Do you want to kick off your week with a saucy conversation about the movies? Me too!

Just head over to The Film Experience, run by my friend Nathaniel, to hear a rousing podcast about Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, the revised (yet again) rules for the Best Picture Oscar nominees, and much more. I was thrilled to join the conversation, along with Nathaniel and Kurt, who runs the website Your Movie Buddy.

And if you’ve never visited The Film Experience before, I’d encourage you to poke around. It’s a fantastic website that fuses film news, commentary, clever games, and the occasional ironic poem.

Note: Nathaniel made that image up there, too.

I just reviewed the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark for NPR. Take a look here.

Have you seen the show? What did you think?

The Extries are almost like the Emmys… only they’re awards given by the good folks at Extra Hot Great podcast. I’m delighted to be on the special panel of award giver-outers, so won’t you join us for a rousing discussion of our TV favorites? (Note: I mostly chose people I thought would never get Emmy nominations. It’s my way of spreading the love.)

And do NOT miss the Game Time at the end of the podcast. DO NOT.

Mitchell and Cameron, the resident gay couple on ABC’s Modern Family, have been frustrating me this season. Over at NPR’s Monkey See blog, I just wrote an essay explaining why. As a preview, I’ll say that I’m irritated less by their lack of physical affection than by their general nastiness to each other.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the piece!

I was delighted to be a guest on this week’s Extra Hot Great podcast, where the subjects included the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon, Steve Carell’s final episode of The Office, and the Canadian show Slings & Arrows. There’s also a thrilling Game Time in which win a clear moral victory.

Here’s a post I wrote for NPR’s Monkey See blog about the multiple identities of Dollywood, Dolly Parton’s theme park in Tennessee. The intro goes like this:

Earlier this month, I became the envy of my friends when I visited Dollywood, the theme park that Dolly Parton founded in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in 1986. Upon reflection, I’ve realized that Dollywood is much like the woman herself. It presents many identities at once, meaning it can speak simultaneously to wildly different types of people.

Here are the Dollywood Identities I observed (as well as their corollaries to the actual Dolly Parton):

You can read the rest of the piece here.

Have you been to Dollywood? What did you think? What do you think of Dolly Parton’s music and image? (As my piece makes clear, I am such a big fan that I’m practically wearing rhinestones and a big blond wig to work today.)

Here’s a column I wrote for this weekend’s edition of The New York Times Magazine. It’s my contribution to a feature called The Enthusiast, in which people, um, enthuse about their favorite things in pop culture.

For my entry, I chose to write about an up-and-coming band from the UK called The Overtones. They’re really, really cool. Here’s the video I describe in that piece up there:

Hey all! I just wrote a feature for New York Press about Bar Karma, the new Current TV series that may be the most interactive drama in television history. Every element of the show—from the scripts to the costumes to the props—is based on audience suggestions. Think of it as “crowdsourced TV” the way that Wikipedia is a crowdsourced encyclopedia.

The story includes my interview with Will Wright, an executive producer on Bar Karma who also created landmark games like The Sims and Sim City. He says fascinating things about how interactivity could change the shape of scripted television.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the piece and the issues it raises. You can read it here. Holla!

I’m excited to report that I have just published my first story on TODAYshow.com, the website of NBC’s morning show behemoth.

Just click here to read my comparison of the original True Grit with the Coen Brothers’ remake. After they go head-to-head in several categories, one film walks away the champion.

Today on NPR’s Monkey See blog, I’m thinking about the way the media and the public alike are approaching the ongoing calamity of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. The musical got slammed in The New York Times today, and that seems like the latest volley in a lip-smacking feast on the show’s bloody carcass. What does it mean that we, as a public and a media, are approaching the show’s troubles this way? Read on to find out!