May 17, 2024
jmunney
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Sports, Television
Babes, Back to Black, Beth Gibbons, Billie Eilish, Cage the Elephant, Don't Forget the Lyrics, Evil, Hit Me Hard and Soft, if, Lives Outgrown, Marvel Studios Assembled, Neon Pill, Orgy of the Damned, Preakness Stakes, RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, Slash, The Strangers: Chapter 1, X-Men '97
CREDIT: Paramount Plus/Screenshot
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Babes (Theaters)
–Back to Black (Theaters)
–IF (Theaters)
–The Strangers: Chapter 1 (Theaters)
TV
–RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 9 Premiere (May 17 on Paramount+)
-Marvel Studios’ Assembled: The Making of X-Men ’97 (May 22 on Disney+) – I don’t always watch these BTS docs, but I do when they’re about X-Men ’97.
–Don’t Forget the Lyrics Season Premiere (May 23 on FOX)
–Evil Season 4 Premiere (May 23 on Paramount+) – To be followed by a mini Season 5 (the Final Season) soon thereafter).
Music
-Cage the Elephant, Neon Pill
-Billie Eilish, Hit Me Hard and Soft
-Beth Gibbons, Lives Outgrown – Lead singer of Portishead.
-Slash, Orgy of the Damned
Sports
-Preakness Stakes (May 18 on NBC)
December 17, 2023
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Billie Eilish, Hattie Davis, Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 49, SNL, SNL Season 49
Billie Eilish is in her Mechanic Era (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)
It’s the last new SNL of 2023, former cast member Kate McKinnon has returned to host, Billie Eilish is the musical guest for the third time, Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph also stopped by – clearly, everyone just wants to have fun.
A few times in the past, I’ve adopted a reviewing strategy themed around a holiday. But I’ve never done it for New Year’s Day before, seeing as SNL tends to bypass that time of the year. But I’m going to go ahead and not bypass it. Thus for this episode, I’m reviewing each sketch by declaring “Happy New Year!” to someone or something.
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April 22, 2022
jmunney
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television
Barry, Billie Eilish, Bonnie Raitt, Just Like That…, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Night Gnomes, Omnium Gatherum, Petite Maman, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, The Duke, The Northman, The Simpsons, The Simpsons: When Billie Met Lisa, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Three Busy Debras, We're All Going to the World's Fair
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–The Duke (Theaters)
–The Northman (Theaters)
–Petite Maman (Theaters)
–The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Theaters) – Cage for Cage.
–We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (Theaters) – This came out in limited release last week, and I should have included it then.
TV
–The Simpsons: When Billie Met Lisa (April 22 on Disney+) – “Billie” as in “Eilish.”
–Barry Season 3 Premiere (April 24 on HBO)
–Three Busy Debras Season 2 Premiere (April 24 on Adult Swim)
Music
-Bonnie Raitt, Just Like That…
-King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Omnium Gatherum
-Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Night Gnomes
December 12, 2021
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Billie Eilish, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 47, SNL, SNL Season 47
SNL: Billie Eilish, Kate McKinnon (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)
The eighth episode of Saturday Night Live Season 47 features the same person as both host and musical guest, and that person is Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell (or just Billie Eilish, for short). This is the first time this season that the same person has been both host and MG. If you were worried that this sort of double duty was never going to happen again, then that was quite an overreaction.
Last episode, I listed the sketches in order of running time, from longest to shortest, so this time I will go from shortest to longest.
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July 30, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television
Billie Eilish, Happier Than Ever, Jaume Collet-Serra, Jungle Cruise, Prince, Stillwater, The Demi Lovato Show, The Green Knight, Welcome 2 America
The Demi Lovato Show (CREDIT: The Roku Channel/Screenshot)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–The Green Knight (Theaters)
–Jungle Cruise (Theaters and Premier Access on Disney+) – Can Jaume Collet-Serra work his magic with Disney?
–Stillwater (Theaters)
TV
–The Demi Lovato Show Season 1 (July 30 on The Roku Channel) – This was originally supposed to be a Quibi.
Music
-Billie Eilish, Happier Than Ever
-Prince, Welcome 2 America
January 31, 2020
jmunney
Best of 2019, Best of Music 2019, Music
Ariana Grande, Beck, Best of 2019, Billie Eilish, Brittany Howard, Camila Cabello, FKA Twigs, Harry Styles, Lana del Rey, Lizzo, Sleater-Kinney, The Black Keys, The Chemical Brothers, Tyler the Creator, Vampire Weekend
It’s been a few years since I’ve made an Albums of the Year list, but I really felt compelled to make one for 2019. Here are the audio compilations from the recent past that really made an impact on me:
