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You might recognize Philly expat Paul F. Tompkins as the host of the late Best Week Ever on VH1, or the third man on Mr. Show and Tenacious D, or the funniest (and most frequent?) guest on The Best Show on WFMU. But did you know the gap-toothed, fancy-suited Tompkins is also a standup comedian? He is! His new album, Freak Wharf (aspecialthing.com), is hilarious, charming and the last word in the cake vs. pie controversy.
It's imitation, but it ain't flattery. In a strained, tone-deaf croon, Philly nightclub act Dirty Diamond runs Neil Diamond songs into the ground with bad puns and flagrant disregard for rhythm. He runs into the audience begging to be groped. He promises "Free Vibrators to All Women Who Attend." His third annual Vagina Jam will smarm up the Khyber on Friday. (See our interview with Dirty D.)
Emily Blunt commands The Young Victoria (see my review), but she first caught my attention in 2004's My Summer of Love, Pawel Pawlikowski's beautiful film about love and the teenage experience. Blunt plays Tamsin, an exotic, well-educated girl who entrances, and is entranced by, blue-collar Mona (Natalie Press), who lives in Yorkshire with her ex-con-turned-born-again brother Phil (Paddy Considine). Victoria may be Blunt's breakout, but Summer is where she bloomed. —Molly Eichel
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In Kate Beaton 's two-dimensional universe, Genghis Khan is a tea-sipping hippie with a Fu Manchu, Napoleon spends his time stealing other people's cookies and then crying about it, and Mary Shelley's depressed because her hubby's pal Lord Byron won't stop trying to have sex with her. Beaton's briskly drawn, snark-packed Never Learn Anything from History (TopatoCo) is available only at topatoco.com/vagrant, where the merch — like a print of "Tesla the Celibate Scientist" — reminds us of a smart man's Snorg Tees. Consider it the best un-history lesson you'll ever learn.
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