Leanne Castro
Staff Writer
Broad City
Comedy Central’s Broad City is essentially the perfect show. It follows two 20-something best friends, Abbi and Ilana, who are living in New York City and hilariously struggling to figure out how to survive adulthood. The premise may sound similar to Girls and in a way, it is. Abbi and Ilana are just as crazy as the Girls’ foursome, except their brand of crazy is of the quirky variety as opposed to the self-obsessed brand of crazy found in Lena Dunham’s characters. The show is ridiculous, high energy and fast-paced, with no episode clocking in at more than 21 minutes. If you don’t trust my endorsement, trust Amy Poehler’s. She is the show’s producer, after all. Broad City’s only imperfection is that the second season won’t air until next year, but fear not: all of season one is currently streaming for free on Comedy Central’s website.
Rob Sheffield’s Turn Around Bright Eyes
Karaoke lovers: rejoice. Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield has just written the definitive love letter to that beloved drunken activity we call karaoke. Turn Around Bright Eyes is the true story of how singing karaoke in various cramped New York City bars until the wee hours of the morning provided a release for a young Sheffield, who was mourning the sudden death of his wife.
Written in a series of colorful vignettes-each with one of Sheffield’s go-to karaoke picks as the title-this book immediately endears the reader to Sheffield, who writes with such wit, honesty and good-natured self-deprecation that it is impossible not to root for the self-proclaimed “rock geek” to find love again. Anyone who enjoys light, casual analyses of how music shapes the human experience (where my Chuck Klosterman fans at?) will breeze through this book. If my endorsement isn’t enough to convince you, read it because its title comes from both the worst and best song of all time by the immortal Bonnie Tyler.
Turn those bright eyes downward at the pages of this warm, heartfelt book.