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(01/10/08 5:00am)
To anyone who cried foul over the first half of the third season of "Lost" -- what were you thinking? \nFrom its 2004 inception, "Lost" has evolved like an epic novel, with each episode acting as both a stand-alone chapter and an involving piece of an elaborate mosaic. No one, however, had the stones to balk at Season 3's concluding half. The ever-deepening mythology, biting humor and final fearless plunge headlong into the future witnessed during the show's March-to-May run still has fans and casual observers alike talking. With a temporarily shortened Season 4 about to begin, the excitement among those who have stuck with the show from the beginning is palpable.\nThe cast of "Lost" remains uniformly excellent, with Terry O'Quinn (Locke) and Michael Emerson (Ben) rising slightly above the rest. The season, which started away from the beach and deep amid the land of the mysterious "Others" (probably the reason some fans protested), eventually returned to the beach and ended up off-island in real time. It's some journey and, after all, that's what "Lost" has always been about: getting found. Where it goes from here is bound to polarize some, intrigue others and blow the minds of even serious fans.\nThe seventh and final disc of this set is chock-full of enough behind-the-scenes material and Easter eggs to keep die-hard "Lost" fans occupied for a full day. Along with featurettes on the lives of the mysterious "Others" and a host of never-aired flashback scenes for specific characters, there are also the traditional blooper reels and obligatory deleted scenes. Full-episode audio commentaries are sprinkled throughout the first six discs, but the meatiest material here comes in the form of multiple "Lost on Location" segments chronicling the macro and micro levels of production, as well as the exhausting "Lost in a Day" feature that documents a given 24-hour period when several different episodes go through various stages of creation.\nThe fourth season of "Lost" begins Jan. 31 after an eight-month hiatus, and with only eight of 16 episodes set to air pending the Writer's Guild of America strike's conclusion, fans may have to wait longer than expected for the remaining episodes. I'm thinking that being one of the best dramas in television history earns "Lost" and its creative team a pass on time.
(01/10/08 3:15am)
In a recent case study, researchers have come to the realization that 87 percent of college parties will eventually play Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.” The song will not only be played, but it will also be enthusiastically lip-synced, sung or danced to by 92 percent of the party’s population.\nOK, by researchers, I mean me, so don’t hold me to those statistics. But “Don’t Stop Believing” has been a recurring anthem throughout my college career. The song itself is a vague enough description of a “small town girl” and “city boy” who practically any boy or girl could relate to. Or perhaps the subject matter and lyrics are universal. Maybe we’re all “living just to find emotion” and “born to sing the blues.” While the song touches on themes of loneliness and desperation, the title and overall theme are hopeful. \nFor a long time, I thought this song might just be a Hoosier anthem. It was not until I visited a friend at Middlebury College that I realized it might be a universal college phenomenon. For those of you unfamiliar with this college, Middlebury is a Vermont liberal arts school with an undergraduate population of about 2,350. In short, it shares few similarities with our dear old IU. When I accompanied my friend to her school’s formal, I found myself at an open-air dance with a cover band consisting of middle-aged men. The band tried its best to play classics as well as Top 40 hits, including Eminem. What got the biggest response from the crowd was, of course, “Don’t Stop Believing.” I couldn’t find a single individual not singing and dancing along.\nOf course, it’s not just college kids who love Journey’s power ballad. It was popular when it was first released in 1981 and has since passed the test of time. It’s been featured in movies such as the “The Wedding Singer,” “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” and “Monster.” It was even dubbed “the greatest song ever written” in the final credits of last year’s “Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Movie for Cinemas.” Kanye West recently performed a cover of the song in honor of his belated mother, Donda West. Shortly following the Sopranos series finale which closed with “Don’t Stop Believing,” the song became the No. 1 most downloaded song on iTunes. Although the finale itself received mixed reviews, it was clear fans didn’t want to stop believing. \nPersonally, I’ve always been impartial to the song. It was not until I realized its curious popularity that I became intrigued by its appeal. I understand the significance of artists like the Beatles, and even Boyz II Men. How many of their hits have become anthems of a generations? It is the longevity and quality of a song that makes it a classic, but I find this particular anthem more kitschy than anything else. This is why I ultimately believe we might need to stop believing and find a new anthem.
