody in the industry is like, ‘Oh, Obama’s doing such a great job …’ I don’t think so. Not from what I see.” So quoth music industry rebel and political iconoclast Dave Mustaine in an interview with MusicRadar.com this week, an interview wherein he also discusses his acting ambitions and bitches about Fred Durst. The answer to America’s problems, according to Mustaine, consists of two words, one of which may or may not be a neologism for fecal sludge: Rick Santorum.

Anyone who’s followed Mustaine’s career will know he’s long had conservative inclinations, but he’s not the only musician who’s broken with the liberal norm to make an unlikely political endorsement. From Fidel Castro to Sarah Palin, pretty much every much ideological base has been covered over the years. Here is a selection of the strangest — some hilarious, some plain weird, and at least one hugely depressing. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Judy Berman on

Today at Flavorpill, we recalled 2011′s biggest band beefs, two of which involved Bon Iver. We met the entire Nintendo family, in a piece of deviantART that depicts all of its countless major characters. We watched a bizarre pair of elderly Christian twin sisters perform a pantomime to Radiohead’s… Read More

Television

Video of the Day: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jimmy Fallon Do Karaoke as Axl Rose and David Bowie

By Judy Berman on

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. … Read More

Music

The Most Consistently Inconsistent Musicians of Our Time

By Christine Jordan on

Consistency is the watchword in the world of music criticism. We as listeners love it when a band is at its best, but we aren’t truly happy until the musicians prove their worth again and again and again. And then maybe just once more still, after the lead singer emerges from a nasty coke habit and the band hasn’t been in the same room for three years. Of course, we forgive our favorite bands for the blemishes in their legacies every single day, because the statistics majors inside all of us understand that consistency is no small feat. But what of the bands whose discographies are marked by the exact opposite — those alternating, dramatic peaks and valleys in album and even song quality? Why, we’re glad you asked! We’ve compiled eight musical wildcards that have kept us on our toes with each note they’ve produced they put out after the jump. Be sure to join us in some collective head-scratching by giving us your own suggested additions to the list in the comments. … Read More

Television

A Preemptive Strike: Our American Idol Eulogy

By Brian Underwood on

What can we say about you, American Idol, other than you’ve been a close and constant companion these past eight years. Toward the end, you became sick — very sick — and lost most of what made you great. When Simon Cowell deserted you after the conclusion of season nine, you tried to muster up the courage to continue. You fought bravely, but soon, you simply became too weak to go on.

Your illness had actually taken hold years earlier in a series of events that left you wan, feeble, and a shell of your former self. We all knew something wasn’t right when David Cook and David Archuleta advanced to the finals at the end of season 7. Adam Lambert kept your strength up for much of season 8, but when Paula Abdul left, it was almost too much for you to bear. Your twilight years, beginning with season 9, were ones filled with boring contestants, eroded ratings (heck, Dancing With The Stars started beating you), and Ellen DeGeneres’s sad clown struggle to try to seem relevant behind the judges table.

But we don’t want to dwell on the negative. Instead, let us celebrate the great moments that made you one of the highest-rated television shows in history. … Read More