Category Archives: TV

Apr 27 2012
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Endorsements, Music, TV

Unsolicited Endorsements XXIII

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

PSA: Increasing Concert Awareness

Sleigh Bells performed at the Granada, here in Dallas, last week. I imagine this band plays a spectacular live show, particularly because they gave one of the best performances I’ve seen on Saturday Night Live. I don’t know this for sure because I didn’t go. I wanted to. I just didn’t realize they were playing until about two weeks after tickets went on sale. Continue reading →

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Mar 09 2012
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Endorsements, Music, TV

Unsolicited Endorsements XVIII

Comedy Crush: Aubrey Plaza

Tom Haverford is my favorite character on Parks and Recreation. This has to be the case because Aziz Ansari is currently the funniest person on the planet. But lately, I haven’t been able to get enough of April, of Aubrey Plaza, especially after I found her user name on YouTube.* Continue reading →

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Feb 10 2012
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Endorsements, Food, Music, TV

Unsolicited Endorsements: XIV

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Live music performances: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

I must admit: I rarely watch late-night television. I can’t remember the last time I watched Leno or Letterman, and my samplings of Jimmy Fallon have mostly been limited to some viral highlights — like the time he went full Neil Young and performed “Whip My Hair” with Bruce Springsteen. Thing is, I don’t think this is changing, either. And, yet, I’m still an all-time sucker for a solid live-music performance. And on Thursday, someone pointed out that Fallon’s NBC website archives all the performances into an easy playlist.*

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Jan 20 2012
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Endorsements, Music, TV

Unsolicited Endorsements: XII

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Music genre : Love Rap

Eye Know by De La Soul and Set Adrift on Memory Bliss by P.M. Dawn

Love rap is maybe my favorite subgenre of what is probably my favorite genre. You get songs with wonderful R&B hooks and self-proclaimed thugs showcasing what they consider their softer side but is really just their lusty side. Sometimes this can lead to unintentional hilarity.

Example A: “Wanna Get To Know You”  by G-Unit.  The chorus starts with someone crooning “I Wanna Get to Know You.” He then proceeds to say, “I really wanna fuck you.”

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Jan 06 2012
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Endorsements, Sports, TV

Unsolicited Endorsements: X

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Television show: “Portlandia”

By now, Portlandia is a semi-famous television show, with thousands and thousands of viewers and dedicated loyalists*. Familiar faces from Hollywood’s comedy intelligentsia (read: Hipster Elite) make cameos. And there are recognized catch-phrases. And it really only took six episodes for the whole thing to become part of America’s modern hipster (read: young) zeitgeist.

*These are the same people that watch Kids in the Hall on Netflix and are still mad that other people can’t understand the brilliance of the old Comedy Central show, Stella.

At its core, Portlandia is an outrageous send-up of Portland’s social and cultural landscape (a place where “young people go to retire” and the “dream of the 90s is still alive”). And this, I think, is what makes the show so fascinating. It’s a show that pokes fun at Portland and all its idiosyncrasies. And yet, it’s prime audience is made up of people that are exactly like the citizens of Portland.  Continue reading →

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Dec 30 2011
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Endorsements, Literature, Music, TV

Unsolicited Endorsements: IX

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Writer and Story: Chris Ballard, SI, “The Kiss”

 These days, with the oversaturation of sharing devices and linking and instant connectivity, it can be hard to keep pace with the non-stop reading recommendations. To be sure, I’d prefer an onslaught of reading material to none… it’s just… I only got so much time, brother.

And how many times do you stumble upon a link on some pocket of the internet and hear: “Best thing you’ll read all day” or “Must-read” or “Great read” or “So well-written” or some other generically boring review*.  Continue reading →

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Nov 25 2011
2 Comments
Endorsements, Literature, TV

Unsolicited Endorsements: IV

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

It isn’t often you come across a story in one of the three best NYC-centric publications — The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine — that doesn’t mock life outside of the five boroughs (alas, East Coast provincialism, ignorance and brainlessness is a topic for another day), so this touching, thought-provoking and incredibly real portrait of life in tiny Nucla, Colo., was especially and pleasantly unexpected. Continue reading →
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