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Ethan Hawke woos Internet, owns island, loves chips and salsa
Hawke and Julie Delpy in Before Midnight
The Reddit AMA can sometimes be scary territory, throwing celebrities and other interesting individuals into a pool of anonymous commenters who, when banded together, have enormous Internet strength (if that’s a thing). The subreddit has become an almost inevitable stop for those looking to promote upcoming movies and albums, but sometimes those people make the mistake of only talking about said projects.
Ethan Hawke, however, arguably nailed an AMA on Reddit earlier today. Though technically there to promote his latest films Before Midnight and The Purge, Hawke won the hearts of many by taking the time to thoughtfully and thoroughly answer all types of questions. He also responded to more posts than the typical Mes of AskMeAnything. Oh, and he has an island off the coast of Nova Scotia that he bought from an old woman.
In addition to Canadian seclusion, the Internet’s new boyfriend likes Nicolas Cage, Tang, Elvis Presley, dogs, the Austin music scene, using caps lock when denoting MOVIE TITLES, and chips and salsa. He dislikes kissing on film, putting child actors in stressful situations while filming scary movies, and the nightmares he got from shooting that scene in Training Day. He hopes to one ...
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Watch Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams react to the Red Wedding (with lots of spoilers)
For those still in shock after the Red Wedding sequence in last week’s Game of Thrones, here’s a little something to cheer you up. (And if you haven’t yet seen last week’s episode you should stop reading now because there are major SPOILERS.) Actress and Vine-aficionado Maisie Williams (you might also recognize her as Arya Stark) tweeted a reaction video to the devastating events at the end of “The Rains of Castamere.” It’s a hard time for all of us, so sit back, relax, and watch Williams be hilarious until you forget all about that knife George R.R. Martin stuck in your back (just like he stuck a knife in, well, you know.)
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Listen to Ariel, the new single from Colorado punk act Elway
Colorado punk act Elway is dropping its sophomore record, Leavetaking, later this month, but the group’s new single, “Ariel,” is available to stream now on The A.V. Club. The band—which has been in hot water with their namesake quarterback for nabbing his moniker—has been compared to acts like The Lawrence Arms and The Menzingers, and tour fairly extensively this summer. A full slate of dates is below.
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Simpsons Fast Food Boulevard opens in Universal Studios
Universal Studios Orlando has finally opened the Simpsons Fast Food Boulevard, where it is absolutely possible to wash down your Heat Lamp Dog with a Duff Beer. Eateries include Cletus' Chicken Shack, whose indulgently greasy menu includes Chicken Arms, Chicken Thumbs, and a Thrilled To Be Grilled Chicken Sandwich; Krusty Burger (duh), serving up the finest Clogger Burgers and Heat Lamp Dogs; The Frying Dutchman, where you can get your Clam Chowd-arr fix; Lisa's Teahouse of Horror; and Luigi's Pizza, whose Meat-Liker's pizza promises to leave you somewhat satisfied. Patrons can enjoy these delicacies at bright red booths next to elaborate murals of Springfield.
It's now also totally possible to experience a Flaming Moe (though sans-cough syrup and fire…and alcohol) while sitting next to an eerily oversized plastic Barney Gumble, who has taken up permanent residence at the bar in Moe's Tavern. Other libations include Duff Beer, Groovy Grove Juice, Mr. Teeny, and a Mt. Swartzwelder Apple Drink.
Here's a six-minute video that gives an extensive tour of the food court, complete with a rocking rendition of the beloved theme song.
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Watch Hop Along's Shaking Through session and download its new song “Sister Cities”
Frances Quinlan, Hop Along
Philadelphia's Hop Along started humbly, with vocalist/guitarist Frances Quinlan using the band's debut album Freshman Year as a means to take bare bones, highly-affecting songs and build them into something grandiose. As years passed, Quinlan assembled a full band—with her brother Mark on drums and Tyler Long on bass—the result of this sonic expansion leading to the Wretches 10-inch in 2009, and last year's nearly perfect Get Disowned. The album is notable for its folk-gone-indie-punk approach, coupled with massive choruses and Quinlan's personal, soul-crushing lyricism (we'll continue to assume The National's new album is the prequel to Get Disowned's “Trouble Found Me” until we're told otherwise).
