When I first moved to New York, Prince was playing at Madison Square Garden. I wanted to go. A friend who had been living here for years before I did, told me not to bother because I’d be paying $200 and he’d be too tiny to see anyway. He didn’t tour New York again before his death. Never seeing Prince in one of his legendary 3-hour concerts will forever be a major regret in my life. Thing is, seeing concerts is also a major planning operation in New York. You have to be on top of when the tickets go on sale, so they don’t sell out. You have to…
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Arctic Monkeys in Queens.
“I don’t like it, man. I just can’t get into it. It’s too lounge-y for me. It’s like a solo album, or something…” “Yeah, it took me a few listens, but then I was hooked. It’s a phenomenal album, man! You need to listen again.” Waiting in line to get into Forest Hills Stadium, in Queens to see Arctic Monkeys, I was privy to a bunch of friends debating the merits of the band’s latest album, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Their sixth album, it really is a sonic step-away from the previous tracks released by Alex Turner and co. As Pitchfork notes, a “left-turn if ever there was one,” with Turner…
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Blindspotting
At a time when so many incredible indie films are being made, Blindspotting sits well amongst the list as one of the must-sees. It’s a feature film that channels the talent of spoken word artists, Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, into an urgent, compelling fresh take on contemporary America. On screen, as in real life, the actors are friends, co-workers, and co-writers — in the film their co-writing takes place more spontaneously, in between deliveries in their company truck, rather than in room with pen and paper (or keys and a laptop). Diggs, a Tony-winning Hamilton alum, plays Collin, who’s spent a year in prison and has three days left of his…
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Eighth Grade, the Movie.
Eighth Grade’s Kayla Day — played by the excellent Elsie Fisher — is the heroine I wish I’d been for myself when I was 13. When we first meet her, in comedian Bo Burnham’s directorial debut, she’s making one of her YouTube videos, a series of “tips” and self-help advice dished out to an audience of 1 or sometimes none, following a model that’s seemingly worked for others. She dolls out advice on “how to get out there” or “how to have confidence,” – after all giving advice is the best way to boost one’s social standing online. Most of the time, though, Kayla is making these videos based on…
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Hearts Beat Loud
If you love Once & Begin Again and treasure record stores & sweet summer romances, and have never quite appreciated how empathetic Nick Offerman’s eyes can be, and if you have ever been to Red Hook or have never been to Red Hook, and you need a tonic of hope & love to help you be brave in whatever way you need to be, you must watch Hearts Beat Loud. Set in a part of Brooklyn that’s super hard to get to (unless you, like me, run there), Red Hook, the film tells the story of a single father named Frank, played by Nick Offerman, and his daughter, Sam, played…