(12/06/07 5:00am)
The decision to make another "Die Hard" movie was questionable to begin with. The decision to edit it into oblivion to achieve a PG-13 rating was just silly. Thankfully, without box-office returns to consider, Len Wiseman's "Live Free or Die Hard" feels more naturalistic, if not as entertaining or effective as John McTiernan's installments in the series. \nThe selling point here is the depiction of Bruce Willis' iconic John McClane character as an "analog hero in a digital world." Imagine Gary Cooper in "High Noon" with military-grade weapons and a potty mouth. There's the plot (terrorists, mainframes and general computer-induced disaster looming over a helplessly technology-dependent society), and then there's the action. Of course McClane saves the day, as well as his daughter, played by the arrestingly hot Mary Elizabeth Winstead, but not before blasting countless baddies and dodging flying cars, helicopters and an F-35 Lightning II. It's over-the-top, but at least it keeps you in your seat. \nIf you're a fan of the "Die Hard" series, there's no question that the two-disc unrated edition is the one to buy. It's better to forget the PG-13 cut ever existed, and the movie benefits in every way from what's added here. On the supplements front, the first disc features a so-so commentary track with Willis and Wiseman. Disc two has a standard making-of doc, as well as a slightly surreal interview with Willis and co-star Kevin Smith. Aside from that, there's not much else going on here to warrant a double-disc presentation. \nCartoonish though it may be at times, the fourth installment of the "Die Hard" series is suitable, throwaway popcorn fare, better than "Die Hard 2" but out of the league of the original and "Die Hard with a Vengeance." Bringing back John McClane, and especially all the intangibles Willis brings to the character, make this (hopefully) final installment worth the price of the DVD despite its flaws.
(11/29/07 5:00am)
Shigeru Miyamoto and his development team have no problem sending shock waves throughout the video-game industry. Back in 1996, they stunned us all by introducing true 3D platforming with "Super Mario 64." Now, 11 years later, the team's "Super Mario Galaxy" expands the boundaries even further, beyond the confines of pesky things such as gravity and space-time.\nI'll spare you the story line (as perfunctory as many Mario games have ever been) and join the choir in trying to explain what makes Miyamoto's latest creation so thrilling. As Mario searches the galaxy for power stars and his dearly beloved Peach, the sheer expansiveness of it all calls to mind that sense of awe when playing "Super Mario 64" for the first time, except 500 times more expansive. Unlike "Super Mario 64," where oftentimes each world you visited felt like it had been mapped from the same basic blueprint, each of the galaxies in "Super Mario Galaxy" (be they beaches, forests, moons or strewn bits of space junk) feels fresh and ripe for exploration.\nThe game also pushes the Wii to its graphical and control-scheme limits, something no other game for the console has yet managed to do. The WiiMote and Nunchuck, which in the past had a tendency to become unwieldy with some games, feels like the only logical method of controlling Mario now. Graphics-wise, when I bought the Wii I never expected my jaw to drop over rendered environments and big, bad boss battles, but I'm still having a hard time picking my jaw up off the floor. The superb music also deserves a mention, as it's the first fully-orchestrated soundtrack featured in a Mario or Zelda game, which is something fans have been clamoring for for years.\nSo to all you remaining Wii-doubters, if you have an opportunity to give "Super Mario Galaxy" a try, don't pass it up. You might just find yourself converted.
(11/26/07 12:38am)
Every year, Oprah reveals “My Favorite Things,” a list of what she believes are the best products and gift ideas around. This is always her most popular show, as the lucky guests all receive some of her favorite things. This year especially, a lucky group of Macon, Ga., residents seemed quite hysterical when they received these offerings from O herself. \nI’ll admit that the HDTV refrigerator with weather and info center from LG Electronics is amazing. The entertainment center’s even got LCD TV and DVD hookup. And this is all in a fridge! But other than that, Oprah’s fave things are a bit of a letdown. So, I decided to make my own favorite things list.
(11/15/07 5:00am)
Say what you will about Michael Moore's opinions on gun control, the Middle East and the politics of fear. All his past films have been noble exercises in the exposure of societal and political ills, but they have also all been terminally assailable by the far right. "SiCKO," while still royally pissing off insufferable shitheads such as Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, is much, much harder to criticize, unless you're in the pocket of Aetna or still buy into the wide-eyed Reagan-era concept of socialist countries as "evil empires."\nThe stories contained in "SiCKO" are saddening and maddening in equal measure, and they shine a terribly damning light on health insurance and drug companies in America as profit-driven machines less concerned about saving lives than saving money. The only thing lacking in Moore's film is a deeper explanation of how tax dollars fund medical care in places such as France, England, Canada and Cuba. This should be assumed, yes, but sometimes you have to spell it out for people.\nThere is enough material for another movie packed into the features portion of this single-disc edition. Watching Congressman John Conyers' universal health care bill proposal and its subsequent falling on deaf ears is both inspiring and heartbreaking, and a brief but telling look into the daily life of Norwegians is the most effective case for expatriation I've seen in quite some time. Extended interviews with former British Parliamentarian Tony Benn, Che Guevara's daughter and several of the other people in the film are enlightening, and the featurette "Who Would Jesus Deny?" will stop you in your tracks.\nThe back of the DVD case features a quote of praise that I find inappropriate about the film, calling it "Michael Moore's funniest movie to date." I didn't leave the theater in stitches, and I surely wasn't glowing with joyousness after rewatching this at home. Yes, Moore infuses the pain with humor. It makes a bitter pill easier to swallow. But the woozy after-effects of "SiCKO," what it makes you consider and what it brings to light, will stick with you in the worst way.
