New Book Release: "You Don't Know Me But You Don't Like Me" By Nathan Rabin

NEW FROM THE AUTHOR MINDY KALING CALLED “SMART AND FUNNY”

YOU DON’T KNOW ME

BUT YOU DON’T LIKE ME

By Nathan Rabin

 “I love this book. Not only is it funny and well written, but it is, dare I say… beautiful. People could learn a thing or two from Nathan. Instead of judging new things and keeping them at bay because they’re “scary” or “shitty,” he embraces them and walks away with rich life experiences. So, give yourself a rich life experience of your own and read this book  Then, when you’re finished, go and see a Phish show. What do you have to lose? Nothing. What do you have to gain? – maybe they’ll play a thirty minute “Tweezer” and you’ll get to see god.”

―Harris Wittels

“…his gonzo approach to journalism makes him a spiritual kin of Hunter S. Thompson and Matt Taibbi. A wild rock ’n’ roll ride.”

―Kirkus

“Whether or not you enjoy either of these two acts, the story told here is in part a universal one about the way any of us find the music we adore. By making it personal, and by profiling such a broad spectrum of fans, [Rabin’s] greatest accomplishment is putting a human face

 on what could be a caricature.”

―Publishers Weekly

When Nathan Rabin set out as a journalist and critic to explore two very curious groups of individuals—those neo-hippies who are fans of Phish and the infamous devotees of Insane Clown Posse (ICP) who call themselves “juggalos”—he never suspected his life would spiral out of control along the way. He also never expected to become a diehard fan of both of these oft-maligned bands.

Written in the same spirit of his 2009 memoir, The Big Rewind: A Memoir Brought to You by Pop Culture—which was critically acclaimed by such cultural forces as Roger Ebert, who called it “compulsively readable;” Rich Dahm, co-Executive producer of The Colbert Report, who said it was “heartbreaking and hilarious;” and Dwight Garner, who wrote in The New York Times that the book is “packed…like a cannon, full of caustic wit and bruised feelings”— YOU DON’T KNOW ME BUT YOU DON’T LIKE ME: Phish, Insane Clown Posse, and My Misadventures with Two of Music’s Most Maligned Tribes (Scribner; On-Sale 6/11/13) is part-memoir and part-pop culture handbook.

In YOU DON’T KNOW ME BUT YOU DON’T LIKE ME, Nathan Rabin shocks and awes again with his willingness to immerse himself in the experience, his extraordinary ability to befriend the strangest of characters, and his woeful tendency to attract pain and misery. As he skitters his way across the stranger recesses of the United States, Rabin’s life and mental health begin to crumble. And, in an exceedingly odd turn of events, he becomes an employee of "Weird Al" Yankovic when the parody king and beloved American icon hand-picks Rabin to write the text for his coffee table book. By the end of his journey, Rabin pulls himself back from the brink of mental breakdown, near professional and financial ruin, and several drug-induced calamities. In the process, he makes a critical discovery about his mental health and puts the fractured pieces of his life back into place—all the while offering a thorough and insightful look at the counterculture followings of Phish and ICP. The quest Rabin undergoes in YOU DON’T KNOW ME BUT YOU DON’T LIKE ME to understand the massive underground following these fringe bands have attracted coincides with his own journey of self-discovery, ending, true to Rabinian form, in the contrasting outcomes of a daunting psychological diagnosis and a marriage proposal.

Equal parts heartbreaking and triumphant, YOU DON’T KNOW ME BUT YOU DON’T LIKE ME sheds a new light on the outcasts that make up the ICP and Phish fan-bases. Rabin places his experiences among them within the framework of his own mental struggle, connecting deeply to each group and casting aside long-ingrained prejudices. A truly uplifting and an entirely unique read, YOU DON’T KNOW ME BUT YOU DON’T LIKE ME is a wild and refreshing tale of coming of age again in your thirties.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nathan Rabin is a staff writer for The Dissolve, a new film website from the popular music website Pitchfork. Previously, he was the head writer for The A.V. Club, the entertainment guide of The Onion, a position he held until recently since he was a college student at University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1997. Rabin is also the author of a memoir, The Big Rewind, and an essay collection based on one of his columns, My Year of Flops. He most recently collaborated with pop parodist “weird Al” Yankovic on a coffee table book titled Weird Al: The Book. Rabin’s writing has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Spin, The Huffington Post, Boston Globe, Nerve, and Modern Humorist. He lives in Chicago with his wife.