With the band continuing to grow in both esteem and membership—its new five-piece line-up brings in Algernon Cadwallader bassist Peter Helmis on keys (who released Get Disowned on his label Hot Green Records) and engineer Joe Reinhart on guitar—Hop Along took part in a Shaking Through session, resulting in the rollicking “Sister Cities.” While the song maintains the deliberate and delicate intimacy of its former work, the documented recording process shows Hop Along coupling distorted guitars and rock ‘n’ roll tactics ... -
Listen to "FOH," the poppy new single from Superchunk
Superchunk has been in the music game for years now, and with members Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance heading up Merge Records, the group’s nothing if not familiar with the inner workings of the industry. That’s why the group’s new single, “FOH”—“front of the house,” for outsiders—is so darn catchy. Grousing about busted amps and windows in the front of the venue mucking up the sound, the track is a short pop anthem to the life of a band on the road.
“FOH” is on I Hate Music, which is out Aug. 20 on Merge. Superchunk is on tour this summer and fall, and dates are below.
Superchunk tour 2013
June 20—Sled Island—Calgary, Alberta
Aug. 22—Terminal West—Atlanta, Georgia
Aug. 23—The Grey Eagle—Asheville, North Carolina
Aug. 24—Cat’s Cradle—Carrboro, North Carolina
Sept. 2—Bumbershoot—Seattle, Washington
Sept. 3—The Fillmore—San Francisco, California
Sept. 4—El Rey Theatre—Los Angeles, California
Sept. 6—MusicFestNW—Portland, Oregon
Sept. 7—A.V. Fest—Chicago, Illinois
Sept. 23—Jefferson Theater—Charlottesville, Virginia
Sept. 24—Union Transfer—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sept. 26—Paradise Rock Club—Boston, Massachusetts
Sept. 27-28—Bowery Ballroom—New York ... -
Watch Andy Samberg spell out his name and sexual predilections in a new Lonely Island clip
It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for another new Lonely Island track. “Spell It Out” is a short little interstitial from The Wack Album, but manages to pack one pretty good joke into a tight 1:16. In the clip, Andy Samberg introduces fellow group members Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer before blasting into a lengthy, alphabetic introduction of who he is, and before you try to type it out as he talks, he’s a “Dude that has sex with pigs for money but only as a side thing right now I'm just short on cash and have irons in the fire but in this economy it'll have to do my name is Lenny.” Gross.
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This Joy Division video game offers all the fun of Joy Division's music, all the romantic despair of Burger Time
While no video game will ever truly plumb the emotional depths of Burger Time (“Despair is an inconsiderate hot dog, blundering through the stacking of life’s burgers”—Rimbaud), European developer Mighty Box Games has made a noble effort with its new browser game loosely based on the music of Joy Division. As you may expect from a Joy Division game, Will Love Tear Us Apart? is somber stuff, its mission guided by “an ambition to frustrate, upset and sting the player into remembering the dark days preceding the death of a relationship.” As you might not expect from a Joy Division game, you can't advance to the next level by finally ditching Peter Hook in a warp zone.
Anyway, "frustrate" is right: The game is really more of an impressionistic, interactive art piece, with all of the action revolving around your confused, feckless direction of a couple as they bicker, reconcile, and swell into grotesque demon-people for no reason, just like in real life. And in addition to paying tribute to the band with a game as bleak as its music, the developer says the overall purpose of Will Love Tear Us Apart? is to encourage players to ...
