Kaleidoscope

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Published: Jul 21, 2009

Before there was Stella, Reno 911!, Michael and Michael Have Issues, Viva Variety, Wet Hot American Summer, The Ten, The Baxter, et al., there was The State — the only sketch comedy with a better batting average than Kids in the Hall. Last week, The State finally got the DVD box set treatment, collecting its early-'90s MTV run and a whole lot of extras. I cannot wait to dip my balls in it. That's from the show. I'm not really talking about my balls right now.

Technicolor Hell, an 11-track compilation of Philly's maddest musical geniuses (Charles Cohen, Mincemeat or Tenspeed, Dave Smolen, etc.), came out in 2007. But sitting there in the racks at AKA in its Space 1026 screen-printed glory, the compilation, a joint release by Philly's Malleable and Badmaster labels, tucked into this wonderfully tactile picture zine, was irresistible. The music itself is screechy, staticky and infinitely ponderous. If you missed this gem the first time around, make amends at AKA or malleablerecords.com.

Girls of a certain age, admit it: You want Lauren Graham to be your mom. As Lorelei on The Gilmore Girls, she spoke at a His Girl Friday breakneck, spitting out pop-culture references and being-a-teenager-sucks-but-deal-with-it wisdom. Now she's in the Philly-shot The Answer Man (see review), where she once again plays a single mom. She may be crazy and overprotective in this one, but I'll take it.

It starts off like any snoozy period piece: Girl meets boy, boy musters courage to profess love to girl, girl bats eyelashes. But then boy gets dragged feet-first into the lake by a ginormous purple octopus, and we're hooked. If Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters, Sept. 15) sounds familiar, thank local publisher Quirk Books (irreference.com), which first mashed up manuscripts and monsters with 2008's awesomely evil Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. A note to Quirk: If the Jurassic Mansfield Park rumors are true, we're all for it. Especially if the velociraptors are British.

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