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Movie Reviews
5:03 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

'Hotel Transylvania': Vampire Gags, Minus The Bite

One of the better jokes in Hotel Transylvania comes when Dracula (Adam Sandler) happens to see a clip of one of the Twilight movies. As Edward sparkles in the sunlight, Drac is even more offended at this bastardized representation of his kind than he is by the people constantly imitating his Transylvanian accent by appending the nonsense words "Bluh, bluh bluh!" to the end of any sentence.

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Movie Reviews
5:03 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

'Solomon Kane,' Hellbound And Down In Old England

Published mainly in the pulp magazine Weird Tales — also the preferred outlet for his most famous creation, Conan the Barbarian — the serial adventures of Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane character provided an early model for the "sword and sorcery" subgenre, that crude yet irresistible fusion of the superpowerful and the supernatural.

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Movie Reviews
5:03 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

'Vulgaria': Raunch Comedy With An Asian Accent

Some men, it's said, think about only one thing. Hong Kong movie producer To Wai-Cheung, for example, is absolutely obsessive about film. Yet when he discusses it, he always seems to be talking about something else that's often on men's minds.

To (Chapman To) is the protagonist of Vulgaria, a Hong Kong movie-biz satire and sex comedy. Directed by Pang Ho-Cheung, the film boasts the spontaneity of a French New Wave romp, while including raunchy gags worthy of The Hangover and Clerks II.

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Movie Reviews
5:03 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

'Pitch Perfect': In Tune Where It Counts Most

When it's done right, there's nothing so miraculous as the sound of human voices blending into a creamy swirl of color, with neither the help nor the distraction of musical accompaniment. Pitch Perfect banks on that magic — the purely human wizardry of a cappella singing — though it also attempts to be several other things: a mild gross-out comedy, a paean to the awkward early stages of new love, a Mean Girls-style riff on campus hierarchies. That may be too much for one modest comedy to carry, but one thing's for sure: Pitch Perfect doesn't skimp on the singing.

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Movie Reviews
5:03 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

Time And Crime, Thoroughly Crossed Up In 'Looper'

The main problem with time-travel movies is the many black holes that the plot can stumble into; for a certain kind of viewer, they can be more than a little distracting. While the story presses forward, we're stuck wondering, for instance, how a character can safely hang out with his future self in the same time period — an anomaly that, despite Spock's shenanigans in the 2009 Star Trek reboot, aficionados of Doctor Who know is a Very Bad Thing.

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House & Senate Races
5:00 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

GOP Reassess Akin After 'Legitimate Rape' Comments

Originally published on Thu September 27, 2012 5:50 pm

Now that Missouri Republican Todd Akin is not dropping out of the Senate race against incumbent Claire McCaskill, the GOP is rethinking how distant it wants to remain from him. Akin became toxic for remarks about "legitimate rape" — but the GOP Senate map nationwide is looking increasingly grim.

Presidential Race
4:59 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

Romney Talks Economy, Military Cuts In Virginia

Originally published on Thu September 27, 2012 5:50 pm

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney campaigned with veterans in Northern Virginia on Thursday. And like President Obama, he was in territory that voted for the opposite party four years ago.

Politics
4:58 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

Obama Holds Slim Advantage In Swing State Virginia

Originally published on Thu September 27, 2012 5:50 pm

President Obama traveled to a Republican stronghold in the swing state of Virginia. And he addressed a group that has long favored the GOP — veterans and military families.

Deceptive Cadence
4:34 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

Klaus Heymann: On 25 Years Of Naxos — And Changing The Classical Music Business

Credit Lam King Yin / Courtesy of Naxos
Naxos founder Klaus Heymann.

Originally published on Thu October 11, 2012 1:07 pm

Twenty-five years ago, no one — and I mean no one — would have predicted that a little budget label out of Hong Kong would totally upend the classical music industry. But after doing everything pretty much counter to received wisdom, the Naxos catalog includes more than 7,000 recordings, and they've sold more than 115 million CDs worldwide. A very popular streaming service, the Naxos Music Library, contains nearly a million tracks.

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The Salt
4:26 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

Health Benefits Of Tea — Milking It Or Not

Credit Courtesy of Park Hyatt
The Emperor's Himalayan lavender tea is popular at Washington, D.C.'s Park Hyatt Tea Room, but please don't put milk in it.

Originally published on Thu September 27, 2012 5:50 pm

The idea that milk may diminish the potential heart-health benefits of tea has been a topic of some debate. Lots of us can't imagine black tea without a little dairy to cut the bitterness. But, according to this research going back to 2007, we might want to at least consider trying, say, a nice cup of green tea sans sugar or cream.

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