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Betony, the new haute-earthy tenant in Brasserie Pushkin’s former space, didn’t entirely do away with the ornate. The chandelier is still there, as are the plush velvet banquettes. The back dining room’s concrete ceiling is etched with abstract Latin geometry, as if one of the construction workers had a Good Will Hunting moment. (Eamon Rockey, the general manager, said it came at the owner’s discretion—“he likes very opulent things.”)

For much of the past decade, we’ve been witness to the music industry eroding in a truly historic fashion. This tends to happen in industries when a new invention comes along to make it obsolete. Horse and buggy manufacturers experienced this with the rise of the automobile. Candle makers spiraled into poverty due to the light bulb. Even the recording industry itself replaced the “booming” sheet music industry in the mid-20th Century thanks to technology that allowed music to be recorded and sold. This allowed for a small empire to be built on records, eight-tracks, cassettes and ultimately CDs, creating unfathomably wealthy artists and executives who traipsed the globe and lived in palaces. Then MP3 technology was born, the tsunami of illegal downloads hit without warning, and worldwide recording industry revenues were cut in half in less than a decade—a loss of over 20 billion dollars.

If there's one thing Explosions in the Sky evokes, it's all of the emotions. Every last one. Anyone who has watched Friday Night Lights will understand how "Your Hand in Mind" played at dusk over a football field is truly the easiest trigger for tears. And if you've ever gazed wistfully out a bus window in the country while listening to "Who Do You Go Home To," you know the magical power of some stirring instrumental indie rock. And although David Gordon Green latest film, the Sundance hit, Prince Avalanche isn't a philosophical tear jerker, it does possess a strikingly beautiful glowing and burnt natural landscape and some existential dilemmas, which, are always grounds for some EITS. And with composer David Wingo collaborating at the helm for the score, the tone of Prince Avalanche is set by its subtly lovely soundtrack that melds his and EITS' sensibilities. 

Like most hangovers, the third one is just not quite as fun as the first – and so is the consensus of The Hangover Part III, which opened today. But that doesn't stop critics from making some hilarious one-liners about it, whether they meant to or not. Here's the funniest:

Tequila looms large, and often not in a good way. Everyone who has reached maturity as a drinker has some truly wretched story about what they did (or don’t remember doing) under its boisterous influence. This has perhaps more to do with the way we novices, especially on the east coast, consume the spirit—it’s the shot someone hands us when we’re already too far gone, or the stealth ingredient in a margarita that was stronger than we thought. How to appreciate its finer points?

The Buddha says, "Dwell not in the past, but do concentrate the mind on the present moment." But if the past is a foreign country, it is returning now to home's loving embrace. It was but seventeen years ago (1996, to be precise) that the first Buddha Bar opened on Paris' rue Boissy d'Anglais--and as its journey since has taken it from Dubai to Dakar, Amsterdam to Evian-les-Bains, the circle is now closed, as the George V Eatertainment Group opens the City of Light's first Buddha Bar Hotel. Taking position amongst the swish boutiques along the rue du Faubourg Saint Honore, it arises as a palpable tribute to BB founder and visionary Raymond Visan, who passed on in 2010.

We’re still a little flabbergasted by this—we did just dispense with the Nazi Pope, after all—but apparently it’s not a mistranslation: Pope Francis (first of his name!) just told the world that even atheists are redeemed by Jesus Christ if they do good in this life. So you’re saying I had to wear a white Colonel Sanders suit to get first communion for nothing?

Yes, I believe this is what we call a cinematic jackpot, folks. As two of cinema's most confounding, complex, and psychologically stimulating directors, David Lynch and the late Krzysztof Kieślowski made films which transcended our mere reality, sublimating into the abstract and igniting our senses and emotions in the most fascinating way. And although you wouldn't necessary peg the two together, Cristina Álvarez López has crafted a stunning video essay that weaves Kieślowski's metaphysical meditation on identity and love The Double Life of Veronique with Lynch's haunting and delirious digitally experimental masterpiece Inland Empire.