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This GIF-to-flip book converter will revolutionize middle-school study hall
The humble GIF: lifeblood of Reddit, cat pictures' next evolutionary step, and the only way to watch professional basketball. (Seriously, try it: Watch two or three dunks, a funny reaction shot, and James Harden stroking his magnificent beard, and you've gotten the maximum possible amount of enjoyment out of an NBA game and saved yourself about three hours.) While the GIF was created in the mid-'80s, only in recent years has it been wholeheartedly embraced by the Internet, replacing Simpsons quotes as the dominant means of communication online. But designer Jiho Jang wants to take this old/new technology back to the past. All the way back to sixth grade.
Jang has invented the GIF-TY; a combination digital camera and printer, which captures a GIF animation, then prints it as a flip book. After decades of bored middle schoolers hand-drawing flip books in looseleaf notebooks, usually of stick figures murdering each other, the middle schoolers of tomorrow will be able to film their friends murdering each other (assuming the quality of America's schools continues to decline), and have a cute, retro memento of the experience. Cat owners making analog GIFs of their nauseating pets will be able ...
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Watch hot girls get high, eat candy in the new video from Turbo Fruits
Founded in Nashville by former Be Your Own Pet guitarist Jonas Stein, Turbo Fruits are a garage rock powerhouse. The group’s latest record, Butter, came out last fall on Kings Of Leon’s Serpents & Snakes label, but the group is dropping a 7-inch today on fancy blue glittery vinyl courtesy of Turbo Time Records. One of the songs on that record is “Sweet Thang,” and The A.V. Club has the premiere of the Seth Graves-directed clip for said track. Plenty glittery in its own right, the video utilizes the tried-and-true formula of hot girls getting high, eating candy, and singing into hairbrushes. Well, Hell, if it ain’t broke...
Turbo Fruits - "Sweet Thang" from Serpents & Snakes on Vimeo.
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Get involved, Internet: help Eugene Mirman bring his comedy festival to Boston and Cambridge
Comedian, writer, and actor Eugene Mirman has sponsored his own comedy festival, the aptly titled Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, in Park Slope in Brooklyn since 2008. But now Mirman is taking the festival on the road, with four nights of comedy in Cambridge and Boston June 28-30. To help with the independently produced festival events—which feature H. Jon Benjamin, Bobcat Goldthwait, Wyatt Cenac, and others—Mirman started a modest Kickstarter campaign with a great little video about how he doesn’t want to sell out to “some really cool urinal sponsor,” instead raising the money by doing silly things for fans. He’s offering rewards such as “10 seconds of silent eye contact…at the Official Eye Contact Booth,” an “Hors D’oeuvres & Hugs Hour,” or a tour of the Lexington Battle Green—where Mirman worked as a teenager—followed by lunch at a Chinese restaurant (what, no official Bob’s Burgers tie-in?). Or if you’re feeling more generous, you can sponsor all of the caviar at the festival for a mere $2,000, or help fill the cardboard VIP room with “bottles of cognac, pillows, and tasteful 1960s pornography.”
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Coldplay drummer Will Champion had a cameo at the Red Wedding
Game Of Thrones has been selective about official music selections during the series. The National performed “The Rains Of Castamere” for the second season soundtrack, and the upcoming third season music compilation has The Hold Steady’s version of “The Bear And The Maiden Fair” and Kerry Ingram’s (Stannis’ daughter Shireen Baratheon, also of Matilda The Musical in London) “It’s Always Summer Under The Sea.” But the musical associations with the series got a bit wider after last Sunday’s episode. Coldplay drummer Will Champion made a cameo as a drummer at the Red Wedding—an appearance that we reported back in November. Just as the band begins to play “The Rains Of Castamere,” out of place as a Lannister victory song at the wedding, there’s Champion, concentrating on that one drum, trying not to start playing “Viva La Vida” or something. It’s not the first time a musician has made a cameo on the show—Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody sang “The Bear And The Maiden Fair” with the group that captured Jaime and Brienne back in “Walk Of Punishment.” You can watch a clip of the first shot Champion shows up in during the ...
