The end of the first third of 2024 fast approaches, and there has never been a better Monday to wear jeans. Why, you may ask? Well, for those of you not in the know, April 29 is National Zipper Day. Indeed, now more than ever, it’s paramount that we all zip, zap, and zup to our heart’s content, and then some.
While we’re showing that extra bit of appreciation to flies of all positions, why not reminisce on what the April 29’s of yore heaped upon us in the realm of pop culture?
Fast Five released to theaters
There’s no action franchise quite like Fast & Furious; it’s one thing to show hard and fast dedication to your own bombastic stupidity, but it’s quite another to sustain that attitude across a contained mythology that will soon number over 10 films.
But it was Fast Five, which released to cinemas in the United States on this day in 2011, that quite assertively communicated that car races were a thing of the past for this franchise; henceforth would Dominic and company come to be known as a driving force in the action/heist/spy genre space, leaving its street-race roots cheering from the sidelines.
With a worldwide gross of $626 million against a $125 million budget coupled with a warm reception from critics (almost solely because it doesn’t play by anyone’s rules but its own, mind you), Fast Five led by example in sending its franchise to a brand new paradigm. While its niche has had its fair share of imitators (The Beekeeper being one of the most recent), few can pull it off quite like the Torettos.
Rent went up, but in a good way
Non-theatre enthusiasts mostly know Jonathan Larson thanks to Andrew Garfield’s turn as the playwright in the Netflix musical Tick, Tick… Boom!, but those who walk in the right circles know that Larson’s name is synonymous with his magnum opus Rent, which opened up on Broadway on this day in 1996.
The show officially opened off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop earlier that year on January 26; a day before Larson’s sudden death, and roughly three months before it begin its 12-year run on one of the biggest stages in the world. Tony Awards and Pulitzers would follow shortly after, as would a hearty place in musical theatre history.
Take a bow from the great beyond, Larson; your ragtag group of starving artists has inspired millions.
The labor room welcomed Beatrix Kiddo, America Chavez, and one of the greatest outlaws in music
On this day, we celebrate the birth of three pop culture icons from three different generations: Country music icon Willie Nelson (1933), actress/Quentin Tarantino’s most lethal weapon Uma Thurman (1970), and Marvel Cinematic Universe star/serial premiere attendee Xochitl Gomez (2006).
A pillar of the country genre since the late 1960s who has still found the time and energy to put on a show and snag a few Grammy nominations in the last couple of years (he turns 92 today), Nelson’s one of the greats in the music world. Interestingly, he has quite the foot in the acting door as well, with over 30 film and television credits to his name.
His fellow birthday brethren are far more at home in front of the camera, however. Thurman is most prominently known for her work with Tarantino in Pulp Fiction and the two-volume bloodfest of Kill Bill, the former of which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Gomez’s claim to fame, meanwhile, is as one America Chavez in Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a character she’ll no doubt reprise in the inevitable Young Avengers project that Feige and company are cooking up as we speak.
