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Pink Martini | Splendor in the Grass

Heinz (2009)
The members of Portland’s Pink Martini have covered plenty of well-known songs in their decade and a half together, like “Que Sera, Sera” on their 1997 debut, and the theme from I Dream of Jeannie in their early live shows.
By MIKAEL WOOD  |  October 30, 2009
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Deal with It

Revisiting the nightmares of a four-hour, made-for-TV Stephen King miniseries
When I was seven, I had a winter coat with flashes of neon so bright they glowed in the dark.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY  |  October 28, 2009

Crossword: ''Mixed reviews''

From your anagraming film critic
From your anagraming film critic
By MATT JONES  |  October 21, 2009
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Walk on the wild side

 Inner beasts are unleashed in Avenue Q
With Douglas Adams dead, where have we to turn for quirkily unconventional questions about life, the universe, and everything?
By BILL RODRIGUEZ  |  October 21, 2009
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Flight of the Conchords | I Told You I Was Freaky

Sub Pop (2009)
The New Zealand “folk-comedy” duo Flight of the Conchords transcended folk and comedy on their debut LP, a soundtrack to the absurdist HBO show of the same name, with genre parodies that were great songs in their own right.
By ZETH LUNDY  |  October 14, 2009

Crossword: ''What are the odds''

You may be luckier than you think
You may be luckier than you think
By MATT JONES  |  October 14, 2009
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Vo Dilun’s ultimate reality show

 What’s up with Williams? Plus, The Gov and Glenn, and a time for Jen
Attention all real housewives of New Jersey, Atlanta, and Orange County, Jon, Kate and all Kardashians and Biggest Losers: your lunch has just been taken. That’s right, when it comes to bizarro reality world excitement, you just can’t touch the Biggest Little.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE  |  October 07, 2009
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Steel, blowtorches, and a little trash talk

Metal Works
At the Steel Yard, arts center and business incubator for the metal-minded, a molten hot contest this past weekend. It was the second annual Iron Chef Competition -- a game pitting artist against artist, blowtorches in hand, in a breakneck race to produce the snazziest sculpture.
By ABIGAIL CROCKER  |  September 23, 2009
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Fallon Upward

Local Laughs
Boston is thoroughly dominating NBC's fall line-up.
By MIKE MILIARD  |  September 16, 2009
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Are you ready for some Footballz?

Ha-Ha Huddle Dept.
These days, thanks to Internet-related information overload, football fans are more educated than ever. So why, exactly, do we need idiotic TV commentators telling us what we already know about how talented Drew Brees and Adrian Peterson are, or that the game all comes down to turnovers?
By RYAN STEWART  |  September 17, 2009

Cheesy and crackers

Too much southern exposure. Plus, a rant — unpamper those kids!
There is no place hotter in the media lately than South Carolina, "The Cracker State," whose logo is still  essentially the Confederate flag.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE  |  September 16, 2009
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Menino's junked mail

The Globe ratchets up the intensity in Boston's mayoral race. Plus, the Times Co. gets some love from the Globe newsroom and BU books blowhard Bill O'Reilly.
Two years ago, when I wrote a column griping about the Boston media's apathy-inducing disinterest in city politics, Boston Globe metro editor Brian McGrory told me his paper had given the lackluster 2007 elections as much coverage as they deserved, but hinted that things would be different in 2009.
By ADAM REILLY  |  September 16, 2009
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Diane Sawyer and the new voice of authority

Anchors away
The sight of Barack Obama in the White House has, rather quickly, taken on the air of the ordinary.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG  |  September 09, 2009

Review: Whitney Houston | I Look to You

Arista (2009)
It's tempting to wonder whether super-producer Clive Davis, in another of his music-biz machinations, arranged for Whitney Houston to whiff last week on Good Morning America , which is reported to have altered Houston's vocals for broadcast after she sounded hoarse during her Central Park mini-concert.
By MIKAEL WOOD  |  September 09, 2009
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What of the Beatles?

