Arts & Entertainment
The Week in Music
4/4: Handsome Furs North Star Bar, 21+ One of the best new offerings from the beleaguered Canadian indie rock scene, Handsome Furs succeeds by avoiding the over-instrumentation that spelled death for many other Wolf Parade member collabs.
Spirit Animal
Ever wondered what it's like to drop acid in the Canadian wilderness? You can get a rough idea by watching Caribou, aka Dan Snaith.
Best Album to Cry To
The Smiths' best album, Meat is Murder, is not music for a light sob. This is an album for a "I am human and need to be loved" hardcore cryfest.
Internet Video of the Week
The video entitled "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!" catapulted its creator, crazed Britney fan Chris Crocker, out of the dark corners of Internet obscurity and into the spotlight.
Defibrillator
The Dukes of Stratosphear Chips from the Chocolate Fireball 1987 As a break from their somewhat more somber projects, the British new-wave group XTC traveled back in time to pay homage to their musical influences under the pseudonym The Dukes of Stratosphear and produced Chips from the Chocolate Fireball.
Cinema Graphic Novels
5. From Hell (Adapted from From Hell by Alan Moore) A 2001 Jack the Ripper flick starring Johnny Depp, From Hell pretty much sandbagged in the box office.
Best Album to Study To
Erik Satie, an early 20th century avant-garde composer, basically invented the study album when he created the world's first "furniture music" - organized sounds that, much like a nice ottoman or rocking chair, can fill a room without becoming its focal point.
In Case You Missed It
I used to think only pretentious deviants with spectacles lowered halfway down their noses liked foreign films.
Profile: Terrence Malick
Anyone who asks you, "Who's your favorite director?" deserves to be a Cinema Studies major. Punch the pretentious asshole in the face, but do please answer him.
The Propaganda Trajectory
When one thinks of the word propaganda, the image of an American flag raised above soldiers dressed in camouflage comes to mind.
This Week In Music
3/28: The Raveonettes World Cafe Live, All Ages WXPN's Free at Noon Concert Series brings The Raveonettes, an alluring Danish duo whose sugar-coated harmonies and feedback-drenched guitars will please anyone within earshot.
Bossy
"First of all I would like to thank God for making me the boss I am." That's how Rick Ross begins his acknowledgements in the liner notes of his new album Trilla.
Mountain of Difficulties
The Mountain Goats - started in 1991 as a lo-fi solo project by songwriter John Darnielle - played in the basement of the First Unitarian Church last Thursday, March 20.
American Beauty
Although it has been nearly five years since her last studio release, Erykah Badu's fourth LP New AmErykah was well worth the wait.
Because Steven Spielberg Is Getting Old
If the phrase "student film" makes you think of last night's exploits splashed across YouPorn.com, you haven't embraced the Greater Philadelphia Student Film Festival (GPSFF). A contest for Philadelphia-area university students, the festival gives awards in five different categories.
Iraqi War Inspires Triteness, Cliches
Poignant, pertinent and made with noble intentions, Stop-Loss aims at greatness only to slide into mediocrity.
Defibrillator: The Get Up Kids, "Something to Write Home About" (1999)
As a precocious 12-year-old at summer camp, I worshipped my 20-year-old senior counselor. She had a boyfriend and a tattoo and was impossibly cool.
'N' Is For Nollywood
The tides of globalization swept across Africa long before Kofi Annan joined the UN or Akon "smacked that". Wed to Asian, European and American influences, many of the continent's cultural practices are syncretic responses to outside technologies, politics and aesthetics.
Teen Angst
On their debut album Reality Check, The Teenagers espouse the hormonal tribulations of that eponymous age range with a twisted Parisian/Californian adolescent perspective.
