By Kristen Bialik

Gimme Shelter is a Greek tragedy with a rock 'n' roll chorus and a triple injection of hubris. Directed by brothers Albert and David Maysles, along with editor Charlotte Zwerin, Gimme Shelter was commissioned by the Rolling Stones to capture the last few stops of their infamous...

By Jimmy Trash

The unfathomable life story of living Turkish legend Bülent Ersoy is barely utterable without placing this incredible individual in the chaotic epoch in which she blossomed. While Turkey has a reputation for being more liberal in the '70s, attested by the amount of psychedelic music and film...

By Brian Correia

Part of the Network Awesome Salute to Conan The Barbarian

The other day, I was talking to my day job boss about pets. They apparently shelter rats at the ASPCA, so we were considering the ridiculous prospect of domesticating these animals. This opened up the...

By Brian Correia

These days, it seems like anytime someone says anything about Tim Burton, it has to be along the lines of "Oh, how the mighty have fallen," or even, in some especially wrong cases, "Oh, how the mighty were never even mighty in the first place.[1] " Sure,...

Part of the Network Awesome tribute to David Bowie.

I've got some good news and some bad news for the crowd that just can't stand Twilight and its associated cultural maelstrom.

The bad news is that vampires aren't going anywhere. We've had the vampire myth in one form...

by Thomas Michalski

In the pop music pantheon, guitar gods are a dime a dozen, ditto great sax-men, drummers, or trumpet players, but if you're looking for someone to sit in on the vibraphone in your ideal, hypothetical all-star band, there's really no other choice than jazz legend Lionel Hampton....

It's a common rule of the Internet that many of its horrid aspects wilt when deprived of their anonymity. Yes, YouTube comments are vastly, overwhelmingly stupid, but the reason that you don't see a similar level of idiocy at a movie theater is because there's a severe social penalty to...

By Thomas Michalski

Part of the series "Japanese Art-House Cinema, June 11 to 15, 2012."

Viewing Hiroshi Teshigahara's 1965 short White Morning, it's easy to get the impression that the filmmaker, like Scorsese or Godard, is obsessed with cinema itself, totally devoted to deciphering its language...

By Robert Ham

The rush to the top of the musical mountain by Hercules and Love Affair was a triumph for the still-bubbling nu-disco/house movement in the States. But an added bonus for fans was how the dance-pop collective brought the statuesque and diva-like singer Nomi Ruiz into the spotlight....

By Kristen Bialik

The magic of the green screen is, at this point, ubiquitous. You can find it in some of the lowest-budget videos and in almost all of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters. You see it every night on your local weather report as the weatherman stands in front...

By Kristen Bialik

Blue, here is a shell for you
Inside you'll hear a sigh, a foggy lullaby
There is your song from me
--Joni Mitchell, "Blue"

Joni Mitchell's 1971 landmark album Blue is firmly nestled in the throws of admiration and acclaim. The album was...

by Brian Correia

Though you may know him from his more recent roles like Saruman from The Lord of the Rings series or Count Dooku from the Star Wars prequels, Sir Christopher Lee has been one of the most reliable forces on film and television screens around...

By Kristen Bialik

In 1989, Reverend, televangelist and Founder of the International School of Exorcism Bob Larson sat down for a friendly interview with two people who represent everything he opposes in life. Those two people were Nikolas Schreck and his wife Zeena, daughter of Anton LaVey -- the founder...

By Glauco Gotardi

If you take just a quick look at Death In Venice -- and for what matters here, we'll talk about the movie, not the book -- it is, we might think, just another love story. Then, if you dig little deeper -- i.e. actually watching the movie...

by Kristen Bialik

Metal music is all about persona. Why else would the unmasking of KISS have been such a big deal? How else would GWAR exist? Even metal artists who don't look like pig-spawned aliens have a certain theatricality to them. It's there in everything from the full-face makeup...

by RJ White

In 2003, Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab founded the monthly film festival Channel101 with a simple premise: Make a five-minute pilot and if enough of the audience at the live screening in L.A. votes for it, you have one month to make another episode. If they vote...

By Kristen Bialik

What do Amy Winehouse, N.W.A., David Bowie, a Jeep 4x4 commercial, and the cartoon Futurama all have in common? Believe it or not, they all share six seconds of drum music. But these aren't any drums, they're the drums of the "Amen Break," a break beat many...

By Whitney Weiss

From humble beginnings at Chicago's Gold Coast bar to its current incarnation as a four-day extravaganza, International Mr. Leather has come a long way. But what's particularly impressive when you're watching archival footage of guys in hot cop drag and tiny black shorts flexing for the crowd...

by Thomas Michalski

Before the videos you're about to watch (just watched?) landed in my email inbox, I had never heard of Jim Simon. This, in and of itself, was not surprising (there are many things I've never heard of), but where things got interesting was trying to learn about...

By Johnathon Davis

Jacques-Yves Cousteau is a man who truly needs no introduction. His name is as synonymous with sea exploration as water is with filling the oceans he so loved. World Without Sun (released in 1964) is Cousteau's second theatrical outing after The Silent World (released in 1956). Here...