Samuel Gross

1 month ago | austinchronicle.com | Samuel Gross

Peter Keup, a former political prisoner in East Germany, holds up proof that his brother was secretly informing on their family As the depressingly relevant documentary The Spies Among Us chronicles, when Peter Keup, a German dancer and dance instructor was about 54, he learned that his long-deceased brother, Uli, was an informant for the Stasi, East Germany’s terrifying and infamous secret police. This new knowledge upended Keup’s life.

1 month ago | austinchronicle.com | Samuel Gross

A Simple Favor, the fun-yet-tonally-baffling 2018 comedy-noir about a mom vlogger (Anna Kendrick) who becomes entangled with an impossibly cool con artist (Blake Lively) built a word-of-mouth cult on Kendrick’s comic chops, Lively’s incredible suits, and their sexual tension. The sequel is more yet less. Again directed by Paul Feig from a script written by a returning Jessica Sharzer (and Laeta Kalogridis), Another Simple Favor takes the duo to Capri – the gals go Italian, essentially.

1 month ago | austinchronicle.com | Samuel Gross

Butthole Surfers There’s a photo you’ve seen before. It’s of Willie Nelson, the late psychedelic rock pioneer Roky Erickson, and Gibby Haynes, singer in the Butthole Surfers. It was taken in Luck, Texas, by photographer Scott Newton in 1995. There is straw on the floor and they are in front of a Texas flag, which looks huge but is the size of a flag you might see flying at a car dealership.

1 month ago | rollingstone.com | Samuel Gross

February 26, 2025 Nelson Espinal* There have always been two sides to the music of Nigerien guitarist and bandleader Mdou Moctar: the electric and the acoustic, the sweaty ballroom and the evening campfire, the wedding dance and the lament. If Mdou Moctar’s terrific 2024 album Funeral for Justice was the electric sound of the furious political protest, Tears of Injustice is the mourning after, the bonding that takes place when people huddle together for strength as your friends are dying and...

2 months ago | flipboard.com | Samuel Gross

NowThe Jonas Brothers Return With A Landmark Smash SingleThe Jonas Brothers are not wasting any time when it comes to making 2025 a productive year. The sibling trio has already released a pair of singles, and the year is only a little more than a month old. As one of those tracks debuts on the Billboard charts, it helps the band score a very important …15 hours agoBen Affleck and brother Casey sport DunKings tracksuits, recruit Jeremy Strong for new Dunkin' Super Bowl adBoston in the house.