See that up there? That is headline news on NBA.com, and when I say headline, I mean all-caps 16pt Helvetica HEADLINE This a big deal! It’s nice that they paid the city a tribute after paying the Blazers to put their name on the building. And they put some thought into it too! Take it […]
Bobby Roberts
Bobby Roberts is one of the Portland Mercury's calendar editors, as well as one of its film and pop-culture critics. His past career choices included joining corporate broadcast radio just in time for its death, and leaving the world of independent podcasting just before it blew up, but luckily for him there is nothing more stable in the 21st century than a career in alternative print media.
Posted inSports
Chalupa No More, Forever
Late yesterday, as people left their offices and subjected themselves to the giant game of vehicular pinball that is “Oregonians somehow forgetting what rain is after two months of 85 degree weather” a tiny tidbit of Portland Trail Blazers news snuck into the ether:The Blazers will no longer distribute coupons for a free Taco Bell […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Why Batman Can’t Be Black
To be a fan of anything is to be an amateur casting director. There’s more joy in imagining potential entertainments than in their actual consumption; it’s why we leave a movie after waiting patiently for the now-traditional mid-credits stinger, and immediately start brainstorming ideas for the sequel the instant our feet touch lobby carpet. The […]
Posted inTV
The New Doctor is…
…Houdini. Or at least, that’s the codename the BBC is using. Or at least, that’s what I think is what’s going on, but I can’t confirm it from official sources yet, because fucking bullshit, that’s why: 1) An announcement is planned sometime today.2) That announcement will explain that there is an event happening on Sunday […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Hobbit: The Even-Fucking-LONGER-Somehow Edition
Below is a scene cut from the theatrical version of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which came out roughly seven months ago and had all the lasting impact of a hairy footprint in dry sand. The breeze from the blockbusters that followed buried that print, and that won’t do; there’s still two more movies left […]
Posted inFood and Drink
Graveyard or Suicide: The Debate Ends Here
I don’t know why it took until 2013 for this to happen, or why BusinessInsider.com was the entity to do it, but maybe the most fascinating thing I’ve seen on the internet all week is the series of maps showing the variants in American speech from region to region. For example, Pennsylvania is pretty much […]
Posted inComedy
Lindy West and Jim Norton: The Postscript by W. Kamau Bell
Having followed Lindy West since the days her movie reviews would trickle down the I-5 corridor from the Stranger to the Merc, it’s weird and sort of fascinating to see that the woman who got me to crack up at this review of The Blind Side is now the same woman who is basically running […]
Posted inTV
So Who’s Next? The Hunt for a New Doctor Begins
It had been rumored for quite awhile, and on midnight, June 1st, the BBC declared the rumor to be true: Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor, will not be returning for the eighth series (they call them series over there, not seasons) of the long-running science-fiction program. The mourning period for Smith’s run as the Doctor […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Do Spoilers Really Matter? The Relative Importance of Storytelling in Film
People are still talking about Star Trek Into Darkness which is both good and bad news for Paramount. Good because it’s still rattling around in people’s brains after they see it, instead of sliding off their frontal lobe like a fried egg from a teflon-coated pan. Bad because some are still talking because the writer […]
Posted inVideo Games
Steven Spielberg Presents Halo: The Television Series
Today saw the reveal of Microsoft’s newest gaming console, the Xbox One. The console looks like a VCR from 1985, and in keeping with that motif, Microsoft spent about 2 hours telling you all the cool and interesting ways you can watch TV on it. Then there were 15 minutes of games you’ll be able […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Film Critics: Nervously Boarding a Star Trek into Obsolescence
When I was much more active in the freelance film critic game (a rewarding, highly lucrative period in my life), I remember arriving early to a preview screening, and quickly finding my friend Mike Russell, a freelancer for the Oregonian. I took the seat next to him, as I did for most of the movies […]
Posted inMovies & TV
This is How Marvel Starts Their Own Television Network
Marvel wasn’t always a media juggernaut. They’ve almost gone bankrupt before, and the ’90s weren’t kind to them, just like they weren’t kind to DC, or market speculators, or anyone who ever had a foil-stamped variant issue of grimdark crosshatched bullshit with swords poured into their eyes. That was a lot of people, as such […]