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(03/22/07 4:00am)
Neil Young deserves every credit he has received over the years. A versatile artist, Young is a true musical chameleon; playing with Buffalo Springfield in the '60s, becoming a folk star as a solo artist in the '70s and earning the title of "the godfather of grunge" with his backing band Crazy Horse.\nLive at Massey Hall, the second official release from Neil Young's Archives Performance Series, is the purest example of the singer/songwriter side of Young. The album, which captures the second show of a two-night performance at Toronto's legendary Massey Hall, was recorded in February of 1971 -- sandwiched between Young's 1970's After The Gold Rush and 1972's Harvest.\nThe bulk of the songs on the album were brand new at the time, including five songs that would eventually find their way on to "Harvest" a year later.\n"I'm gonna sing mostly new songs tonight," Young said to a cheering crowd. "Maybe only a couple more old ones. But I have written so many new ones that I can't think of anything else to do with 'em other than sing 'em."\nThe album as a whole has a truly natural feeling, stripped down to the songwriter and his guitar and piano. Hearing Young in this setting proves his skilled abilities as a songwriter.\nYoung starts off the show with "Tell Me Why" and an early version of "Old Man," where he shows his abilities as a singer with an outstanding vocal performance during the chorus. "A Man Needs a Maid/ Heart of Gold Suite" is a unique listen for any Neil Young fan, in which Young, accompanied solely by his piano, combines both future Harvest cuts into one seamless song.\nYoung has the Toronto crowd cheering in delight during two hometown callouts during "Journey Through The Past" and "Helpless," which sounds quite different without the backing vocals found on the album version.\nAs good as the album is, the CD/DVD combo does have its drawbacks. The concert DVD itself has very little concert footage and uses old photos and random Young footage to fill the gaps. However, the album, with its intimate sound, is worth the purchase as it shows one of the best singer/songwriters in his prime.
(03/22/07 4:00am)
All the clever indie kids who are nay saying Modest Mouse's latest album as a sell-out endeavor need to give it up right now. Contrary to fashionable opinion, Modest Mouse's most heavily produced and catchiest album to date, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, still holds true to Isaac Brock's tweaked-out sensibilities and succeeds in delivering yet another sharp, dark foray into witty wordplay and fatal hopelessness.\nWith their third album at major label Epic, the old-school indie staple explores a fuller sound with the addition of The Smiths' guitarist Johnny Marr, exhibiting amazing technical grace interwoven with Brock's unique vocals, which sound like a choking victim. Die-hard Modest Mouse fans will be happy to know that all the production in the world couldn't change Brock's iconic voice, still as grating and heart-wrenching as ever. The fuller, guitar-heavy instrumentals do nothing to detract from the bleak, morbid message we've come to expect from Modest Mouse. If anything, the addition of Marr has made the deadly lyrics more accessible to a wider audience.\nThe ironic pop-sounds of "Florida," "Fire it Up" and "We've Got Everything," with their toe-tapping catchiness and dark, bitter lyrics, perfectly balance the epic sadness of the creepy, heartbreaking ballads, "Parting of the Sensory," "People as Places as People" and "Little Motel." With these slower tunes comes a deep pathos of regret and bittersweet nostalgia with the drifter persona Brock often falls into. The songs "Spitting Venom," "Steam Engenius" and "Education" showcase classic Isaac Brock rage. They leave the listener wondering how, album after album, this man still finds unique ways to express the subcutaneous vitriol he always does with spot-on, calculated precision.\nThis album is nothing less than the natural evolution of the Modest Mouse sound, the new fullness only being a further developed conduit for the same bleak message of old.
(03/22/07 4:00am)
Judging by the reviews of Kaiser Chiefs' sophomore album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob, it appears that someone from on high has declared a backlash against the neo-Britpop band -- the standard punishment for an indie/mainstream-straddling group with a hit debut (in Britain, anyway). A "5.0" from Pitchfork, one candle (or whatever their grading doohickee is) from Playlouder, an "F" from Stylus. Well, I guess I didn't get the secret backlash committee's memo. Yours Truly isn't perfect, and it's not quite as good as 2005's Employment, but it still holds some solid tunes. \nSpecifically, the album is front-loaded with great, high-energy sing-alongs. "Ruby," with its wistful vocals, synth/guitar interplay and exploding choruses, is what The Killers' Sam's Town could have been if they hadn't decided to become "serious artistes." "The Angry Mob," despite its muddy message about mob violence and media manipulation, employs dagger-sharp hooks and stomping choruses. Likewise with "Heat Dies Down," a breakup song that is also blessed with charmingly witty, bitter lyrics. And "High Royds," a fiery, galloping tune about returning home (and realizing how little you missed it), is a rare song about the rock star life that doesn't make you hate the writer.\nHowever, things weaken, starting with "Love Is Not A Competition (But I'm Winning)" -- a ballad with a better concept (its titular contradiction) than execution. Then, with "Thank You Very Much," "I Can Do Without You" and "My Kind Of Guy," the Kaisers churn out three back-to-back tracks with both morosely cynical lyrics and somewhat uniform composition (all are built around similar bouncy guitar riffs) -- thereby sucking some enjoyment out of the album's middle. The simple, boppy "Everything Is Average Nowadays" almost manages a late-album save -- but it's followed by the throwaway track "Boxing Champ." And after "Learnt My Lesson Well" a nice drum-heavy piece, things go out with a whimper -- the dull plodder "Try Your Best" and "Retirement," in sound and cynicism, almost a reprise of the earlier three-song fun-vacuum. \nBut, there's several worthwhile tracks here -- so, check 'em out, particularly if you liked Employment.