(11/15/07 5:00am)
Nothing makes me happier than seeing Jack Thompson fail. The self-righteous litigator who makes his living by making it difficult for game developers to release their M-rated titles intact has rarely crusaded so hard against a game as with "Manhunt 2." Yet despite it still being unavailable in Europe, it's finally on shelves across this country.\nSo what's the big deal? Being the sequel to one of the most violent and controversial games ever made, a pack of watchdogs was bound to pounce on Rockstar's follow-up. The kills this time around are, for the most part, far more prolonged and brutal than in the first game. There's even the addition of gun kills, which push the limits further than what I figured the developers would. Still, it's cathartic stuff after hiding in the shadows and being stealthy for long periods of time. This time out, Rockstar has avoided the dreaded "Adults Only" rating by washing out the color during the kills, but it's still pretty evident what's going on when you're wielding a power saw and tracing it up some poor shmuck's spinal column.\nThe same cannot be said for the Wii version, however, which has its kills blurred to an even further degree. My advice to fans of the first game is to avoid the Wii version (even though the use of the WiiMote during kills is unique) and play the PS2 version, which stays truer to Rockstar's original artistic vision.\nThe only thing worth complaining about here, for those not offended by the gore level or minor control glitches in tight spots, is the game's muddy story line. The first game put its players in the shoes of a prisoner forced to star in a series of snuff films and whose primary motivation was to kill the director of said films. "Manhunt 2" puts you in the shoes of Daniel Lamb, an escaped mental patient who seems to be just as confused as we are about his motivations for murder. The plot really takes a backseat to the game play, and while some will balk at the haplessness of some of the game's A.I., there's no denying the adrenaline rush it gives.\nSo Moral Majority beware: "Manhunt 2" is finally on shelves and your savior Mr. Thompson has once again failed to deliver you from evil.
(11/13/07 12:45am)
Everyone knows Facebook applications are the worst inventions of 2007. They’re idiotic, annoying and superfluous. I guess the same could be applied to Facebook itself. But seriously, I haven’t found an application worth applying myself to.\nThat is, until Best Week Ever invented the “My Lil Lohan” application. You see, the job of the writers of Best Week Ever is to find all of the memorable phenomenons in the world of Pop Culture, and lately, Pop Culture has been in a rut. In fact, most everyone I know is in a rut. It’s a rapidly spreading epidemic. Even living vicariously through celebrity gossip is pointless, as it is just as mundane as ordinary gossip. \nAnd while Lindsay Lohan’s routine has long been mundane, “My Lil Lohan” lets you control her. Her life is just as idiotic, annoying and superfluous as Facebook Applications, that it only makes sense she deserves one. And the construction of the application is actually quite brilliant. \nNow in her post rehab days, you can decide which way you want to steer LoHo. Each day, you can either do something nice or something naughty. Nice things include feeding, shopping, staging an intervention. Naughty things entail inviting her to a party, buying her a drink or organizing a bender – an alcoholic binge. You can also give La Lohan a series of gifts – from a hack to disable a DUI anklet to a Tupperware set. Her reaction towards these gifts all depends on the way you treat your Lil Lohan. \nSo if you choose to take Lindsay out to lunch instead of to a party, and then give her a 40 oz., she will pour the beer out “for her drinking days, may they RIP.” Sometimes, it doesn’t matter what you do. La Lohan just can’t fight her natural urges. If you offer her a non-Parliament cigarette, you leave her with no choice “but to snort some coke and make out with a boy, resulting in a 1 percent loss of her health!” Give her some white powder, and she’ll “realize how much she missed the booger sugar, and she now stands a 1 percent less chance of staying sober.”\nMy favorite, however, was when I gave my Lil Lohan a slice of pizza. Because the pizza was delivered by a hottie, she boned him. This made her feel pretty even though she was eating “gross fatty pizza.” The experience made her 1 percent happier with herself. And of course, because “Facebook is for friends,” you and your pals can get your Lil Lohans together for a bender.\nUnlike those other silly applications about zombies and werewolves, My Lil Lohan allows any Facebook user to understand the inner mechanism of one of the most important cultural figures of our time – or something like that. I would even suggest that a Sims-like computer game be invented, celebutante style. \nIf you’re anything like me, you’re sick of annoying Facebook applications and tired celebrity gossip. “My Lil Lohan” is the cure.
