The First Echo

With age comes an increased indifference. And during my birthday this year, I realized I am now old enough to have a kid college ( But seriously, who wants kids these days? Why add another carbon footprint to the earth? ) I am also old enough let certain things fall to the wayside. Just how old? Allow me to illustrate... I am fast-forward-through-the-musical-guest-on -SNL years old. I am everyone-on-social-media-is-insufferable years old. I am if-Pete-Buttigieg-gets-elected-there'll-be-a-POTUS-younger-than-me years old. I am crushing-on-MSNBC-correspondents years old. @TheFirstEcho

In the spring of 1999, my freshman year of college was nearing its end. My initial taste of dorm life resulted in being fifteen pounds heavier, experimenting with a goatee (I know ), and getting my hands on any plaid button-down American Eagle had in stock ( screw you, Abercrombie ). The spring of 1999 shall also be remembered as the time I was introduced to one of the few movies that left an impact on me as a young adult -- and no, I'm not talking about The Matrix , which opened on my birthday that year. Go , directed by Doug Liman ( Swingers ) and written by John August ( Big Fish ), was released on April 7, 1999 during the height of drug-fueled raver films at the turn of the new millennium ( Groove , Human Traffic , etc.), tapping into a nervous energy that permeated pre-Y2K America. The movie's cast was a venerable who's-who of late-90s It Boys and It Girls: Katie Holmes (fresh off the first season of Dawson's Creek ), Taye Diggs (fresh off Broadway'

A lot happened on this rainy Spring Equinox... We found out the long-awaited third Bill & Ted movie has a release date: August 2020. Excellent indeed. Bring on the mid-life crisis punchlines. (And who knew the Hollywood Bowl was the go-to rendezvous spot to make such an announcement?) Speaking of things that come in threes, Netflix went ahead and dropped the trailer for Stranger Things 3 , which takes place during the summer of 1985. It's chock-full of colorful, Reagan-era imagery ( Geometric patterned clothes! Neon-lit malls! 4th of July carnivals! ) and establishes how quickly these kids are growing up. And then Lizzo goes ahead and drops a new single featuring Missy Elliot, "Tempo," a track tailor-made for twerking: In casting news, the Twittersphere had a collective coronary when dreamy Netflix heartthrob Noah Centineo ( if you don't know the name, you are clearly over 25 and have never watched a YA romance adaptation ) was announced

The following is purely speculative for the purposes of our general entertainment and my possible employment to write the inevitable HBO/Hulu/Netflix/Ryan Murphy limited series... EXT. THE MOSSIMO ESTATE - DAY A black SUV makes its way through a throng of news vans and a mob of reporters. Cameras flash. A proverbial media circus. The SUV pulls up to the gate as it slowly opens. EXT. THE MOSSIMO COURTYARD - CONTINUOUS The SUV makes its way up the driveway and stops. A shaken LORI steps out of the car. She's clearly had a rough night and glances up at the house, preparing herself for what's to come. Her assistant, RILEY, 27, an overly groomed twunk running on three Venti lattes, is right there with her.  He attempts to guide her to the door, but she waves him away. INT. THE MOSSIMO ESTATE - FOYER Lori and Riley enter the quiet house, the outside chaos suddenly muted. No one is there to greet them. RILEY She should be upstairs in her room. LORI

Sure, there may be an arctic blast that is hitting most of the United States, but that doesn't mean we can't tap into some Spring Break feelings. I've scoured the interwebs to find the perfect collection to get us all in a slightly warmer mood. So far, here's what I got:  Lizzo is proving to be the Queen of Spring 2019 (she appears twice here). Hailee Steinfeld  (track 3) has an 80s dance jam that Carly Rae Jepsen (track 10) wishes she released. Grammy darling  H.E.R.  covers a classic for the soundtrack to  What Men Want  (track 9) while Danish pop group Alphabeat makes a welcome return with "Shadows" (track 11). Speaking of comebacks, we have British boyband Westlife dropping in (track 6), and of course, Broadway crush Ben Platt shows up (track 5) with the first single off his forthcoming debut album. As of this posting, there are 35 tracks waiting to be played, but as always, come back for updates to this playlist. (*As for the cover art, check o

2018 had its challenges -- but it also had some really good keepsakes. Here are some of the people (and things) who kept my year afloat. 1.  Kevin Kwan  - The author of  Crazy Rich Asians  and its two sequels became the subject of my Instagram fascination: a writer living a jet-set life, touring the globe on the merits of his writing, and seeing his creation turn into an international, Golden Globe-nominated sensation on the big-screen. 2.  Cynthia Erivo  - Her role (and singing chops) in the future cult classic,  Bad Times at El Royale , caught my attention (along with anyone else who saw Drew Goddard's neo-noir crime thriller) and her fierce supporting role in  Widows  only cemented my fascination with this Broadway-trained actress. 3. MOBS - They're the Australian synth-pop group that has yet to make a splash in the States, and they hooked me in with their throwback tunes, specifically those on their EP, You Want Beauty , all written from the point of view of chara