Culture

I’ll admit it—I’m embarrassed. What I knew about Carole King before arriving at the Fabulous Fox to see BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL consisted mostly of the soft rock easy listening stuff I used to get subjected to when my coworkers would insist on tuning our radio to the “Delilah” show on KEZK in St. Louis. I knew she won a Grammy forTapestry and you can hear “It’s Too Late,” “I Feel The Earth Move,” and “A Natural Woman” pretty regularly still today. I knew she was elected into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but they let Green Day and The Public Enemy in too--Run DMC and Public Enemy got in before Peter Gabriel, Rush (are you kidding me?), Lou Reed, Hall & Oats, Nirvana and KISS. Don’t get me wrong—I enjoy rap music a great deal, but this isn’t the Hip Hop Hall of Fame, this is Rock & Roll. Carole King, no disrespect intended, didn’t really strike me as a rock star either.

Posted on January 27, 2016 by Zac Cherin

After buying Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012, The Walt Disney Company had to wait three years for its investment to begin paying tangible dividends. If, however, the initial box-office performance of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is a sign of things to come, then the wait was well worth it.

The seventh installment in the Star Wars film saga shattered the U.S. total box office record, passing the $760.5 million mark set by James Cameron’s blockbuster “Avatar” in 2009.

With the new year upon us, the "New Year, New Me" Facebook posts are in full swing! The folks over at Morphsuits have come up with a clever infographic to see what superheroes are coming up with for their resolutions.

My personal favorites are the goals set by Cyclops and Batman. To view the infographic, click on the image to open it and enjoy the light-hearted take on some super self-relfection.

Add a clever resolution, for a hero you think needs some self-improvement, in the comment section below!

IRVING BERLIN’S WHITE CHRISTMAS is gracing the stage at the Fabulous Fox Theatre from November 17-22, 2015, just in time for…Thanksgiving. You can blame WICKED’s December residency for that, but that’s fine, really. The retail stores rolled out their Christmas gear before Halloween, so chances are you’ve already been dreaming of a white Christmas. And why wouldn’t you? After all, Bing Crosby’s rendition of the Irving Berlin classic is the best selling single of all time, according to the good folks at Guinness Book. Chances are you’ve seen the old movie or witness the production on previous tours, but believe it or not, I’ve never seen it before tonight.

The charge is "STAR WARS has dumbed down the perception of science fiction in the popular imagination." Jeff Ritter of CriticalBlast.com represents the Prosecution. 

The very notion of STAR WARS being somehow responsible for “dumbing down” modern science fiction seems preposterous. Of course, the notion is not entirely objective—how does one quantify merit or mediocrity in art, which by its very nature is subjective? How does one quantify the tangible effect of a film from 1977, that wasn’t expected to do much business itself, has had on movies, television, video games, novels, graphic  arts, American and even global pop culture more than 30 years later? I’m sure somebody with a better mind for statistical analysis could find numbers to crunch in this regard, but I find it to be less of a matter of arithmetic and more of a matter of personal taste. Since I can only speak for myself, allow me to take you on a little flashback to the halcyon days of my youth.

FORT WORTH, Texas – Oct. 20, 2015 – Screams.com has unveiled its 2015 list of the Top 13 Haunted Houses in America. Advanced pyrotechnics, trained actors and superior use of technology highlight the attractions, which stretch from New Hampshire to as far west west as Arizona.

“This list represents haunts that have been extensively honored by their peers and the haunted attraction industry,” said Todd James, owner of the Cutting Edge Haunted House in Texas and industry veteran. “A lot of thought and research went into creating this list, which we hope will serve as a guide to haunted house lovers across the country.”

James notes that consumers are expected to spend about $7 billion this Halloween.

The machine-gun patter of clicks was interrupted rhythmically by the ding and zip of the manual carriage return, advancing the page another line and preparing for another string of text. The room was close, cloying with the June humidity of 1963. In a corner, the radio provided background noise with the help of The Chiffons. Over the writer's shoulder, his friend and partner leaned in, peering at the latest completed paragraph before grunting editorial approval. The writer continued at a feverish pace -- a few more strings of machine-gun clacking, a few more dings and zips, and he grabbed the top of the sheet, pulling it free with a whine of protest from the typewriter roller.

The old adage “good things come to those who wait” was proven true once again on September 4, 2015 as Rob Thomas finally arrived in St. Louis. He had to cancel is tour stop earlier in the summer due to an illness in the family, which is more than understandable. As an apology of sorts for the hassle of having to make folks reschedule their plans, Thomas and his supporting acts, Plain White T’s and Vinyl Station, really cut loose with fun-filled, more-than-your-money’s-worth performance.  Apology happily accepted, Mr. Thomas.

Sometimes people make a profound impact in our lives without having ever met them. They affect our earliest memories and influence our actions years, even DECADES, later. I write today to memorialize one of the men that were most influential in my life. One of the men who caused me to lose sleep, and affects my actions to this day, 25 years after we first met.

