by Eric “Butter” Levy

I am both cursed and blessed at the same time, living in a third world country. Sometimes I feel that the term ‘Banana Republic’ was coined to refer to my little stretch of land and not to the fancy (at least to me) store you can find in most malls all across the good old U. S. of A. A little bit over a hundred years of being a Republic, and you would think things would be a tad different, no? Then again this is the one, the only… The Republic of Panama: Bridge of the World, Heart of the Universe (as some Tourism slogans advertise).

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By Edward Kelly

As a kid, I always had a thing for sidekicks. I favored Robin over Batman, Impulse over The Flash, The Genie over Aladdin, Thud Butt over Rufio (from “Hook” and, if you got that reference, any chance you want to be BFFs, like, right away?).

It made playing backyard games with the neighborhood kids really simple. While everyone argued over who got to be Leonardo or Raphael, I was happily off to the side as Michelangelo, swinging my very-much-DIY, cardboard-toilet-paper-rolls-held-together-with-string nunchucks.

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by Andrew E. Konietzky

Superhero films, books, and games will exist until the end of time. With that thought you should settle down, and watch the 2007 documentary called “Confessions of a Superhero”. This film chronicles the lives of three mortal men and one mortal woman who make their living working as superhero characters on Hollywood Boulevard.

Superman (Chris Dennis) is a Los Angeles orphan, but claims to be the son of Oscar/Tony-winning actress Sandy Dennis, though the family denies that she had any children. Wonder Woman (Jennifer Wenger) was a Midwestern homecoming queen, who actually is the most successful of the actors. The Hulk (Joe McQueen) sold his Super Nintendo for a bus ticket to Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots and was homeless for four years before becoming the Hulk, and achieves some success, winning a small role in Justin Lin’s “Finishing the Game.” Batman (Maxwell Allen) claims to be a former mobster with a murderous past, though his wife casts doubts on his stories in the film. This deeply personal view into their daily routines reveals their hardships and triumphs as they pursue and achieve their own kind of fame.

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by Nicole Powers

This week on SuicideGirls Radio our very special in-studio guest will be Richard Patrick, founder and frontman of Filter. We’ll be talking about, and playing track from, his brand new album, The Trouble With Angeles (you know, the one you’ve heard us raving about on the show for the past two weeks!). Tune in for two hours of totally awesome tunes and extreme conversation – and don’t let your moma listen in!

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by Damon Martin

Charlie: “Guys…where are we?”

The line that gave everyone the first clue that “Lost” wasn’t your average every day television drama. Sure, it started out looking like a typical TV show as a man woke up in a jungle, not knowing exactly what happened, and as he wanders through the trees and brush, he discovers that the plane he was riding on just minutes before had crash landed on an island He rushes to the scene to see all of his fellow passengers terrified of what they’ve just endured, and he immediately starts to help and lead those hurt and injured away from the burning debris.

In that moment, J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and Jeffrey Lieber had captured an audience and many of those same people would follow the tragedy and triumph of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 as they found themselves on an island that was anything but a normal tropical paradise for the next six years.

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by Pandie Suicide

So you’ve been lucky enough to score yourself an interview! Whether you’re a veteran or a first-timer this can be a nerve-wracking experience, but it also could be THE interview that changes the course of your musical career forever! Inspired by a book on Rolling Stone Interviews on my reading list right now I began thinking, what makes a good interview? In part it is the interviewer and the questions they ask, but that’s only half of the equation. The rest lies solely on you, the interviewee. As someone who has conducted hundreds of interviews and read, watched, and listened to thousands more, I’ve come up with some advice on how to make sure your interview comes out in the best possible way with these helpful tips on how to approach an interview – just for musicians.

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by Edward Kelly

First, I’m going to take you back—all the way back to the not-so-halcyon days of 2003. Reality TV was just starting to become a truly viable market. Its tropes and clichés were already well worn. Into this scene steps a little show with grand artistic ambitions: Spike TV’s “reality parody”, The Joe Schmo Show.

The Joe Schmo Show was entirely fake, save for one aspect. Each cast member (all of whom were up-and-coming improv comedians, including a pre-SNL Kristen Wiig) played a stereotypical reality TV contestant type (the catty gay man, the house slut, the grizzled former military guy). The “schmo” of the title was Matt Kennedy Gould, an average person who believed he was part of an actual reality show called Lap of Luxury. Gould didn’t find out the truth until the last episode. He was, understandably, shocked and pleaded with the rest of the cast, “What is going on?!?”

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