Culture is in a state of constant flux. And if you don’t know what’s happening today, you’re outside of it. For music, film, comics, games, and more, these are some of our favorite resources for staying au courant.
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NPR, your dad’s in-car radio companion, is also the unexpected home of one of the most diverse and well-curated sonic destinations for new music on the web. Yeah, we were surprised too.
News Blog
German-style board games are an underground obsession in
Silicon Valley, and W. Eric Martin will make sure you know how to play the newest titles before there’s even an English-language version. Unüberbietbar!
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Sometimes you need only two dimensions to nail a full-bodied story. Cartoon Brew is the largest and most comprehensive animation blog on the web, with everything from cartoonist spotlights to news and reviews of Pixar blockbusters.
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The best comics site online is macro enough for the most casual of readers but obsessive enough to delight die-hard fans with longboxes full of Silver Age goodies.
If you want to hear the heartbeat of the music industry, tune in to the Daily Swarm. This superfeed scours the Internet and aggregates the latest news and biggest stories from sites like Pitchfork, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Spin—an info hit that those in the biz follow to keep up with what’s important. It also offers some indispensable original content, including editorials and interviews. One particular highlight: The “Rational Conversation” series, where special guests from the music world show up to chat about whatever’s on their mind.
Deadline Hollywood is the must-read news site covering Tinseltown’s biggest deals and dirtiest dirt. But all you really need are the highlights—which means all you really need is founder Nikki Finke’s Twitter feed.
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Grantland’s secret sauce isn’t sports writing, it’s culture coverage. Writers Ana Marie Cox, Rembert Browne, and other heavy hitters spin out thread on everything from music to comics to thinky recaps of Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
Penny Arcade Report’s senior editor is gaming journalism’s rare trifecta: (1) a dogged reporter who (2) always speaks truth to power and (3) knows more than even the most dug-in gamers.
Message board
Where videogamers discuss videogames—with all the vitriol you’d expect but often a ton of insight you wouldn’t. If it’s not a topic here, you probably don’t need to know about it.
Panel Podcast
Screenwriting is a cabal, but at least now you can eavesdrop on the meetings. Nerdist tells tales from the trenches with the likes of Greg Daniels, Carlton Cuse, and Justified creator Graham Yost.
App
Reading about new music is great and all, but listening is better. Pitchfork’s Spotify app combines both—and its Best New Albums tab is the most reliable way not to sound like you’ve just discovered dubstep.
This reporter for ESPN and ABC covers the business side of sports like an MLB indemnity clause. Also, somehow, fast food. It works.
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Slashfilm is aces for film news, delivering everything from trailers to interviews with just the right mix of insight and irony. Sample headline: “The Canyons Trailer: Is Cinema Dead, or Is Lindsay Lohan Just Bored?”
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Splitsider flays open and exposes the underbellies of comedy and comedians—two very different things—with delicious precision.
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Just as a family of suburban New Jersey mobsters transformed television drama, this former New Jersey newspaperman completely altered TV watercooler talk. After almost 15 years at the Newark Star-Ledger, small-screen critic Alan Sepinwall joined HitFix in 2010 and single-handedly made it into a daily destination with an approachable and sincere writing voice that transcends the snarkier-than-thou fray (sorry, AV Club). While he’s best known for his recaps, he also files stunning long-form Q&As with writers and creators—some of which laid the groundwork for his 2012 book, The Revolution Was Televised.
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