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Listen to the new solo single from Swervedriver frontman Adam Franklin
From 1990 to 1998, Adam Franklin served as the lead singer of Swervedriver, one of the UK’s preeminent shoegaze acts. Though the group got back together in 2008, Franklin has kept to his own course and spent additional time focusing on his own music, which aims to blend that shoegaze sound with some dream-pop haziness. Black Horses, Franklin’s latest record with his group, Bolts Of Melody, isn’t out until July 16 on Goodnight Records, but The A.V. Club has the exclusive premiere of the first single.
Franklin wrote “Boocat Leah” back in 2006, but didn’t release it until now because Boocat Leah was an actual Googleable person from Cleveland. Somehow—Fakeblock, maybe?—all traces of Boocat Leah have vanished from the Internet since the song’s creation, leading Franklin to believe that it’s probably okay for the track to be out in the ether now.
Black Horses is available for pre-order now.
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Patton Oswalt acts out the lyrics for The Coup’s “The Magic Clap”
Perennial Internet MVP Patton Oswalt describes “The Magic Clap” by politically inclined hip-hop masters The Coup as “my favorite song by my favorite band.” So even though the song already got a music video last fall before the band released their 2012 album Sorry To Bother You, Boots Riley and company had no problem letting Oswalt cut loose and act out every lyric from the song, even if he tells Riley “I got this, Kanye,” at the beginning. The quick cuts make it a bit difficult to follow everything, but you’ll catch a security blanket, a Harry Potter scar, some Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, and an overthrown football as Oswalt has a bunch of fun messing around with a boatload of props and shimmying to the chorus.
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Watch OK Go perform a song as NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts move to a new building
As avid listeners of the wonderful NPR podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour know, the Washington D.C.-based staff of NPR recently moved to a shiny new headquarters. The only problem? The beloved NPR Music web series Tiny Desk Concerts, filmed at the cramped desk full of kitschy decorations belonging to All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen, needed extra care to make the move. So NPR Music brought in OK Go, masters of the visually exhausting music video, to perform 223 takes of their song “All Is Not Lost” as the various pieces of the Tiny Desk set moved to their new location. So take a journey with OK Go as they travel through the old NPR headquarters, onto a flatbed truck, around the streets of D.C., and finally up into the pristine new NPR building. And stick around for some charming outtakes from the shoot while the band drove around on the truck.
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A Twitter account is collecting all the visceral reactions to that thing that happened on Game Of Thrones last night
Last night’s episode Game Of Thrones was a big one, containing a definitive turning point in the series, something that readers of the novels have anticipated for three seasons, and those lucky enough to somehow remain unspoiled got blindsided by even with all the heavy portent. You know, that part with the people, where they…oh forget it, either you saw it or you didn’t.
Just like with the original publication of the book, reactions to that event at either extreme are heated, and one Twitter account (with the name of the event, itself a rather pointed hint as to what happens) is collecting all the hyper-negative reactions. Fans of the show who haven’t read any of the books took to Twitter to grieve, decry George R.R. Martin and HBO, and threaten to boycott the show in delightfully outlandish fashion. Martin talked to Entertainment Weekly about why he wrote the chapter, how it subverts fantasy plot conventions, and how he’s dealt with divisive fan reaction since the book came out. But his rational thought doesn’t take any fun away from seeing people lose their shit over an event Martin wrote over a decade ago.
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Get involved, Internet: Help sponsor a conversational documentary with Richard Linklater and James Benning
Richard Linklater and James Benning have been friends since the mid-1980s, when Benning attended an event for Linklater’s recently launched Austin Film Society. They became fast friends, and though their careers have diverged significantly—with Benning working in experimental film mostly in obscurity and Linklater going on to direct mainstream studio films like School Of Rock—they apparently remain close. Now Chicago-based film writer and professor Gabe Klinger is nearing completion on a documentary for the French series Cinema, De Notre Temps featuring the two directors in a wide-ranging conversation about their lives, careers, and baseball fandom.
