What a year! Happy Birthday Fred! You are the man. You moved from the Catskills, jumped the F-train to NYC and chilled out for the very first time in the Big Apple and we've been running around partying ever since. The friends. The fun. MoMA PopRally, LVHRD. The Hamptons, Miami, LA, SF, Japan. It has been an awesome year and I think I can speak for all FOFs when I say: You are one-of-a-kind.
A Master's Methods. It is rare to hear a master of their craft explain process. When this does happen, it's usually at a specialized workshop that participants have paid hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to attend. After all they are a living master, someone whose advice is pure 24k solid gold wisdom. It's stuff that takes a lifetime to acquire. With that said, we would like to present the knowledge of a master. This is the esteemed Sir Ian McKellen sharing his methods for the betterment of all aspiring actors.
EPs are peculiar beasts. At best, they are highly pleasurable instruments of unsatisfaction, designed to leave an audience wanting more. At worst, they are slow, bloated singles that waste time and money. Sticking Fingers Into Sockets, the new EP from Welsh rock snob wunderkinds Los Campesinos! falls somewhere between the good, the bad and the dancey. The downside: It's pretty much based around one diabolically catchy number called "You! Me! Dancing!" The upside: that one song is positively invasive to the extent that it conjures a favorable taste for the other tracks that are entirely less likable (with the exception of an endearing cover of Pavement's b-side gem "Frontwards"). While Sticking Fingers Into Sockets falls short of the consistently solid target, it does deliver enough gut punch to make the ride well worth the price of admission.
Top five actors that need to lighten up. As demonstrated in the VIDEO section above, some great actors are bestowed with an abundance of humor and an openness to the absurd. Others, not so much. Here are some that need to drop their guard and embrace the funny. posted by William E. Ocean
5. Ryan Gosling Perhaps his "serious act-OR" countenance is a ploy to erase public memory of his stint on The Mickey Mouse Club with Spears and Timberlake. Let it go, man. DiCaprio was on Growing Pains and he still parties.
3. Leelee Sobieski At the peak of her career she appeared on Leno with all the pep and sunshine of a nine-year-old at her cat's funeral. She closed her humorless exchange with Jay by reading one of her own "deeply symbolic" poems. Please, woman, see a Judd Apatow movie before it's too late!
2. Russell Crowe First he needs a mantra to curb the telephone throwing. Then we can incrementally introduce humility, self-awareness, fulfillment and perhaps someday, a Gumby suit.
1. Sean Penn Tragic Hollywood tale: talented actor with unlimited potential loses his humor in a freak accident on the way to an advanced screening of Meatballs 2. When he wakes from his coma, he finds flatulence unwelcome and appalling. Hollywood would never be the same.
Honorable Mention: the country of Kazakstan While Kazakstan is not technically an actor (according to SAG), there is no denying it has a glaring need for a funny bone. At the very least, it should realize that before Borat, no one had any interest in Kazakstan whatsoever. At least now, people are familiar with such cultural luminaries as the naked, hairy fat guy and Boltok the rapist.
Manna from pizza heaven. One of the many things I was looking forward to upon my decision to move to New York was the pizza. Every expatriate who had fled the high rents and general insanity mourned their loss of access to great pizza. Apparently, amongst its many other titles, New York was the cheese pie capital of the world. Truthfully, I've never found these claims to be true. Sure there's a pizza joint on every block, and they're good, orange cheese grease and all, but I hadn't run across any that I think merited the title of greatest pizza in the world. I guess a world capital earns its title through quantity and not quality. Now though, that's changed: I believe I've found a place that lives up to that New York mystique. It resides in the heart of Carroll Gardens and it's called Lucali.
Lucali is the closest I think I've come to realizing the Platonic Ideal of what pizza is. It was beyond good, I think I would have to invent new words to describe how good this pizza was and, being only words, they would still fail. So I'm moving beyond that and I'm going to talk about the atmosphere because, pizza aside, it's got to be one of the most romantic spots in all of New York. The walls and details look a hundred years old while dim lit rustic tables recede under the flickering glow of the brick oven fire. Backlit, his attention focused, is the owner and head chef Mark Iacono. He stands before a low table which must have been imported from an Italian grandmother's house. On that table lays that day's fresh ingredients which are assembled into your desired pizza right there in front of you.
The guy with the apron, that's God.
The pies are cooked in a matter of minutes and come out perfect with a thin, crisp crust. We had one pepperoni followed by a black olive and onion pie. I believe if given the option I could've devoured both pizzas on my own chasing them with the thick, cheese-packed calzone that followed our pies. Now to make a great situation greater: you can bring your own beer, which means you have access to an amazing selection to go with your fine pizza. As previously referenced, there might be no greater combination in the world than beer and the perfect pizza.
posted by Arthur Beard
