Habit, Run: Water by the Spoonful and Normal, reviewed.

Vincent J. Brown and Amy Kim Waschke in Water by the Spoonful (Teddy Wolff)

Brian McDermott, Elizabeth Darby, and Alex Zavistovich in Normal (Kristin Jackman)

In today's Washington City Paper, I review the Pultizer-winning drama Water by the Spoonful at Studio Theatre and Molotov's production of Normal, a play about the Dusseldorf Ripper.

The Shape of Things: Exposed, reviewed.

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Burlesque artist Mat Fraser in Beth B's Exposed

I reviewed Exposed, Beth B's documentary about New York City burlesque artists, for The Dissolve.

Then, the night after I filed, I ran across a reference to B --  a documentarian whose work I'd never previously encountered -- in "Something Nice," a short story in Mary Gaitskill's 1988 collection Bad Behavior.

The world broadens.

Fear of a Dwarf Planet: Forum's Pluto and WSC's Orlando, reviewed.

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David Zimmerman, Jennifer Mendendall, and Kimberly Gilbert in Forum Theatre's Pluto.

NOTICE: My reviews of Steve Yockey's "rolling world premiere" Pluto for Forum Theatre and Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel Orlando at WSC Avant Bard are in today's Washington City Paper, available wherever finer alt-weeklies are given away yadda yadda yadda.

Colon? We don't need no steenking colon! War of the Worlds Goliath, reviewed.

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Here Come the Warm Martian Tripods: War of the Worlds Goliath

If I were designing the poster for War of the Worlds Goliath, the suspiciously colon-free, animated steampunk sequel to H. G. Wells' seminal sci-fi novel War of the Worlds, the tagline would be, "And this time, they wore their flu masks!"

Orson Welles' 1938 radio adaptation of the book is one of my favorite things ever. I still listen to it every single Halloween. I'm a big fan of Steven Spielberg's 2005 movie version, too.

The cartoon sequel, which I reviewed for The Dissolve, does not fare well in such venerated company. Or even, more importantly, on its own terms.

And speaking of the Oscars, I reviewed Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (Super-Sized, R-Rated Edition)

Putting the band back together: Rudd, Ferrell, Koechner, Carell, an Arabic numeral.

Oscars Oscars Lupita Cuaron blah blah blah.

In other movie news this weekend, I had the supreme honor of reviewing Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (Super-Sized R-Rated Edition) for The Dissolve. My review is more or a less an encomium to long movies and more or more a bunch of jokes.

(I was rooting for Chiwetel Ejiofor over McConaughey, but I'm very glad Alfonso Cuaron and 12 Years a Slave won. Lupita Nyong'o gave the classiest speech of the night. I bet the makers of Non-Stop feel pretty dumb for not giving her anything to do in that movie, now.)

'Fro and Con: Hairbrained, reviewed.

Alex Wolff, Robin De Jesus, and Greta Lee in Hairbrained. 

My review of Hairbrained, Billy Kent's comedy starring Alex Wolff and Brendan Fraser as college freshmen aged 13 and 41, respectively, is up on The Dissolve today.

The Retouchables: RoboCop

Peter Weller in RoboCop '87: I will call you "Murphy," and Murphy when you call me you can call me "Al."

Today! Right now! Right here! The first installment of The Retouchables, an irregular but recurring feature I'll be writing for NPR Monkey See about reboots and remakes and re-remakes and, just maybe, bootmakers. IN THIS EPISODE: RoboCop!

 José Padilha's remake opened at number four with a bullet last weekend, so the time just felt right. This'll be all on RoboCop for a while, I promise.

Radio Radio: On Downtown Boxing Club, for Metro Connection

Trainer Dave White

The thermostat at Downtown Boxing Club read 43 degrees -- Fahrenheit -- the Sunday afternoon I spent reporting this story for Metro Connection. It felt strange to be in a boxing gym and not be moving around. I've wanted to go train at this place for years; a couple of the guys I train with off and on have told me good things. Anyway, I'd better get on it: Downtown Boxing Club will have to move this year, for the third time in its 15-year existence.

You can hear the piece here. I was sorry to have to lose the part where trainer Dave White says that to land a punch you have to be quick enough to catch a penny.