(03/22/07 4:00am)
This is it … this is really it. This is the answer to metal and everything holy and heavy. Big Business is the real deal. Two guys with one mission: to rock your face off. Cody Willis and Jared Warren are the two magicians in charge here, and they've got the credentials. With a history of bands such as Karp, the Murder City Devils and, most recently, the almighty Melvins, these guys know what their doing. Here Come the Waterworks, their second full-length, will make you cry … with joy.\nFrom the very first note you know they mean business. Everything is bigger, louder, sludgier, heavier; everything in excess. "Just as the Day was Dawning" is the dawning of a record that will blow you out of the water. \nWarren roars and bellows through eight tracks with constant intensity. They never let up. And it's catchy apocalyptic music to hum along to. The meteors are raining down as everyone's fleeing in terror and you're humming, "Hands up, hands up, hands up to the people around you!"\nWillis' drums are all over the place, and Warren's bass is dirty and sinister. "Another Forth of July … Ruined" is just as haunting as it is brutal. It's the primal minimalism of a drop-tuned bass and a drum set and a pair of vocal chords that creates such a huge sound; you're left scratching your head wondering how something so loud and doom-impending can be so beautiful.\nAnd to top it all off, as the world is crashing down, they hit you hard. "I'll Give You Something to Cry About" is an epic nine minutes of mammoth riffs and colossal drumming that will leave you with a headache. Then the flames begin to dissolve. "Another Day in the Pacific Northwest" is a beautiful, tranquil piece that you weren't expecting but desperately need to recover from the storm you've just endured.
(03/22/07 4:00am)
AUSTIN, Texas -- Last week while many spring breakers were lying out on beaches or waking up next to strangers, an armada of 15 passenger vans descended on Austin, Texas, carrying the more than 1,000 bands slated to perform during this year's South by Southwest music conference (SXSW to its friends). For four days music lovers were treated to a barrage of great music, from noon until the wee hours of the morning, radiating from Austin's famed 6th Street bar district. Artists across all genres were represented. On Friday night alone, attendees could choose from Public Enemy, Mstrkrft, My Brightest Diamond, Steve Earle, Daniel Johnston and The Good The Bad And the Queen. \nNow in its 20th year, SXSW has become a working vacation for the music industry. Record labels, magazines and countless other industry companies host constant day parties, evening showcases and not-so-secret after parties. Britons Amy Winehouse and neo-girl group The Pipettes seemed to be consistent crowd favorites, while sets by Stockholm's Lonely, Dear and Chicagoans Maps and Atlases had BlackBerries lighting up all over downtown Austin. And if music wasn't enough, during the day the Austin Convention Center hosted more than 60 panels discussing current issues facing the music industry, public interviews with legends like Emmylou Harris and Iggy Pop, a keynote speech from Pete Townshend and even a presentation by Talking Head David Byrne titled "Record Companies: Who Needs Them?" \nUnofficially, the theme to this year's SXSW was "the music industry is changing." Variations of this sentiment were repeated like a mantra both in the conference rooms and at the clubs. At the convention center college radio kids were grilling indie label reps about the effect of the FCC's recent payola settlement (mandating spins for independent artists on major corporate stations) on labels' business strategy. In the bars friends were toasting The Arcade Fire's recent No. 2 debut, and everywhere people could be heard whistling "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn and John. \nIf anything, the SXSW itself is becoming an increasingly new media affair. Around every corner crews with home-video equipment tracked down bands for Internet television interviews. The SXSW tradeshow featured companies claiming to be the future of Internet radio, social network-based playlist-building or music marketing. And The Pipettes likely logged 8 million home video uploads of their numerous performances throughout the week.\nA highlight of the conference for many was certainly the Thursday night showcase put on by local label Secretly Canadian. Hyped by a number of blogs, the showcase produced a line around the block, and the lineup didn't disappoint. Besnard Lakes serenaded the crowd still waiting to get in with a painfully short set and Catfish Haven played with two soulful backup singers, which added depth to their bluesy sound. Much of the crowd seemed to be there to see David Vandervelde rock through his set. Even Spoon front man Britt Daniel could be seen lurking in the corner, nodding his head in approval like the acting godfather of the Austin music scene. \nSadly, not all of the changes witnessed at SXSW were cause for celebration. The colorful Polyphonic Spree ditched their robes for a black combat ensemble. As "The Fragile Army," their music has taken on a more somber tone. Also, thanks to tightened visa restrictions and our friends at Homeland Security, much-anticipated performances by internationally acclaimed Rodrigo y Gabriela was canceled because Rodrigo shares a name with a banned criminal. \nNow, with another SXSW in the books, the summer festival season kicks off. However, whether it's Coachella out west or Culture Shock right here at home, nothing quite matches the pace and progressive spirit of SXSW.