PRAISE FOR THE WORK OF NATHAN RABIN:

“I'm not as interested in anything as much as Nathan Rabin

is interested in everything.”

―Chuck Klosterman

"Rabin writes like the secret love child of Woody Allen and Lester Bangs:

Honest, erudite, neurotically manic, and very funny."

―Neal Pollack

“Nathan Rabin's life reads like a fanboy's collision with Dostoyevsky. This hilarious, sad, truthful memoir is compulsively readable […] He chronicles his adventures with a cross between utter shamelessness and painful honesty,

and he is very funny.”

―Roger Ebert

“Nathan’s memoir is your memoir is my memoir. You will experience moments of sour disagreement, followed by, ‘Oh wow, me too!’. A book that reads like a conversation. Terrific.”

―Patton Oswalt

“The Big Rewind is heartbreaking and hilarious. Based on the incidents in this book, it’s amazing Nathan Rabin is still alive, much less one of the sharpest pop-culture critics around.

I just hope he’s learned his lesson about dating loonball polyamorists.”

—Rich Dahm, Co-Executive Producer of The Colbert Report

“Through all the shame and depression, Rabin found a life preserver in the form of popular culture…underneath all of the quirky structure, mewling apathy, and caustic wit, Rabin tells a sweet tale of finding one’s place in life.”

—Booklist (starred review)

“Engaging, maddening, hilarious and excessive.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Jon Krakauer’s writing is beyond vivid. You feel the cold of Everest as you read his words. Into Thin Air is a harrowing journey, well worth your time. I’ve also heard great things about Nathan Rabin’s My Year of Flops.”

—Aziz Ansari

"Nathan Rabin's My Year of Flops is funnier than John Travolta's facial hair in Battlefield Earth. He's a brave man for undertaking this dangerous mission and returning alive with a highly entertaining tale."

—A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically

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Josh Blue: “Sticky Change” (2013) CD/DVD Review

Josh Blue takes what would be personal disadvantages and turns them into comedy gold in his new two-disc CD/DVD set, Sticky Change. Recorded at Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, this special begins with him talking about being born in Africa, a place not known for its medical facilities. “Obviously when I was born, there were some complications and when I came out I was a comedian.”

Because he was born in Africa and now lives in the United States, “Technically that makes me African-American.” I love plays on that ridiculous term. I’ve long said that Charlize Theron is my favorite African-American actor. So Josh Blue is able to make a lot of jokes about that. “It’s awesome being African-American, especially a white one.”

Josh Blue also jokes about his own appearance, likening his look to that of a homeless person. The title of this release comes from his bit about cabs not picking him up: “What’s he going to pay with – sticky change?” He asks the audience for spare change. Someone throws flowers onto the stage, to which he shouts, “I said change, asshole,” and throws the flowers back. Others throw coins. He has a bit of trouble picking up the coins. Someone throws a dollar bill. “Oh, thank you. Yeah, these are much easier to pick up.” Josh Blue has cerebral palsy, and a lot of his comedy comes from that. And because of that, his routine is quite a bit different from that of other comedians. He certainly has his own perspective – something all comedians should have.

He also talks about his wife, who is Japanese. (We see shots of her in audience.) “I think it’s probably a good thing for both of us that she doesn’t understand everything that I say.” And about arguments with her, he says, “Honey, it’s not that I don’t care about you. It’s just that I don’t care about what you’re talking about.” Perfect. By the way, he says he married his wife on December 7th, which was her idea. Also perfect.

About raising children and child-proofing his home, he jokes about learning that you need a gate not only at the bottom of a staircase, but at the top too. “If you don’t have one at the top, the one at the bottom just acts like a strainer.” What a great image. I also absolutely love his bit about the airport. “I will scare the living shit out of a TSA worker. And they fucking deserve it.” Amen.

I appreciate running jokes, and Josh Blue has several that he returns to throughout his performance: being African-American, his disability, and needing spare change. Josh Blue is a comedian I wasn’t familiar with before this release, but it wasn’t long before I became a very big fan.

Sticky Change was released on May 21, 2013 through New Wave Dynamics.