14. Camila Cabello, Romance – Fun and bouncy.
13. Harry Styles, Fine Line – I like where Harry is headed.
12. Beck, Hyperspace – Reliable Beck.
11. Brittany Howard, Jaime – Great, big rockin’ voice goes solo.
10. The Black Keys, Let’s Rock – They never stopped rocking.
9. Ariana Grande, thank u, next – Lots of adventure from Ari.
8. Sleater-Kinney, The Center Won’t Hold – Band broke up, music’s still great.
7. Tyler, the Creator, IGOR – I feel so comfortable inside this album.
6. FKA Twigs, MAGDALENE – FKA reminds me of Bat for Lashes.
5. Vampire Weekend, Father of the Bride – Those Vampire Weekend guys have still got a hold on me.
4. Lana Del Rey, Norman Fucking Rockwell! – What a soundscape!
3. Billie Eilish, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? – Just plenty of fun.
2. Lizzo, Cuz I Love You – I love you, too!
1. The Chemical Brothers, No Geography – Apocalyptic concept album.
January 25, 2020
jmunney
Best of 2019, Best of Music 2019, Music
Absofacto, Benny Blanco, Best of 2019, Billie Eilish, Camila Cabello, Dua Lipa, Gary Clark Jr., Hozier, J Balvin, Kimbra, Lana del Rey, Lil Nas X, Lizzo, Meg Myers, Sara Bareilles, Selena Gomez, Shaed, Starcrawler, Tainy, The Chemical Brothers, Tones and I, Tove Lo, Vampire Weekend
CREDIT: Tove Lo/YouTube Screenshot
The following are the singles that had enough of an impact on me in 2019 to make me go, “I’ll have to mark that one down for posterity.” A few of them were originally released before 2019, but they didn’t reach their full cultural impact until 2019. And for the first time in the decade or so since I’ve been doing this, I’ve got a repeat winner, as I also coronated Tove Lo in 2017.
1. Tove Lo – “Glad He’s Gone”: Such friendship, such storytelling. We are all so blessed to have Tove Lo in our lives.
2. Lana Del Rey – “Mariners Apartment Complex”: Four minutes of musical madness that feels like hours of bliss.
3. The Chemical Brothers – “Eve of Destruction”: If you think the world’s gone to hell, have a dance party!
4. Vampire Weekend – “Sunflower”: There have been multiple (good) songs named “Sunflower” the past few years; this is the one that’s most likely to make you feel like a sunflower waking up in the morning.
5. Lizzo -“Truth Hurts”: 100% that mix of references that clearly hold deep emotional resonance for Lizzo.
6. Gary Clark Jr. – “This Land”: Can tasty guitar solos solve racism? Can’t hurt.
7. Hozier – “Dinner and Diatribes”: A galloping piece of soulfulness.
8. Dua Lipa – “Swan Song”: An original track from Alita: Battle Angel, and clearly the sound of future sci-fi feminism.
9. Sara Bareilles – “Armor”: Listen to Sara Bareilles getting down with her jazzy bad self and the rest of us getting down with her!
10. Kimbra – “Lightyear”: Space wonder Kimbra has a message to beam down to us earthbound folks.
11. Shaed – “Thunder”: One of those indie rock “This is who we are!” statements of declaration.
12. Billie Eilish – “Bad Guy”: Billie sings about the joys of being devious, but by all accounts, her personal life is quite wholesome. I think that’s a great way to live.
13. Meg Myers – “Running Up That Hill”: I’m just glad that Kate Bush covers are on the radio in 2019.
14. Lana Del Rey – “Doin’ Time”: Is Lana the current Queen of Remix? She just knows how to summon the past into her modern legacy.
15. Tones and I – “Dance Monkey”: We can always use some monosyllabic shouts amidst the more word-like lyrics to convince us to get up there and bust a move.
16. Camila Cabello – “Cry for Me”: Sometimes you need to make an insistent demand for emotional connection to get the message across.
17. Lil Nas X – “Old Town Road”: The epitome of Gen Z’s total lack of recognition of genre constraints.
18. Absofacto – “Dissolve”: A little skitter-skatter of chillax rock.
19. Benny Blanco, Tainy, Selena Gomez, and J Balvin – “I Can’t Get Enough”: A pleasure moan produced into nugget-size song form.
20. Starcrawler – “Pet Sematary”: It really is the perfect unassailable opening guitar riff to kick off some opening credits, no matter which version.
2/15/20 UPDATE: In the spirit of comprehension, I may have overlooked a few songs that I loved enough to be top 20-worthy from a band that had already made the cut. So, to correct the record, some more-than-honorable mentions go to “MAH” and “Got to Keep On” by the Chemical Brothers.
September 29, 2019
jmunney
Saturday Night Live, SNL Weekly Recaps, Television
Billie Eilish, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 45, SNL, SNL Season 45, Woody Harrelson
CREDIT: Rosalind O’Connor/NBC
This is my tenth season reviewing SNL episodes, and it feels like a good time to mix up the format. So that’s what I’m doing for Season 45! Here’s how it will work: I’ll provide my thoughts on all the sketches, while also kind of painting the story of me watching the show.
We kick off Season 45 with a couple of new featured cast members (it was almost three, but getting into that is a whole ‘nother thing), Mr. Woody Harrelson hosting for the fourth time, and young’un Billie Eilish making her musical guest debut. I ran a 10-mile race early on Sunday, so this was one of those times where I went to sleep early on Saturday, watched a couple of sketches early in the morning, and then caught the rest after my race. It’s actually a formula for plenty of laughs!
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