Pound Sign

New York City, pop culture, art and nightlife. Because nobody else is blogging about those things.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Speaking of The Frisky, the Burlesque movie, and our SOLD-OUT show this weekend...

Friday, November 26, 2010

"We’re quite sure the Material Girl herself, never one to shy away from stripping down, would approve."

See, we know how to get GOOD press for burlesque. That's a quote from the recommendation on NBC New York for Material Girls tomorrow night. The Village Voice says "one thing is for sure: The infamous pointed bra will definitely be making an appearance—or should we say disappearance?" It might be our most press-recommended show ever, from the Huffington Post to Time Out, the New York Post and Flavorpill. So, stuff some leftover turkey and come out for the show!

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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

"Bland, pretty and sexless, just like the movie"

Make no mistake, the new movie Burlesque, starring Cher and Christina Aquilera, that opens this weekend, is not burlesque. It's not actually about burlesque. It's Coyote Ugly 2.

It's nice to have actual burlesque and how this movie is not it mentioned in Manohla Dargis's negative review of the movie in today's New York Times. The fact is, it's not JUST about the fact that the movie doesn't include striptease, it's about the fact that it doesn't include any of the elements that make contemporary burlesque interesting or unique, it's just another collection of the same "country girl becomes a star, learns life lessons in the city" backstage musical cliches, that as Dargis notes, go back to the birth of talkies. it actually makes me think of another recent flick that gave a glossy Hollywood makeover to another grassroots, woman-driven and empowering movement: Whip It. That movie wasn't a classic but it did capture a sense of the actual values embodied by roller derby. Burlesque, the movie, just took a cultural buzzword and used it as a title.

So, anyway, F that shit. Come to a REAL burlesque show this weekend! Boy, there are gonna be some surprised people who are introduced to "burlesque" by this movie and decide to check out a real show in their local scene...that's not a bad thing, plenty of them might become new fans of the real deal. But it's funny.

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Frisky!

My friend, the beautiful and talented Simcha Whitehill, asked me to share my childhood crushes for a piece on The Frisky. Happy to be included, and It's a fun list in general.

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Friday, November 19, 2010

3 Questions

1. This isn't real, is it?
2. No, seriously.
3. Can I preorder tickets now, or do I have to wait?

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Monday, November 15, 2010

Waaaay too much time on someone's hands

But it's awesome.

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Saturday, November 13, 2010

Your Saturday non sequiter

Courtesy of Pop Suede.

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

I do continue to find the formula deeply comforting

Gabe on Videogum, in his continuing role as one of the smartest and funniest pop culture writers on the web, has a great analysis of the first episode of Conan last night, the state of late night, and how Jimmy Fallon is making the late night talk show formula just contemporary enough to keep it interesting.

Monday, November 08, 2010

This photo represents my life coming full circle.


This is a shot I took backstage at the Hampton Coliseum, packed with 13,000 jam band fans on the night before Halloween, of the team of go-go dancers I brought down to Virginia to perform, pictured here with, well, the Empire.

The same week: at my new day job I met the man who created "Just Do It" and the man who created Verdana.

Sometimes things work out.

Friday, November 05, 2010

Man, I had just learned to love Luna Park, too.

Amusing the Zillion has good up-to-the-minute coverage of the heartbreak happening on the Coney Island boardwalk right now; a dozen of the classic boardwalk businesses, from Ruby's to Shoot the Freak, received their walking papers with two weeks to pack up and get out. Unless they can band together to successfully fight this off legally, which, if the ongoing history of Coney development is any indication, won't happen, next summer the old flavor of the Coney Island boardwalk will essentially be a thing of the past.

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Thursday, November 04, 2010

Also, didn't remember Shipwreck is basically Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail

The new channel The Hub shows classic G.I. Joe at 12:30. This is awesome news. And it's reminded me of what it's all about:

(Actually, thanks to my friend Michael Andrews for sending this to me.)

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Monday, November 01, 2010

Shocktover (get it?)

I've really enjoyed the daily Shocktober updates on Stacie Ponder's terrific blog Final Girl. Any horror fan bummed for the big month to be over should click that link and start at the bottom for the entire Shocktober experience. Stacie solicited any and all bloggers and horror fans to submit their list of their top 20 favorite horror movies. She was shocked to received over 700 entries, the vast majority having received only one or two votes! She counted them down over the course of the month, as well as offered special guest lists from horror writers and other special tidbits. I submitted my list and it was genuinely interesting to see where my 20 ended up in the grand scheme, everything from an obscure one-voter (Gargoyles, look it up, it's awesome! I'm rather proud of that) to about ten with just a small, select group of rabid fans, to a fair number in the ten that received dozens of votes. It's an entertaining and engaging look at a genre, including debate over what belongs, past decades versus current, and all unified by Stacie's funny and warm voice.

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