Morning, y’all! Last night, I discovered the trailer for the new Jeff Bridges movie Crazy Heart. As far as trailers go, this one looks promising. Bridges, playing an alcoholic country star, has the Bocephus thing nailed down tight; Maggie Gyllenhaal, as the reporter who helps Bridges turn his life around, looks smart and womanly; christ, it’s got Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall, too. But then I thought back to the trailer for Men Who Stare at Goats, a Bridges vehicle if ever there was one, and the pile of broken dreams that movie turned out to be. Will it happen again with Crazy Heart?

Anne Thompson at Indie Wire thinks no. According to Thompson, Fox Searchlight initially intended to roll out Crazy Heart in spring 2010, but with Amelia looking less and less likely to pick up an Oscar nomination, Crazy Heart will now have a limited release next month. Thompson has seen a rough cut of the movie, and says it’s a contender. I’ll take that.

More arts shit after the jump.

Read More “Arts Morning Roundup: Will Jeff Bridges Let Us Down Again?” »

Afternoon, y’all! I keep forgetting how self-righteous music critics can be when it comes to the term “indie,” which was coined as shorthand for “independent music,” or music that is made and released independently of the Big 4.

But as with other words–”gay” no longer means thrilled to be alive, and “damn” will no longer send one straight to hell–the meaning of indie has changed to connote, as often as not, an aesthetic.

Read More “Afternoon Open Thread: Music Fogies Fight the Evolution of Language” »

As the lead library technician for the Library of Congress’ music division, Carl Cephas specialized in retrieving obscure rock and jazz materials for patrons. To a handful of his coworkers and managers, he specialized in being a major headache. There was the time he told his supervisor Mary Wedgewood, “Fuck you, go suck eggs,” after she served him with a written reprimand. The time he “engaged in a long and very loud” phone conversation about the dead mice he’d trapped in his apartment, which some of his coworkers believed was “intended to disgust everyone in the room.” There were the many times he refused to clean up the cultural curios that cluttered his work area, his penchant for introducing the word shit into conversation, and his habit of greeting his friends by bellowing, “Hey motherfucker!”

The library placed Cephas, 49, on indefinite leave this summer after 27 years of employment.

Read More “Was Carl Cephas’ Separation From the Library of Congress Overdue?” »

Is that they all suck, apparently. Morning, y’all! Re TV: You got Chris Klimek and Glen Weldon gracefully dropping huge turds on the new Prisoner, and here’s Bill O’Reilly meh-meh-mehing about how the script writers for the alien invasion show V are taking “potshots” at the Obama Administration. Incidentally, Klimek and Weldon are criticizing a not-very-good apolitical remake of a very good political show, while nutters from all over are railing for and against the supposedly political and very good remake of an apolitical and very bad show. How complicated is that? There’s no pleasing these motherfuckers. All I know is that I would love it if my friends would stop accusing me of being a birther every time I mention V.

Further evidence that Tobias Wolff is the only author in existence who doesn’t sound put upon when interviewed for the millionth time , a great piece on Edward P. Jones, the Bad Sex in Fiction Awards, and more, after the jump.

Read More “Arts Morning Roundup: The Problem With TV Remakes…” »

Good morning, y’all! Did you miss us yesterday? Bet you did! Especially the theater trolls! Top of the news pile this morning: According to the Student Press Law Center, the University of Maryland’s Board of Regents opted to not make a constitution-violating anti-porn policy for the university. “The students couldn’t be happier,” Sarah Elfreth, the student rep on the board, told the SPLC. Good on the board, I say, and good on the students for defending what’s important; free speech is the shit.

The one band everyone–save for me and NME–forgot to put on their best of the decade list, how to solve a Rubik’s cube, more still on Dave Eggers’ foray into newspapers, and more, after the jump.

Read More “Arts Morning Roundup: Porn Wins the Day at University of Maryland” »

Morning, y’all! Roundup’s a little late today, as your pep pep had a helluva night. Top of the news pile: the Book World podcast is in trouble! Daniel Radcliffe fulfills early 2000s-era MAD magazine prophecy by morphing into Harry Pothead! Somebody get Mike Phelps on the horn to counsel this kid through his first big publicity pitfall! And a short video about Dock Ellis’ love of LSD (via kspace.tv).

Vicious mockery of Malcolm Gladwell, the failings of great writers and of the much anticipated Amelia, and what the Beatles’ shitty recordings say about contemporary album production, after the jump.

Read More “Arts Morning Roundup: Mocking Malcolm Gladwell” »

Hopefully not, but Ron Charles, deputy editor of WaPo’s Book World, says the paper’s top brass have threatened to kill the section’s podcast if it can’t rally more iTunes subscribers.

Read More “Is WaPo’s Book World Podcast Headed for Extinction?” »

Morning, y’all! At the top of the news pile: WaPo’s Dave Malitz almost missed his date with Bob Dylan, but then didn’t! Also, my niece, who is 4 years old, does not “get” VHS.

Tony Millionaire’s potty mouth, the legacies of Leo Strauss and Lemmy, the scarcity of female comedy writers, Trace Adkins: Comic Book Hero, free vinyl, music for writing about the Simpsons, and more, after the jump.

Read More “Arts Morning Roundup: Jabez vs. Lemmy and the Merits of ‘Honky Tonk Badonkadonk’” »

Arena Stage wants your children, grades 5-12. Specifically, they want your children’s ten-minute plays. If your child’s play wins, he or she “will receive playwriting master classes and participate in further script development with professional playwrights, directors and dramaturgs,” according to an Arena Stage press release. The winning children will receive $250, to be spent on pogs and therapy.

If pleased by the idea of turning your child into the most serious, self-conscious, over-worked kid in the 8th grade, you can find the guidelines for the competition after the jump.

Read More “Calling All Parents of That Kid From the Bobby Fischer Movie” »

Morning, y’all, and good Veterans Day. If you’re the remembering type, check out the Big Read radio show episode about The Things They Carried. Top of the news pile: The writing at Idolator sucks now, after only a day; Lady GaGa’s new music video, not so much. The FLOBOTS, makers of one of my favorite music videos of 2008, have announced they will play Towson and Richmond, but not D.C., on their fall tour. Sad face.

Green Day on Broadway, sex trafficking, shit-ton of Muppet love, Playgirl and Levi Johnston explained, fall vinyl giveaway, and more, after the jump.

Read More “Arts Morning Roundup: Muppets in Gulag, Free Vinyl in D.C.” »