(11/08/07 5:00am)
Some fans who remember the short-lived slice of TV heaven that was "Twin Peaks" will fondly recall the exhaustive search for Laura Palmer's killer and all the detours along the way. Others just remember a mush-mouthed dancing midget and a cryptic-slogan-spouting giant. Regardless of what images one associates with David Lynch's and Mark Frost's enigmatic series, there's no denying it was one of the most memorable works of scripted television drama in the last couple of decades.\n"Twin Peaks" is equal parts tongue-in-cheek melodrama and pathological, setting-driven murder mystery, but don't make the mistake of thinking that the point of Lynch's and Frost's tale lies in solving the mystery. Just like most of Lynch's films, the substance lies in the long and winding journey, not the eventual destination.\nAside from the mega-event of having Season One on DVD for the first time in ages, the supplements on this set make it worthy of a purchase. Both the original and extended versions of the pilot are here, along with lost promotional material and even an interactive map of Twin Peaks that points out where in Washington state to find iconic locations from the show. "Secrets from Another Place" is an excellent full-length documentary on the making, impact and decline of the series, and "A Slice of Lynch" is one of those extremely rare moments that presents a director (this time Lynch) in a personal light in which he's rarely glimpsed. Rounding out the bountiful supplements are a pair of hilarious "Saturday Night Live" skits from "Peaks"' heyday, and, for the first time, the complete set of eerie Log Lady episode introductions.\nThe fitting thing about the show's decline in ratings and popularity in the middle of Season Two is how the less control over the show Lynch and Frost maintained, the further it flew off the rails. It's another lesson of how artistic integrity trumps network focus groups and corporate meddling any day. "Twin Peaks," in spite of the network doing all it could to kill the series by answering questions that were never meant to be answered and generating love interests that were never meant to be generated, remains a fascinating but all-too-brief moment in television history, documented perfectly in this set.
(11/01/07 4:00am)
art I of season six of HBO's "The Sopranos" saw the New York and New Jersey families preparing for what would either be a transcendent ascension to legitimacy or a long, dark descent into the abyss. Despite the occasional jovial mood of the first few episodes of Part II, there's no avoiding the inevitable descent, as the two families set out on a collision course for each other like two of Bobby Bacala's toy trains on the same track.\nSome of the series' finest acting, writing and cinematography can be found in these final nine episodes as Tony struggles with his son's depression, wife's expectations, daughter's life decisions and therapist's misgivings about treating him. And then there's the family business. All the hallmarks of the finest Greek tragedy are on display as the New Jersey and New York crews hurdle toward their final confrontation, and there's no denying the emotional and visceral power of watching it all come crashing down on top of these beloved and maligned characters. This is television at its finest.\nSeveral cast and crew commentary tracks and a couple of quick featurettes (covering the series' music cues and Christopher's slasher film "Cleaver") represent the supplemental content on this set, and they don't make the $70 I paid for nine episodes any easier to swallow. Still, for longtime fans of the series, watching the last moments we'll ever see in the lives of Tony, Carmela, Meadow, A.J., Paulie, Silvio, Christopher, Bobby, Janice, Uncle Junior and Dr. Melfi is utterly priceless.\nAs for the much-discussed final scene of "The Sopranos," it could not have been a more perfect ending, and I question whether fans who were out for Tony's blood to be shed in front of his family during dinner at Holsten's Confectionery were actually fans all along. As Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" (perhaps, oddly, the most poignant musical choice in the series' history) plays and Tony's family arrives in staggered fashion, there's an uneasy sense of peace as Tony senses subtle danger all around him. It's a rare first-person look inside the paranoid head of a man who's shared his feelings outwardly through six brilliant seasons.\nWhat happened when that screen cut to black? I say nothing. In walks Meadow, the FBI continues to loom large, Tony's crew has been thinned some, relations with New York are good, and, in the immortal words of Steve Perry, "the movie never ends, it goes on and on and on and on ..."
