ALBUM REVIEW Only built 4 lovers of lyrical hip hop
In 2009, XXL Magazine named San Pedro, CA rapper Johnson Barnes (a.k.a. Blu) in their Top 10 Freshmen of the Class of ’09. He was in good company — also featured in the dynamic decathlon were Kid Cudi, Wale, Asher Roth and B.o.B. Incidentally, the latter 4 are artists who can claim to have reached at least a basal level of superstardom, while Blu has remained relatively underground. Still, indieness aside, with <i>Below the Heavens</i>, Blu and Exile have managed to produce a debut album that has been lauded again and again by critics as a consummate underground classic.
FILM REVIEW This one is for the gamers
<i>Scott Pilgrim vs. The World</i> is one of those movies that you’ll either hate or love. People who are into manga and video games will have a lot of fun with this movie. However, those who have no connection to such worlds will likely find the movie to be over the top and nonsensical. That said, as far as gaming-related movies go, this blows <i>The Wizard</i> out of the water.
FILM REVIEW Action stars of the ages, unite!
One of the most highly anticipated movies of the summer, <i>The Expendables</i> is a collaboration and celebration of 80s and 90s action stars who have united in one movie with a sole purpose: make as much money as possible.
Music<br />2.0
<b>I</b><b>’ve been a digital groupie of many a band over the years. </b>Back in the late 90s I tape traded Phish, Dave Matthews, and Grateful Dead shows. I don’t mention it to most people now because Birkenstocks are out and it was awfully OCD, but it was my main hobby in high school. I’d find other fans on bulletin boards and we’d exchange addresses, burn a bunch of CDs and two weeks later, I could put on my headphones and hear something no record store carried. These listening sessions — think staying up late on a school night and sneaking a beer from the garage fridge — were some of my fondest memories growing up. Most of the time the songs were the same, but that wasn’t the point. I grew to love every nuance. I became a collector. In the same way that a band evolves from practicing the same material and playing together, so did my experience as a fan. This is the show where they did the six-minute vacuum cleaner solo. This is the show where Phish covered the White Album on Halloween.
IN MEMORIAM Anthony Rolfe Johnson
As best as these things can happen, he was the Cincinnatus of our musical world. Born November 5, 1940, in Tackley of Oxfordshire, England, Anthony Rolfe Johnson came relatively late to music, spending the majority of his twenties as a farmer, beginning his formal training at nearly thirty years of age at the Guildhall School of Music in London. Initially unable to even read music, Mr. Johnson eventually learned, continuing on to study with Benjamin Britten’s partner, Peter Pears, and making his operatic debut in 1973.
THEATER REVIEW The art of being an artist
<i>“You asked me recently why I maintain that I am afraid of you. As usual, I was unable to think of any answer to your question, partly for the very reason that I am afraid of you, and partly because an explanation of the grounds for this fear would mean going into far more details than I could even approximately keep in mind while talking.” </i>
FILM REVIEW Eat, pray, love, whatever
<i>Eat Pray Love</i> is a movie adaptation of the bestselling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert of the same title. It’s a story of overcoming a life crisis and finding personal balance again.
THEATER REVIEW Meet Hitler
I walk up two flights of stairs. The production is in a language learning center on the second floor. The decoration is sparse, the lighting fluorescent, industrial. There’s a small reception room with coffee and some chairs. The receptionist leads me around the corner to a small office room with fifteen chairs, facing inward at a single chair, and a bit table with a picture of Klara Hitler, Adolf’s mother. The windows are covered, one with a dark drape, another with a great red Nazi flag, with a manhole-sized Swastika in the middle. There are twelve of us. We are somewhat cramped. We wait.