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Kevin Nealon: “Whelmed…But Not Overly” (2013) CD/DVD Review

I admit I completely love Kevin Nealon, and have since I first saw him on Saturday Night Live back in the mid-1980s. His straight, somewhat casual delivery often makes what he’s saying even more surprising, catching you off guard. You don’t expect him to be nearly as funny as he is, because listening to him you sometimes get the feeling you’re listening to a friend. (As he jokes repeatedly on his new album, “You know me.”) He undersells his comedy, which – for me – makes it all the funnier.

His new two-disc set, Whelmed…But Not Overly, is seriously good. (I love the title, by the way.) His opening bit on skiing is perfect. For those who don’t ski, trails are marked to show their difficulty. Black diamonds are more difficult than the blue squares or green circles. Kevin Nealon mentions that he didn’t know about those signs either, and he asked a guy what the best mountain in the area is. The guy responded, “I like Copper Mountain, but a lot of people don’t like to go there because they’re afraid of all the blacks.” And from there it just gets funnier. “Some of them are not very well groomed, but if you want the good white powder, that’s where you got to go.”

He also makes several short, but funny observations. Like: “I learned something valuable – never wear a red shirt to Target.” And: “Do you think if Jesus Twittered, he would be checking to see how many followers he had all the time? I bet he would. He’s so like that. It’s all about numbers for him, isn’t it?”

His parents are in their eighties, and he tells the audience, “They still hold hands, but I think that’s to keep from falling over.” His connection with the audience is immediate. There’s no easing into the routine. He’s off and running from the moment he hits the stage. He asks the audience, “You ever been so tired you fell asleep sitting up? That happened to me like four days ago. And I woke up and I thought, ‘Jesus, I’d better pull over, this is dangerous.” Then he adds, “And it is dangerous, what with the economy the way it is.”

Often it’s those little added bits between the lines that make me laugh. For example, he’s talking about television shows, and he says, “I’ll tell you what I do watch, though – you got a minute? – what I like to watch…” Just tossing in that “you got a minute?” is bloody brilliant. I also like that he returns to certain lines, like the bit about the economy.

I love his bit about the rapture: “That rapture never hit us, thank god. I guess it got pushed out to sea or something.” Then: “I knew it wasn’t going to hit us like the day before because I made a random phone call to Australia. They’re a day ahead of us, and guess what, someone picked up the phone.”

And remember: “You don’t play dead with a vulture.”

The two-disc set includes the performance on DVD and CD. The CD is just a couple of minutes shorter than the DVD, but all that’s missing is moments of the introduction and the closing credits, nothing from the actual performance itself. Also cut are a few seconds before he comes back out to thank the audience. This performance was filmed at Comedy Works South, in Colorado.

Whelmed…But Not Overly was released on May 28, 2013 through New Wave Dynamics.

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Out now on DVD & Blu-Ray: "The Rolling Stones - Crossfire Hurricane"

EAGLE ROCK ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS

THE ROLLING STONES

CROSSFIRE HURRICANE

OUT ON DVD, BLU-RAY AND DIGITAL VIDEO

Eagle Rock Entertainment releases The Rolling Stones’ Crossfire Hurricane on DVD and Blu-ray.  Crossfire Hurricane is the kaleidoscopic new film that documents the key periods of the Rolling Stones’ career and their incredible journey.

Directed by Brett Morgen, Crossfire Hurricane provides a remarkable new perspective on the Stones’ unparalleled journey from blues-obsessed teenagers in the early 60’s to rock royalty. It’s all here in panoramic candor, from the Marquee Club to Hyde Park, from Altamont to Exile, from club gigs to stadium extravaganzas.

With never-before-seen footage and fresh insights from the band themselves, the film will delight, shock and amaze longtime devotees, as well as a new generation of fans, with its uniquely immersive style and tone. Crossfire Hurricane places the viewer right on the frontline of the band’s most legendary escapades.

As befits the first rock band to reach the 50-year milestone with their global stature now greater than ever, the film combines extensive historical footage, much of it widely unseen, with contemporary commentaries by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts,Ronnie Wood and former Stones Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor. Period interviews, extensive live performance material and news archives give the production a truly kinetic aura and no-holds-barred approach.

Bonus features on the DVD and Blu-Ray include previously unreleased concert footage -  “Live in Germany ‘65”, NME Poll Winners concert footage from 1964 and 1965, a new interview with director Brett Morgen, “The Sound and Music of Crossfire Hurricane”, footage from The Arthur Haynes Show (1964), and the theatrical trailer

Crossfire Hurricane received its worldwide premiere at the London Film Festival in October, where Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood all hit the red carpet to the delight of fans and media from all around the world. The film received a similar premiere in the U.S. the following month, hosted by HBO at the Ziegfeld Theatre.

