Ten9Eight Shoots for the Moon and Misses November 21, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentby Josh Hylton, Staff Writer
Upon arrival at the official website for the new documentary, Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon, the first thing to catch the eye is a quote praising the film. The quote comes from the U.S. Secretary of Education. Clicking further through, quotes from the Chancellor of New York City Schools and the Executive Director of the Merrick School of Business at the University of Baltimore are highlighted.
The one thing all of these people have in common is their affinity for learning and watching students succeed. Though their intentions are noble, they, by all accounts, really have no idea of what constitutes a good or bad movie. They merely see the message, an admittedly good one, but fail to recognize the film’s importance, or in this case unimportance. While certainly not a terrible documentary, it is not something I can see garnering much praise upon its release.
Ten9Eight follows a select group of inner city teenagers as they compete on a national scale in the National Youth Entrepreneurship contest where they create their own products and businesses and pitch them to a group of judges who decide which entrepreneur has the most viable business model.
By plucking kids out of inner city areas, the film’s main goal is to show how tough their lives have been and how uplifting it is to see them overcome their hardships and make something of themselves. Some of the teens have dealt with poverty, others with sexual abuse and others with drugs. These stories, however common they may be, are touching and meaningful.
But then comes the story of a girl who created a special kind of dog treat, one that did not contain material known to cause cancer because, whaddya know, her dog died of the disease. The fact that comparisons are made between this paltry, unimportant “disaster” and afflictions of real life consequence is insulting.
This film feels like it should be an hour-long Dateline special, which would boil down to about 42 minutes with commercials, because that’s about as much content as it contains. To make up for the extra time needed to justify its existence as a motion picture, the filmmakers highlight people inconsequential to the entrepreneurship competition, like one teen who didn’t even make the cut to get into the finals, a deaf kid who is in the picture only as a means to manipulatively tug at our heartstrings, and not one, but two former contestants in past competitions, neither of which have any real bearing on the rest of the film. These sections were little more than an artificial lengthening of an already exasperated picture.
Though it is inspiring at times to see underprivileged teens refuse to go down a path of destruction and pursue their own business endeavors, this film simply does not give me much reason to care because it does nothing that countless others haven’t done better.
There are lots of documentaries that detail kids overcoming their hardships that don’t force you to sit through a myriad sob stories and boring business presentations. I implore you to seek one of those out instead.
Bob Dylan Brings the Blues: Rock Legend Keeps Fans on the Edge of Their Seats During Patriot Center Performance November 17, 2009
Posted by Sonya Hudson in : Style , add a commentEmily Sharrer, Editor-in-Chief
When you’re songwriting deity Bob Dylan, praise comes without try. So despite the fact that his tunes are a-changin’ and these days “Like a Rolling Stone” has morphed into a much mellower melancholy anthem without all the triumphant vocals of the original recording, fans remain loyal to the 68-year-old frontman.
On Wednesday night, Dylan took to the stage with a devil-may-care attitude, delving deep into his vast pool of music to give Patriot Center patrons an eclectic 100-minute set that sampled only a handful of folk favorites reincarnated.
These days, Dylan is much more blues than he is folk, but fans didn’t take issue with the freewheelin’ Dylan’s approach to his music — even the classics, which, save the lyrics, are nothing like they were in their heyday.
He didn’t play “Blowin’ in the Wind” or “Mr. Tambourine Man,” everything was electric and if you didn’t know anything about Dylan, folk music wouldn’t have even crossed your mind. But folk be damned, it was really Bob Dylan.
Knowing full well there is a lot of great music Dylan wasn’t going to play, the crowd was enthralled with the tracks he did choose which came from almost every dusty corner of the crooner’s wide collection.
On stage, Dylan is known to be quiet, letting the songs do the talking. The legendary frontman was somewhat indifferent during his set, though there was certain nobility in Dylan’s rigidity; his demeanor commanded the audience’s attention, which the crowd offered up willingly, staring on in awe as Dylan navigated through his set list.
To accommodate his now-desolate vocal abilities Dylan quickly spoke the lyrics to his songs in a voice that is now no more than an odd croaking that at times is reminiscent of an Adam Sandler or Scooby Doo impression.