Consisting of a series of staged conversation set pieces—mirroring Linklater’s style in the Before films, Slacker, and Waking Life—over a four-day shoot, the feature-length documentary needs additional funding to get it through post-production. With only five days left to donate, the project is about $2,000 away from meeting its initial goal, so head over to the Kickstarter page, and we can all find out how bad two film directors are at shooting around a basketball while discussing their thoughts on cinema and baseball.
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California sister act Summer Twins type, craft in the new video for "Forget Me"
If there’s a more “now” genre of summer music than dreampop, we’re not really sure what it is. That’s why the new single from Summer Twins—California sisters Chelsea and Justine Brown—sounds so darn good right now. “Forget Me” is a little bit garage, a little bit ‘50s, and a lot charming, so check out the Joy Newell-directed clip below and then maybe check out the group’s latest 7-inch, “Forget Me”, out June 25 on Burger Records.
Summer Twins: Forget Me from Joy Newell on Vimeo.
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Read this: Blues Traveler singer John Popper's 22-tweet screed on gun rights, abortion, spelling
He's the one in the middle.
Back in 2007, human harmonica display and Blues Traveler frontman John Popper was pinched for doing 111 miles per hour on a Washington state road. When cops searched his car, they found weed, a taser, a switchblade, night vision goggles, a public address system, siren, and a veritable arsenal of firearms, including four rifles and nine handguns. Popper told police that “in the event of a natural disaster,” “he didn’t want to be left behind.”
Fast-forward six years and, apparently, the “Run Around” and “Hook” singer is still a bit of a gun nut. After The Cleveland Plain Dealer noted that Popper was scheduled to speak on gun rights at Washington’s National Press Club, he sent the paper 22—22!—tweets clarifying his desire to preserve the second amendment. Though his arguments are a little iffy—for instance, he insists that an armed public somehow limited what the KKK did in the old South—they’re an interesting read all the same. A full transcript of the tweets is pasted below. As a bonus, readers get to find out his views on “fetis” [sic] rights and abortion, because who wouldn’t want to know what John Popper thinks ...
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Someone already put together a chronological version of the new Arrested Development episodes
The new season of Arrested Development has only been live on Netflix for a week, an amount of time perfect for fans to binge watch, collectively shrug at Mitchell Hurwitz's inability to innovate an entirely new narrative style without such archaic requirements as a "watching order," and then re-watch the whole thing again. But it has been an entire week, meaning it’s already time for some intrepid viewer to complete the gargantuan task of picking all 15 episodes apart and re-editing them to fit their liking. Two different Reddit users have set about splicing the new episodes from character-centric stories into a chronological narrative of the Bluth family more akin to the first three seasons. The first user completed a recut 12-episode season that varies wildly in length, from a network-ready 21 minutes for the premiere to a 53-minute "Cinco de Cuatro" finale. It should be noted that the level of piracy here will probably send anyone versed in maritime law into a tizzy, but considering the somewhat lukewarm reaction to the fourth season as a whole, perhaps the fresh perspective of a re-edit will help bring the new material closer to what everyone loved about the original ...
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Watch Steve Albini brew up a "weasel coffee" tutorial
Steve Albini is a man of many fedoras. A noted recording engineer whose clients include Nirvana, The Ex, PJ Harvey, and Page And Plant among thousands of others, Albini is also a singer and guitarist in Shellac, a noted baseball enthusiast, a high-stakes poker player, a former journalist, and, in many ways, a soothsayer when it comes to the wisdom and foolishness of the music industry and its machinations.
Not too long ago, Albini started Mario Batali Voice, a blog about different meals he made his wife Heather and people have been raving over some of his concoctions ever since. Well, because he’s quite the cook, Albini took The A.V. Club up on a recent offer to prepare something in the client kitchen of his Electrical Audio recording facility in Chicago.