Asked in a formative interview in the film what it is that sets them apart from other groups, Jagger says with quiet understatement: “A chemical reaction seems to have happened.” Keith Richards added, “You can't really stop the Rolling Stones, you know when that sort of avalanche is facing you, you just get out of the way.” It’s been happening ever since, and the life and times of the Rolling Stones have never been as electrifyingly portrayed as they are in Crossfire Hurricane.

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Blu-Ray Review: "A Good Day To Die Hard"

Let me start by saying "I love the Die Hard movies."  I have seen them countless times and have owned them all on DVD and now Blu-Ray discs.  So when I saw the trailer for "A Good Day To Die Hard" I was very excited to say the least.  John McClane in Russia!  That's a great fish out of water premise.

That said... 

Here comes a SPOILER filled review to insure that no one wastes any money seeing this movie.  I want fans to erase it from their memory as if it never existed like one of those bad Halloween sequels because trust me "A Good Day To Die Hard" is one of the worst sequels ever made.

The makers of this film just didn't care.  

Fox Studios, Screenwriter Skip Woods, Director John Moore and sadly, even Bruce Willis! 

The whole creative team went into the making of this film knowing that people would go see anything that bared the "Die Hard" name and to their credit... they were right because "A Good Day To Die Hard" grossed over 300 million dollars worldwide!  

That's a lot of moviegoers getting sucked in for 1 viewing because I can't imagine anyone going back for a 2nd look.

So where does the film go wrong?  That questions would take too long to answer because frankly there's not much in this movie that goes right.  Mindless dialogue, over the top unrealistic car chases and action sequences, zero chemistry between the leads.  

The father son relationship is 100% banter.  Not one real moment of peril or affection between McClane and his son and the blame for that falls firmly on the script.  Jai Courtney plays John McClane's estranged son Jack. Courtney who was so good playing a bad guy in "Jack Reacher" has virtually nothing to do here.  His character's main purpose is to just run, shoot and be pissed off at his old man whenever guns aren't blazing.  

The villain... 

Absolutely terrible.  After Alan Rickman, Willaim Sadler & Franco Nero, Jeremy Irons and Timothy Oliphant we get... Radivoje Bukvic. The character Bukvic portrays is so devoid of any personality or menace that the filmmakers thought it would be cool if he was chomping on a carrot in his big "Now what are you going to do" speech.  How do you write a villain eating a carrot into a scene and not have McClane crack wise?  "What's up Dick" come on!!  The smart ass McClane quips write themselves come to think of it Bugs Bunny is more threatening than bad guy #1.

Sequels...

Most of the time people view sequels as just throw away popcorn fare and don't really take them seriously.  Once a franchise gets past anything with a number 3 in the title moviegoers expectations are usually lowered and time has proven that sequels are never as good as the originals.  However... I felt the Die Hard franchise, up until now, was pretty solid.  The first 3 films are great and "Live Free Or Die Hard" was a fun movie too.  Sure it strayed a little from the normal John McClane outing and the action sequences were a little more "unbelievable" and yet that film still worked because the essence of John McClane was still intact.  

What the Die Hard series needs to do the next time is to emulate what Paramount has done with the "Mission: Impossible" series.  Stay true to the characters, have a great script, a great director and make the spectacle bigger and better than before.  The difference between the "Die Hard" series and the "Mission: Impossible" series is that Paramount and Tom Cruise care!  They care about making a good movie and giving the audience their moneys worth.  "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" should be held up as a template on how to make a GREAT sequel.  "Ghost Protocol" has humor, intrigue and some of the best action sequences ever committed to film PLUS it's got an actor who is willing to do the stunts which makes the action that much more believable.

A message to FOX...

If Fox decides to make "Die Hard 6" I hope they go old school.  My 24 year-old nephew Kyle, who also writes for this site, had a great idea so allow me to flesh it out a bit...

I now present "Old Habits Die Hard" (Kyle's title).  