And so the set went: Dylan remained enigmatic, transitioning quickly from song to song, only mumbling to the crowd twice during his set, to say a brief “thank you” and introduce his band, keeping fans on the edge of their seats.
Backed by a truly talented group of musicians—which once again includes acclaimed guitarist Charlie Sexton—Dylan went back and forth between his keyboard and center stage where he kept the audience’s attention like a true legend. The audience looked on with gratitude as the musician played guitar, keyboard or harmonica, grabbed at the microphone, and owned his set in a black suit with yellow trim.
Dylan was at his finest towards the end of the set, reaching out to fans most notably with his altered-for-the-stage version of “Workingman’s Blues #2” off of 2006’s Modern Times. Leaving the audience heartbroken with his mournful and reflective lyrics, Dylan stood on the stage as a rock legend illuminated. “If you heard my whole story, you’d weep,” he rasped, inviting the audience to share a deeply moving moment with him just before digging into the title track off of 1965’s Highway 61 Revisited.
Playing the same encore he’s been pedaling this whole tour, Dylan rounded out the evening with three crowd favorites: “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Jolene” and “All Along the Watchtower,” but again, the songs were not as they sound in their original form. Instead of the uplifting, near shouting chorus of “Like a Rolling Stone,” Dylan recited his lyrics quickly, and as if performing a trippy poetry reading, put emphasis on the last word in each line of “All Along the Watchtower.”
Although the songs took on a new sound and the stereotypical Dylan as a visionary voice of the ‘60s has all but disappeared, for Dylan fans, it seems the rock god can do no wrong. As long as he continues to tour, it seems a certainty that Dylan will always have an arena full of dedicated followers waiting to hear what direction he takes his music in next. Seeing the hold Dylan had over the crowd and the many generations of fans present, it was evident that last Wednesday night, concertgoers were truly in the company of one of the greats.
Playing House: Artist Peter Marcus Displays Prints at Mason November 17, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentMarian McLaughlin, Staff Writer
“The house serves as the portal to metaphors of the imagination,” said Jon Stilgoe in reference to Gaston Bachelard’s philosophers on architecture. This same idea is reflected in Peter Marcus’s work, as seen this month in the Fine Arts Gallery on campus.
Marcus, a printmaker whose style is anything but limited, has a series of collaged collagraphs on display alongside the colossal, assembled sculptures of Joan Hall.
Together, the two create elaborate, large scale structures that encompass a variety of printmaking techniques. Whereas Marcus dabbles by marrying digital images with intaglio ink, Hall uses handmade paper and pulp to create emerging, organic images.
Houses are the dominant subject matter in Marcus’s prints. His canvases, often times longer than 10 feet, are homes for homes.
Growing up in St. Louis, Mo. and Jamestown, R.I., Marcus recreates the imagery and unique architecture from these towns through his work. Yet, there is something slightly off-kilter about his representations. Although they are realistic and drawn to scale with punctual perspective, these houses seem to be situated in a surreal scenario.
Perhaps this feeling is due to the lack of boundaries, roads and other elements that create ideal neighborhoods and real estate properties. Some of his prints have sparse vegetation or small strips of lawn but, for the most part, these expansive houses float in the open space of a bleak, dripping gray background.
Then the viewer begins to question: are these homes real or figments of the imagination? It is known that these structures are based on actual models, but these replicas only resonate from Marcus’s mind.
And with his mark and style, Marcus adds even more character and dimension to these homes. He cuts away at certain angles in the roofs of the digital image, allowing the intaglio ink to pop out and become a highlighted feature.
In some of the houses, he removes the windows, leaving stark white space. Other windows show snippets of houses, which creates a “picture-in-picture” effect; a home in a home. How is this possible?
Houses are supposed to hold people, not other houses. But here, windows serve as teasing thresholds, allowing perspective from the outside in, or vice versa.
Here, they are blank and ghost-like, except for the select few which show miniature features of homes, turning the main subject into a series of nesting dolls almost.
These houses become containers and, through the small snippets of windows, viewers will only grab a sneak peak of the inner content.
