1 Injustice
The Miracle Grill and Second Avenue Deli close, but Moby’s tea house Teany survives? The mind reels.
2 Service disruptions
Replacing of-the-moment, pop-culture-centric slogan T’s (“Free Katie!”) as the unemployed artist’s favorite pastime: the recent spate of cheeky, fake MTA posters, far preferable to the real thing.
3 Flop sweat
Using the Jamie Foxx model of pretending you are actually the dead music legend you just impersonated in a mediocre biopic until you finally win the Oscar, Joaquin Phoenix creepily re-enacted Johnny Cash’s
performance at Folsom Prison this week. Unlike Cash, neither original nor badass.
4 Tapes trifecta
Billing themselves as having “more hits than a heavyweight fight,” the utterly compelling, genre-defying band Tapes ‘n Tapes plays three shows this week: tonight at Pianos, Monday at Mercury Lounge and Thursday at Rothko.
5 Scare tactics
Despite the hard sell (paramedics at screenings is very “Exorcist,” circa 1973), “Hostel” – the new gorefest by a Tarantino protege – is likely the weekend’s most frightening film this side of “Rumor Has It.”
6 Battle grounds
Denser, smarter, and more powerful than the Michael Moore show that was “Fahrenheit 9/11”: Eugene Jarecki’s chilling, dispiriting but riveting new documentary about America at war, “Why We Fight.”
7 ‘Return of the King’
Like the Rolling Stones’ boxed sets that featured original, discrete mini-sleeves for each of their singles, this new Elvis set – to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the release of “Heartbreak Hotel” – employs the same gimmick to great effect.
8 Baldwin’s Best
Twelve-time “SNL” host Alec Baldwin – who seems to symbolically de-puff with every appearance – is honored with his own DVD: “Saturday Night Live: The Best of Alec Baldwin,” available Jan. 24.
9 The rank & file
Acidic satirist Max Barry – whose Gen-X evisceration of corporate culture just got him a movie deal with Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney – attempts to answer one of life’s most existential quandaries in his new novel, “Company”: What, really, is the point of work?
10 Bag searches
It’s a very rudimentary, fashion-school idea with practical applications for debauched scenesters: the new Solas bag, equipped with a tiny interior light (the creator had one too many nights looking for lip gloss in martini lounges); at solasfashion.com.
