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Entertainment news and musings from a pop culture geek

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The Amazing Spider-Man Teaser Trailer

This comes out three weeks before The Dark Knight Rises and yet 2:30 worth of brand spanking new footage...#ImJustSaying. While I have no doubt whatsoever about which movie I'll dig more, I am impressed by the teaser and it may even make me forget the abominable Spider-Man 3 was only FOUR years ago.

If you're still rattled about a reboot so close to the original series, key differences include:
-a love interest not named Mary Jane
-a villain yet to be featured on the big screen [The Lizard]
-focus on Peter's birth parents
-weird, over-indulgent first-person POV shots that make it look like a video game instead of a blockbuster. *shrug*

July 3, 2012

Monday, July 11, 2011

The Dark Knight Rises: Teaser Poster

Sadly, the pop culture event the Connoisseuraus is anticipating most - yes, even more than the release of Watch the Throne - is still over a year away. Which means, it's time for the promo team to start torturing us with teasers: posters that don't show the Dark Knight himself nor the buzzed about new villains, trailers that offer scraps worth of visuals and sound bites (one is rumored to be attached to Harry Potter). The media campaign begins with the just released image you see below. Quite foreboding for a movie with such an optimistic title, no? The blink-and-you'll-miss-it Bat signal is cool though.

The final installment of the trilogy hits theaters July 20, 2012.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Hidden Treasures or The Art of Being a Fanatic

"How you say 'my love' in Spanish?"

I'm gonna break my usual attempts at prose and go full-on 1st person: this used to be my shit! If you live in the tri-state area and are a real hip-hop fan - ie an alumnus, not finishing up your 4-years or worse, just beginning - then you were a fan before the internet got big and are thus properly acquainted with the great staple in rap radio that is Hot 97.1 And one of the objects of my 11 year-old affection was 97 personality Angie Martinez, who back in 2000 randomly decided to release a rap album and called in her whole rolodex of industry connects to help out. My favorite song, of course: the bi-lingual hood rom-com back-and-forth dialog between her and Young Hov. Nothing short of classic. It was on the radio way before the album dropped, and again this was before downloading and iTunes. Talk about agony. Fortune favors the patient though. Ended up getting a signed album and other shit through Dad's connects. Enjoy:

"Love having my cake plus eating it too/Shit, I got cake, what the fuck I'm 'sposed to do?"

"Mi Amor" Angie Martinez & Jay-Z

Saturday, July 2, 2011

The Last Real Niggas Alive?

*If you haven't seen Game of Thrones 1st season in full turn around. Massive Spoilers ahead*

If you're like me, and immediately got sucked into HBO's latest TV tour de force Game of Thrones, but never read the source book series, A Song of Ice & Fire, then the season probably didn't play out how you expected it to. The inevitable showdown between the show's two coolest characters, standup-guy-surrounded-by-unscrupulous assholes Lord Ned Stark and ultimate badass conqueror Khal Drogo they teased all season long? Welp, by the time the finale came around, Ned had been beheaded in what will go down in TV history as one of the most unexpected deaths of all time, and Drogo had been rendered a vegetable and euthanized by his hot underaged wife. The madness of mercy indeed. Apparently fans of the show but not the books have abandoned ship, whining that they identified Ned as the protagonist and now that he's gone there's no point to watch, which is fucking stupid; this is a series full of rich and interesting worlds and characters. But that did make me sit realize...everybody left standing for season 2 is a dickhead! Amidst all the back-stabbers, schemers, and otherwise unpleasant people, who can I even root for? Here are the remaining "real" dudes I can get down with when we return next year:

Tyrion Lanister - He may be on Team Lannister Douchebag, but the imp was always the most interesting character. I can at least count on him to have the line of the episode and keep the bitchass-ness of his family in check, particularly that little fuck King Prince Joffrey. Just peep the clip above where he stands trial and confesses his "sins."

Bronn - Just like the rest of us Bronn was won over by the little Lord during his monologue above and has since served as his personal bodyguard. The title for best one-liner of the night is usually fought between these two. Plus he's probably the illest dude alive with a sword at this point.

Arya - Unlike her stupid older sister, Ned's youngest daughter and tomboy always knew the Lannisters were bitch-made and was always down to ride for her family. Her sword game is crazy too; after witnessing her pop's beheading I'm counting on her above her five siblings to be the one to get revenge.

Jon Snow - Always a cool character but his storyline at the Wall was my least favorite all season. That Rangers are a buncha fake ass Green Lanterns if you ask me. Hopefully next year gives him something more interesting to do than be a bored badass and befriend fat people.

Daenerys - This says it all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u3U6M9HpPM#t=3m37s

Direwolves - They prevented not one but two assassination attempts on their masters. Best. Pets. Ever.

Runners Up: Robb Stark for transforming from punk entitled kid to worthy successor of his father; Jorah Mormount for at least having an allegiance on a show packed with duplicitous people.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Shanell - How to Love

This is the year of R&B freestyles remixes. Now that the whole industry practically ran a train on the "Marvin's Room" beat, is this song next? YMCMB hottie (oh, and singer) Shanell lead's the pack with her own version of boss Wayne's latest single "How to Love." This is quite honestly the best her voice has ever sounded. If I sound harsh, go skim through We Are Young Money and you'll see what I mean. She does the beat so much more service than Weezy that one wonders if he was wrong not to gift it to her in the first place. Probably would've cleared up that whole obscurity problem. See for yourself: