A Girl on Girls: You’re Just a Sad, Limp Little Glow Worm (S2/E2 “I Get Ideas”)

This week on Girls we tend to get some very good advice from the most surprising places.  Now ex-boyfriend George tells Elijah that he’s just confused, and Jessa tells Hannah that she tends to overthink things.  The two seem mutually exclusive at first, but after thinking it over, it all boils down to not being resolute, in your decisions and in life.  It might be about lacking self-confidence, sure, but we see that Hannah generally has more than enough of […]

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A Guy on Girls: Dressing Like Rachel and Monica, Race Relations Tragicomica, and a Puppy Named Hanukkah! (S1/E2, “I Get Ideas”)

Girls falls into veritable venn diagrams of comment board criticism. It lives where “I Could Do Better Than That” meets “Not Accurate to My Experience”. Between “Products of Nepotism” and “Acknowledge Your Privilege”. “Trifling” and “Oblivious”. But let’s consider the show’s influences.

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A Girl on Girls: Maybe I Want to be Wendi Murdoch. Maybe That’s My New Thing (S2/E1 “It’s About Time”)

We begin again, this time with an unsmoteable “Previously on Girls” montage befitting of your weirdest weird uncle.  The series had already been picked up for a second season by the time the first season finale rolled around, so the show left us with plenty of loose ends: Shoshanna lost her virginity to Ray, Jessa ran off with new-husband Thomas-John, Marnie was making out with a weird dude while Charlie looked on and Hannah was getting called a monster by […]

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Afternoon Bites: Mel Brooks Interviewed, Unwound Live, “Funny Ha Ha,” and More

Alan Sepinwall interviewed Mel Brooks. Scott Esposito’s year in reading. Andrew Bujalski and Lena Dunham revisited Funny Ha Ha. Michelle Dean on Mavis Gallant. Pitchfork has a stream up of Unwound’s live album. Craig Mod on subcompact publishing. Looking at the font used on Unrest’s Perfect Teeth… Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and our Tumblr.

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It Never Reigns in Southern California: A Review of Lena Dunham and Ry Russo-Young’s “Nobody Walks”

  Nobody Walks directed by Ry Russo-Young Magnolia Pictures, 2012 Nobody Walks opens beneath a flight pattern, glaring under warm California sun.  In the airport parking garage, twenty-three year old Brooklyn émigré Martine (Olivia Thirlby) disinterestedly kisses a man.  We presume they’re lovers, but get a small twist, all before opening credits roll over the ride from LAX to Silverlake.  It’s an apt start to a film that views Los Angeles as a wood-paneled utopia in perpetual soft focus.

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Afternoon Bites: John Darnielle’s Reading, Demetri Martin Interviewed, Ty Segall, and More

  John Darnielle’s reading list is, not surprisingly, excellent. Lots of smart folks — including Christopher R. Weingarten and Jacob Silverman — weighed in at this New York Times piece on the role of critics. And Rob Spillman and Roxane Gay both had smart things to say about Lena Dunham’s book deal. Hannah Tinti is interviewed at Tin House. Demetri Martin on books, stand-up, and more. At Hobart, Jac Jemc interviewed Mary Hamilton. The A.M. Homes/Arrested Development comparison you didn’t know you were […]

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