What else do these homes contain? Are they abandoned or inhabited? Are they furnished or sparse? It is difficult to focus on the immense interior and ideas of intimacy when these prints have a stronger emphasis on the outer structure.
As viewers, however, Marcus’s audience has the ability to look closer, guided by his mark-making, to only imagine so much more.
Changing the Textbook Biz: Website Offers Affordable Alternative to Expensive School Books November 17, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentPatrick Wall, Style Editor
It has bankrupted some. For others, it has forced them into jobs working long hours. No, it’s not Wall Street. In fact, to some, it might be even worse.
Textbooks.
Of all the routines students go through at the beginning of each new term, book buying is easily the most dreaded. Parents groan as they empty their bank accounts and students lament having to carry what often feels like a bag full of bricks to class each day.
But students across the country and across campus have found a new way to get the books they need and save money at the same time. Enter Chegg.com.
Founded in 2007 by Aayush Phumbhra and Osman Rashid, Chegg started as a classifieds site for college students but quickly took its current form. The site refers to itself as the “Netflix for textbooks,” an apt description. The site allows students to rent the textbooks they need without having to purchase a book they might not otherwise use after the semester ends.
Students can search books by title or by professor. From there, they are shipped via UPS. The savings are eye-catching: Phumbhra said that the most popular book rented from Mason is a math book listed at $134. Chegg offers it for $35. Without using any of the math found in that book, it’s easy to put the savings together.
The site has certainly come a long way. The site, whose name is an allusion to the ancient “chicken and egg” argument, now reaches over 6,400 campuses nationwide. Phumbhra hopes the site will reach all of the nearly 8,000 colleges in the country by next year.
Mason students have responded positively to this concept, having rented over 2,000 books. The service has grown largely through word of mouth, something the bigwigs at Chegg have noticed. “It’s a very important campus for us,” said Phumbhra.
As well as the folks at Chegg seem to know their customers, it is no surprise that they have used the Internet to find new ways to connect with students. Chegg boasts a burgeoning Facebook and Twitter presence.
Perhaps continuing the nature-inspired namesake of the company, Chegg works with conservationists Global ReLeaf to create a green initiative. After checkout, students are given the opportunity to plant a tree for every book rented, purchased or sold. At that point, students select if they would like to plant their trees in Guatemala, Cameroon or Lake Tahoe. To date, the partnership boasts over one million trees planted.
If Phumbhra’s ambition is any indicator, Chegg.com figures to be a household (or dormhold) name before long. For him, the appeal is all about the savings. “You can save $500 or more. We listen to our students and provide exceptional service. Plus, we plant trees,” he said.
Food in the Bedroom: These Snacks Will Get You in the Sack November 17, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentKatie Miller, Staff Writer
When used appropriately, food can do more than just satisfy your stomach.
Touted as sure-fire performance enhancers, aphrodisiacs have ignited sexual desires for centuries.
The sexual power of certain food’s tastes and textures can bring new flavor and excitement to any relationship.
Sadly, most of the beliefs about aphrodisiac’s ability to improve your libido are simply myths that have survived centuries of oral tradition (pun intended).
So if foods like chocolate, chili peppers and oysters– three of the most well known aphrodisiacs –are simply placebos, why have these rumors survived?
The reason? We give these foods their sexual power. If we think something is sexy, it will be. But there are other misunderstandings about aphrodisiacs that further reveal why they still thrill and excite us.
First misconception: they are not just foods. According to the Discovery Health website, health.discovery.com, anything sensory that enhances sexual pleasure and prowess qualifies as aphrodisiacs.
Most arousal ultimately comes from a person’s own association with the item’s taste, smell or symbolism—not just with the food’s chemical composition.
Ultimately, without understanding what you and your significant other find appealing, there’s no way to find that particular food that fulfills your fantasies.
But for those of you unsure of where to begin, here are a few pointers to help satisfy your cravings.
Bright, juicy strawberries can be extremely effective since they pack an appealing smell, a sweet taste and sexy associations. Other fruits like cherries, grapes and bananas conjure images of specific sexual encounters and yes, even body parts. Although this might make some people giggle, others find direct associations to the acts and objects of our sexual appeal both enticing and invigorating.
