HBO is ridding us of Monday dread with some seriously dry laughter and two highly anticipated sophomore seasons: Jonathan Ames'
Bored to Death and the Danny McBride cult series
Eastbound & Down. In the former, Jason Schwartzman stars as the show's creator himself, a Brooklyn-based writer, Zach Galifianakis (
The Hangover), is his best friend, and Ted Danson is Jonathan's boss. The season two premiere brings this bizarre trifecta to both a yoga class and an S&M dungeon, which should be reason enough to watch. After sweating it out with those three, Danny McBride returns as Kenny Powers, the former professional ball player who returns to his hometown North Carolina middle-school as a substitute gym teacher, in
Eastbound & Down. Season two brings Kenny south of the border to Mexico. He has a new hairdo—cornrows, of course—and as McBride explains, experiences another change. "He thought his whole life he was a boob man, but now he's realizing in Mexico that he might be an ass man,"
the actor told MTV. Surely, it's complicated.
Bored to Death
premieres on HBO at 10:00 p.m. and Eastbound & Down
will follow at 10:30 on Sunday, September 26
Bob Woodward has come a long way since his days as a scrappy Washington outsider reporting on Watergate, and was given endless insider access by the Obama administration for his latest book,
Obama's Wars, chronicling the challenges faced by the president in the Afghanistan conflict. Woodward still has a knack for inflammatory scoops, though, and his book portrays Obama as a Commander-in-Chief who can't quite get the results he wants from the military and, as
Leslie Gelb puts it, "emerges from the pages of
Obama's Wars as he is—brilliant, emotionless, abstract, focused, and confused, a Chicago law-school professor in presidents' clothes." Even before hitting shelves the book has been making more than its fair share of headlines, and provides a stark reminder—as if it were needed—that the end to U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, whenever it ends up taking place, will be anything but simple.
Obama's Wars
comes out on Monday, September 27.
A production of Richard Wagner's
Das Rheingold, more commonly known as
The Ring cycle, is always an event, with the four separate operas spanning over a week over performances. The Metropolitan Opera is upping the ante this year with a major new production directed by Robert Lepage, and an opening gala taking place this Monday. The production is also part of conductor James Levine's 40th anniversary season with the company and features an all-star cast that includes bass-baritone CBE Byrn Terfel, making this production one for the history books, and an event so epic Wagner himself would surely be proud.
The opening gala for
Das Rheingold
will be held on Monday, September 27.
Eric Clapton isn't the only artist releasing an eponymous album this week—‘90s indie dreamboat Pete Yorn is back with
Pete Yorn, his sixth album and one of his best outings yet. The singer-songwriter, who has spent the past decade adding to his resume with acclaimed work on movie scores, is in top form on this appropriately introspective collection of songs, having spent a whirlwind five days putting the album together with Frank Black of The Pixies. Both raw and affecting, Yorn's work continues to float above other acts with more hype and less lasting power.
Pete Yorn
hits shelves on Tuesday, September 28.
James Lipton will likely have the answer when he goes
Inside the Actors Studio with the most beloved white-haired woman in Hollywood. The hilarious, lone-remaining
Golden Girl, who has won seven Emmy awards and America's hearts, will go through the typical questioning from the show's monotone, bearded host. Though we've heard White get vulgar on television before (thanks the infamous muffin skit on
Saturday Night Live last season), the opportunity to hear her get bleeped out, tell America what turns her on, and recap her seven-decade career in Hollywood will be a highly entertaining hour of television. Gush all you want, Mr. Lipton—if anyone's deserving it's the country's favorite saucy grandma, Betty White.
Inside the Actors Studio
with Betty White airs Tuesday, September 28 at 8 p.m. EST
Since David Sedaris has long since been established as the master of the sardonic short story, it's nice to see him branching out with
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, a collection of sardonic short stories, this time starring animals. Though the form doesn't seem like all that much of a departure from Sedaris' typical fare he's clearly having fun with it, and the results are deliciously misanthropic vignettes starring animals that are no less maladjusted than their human counterparts, such as a cat attending court-mandated AA meetings. Of course, no animal-themed book is complete without the right illustrations, and for that Sedaris has enlisted Ian Falconer, the man behind the
Olivia children's books. The results are a perfect match and one of fall's most justifiably anticipated new books… just make sure to keep it away from the kids.
