Hot Damn, Mortars!

December’s best in pop culture

By The Editors
December 2, 2014 9:00 am

Because you don’t have time to find your horizons (let alone broaden them), we give you Meanwhile Elsewhere: InsideHook’s essential monthly guide to cultural happenings.


LISTEN: Put This in Your Ear


Tired of holiday music already? Here’s a remedy: our December Spotify playlist, featuring new tunes by madcap South African rap duo Die Antwoord, Black Keys-esque L.A. rocker Hanni El Khatib and Pink Floyd, who released their final album — The Endless River — last month. Pair with the highly portable Beoplay 2: the first ever Bluetooth speaker by audiophiles Bang & Olufsen, as seen in our Holiday Gift Guide.

WATCH: The Great War

A remarkable YouTube doc covering World War I in “real” time: each 6-10 minute episode of “The Great War” focuses on one week of WWI, utilizing photos, illustrations and newsreel footage from the British Pathe archive. Fall behind? All episodes are free, and they won’t be done until November 2018.

BUY: The Batmobile

Built out of a pre-muscle car Oldsmobile 88 (replete with a 324 Rocket Engine), the first licensed Bat car was built in 1963. Now completely restored, it’s expected to fetch six figures at Heritage Auctions’ latest pop culture auction, which also features mics used by the Beatles at the Cavern Club, several signed Marilyn Monroe pics and even Frank Sinatra’s address book. Bids accepted through Dec. 5th.

WATCH: Inherent Vice

This sunsoaked noir by Paul Thomas Anderson follows a reefer-toking gumshoe (Joaquin Phoenix) as he tries to hunt down his ex-old lady’s missing boyfriend. Yeah, it gets complicated (as you’d expect from a film based on a Thomas Pynchon book). But the scenes with Doc Sportello and police officer Bigfoot Bjorenson (Josh Brolin) are explosive comic gold.

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