"It’s about Philippe Petit who walked across the World Trade Center in 1974, and it’s just…you watch that movie and it’s like you really get that whole [idea of] someone who did something super unique, that did something. It’s just an unbelievable thing; it’s so moving to watch. That’s my new favorite film right now, and having just seen it, it’s so mindboggling. We don’t see enough documentaries; I love watching documentaries, and obviously there are really amazing ones and all that kinda stuff. But this one, I think, is profound to watch, because the footage is unbelievable, to really just see it from all different perspectives. I remember the interview with the security guard who went upstairs, and that awe on his face, and he was like, “I came out, and there’s this guy on a wire hanging between these two buildings.” They’re trying to get him to come off, but it’s just like, he can’t help himself. He’s like, “It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.” And you feel that. Just to imagine having been there. I wasn’t born for another five years, so I missed that, but damn, that’s such an incredible thing. I just met [Petit] recently; he’s such an odd bird, he’s not so comfortable in a social setting, but it’s like there’s an energy that comes out of him that’s just like, to know you’re truly unique, to feel that personally, you know? There are the geniuses that you meet in the world, and the Quentin Tarantinos and stuff like that. You could talk to him, and he’s like, “I know I’m a genius!” It’s amazing. But there’s a whole other level, where you’ve done it physically…everything else must seem so small. [laughs] Or maybe big, actually, you know?"

"Head is my favorite film that stars a musical artist, by some degree. And yes, that includes the brilliant A Hard Day’s Night. However, the Monkees’ triumph of a movie is a Pyrrhic victory, because Head accelerated their demise, as it sees Dolenz, Nesmith, Tork, and Jones push the self-destruct button. Directed by Bob Rafelson and cowritten by Jack Nicholson, the movie shows the Monkees tearing down their wholesome network-TV, pre–Fab Four image with wild style. Much has been read into this stream-of-consciousness movie, with its overlapping dream sequences, surreal song numbers, and drug-influenced chaos. The simplest way of describing it is this: the Monkees are sick of being on their network show and attempt to break out of the studio lot, literally and figuratively. There are several scenes where the Monkees are trapped in a box, a live number where they are revealed to be plastic mannequins, and bookending sequences where the members commit suicide. So basically, the Monkees want out. There have been some claims by the Monkees since the film came out that this message was projected onto it by Rafelson and Nicholson, but the script was clearly born of a very real frustration with their image. The movie bombed in 1968, because not many Monkees fans wanted to know that their idols had painted-on smiles. What remains is a gem of rock music cinema, with great songs and images throughout. Plus, as depressing as the theme of entrapment is, it’s frequently very funny. I got to interview Dolenz about it at a New Beverly Q&A once. A young audience member quizzed him on the deeper themes, and he just replied, “Man, I was twenty-three . . .”"

"About 15 pages into Paul Beatty’s The Sellout: A Novel, I had the great realization that this book was different, so I started over to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. It’s laugh-out-loud funny over and over because it’s shocking and unpredictable, but even more amazing is the feeling of familiarity that comes from the narrator’s voice. Why do I feel like I know this guy? I don’t. According to Wikipedia, Beatty is from Los Angeles and (also according to Wikipedia) I am from Washington DC, so it’s not some hyper-local humor (that was my first guess). Also according to Wikipedia he was born in 1962, and I was born in 1978… so we’re not of the same hyper-small generation (apparently “X-enial” is the lame term for me… Caught between those damned cynical Gen-Xers and those damned faux-sincere Millennials [Wikipedia]). So there goes my second guess. So what is it? The truth is, I’ve thought about it and I don’t know. Apparently he said he wrote it “because he was broke,” and something transcends in the back-to-the-wall, earnest rawness that could only come from someone who feels like they might have nothing to lose. This book takes on the very sensitive and heated subject of race relations in America. A New York Times interview quotes him as saying “I feel like there is a point to be made… [but] I don’t know what it is.” I will leave it there and not try to analyze what the book’s point might be. I will say that it is profoundly powerful and heavy, precisely because it is so funny and unpredictable — and that is why I think it’s the greatest piece of art created this decade."