ARTS COLUMN MIT’s Spring Weekend
Filling out this year’s spring weekend poll, I was, yet again, disappointed with the selection. The class of 2010 has yet to see a rock band that writes new music. The Ying Yang Twins in 2007: no need to comment; Third Eye Blind in 2008: unoriginal power-rock; Ben Folds played in 2009: at least we hired a decent musician that year, but if it weren’t for copying Jeff Buckley, who somehow copied Elliott Smith, Ben Folds would still be opening for no-name bands in the East Village.
WHAT’S AHEAD
The French musical collective Nouvelle Vague creates irresistible bossa nova covers of unruly rock classics, sung by a revolving cast of chanteuses. Their latest, 2009’s 3, features another set of outstanding tracks and guest appearances by Martin Gore of Depeche Mode and Ian McCulloch of Echo And The Bunnymen. The groups earlier releases, 2004’s self-titled effort and 2006’s Bande a Part include memorable versions of “Just Can’t Get Enough,” “Making Plans for Nigel,” “Dancing With Myself,” and “Heart of Glass,” all of which have been in concert rotation. On this tour, Nouvelle Vague continues to subvert cult classics by The Clash, Joy Division, The Specials and many others into sunny, wistful pieces of exotica. Nouvelle Vague will be at Somerville Theatre next Sunday January 24th - come join The Tech at the show and look out for Arts Editor S. Balaji Mani’s review next week. For tickets and information call World Music / CRASHarts at (617) 876-4275.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★★ ½ / 4 Disney’s ‘Princess and the Frog’
Fellow Disney fans, we have what we’ve been waiting for: the first classic Disney animated film of the decade. <i>The Princess and the Frog</i> is a genuinely funny, heart-felt, feel-good adventure worthy of carrying the revered title of Walt Disney Animation Studios, after a dry spell in successful hand-drawn films since 1999’s <i>Tarzan</i>.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★★ ½ / 4 A Modest Film that Succeeds in Subtlety
Hollywood has no modesty. Since Tinseltown’s earliest incarnations, the illustrious directors and actors that have graced the big screen have attacked their tasks with a ferocious desire for distinction. As such, our cinemas are saturated with brainchildren of Michael Bays and James Camerons, waving their hands feverishly about, spittle flying across the room, conjuring up massive explosions and lush CGI landscapes. And why not? We watch movies to escape our dreary realities, to fall into a more captivating world. But once in a while, Hollywood will surprise us with a film that is deceptively modest, and we marvel at its unique beauty.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★ ½ / 4 ‘Leap Year’ Is Cute But Falls Short
Meet Anna. A cute girlish face with a no nonsense aura, her vivacious nature manifests only in her shock of auburn hair. The diminutive redhead seems to have it all — a doctor boyfriend, a wonderful job, gorgeous wardrobe, and on top of it she’s in queue for the apartment of her dreams. The only catch is that her cardiologist-of-a boyfriend, Jeremy, has not proposed despite their four year-long relationship. When Jeremy goes to Dublin for a medical conference, Anna decides to take matters into her own hands. She jumps on a plane and devises a scheme to propose to Jeremy on February 29th — spurred by an Irish tradition allowing women to propose to their lover on Leap Day.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★★ ½ / 4 Staff Writer Kevin Wang vs. ‘Avatar’
A<i>vatar</i> is like <i>Planet Earth</i> if it were 100 times more violent and all of the boring animals (I’m looking at you, ground sloths) were replaced by machine guns. If the CGI industry were a boxing match, going up against <i>Avatar</i> would be like fighting a Kodiak bear made out of flamethrowers. Over the course of over 200 glorious minutes, <i>Avatar</i> coldly and systematically makes the entirety of the rest of the film industry look like a handy-cam Youtube video of cats using a litter box. With a pure, creamy blend of wildlife and sci-fi helicopter battles, the film perfectly captures the crossover market between a National Geographic special and <i>Blackhawk Down</i>, and is one of the most stunning movies ever made.
TV REVIEW Glee & Musicals in the Context of Popular Culture
My first introduction to musicals in the popular media was through Zac Efron. The teen idol’s glaringly bright white smile set against the flawless tan skin gleamed at me from every cover of <i>People</i> magazine. This was known as the <i>High School Musical</i> craze. I was utterly flabbergasted as to how a made-for-T.V. movie could seize storms of teenage girls in a frenzy (not dissimilar to the <i>Twilight</i> fans). Of course, the High School Musical wave was more geared towards those in their late pre-teen years, still easily swayed by the smooth facial hair-less boys. When my friends started urging me to watch <i>Glee</i>, all I knew was that it was also a teen musical and shook my head adamantly.
CD REVIEW Genre in Review
Metheny-esque in his versatility, yet aggressively daring in his devotion to groove, Kurt Rosenwinkel is one of the most interesting and well-rounded guitarists on the scene today. Rosenwinkel seamlessly weaves together elements of funk, bop, classic rock, and modern compositional (a la Ravel), producing works that are both innovative and listenable — the well-mannered wing of the avant-garde, if you will. His work may be haunting, joyful, melancholic, or thoughtful, but it’s always modern, and ahead of the curve.