Rather than a full course though, he was quite keen to talk about and make some kopi luwak, or ‘weasel coffee,’ as he says it’s commonly known. Albini explains, somewhat gleefully, that this coffee, which he obtained from Shellac’s Bob Weston who recently visited Vietnam, is made from the beans of coffee berries that have been consumed and excreted by Asian Palm Civet cats ...
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Sir Patrick Stewart speaks out against domestic violence
Eugene Lee Images
In addition to being an accomplished Shakespearean actor, a sci-fi legend, and a British knight, it turns out Sir Patrick Stewart is also an incredible human being. A YouTube clip of a Q&A at Comicpalooza in Houston captures a fan named Heather Skye thanking Stewart for his 2009 Amnesty International speech about domestic violence against women. She then asks him “Besides acting, what are you most proud of that you’ve done in your life?”
Stewart takes the opportunity to speak about his own experiences growing up and why he is so dedicated to the cause of stopping domestic violence. “The people who could do most to improve the situation of so many women and children are in fact men. It’s in our hands to stop violence towards women. I do what I do in my mother’s name because I couldn’t help her then. Now I can.” Stewart works with a British organization called Refuge that provides safe houses for victims of domestic violence.
Stewart also speaks about his recent discovery that his father suffered from post-traumatic stress after WWII and this contributed to his violent behavior. To honor his father, Stewart also works with another ...
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Somebody decoded the hidden end-credits messages in It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Every episode of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia ends with a garbled piece of backwards audio—there's a different one each season. If you've ever wondered what the boys from Paddy's Pub have been trying to tell you, you're in luck. YouTube user ToN2010 took these unintelligible pieces of audio and played them forwards, revealing what Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, and Charlie Day have been saying. Surprise: It's not exactly highbrow. [h/t to Warming Glow]
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Jesse and Céline from Before Midnight tell you to shut off your damn phone in a new Alamo Drafthouse PSA
The Alamo Drafthouse has led the charge for amazing anti-talking and -texting PSAs in their theaters. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy star in the latest, as their characters from Before Midnight. Hawke begins an anecdote about Leo Tolstoy’s older brother Nikolai, but Delpy quickly gets distracted by you, yes you, the punkass in the audience using your phone. Delpy’s angry tirade in French—and Hawke’s great Purple Rose Of Cairo reference—makes for another memorable clip for the Drafthouse. If only every theater could afford such delightfully mean promos.
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Meet Unlocking The Truth, the group of NYC sixth graders who play insanely good metalcore in Times Square
While Minnesota’s Y.N. Rich Kids are producing poppy rap singles for the middle school set, there’s always been a gap in quality instrumental metal produced by and for tweens. Fortunately, New York’s Unlocking The Truth has arrived to change that. The band of three sixth graders plays frequently in Times Square, absolutely decimating the surrounding streets with their deathcore-influenced tunes. There’s not a ton known about the group, other than that they’re pals, from Brooklyn, and make pretty amazing loud music, but fortunately Noisey caught up with the group to talk about paradiddles, Motionless In White, and why Frosted Mini-Wheats are far superior to Skittles.
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Take a look inside Heath Ledger's diary from The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger’s shocking death just over five years ago elevated his performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight to mythic status, where any detail about the role or Ledger’s preparation gets scrutinized. This clip comes from the Heath Ledger episode of German documentary series Too Young To Die, which also focused on John Belushi, Kurt Cobain, and Sharon Tate. Though overdubbed with French (the YouTube description has a broken translation), it shows Kim Ledger, Heath’s father, showing a few parts of his son’s production diary for The Dark Knight. In the pages that Kim flips through, there are a lot of Alex DeLarge pictures from A Clockwork Orange, but also some menacing animals, different portraits of clown makeup, and notes on the hospital scene where the Joker dresses up as a nurse. Ledger’s father notes that his sister used to dress Heath up in a nurse’s outfit, which has some comedic resonance. The last page shows a makeup test picture, after which Heath wrote “BYE BYE” in large letters.