We start on Christmas Eve at the McClane residence in New Jersey.  The entire family is there... John and Holly are back together, Lucy is married and pregnant and Jack's wife has a brand new baby girl.  This will be the best Christmas John McClane has had in quite a while.  The family finishes eating an early Christmas Eve feast because the now retired Patriarch and workaholic John McClane has to work a night shift at his new security desk job.  He traded shifts so that the new young guard could spend Christmas eve and Christmas day with his wife and 3 year-old twin girls something John McClane wishes he could have done in his 30's.  That's right folks we are coming full circle and "Old Habits Die Hard" will once again take place in a high rise building this time in the Big Apple.  What McClane stumbles onto that fateful night remains to be seen but rest assured fans would love this franchise to end on a high note.  

So Fox... do yourself a favor and call on a couple of un-produced screenwriters who are 100% "Die Hard" fans.  One's in his 20's the other in his 40's.  I promise you we could write a more fitting tribute to the legacy of "John McClane" than the bastardization that is currently being viewed in the home video market.

Drumroll please...  2 out of 10 Yippe Ki-Yays!!!

The only reason this film doesn't get a 0 is because I liked the first scene of McClane and the Russian cab driver and Willis as John McClane makes me smile even if it's just for 1 scene.

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SHOW #48 - Hashtag Award-Winning Screenwriter

Join Garon, Johnny, Eric, Mike, and Darth as we discuss Star Trek, Iron Man, Ps4/Xbox One, our PCPs, and more!

www.popculturebeast.com
show@popculturebeast.com
#pcbshow

Check out this episode!

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Atomic Age DVD Review

Atomic Age is an unusual and engaging film about two friends who go into the city for what they think will be a normal night of dancing at a club, and end up discovering something about themselves.

The opening shots are from a train, dominated by gorgeous blues in the sky, which then yield to harsher reds as the two young men get closer to their destination. And suddenly – in reaction to the changing scenery – Victor begins to sing “In The Ghetto,” causing his companion, Rainer, to laugh. It’s a warm moment between them, and interestingly the scene is done mainly in singles, so that the two are not in frame together for most of it (until Rainer gives Victor his scarf). The result is that we are looking at them the way they are looking at each other, almost like studying them. It’s an interesting way to introduce the characters. (By the way, in this scene a subtitle flashes on the screen so quickly that I had to pause the DVD to read it: “What do you listen to these days?” The actual line, however, isn’t spoken for several more moments, a weird mistake with the DVD.)

Victor and Rainer soon arrive at a club, the lights of which are blues and reds, matching those colors from the train. Rainer tells Victor he can’t sleep and he’s started reading poetry again (“It’s my own way of dreaming”). But Victor’s focus is more on a girl. He points her out to Rainer, tells him he’s going to spend the night with her. When he talks to her, the sounds of the club disappear so we can actually hear the dialogue. This also adds to the strange vibe of the film.

Like the scene on the train, we see Victor and Cecilia in singles, in close-ups, and here it has the feeling of being two separate worlds. That is, until he touches her, touches her hair – that’s in a two-shot. But she slaps him and walks away. It’s interesting that when he tries to connect it goes wrong, that when he reaches into her frame, her world, whatever it is they have is over. For me, it’s one of the film’s most interesting sequences, as it starts off as a sort of imitation of the train scene, but ends exactly the opposite way. In the earlier scene, Rainer reached into Victor’s frame to give him the scarf, and the connection was made stronger rather than destroyed. Also interesting is that the scene starts in blues, but very quickly changes to reds. Victor goes back to Rainer and says girls are harsh.

Victor and Rainer both kind of wallow in their misery. However, at first there is a distance between these characters and the audience, because we don’t know much about them, what’s causing their misery, what they really want. So their complaining can be a bit off-putting, like when Rainer expresses his fear of not ever having anyone and being forgotten. It feels a bit juvenile, but then again the characters are young, so it sort of works. Everything is heightened when you’re that age.

This film has kind of an hypnotic feel, going more for a mood than a strong narrative. After they leave the club, a lot of the scenes use darkness to focus our attention on the two men’s faces.  We can’t see much of their surroundings, so are forced to focus on these two young men.

This film is short. The case says it’s 70 minutes, but according to my DVD player, it’s 64 minutes, and that includes a five-minute closing credit sequence.

Atomic Age was directed by Helena Klotz, and stars Dominik Wojcik, Eliott Paquet, Mathilde Bisson and Niels Schneider. It is in French, with English subtitles. The DVD’s only special feature is the film’s trailer.

Atomic Age was released on May 21, 2013 through TLA Releasing.

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