AT THE MUSEUM Portraits of the modern American woman
Fashion photography tells a story. With each ad campaign, each extravagant photo shoot, haute couture designers and stylists are selling a story about a woman, about a lifestyle. The woman decked out in pearls with a cigarette perched between gloved fingers and leaning coyly into a handsome Clark Gable-look alike is perhaps a wealthy matron meeting her lover. The young girl applying eyeliner carefully, tongue stuck out in concentration allows the public an intimate glimpse into perhaps the last five minutes before a date with a beau.
FESTIVAL REVIEW Montreux, the musical petri dish
Jazz festivals are a strange, modern beast, a queer mix of federally funded tourist traps alongside the grassroots gatherings of lonely fanatics to meet, greet, and bitch about the state of culture today. On one hand, they’re a wonderful way to take in a huge breadth of musical diversity, to see and talk to the greatest practitioners of old and new jazz — a Davos for the aficionados of the world. On the other hand, they can be ridiculously expensive, attracting those who may have the funds to pay for tickets but not necessarily those who should be deciding the future of jazz. Certainly, Charlie Parker wasn’t playing for sexagenarians in lawn chairs. Even close to the peak of his career he busked on Manhattan streets for heroin money. Parker was the 1940’s hipster icon, the scourge of the squares, and the founder of bebop.
THE NOTEPAD Why Ke$ha sucks
Ke$ha is the latest in a series of things that suck. She’s got the usual dumpset-pop trappings with an extra dose of marketing zeal. <i>The Guardian</i> once called her a degenerate Miley Cyrus. It’s said she broke into Prince’s house to give him her demo CD. Her avaricious self-branding is her empowerment, and is, we’re told, zero parts objectification.
MOVIE REVIEW The awkwardness of reality
<i>Please Give</i> is a quirky movie that tickles your funny bone but thoroughly irritates everywhere else.
MOVIE REVIEW Inception: Architecture of <br />the minds
An idea is more than a thought. It’s a virus, a cancer of sorts, that can spread until it completely takes over a person, until it defines the person. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules. This is the premise of the film, <i>Inception</i>.
MOVIE REVIEW Inception: Caught between dreams and reality
“Dreams feel real while we are in them, it is only after we wake up that we realize that something was actually strange” says Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio).
THEATER REVIEW The art of being an artist
<i>“You asked me recently why I maintain that I am afraid of you. As usual, I was unable to think of any answer to your question, partly for the very reason that I am afraid of you, and partly because an explanation of the grounds for this fear would mean going into far more details than I could even approximately keep in mind while talking.” </i>
ALBUM REVIEW Soundtrack for the summer laziness
As an artist known for his gentle voice and acoustic stylings, Jack Johnson is a pro at creating lounge music to set the mood. His fifth and newest album, 2010‘s <i>To the Sea</i>, stands out for just that: a unique feel-good vibe that makes you want to keep listening.
MOVIE REVIEW The Last Airbender: Shyamalan flops again
As fans of the animated series the movie is based on, and as human beings in general, watching <i>The Last Airbender</i> was a painful experience. Fans will mourn the film’s lack of resemblance to the original; everyone else will mourn the ghost of M. Night Shyamalan’s storytelling ability.
CONCERT REVIEW Give me the funk: War kicks off concert series at the Hatch Shell
With bubbles floating through the air and peace signs diffusing through the crowd at a rate that would have impressed even Robert Brown, the flower children of Boston made a comeback at the first of 103.3 WODS’s Free Summer Concert Series on June 19, featuring the wildly popular 70’s funk band, War.
Uptown Espresso
Mandatory meetings at 9 o’clock in the morning should not happen, especially for software interns (and MIT students), whose natural sleep-cycle is more similar to that of a loris than a normal, functional member of society. But it happens, and it’s times like these when I’m glad to be working in Seattle, a city which boasts quite a competence in caffeinated beverages. After all, this is the home of the international coffeehouse chain which brought you the Frappuccino. Needless to say, after my meeting I needed a quality cup to get me through the day, and so I made my way around the corner to Uptown Espresso for a caffeine fix and some breakfast.