INTERVIEW A matchstick chat with Travie McCoy
Travie McCoy is perhaps best known for being the frontman of the alternative hip hop band Gym Class Heroes. More recently he’s recognized for the song “Billionaire” with Bruno Mars, and his debut solo album Lazarus. I spoke to Travie McCoy about Lazarus, and unfortunately, what I was hoping to be long, romantic fireside chat was cut to 15 minutes by his mean ol’ publicist — I could only squeeze in a matchstick worth of conversation.
INTERVIEW On writing, acting, music, and quirkiness
When I participated in a conference call with Donald Glover on Tuesday, I was so excited for the opportunity to talk to the actor who plays Troy on the show Community. Little did I know that I was also going to be talking to Donald Glover the actor, writer, rapper, comic, and awards show host. Some may recognize Glover from his work as a staff writer on 30 Rock, and more recently, his gig hosting the mtvU Woodie Awards this past Wednesday. The awards honor the biggest names in indie rock and hip-hop by bestowing them with a chunk of wood.
ALBUM REVIEW Lupe’s Third
Lasers is an album to die for. Just ask Lupe Fiasco himself, who once revealed to The Guardian that at one point during its production, he was “super-depressed, lightly suicidal, at moments medium suicidal — and if not suicidal, willing to just walk away from it all completely.”
ENTERTAINMENT FEATURE 83rd annual Academy Awards recap
The Academy Awards: a night of fashion, entertainment, extravagance, and above all, excellence. While this year’s show — held last Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. — was bursting to the seams with three of these four, it fell disappointingly short on the entertainment front. Anne Hathaway and James Franco, a Best Actor nominee himself, added little spontaneity and even fewer laughs as younger, more “hip” hosts — albeit not without a lack of effort on Hathaway’s part. Her enthusiasm was well placed, but Franco’s spacey demeanor and an overall lack of good jokes far outweighed any true entertainment value. (I mean, did he really have to walk out in a dress?)
MOVIE REVIEW A mix of black comedy and realism
If You Are the One II is Xioagang Feng’s sequel movie to If You Are the One, which was released in 2008 and became immediately popular in China. The movie is a formidable sequel in an industry where most follow-up movies tend to fall short of expectations. It is filled with emotionally subtle passages, well-placed irony and sarcasm, and elements of black humor that serve as a personal but painful reflection of what we all feel. A dark-humored romantic comedy, the movie does not conclude with a Hollywood ending. Instead, it is a reminder that human relationships are full of complications and unanswered questions.
CONCERT REVIEW Smiling and dancing the night away
Suspicious smells, beanies, floral dresses, flannel shirts, and quite a lot of plaid surrounded me as I walked into Paradise Rock Club. The light-hearted venue was small, which meant that wherever I stood, I would actually see Dr. Dog as a group of musicians, rather than tiny 125-decibel-generating figments in the distance. It felt personal. The ticket was cheap. Such are the benefits of liking an obscure band.
DANCE REVIEW Explosion of color and flying acrobatics
Shen Yun Performing Arts troupe dazzled its Boston audience at the Citi Performing Arts Center’s Wang Theatre in three evening performances from Friday, Feb. 11 to Sunday, Feb. 13.
The King’s Speech ... and more
This year’s group of nominees for Best Picture will provide a tough challenge for Academy voting members. The tight race will most likely come down to The Social Network and The King’s Speech. Though many fans view Black Swan and True Grit as strong contenders, they are more likely to take awards for actor and actress, with Natalie Portman practically already holding the Oscar for Actress in a Leading Role. Despite the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed The Social Network, The King’s Speech should win the Oscar this year. Between the impressive directing and cinematography and the brilliant performances by Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush, and Colin Firth, the film is a standout among the contenders.
Crushes, confessions, things that thud in the night A short review of the Oscar-nominated shorts
The Confession (Tanel Toom)
FILM REVIEW Heroes and villains in True Grit
The latest film by Joel and Ethan Coen, True Grit is the second adaptation of the 1968 novel by Charles Portis about a tough U.S. Marshal helping a stubborn young girl find her father’s murderer. John Wayne starred in the 1969 adaptation as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn. True Grit is has been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Jeff Bridges). Fifteen-year-old newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, who was chosen among 15,000 other competitors for the role of Mattie Ross, was nominated in the category Best Supporting Actress.
Arts staff place their bets for 2011 Oscar wins
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Colin Firth in The King’s Speech
INTERVIEW How much do you really know about your roommate?
How much does he or she know about you? Relationships between two people who know each other tend to become fragile and volatile when they begin living together. What happens when you have to live with a complete stranger in the strange new land that is college? Suddenly everything is a crapshoot. In theatres nationwide today, The Roommate explores the budding relationship between two strangers, including one who happens to cross the line.
THE STERNEWIRTH PRIVILEGE 2010 Vintage Ale — a great value
There’s an old tradition that workers at a brewery are freely-able to consume beer when they are thirsty at work: the Sternewirth Privilege. Today, I bring to you a new Sternewirth Privelege — a Tech column which will review beers that should be brought to the attention of the beer-lovers of the MIT community. I also hope to inspire new beer lovers, and expose the world of good beer to those that are sick of the traditional party fare. If you’ve never had a beer before that you’ve enjoyed, it might just be because you’ve never had the right brew for you.
The Year in Arts
What with earthquakes, volcanoes, and oil leaks, 2010 had almost enough disasters to make The Day After Tomorrow seem closer to everyday life. The arts and entertainment world chose to confront these events with creations of both truth and fantastical fairy tale, dark or otherwise. Perhaps the fact that a Picasso painting sold for 106.5 million dollars illustrates this strange but successful marriage between substance and imagination.
The Silver Screen in 2010
The King’s Speech, True Grit, Inception, and The Social Network garnered the most nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards. But what about the films that didn’t get an Oscar nod? Here are some of the good and the mediocre.
THEATER REVIEW Geeky. Humorous. Inspiring. Powerful.
When I invited a friend to see the play with me, he asked me who R. Buckminster Fuller was. My response was, “He’s an architect, some kind of engineer … I think.”
FILM REVIEW Dark and perfect
Darren Aronofsky is a director who seems to love to explore the dark side of human nature, and there’s a whole lot of that to explore. It’s easy for us to pawn off our dark side on the orcs and demons in stories, and on some deeper level it probably makes us feel better about ourselves. But every villain, monster, and atrocious real-world act in our recorded history was the creation of human beings.
MOVIE REVIEW Doesn’t just sting, it hurts
I’m not a superhero buff, but I could tell that The Dark Knight and Iron Man were great superhero flicks. The Green Hornet, directed by Michel Gondry (of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind fame, and once an Artist-in-Residence at MIT) and starring Seth Rogen and Jay Chou was not a great superhero flick. It wasn’t even a good superhero flick. It promised an exciting and witty blend of comedy and action, but failed to deliver either in significant amounts. One or two chuckles and a mildly entertaining final action scene couldn’t make up for another hour of vapid dialogue, lackluster 3D, and a general sense of “what’s going on here?”