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Movie Review
"Late August, Early September"
Idealism gives way to compromise for a group of frustrated friends in Olivier Assayas' modest yet moving new film.
By Charles Taylor
[07/07/99]

Music Review
Sharps & flats
Béla Fleck ditches the jammy, New Age dreck for an album of smokin' jazzgrass.
By Seth Mnookin
[07/07/99]

Column
The secret world of Pokémon
With a TV show, video game and trading cards, the pocket monsters have come for your children.
By Joyce Millman
[07/06/99]

Television Interview
Give Pokémon a chance
Ten-year-old Sean Levine talks about the limitless potential of Pokémon.
By Cynthia Joyce
[07/06/99]

Music Review
Sharps & flats
1960s socialite Mrs. Miller sang the Beatles and Sinatra worse than anyone. For the first time, her ungodly awful -- and hilarious -- repertoire appears on CD.
By Geoff Edgers
[07/06/99]

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For those of us who came of age in the '80s, being at the X Games -- a cross between a rock concert, a circus and a sporting event -- was like watching your life in reruns. The first Saturday would conclude with BMX biking and skateboarding, but the kickoff event was snowboarding -- or rather, snowhoarding: ESPN had built a ramp 100 feet tall and 270 feet long, covered it with 350 tons of shaved ice and then sprayed the "snow" with enough chemicals to keep the surface slick in the fierce sun. Watching the snowboarders navigate the ramp was exciting enough, but the real entertainment came from the announcers, most of whom sounded like a "Point Break"-era Keanu Reeves frozen in time. When was the last time you heard someone say, "I'm totally stoked" or "Dude, that was super-cool!" with so much feeling?

But the real flashbacks started later in the day, when the skateboarders took the ramp. For those of us who traded our boards for real jobs long ago, the skateboarders had the last laugh. Skaters on the professional tour, which is currently enjoying its umpteenth revival, can make up to $10,000 a month in prize money alone. Late that first Saturday night, Tony Hawk -- yes, the Tony Hawk, the one who won his first competition in 1982 and was Thrasher Magazine's "Skater of the '80s" -- took the bronze medal in skateboarding vert (that's "vertical" to the rest of us). For anyone who witnessed Hawk during his glory days in the '80s, watching Hawk perform is a little like seeing the Rolling Stones in concert: sure, they're still cool, but who knew they could still move like that. The retro madness began five years ago, when a bunch of ESPN executives decided to shamelessly pander to the Nintendo crowd by holding something they called the Extreme Games in Rhode Island (the name was changed a year later). The basic plan was to reheat a bunch of stagnating sports, throw in a few new fads like bungee jumping and watch wannabe-hip sponsors like Mountain Dew hop aboard. The plan succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations: The X Games has grown steadily over the past five years, and the first three days of the games in San Francisco drew 135,000 people. This year, ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC aired 28.5 hours of the games on their networks, and NBC has planned an X Games spinoff event for the fall.

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