(10/28/07 10:37pm)
Halloween is the most magical holiday around. For one night, we can be whoever we want to be. When we were kids, it was all about being our favorite Disney character or who we wanted to be when we grew up. Our goal was to consume as much candy as we could, which led to candy hangovers the next day.\nThis special holiday changes as we get older, however. Naturally, consumption of candy progresses to something that leads to stronger hangovers. As our costume ideas might mature, our creativity in assembling them doesn’t always. \nFor me, Halloween means becoming one of my favorite heroines, or just something straight up contradictory. For most girls, however, this implies dressing up as a slutty version of anything from Little Bo Peep to Raggedy Anne. We’ve all seen “Mean Girls,” so we know that “Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” \nExcept, I dare to say something about it. I don’t mind the sluttiness factor at all – I’m all for everyone showing off their best assets. Yet every Halloweekend, I find it quite depressing to see a line of ladies walking down the street, half of them wearing the same costume. What really irks me is the sheer lack of creativity in most Halloween costumes these days. With a little thought, you can be a sexy anything. Even a sexy Hillary Clinton. \nAnd since most costume manufacturers assume every lady wants to be slutty for Halloween, this is how they tailor all their wear. Just this past week, I was in search of my outfit when my blood pressure hit an all-time high. You see, for Halloween I plan on being Nicole Richie during her brief jail sentence. And ideally, I was searching for some sort of orange jumpsuit. I foolishly entered Spencer’s in the College Mall, and found $50 worth of a skimpy orange minidress. A male, who looked straight out of a porno, accompanied the lady on the cover. Now, the costume also came with a pair of handcuffs, which were actually less high-tech than the $2.99 pair I purchased from Kroger. \nSo I went over to Cactus Flower, and thankfully found a black and white striped jumper. The top was equipped with the aforementioned handcuffs, oversized sunglasses, boots, and a name tag that said “LA County Jail.” I transformed into the incarcerated Nicole. \nLadies, it is possible to be cute and creative. You don’t have to settle for typical and clichéd outfits. They’re overpriced and unnecessary. Halloween is meant to be different than any other night, but it just ends up like every other one. And drunken dudes are going to hit on you all whether you’re a rubix cube or a Playboy bunny. Unlike the portrayal of Halloween in “Mean Girls,” you can be something in between Lindsay Lohan’s “ex-wife” costume and everyone else’s lingerie with cat ears. \nAnd for those of you who dared to challenge the norm this year, mad props.
(10/25/07 4:00am)
Being the lesser of the two halves of "Grindhouse" isn't necessarily a bad thing. Maverick director Robert Rodriguez makes the most out of his second fiddle spot to Quentin Tarantino with "Planet Terror," a glorious exercise in pure camp that's a tip of the hat to every one of the B-grade zombie movies and horror flicks Rodriguez grew up loving.\nWhereas Tarantino's "Death Proof" successfully transcended the genres it was spoofing to create something fresh and original, Rodriguez is content simply to add another exploitation film to the canon, having wicked, indulgent fun all the while. The acting is laughable on purpose, and the script, despite being far wittier than those old movies could have ever hoped to be, is still "get us from point-A to point-B" material. Where Rodriguez hits his mark is with the entire movie's sheer ridiculousness. Thankfully, this two-disc unrated edition ups the gore factor even further, pushing NC-17 territory despite its pervasive cartoonish vibe.\nThe cast was clearly having a field day on set, with Rose McGowan and Freddy Rodriguez playing the formulaic hero and heroine and strong guest turns from Michael Parks, Michael Biehn and "Lost" actor Naveen Andrews as Abby, the testicle collector. The unbearably hot Marley Shelton is unmissable as Dr. Dakota Block, and Rodriguez's even hotter nieces Electra and Elise Avellan add a dash of insanity as the crazy Babysitter Twins.\nAs we've come to expect from Rodriguez DVDs, there's a fine commentary track (as well as a fun audience-reaction track), and another great featurette is Rob's valuable series of "film school" segments for aspiring filmmakers. Featurettes on casting and stunts are sprinkled about, and the "Machete" trailer that fans have been clamoring for is finally available on disc. Supposedly Rodriguez is considering making "Machete" into a full-length film, but I'd rather see it go down in history as a brilliant faux-trailer.\n"Planet Terror" is, in the end, a bundle of gory fun, no more and no less. As with most of Rodriguez's work, it's a jolt to the senses, and this edition will only increase the clamor of fans hungry for the ultimate "Grindhouse" edition that's sure to come.