RESTAURANT REVIEW Where East Meets West
There is something intrinsically romantic and effortlessly cool about navigating the side streets of Downtown Crossing and slipping into an unassuming old bank building that opens up to the modern and impressive space that is Mantra. The restaurant and lounge specializes in French-Indian fusion but also serves a separate menu of traditional Indian cuisine. Everything about Mantra seems to appeal to a hip, trend-setting crowd, from young students and business professionals to young-at-heart executives.
THEATER REVIEW Lose Your Head At ‘The Mikado’
The Gilbert and Sullivan Players’ production of T<i>he Mikado</i> opened last Friday, and it illustrates a few points. First, the Victorian England of Gilbert and Sullivan probably had a very bizarre perception of 19th century Japan, after seeing this show if not before, and second, G&SP seem to be at the top of their game when dressed in kimonos.
Re-Learning the New. The Emerson String Quartet Performs works by Ives, Janáček, Barber and Shostakovich
Twentieth century music is generally associated with atonality and avant-garde experimentation; this is not necessarily an untrue association, and many of Friday evening’s composers are specially known for their forays into these movements. The music is not without its own narrative, its own tonal lexicon and rationale that somehow culminates in a cohesive thesis. All of Friday evening’s music was older than fifty years old, and it was striking to hear how much of this music has been adapted in to the collective idiom in the twenty-first century.
BALLET REVIEW Boston Ballet’s Nutcracker Sparkles
Choreographed by Mikko Nissinen, the Boston Ballet’s rendition of this classic hits all the familiar, comforting notes, while also including a few cheeky details to keep things interesting for perennial attendees. In an effort to trim the show to under two hours (a smart move, considering the number of children both in the corps and in the audience), the action proceeded with a frenetic pace. Act I opens with a Christmas Eve party at the Silberhaus home. Clara’s magical godfather Drosselmeier arrives at the party bearing animated gifts, including a dancing bear unique to the Boston production. (As a figure skating Chewbacca once told me following a performance of Star Wars on Ice, “It is not easy to twirl in a big fur suit.”) Each of his gifts performs a small, cleverly arranged sequence that helps you understand what Toy Story would be like if it were ever adapted for ballet.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★ / 4 Out of the Mouths of Babes
I have to preface this review of <i>Brothers</i>, which is based on the Danish film <i>Brødre</i>, with a remark. I’m not a fan of musical manipulation in movies. Overly sappy instrumental music always struck me as unoriginal, as if the director wanted to cover up poor direction or poor acting.
OPERA REVIEW ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’
During Thanksgiving weekend, The Metropolitan Opera staged a rousing revival of Mozart’s great comic opera, “The Marriage of Figaro,” that was characterized by uncanny comic timing and keen acting. It wasn’t without a few weaknesses, however, which became apparent when the musical performance failed to match the acting in energy.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★ ½ A 3D Christmas Carol
Robert Zemeckis (<i>The Polar Express</i>, <i>Beowulf</i>) has made yet another film using 3D performance capture technology, with his latest piece of work, <i>A Christmas Carol</i>. Jim Carrey plays Ebenezer Scrooge in this digitally animated take on the classic Christmas story.
CONCERT REVIEW Doomsday in Paradise
A New York City native leading a New Orleans-inspired funeral dirge, playing from the Sacred Harp and preaching doomsday at the hipster infested Paradise Club. Discombobulating? Circuitous? Consider it just another detour on the remarkable career of Elvis Perkins and his band Dearland.
OPERA REVIEW Love and Loss in Arcadia
Of the fifteen books of Ovid’s <i>Metamorphoses</i>, the story of Acis and Galatea occupies less than two hundred lines of a single book: the mortal Acis and the nymph Galatea are in love, but the cyclops Polyphemus (yes, that Polyphemus, the one from the <i>Odyssey</i>; he, like most everything else, also has a back-story) is in love with Galatea too. As these things go, Galatea rebukes him and Polyphemus, understandably upset, expresses his rage in the only way he knows how: he crushes Acis with a boulder. Ovid completes the metamorphic tale on a light note, where Galatea, in her grief, immortalizes her lover by turning him into a river. The story, the plot all imitate dozens of others in the work, enough so that it seems like this one was another in a series of filler material Ovid had prepared to pad his tome.
CD REVIEW Digital Primitives: Playing ‘Out’ with a Compass
The world of free jazz can be a harsh place, a radical, norm-destroying battleground, with the players, in their attempt to create something original, spending a lot of time focusing on tearing down the old. All that chopping and carving and shaping can turn a collaboration into a pile of dust if you aren’t careful. The solution: focus on the basics.
CONCERT REVIEW Sonic Youth’s Relentless Rocking
Sixteen albums and twenty-seven years after the release of their first, self-titled studio album in 1982, Sonic Youth has made a career of wowing crowds all over the world in the promotion of their newest work. Last Sunday, Sonic Youth rocked the older crowd at Boston’s strangely arranged Wilbur Theater out of its argyle socks, and proved that having appeared in a tour video named <i>1991: The Year Punk Broke</i> does not prevent a band from contemporary greatness.