Community Arts

Nation's capital anxious for verdict

WASHINGTON -- In the nation's capital, the tight election is dominating conversations and imaginations. From street corners to television channels in bars, politics was everywhere. The first election in history that is too close to call has captured everyone's attention -- political junkie or not.

MTV makes a jackass out of itself

Do you want your MTV? You can have mine. I sure as hell don't want it anymore. For four years, I've watched the channel in my attempt to stay attuned to the music world. My brain has melted enough from the prolonged exposure. Whenever I watch the network for too long, I feel myself devolving into a sensory-deprived beast, and nowadays I escape to the Weather Channel for higher quality programming.

B-Town Bar Crawl

A few Saturdays ago, a friend asked me to go to some fraternity party with her, but I said no. Later that night I drove right on by Kilroy's Sports Bar, just as a line of preppy-cute guys was starting to form. And I didn't even look in the direction of Kilroy's on Kirkwood or Nick's, places I sometimes frequent on 'not much else to do so might as well down a few' Saturday nights.

Back in the High Life with Superdrag

Anyone remember Superdrag? MTV, 1996? Buzz-bin hit "Sucked Out?" Catchy power-pop number, a-la the Beatles or Cheap Trick, full of driving guitars and impassioned chorus? No takers?

'Bull's' stock rising

Career envy is one of the necessary ingredients of any great television show. Take some attractive stars, decent writing (a little less decent if the stars are really attractive) and put them in a highly enviable job environment, and it's a pretty good bet the show will be a hit. Throngs of viewers will tune in each week to vicariously live out their dreams of becoming highly successful doctors, lawyers or journalists at glamorous fashion magazines.

Holy Gazongas

Breasts! If this columnist had to sum up David E. Kelley's new dramedy "Boston Public" (8 p.m. Monday, Fox) in one word, it would be "Breasts!"

The week in music

Art within the angles

Herman B Wells had been thinking of a "cultural crossroads" at the heart of the IU campus since 1939, when he was first installed as its president. Here were two points -- the Union and the Library, with nothing between them. What Wells wanted was a space which students could pass through while moving between the two busiest points on campus. The University also needed a museum, as its collection of art was largely hidden in the vaults of what is now the Fine Arts Building.

Yve Adam crushes listener\'s hopes of quality

Hearing an album that starts out great but ends up mediocre is actually worse than hearing a CD horrible from beginning to end. At least a terrible CD doesn't raise any hopes of quality. It would actually be more fun to write an all-around negative review of Fiction, the American debut of Canadian duo guitarist/vocalists Adam Popowitz and Yve. But parts of the album are very enjoyable. So enjoyable that the bad parts just seem worse.

Harvey matures

When PJ Harvey burst onto the rock scene with Dry, she was a fountain of cathartic rage, with crunching guitars and yelping lyrics. Now, what was started with the 1995 classic To Bring You My Love has come full circle on her sixth full release Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. PJ Harvey has matured, and the sum is equal to the whole of her parts.

\'Ghost Tropic\' worthwhile

While the saying "Never judge a book by its cover" is usually true, the cover of the new Songs: Ohia album is a perfect representation of the contents that are held within. Ghost Tropic's cover is completely black with the exception of the title in white. The songs contained on this album are dark dirges of complete and utter melancholy, but there is a brightness that tries to fight with great futility to the surface of each of the songs.

Bah humbug! to Aguilera\'s Christmas album

Jay-Z pours out his heart on new album

Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter's new album The Dynasty Roc La Familia (2000- ) is no Reasonable Doubt, his 1996 debut which still stands as his best album to date. But Jay-Z's latest is no Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life either. So be warned y'all Jigga fans and haters -- it is apparent from the get-go that Jigga's onto some different stuff this time.

U2 returns

"In the days/When we were swinging from the trees/I was a monkey/Stealing honey from a swarm of bees." Accompanied by a folksy strumming of the guitar, the above lines kick off "Wild Honey," the seventh track off of U2's first album in three years, All That You Can't Leave Behind.

The Patriot

Mel Gibson's underappreciated (both in terms of box office and critical praise) Revolutionary War epic recently made its debut upon the DVD format in a pristine Special Edition cut.

The John Woo Collection (The Killer and Hard Boiled)

Capitalizing on the success of John Woo's recent flicks like "Face/Off" and "Mission:Impossible 2," his seminal ballets of blood are reaching DVD for the first time in a wide-release box set. These two films feature international superstar (and rightly so) Chow Yun-Fat, in roles where he has charisma to burn, guns in both hands and a cigarette and/or toothpick protruding from his mouth.

Natural Born Killers

Heavy-handed as Oliver Stone might be, this is his magnum opus. "Natural Born Killers" is a vivid catalogue of how to push cinema to its ultimate extremes with the usage of every film stock known to man, acid-jazz editing and one hell of a soundtrack. Mickey and Mallory Knox are not killing for pure fun; they are killing as an attempt to destroy the hatred that is brewing in every piece of pop culture's junk yard. The greatness of the film lies in their failure to do so.

Mission: Impossible 2

The highest grossing and possibly most genuinely enjoyable popcorn flick of this past year in abominable cinema was released upon the DVD format this past Tuesday.

Men in Black

Summer event movies just don't get better than this one. The movie obviously has tons of glitzy visual effects and stunning production design by Bo Welch, but it is also smart and funny. Fans of the movie who have been impatient for the release of the DVD will be pleasantly surprised to find the three DVD versions of the film well worth the wait. But those with extra cash will definitely want the limited edition of the DVD.

City Lights shows Cagney, Bogart classic

The ultimate in over-the-top greatness -- James Cagney -- stars in this melodrama oozing with crime and intrigue. Cagney's Rocky Sullivan, which earned him an Oscar nomination and a New York Film Critics Award for best actor, finds himself out of juvenile detention and in cahoots with the Dead End Kids while a former buddy turned priest stands in his maniacal path.