(03/22/07 4:00am)
Depending on your sense of humor and personal sensibilities, Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat character will either be an annoying, 80-minute one-note joke or a brilliantly incisive guide into the dank cavern of America's antiquated stereotypes of Europe and vice-versa. After several viewings, I'm leaning toward the latter, but that doesn't spare "Borat" from the nearly unavoidable hit-and-miss territory of today's comedic cinema. And when "Borat" hits, it hits hard.\n"Borat" follows Kazakhstani television celebrity Borat Sagdiyev and his producer Azamat Bagatov's docu-journey throughout America in order to garner information to benefit their homeland. Much controversy surrounded the film's perceived harsh treatment of Eastern Europeans and Jews, but one viewing makes it obvious (to those with 1/3 of a brain) that the real target in Borat's sights is Americans themselves. Several instances of Americans behaving badly (a racist/bigot rodeo organizer, babbling evangelicals, misogynistic frat boys on a road trip) are jaw-dropping, and Cohen makes them all the more hilarious by playing along as the wide-eyed foreigner. Most of the film's scripted bits are amusing, but Cohen is at his best without a net.\nMissteps in Cohen and director Larry Charles' film are few, yet glaringly obvious. One of the film's most memorable scenes, featuring a naked wrestling match pitting Borat against the morbidly obese Azamat, is funny for the first 90 seconds, but the last four minutes wears on the eyes. Borat's driving force to find and marry the "virginal" Pamela Anderson is a fine plot device, but if you're in on the fact that Sacha and Pam were pals before production began, Borat's final coup in a California bookstore loses much of its comedic weight.\nThis disc's extras fly by as fast as the film itself, but what's here is worth a look. Several hilarious deleted scenes, running a total length of 10 or 12 minutes, make you wish they were part of the movie (which is only 80 minutes long to begin with), and an anthology of "Borat" pre-release press material highlights Baron Cohen's gifts as an ad-lib showman. Additionally, a slo-mo trailer for Kazakhstan's own version of "Baywatch" and a news report detailing the angry aftermath that one of Cohen's better stunts wrought on a small red-state town are side-splitting.\nTaking political correctness, throwing it in a blender and then tossing it into the gutter is Cohen's specialty, and "Borat" finds him working at the apex of both the faux-documentary and ambush humor genres. Whether the film will lend itself to repeated viewings, as so very few comedies do, is still up for debate, but in the moment and this day and age, "Borat" is as good as we're gonna get.
(03/22/07 4:00am)
Swear off fast food. Swear it off now. The stuff is poison. That being said, are there really still people out there who haven't been made aware of the deteriorating health effects of fast food on the human body? \nThe fictionalized film version of the nonfiction novel by Eric Schlosser came out on DVD this week. I could have imagined a pretty interesting fictionalized account of the book for film, unfortunately, director Richard Linklater has not.\nHe is known for his meandering dialogue and slow, measured pacing. Strangely, he thought that this approach would be the right one for "Fast Food Nation," which ends up being more focused on the conversations that the characters are having about the fast-food industry than on the fast-food industry itself. \nA host of characters and their interactions make up the body of the running time. Greg Kinnear plays a marketing director for "Mickey's," and is developing a new burger when he is made aware of the high amount of fecal content in some burger samples. This is disturbing enough but underplayed. There was a real opportunity for some dramatic nuance in a storyline that involved two immigrant workers played by Catalina Sandino Moreno ("Maria Full of Grace") and Wilmer Valderrama. Their working conditions are less than tolerable, and there is something bittersweet about their situation. They work in questionable circumstances out of economic necessity, no doubt a sad truth for many of the low-level factory workers who handle raw chunks of beef day in and day out for little pay. Alas, though the actors themselves are interesting, the segment is flawed by its own dull pacing and poorly written dialogue. \nThe DVD extras are actually more hit than miss. There is a decent commentary (missing from DVDs as of late) featuring both Linklater and Schlosser. Also, there are some flash-animation cartoons looking at meat production that are especially entertaining, along with the obligatory making-of featurette.\nThe main problem is really with the basis of the film. They seem to think they are demystifying something when really all they're doing is taking what we already assume to be true and making it more specific. It is doubtful that any viewer will first discover that the Big Mac with special sauce they've been enjoying since the rosy days of childhood is, in fact, made of animal flesh. This movie is all missed opportunities, screenplay and character-wise.