The spot for the food is just as important as the food itself. So decorate everything from your deltoids to the delicate tips of your fingers. And don’t be afraid to be cute with your experiments. Playing around can be just as much of a turn on.
What you shouldn’t do: line yourself with sushi and wait for your actor boyfriend to come take them off of you. That’s a lesson we can learn from Samantha on Sex and the City.
In all seriousness, if sushi is what twists your chain, go for it, but it is completely un-sexy to be left waiting. Keep communication open with each other, and if you are going to try and pull off a surprise, avoid foods that could smell or that keep you immobile. You risk ruining your own sexy buzz and wasting a lot of good food, neither of which are appealing.
What you should do: set up a time for you and your special fellow or lady to experiment with a food you both find sexy.
Whipped cream body-shots served as a great date night for a friend of mine. Slightly messy and at times ticklish, but overall, the whipped cream made both feel exotic and intimate.
So even though a banana or a piece of chocolate can’t actually replace Viagra, the sheer fun of playing with something sweet and sensory can create a sexy and tasty experience that satisfies both of your desires.
Second Time Isn’t a Charm: The 10 Sequels You Wish You Hadn’t Paid to See November 17, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentRoss Bonaime, Staff Writer
This Friday, much to the chagrin of the many people who don’t want their eardrums to burst from screaming, The Twilight Saga: New Moon is set to be released, looking to be packed with not only vampires, but werewolves as well.
Also released this month was the sequel to cult classic Boondock Saints. Because of these unfortunate sequels, here are the top ten worst sequels of the decade.
10. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
When audiences went to go see the fourth film in this groundbreaking action franchise, they hoped for more of Indy killing Nazis and discovering lost treasure. Instead, Doctor Jones found himself in the middle of a broken family, with Shia LeBouf as his lost son, Indy finding alien lifeforms and even surviving a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator. With the latest installment, Indiana went from a pulp comics action hero to a baby daddy having adventures too ridiculous to believe, even for Indy.
9. Big Momma’s House 2
It’s bad enough that Martin Lawrence is still making comedies, but for him to make a sequel to one of his most terrible comedies is even worse. In the film, for some reason, Lawrence once again uses his “big momma” suit to infiltrate a family and get information on the husband, who has created a terrible computer virus.
But surprise, surprise, the family becomes attached to Big Momma, making it hard for him to let go. It’s almost like Mrs. Doubtfire, if Mrs. Doubtfire wasn’t funny at all.
8. Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd
With this prequel to the classic Farrelly brothers comedy, we see how idiots Harry and Lloyd first met and when they were in remedial high school.
The problem with this is that, while in the original they were just, well, dumb and in the wrong place at the wrong time, they now are almost so dumb that it seems as if they have mental problems.
7. Legally Blonde 2: Red White and Blonde
Reese Witherspoon returned to the Elle Woods character that earned her a Golden Globe nomination with this terrible follow-up.
In the sequel, Woods moves to D.C. to work with a congresswoman to help stop animal testing. She even names the bill after her dog, naming it – get this – Bruiser’s Bill. The film teases a sequel where Woods goes to the White House. If Elle Woods becomes the first woman president, I’m moving to Canada.
6. Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2
Now no one expected this sequel to be anything redeeming, but it is too ridiculous to not have on this list. A group of superbabies team up to stop a henchman from taking over the world with a mind-control device. While it is a terrible film, it borders on “so bad it’s awesome.”
5. Bad Boys II
While the first Bad Boys was a relatively fun buddy-cop film, the second is almost like an exercise for Director Michael Bay to see how many explosions per second he can get away with.
The film is about explosions with something about the detectives, played by Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, trying to find a drug dealer. Bad Boys II is a ridiculous film from a ridiculous director.
4. Saw IV-VI
The first few Saw films were at least interesting. The first was a simple, intriguing look at what a person will do for their lives. Saw has become a joke and a jumbled mess rather than a shocking and scary series.
3. Star Wars: Episodes I-III
Remember how great the original Star Wars films were? Well, imagine if all of those great characters were children, there was the most annoying alien ever (Jar Jar Binks) and it turned out that Darth Vader was just a whiny kid. You can thank George Lucas for all that.
2. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
The original Transformers was an absolute trainwreck, but the second one brought a new low to Michael Bay’s career in one of the most unintelligible scripts with random plot twists and ridiculous robots, in what is probably the worst film so far this year.
1. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3
Never before have I seen such a good film go downhill so quickly. Watching the sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean was more like standing in line for the Disney ride than actually getting on it.
As if the second one wasn’t bad enough, the third featured characters who switch sides every five seconds, rocks that turn into crabs and a ghost of Orlando Bloom.
These sequels are a perfect example of a great film that became spread too thin and proved that too much of a good thing sometimes isn’t what audiences need.
Dialogue Vs. Dynamite: Solving the Feud Between Explosions and Plot November 17, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentEvan Benton, Staff Writer
Last weekend, I was arguing with a friend from my high school who was in town for the night. I had just come out of a University Mall Theatres screening of Inglourious Basterds, and was particularly surprised and enthralled by the film.
The strength of Basterds was its writing, as it is in every film Quentin Tarantino has ever made. He possesses a narrative style all his own, and writes dialogue so realistic that it makes even the most outlandish and fantastical themes seem plausible.
The friend from my high school, Steve, has been my friend since the first day of school in eighth grade. And in those nearly eight years, half of every conversation Steve and I have ever shared has involved the topic of film.
We bloviate on the best movies of our generation, dismiss certain actors and actresses and praise others, and generally consider ourselves the most luminous film aficionados of our generation.
And when two people such as these discuss something they love, sometimes they high-five in concordance, but they mostly butt heads in discord, the latter of which applied to this particular argument, which occurred while Steve was about seven beers deep.
While I rampantly praised Basterds’s depth in plot, character and especially writing, Steve mentioned that his only qualm with Tarantino had always been how some of his dialogue can become too consuming, sucking time and energy out of the story.
I retorted that the dialogue in Basterds, not even for the fact that it shifted impeccably back and forth between four different languages, was some of the strongest, most interesting I’ve ever heard.
“If you want to go sit and watch people talking for an hour, go see a play,” Steve said. He mentioned that film is a visual medium, where viewers watch things that they don’t normally see in everyday life: sights and sounds that take them far, far away from their seats.
I mentioned that all those things are still in Basterds, made better by the excellent writing, but he had another beer and I gave up the argument.
But what Steve was saying really made me wonder, made me think about the last decade of film. What makes a successful movie these days? Off the top of my head, I can think of a few of the most financially-successful movies of 2009.
I think Harry Potter, I think Transformers 2, Saw VI – ugh, I’ll stop. Was Steve right? These three movies were monstrously successful but, with the exception of Harry Potter, they were absolute garbage, rehashings of previous movies that weren’t interesting or provocative enough to require a sequel.
But they were visual – oh so visual. Who needs dialogue when you’ve got viscid dismemberment going on or robots turning into General Motors vehicles every second, with the occasional explosion to make you look up from your texting and remember the magic of moviemaking.
If filmmaking was judged solely on box-office performance, then Michael Bay would be winning the Best Director Oscar every year. Thankfully, though, this is not the case.
A good film is not a good film without good writing; let’s just get that out there.
A well-written screenplay makes a plot whole and engrossing, filled with characters that are real, developed, attractive or repulsive.
Effective dialogue between well-developed and interesting characters can make a scene so involving, so riveting, that there’s no need for the random explosion or gunfight to grab your attention and remind you to keep watching.
But perhaps I’m being a bit too hard on the individual filmgoer. Maybe it’s not our fault. Maybe we’ve been desensitized as a collective audience over the last two decades, thanks to the increased inclusion of computer-generated imagery that saves time and money on special effects, but hurts writing (and thus plot and character) integrity as a result.
Not that CGI means awful movies. A film that combines effective use of CGI with a well-written story can result in an absolute winner. Look at The Lord of the Rings or The Dark Knight.
Film is a visual medium; I’m not disputing that. But silent films were silent only until sound came. Since then, how many silent movies have you seen? How many have been made?
