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Television

This Week’s Top 5 TV Moments

By Sarah Fonder on

There are scores of TV shows out there, with dozens of new episodes each week, not to mention everything you can find on Hulu Plus, Netflix streaming, and HBO Go. How’s a viewer to keep up? To help you sort through all that television has to offer, we’re compiling the five best moments on TV each week. Season finales made this a particularly rich week for TV, and this round sees the end of The Office, the long-awaited reveal of the mother on How I Met Your Mother, and a New Girl cameo from Taylor Swift. … Read More

Pop Culture

A Selection of Celebrities Who Just Couldn’t Take a Joke

By Julia Pugachevsky on

By now, even those of us who tend to ignore petty celebrity gossip have read a headline that goes something like, “Taylor Swift: to hell with Tina Fey, Amy Poehler?’” And then we had to see what could possibly have prompted this response to a pair of beloved comedians whose recent stint hosting the Golden Globes earned them seemingly universal praise. Both expressed shock, and even a little regret, that Swift had taken their lighthearted jab her love life to heart — and, in the end, they looked nothing but courteous and witty, while the singer came of as whiny. But at least the debacle was fairly amusing, as it tends to be when famous people insist on taking themselves too seriously. After the jump, we’ve rounded up a few more entertaining exchanges that ensued when celebrities just couldn’t take a joke. … Read More

Pop Culture

Camille Paglia’s Most Culturally Tone-Deaf Moments

By Chloe Pantazi on

Author, critic, self-avowed dissident feminist, and veteran professor of liberal studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Camille Paglia is in many respects a shrewd woman. And yet somehow Paglia has become just as well known for her frankly insipid and often unsound pronouncements about pop culture. Most recently, she wrote an article for The Sunday Times misleadingly comparing Rihanna to Princess Diana. The pop star, who apparently returned home sloshed to find her face melding beautifully into Lady Di’s on the cover of the paper, was thrilled with herself, posting the picture on Instagram, hashtagged with the made-up word: “extraordinaRIHbehavior.” To hold you over until she sees fit to compare Miley Cyrus and Kate Middleton, we’ve rounded up her most culturally tone-deaf moments. … Read More

Music

50 Reasons to Be Excited About Pop Music In 2013

By Rohin Guha on

It is a truth universally acknowledged that in event of a nuclear holocaust two things will persist: cockroaches and pop music. In our monthly Pop for Skeptics column, Rohin Guha explains how the latter need not be a terrifying thing to navigate, nuclear holocaust or not.

No pop fan really knows what to do with himself in January. It’s a special time of year when new fads are still being cooked up and otherwise unremarkable artists — nice to see you again, Nicole Scherzinger! — stand a fair shot at selling more than just a couple records. Some enterprising pop oracles might consult science, the stars, and mathematical trends to make all kinds of predictions about what is set to become “the next big thing.” Others, like me, will wait until some stuff has happened to do that. Sure, with January finally over and done with, it’s probably a bit too late to be making prognostications about what we should look forward to in pop this year, but to borrow a phrase from last year: YOLO. Below, then, are precisely 50 reasons to look forward to pop music in 2013. … Read More

Celebrity

In Defense of Lip-Synching: 5 Artists Who Could Have Used the Help

By Caroline Stanley on

Everyone is freaking out because Beyoncé lip-synched “The Star-Spangled Banner” at yesterday’s inauguration; you can even compare a clip of her rehearsing with the final version. As Kristin DuBois, a representative for the United States Marine Band, explained, “All music is pre-recorded for the ceremony because there are so many eventualities and conditions that day. We performed, live, the band. But we received last-minute word that Beyoncé was going to use the pre-recorded vocal track. Those were the instructions we were given. We don’t know what the reason why.”

Interesting. But if history has shown us anything, it’s that when you’re performing at a major public event, sometimes erring on the side of pre-recorded caution can be a good thing. Don’t believe us? Here’s all the proof you need. … Read More

Music

Musicians and Their Private Jets: A Timeline in Photos

By Jennifer Lewis on

Whenever we watch any sort of Rolling Stones documentary, there’s almost always footage of the band frolicking around their personalized private jet with a half dozen half-naked girls. Inspired by such a display, we’ve created a timeline of famous musicians who have been photographed with (and aboard) their very own private planes. Let it be known — as time progresses, the photos aren’t as cool (and neither are the musicians, really), but go ahead and check ‘em out anyway. Click through for our Flavorwire roundup of musicians and their private jets, then hit the comments to lend us your thoughts. … Read More

Music

Hipster Glasses, Facebook, and a Kiki: A Skeptic's Guide to Pop in 2012

By Rohin Guha on

With only days left until the end of 2012, the Internet is full of best-of essays and lists and embeddable Spotify playlists that reaffirm critics’ and tastemakers’ street credit and perpetuate the myth that most people writing about music actually have any kind of significant impact on the way that pop music is created, packaged, and sold. I won’t bore you with such gas. Instead, here are some fun superlatives that summarize the world of pop this year, for those of you who may not have kept up with this realm. These are undeniable touchstones — meaning that should you, as esteemed people with ears, have scruples with this list, it would behoove you to make an appointment with a qualified audiologist post-haste. Otherwise, read! Click! Dance! … Read More

Web

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

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, we celebrated Taylor Swift’s twenty-third birthday like it was her fifteenth. We caught up with the history of that rare Metropolis poster that was auctioned off today. We talked about The Office with a real-life Scranton reporter. We found out who the famous artists are whose works will be entering the public domain in 2013. We explored a list of top-selling movies, music, TV, books, and apps on iTunes in 2012. We looked forward to watching Judd Apatow’s 60 Minutes profile this Sunday. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Famed architect Oscar Niemeyer, the man behind many of the buildings in Brazil’s futuristic capital, has died at the age of 104. [via Guardian]

2. It turns out Taylor Swift as just as good at beatboxing as you might imagine. [via Gawker] … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. The New York Times has an interesting interview with New York rapper Angel Haze about her her decision to release “Cleanin’ Out My Closet,” a very personal song that chronicles her history of sexual abuse with stark honesty.

2. If you’re embarrassed about your warm and fuzzy feelings for Taylor… Read More