(03/22/07 4:00am)
Yes, Daniel Craig is the best James Bond ever, and yes, "Casino Royale" is probably the best Bond film ever. I figured I'd get that out of the way instead of tip-toeing around it like many critics have. There is a certain mystique surrounding 007 films that, for many, renders them difficult to criticize, but eventually one has to face the fact that most of them are pretty awful. What makes Craig and "Casino Royale" tops in their field after only one outing is how they do away with all the pitfalls that marred the outings of Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan, all the while amping up the best aspects of Sean Connery and Roger Moore's outings, minus the outlandishly fake action set pieces. \nIn short, Craig is the thinking man's James Bond. It makes sense, then, that Eva Green (as Vesper Lynd) is the thinking man's Bond girl, or is that Bond woman? Gone are the days of Bond's clueless, goggle-eyed lead female companion. Green commands attention like no Bond girl since Britt Ekland, not to mention she can actually match wits with the super-spy. Even as "Casino Royale's " tangled plot of terrorist funding slowly unfolds over a lengthy high-stakes game of hold 'em, Craig and Green are compulsively watchable as the most genuine Bond/Bond girl pairing in franchise history. \nAs I alluded to, the plot is rather muddy upon first viewing, but all we need to know is that Bond is out to get Le Chiffre, played by a mostly stoic Mads Mikkelsen. Le Chiffre is a major funding hub of the international terrorist network. Bleeding from his tear ducts, Mikkelsen's Le Chiffre doesn't blossom into a true Bond villain until a late scene in which he violently tests Bond's manhood, yet he assures his status as a proper antagonist by never carelessly revealing his nefarious plans to Bond in detail as so many previous Bond villains have. \nExtras on this two-disc set are few, and what's there seems to only scratch the surface. A couple of mini-docs on Craig's "transformation" into Bond make it obvious that the best Bond actors are really playing themselves. A doc on Bond girls called "Bond Girls are Forever" is mildly interesting, as it features new interviews with many of the actresses in earlier 007 films, but it never makes a convincing argument for why Bond girls are vital. \n"Casino Royale" contains none of the cheesy adornments of previous 007 outings, and along with Craig's assured, intelligent, gadget-free take on Bond, it's a thrilling reincarnation of the series. There's no Q here, no Moneypenny and, thankfully, no vapid examples of submissive womanhood (though Caterina Murino tries her best and turns up dead). What we have is a hokey, dying franchise reborn as a taut, streamlined espionage series truer to Ian Fleming's novel than Hollywood's expectations. It's fun to watch.
(03/22/07 4:00am)
Another season of "South Park" is out for you to own, but do you really need to have it? There are two main issues that make buying a DVD set of a TV show season different from a movie. 1) Price -- usually a quality TV set costs more than $30 for a season and 2) Volume -- referring to the sheer quantity of television shows now \navailable on DVD. If I bought the DVD set of every season from every TV show I loved, it would be like a full-time job. So what do we do? We create stricter guidelines for how good a season has to be in order to be worth the price, which brings me to "South Park," Season 9: It may be the best season ever.\nFor a show as successful and as long-running as "South Park," this is a pretty bold statement, but just look at the episode list: Mr. Garrison becomes a woman, the kids try to lose at baseball and Randy Marsh battles "Bat Dad," Jimmy can't get rid of his boner before the talent show, the kids talk to a whale and try to get him back to the moon, Randy Marsh tries to cure his alcoholism with help from a bleeding statue and the epic "Trapped in the Closet" episode about Scientologists that caused Isaac Hayes to quit the show.\nSeason 9 exemplifies all the things Trey Parker and Matt Stone do best. They can push the envelope of what's allowed while simultaneously making a social/political point while also simultaneously being hilarious. And each episode has at least one distinctive "laugh-out-loud" moment. Out of my favorite episodes, Season 9 has about five or six of them.\nSpecial features on the set are limited to an audio commentary on each episode by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, but if I could only choose one feature for the DVDs to have, this would be it. Getting to listen to the creators describe and explain each episode adds to their already near-limitless rewatchability. This is a season you need.
(03/22/07 4:00am)
There are a lot of things about "The Holiday" that ought to make it a great romantic comedy. It is an escape fantasy about an L.A. woman (Cameron Diaz) and a British woman (Kate Winslet) who take a break from their troubles with men by switching homes for the holiday season. Of course, they each quickly meet some interesting men in their new locations (Jack Black, Jude Law). The dialogue is at times wonderfully crafted evidence of director/screenwriter Nancy Meyers' skill as a filmmaker and awareness of the tradition of classic Hollywood romance, which the film often not only draws from but also openly admires.\nHonestly, I found watching "The Holiday" to be incredibly boring. This was surprising to me as I am usually one to enjoy a good romantic comedy. I am, after all, a person who often posts lines from Jane Austen novels in her favorite quotes section on Facebook; the first DVD I ever purchased was "The Wedding Singer." That is to say that however proud I am of my own good taste in movies, I am by no means prejudiced against romantic comedies. So then why, in my opinion, is "The Holiday" so yawn worthy? The main reason is that it seems to go on forever yet lacks momentum. While there are a few surprises along the way, there are even more non-surprises as the story plays out at a snail's pace-- predictably and with little drama. \nSpecial features included with the DVD are slightly below average in number, but not in quality. There is a making-of featurette that is actually pretty entertaining. It summarizes the whole film but with a speed and vibrancy missing from the movie, and all the while saying nice things about it and those involved in its making, giving one the feeling one might have hoped to get from watching the actual film. There is also a director's commentary track. That's it for the special features, but sometimes keeping it short and sweet is just the right thing to do.
(03/22/07 4:00am)
Does anyone actually pay attention to the Nielsen TV ratings anymore? I didn't think so until the Thursday after Valentine's Day, when the headline on every entertainment-related Web site I frequent said something to the effect of "'Lost' suffers its lowest ratings ever as ABC marketing department devises new plan." It seems that the Desmond-centric episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes" pulled in, according to Nielsen, only 12.8 million viewers on a night when many of "Lost"'s diehard fans were probably forced into watching "The Notebook" with their girlfriend for the ninth time.\nI say only 12.8 million because not only would most shows still kill for those numbers, but because I bet those same "Lost" fans were TiVo'ing, recording or planning to download Desmond Hume's adventures in time travel while sitting through those maudlin makeout scenes. Nielsen ratings are simply not a valid way of judging the actual viewership of television programs nowadays. With iTunes, TiVo, DVR and online streaming being the order of the day, it can't be long before the folks at Nielsen Media Research realize that shows need not live and die by the box, can it?\nSpeaking of Mr. Nielsen, who are these people who actually have one of those ratings boxes? I certainly don't know anyone who does, but seeing as how the top-rated shows on television are continually "American Idol," "Grey's Anatomy," "CSI," and "Deal or No Deal," it must be the elderly, housewives and teenage girls. "Lost" continually tops the coveted male 18-49 demographic of viewership, so apparently someone in that category has a Nielsen box, but something tells me it's the minority.\nWhile "Lost" is still one of the 20 highest-rated shows on television, it has certainly seen a massive drop in Nielsen viewership since Season 1. While most critics would have you believe this is because of unanswered questions and ever-murkier mythology, my theory is that people are just watching it on their own time as opposed to ABC's. Continually the most downloaded show on iTunes from week to week, "Lost" does not lend itself to the casual viewer, something that cannot be said about any of the other top-rated shows on television, save "Heroes," "Grey's" and "24."\nWeb sites like spoilerslost.blogspot.com and the amazingly comprehensive lostpedia.com are evidence that "Lost" fans are defying network convention and spending most of their time obsessing over the show in ways other than being glued to the couch from 10 to 11 p.m. each Wednesday. Is there anyone checking the set-dressing on "Desperate Housewives" or researching obscure cultural references on "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" each week for clues to their favorite show's deeper meaning? Somehow I doubt it.\nThe primary reason that "Lost" is confounding ABC's network heads is the unconventional way it uses the Internet in tandem with its airtime to further its own mythology. If the Web were around in the days of "Twin Peaks" and the early years of "The X-files," we would've seen the same phenomenon, but alas, "Lost" is the first of its kind. Meanwhile, over at ABC, the marketing department's brilliant new plan is to promise, during the preview for the following week's episode, that tons of mysteries will be explained, when in actuality said mysteries will only be unraveled at the writers' and producers' own pace. This does nothing but leave a bad taste in the mouths of the dwindling number of casual fans "Lost" has left and needs to be stopped.\nOne need only take a quick glance at the nearest "Lost"-related message board to see what a unfailingly divisive, dearly beloved and fiercely hated program it has become. Some examples of actual posts from aintitcool.com on the Claire-centric episode, "Par Avion:"\n--"Death by electro-magnetic fence thingy. If you didn't enjoy this episode then Lost clearly isn't for you. Enjoy Criminal Minds!" - DynamixRo\n--"They spent the entire episode going over the fence. wtf? Locke continues to act like a complete idiot. He seems like a confused old man, no longer the tough badass boar hunter. Blah blah blah. Lost continues to disappoint week after week." - knowthyself\n--"The fertility drugs people take to get pregnant never result in multiple pregnancies, let alone twins, triplets or more. Clones, what a stupid idea. Twins aren't clones." - Steve_Dooku\nClones?! Anyway, "Lost" fans will be "Lost" fans, and network executives will be network executives. I only hope we can all get along for the next 2 1/2 seasons as the mysteries behind the Dharma Initiative, the Hanso Foundation and humankind's ability to shift its own destiny are answered in due time. I don't think that will be a problem so long as those executives get it through their ever-whitening heads that Nielsen ratings don't mean jack when it comes to a show like "Lost," a show whose stable of hardcore fans experience, discuss and dissect it for far longer than one pre-designated hour per week.
(03/22/07 4:00am)
After an hour of waiting in line, getting a big Long Island iced tea and saving front-row seats for her friends, senior Danielle Mendelson screams in delight as smoke begins to pour out onto stage. Hairbangers Ball is about start its show in tribute to the "decade of decadence" -- the 1980s.\nHairbangers Ball is an '80s tribute band that not only covers the songs of the period but also the fashion. From the big hair to the tight leather pants, band members look like they came out of a popular '80s music video. \nThe band makes a living traveling the Midwest. This Friday, they will perform at the Bluebird, a venue they have played more than a dozen times. Bluebird manager and owner Dave Kubiak said the club is packed wall to wall for Hairbangers Ball shows.\n"It's always a wild night," Kubiak said.
