I've grown up hearing Glenn Gould's two performances of Bach's Goldberg Variations. Gould's first landmark performance was released in 1955, and it was passionate, fast, and popular -- with a runtime of just over 38 minutes, Gould's first performance left out many of the repeats within the variations, plus he kept the tempo up. That 1955 recording was a blockbuster hit (as classical recordings go), and helped to put the Goldberg Variations on the cultural map; prior to that performance the Variations... READ ON

Whether Battleship is a super success or super failure, a thundering battalion of movies based on board games is marching toward a theater near you. At the very least, I thought you should be prepared. 1. Candy... READ ON

Meanwhile, at the Bat Cave, the Bat Symbol has been changing. Since its first appearance in 1941, designers have tweaked the icon emblazoned on Batman's chest and appearing on various Batphernalia, adapting it for each new iteration of the Batman story. In this video, you can watch the Bat Symbol morph through many versions. Watch as the symbol stretches, contracts, and develops new angles for each era. (I chose to mute the U2 soundtrack, for what it's worth.) For a non-video treatment of the... READ ON

The Washington Post recently announced the winners of its sixth annual Peeps Show diorama contest. This year's finalists were heavy on politics, but over six years, many of the best entries depict scenes from our favorite movies. In order to keep this post to a manageable size, I have only included films that won at least one Academy Award. That eliminated some classics, like Frankenstein, The Birds, and Spinal Tap, but you can find those if you like. Maybe I'll do a post on the rest some other time.1.... READ ON