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary
hits shelves on Tuesday, September 28.
With
Fall of Giants clocking in at over 1,000 pages, Ken Follett fans can rest assured that the author hasn't lost his epic touch. This time around the author of smash historical fiction tomes
Pillars of the Earth and
World Without End has set his sights on the 20th century, following five families across the globe as they traverse the tumultuous century with stories that occasionally overlap one another. And this is only part one.
Giants is the first in a planned trilogy from Follett, meaning that gift-giving for your history buff friends will be taken care of for a good long while, and that trees should start getting worried.
Fall of Giants
comes out on Tuesday, September 28.
Who says snuggies aren't sexy? Well, almost everyone, but that's beside the point. The authors of
The Snuggie Sutra are hoping to change the public perception of America's favorite (and only) blanket with sleeves in another addition to the growing blog-turned-book canon, out this week. Set up as what we can only assume would result if a Snuggie mated with a copy of
The Kama Sutra, the book features illustrations demonstrating a variety of different positions in which Snuggie owners can get, shall we say, even
more comfortable than they already were. It's up to you whether or not to take the suggestions seriously.
The Snuggie Sutra
hits shelves on Tuesday, September 28.
From Betty's headbands to Joan's curve-hugging pencil skirts to Peggy's passion for plaid,
Mad Men has created a group of 1960s style icons women in the 21st century are trying to emulate. As Elle declared, "Not since
Sex and the City have we seen a television show shape the fashion zeitgeist with quite the reach as
AMC's
Mad Men." So it was only natural that the show's costume designer Janie Bryant follow the advertising series' suit and market her looks the show's fashionable fans. This week, QVC launches her Janie Bryant MOD line and it does not disappoint—full of faux fur and cowl necks, the vintage-inspired collection ranges from $26 to $138. "'It's about the glamour of the '50s and '60s," Bryant told Stylist of her aesthetic. "But it's also a modernization of those looks. I think of the collection as pieces you can incorporate into a modern wardrobe. Mix them with your own things for a
look that can be vintage or contemporary."
Mad Men
costume designer
Janie Bryant's MOD collection for QVC launches on Wednesday, September 29.
The fashion season has already sprung in New York, London, and Milan, but this week, it's Paris' turn to steal the style spotlight. The often-deemed world capital of fashion is the home of Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, and more of the biggest names in the design industry and their latest looks will strut down the runway this week. Designers, models, and editors gather in the French capital, which is arguably the most influential of all fashion weeks, as The Guardian stated.
Paris Fashion Week does not disappoint.
Paris Fashion Week begins on Wednesday, September 29.
The art of photography tends to find its innovation in the subjects of the images themselves, but the Museum of Modern Art is setting out to prove otherwise this week with its latest exhibition,
New Photography 2010. The show features four artists—Roe Ethridge, Elad Lassry, Alex Prager, and Amanda Ross-Ho—who all take their own works and remake them in some exciting, innovative ways. Ethridge uses outtakes from his own magazine work, Lassry works with Hollywood publicity stills, Prager constructs cinematic narratives with overly made-up women, and Ross-Ho works with panels of sheetrock to present his images. "It's a kind of postappropriative art," curator Roxana Marcoci told The New York Times. "The idea is to expand the notion of
what photography is."
New Photography 2010 opens at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on Wednesday, September 29
The mysteries surrounding Paul Gauguin have been building in London, but this week, questions will finally be answered as the first major retrospective of the French Post-Impressionist opens in more than 50 years. With
Gauguin: Maker of Myth, the Tate Modern unveils more than 100 of the late 19th century master's works, including the iconic
Vision of the Sermon (1888) and
Teha'amana has Many Parents (1893) as well as an entire room of self-portraits.
The Sunday Times called the Gauguin exhibit, "the event of the year," and lucky for those stateside, the show moves to Washington, D.C. in 2011.
Gauguin: Maker of Myth opens at the Tate Modern in London on Thursday, September 30
