Results tagged “spinaltap”

The legendary jam band is officially back on the road this weekend, kicking off their first tour since 2004. This trip follows their official reunion back in early March, where they played three shows at Hampton Coliseum in Virginia Beach. The summer run will kick off at Fenway Park in Boston tomorrow night, followed by a run of three nights at Jones Beach out in Long Island all next week. From there, the band will eventually work its way down the coast and inland to Bonnaroo by mid-June. Trey Anastasio had a rough go of things during their 5 year breakup, with a DUI and a rehab stint highlighting his time away from the rest of the band, but the four seem back on track now, impressing the Hampton crowds, sounding better than they did before the split. While the shows on this run are all sold out, this should be the first of countless more. Oh, and they also released a brand new 13-minute song.

Native New Yorker Michael McKean is so identified with his ensemble work in Christopher Guest’s films – This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration – that it’s easy to forget that he created the iconic Leonard 'Lenny' Kosnowski in Laverne & Shirley some 32 years ago. What a long, strange career it’s been, with parts in almost-entirely forgotten films like Steven Spielberg’s 1941, hits like Clue and, in the 90s, a stint as the oldest person to join the cast of Saturday Night Live. In between there’s been a whole lot of supporting roles (his IMDB page counts 174 in film and television) as well as plenty of stage work; in 2004 he took over for Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway production of Hairspray. McKean is now onstage again and very funny in the must-see revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, which also stars Eve Best, Ian McShane and Raúl Esparza.

Some fun Guest stuff for all you bastard people: A Fame Audit from Fametracker, an interview with Movie City News and Caryn James' feature on the retrospective in today's Times. It seems that Guest has always wanted to just do only three "mockumentaries" and that he doesn't really like TV except The Office. And Gothamist once shared an elevator with Guest when he was promoting Almost Heroes (Matthew Perry and Chris Farley as 18th century explorers - not being shown in the tribute). Guest asked us what we thought of his seersucker suit, and Gothamist couldn't help ourselves when the words "It's kinda Matlocky" came out. But we didn't mean Matlocky in a bad way!

Macy's in New York has welcomed "big-bottomed mannequins" to show off fashions, and this warrants a Reuters story. In the photograph above, Ecko Red jeans are one of quite a few brands that are part of this "serious sociological trend that is positive for retailers and customers in that the tyranny of the undernourished perfect model is over" (quote from Rich Rollison, whose company Lifestyle Forms and Display created the mannequins). Of course, there are obligatory mentions of J.Lo, Beyonce, and Sir Mix-A-Lot, yet none of Big Bottom from Spinal Tap. At any rate, Gothamist is very supportive of more realistic mannequins. We're still upset with Toccara's loss on America's Next Top Model.

- Gervais doesn't have any worries about the US-version of The Office ("They are doing their own thing") and said the US version of Slough is Scranton, PA. [On the BBC website, Gervais earlier thought Newark was Slough-ish]Dan has a wonderfully thorough wrap-up of the evening. Here's BBC America's The Office site; the special will air tonight and repeat over the weekend. The NY Times loved the special; The New Yorker preferred two seasons of the series, calling it "perfect."

When Gothamist caught wind of the new Metallica "rockumentary" it took us about 4 seconds to sink into the nostalgia of early high school and dust off our patched up acid washed jean jacket. Posters of this foursome stuck to our walls for at least a year before being replaced with more age appropriate things. Metallica as a band remained, but personal musical tastes on our side expanded, and faster than you could say "Napster" they were no longer a part of our daily musical diet. They cut their hair, we grew out our perm and moved away from the metal genre. Still, Metallica only comes second to NIN when a need for downtrodden lyrics and pissed off chords (or motivation for the gym) comes up.

Just a few of our "Where is" thoughts: Max Fischer, Spinal Tap, Madeline Elster/Judy Barton, The Warriors, and Popeye Doyle

Gothamist agrees with many (but not Moulin Rouge - meh), but would have to consider many others, like Almost Famous, A Star is Born, Amadeus, Hard Day's Night, A Mighty Wind, The School of Rock, plus the genre of movie musicals (Annie, The Muppet Movie, Kiss Me Kate, The Sound of Music) if we came up with our own list. And then there are the movies and filmmakers that aren't about music but their soundtracks change that: Anything by Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, Cameron Crowe, John Hughes, Woody Allen, Spike Lee, and Quentin Tarantino, plus Trainspotting, Brown Sugar, Dazed and Confused, Ocean's Eleven (the remake)...what are we missing?

hand.

Gothamist enjoyed Elvis Mitchell's piece about Christopher Guest in yesterday's Times because if there's one that we all need more of, it's generous-hearted satire. Guest was one of the masterminds behind This is Spinal Tap (besides playing Nigel Tufnel), and he wrote and directed Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show.