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Browsing All Posts filed under »DBR Blog«
Mr. Peanut
When you get a few pages into Adam Ross’s debut novel, you think, ‘Okay, this is a murder mystery.’ A whodunnit. And it is that, but it’s also much more. The novel is a book within a book, and within that, it’s three stories, intertwining and doubling back on themselves, about three men and their […]
Catfish
January 31, 2011
Who exactly is the monster in the new documentary Catfish? Before seeing the movie, all you hear is that there’s a big secret behind the film, that you don’t want to have it spoiled for you, that it will totally shock/rock your world. The trailer warns “Don’t let anyone tell you what it is.” OMG! […]
My favorite books and movies of 2010
January 5, 2011
Every moron with a blog feels the need to do a “best of the year” list, so here’s mine, for what it’s worth. Book: C by Tom McCarthy is absolutely the novel of the year, and I believe the literary world will come to agree in time and give it more credit. I mean, yes, […]
The Town
January 3, 2011
I’ve heard many people gripe that The Town was formulaic, unoriginal, or had wooden performances. Let me attempt to refute all of those, because The Town was actually a truly impressive directorial accomplishment, a movie I’d place in the pantheon of outstanding contemporary Boston films (The Paper Chase, Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, The Departed). […]
A young Kanye raps for Jay-Z
December 28, 2010
WorldStarHipHop’s throwback footage of the week is like candy for hip-hop heads. Kanye is rapping in the studio, mostly freestyling, and beginning at 2:08 he’s doing it for Jay-Z. WorldStar doesn’t appear to know the exact year, but I put it at 2002 or 2003 because: a) someone is wearing a David Carr Texans jersey […]
Survivor
December 2, 2010
Survivor is not Chuck Palahniuk’s best, but I see why the Cult, his legion of rabid fans, loves it. I also think I would have been more impressed had I read it earlier on in my Palahniuk arc, before I had struggled through the painful tedium of trashy books like Lullaby and Haunted. There are many things this book […]
Letting Go
December 1, 2010
That Philip Roth is one of the best writers alive may not be up for debate. There are those who might not be fans of his long-winded style, as well as many who believe his writing is chauvinistic. But even most critics of his work acknowledge his enormous stature in the modern American canon; he […]
My mom on Tao Lin
November 26, 2010
At the end of this past summer, I wrote a piece for Salon about the writer Tao Lin. After it ran, my mom became briefly interested in Lin, asked me a few questions and then forgot about him. But last week, she was at her local library and saw a copy of Lin’s new novel […]
Jeff Klein
November 14, 2010
I never like to use the blog section of my site for anything too personal; I mostly try to keep “I” out of it and just do straight reviews of books/movies/restaurants, or commentary on magazines or albums, or even essays or op-eds about the current state of some social construct, except with the idea of […]
Inception
July 23, 2010
After finally making it to the movie I’ve been salivating over since I first saw that bare-bones, secretive teaser trailer nine months ago, I can’t help but react first and foremost to what it seemed like everyone was talking about in the days after the release: how difficult the movie was to follow. Owen Gleiberman […]
Noah Kalina and internet identity
April 15, 2010
This is a story I wrote in April 2010 for a Columbia class on arts reporting. I had to do a profile of a digital artist, and I chose Noah Kalina. Because the story doesn’t really involve anything newsy, I didn’t try publishing it anywhere serious. But through interviewing Kalina and checking out his stuff, […]
Divine Rhyme
March 20, 2010
Recently I wrote a big feature for PopMatters.com about the young rapper Sam Adams, who I happen to have gone to high school with. You can find the article here or its slimmer, more Wayland-focused incarnation from The Wayland Town Crier newspaper here. Anyway, I began interviewing the kid and his management, and listening to […]
How To Make It In America
February 18, 2010
After seeing ads for How to Make it in America in subway stations all over NYC for the past two months, I was sick of the show before it even began, but then I found out Kid Cudi (real name Scott Mescudi) was in it, and that helped. It also helped that HBO released a […]
Californication
November 27, 2009
I’m talking about the show, not the Chili Peppers album. Great album, though. I’ve been watching Showtime’s David Duchovny glam project since its inception, and from the beginning, I’ve loved it. Now, in its third season, I have to say it’s beginning to lose me. Much of what I loved about the show in its […]
Billy Elliot on Broadway, 11/21/09
November 27, 2009
Exactly one year after its Broadway debut, “Billy Elliot,” the musical version, is still selling out weekend performances at the Imperial Theatre. The show debuted in London’s West End before making it to the American stage, where most theatergoers, I imagine, must be aware of the 2000 Stephen Daldry film from which it is adapted. […]
Never Let Me Go, book vs. movie
October 27, 2009
This is a great novel and a terrific introduction to Ishiguro. Never Let Me Go really flows naturally, all under the narrator’s commanding voice, which is the book’s biggest strength. It eases you in, then surprises you. As for the plot “secret,” I’m not even sure I would tout that part of it when recommending […]
Where the Wild Things Are
October 18, 2009
I got to see this three days before it came out in theaters, at a special screening. I was very excited. I really, really wanted to like it. Unfortunately, the movie falls incredibly short of all the hype that has been building for so many months. At the very least, the film is visually stunning. […]
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Daniel B. Roberts 
May 9, 2011
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