POP CULTURE

Those hard-to-resist-Svengalis: Stage Mothers

In the midst of all the Kid Nation hype & the ongoing fascination w/Lynne Spears, Dina Lohan, it seems that the presence of stage mothers is stronger than ever. Here's a look at few stage moms from

Those hard-to-resist-Svengalis: Bela Karolyi

That Bela--alternately so jovial, so brutish! The image of Karolyi hoisting Kerri Strug to the champion's podium is one of the most ubiquitous images of the 1996 Olympics. Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton, et al. have defended him, but others--most notably

The Best of TV on DVD

In recent years, I've spent countless hours watching serial TV shows on DVD, devouring episode after episode. My first time watching a TV series on DVD was when I watched the first three seasons of Six Feet Under. When I ran out of discs and had to wait

Banned From SNL for Rocking Too Hard

Checking out the Your Daily Awesome archives, I came across this gem: a recounting of various performers barred from Saturday Night Live. Interestingly, footage of many of the incidents in the article is now available on YouTube, apparently from fans' l

The diametric legacies of Veerappan

Even before he was wanted in connection with the murders of over 100 people, Koose Muniswamy Veerappan was a notorious poacher and sandalwood smuggler. Things really got interesting on July 30, 2000, when he kidnapped "the John Wayne of Bollywood"--Rajkum

A Disturbingly Long List of Celebrity Motorbike Crash-ups

While I've never had any real interest in riding a motorcycle (I feel a heck of a lot safer in my van!), all the recent press over George Clooney's accident made me wonder how many celebs haveÂ experienced motorbike crashes. The results were kind of astou

A Moment of Silence for Marcel Marceau

Over the years, I feel like I've seen Marcel Marceau around a lot. On PBS, in movies (he had the only speaking role in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie, and also starred in Barbarella), and generally whenever the word mime is accompanied with a photo. Yet, it was

23 Album Covers that Changed Everything!

There are several reasons I loved working on the Saints and Sinners Issue. It's the only magazine I've ever seen with Madonna and Gandhi elbowing for cover space, it's the first issue we ever got the fantastic authors John Green and Michael Stusser to wri

What we talk about when we talk about Hair Wars

In an age where a showdown between Kanye and 50 seems to draw more attention than so-and-so's potential running mate, maybe the spotlight is aching to warm another subset. That's just what David Humphries, Detroit-based founder and producer of Hair Wars,