(10/25/07 4:00am)
When I heard in 2006 that Steven Spielberg would produce a live-action adaptation of the "Transformers" cartoons, I felt like I had won the lottery. When I heard a while later that Michael Bay would direct it, I wanted to give my ticket back.\nI'll admit to owning most of Bay's catalog on DVD for the hell of it, but this time he was messing with my childhood. Several months and hundreds of millions of dollars later, I'm pretty sure he made the best "Transformers" movie that could have been made, despite cramming in some of his usual excesses.\nThe plot, concerning a life-giving cube called the Allspark and the two warring factions of alien shape-shifting robots who seek it, is standard action-movie stuff. The cast, including Shia Labeouf, Megan Fox, a wild-eyed John Turturro and a self-deprecating Jon Voight, know not to take the material too seriously and mostly hit the right notes. I wish Bay hadn't chosen to portray the Decepticon called Frenzy (the little one who turns into a CD player and a cell phone) with such Jar-Jar-esque silliness, though.\nThe stars of the show here, though, are the robots (a.k.a., the Industrial Light & Magic effects team). "Transformers" marks the third collaboration between Bay and ILM, the first being the disastrous but pretty "Pearl Harbor" and the second being the underwhelming but pretty "The Island." This time, I can say without hesitation that "Transformers" is some of ILM's best work in its 26-year on-screen history, and while we're at it, go ahead and give the sound technicians their Oscars. Very few films give me that itch to spend the thousands of dollars required to upgrade to in-home HD and Dolby Surround, but this one does.\nA single-disc version is out there, but the two-disc special edition is worth the extra cash. Bay offers up some dry commentary on the first disc, and the second disc is all about peeling back the layers of flash and scratching the surface of all of our "How did they do that?" questions. There's also some material explaining the "Transformers" universe to the uninitiated, a.k.a., those among you who didn't spend countless hours of your childhood watching Hasbro videotapes and playing with Optimus Prime and Megatron action figures.\n"Transformers" is the perfect popcorn fare because of its combination of eye-popping visual effects and ear-jarring sound work, along with subtle smarts not usually found in Bay movies. Still, don't pop it in the player expecting anything more than some guilt-free laughs, a couple of gorgeous girls and some well-choreographed robo-carnage.
(10/18/07 4:00am)
New albums in the history of popular music deserve torrents of superlatives in the same way as Blonde on Blonde. \nSure, this hulking beast of a record (the first studio double LP in rock history, at 71 minutes) starts off slowly with the absurdist "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35." But that's just Dylan sedating his listeners before the kill. From then on, it's Dylan at his most musically inspired and, more importantly, at his lyrical peak. A little more than two months after its release, Dylan crashed his motorcycle in Woodstock, N.Y., and his career took a dramatic turn. In the spring of 1966, however, Dylan stood at the forefront of a new musical consciousness.\nThe album's aftershocks are still being felt today. Recorded in Nashville, Tenn., with producer Bob Johnston and a band of impressionistic session musicians, Blonde on Blonde broke so much new ground that it's easy to lose sight of its importance. Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, classic though they remain, were mere appetizers for the hallucinogenic, improvisational mastery unleashed here. At a time when The Beatles were still performing "Drive My Car" to stadiums of screaming teenage girls, Dylan was explaining how "the ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face" without a hint of self-importance.\nTrying to explain why Blonde on Blonde resonates to this day is akin to trying to justify why Whistler's "Nocturne in Blue and Gold" still typifies and explicates London. In that, Blonde represents art rock in its infancy, even before Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was dropped like a fluorescent atomic bomb on an unsuspecting, meaning-hungry public.\nDigression doesn't serve Blonde on Blonde well. Sure, it's a fine example of what can happen when a ragtag band of revolutionaries hits the studio and freewheels until they're blue in the face, but something deeper was happening in February and March 1966 in Nashville, and it was mostly in Dylan's head. \nAs Dylan explained to Playboy Magazine in the late '70s, Blonde on Blonde was "the closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind. ... It's that thin, that wild mercury sound. It's metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up. That's my particular sound." \nIt's the sound Dylan will always be remembered by, too, for decades, maybe centuries, to come.
(10/14/07 10:07pm)
I gave up on the notion of defining myself within a subculture when I ultimately realized that punk is in fact, dead. I was 13 in Alabama – nobody gave me the memo. So I spent a year of my life refusing to listen to anything that wasn’t “punk rock.” Subsequently, I’m really into all pop music that came out around that time. It was everything that I suppressed, without any good reason.\nThen in high school, I laughed at the stoner kids in my art classes that considered themselves hippies because they wore tie-dye and liked Phish. I realized I used to be like that – phony and naive.\nWhile I now decline to define myself into any subculture, that doesn’t mean others won’t.\nHere in the good ole U.S. of A., we have to classify everything. Most importantly, our people.\nLoser. Goth. Bro. Slut. Whatever – we are always classifying others.\nNow, I don’t know who strangers think I am. Maybe a nerd, possibly a thug. But there’s always one classification that really gets under my skin.\nA hipster. And for several reasons, I cringe. I cringe like when I hear Ryan Seacrest making heterosexual comments when I know he’s dreaming of dudes.\nHow do I hate to be called a hipster? Let me count the ways.\nA hipster is many things. They tend to have great taste in music, but they are restricted to follow a certain criteria. This criteria is set by Pitchforkmedia.com.\nI’m not saying I don’t read Pitchfork. It’s a great source for news. I’ll glance at the reviews, scoff at some writers’ attempts to either impress or confuse others with their vast and plentiful knowledge. And I’m sure they do know more about music than most of us, but who really cares? We’re all singing to Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” at 2 a.m.\nWhich leads me to my other qualm. It’s apparently okay to like pop music now, as long as you do so in an appropriately ironic manner. Even the notion of a guilty pleasure is just a way to mask what you genuinely like,\nHere’s the conundrum: I know I have hipster tendencies. I like shopping for vintage duds and albums on vinyl. I love indie music – I’m even an intern for an independent music distribution company. And I can’t help but feel a bit discouraged at those who only know the world of the mainstream.\nSo maybe I’m still just as phony as I was in junior high. But this time, I have the audacity to think I wouldn’t belong to a subculture because I could actually be original. That just might be the most pretentious thing above all.\nBut I’m still going to cringe if you call me a hipster.