(03/21/07 4:00am)
1987-2007
(03/20/07 4:00am)
"OMG! Did you hear that Mike broke up with his GF over the weekend?”\n“Oh, I know! WTF? In the meantime, can you believe what McDreamy said to Meredith on ‘Grey’s’ last night?” \n“Yeah, how crazy was that? I was definitely LMAO!”\nThe above conversation seems harmless enough. It could easily occur in a gabfest at a party, in a lunchtime debriefing between friends or even in a flurry of late-night text messages. But according to an unscientific IDS survey, such not-so-academically oriented discussions occur regularly during class time because of many students’ regular access to Facebook and instant messengers – all thanks to their laptop computers. \nAlthough some claim that laptops complement in-class lectures by allowing students to look up and clarify concepts that the professor presents, almost all the professors surveyed said laptops distract students from classroom participation.\nWhile lesson plans center on solipsism, students concentrate on Solitaire. While professors explain mitosis, wired pupils are more interested in Minesweeper. Kierkegaard? No thanks. With instant messenger at our disposal, it’s Kilroy’s that’s on our minds.\nSo should IU ban laptops from the classroom? Nah. Let’s face it. College isn’t cheap, but if a student decides to slack off instead of getting an education, that’s not the University’s problem. This problem, however, is nothing new. Ever since there have been classes, there have been classroom distractions. Although we don’t know this firsthand, we would be willing to bet that slacking teenage cavemen were busy chiseling each other notes about the mammoth they killed over the weekend while their poor teachers were busy trying to instruct them on the finer points of making fire. \nIn modern times, there are still plenty of vices that can sabotage the value of a college education, whether it’s excessive note-passing during class or excessive partying on weeknights. As long as these wired kids don’t distract others who are actually trying to learn, that’s fine with us. \nIf the use of laptops does prove to be a distraction in specific cases, individual professors may choose to ban them from class. At this point, however, only about 11 percent have done so, and we don’t expect the percentage to increase significantly in the near future. There are many other alternatives to an outright ban available. If the student is paying more attention to YouTube than to utilitarianism, kick the kid out! Or just include a provision in your syllabus reserving the right to take a sledgehammer to anything electronic and obnoxious.\nUniversity-level action in this matter is simply not necessary. If students choose to turn their college experience into a chat room with a $100,000 cover charge, so be it. They may develop carpal tunnel by the tender age of 20 from excessive use of emoticons during accounting. But, hey, that’s their personal choice. Our only question is, if you intend to mess with your laptop the whole time, why bother coming to class at all? Save yourself the walk – just stay home!
(03/19/07 4:00am)
As IU begins its road down a new presidency and expands its desire to transform IU into a research oriented university that will assist students, it has made the decision to demolish Margrave Apartments. The two-story apartment building off of East Third Street was built from 1928 to 1929 and is listed on the Department of Natural Resources 1996 list of Historic Sites and Structures. The announcement of its planned destruction in order to create space for a new IU School of Optometry clinic has raised concerns among the Bloomington Historic Preservation Commission, as in its view yet another historic building (following last years removal of the historic Kappa Sigma building) is being taken from the Bloomington community.\nThe destruction of Margrave Apartments, while possibly saddening for some who see it as a site worth preserving, from an academic and IU community standpoint is the correct decision. Placement of the new clinic, as any construction of new academic facilities, will benefit the IU students of optometry along with the clinics patients.\nFurthermore, it is not as if IU is merely tossing aside its history like a rag doll that a child has outgrown. Rather, Lynn Coyne, the assistant vice president for real estate and economic development at IU, said the University took measures to determine whether Margrave Apartments could be renovated in order to fit the needs of the school. However, it was determined that such a venture was not fiscally possible (quite a statement, given that the new clinic will cost IU about $3 million). Coyne also stated that renovation of academic buildings has been pursued in the past, but that Margrave was not an academic building.\nInstead of worrying about the destruction of an apartment building not yet 80 years old, concentration on the buildings that have been important to a wide array of students throughout their histories should be pursued. For example, the Student Building built in 1906 or the Indiana Memorial Union (its age, not much older than Margrave Apartments, does not explain its exponential utility).\nAccording to The Herald-Times, Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan says there needs to be better communication between IU and the community discussing what buildings are historic. By all means, better communication is always a plus. But at the risk of identifying at least slight hypocrisy, what exactly has a push for economic development of downtown Bloomington resulted in? Noodles & Company on the first floor of the newly reopened, historic Von Lee theater. Mmm, gotta love those noodles.\nThe destruction of Margrave Apartments will result in the betterment of the IU community and increase the potential success of optometry students. The building of the clinic, while maybe (emphasis on maybe) a historic blow to the community, will be far better in the here and now than Margrave Apartments will be. Emphasis on utilizing the space allotted to IU in order to build up the academic state of the University is of utmost importance. Margrave Apartments simply loses out on the basis of academic utility.
(03/09/07 5:00am)
Oklahoma State University, the heart of the Bible Belt, discovered there is in fact life after death. That is, life for its athletics department, after the death of its “respected” and “distinguished” alumni. \nLast week the university announced it had borrowed $20 million to pay for the premiums of 28 life-insurance policies, each worth about $10 million. The insured are all between 65 and 85, meaning the university will begin receiving annuity payments totaling some $280 million within the next 10 to 15 years. The policies are the brainchild of the university’s alumnus Boone Pickens, who wants to leave a powerful legacy at his alma mater. “We’d always joke around that we’re all going to go to that great cowboy nation in the sky one day, and this is a chance to leave a legacy and an impact on the future,” said Larry Reece, executive director of major gifts and development for the university.\nYou might be wondering how Oklahoma State University and the insurance company could both be happy in the end. Life insurance is a very confusing business that involves insanely complex statistical algorithms that we will neither try to comprehend nor explain. However, the process basically works like this: When an individual takes out a policy, he or she is essentially betting against his own longevity. Let’s say a $10 million policy has a yearly premium of $10,000, which means the insured will pay the insurance company $10,000 per year until that person dies, at which point the insurance company will pay the beneficiary $10 million. In the interim, the insurance company will take the money it receives in premiums and invest it, hopefully earning more than the millions being paid out.\nWhy not simply invest $20 million in McDonald’s or Starbucks and cut out the middle-man? The reason is simple enough: Life-insurance claims can be exempt from Federal Estate Taxes, known lovingly among Republicans as the “death tax.” By “investing” the $20 million in life-insurance policies, Oklahoma State hopes to create a tax shield for its financial future.\nSo when will our distinguished trustees, and noted alumni recognize their own impending deaths in order to save our failing athletics department? IU ought to start taking out policies on everyone it can, starting with the oldest: the trustees. God knows they’re just days away from keeling over anyway. \nThe new athletics facilities being planned will cost the University an estimated $55 million. We could pay for the entire construction by rubbing out just four trustees, and have four more cash cows left over just in case we should need to renovate Ballantine Hall. \nOklahoma State University’s plan is so brilliant that Texas Tech University, the home of former IU basketball coach Bobby Knight, is considering a similar program. We cannot allow this to happen. The perfectly morbid key to fiscal stability in IU’s athletics department is a double-indemnity clause on the dangerously unstable Knight, which would provide double the pay-out in the event of death by folding chair to the face during a basketball game.
