Culture Index: ‘Oh, Hello’ on Netflix, ‘Black Panther’ Trailer, Puns and More
After a long, hot week filled to the brim with plenty of 2017 weirdness, we present seven ways – From Courtney Love in a Lifetime movie to a literary comeback 25 years in the making – to get your mind off whatever is at the top of our politics section right now (and whatever takes its place in the coming days).
-
The Museum of Ice Cream
If you’re in L.A. and can get tickets to the most colorful and Instagram-able art project/show of the year, by all means, go to the Museum of Ice Cream. Created by Maryellis Bunn, some people love it (Beyonce, Katy Perry) other people don’t get it for whatever reason. We say: think like Bey and just enjoy it.
-
‘Away With Words’ by Joe Berkowitz
Fast Company editor and staff writer Joe Berkowitz is obsessed with puns. While you may have picked a few up from your dad or grandpa that you still like to toss around, but Berkowitz got so into the competition known as Punderdome that he decided to explore the weird subculture – and write a book about it. The end result is Away With Words, a funny and fascinating look at people who actually compete to come up with the punniest puns in America.
-
‘Cars 3’
Those Cars movies do well, but they’re not usually that great. The third installment, as David Fear puts it in his three-star review, is deserving of the Pixar name. The type of film from the animation company that adults will want to take their kids to go to. Haven’t seen the other two? Maybe bone up on those then read about the entire Pixar universe and have a blast.
-
‘Menendez: Blood Brothers’ on Lifetime
It’s a Lifetime movie about Lyle and Erik Menendez, the Beverly Hills rich kids who killed their parents, ambushing them while they were watching TV. It also stars Courtney Love as mother Kitty Menendez, so you know this is trash TV at its finest, with plenty of WTF moments you probably need to see.
-
‘Black Panther’ trailer
Marvel premiered the teaser for Black Panther during Game 4 of the NBA Finals, with an extended look at the film dropping online soon after, and fans freaked out across every social media platform. Are you surprised? Besides looking awesome and showcasing one of the most overlooked heroes in the Marvel Universe, the film, slated for a February 2018 release, features a cast that includes Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o and Angela Bassett as Black Panther’s mother Ramonda. Watch it again, and get psyched.
-
‘Swell’ by Jill Eisenstadt
Jill Eisenstadt made a splash in the literary world in the Eighties with her debut From Rockaway, then followed it up with a book of short stories in 1991, Kiss Out. Since then, sadly, no books have emerged from the outer-borough native. Now, in 2017, she’s returned to the fiction world, revisiting her old stomping grounds – Rockaway Beach post-9/11, pre-Hurricane Sandy – in this funny novel perfect for weekend-getaway reading. Don’t call it a comeback – call it the literary comeback of the year.
-
‘Oh, Hello’ on Netflix
You’ll be charmed (I’m sure) to watch Gil Faizon (Nick Kroll) and George St. Geegland (John Mulaney) discuss their lives in New York City, their popular cable access show and, of course, watch them prank various people by serving them too much tuna. Filmed during the recent limited run of Kroll and Mulaney’s hilarious two-man Broadway show (featuring special nightly cameos from celebs like Matthew Broderick, as seen above), Oh, Hello triumphs as comedy in spite of its hyper-specific, Upper West Side-centric worldview.