Review: Johnny Otis:  R&B’s conscience,  ‘black by persuasion’ Not long after Pete Seeger galvanized American progressives with folk music, and years before Bob Dylan brought social issues to the forefront of rock music, Johnny Otis was, to borrow a civil-rights era phrase, a “drum major...

Seattle: For 25 days, the capital of movies The Seattle International Film Festival doesn’t have the global glitz of Cannes or the rough-country-chic panache of Sundance and Telluride, but for years now, it’s gone quietly about its business becoming the biggest film festival in the country.   ...

Philly: Seeking the perfect cheesesteak Few foods are unified with a specific location quite like the Philadelphia cheesesteak. In The Daily Beast, writer Tom McAllister surveys the field and weighs the value of ingredients, location and clientele in creating the populist sandwich that typifies the...

Upfronts Week: Winners and othersAOL’s Bob Sassone gets busy handicapping the best (and maybe not-so-best) new series slated for the fall TV season More in Television >>&g...

Going back into 'Exile'

ROLLING STONES EXILE ON MAIN ST And I’m lookin’ out my window baby And I’m standing by my door Have you ever had the feeling baby That you been here before? — “I’m Not Signifying” MICHAEL E. ROSS  05.21.2010 In May 1972, back when the Rolling Stones could lay legitimate claim to being...

Six years of getting (and not getting) ‘Lost’ As ABC’s celebrated and confusing series winds down to its finale on Sunday, March 23, a group of PopMatters writers weighs in to put the groundbreaking show and its appeal into perspective, as journalists and as undying fans.       ...

Cannes 2010: Rise of the unsung stars Woody Allen’s newest project can be expected to draw a crowd and Russell Crowe’s revisionist Robin Hood will win a strong following. But at this year’s model of the Cannes Film Festival, the work of emerging filmmakers — relative unknowns — will be front and...

Lena Horne (1917-2010) Lena Mary Calhoun Horne died on Sunday night at New York-Presbyterian /Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. There was no sun up in the sky. The skies over New York that evening alternated between cloudy and clear; there was no stormy weather to speak of. But rain fell just...

U.K.: The Lazarus Effect Bono, Penelope Cruz, Common, Gabourey Sidibe, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, Hugh Jackman and others are front and center in a new (RED) campaign video, on behalf of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This video, meant for consumption in the U.K., states the cost of doing something big: “20p,” the equivalent of 40 cents American — the daily cost of two...

This just in: ‘Iron Man 2’ is a hit It’s Iron Man’s weekend, we just buy the tickets. According to EW.com, at least $50 million worth. So far. And EW says the sequel starring Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlet Johanssen and Mickey Rourke has earned an A from Cinemascore, “meaning it should hold in well for some time.” Like we couldn’t see that coming.     ...

Tweeting the drum A new report on Twitter usage by Edison Research and Arbitron reveals, among other things, that the service is "disproportionately popular with African-Americans." The study finds that 24 percent of the 17 million Americans "tweeting" at any given time are African-American, "which...

Newsweek on the block The Washington Post Company is selling Newsweek, its 77-year-old weekly news magazine, The Associated Press reported today. It’s the latest sign of the struggles of print publications working hard to remain relevant — and profitable — in the age of the 24/7, Internet-driven news...

Lynn Redgrave dies at 67 Lynn Redgrave, the celebrated Golden Globe-winning British actress who performed the work of playwrights, and a playwright whose own work plumbed the essence of her famous family and herself, died of cancer on Sunday at her home in Connecticut. She was 67 years old.      ...

Big reveal for a new 'Meet the Press'

MICHAEL E. ROSS | 05.03.2010 "In television, this is what we do: We evolve," said David Gregory, the moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” on Sunday, by way of his big reveal of his program's extreme makeover. Longtime viewers of MTP got a sleek, burnished eyeful over the weekend when they tuned...

Conan, in joy and pain Sometimes, it’s hard to do funny, even when it’s your livelihood. In a revealing interview with CBS’ Steve Kroft on “60 Minutes,” a subdued Conan O’Brien talks about his career, life and moving on in the wake of the Jay Leno episode. Clearly, sometimes, funny isn’t funny at all. Pearl Jam rocks New Orleans > In Mus...

'Fences' hailed on Broadway In its first revival since it first conquered Broadway in 1987, August Wilson’s “Fences” is on the New York stage, with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in the lead roles. For Ben Brantley of The New York Times, it still really works.           ...