Thanks to Throwback Thursdays we get to bring back nostalgic memories! Whether it is a song you used to listen to in middle school, a game you used to play against your friends, or a movie you had forgotten about that suddenly shows up on an HBO or Encore channel – we love when events, ideas, films, shows, songs give us a snapshot into our history. When a certain Backstreet Boys song comes on I can tell you exactly where I was in my life and what I was doing. Recently, I have been circulating back through old YouTube videos that I watched in college. As the date of this…Read more

73 years of the other guy who wears his underwear outside of His pants. (PCM) It is April 1938 and a new magazine hits the newsstands. It is the first issue of Action comics and on the cover is a man holding a car above his head while shaking bad guys out of the vehicle. He is dressed in Blue tights and red shorts. He has a red cape and an S Shield on his chest. This is the first time the world has seen Superman. The actual date on the cover of the magazine says June, but the publishers wanted as much time on the market as they could…Read more

Fun Lèna Fact: I love Shakespeare. Fun Theatre Fact: The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey opened their 50th anniversary season with Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part One. Fun General Fact (salute): It’s Fantastic!! This week we shall explore my favorite history play written by the Bard himself. Let’s begin with a brief history on our beloved Bill. He was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. We do not have the exact date of his birth but based on the date of his baptism it can most likely be placed on April 23, 1564. He grew up there in his home town, attending the local school where he would have been expected…Read more

The year was 1920 and Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was sampling the possible scents for her new perfume. She decided on the fifth vial from all the samples put before her by chemist Earnest Beaux. Her affinity for the number 5 was not a secret considering that she presented her dress collections on May 5th each year (fifth day of the fifth month). She also felt that, since the number 5 had brought her such good luck in business and in life so far, the scent should keep its number as its name. So was the birth of the famous women’s perfume, Chanel No. 5. The aesthetic inspiration and affinity for…Read more

This is the story of my close encounter of the Syfy Premiere kind. I arrived early. I was the only one covering this particular event and I’ll admit, I did feel a bit like a secret agent, taking notes, dressed up, sipping a cocktail; all i needed was a side kick or a cool get away car if the mission went south. I got my name tag and checked my coat. There wasn’t much to do yet since there was hardly anyone there to mingle with, so I decided to walk about, take some notes, and scope the space. The cocktail hour was to take place in theAmerican Museum of…Read more

Ok so this week, The Avengers! Round 2 of AvX came out this week also, for those who are wondering; course if you are wondering you probably are also the type of person who not only already bought it but read it too… so really this article is for the rest of you haha… Anyway: So the Avengers were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, like I mentioned last week, in the 1960s. The founding characters are Thor (from the Norse mythology, yall might remember him as the hunk with the hammer), Ironman (from no particular mythology but he’s the hunk with the red armor and the blue light…Read more

Ok I know I said we’d talk about the Avengers, but let’s hold off on that till next week. There’s a lot going on this week! Aside from the first games of the Stanley Cup playoffs, there is also a movie that has just come out throwing back to some of the biggest comedic stars of the silver screen; The Three Stooges. This week let us pause to explore the story behind these three characters. It may surprise you…  The original troop was a vaudeville slapstick act in 1925 made up of Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, and Larry Fine. They were lead by Ted Healy. The name they performed under…Read more

After several months of hype and prep, the new comic series, Avengers vs X-men (AvX), has arrived! This week I thought we’d throw back to the X-men and next week we’ll look at the Avengers. Sounds like fun, right? Well let’s dive right on in! The X-men are a group of super heroes in the Marvel Comics universe created by writer Stan Lee and artists Jack Kirby. Stan Lee is also co-creator of such famed super heroes as Spider-man, The Fantastic Four, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and The Avengers. Jack Kirby has worked on several of these projects as well, and also on Captain America, DC’s Fourth World, and Manhunter….Read more

Now with Easter finally approaching, I feel compelled to write about another Broadway revival, Godspell, now running. First opening in NYC’s famed Off-Broadway at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club on May 17th, 1971, Godspell was originally a master’s thesis. The aspiring master was John-Michael Tebelak. He had procrastinated on the project till Easter break, during which time he found himself at a church on Easter Sunday with a positive anticipation for some sort of spiritual experience. What he found instead was a dull minister with a bored congregation. Yet from such an unsatisfying experience, he drew this piece of wisdom; the gospel had lost its joy and should have the…Read more

The other day on NPR I heard that the personal papers of Albert Einstein were released this week on the internet by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. We’ve always known him as a science guy with messy hair but apparently he wrote about everything from politics to music. He was a dedicated letter writer to his second wife and step daughter and also to his mother. He was even a bit of a playboy as it turns out. Hey, chicks dig physics. Besides his famous E = mc2, what was always availably known about Einstein? Well he was born in Ulm in the Kingdom of Wurttemburg in the German Empire…Read more