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.
CONCERT REVIEW Falling Out of Love, Italian Style
Far more than being in love, falling out of love seems to be a popular topic of music. Various iterations of the break-up song have been written for nearly two thousand years and set to music for a far shorter time, never more cleverly and expressively than the Italian masters nearly five hundred years ago. The MIT Chamber Chorus provided a glimpse into the panoply of techniques and expositions of these musicians.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★ ½ / 4 After End of Time, Father and Son Follow ‘The Road’
Scrawled in spray paint, “Behold … the Valley of Slaughter” serves as an ominous warning before the director lowers his lens into the desolation of bleak hopelessness and human depravity. <i>The Road</i>, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name written by Cormac McCarthy (<i>No Country for Old Men</i>), focuses on an unnamed father (played by Viggo Mortensen) and his son (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee) as they struggle for survival after a previous cataclysmic event wipes out most of the life on Earth. Those remaining must scrounge around for supplies as they encounter impending perils, such as dwindling health, the unforgiving elements, and cannibals. The father is driven to lead the pair to the coast, hoping there will be other “good people” like them.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★★ ½ / 4 ‘Red Cliff’ — An Epic of Chinese Philosophy
Blockbusters these days run on one platform. There are heroes and villains, honesty and deceit, escalating action and affection, and a grand purpose at stake. Flashback to the summer of 2008: America’s box-office triumph <i>The Dark Knight</i> was China’s record-breaking <i>Red Cliff</i>. The Joker could be Cao Cao, the power-hungry chancellor war-mongering in an otherwise content land. Batman and Harvey Dent could be Zhou Yu and Liu Bei, the morally righteous leaders trying to stop Cao Cao. The characters trick and threaten, manipulate romance, and the fate of Gotham City translates into the fate of the Chinese Kingdoms. There is really no point in concealing the ending: in either film, you learn that there is no winner or loser, but only a volatile society and uncertain peace. You might ask, then, what’s the point? No doubt, <i>Red Cliff</i> delivers the same edge-of-your-seat gutsy thrill and suspense <i>The Dark Knight</i> does, but this film’s unique value comes from its insight into a lasting Chinese school of culture and philosophy.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★★ ‘Precious’ Will Leave You Speechless
Emotionally, physically, and sexually abused by both her mother and father, Clareece “Precious” Jones is born into a life that no one would ever want to be born into. As the terribly child-like and misspelled opening credits scrawl across the screen, it’s difficult not to gasp at the horror of her illiteracy. “Who let this happen?” you ask. “Who could possibly be so heartless?”
MOVIE REVIEW ★★ ½ Werewolves, Vampires, and Love Triangles, Oh My!
The Twilight scene is a cult. This is a fact. Granted, about 95 percent of the cult is female, so perhaps a “far-reaching fanbase” would be a more appropriate description. According to my friend, who did a headcount, out of the 196 viewers in my theater, there were only 12 male audience members.
CONCERT REVIEW BSO Presents Saint-Saëns and Stravinsky
An anxious group exited the Symphony T stop at the Green Line, bee lining to the greeters at the door of Symphony Hall. Exactly at 8:03 p.m., the symphony finished tuning and welcomed the rushed audience with a sweet poem: “Pastorale d’été,” a symphonic poem by Arthur Honegger. Honnegger’s style in “Pastorale d’été,” generally associated with the 1920s avant-garde, contrasts with his peers’ — coined the “Groupe des Six” — in that Honegger believed that the new era of music resulted from transitioning from the traditional, as opposed to cleanly breaking away. He embraced the value in balance and virtue, which is exhibited in “Pastorale d’été.” One flute, an oboe, a clarinet, a bassoon, a horn, and strings create a lyrical song of a pleasant summer day in the fields.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★★ A Cataclysmic Production Devoid of Emotion
It is the year 2012. The end of the world as we know is fast approaching. Due to a rare planetary alignment, an unprecedented solar flare is heating up the Earth’s core to the point that the crust will destabilize. The ensuing seismic and volcanic activity followed by gigantic tsunamis are bound to wipe out all life from Earth. There is no way to stop the cataclysm. But there may be a way to weather it out. Or is there?
