Selections from the NY Press

J.P. Avlon on Hunter S. Thompson and Johnny Cash:

Each time a Hunter S. Thompson or Johnny Cash passes, we lose a little bit of the old, weird America, and we are poorer for it. We rally around their memory because it is through them we get a whiff of something authentic, the spirit of the eternal American War for Independence, patriotism not caught up in the stiff anthems of John Phillip Sousa, but the rowdy, sometimes angry country music that celebrates American Indians and old blues musicians, the same strains that can be heard through the British filter of the Rolling Stones on Exile on Main Street.

Jim Knipfel toasts a tavern:

I don't remember the first time I stopped into Ruby's for a beer. In fact, I don't remember the first few visits all that well. Things were pretty hazy back then, so it just seemed like another place to grab a round. But there was one visit several years back when Morgan and I stopped in, and something clicked. I can't say what it was, exactly, but the scales fell from my eyes and I realized that we were sitting in The Perfect Bar.

J.R. Taylor talks to the still touringAlice Cooper:

Alice isn't afraid to take his beliefs on the road, either. "I'll go to where the death-metal bands are in Denmark," he says, "and I'll tell them that they're inviting Satan into their life. These guys think Hell is lying around and getting high with the devil. People wonder what's wrong with me, but I totally believe what I'm saying. This is one of the only times in my life when I'm not going for an effect. This is what I need to say."

Matt Zoller Seitz reviews The Brothers Grimm:

Whether you'll want to suspend your own credulity for The Brothers Grimm will depend largely on your fondness for Gilliam. And what fantasy buff isn't fond of Gilliam? From Brazil on, the former animator has become such a symbol of wild-man integrity—a gonzo artist raging against the Hollywood machine—that one is inclined to support him even when the work isn't great. This movie should put that inclination to the test. It's eye-popping, energetic and rudely funny in the time-honored Gilliam manner. But it's also muddled, frenzied, exhausting and, overall, more superficial than it should have been, especially when one considers the subject matter: a fairytale about the Brothers Grimm.