Noy Thrupkaew

The Iranian regime has its visions of Iran, which it expresses in public art that hangs above Tehran’s traffic-snarled streets: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the thunderous-browed father of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, scowls down from a giant mural; young men who perished in the eight-year war with Iraq, barely bearded, gaze out from their martyrs’ fields […]

The Carpenters were already strange enough. The brother and sister duo churned out hit after relentless hit in the 1970s, all perk, sweet harmonies and Karen Carpenter’s eerily smooth voice. But that contralto seemed to mask a yawning emptiness; Karen crooned about melancholy in much the same way she sang about joy — with the […]

American Idol had scarcely wrapped up its season before yet another talent show sprang up: NBC’s Fame, starring the indomitable Debbie Allen as part judge, part boot-camp instructor, part mom to a group of aspiring singer-dancers. There’s not much new in showbiz these days, as Allen’s career trajectory will attest. Here she’s reprising her art-school […]

FOX’s breakneck drama 24 has always thrived on the friction between the real and the implausible — and never more so than in the program’s second season, which ended this week. Split into the 24 hours that make up a really bad day in the life of former counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), the […]

If one’s a nerd, growing up is supposed to be a good thing. One gets to finally leave behind those difficult teenage years: the crying jags, the freakish bodily changes, the days of writing bad poetry and brooding to the sounds of the Cure, Metallica and Sergei Prokofiev’s “Violin Sonata No. 1 in f minor.” […]

“Once there was an average Joe,” begins Joe Millionaire — an apt opening for a reality TV show that draws on fairy-tale conventions. But there’s something darker than happily ever after in Fox’s latest offering: What happens when the dream prince is nothing but a pauper, when a Cinderella tale collides with real-life lies? The […]

Perhaps Harvard University professor Samuel Huntington would like Trading Spaces. After all, the home-decorating show’s most dramatic moments are the “clash of civilizations” writ small — battles between the chintzy tchotchkes and blandly pleasant decor of most American homes and the highfalutin excess of the show’s designers. The Learning Channel’s smash hit has a simple […]

The allure of a good party is nearly irresistible, especially when it costs less than $3 to join in the fun. Last week, a fistful of change bought two Big Macs — buy one, get one for a penny — during McDonald’s 35th birthday celebration for its prize pig of a sandwich. I had never […]

Maggie Kuhn is demonstrating her “Gray Panther growl” — the signature move of an activist group that has challenged the mandatory retirement age, protested negative media portrayals of the elderly and, in general, encouraged senior citizens to make a ruckus. The indomitable founder of the group stretches out her hands. Bent with arthritis, they quiver […]

Mahatma Gandhi has had a hard time of it lately. Lad mag Maxim recently featured illustrations of the revered activist being beaten up by an oversized jock — choice images for the magazine’s “Kick-Ass Workout” feature. “Teach those pacifists a lesson about aggression,” exhorted the copy, as Gandhi was hoisted, stomped on and thrown around. […]