(03/07/07 5:00am)
Plenty of films have been made about the Zodiac Killer, perhaps the most notorious unsolved murder case in American history. Of the ones I have seen, I could list plenty of reasons why they weren't that good, ranging from boring to lacking a cohesive narrative to being downright garbage. Yet, thanks to director David Fincher, finally emerging from his five-year absence post-"Panic Room," I can finally forget all the poor excuses for a Zodiac movie, as the man has crafted a masterpiece. \nUsing Robert Graysmith's excellent book on the case, Fincher's "Zodiac" spans 20 years through the eyes of Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), detective David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and police beat reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), examining how these gruesome murders would consume their lives. The young Graysmith is working at the San Francisco Chronicle when the Zodiac's first cryptic letter and cipher arrive in the editor in chief's hands, and he becomes obsessed with cracking the killer's codes in an attempt to prove he is more than the daily newspaper's cartoonist. His obsession would span decades, following lead after lead without hope, and ultimately his novel was birthed from these events, all in the midst of ruined lives and dead bodies littered about the Bay Area thanks to a killer who was never caught. \nFincher's film is absolutely brilliant. With a hefty running time of 158 minutes, Fincher takes Graysmith's novel and adds in his own paranoia of having been raised in Marin County, Calif., during the Zodiac's killing spree. The end product is a film similar to Spike Lee's "Summer of Sam," that being an examination of a city in which no one is truly safe when a killer is on the loose and is making such horrifying threats as "school children make good targets." With every step closer to solving the case, in reality, these men are taking two steps back, and Fincher captures their frustration and despair in every frame. What he also captures are murders so unnerving and so unsettling that they remain etched in your mind long after you've left the theater.\nPraise is to be showered upon Gyllenhaal, Downey Jr. and Ruffalo, all turning in excellent performances by getting wrapped up not only in their characters' minds but in the actual case itself. I must slight Fincher only a little for the fact that while everyone shows the wear and tear of 20 years aging, Gyllenhaal still looks as young as he did when the film started, except by the end he's managed to grow a five-day-old beard. Regardless, these are deep performances with strong supporting bits given to the likes of Brian Cox, Phillip Baker Hall and Anthony Edwards. And John Carroll Lynch, who plays major suspect Arthur Leigh Allen, is downright disturbing. \nIn the last five years, Fincher has turned down countless film projects that include "Mission: Impossible III," "Batman Begins" and even last year's unsolved murder thriller, "The Black Dahlia." What emerged in the end was "Zodiac," one of Fincher's strongest works, second only to "Fight Club," and it sure as hell was worth the wait.
(03/07/07 5:00am)
According to Walt Becker's "Wild Hogs," the easiest way to get over a mid-life crisis is to get four of your underachieving friends, some motorcycles and an air mattress that only sleeps three. Leave wives and cell phones behind. Adequate clothing is optional.\nThis movie opens with four separate sequences showcasing just how lame the characters have become in their middle-aged lives. Woody (John Travolta) has lost everything in a messy divorce; Doug (Tim Allen) doesn't have the respect of his own son; Bobby (Martin Lawrence) has a crap job and is afraid to stand up to his wife; and Dudley (William H. Macy) is a nerdy computer programmer who is afraid to talk to women. All four men decide to take their motorcycles on the road to reclaim their lives and their manliness.\nThis is an above-par buddy movie. Marketed (and seemingly made) for aging baby boomers, there is still enough slapstick humor and gross out jokes for the sixth-grader in everyone (the method of Dudley "doing his business" in the woods is hilarious).\nThe characters are well-developed and mesh together nicely. Established character actor Macy is the best part of the film, as he plays a role normally reserved for the likes of such buffoons like Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell. Ray Liotta turns in the second-best performance of the movie as the leader of vicious motorcycle gang, "The Del Fuegos." \nThere are great cameos as well from the likes of John. C. McGinnley ("Scrubs") and one-half of Tenacious D. The biggest cameo by far is Mr. "Easy Rider" himself, Peter Fonda.\nA detraction from this movie: It's highly predicable. Right down to the soundtrack (which includes AC/DC's "Highway to Hell") to the stereotypical biker bars, you have seen this all before.\nAlso, Fonda serves as a sad statement of the baby boomer generation. "Easy Rider" was about finding America on the open road. Forty years later, the establishment that "Easy Rider" resisted so much is now the norm. The hipsters lost, and Fonda is here to make sure everyone knows that.\nOverall, "Wild Hogs" is just OK. While the laughs are here, it's hard for the typical college student to relate to these men as they enter their mid-life crisis. My advice, wait until the DVD. Your parents will love it.
