Good morning, everyone. Another dreary Wednesday in the District.
In case you missed it: Story/Stereo nabs NEA grant in time for its second season, Ryan Hackett wins the 2010 Janet and Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize, and Mike Rhode pens an ode to Harvey Pecker, splendid American.
MTV’s The Hills bid its farewell last night. After six seasons of debauchery, drunken bitching, fighting over men, more bitching, and the pursuance dreams in L.A., the final scene (spoiler alert!) showed Brody watching Kristin‘s car drive away into the distance as the Hollywood backdrop behind him is rolled away to reveal a TV set—-gasp, it’s scripted!? It’s fake!? What? [editor’s note: I usually have no tolerance for reality anything, but this kind of reminds me of the end of that Kiarostami movie where at the end the shot pulls back to reveal the director and his crew shooting. So maybe I didn’t know it, and The Hills are operating on a higher level.] So all those years, those tears you invested in front of the TV, the raw emotion coming from LC, every time mascara ran down her tear-stained face—-you’ll never know if it was real or merely a part of the script. The cast now moves onto “real-life” quarter-life pursuits—-leaving L.A., running away to London, and getting their shit together. Ah, they all had to grow up and face reality sometime—-meanwhile, the rest of us still have Jersey Shore.
Speaking of leaving the past behind, if you want to get struck by lightning this evening, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is playing on the green at the NoMa’s Summer Screen tonight. Or you could stay dry indoors with Casey Kasem in “Chart Toppers of 1349” at the Capital Fringe Festival.
The-Dream’s latest album, Love King, is now out, and Chris Richards at WaPooffers a sweet review:
But this summer, The-Dream is taking a little me-time with his third solo album, “Love King.” It’s a collection of fizzy love songs that sound a whole lot like the fizzy love songs that populate The-Dream’s first two albums. Which is to say: They’re awesome. Four more years of consistency this monolithic and he’ll be the AC/DC of R&B.
AC/DC or not, he’ll probably be shelling out more than five stacks on that make-up bag.
Well, that’s all folks. Time to move on with your lives, and remember, there’s nothing wrong with wishful thinking.