Jazz, pop, and circumstance
Spouting off during downtime in an interview with jazz drummer/composer Steve Grover, I once put forward my ill-researched idea that the third song is almost universally the best song on a great album.
By SAM PFEIFLE  |  September 02, 2009
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Review: Taking Woodstock

Ang Lee sums up the counterculture in style
If there ever was a way to inject fresh interest into events that most people born after the baby boom couldn't care less about, it's to involve Eugene Levy and a shame-to-fame plot line made for reality television.
By CHRIS FARAONE  |  August 27, 2009
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West coasting

Is Project Runway walking in circles?
As I watched this season's 16 Project Runway hopefuls squinting into the setting sun during their champagne reception atop the Title Guarantee Building in Los Angeles, it was hard not to view the scene as a sad little metaphor for the state of the show. What's supposed to feel like the beginning of something new sure looks a lot more like the end of something old.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR  |  August 26, 2009
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Our Don Drapers, Ourselves

The Mad Men mystique
This Sunday is the premiere of the third season of Mad Men (AMC, 10 pm), the Emmy-winning show that made fans of good television have to figure out where AMC was on their basic-cable schedules.
By GUSTAVO TURNER  |  August 12, 2009
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Our Don Drapers, Ourselves

The Mad Men mystique
This Sunday is the premiere of the third season of Mad Men (AMC, 10 pm), the Emmy-winning show that made fans of good television have to figure out where AMC was on their basic-cable schedules.
By GUSTAVO TURNER  |  August 12, 2009
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Review: Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

The woman behind the big heart
The Goldbergs  debuted in 1929 as radio's first domestic sit-com; it moved to TV in 1949. As part of her series on Jewish heroes, Aviva Kempner ( The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg ) spotlights the show's star, Gertrude Berg, who few realized was its writer/producer.
By BETSY SHERMAN  |  August 04, 2009
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Review: The Cove

Secret dolphin slaughter revealed
There's something at stake here, and it's not just the conscience of Ric O'Barry, who as the former dolphin trainer for the 1960s television show Flipper feels responsible for the planet's porpoise fetish.
By CHRIS FARAONE  |  August 04, 2009
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Elvis Presley | From Elvis in Memphis

RCA/Legacy
Elvis Presley temporarily avoided the obvious (and, one could argue, tragic) destiny of a washed-up parody with The '68 Comeback Special , a TV show that lifted the retaining wall of nodding yes men and lucrative movie contracts to reveal a mythic force continuing to pulse.
By ZETH LUNDY  |  July 28, 2009
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Review: Afghan Star

Moving, chilling
The Russians couldn't conquer Afghanistan, and to this point neither have the Americans, but it seems a televised singing-competition has.
By LANCE GOULD  |  July 28, 2009
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Review: The Ugly Truth

Not so much ugly as bland
The biting revelation promised by the title of Robert Luketic's fluff never bares its teeth.
By TOM MEEK  |  July 22, 2009
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The Search for America's Biggest A-Hole

Grossest casting couch in History Dept.
This week in Boston, Spike TV held auditions for its new sub-low-culture program, America's Biggest Asshole . You're right — all reality show tryouts are essentially auditions for America's Biggest Asshole, but this one is transparently egregious, as if the NHL re-named hockey "Kill the Man with the Puck."
By CHRIS FARAONE  |  July 15, 2009
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Interview: Russell T Davies

Davies on atheism, American TV, and five decades of Doctor Who
"I certainly knew from Queer as Folk that gay male stories attract a lot of women viewers."
By ROB TURBOVSKY  |  July 24, 2009
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Boys' life

Hung and Entourage measure success
The premise for HBO's new half-hour comedy Hung (Sundays at 10 pm) is so over-the-top as to be cringe-worthy: high school basketball coach Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane), divorced and broke, starts whoring himself to ladies on the basis of his giant schlong. I know: ugh.
By JON GARELICK  |  July 14, 2009
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Sarah Palin, Inc.

The biggest brand name in conservative politics is about to enter the burgeoning right-wing marketplace — and she's perfect for it. Ka-ching!
Confused commenters have no clue as to the opportunities that await Palin — because few understand the extraordinary, multi-billion-dollar marketplace that has developed for movement conservatives.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  July 17, 2009
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Cirque du Dieu

Arundel Barn's Godspell
Charisma, daring, showmanship, whimsy — these are just a few of the character qualities expected under any given Big Top. But they might be just as at home in the discovery and passing on of religious ideas, as a teacher delivers and seekers explore the possible tenets of spirituality.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING  |  July 01, 2009
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Local news blues

With layoffs, plummeting revenue, and dwindling viewership, TV news departments are getting desperate.
There has been plenty of hand-wringing, in these parts, over the decline of the local broadsheet. The Providence Journal is the paper of record, after all, the agenda setter. And the agenda is decidedly thinner these days.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG  |  June 24, 2009

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