I don’t know much about classical music, but I know I love it. I could easily do a whole week of my favorite Tchaikovsky pieces, but I am bound to the one-artist-per-day rule. So then I have to narrow it down to one song. The Nutcracker Suite is one of the most delightful collections ever,…
There’s no business like… Show Tunes Review Week business I’m an avowed fan of Forgetting Sarah Marshall — it was basically the perfect comedy for me in college, and I’ll always hold it close to my heart. One of the film’s stand out moments is when the character played by Jason Segel (maybe my favorite…
There’s no business like… Show Tunes Review Week business Mass Effect 2 is my favorite video game of all time. It’s absolutely brimming with great characters, phenomenal writing, and surprising moments. A lot of them are dramatic, like Jack’s breakdown during her romance scene, or semi-intentionally hammy, like Shepard shouting “this store discriminates against the…
There’s no business like… Show Tunes Review Week business Brian opted to focus on TV shows for his “Moving Muppet Moments”, so I’ll step up and stan for “Rainbow Connection. And not only because my beloved Me First and the Gimme Gimmes covered it. There’s something so poetic about the song essentially opening the first…
There’s no business like… Show Tunes Review Week business If “Dear Theodosia” tugs the parental heartstrings, “Sunrise, Sunset” rips them out and stomps on them. Every parent has heard (and/or used) the same adage: “They grow up so fast.” Heck, my daughter is almost a year old, and it feels like just last week we…
There’s no business like… Show Tunes Review Week business I am not exaggerating when I say this is one of my 100 or so favorite songs in the world. It’s pop perfection. It’s the upbeat centerpiece of God Help the Girl, the fake musical-turned-real musical written by Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian. Sung by…
There’s no business like… Show Tunes Review Week business One of the Earn This posts I’ve most enjoyed writing over the past couple years is “Fulfilling My Hamiltonian Destiny,” an account of my long and complicated relationship with the smash musical Hamilton. In the year or so after I saw Hamilton on Broadway in January…
There’s no business like… Show Tunes Review Week business The 2007 film Enchanted has a delightful premise: Disney meets the real world. It opens with an animated fairy tale sequence reminiscent of vintage Disney animation, charming and colorful and just as socially regressive as Cinderella and Snow White. But after a scheme by an evil…
There was never a time as good as the ‘80s for huge, singalong refrains. These seven radio staples have all the nutritional value of Cheez-Whiz and all the grace of a two-by-four to the face, and all of them are incredible. This week, I present Epic Anthem Choruses of the ‘80s. Here are fifty facts…
There was never a time as good as the ‘80s for huge, singalong refrains. These seven radio staples have all the nutritional value of Cheez-Whiz and all the grace of a two-by-four to the face, and all of them are incredible. This week, I present Epic Anthem Choruses of the ‘80s. I think what I…