(10/11/07 4:00am)
Shortly after recording 2002's near-masterpiece The Rising with his longtime E Street collaborators, Bruce Springsteen got political. He also shed his rocker persona for a while and recorded two radically different albums: the haunting, acoustic Devils & Dust and the dusty folk covers of We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. For this brief moment in time, though, he's back on E Street, and once again he's showing the kids how to rock like tomorrow might never come. \nMagic is filling the stadiums on Springsteen's current sold-out tour, but most of these songs are meant to be long-remembered. Working again with producer Brendan O'Brien, who gave Devils its sense of menace and The Rising its gleam of human aural spirit, Springsteen has made an album that is spare and dense in equal measure. It only has a couple of clunkers, namely the banal "Human Touch"/"Lucky Town" throwback "I'll Work for Your Love" and the uninspired "Devil's Arcade." The rest of the record, though, is some of Springsteen's most resonant work since the late '80s. \nThe title track recalls the looming mood of "Nebraska," and "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" is a pleasing diversion. The remainder, though, finds the full band in peak form. "Gypsy Biker," the tale of a soldier coming home from war to a world of disillusion, is Springsteen's most stadium-ready rocker since "Born in the U.S.A." (ironically covering similar lyrical territory), and "Radio Nowhere" and "Livin' in the Future" explore the same emotional territory with more crunching guitar than we're used to hearing from the E Streeters. "You'll Be Comin' Down" and "Long Walk Home" find Springsteen on the occasional pop high, and "Last to Die" is the only political statement of the lot, but is destined, with its lyrics about false tyrants and would-be kings, to become a relevant anti-war anthem long after Iraq is left in ruins. \nIn many ways, Magic feels like a more personal album than Springsteen's last couple and therefore is a worthy successor to The Rising. Devils found him masquerading as others for a time, and We Shall Overcome was simply a tribute to one of his idols. With Magic, though, Springsteen is once again tackling modern times and commanding a sense of urgency from his band. If The Rising was all about shaking off the ashes, Magic is about what happens when those ashes are forgotten, and we're left to fight off the complacency.
(10/11/07 4:00am)
Ken Burns has taken on some massive topics in his time as a documentarian for PBS, including baseball, jazz and, most memorably and enduringly, the American Civil War. This time, he has chosen to deal with possibly the greatest conflict in modern human history: World War II. In approaching this universal tragedy from the perspectives of four American towns and their citizens, he has created another milestone of American historical documentation. \nContained within the 14 hours spanning these six discs is a wealth of video footage and photographs, some familiar but most never seen by the mass public before now. The collection has an endless supply of fascinating and emotionally charged interviews with living veterans, their families and average citizens whose lives were touched in some way by the war. \nAs the movie so often states, World War II impacted the lives of everyone in every nation that was embroiled in it. This was not a passive war, just as it was not an unnecessary one. Burns' essentially humanistic, tight-nerved approach to such a monumentally numbing, all-consuming horror is evident in every frame, and it is certainly his finest doc other than "The Civil War." \nSupplemental materials on this six-disc set include a fine making-of featurette that documents Burns' own documentarian tactics, as well as several deleted scenes, further interviews, soldier biographies and a gallery of photographs used and not used in the film. Most importantly, though, is extensive audio commentary by Burns and producer Lynn Novick discussing various topics that arose during the piecing-together of the doc. \nThe real meat here, however, is in the film. \nThere was much ado about Burns' lack of focus on Hispanics over the course of "The War," and apparently some footage was added at the last minute, but it does nothing to further or detract from Burns' overall vision and presentation. This is a very important work with a very high sticker price ($130, unless you manage to find a sale), but at six decades and millions of lost lives in the making, "The War" is an invaluable, eloquent eulogy to a generation.
(10/04/07 4:00am)
Bruce Springsteen records with the E Street Band for the first time in more than five years. After more recent excursions into acoustic sobriety and folk Americana, "The Boss" proves he can still rock out with the best of them.