(03/07/07 5:00am)
Thus far, this has been a great decade for reunions -- and not merely because it has given all of us a chance to enjoy classic groups who disbanded before we graduated from nappies. Much of its greatness is due to the fact that vitally important bands who were snubbed in their heyday have returned to receive the attention (and financial rewards) that they richly deserve -- The Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., The New York Dolls, Mission of Burma, Sebadoh, The Jesus & Mary Chain, etc. \nAnd so, you'd think that a new album by The Stooges -- who, in hindsight, proved to be one of the critical bands of the 20th century (and with the late bassist Dave Alexander replaced by Mike Watt of legendary '80s punk band The Minutemen!) -- would be a cause for celebration.\nWell, you'd be wrong. Oh dear God, you'd be wrong.\nAccording to a Dec. 19, 2006, Rolling Stone interview, while they recorded their new LP, The Weirdness, in a quick seven days, the band spent three years writing 40 pieces of music, from which Iggy Pop chose 12 tracks to add lyrics and vocals -- making Weirdness a far more conscientious undertaking than the quickly written, quickly recorded, drug-addled process behind the Stooges' late-'60s/early-'70s masterpieces. However, upon hearing Weirdness, the idea that it garnered more than a week's preparation will simply amaze you -- the band shows no chemistry, little energy and three-fourths of the tracks are made up of such similar, generic components that they sound like the aural equivalent of paint-by-numbers. In their prime, The Stooges roared like a force of nature -- Weirdness "roars" like four middle-aged dentists who jam in a garage on weekends.\nBut what makes Weirdness both truly awful and unintentionally hilarious is Iggy's lyrics. Now, no one should expect Iggy to be Dylan -- but song after song approaches Spinal Tap territory. My personal favorite comes at the very beginning, in "Trollin'": "I see your hair as energy / my dick is turnin' into a tree." In "Free and Freaky," he rhymes "ah, Obama," "Dalai Lama," "baby mama," "ooh, Madonna," "Benihana" and "intifada" to create 2007's most instantaneously dated song. And preciously, in "ATM," he criticizes rich, pampered rock stars who "no longer rock." So, Iggy, exactly how much do you make by licensing "Lust For Life" for Royal Caribbean Cruises commercials, again?
(03/07/07 5:00am)
I did not see this coming. I don't know who could've. When I put on Rjd2's latest release, The Third Hand, I expected more of the instrumental rap songs I loved from his previous efforts such as Deadringer. Even the intro, a short, wordless throwaway, had me ready for some head-nodding hip-hop. Instead, as soon as "You Never Had It" kicked in, I spent the next 45 minutes trying to figure out if I was playing the right album.\nOver the first half of the album there is barely any evidence that this is made by the same guy who is known for putting dozens of samples in a single song; in fact, there isn't a sample to be found, RJ plays all of the instruments and is the only singer on the entire album. The music on here is closer to Of Montreal or Eels than anything resembling rap, as the majority of the cuts use keyboards and synthesizers in a decidedly un-hip-hop way. RJ's voice sounds cold and mechanical, like a guy afraid of singing, and the vocal tracks appear buried in the mix to make the lyrics seem muddled and incomprehensible. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however, because the lyrics that are decipherable don't offer anything particularly new and mostly stick to common pop themes, making the need for this release all the more confusing.\nEven the three instrumental cuts on the album do not resemble much of his old work at all. The greatest strength of old tracks like "Ghostwriter" was that they were fully fleshed rap songs even though they lacked the lyrics that are usually thought of as the basis of rap music. The songs without words on here, like "The Bad Penny," sound as if they are tossed off and incomplete.\nTo Rjd2's credit, this is the first album I have heard in a long time that actually picks up as it goes on. Some vestiges of his old persona shine through on cuts such as "Beyond the Beyond," which has melancholy, haunting background vocals, soft drums and funky keyboards worthy of a hip-hop record. In fact, while none of the songs totally deviates from the danceable-pop sound, the second half is filled with familiar-sounding drum loops and keyboards resembling the old RJ.\nFans of music are a fickle bunch, accusing their favorite bands of unoriginality when they make records similar to their earlier ones, but calling them sellouts or abandoning them as soon as they attempt an artistic leap. As badly as I want to go along on the leap, I just can't. I know that the intentions of an artist shouldn't affect the music he creates, but the feeling that RJ is just jumping on the indie-pop bandwagon stops me from diving in and appreciating this for what it is. Only time will tell if his jump from indie-rap powerhouse Def Jux to indie-pop haven XL has changed his style forever, but in the meantime this album is worth checking out just to hear a master at his craft experimenting with something completely different. I wanted to give the album an incomplete, because given Rjd2's output to this point, it seems unfair to give an album with such a radically new output a letter grade, but that shouldn't prevent fans of RJ fans of this style from giving this album a try.