It’s a new week, which should have some exciting new stories dropping in your timelines. But with busy schedules and Labor Day on the horizon, it’s possible you missed something from last week. Let’s take a look at some of the news, opinions and reviews that you may have missed. Grab your morning coffee and enjoy your…

I'm a lifelong fan of comics, and of the actors who portrayed the characters in them. However, there are only a very few who had a pivotal impact on my life, those being the ones I encountered at my youngest, most formative years.

Actress and dancer Yvonne Craig was chief among those, one of those people who had always been there and, in my unthinking naivete, I presumed always would be.

Today, I have learned that Ms. Craig has passed away on August 17 at the forever young age of 78, after battling breast cancer.

While Craig will be eternally remembered for her portrayal of Batgirl in the iconic 1960s BATMAN television series, starring alongside Adam West and Burt Ward, fans will also recall her stunning portrayal of the green-skinned dancer, Marta, on STAR TREK. She also acted opposite of Elvis Presley in the 1964 musical, KISSIN' COUSINS.

Okay, go ahead and ask the inevitable question: Why in the world is CriticalBlast delving into political coverage?

Well, that's a very good question. I could say that it's technically political theater, but you'd see right through that. But the truth is that this door was opened by reality star host of THE APPRENTICE, Donald Trump. So we thought it would be fun to sort of grade the speakers tonight, based on their presentations and speaking skills, and ask you via our poll below who you felt did the best job of the evening.

Before the questions even come, we're reminded that the Happy Hour Debate winner seems to have been overwhelmingly Carly Fiorina, as Megyn Kelly bluntly laid out there. Chris wallace reminds us that the questions were submitted by the populace through Facebook.

The Rules: 1 minute per answers, 30 seconds for follow-ups. Let's see how well that gets followed!

Well, that didn't take long.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – (July 1, 2015) – Call it the duck days of summer, the time when it’s 90 degrees outside and still four months away from hunting season. The Robertson family has come up with a way to chase away those summer blues and benefit deserving charities as well.

Last night on TBS's CONAN, Conan O'Brien announced that he is going to be immortalized with a set of four Pop! Vinyl figures to be available this July, when CONAN will become the first-ever late-night show to broadcast from San Diego during Comic-Con® International. Created for TBS byFunko, the figure designs include "Conan O'Brien," "Batman Conan," "Zombie Conan" and"Conan's Monster."

Check out Conan's announcement from last night's show:
teamcoco.com/video/pop-conan-figures-are-coming

Despite the formal declarations of Jeb Bush and Donald Trump announcing their bids for the Republican presidential nomination, the continued handwringing over a white woman running an NAACP office—and doing a good job running it from what I understand—the continued tensions in the Ukraine and St. Louis’ own struggle with violence and an out-of-control homicide rate that is doing wonders for tourism, the big news in this town today was, of course, the St. Louis Cardinals. More specifically, it was the news that they are being investigated by the FBI for hacking the Houston Astros proprietary database.

Dracula. Fu Manchu. Saruman. Count Dooku.

Christopher Lee portrayed these and countless other notable characters in his decades spanning career, sending chills up our spines with creepfests like THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH. Those who've been around a while will always see him as Dracula, a role he portrayed in several of the classic Hammer horror films, or as the evil Chinese crime lord, Fu Manchu.  Millennials will more likely remember him for his role as Saruman in Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS films, or as Count Dooku in the later STAR WARS films.

The actor passed away last Sunday, according to The Guardian, of "respiratory problems and heart failure." He celebrated his 93rd birthday two months ago.

I’m a Jersey girl, through and through, born, raised and passionate. I defend my state like it’s my job. I love that we are right in-between everything. NYC is right there, a quick jaunt up the Turnpike leads to Philly, we have mountain, beaches, farms, and cities. Everything you could possible imagine within a few hours. But the issue that arises from being so close is sometimes we get left out. NYCC is a huge convention in the Javits Center and Wizard World Philly has been popular for all of my adult life, in fact it’s where my romance with my husband blossomed, but I digress. My point is the one thing New Jersey doesn’t have is our own BIG con. We have plenty of little shows, like Chiller Theater and Monster-Mania, that are great and attract some awesome celebrities, but they aren’t comic conventions. ACBC strives to make that right.

I have been to all three of the Wizard World Comicons here in Saint Louis, and I have mixed emotions about this one. The second year was better than the previous. I know not every year can always be better and at best it is all subjective anyway. Still, since this was only the 3^rd time for the event here in St Louie, I was expecting it to be at least as good and as star studded as the others.

It seemed, though, as the year progressed leading up to this weekend, that the talent that was being signed, while good, was not up to the caliber of the previous two years. Again, I know this is all subjective but compared to who I saw was going to appear at the other WW Comicons throughout the country, the show here in Saint Louis was not getting those who I consider A-Listers. Maybe because this year it was being held on Memorial Day weekend and everyone had plans? I don’t know.