For true visual displays with little to no writing evident, go see G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra or go to the closest RedBox and get down on some Van Helsing. The latter is a serious guilty pleasure of mine.
Otherwise, maybe some of you (including Steve) could skip the next guaranteed blockbuster, and settle in for some lesser-advertised, smaller-budgeted film fare. Maybe some dialogue-filled, story-driven little film that, if you just give it a chance, may remind you that filmmaking once was, and in some ways still is, a true art.
In Bed With Billy: Friends with More than Benefits November 17, 2009
Posted by nicolew in : Style , add a commentBilly Curtis, Sex Columnist
Relationships are meant to be complicated. Throughout life, as we grow and change, so do the associations we have with people in our lives. Maturity levels rise, lessons teach what previously wasn’t known and sometimes, even friends can end up being something more.
I never really thought about dating a friend and the option never really presented itself to me. But after doing some extensive research on my close friends and relatives, I realized that most of their relations began as a simple friendship.
I witnessed such an account with my friends, Catherine and Kyle, just last year. We all had been friends for quite some time and, after awhile, my friend Latham and I began to notice some peculiar behavior between our two friends.
The covert stares that they thought no one was noticing, or secret smoochies that went on behind closed doors, were all clear indications that something was going on. My entire group of friends and I found it even more hilarious that we knew they were dating before they even did.
After a couple of weeks, and after their realization that we all knew what they were up to, they casually came out with it and admitted to us that they were dating. It has managed to become an ongoing joke to this day between all of us and they’ve been happy together ever since.
This situation got me thinking about friends and the possibility of them becoming something more. Friends are the people who know you the best, who care for you when you need help and who are there for you when you need them to be.
I wondered why I never thought that this was a good idea, and why I have never tried it. Recently, I got my chance.
In the past year, I became friends with as many people as my schedule would allow; Jason was one of them. It was strange when we first met because we never were actually introduced.
We would both hang out with the same people and after several different occasions, I finally decided to introduce myself to him.
After that, we continued to be friends and I thought nothing of it. Then a friend told me they heard from a private source that Jason found me attractive. I didn’t really believe it at first and figured I would just take it as hearsay.
To my surprise, a couple days later Jason came over and we had a brief talk regarding the rumors. He informed me that the rumor wasn’t a rumor at all and left me to decide on what the best action from that point on would be.
At first, I told him that I never really thought about him in that way, and that it would probably be better to just stay friends. For some reason, the idea of dating a friend seemed strange to me, unnatural in that I’d never actually had a relationship with a friend.
As I continued to contemplate the idea of dating Jason in my head, I began to wonder if maybe this was the opportunity I had been looking for, and if my reaction might have been a bit hasty.
Finally, I decided to take the chance; if Catherine and Kyle could make a friendship into something better, then maybe I could too.
Jason and I enjoyed lunch, a couple movies and some great conversations during our dates, and it seemed that as I continued to learn more and more about him, I became more intrigued.
I couldn’t believe how simple it was to make the transition from someone I was friends with to someone I was romantically interested in. I love that the awkward first meeting was already taken care of because we already knew each other.
Despite the benefits of dating a friend, a person must also understand the possible consequences of such a relationship. How could the dynamic of your group change if you broke up?
After all, not all break ups end peacefully, and such a divide could cause an unfixable rift in the group holistically – leaving you not only without a partner, but also without the support system of friends because they surely will not want to take sides.
So make sure that if you’re going to break up with your friend-turned-partner, either make it a clean break so that you can resume being friends, or do your best to alleviate the drama.
Either way, if you’re wondering about whether it’s a good idea to date a friend, I would say, why not?
Taking a chance like this can be risky; it could end badly, but if your options are open – as well as your mind – to the many possibilities that life has to offer, you could end up being a part of something that you never expected, something better and maybe even bigger than you.
After all, you never really know how things will turn out and you could end up finding exactly what you were looking for, found in a place you never would have expected.
Crooked Musicians, Straight to Success: Supergroup Fuses Genres on Debut Album November 14, 2009
Posted by style in : Style , add a commentPearson Jones
Them Crooked Vultures is a new band with a lot of history and nothing to prove, because they already have. That’s what happens though when your basses is John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), a musical shining golden god who has announced his return finally after three decades by joining up with two of Zeppelins most devout followers, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age.