(09/27/07 4:00am)
Many people criticize Quentin Tarantino for borrowing ideas and spicing them up for a new generation while tipping his hat to the past. Sure, "Reservoir Dogs" felt a bit like Ringo Lam's "City of Fire," and yeah, "Jackie Brown" is based on an Elmore Leonard book, and OK, "Kill Bill" practically sprays its influences on the walls. "Death Proof," most directly influenced by the likes of "Vanishing Point" and a host of obscure slasher films, is further proof why those people should give it a rest. Tarantino continues to spin his influences into gold, nabbing old genres off the dust-coated shelf and making them relevant and exciting again. \nAlways one to bring iconic actors back to the forefront, Tarantino injects life and humor into Kurt Russell for the first time since "Tombstone." His Stuntman Mike starts out menacing with a twisted sense of perversion (especially in a re-instated black-and-white sequence), but his devolution into a whining, emotional mess near the conclusion of "Death Proof" is a sight to behold. The rest of Tarantino's cast, with the exception of a poor acting turn by director Eli Roth, is excellent. Long dialogue passages work perfectly, with actresses such as Rosario Dawson and Vanessa Ferlito injecting their own personalities into the proceedings, and stuntwoman Zoe Bell (as herself) is a breath of fresh air. \nThe real cause for celebration here for Tarantino fans is the 20-plus minutes of extra footage included in this edition. There's the extended black-and-white sequence outside a convenience store, as well as added dialogue between Sheriff Earl McGraw and his son and the missing (and pretty damn hot) lap-dance sequence between Ferlito and Russell. All in all, it's a more effective and comprehensive cut than the theatrical one, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead being able to flesh out (quite literally) her role as the cheerleader-uniformed Lee, and Tarantino freer with his own editing choices. \n"Grindhouse" failed notoriously at the box office last April, and in some ways the decision to split the experience in two for its initial DVD release smacks of a shameless ploy at getting the studio's money back. There are still some amusing bonus features here, such as a tribute to Tarantino's longtime editor Sally Menke and a slightly in-depth look at the real stunt drivers behind the wheel of the film's mind-blowing vehicular sequences. It should, however, be obvious to anyone that there will be a comprehensive "Grindhouse" edition sometime in the future. Here's to hoping it doesn't take as long to materialize as the "Whole Bloody Affair" edition of "Kill Bill" that we've been hearing about since 2004.
(09/17/07 2:20am)
I spent the first part of my summer studying in Florence, Italy along with 35 other IU students. During my time there, I learned a lot about Italian culture, history and art. I also ended up learning a lot about American culture – specifically, IU culture.\nOur program was like a microcosm of IU. We even learned directly from IU professors in the comfort of our own pension and around Florence. We consisted of greek members, artsy kids, music majors, a football player and so many more. Within the group, I met some amazing people who I would have never gotten to know otherwise.\nI don’t know if it was because Florence is just a feel-good city, but for the most part, the 35 of us got along beautifully. The unlikeliest of bonds formed, and we looked like one of those posed and clichéd college brochures that try so hard to promote diversity. And we didn’t have to go through some “Breakfast Club” experience, either. That is, we didn’t need to overcome our stereotypes to become friends.\nSometimes, you can find similarities between yourself and others when you least expect. Take, for example, the moment I came out of my shell. I was in the back of our bus after sharing a set of headphones with the athlete in our group, loudly rapping along with Young Joc’s “It’s Going Down.” Clearly, you can make friends with pretty much anyone if you find a mutual song on your iTunes. I realized just how true this was on the many occasions I played DJ for my roommates, or when we all found common ground after coming across an online site that featured hundreds of TV shows. One of my roommates was 12 years older than me, but we bonded over “My So-Called Life” episodes.\nOf course, since everyone tends to flock to those with whom they share something in common, my overall IU group did have subgroups. It’s easier to get along with someone who shares the same interests and tastes as you. Plus, have you ever tried seating 35 in a restaurant?\nBut if you’re only spending time with people just like you, you don’t learn as much. If opposites are supposed to attract in romantic relationships, the same definitely applies to friendships too.\nWe all just wanted to enjoy our time abroad. We wanted to eat the tastiest food, see the best sights and go out to the crunkest clubs. When we longed for home, we watched our favorite TV shows and movies together. Now that I’m back at IU, the memory of Florence still lingers as I see my old friends. I realized that we’re all different individuals, but that we also have universal similarities. We are too often sheltered by our own subcultures and are not often enough exposed to other experiences.\nSo this year, I encourage you all to not be so quick to judge your peers. I urge you not to sit next to someone just like you in class. You could be pleasantly surprised. We’re all just human, after all.