Playlists
Rescue Spa
It’s official: stressful reading days will soon replace the crisp, carefree days of fall. Luckily we’ve found something to take the edge off.
Brotherly Love
Ever since Cain killed Abel, brothers have been at each other’s throats in a fierce competition for success, respect and love.
Speaking Out
When I was a freshman, my Intro to Sociology professor began a lecture with the following question: “By a show of hands, how many of you agree with the statement ‘I am a feminist?’” In a room of over 100 students, only three hands went up.
The Round Up: 12.3.09
Thanksgiving Break didn’t officially start until Turkey Day itself (thanks, Penn!), but most of you ducked out of here long before that.
Recipe of the Week: Gluten-Free Nutter Butter Blondies
Ingredients: 16 oz creamy almond or peanut butter 1 cup agave nectar 2 eggs ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup chocolate chips (divided) Directions: Mix the almond or peanut butter until smooth and creamy.
Let Freedom Ring
While most of us do have free reign to eat what we please, some of us do not. As you enjoy a piece of your favorite chocolate cake, your gluten or dairy intolerant friend washes a dry piece of cake down with a glass of (soy) milk just wishing her wheat, butter and egg-free version tasted half as good as your slice.
No Bread for You!
Lara bars These date-based bars combine a maximum of eight fruits and nuts. Do not let the all natural and gluten-, dairy- and soy-free ingredients scare you away — these delicious snack bars break all the health food stigmas.
Your Favorite Restaurants Are Celiac-Friendly
Lolita 106 S. 13th St. (215) 546-7100 The BYOT Mexican restaurant boasts a 95% gluten-free menu.
Guilty Pleasures: Jawbreaker (1999)
The late '90s were saturated with teen comedies; almost formulaically, most of these films followed a predictable arc, incorporating high school cliques, romance, rebellion and of course… prom.
Less Than Fine
Based on Giuseppe Tornatore’s 1990 Italian film Stanno Tutti Bene, Kirk Jones’s Everybody’s Fine presents a traditional holiday story told from a slightly different perspective — that of the middle-aged parent. In this family dramedy, Frank (Robert De Niro) is a newly widowed father who decides to surprise each of his children (Kate Beckinsale, Drew Barrymore and Sam Rockwell) with a visit after they cancel their planned trips home for a family weekend.
Reitman Takes Off
Street: Do you have a director’s playlist that you listen to for each movie that you do? Jason Reitman: Usually I have one song that gets me in the mood to write each film and strangely enough in all three of my movies that song has never [shown up]. For Thank You for Smoking, it was the song, “I’m a Man” by Steve Winwood.
Really Bad Lieutenant
A remake of an obscure, NC-17 cop drama, Bad Lieutenant: Port Call of New Orleans, starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Werner Herzog, sounds more like the result of a cinephile’s game of mad-libs than it does an actual movie.
Hit the Road
Considering the tremendous success of the last silver-screen adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel, No Country for Old Men, it’s no wonder studio giants The Weinstein Company seized the distribution rights for a movie version of the author’s latest Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Road. The eponymous film, the big-budget debut of Aussie director John Hillcoat, centers on an ailing but tenacious middle-aged man (Viggo Mortensen) and his young son, some years after an unspecified cataclysm that has left the earth bleak and barren, extinguishing almost all human life in a maelstrom of earthquakes and flames.
Stunning Red Cliff
Don’t believe what the trailer says about “the fight of a few.” Red Cliff features some of the largest, most spectacular battles you’ve seen in the cinema for a while.
Crash Landing
There are a number of animated films that adults can love. Pixar’s impressive catalogue is full of hilarity and thoughtfulness that children cannot fully appreciate, and taking a child to see Wall-E or Up could hardly be considered a chore.
Furry and Fantastic
Fantastic Mr. Fox is like watching a fusion of Ocean’s Eleven and Over the Hedge on three tabs of acid.
From the Editor: 11.19.09
Oh, Shoutouts, you are a fickle mistress. Some people think you are too mean. Some people think you are too tame.
Mert Alert!
It is a positively blustery November evening. Sitting in cramped room 121 of Sansom Place East, members of Penn’s Medical Emergency Response Team sit and wait for a call that will alter the course of the night’s heretofore quietude. “Requesting medical assistance: injured female at Sansom Place West between 36th and 37th Streets.” Almost instantaneously, the three EMTs on duty leap to their feet.
Spread the Message
Almost everyone is familiar with the admonishment, “Don’t shoot the messenger.” But what if the proverbial “messenger” has already braved gunfire overseas?