CONCERT REVIEW Grab Your Studded Belts, Kids…
Have you ever seen an eight-year-old child headbanging? Ever had a bearded, screaming stranger claim that he could be your own personal therapist? Ever seen an eleven-year-old wearing a shirt declaring that “The All-American Rejects Are Really Good Looking”? If so, you probably need professional help, but you might also have attended Taking Back Sunday and the All-American Rejects’ concert at the intimate Showcase Live last week.
INTERVIEW Matthew Fazzi Tells All
Taking Back Sunday guitarist and backup vocalist Matthew Fazzi took a minute to talk to <i>The Tech</i> about joining the band and the current tour.
INTERVIEW Expanding on Minimalism
The Boston Choral Ensemble prepares for its 2009–2010 season featuring Thomas Jennefelt’s <i>Villarosa Sequences</i> on Friday, November 20 at First Church in Cambridge and Sunday, November 22 at Old South Church in Boston. <i>The Tech</i> interviewed conductor Miguel Felipe about the upcoming program. More information about this performance and the Boston Choral Ensemble can be found at <i>http://www.bostonchoral.org/</i>
MOVIE REVIEW Daring Director Explores the Perception of God
What is God? The question begs an answer for which generations of human beings have waged war against one another to prove themselves correct. And yet, the answer is still out there, waiting for the reconciliation between beliefs before making a universal debut.
INTERVIEW ‘Oh My God!’ Director Talks with ‘The Tech’
Peter Rodger is an award-winning British director whose unique photo-imagery craftsmanship makes him one of the most sought-after artists in the British and American advertisement industry. <i>Oh My God!</i> is the three year, life-changing non-fiction film that explored peoples’ perspectives about God which debuted on November 13.
CONCERT REVIEW Hi-fi, Lo-fi, Faux-fi
The sold out Paradise Rock Club filled up early in preparation for Tuesday night’s Concert. The youngish crowd, a veritable hipster-bingo board of plaid, alt-girl headbands, and greasy faux-hawks, could probably have contributed enough optical strength with their combined square-rimmed glasses to focus the death star. Similarly hip, the Brooklyn-based Dirty Projectors took the stage to crowd calls of “let’s get dirty!” and vigorously belted out their unique, soaring rock music.
CONCERT REVIEW Opening to ‘The Complete Symphonies’ Garners Applause
Conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos led the Boston Symphony Orchestra to a fabulous performance in a sold-out program featuring Beethoven’s Symphony Nos. 1, 2 and 5.
THEATER REVIEW Side Show Puts Singers On Display
The MIT Musical Theater Guild opened their <i>Side Show</i> (book and lyrics by Bill Russell, music by Henry Krieger) last weekend, and in keeping with a long-standing sideshow tradition, offered an experience that was different and unforgettable. Of course, the metaphor collapses when you realize that, contrary to being the stuff of nightmares, MTG’s <i>Side Show</i> is not only enjoyable but is one of those rare musicals that elicits drama without resorting to character death (not that there’s anything wrong with that, Mr. Whedon) or <i>deux ex machina</i>.
CONCERT REVIEW Lorin Maazel Leads a Worthy Finale
In the final concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s <i>The Complete Symphonies</i> series, celebrated conductor Lorin Maazel led the orchestra to a remarkable performance of Beethoven’s Eighth and Ninth Symphonies. Maestro Maazel, former Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, conducted the orchestra in the last two episodes of the series in place of Maestro Levine.
The BSO CollegeCard
The Boston Symphony Orchestra regularly makes available concerts to MIT students free of charge under the CollegeCard program which is also subsidized by the MIT Office of Arts. More details are available at <i>http://web.mit.edu/arts/see/freetickets/.</i>