Bill Hicks was a comedian from Texas who rose to at prominence in the 80s. He was "controversial," in that he talked a lot about politics, society, and drugs. He unleashed his wrath on the first two, and as for drugs, he was a major opponent of the hypocrisy surrounding drugs. Although his comedy could be angry, bitter, and often vulgar, he still strangely seemed to come at the whole thing from a place of love and compassion (hence the book's title). His comedy seemed to reflect an exasperation at the decline of society, but he seemed to genuinely want to change things for the better. Read more [...] Bill Hicks
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Bill Hicks was a comedian from Texas who rose to at prominence in the 80s. He was "controversial," in that he talked a lot about politics, society, and drugs. He unleashed his wrath on the first two, and as for drugs, he was a major opponent of the hypocrisy surrounding drugs. Although his comedy could be angry, bitter, and often vulgar, he still strangely seemed to come at the whole thing from a place of love and compassion (hence the book's title). His comedy seemed to reflect an exasperation at the decline of society, but he seemed to genuinely want to change things for the better. Read more [...] 
If you've not seen JCS, I can heartily recommend it. It's excellent for many reasons: the songs, the acting, the singing, the setting, the nostalgic value, and the ability to make the viewer think. It's my favorite musical, and it's also on my list of top 20 movies in general. I've talked about it with ministers, Germans, devout church-goers, lapsed Catholics, non-believers, and even a drunk student in Madrid (who burst Jesus' part from "What's the Buzz"). The point is, if you're thinking, "But I'm not religious, so I'm not really interested," then you should still give it a chance. 
It's been fairly quiet around here this week... almost too quiet. If Cinematic Attic were a movie, I'd be walking down a deserted street, sidestepping newspapers proclaiming an imminent zombie apocalypse. I'd have no idea how I got here, and I'd have no idea what to do. Then suddenly, a mutant vampire would grab at my leg from a sewer grate!
OK, I guess it's not been that quiet here, and I imagine we writers got all hot and bothered for the Oscars and then ended up taking this week off to recover 
Good evening! We're back today with an admittedly enormous post to continue our 2012 review. It's so long that it even has two authors, who both took on new identities; Now Ryan and Paul are calling themselves the Sitzchowski Brothers in homage to the Wachowskis, the sibling pair who co-directed Cloud Atlas (along with director Tom Tykwer... but unless we can convince Jake to play "Tom Jykewer," then we'll just have one author fewer than the movie has directors). We'll begin with Paul's argument