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Get a lesson in Queens Of The Stone Age guitar technique from Josh Homme
Queens Of The Stone Age’s first new album in six years, Like Clockwork, comes out next week, and preview tracks have offered the usual straightforward heft and high-flying guitar licks. QOTSA leader Josh Homme sat down with guitarist/producer Matt Sweeney for an episode of Noisey's “Guitar Moves” series to talk early influences and jam out on different elements of Homme’s playing style. Homme shares stories of first learning polka-style guitar from the only teacher out in the desert near Joshua Tree, how he picked up little pieces of his solo style from ZZ Top, Jimi Hendrix, and Jimmy Page, and gives simple advice to any kid picking up a guitar for the first time: “When you expect anything from music, you expect too much.” Homme and Sweeney get a bit sweaty, and the jam space in Homme's sweltering garage doesn’t seem too safe considering they shock each other at one point, but it’s an intriguing look at how a unique and under appreciated guitar player arrived at his style.
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Read This: New court documents detail just how Sly Stone went from millionaire funk hero to van-residing addict
Sly Stone’s story has been pretty sad for a while now, what with the legendary funk and soul frontman going broke, living in a van, and having all sorts of drug problems. While some of how Stone actually lost all his money was public knowledge—again, drugs, combined with some IRS issues—another big chunk of information about where the cash went is only coming out now.
New documents filed in California Appeals Court detail Stone’s claim that his lawyer, ex-manager, Sony Music, Warner, BMI, and dozens of other parties are all complicit in his financial troubles, with the Family Stone frontman claiming that “tens of millions” of dollars of royalties have been misappropriated. It’s a pretty convoluted tale, with arguments of malfeasance dating back to the mid-‘70s, but The Hollywood Reporter has a fascinating rundown of the whole thing, from Stone’s claims that his attorney gave him drugs to control him to detailed accounting of how one debt went to pay another that went to pay another that went to pay another and so on. If nothing else, it’s a reminder that a) being a rock star isn’t easy and that b ...
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Maria Bamford plays herself and her mother in the new web series Ask My Mom!
With all the scheduling conflicts that led to the fractured structure of the new Arrested Development season, Mitchell Hurwitz and his writers had the ability to basically call in anyone they wanted to make brief appearances. We won’t spoil any of the more exciting cameos, but the best supporting performance from a new character throughout the season is probably Maria Bamford as DeBrie Bardeaux. (Apologies to John Slattery’s hilarious disgraced anesthesiologist Dr. Norman, who sadly disappears about halfway through the season when George Sr.’s episodes are done.) Piggybacking on the praise she’s receiving for that role, Bamford has a new web series Ask My Mom!, where she poses questions to herself, playing her 70-year-old mother Marilyn. As Bamford expounds in her stand-up, her mother can be a bit fussy and intrusive, but Bamford’s impression is loving and specific enough not to come off as a generic overbearing mom. The first two episodes are out, and new one-minute episodes post every Thursday at MyDamnChannel.
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Caption Contest: These old pros are in the new magician movie
In the interest of science, creativity, and the science of creativity, we're posting a film or TV still every week, and we're going to ask you to come up with a clever caption. Whoever's caption gets the most likes will win some kind of nonsense prize from The A.V. Club office, most likely a Simpsons toy of some sort. We actually had our first tie for the last contest, featuring the handsome men of Fast & Furious 6; the co-champions were Intermittent Hairdresser, with "Where can I get a necklace like yours?" "You mean a cross?" "Across from what?" and K. Thrace, who gave us "I'm not sure if this table will hold both of us, but I'm willing to try!" Well done to both of you.
Make sure you post your caption as a new comment, not as a reply, so we can sort out the winner. And though we know you'll be tempted to go for the easy, gross joke, remember that our commenting policy isn't out the window here. This week’s still comes from Now You See Me. Here's one to get you started:
"How many giant garlic ...
