In a past life, back before I became a rich and famous internet writer, I worked for Nielsen part-time tracking product placements in TV shows (As did Ufford at Warming Glow, for that matter!), so I’m vaguely aware of how much money products/brands pay to have their stuff mentioned and/or featured on television and in movies. With that said, “How To Make It In America” must be an advertising cash cow for HBO.

And speaking of HTMIIA, it’s gotten so much better this season, no? I had a real love/hate relationship with it in the first season — I mainly stuck with it because a lot of the people, places and storylines in the show were familiar to me. But this season has seen some character development, I think, and HOLY CHRIST LAKE BELL’S TITS!!!

Just google them, okay.

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I, like a lot of people seem to, sort of have a love/hate relationship with the HBO series “How To Make It In America.” I wanted to love it, so bad, but I found the writing and the storylines to be a little “meh,” so I can only say that I “like” it at this point. However, I thought it was beautifully shot, and I was able to identify greatly with a lot of the show’s characters. But more than anything, it always, always, featured really good music.

So it probably shouldn’t come as any surprise that the newly released teaser for season two of the show features a kick-as$ new song, “I Stand Alone,” by an artist generating a lot of buzz right now — Theophilus London.

Who’s Theophilus London, besides a guy with a name better than yours, you ask? Here’s how the Village Voice describes him… Read the rest of this entry »

Interrupting our all Osama, all the time day on Uproxx for a moment … I like HBO’s “How to Make It In America,” though I found myself a little annoyed with it at various points during its first season because I thought the writing and the storylines were weak and could have been better. But I still tuned in every Sunday night to watch it because I could identify somewhat with a few of the show’s characters and the world they live in (It also helped that it has an infectious theme song — “I Need a Dollar” by Aloe Blacc — that I simply can’t get enough of).

With that said, I find it a little perplexing that the show — currently shooting its second season — would turn to Craigslist to find hipster extras. Are New York City casting agents so low on their supply of hipster-looking folk that they have to turn to CL to round a few up? Or are the show’s producers — knowing full-well that Brooklyn hipsters spend the majority of their day perusing L-Train missed connections — just going an extra mile for the sake of authenticity?

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