Michael R. Jackson is the author and composer of A Strange Loop, the hit Broadway show that I have not stopped thinking about. I left the play, stumbling onto a hot Avenue, bewildered, tickled, and ruminant. The play’s writing had a mastery to it, a hard rhythm that was still pulsing in my heart, and […]
If you ask the folks behind Rocksmith+, the first thing they want to clarify is that it’s not a video game like Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Yes, the software is usable on video game consoles, but rather than being an arcade-y plaything, Rocksmith+ is a subscription service designed to teach users to play an […]
For months, filmmaker Brett Morgen was lost in his David Bowie obsessions, sidelined by writer’s block. Now he was wandering a train station in Albuquerque, New Mexico, seeking clarity in his quest to create Moonage Daydream, a vibrant, fully immersive and wildly non-traditional documentary about the late groundbreaking recording artist. Decades earlier, Bowie himself had […]
As 42,000 perpetually nervous New York Mets fans looked on as the team clinged to a one-run lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have the best record in baseball, on a breezy late-summer night in September. Ahead of the ninth inning, Australian trumpetist Timmy Trumpet waltzes out of the stands and onto the grass […]
Alexander Chee’s blurb on the back of Isaac Fitzgerald’s recently published bestselling memoir, Dirtbag, Massachusetts, reads: “He’s a ringleader for the circus in the House of Love.” And after reading this book, I think most people would agree that Isaac Fitzgerald is certainly at least that, and then some. Dirtbag, Massachusetts is a memoir-in-essays about […]
As we’ve previously discussed, there are very very few names in video games as big and as culturally relevant as Street Fighter. Since Street Fighter II launched in 1991 and transformed the fighting game world, Capcom’s flagship series has maintained its spot as the king of the genre. Now, as we inch toward Street Fighter […]
James Morosini’s I Love My Dad, which won both the audience and Grand Jury Award at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival, is a masterclass in cringe comedy. Morosini stars as Franklin, a troubled young man fresh off a suicide attempt. His father, Chuck, played with an incautious tenacity by Patton Oswalt, has been desperately trying to […]
“I learned my lesson. I’m never going to write for less-than-perfect women ever again; less-than-likable [women].” That’s a quote from Breaking Bad creator and Better Call Saul co-creator Vince Gilligan way back in 2014 during that summer’s Television Critics Association press tour. He said it before the public had seen as much of a second […]
The last time SPIN spoke with composer Jason Graves, his work on The Dark Pictures Anthology’s third entry, House of Ashes, had just been released as the score to many gamers’ spooky Halloween title. But this time around, the multi-genre artist (who’s also scored everything from the Dead Space games to 2013’s Tomb Raider to […]
Sheffield’s International Documentary Festival (DocFest), which happens in June every year, this year, hosted 135 films from 55 countries. Many UK and world premieres, industry panels, workshops, talks, parties, virtual reality installations, dance events and drinks, all over the place, (it’s hard to keep up) for six days and started June 23rd. If you’re even […]