boy culture

Haunted Honeymoon

This can't be wrong, because my friend The Notorious J*O*E is always so right:

Sue Unhappy

I always liked Sue Simmons...strangely, I like her more now:

Sue from News 4 Cursing

I'm betting she was laying into a slow cue-card guy (wait, do they still have those?) or maybe even Chuck Scarborough.

More people in the media should be asking us this question. And we should be asking this question of more in the media.

Happy Day, You Mother

Today I overheard a mom with her tiny son (about four) as they walked past me. He was pointing urgently at a shiny silver car and saying, "Mommy! Mommy! SILVER!" I thought that was an impressive thing to point out as opposed to just, "Car!"

Mommy said, "Yes, honey...it's grayish silver."

Good luck, kid, it's going to be a hard life.

This Just Feels Right

From here.

Sob Story

Tears & clowning.

After having seen a brief, no-frills press run-through of a few numbers from Cry-Baby: The Musical, I was sufficiently interested in seeing how the whole thing would come together. With creative contributions by Mark O’Donnell & Thomas Meehan (book), David Javerbaum & Adam Schlesinger (songs), choreographer Rob Ashford and director Mark Brokaw—not to mention consultation by the near-cult, near-classic film’s near-legendary director, John Waters—Cry-Baby turns out to be a spirited hodge-podge of sparkling and dull performances, memorable and forgettable songs and truly spectacular dancing, all tenuously held together by one thing the ‘50s music it offers had in spades (spunk) and one thing it didn’t have at all (irony).

Scanning a few fan boards, you might think Cry-Baby was a disaster-in-the-making, that its backers might be in tears over its prospects. Some Broadway fans, posting over and over to create the impression of a quorum, have speculated that the show is terrible, that it’s destined to fail, or even that it will close before opening. I’m not a Broadway expert, but based on the preview I saw (it opens April 24), I would be a little surprised if the show didn’t at least make a go of it—it’s got much to recommend it even if it can’t quite live up to Hairspray. (Something that could definitely be said of the films both were based on, as well.)

***READ ON for my review, or win tickets at HunkDuJour and make up your own mind.***

The infected.

The musical follows the seemingly cursed existence of charming bad boy Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker (James Snyder), a Baltimore “drape” (hood) with a giant chip on his shoulder thanks to the unjust execution of his parents for allegedly being Communists. Ever since they went to the chair, his tear ducts have been dry in protest.

Cry-Baby makes the mistake of falling for ultimate “square,” Allison Vernon-Williams (Elizabeth Stanley), a Sandra Dee type who longs to be bad, but whose uptight grandmother (Harriet Harris) and obnoxious prepster boyfriend Baldwin (Christopher J. Hanke) disapprove. Cry-Baby’s motley crew of tag-alongs—the aptly named “Hatchet-Face” (Courtney Balan), slutty Wanda (Lacey Kohl), his crass, preggo sister Pepper (Carly Jibson) and black (that’s all it took in the ‘50s) Dupree (Chester Gregory II)—aren’t much help in winning them over.

The plot is, if anything, simplified from the already unadorned film—it’s a series of encounters during which good (Allison) meets bad (Cry-Baby) with hopes of rubbing off on each other while attempting to resist resistance from the powers that be. If anyone in the audience doesn’t expect true love to prevail, they’re really new to this whole entertainment thing.

What I liked about Cry-Baby, I loved.

Crashing Bore

Not the best choice for a movie to watch on the plane...

Dress You Down

In Us (April 28, 2008), Madonna herself comments on her past fashion faux-pas. I agree with some of her comments and disagree with others. I think her ugliest look ever was for her Sex party (Heidi Ho), but I loved her fun looks at Don't Bungle The Jungle, on Gaultier's catwalk and as a baby Marilyn at the Oscars...and I can easily think of 10 more looks that are 10 times worse than those (Olivier Theyskens, anyone?). But anything that mixes Madonna and nostalgia is rare:

Hey YouTube

Madonna's delivery in her latest YouTube comic bits is spot-on—she can sometimes be awkward (remember her "Music"-era, "But I'm Madonna!" for VH1? Or her so-so Will & Grace?), but these are cute. Plus it's fun to see her doing housework in boots and chains:

As well as admitting to chasing balls:

But I must take exception to the idea that Madonna's OFFICIAL YouTube would have a simple description that...MISSPELLS HER OWN NAME???

Is Madonna The New Soulja Boy?

Evidence that Project Youth Outreach, aka Madonna's decision to work with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland on Hard Candy, is paying off: Miley Cyrus and her friend Mandy Jiroux made a full-on tribute to "4 Minutes" as part of a dance-off they're having on YouTube with the Step Up 2 The Streets crew:

I love this, but my favorite part is realizing how much Timba's "I'm outta time..." sounds like "I'm Mahley Cahrus..." without much effort.

Is a guest spot on Hannah Montana next?

Meanwhile, this one is just so shockingly wrong I had to post it:

Once the lambs get a load of this, I guess my AOL (yes, I still have it) will be saying, "You've got hate mail!"

The Flight Club

I value my pop-culture expertise, but I'd heard almost nothing about Flight Of The Conchords, a comedic musical duo from New Zealand with an HBO show of the same name. I have to seek this out after spotting them on the cover of Bust (Apr/May 2008), and laughing out loud at their teen-mag send-up photo shoot inside:

They apparently have ardent fans (Jermaine's are called Jermainiacs).

The rest after the jump...