Archive for Ryan Dixon

WIN A McRIB! The Five Reasons Why the McRib is the Greatest Fast Food Item of All Time [The Ryan Dixon Line]

Oct 28, 2011 12 Comments

Want to win a free McRib? Then play Fierce & Nerdy’s Search for the Great McRibiography! Here’s how to win your FREE McRib: 1. Read Ryan’s Dixon’s now classic manifesto: The Five Reasons Why the McRib is the Greatest Fast Food Item of All Time 2. In the Comments section below, share your own personal [...]

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THE STRANGER’S CHILD by Alan Hollinghurst: Book Review [The Ryan Dixon Line]

Oct 11, 2011 1 Comment

To start, let’s compare Alan Hollinghurst’s new novel The Stranger’s Child to the Boston Red Sox. In 2004, Hollinghurst won the Man Booker Prize (Britain’s highest literary award) for his previous novel, The Line of Beauty. That same year the Boston Red Sox won their first world series in 86 years. Most sports prognosticators predicted [...]

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LIFE ITSELF by Roger Ebert: Book Review [The Ryan Dixon Line]

Sep 13, 2011 5 Comments

Every hero hears the call to adventure. So, too, then must a critic — perhaps the most passive of all protagonists — discover the stylistic and aesthetic tools needed to tell perfect strangers how to think about a work of art. In Roger Ebert’s new memoir Life Itself, the critical call to adventure occurs after [...]

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The Ever-Sinking Ship: The Historic Losing Streak of the Pittsburgh Pirates: The Ryan Dixon Line [BEST OF FaN]

Jul 08, 2011 7 Comments

.500. For any fan of baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates, this number now has more significance than Barry Bonds’ home run record, DiMaggio’s hit streak or Cal Ripken’s consecutive games played. When I wrote the following blogumn in March, it looked like the chances of  the Pirates  finally ending this season with as many wins as losses [...]

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Your Life as My Novel: The Ryan Dixon Line [BOOK WEEK]

Jun 24, 2011 10 Comments

I have a problem. And like most of my problems, I was the last one to know about it. In fact, I had considered this problem an attribute until last Saturday night when I was strolling through the outdoor shopping and dining district of Old Town Pasadena enjoying a fruitful, funny conversation with my companion [...]

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The Orphan Blockbuster: How We Stopped Caring and Learned to Love Unlovable Movies [The Ryan Dixon Line]

May 27, 2011 3 Comments

Soda is delicious. But to the ancient Callatians, so was the flesh of dead relatives and nowadays no one outside of gourmand serial killers would salivate over a dish of foie gras d’ humain.  That soda and junk food have followed in the footsteps of flesh and cigarettes to become the consumptive Voldemorts of the [...]

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The Seven Deadly Sequel Sins: A Memo on How NOT to Kill Your Film Franchise [The Ryan Dixon Line]

May 13, 2011 10 Comments

To: Newly Promoted President of Production at Major Hollywood Studio From: The Mainstream Moviegoing Audience of America Congratulations on your new job! After years of suffering through labyrinthine lunch orders, death-defying dry cleaning runs and post-orgy organization duty, you’ve climbed to the top of the Hollywood mountain and can greenlight any movie you want! Sorry [...]

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The Sheetz Masterpiece: The Convenience Store as Art and the Art of Convenience [The Ryan Dixon Line]

Apr 22, 2011 4 Comments

How Morgan Spurlock’s POM Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold shows the world the glory of Sheetz. During the 1940’s, Walt Disney spent weekends sitting on creaky benches watching his daughters play at shoddy, destitute amusement parks. Those endless hours suffering in communal boredom with other parents was the inadvertent shot that sparked a [...]

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James Joyce’s Ulysses: Cocktail Party Edition [The Ryan Dixon Line]

Apr 08, 2011 2 Comments

A Reader’s Guide to Not Reading Ulysses. It can happen to anyone. You’re at a birthday party, Bar Mitzvah, or PTA meeting. The day has gone well, the weather outside is perfect, you’re happy to be alive. But then the rabbi, soccer mom super hero or neighbor’s boarding school brat references James Joyce’s Ulysses. The [...]

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Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark – Flopocalypse Now [The Ryan Dixon Line]

Mar 09, 2011 12 Comments

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has yet to kill anyone, but could it end up murdering the Broadway Flop? No show in Broadway history has ever battled through such a dizzying array of troubles as Spider-Man: Turn Off Dark. The buzz hasn’t just been bad, it’s been genocidal.  And like the war in Afghanistan or The [...]

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