Overly glorified and most undeserving of the label, super-groups have never had a high success rate; unless you were one of the few die-hard Slash fans who thought Velvet Revolver succeeded in becoming a mock-up of a new generation Guns and Roses. An album can be bombarded to death with ideas when you get so much talent in one room. Sometimes too much of a good thing is the one thing you don’t need.
Them Crooked Vultures is their own deal, though. They don’t commit to just one style of the trio, though they do subtly rob ideas and formulas from their previous projects that made each one of these musicians into the legends they are. This album isn’t Zeppelin homage, even though Grohl and Homme probably would have followed Jones like a pied piper to a Led Zeppelin V if he wanted to.
The group can be broken down to Grohl being the bronze, finally resurrecting his instantaneously recognizable merciless drum sound that can be heard on Songs for the Deaf, Homme, the brain, bringing his haunting voice and knack for creating bizarre ideas that some how work, and Jones being the inspiration for the other two while proving his long hiatus hasn’t taken its toll on his rock n roll mojo.
The album is introduced with Grohl drumming out a beat that John Bonham would even have smiled at.
The first track, “No One Loves Me & Neither Do I,” is just dripping with groove, as Jones brings back bass lines that haven’t been heard since “Black Dog.” Midway though the track though, with a quick grunt from Homme, the song morphs into a angry dog and cat fight between the sounds of Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age that perfectly intertwines into something that breaths a completely new life into the song. A perfect example of the harmony that exists between these three guys.
The few tracks that do resonate some Zeppelin presence are not, thankfully, overly overpowering. “Elephant,” which is a neatly packaged track cataloguing what seems to be almost every Jimmy Page riff, still doesn’t fully forfeit to the Zeppelin sound.
Then there is “Reptile,” a track that sounds like a B-side off of In Through The Outdoor, but Grohl and Homme bring it up more into this century.
Then there is other tracks, like the Josh Homme acid trip through the dessert “Interlude With Ludes,” that completely breaks away from anything that the three musicians have ever done.
Other highlights include “Warsaw Or The First Breath You Take,” a sly, slow-paced tune that gives you a break from having your head banged in by Grohl’s unnatural intenseness. Homme falls short on this track though by unveiling his one handicap, solos that last over 10 seconds. Half of the song is the three jamming out but Homme seems to slowly fall behind instrumentally against giants like Grohl and Jones.
Them Crooked Vultures have become the missing link between classic and modern day rock. They don’t fully reflect either pasr or present, but instead maybe a musical future where we aren’t forced to listen to the same “clone radio” bands. The effortless fuse that has been created between this legendary trifecta is something to behold and recognize, because who knows when something like this is going to come around again.
Cracking Up with Cook: Popular Stand-Up Comic Takes the Stage at the Patriot Center November 12, 2009
Posted by Sonya Hudson in : Style , add a commentJohn Powell, Asst. Sports Editor
Controversy is apparently wrapped in jeans and a t-shirt. When people look at comedian Dane Cook, he makes people laugh or people hate.
From his humble beginnings of performing in a laundromat for his first standup show, Cook has gained international acclaim after appearing on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend in 1998.
His standup has given him roles in more than 20 movies and TV shows going back to 1997. He has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, Comedy Central Presents, and has even hosted Saturday Night Live.
His five albums are consistently funny, and his second album, Retaliation, debuting at the number four spot in the Billboard 200, making it the most successful comedy album since the release of Steve Martin’s A Wild and Crazy Guy in 1978.
Adding to the Steve Martin and Dane Cook relationship is the fact that Martin’s comedy was what inspired Cook to get into comedy in the first place.
Cook’s fame and success has not come without criticism, though. Comedians such as Lewis Black have openly said they did not like Cook’s comedy. “[He] doesn’t make me laugh at all, in any way, shape or form,” said Black.
This criticism has made its way down to the fan level, as many college students either simply do not find him funny or take offense in the fact that his comedy comes from making other people in Cook’s life the subject, target or even victim of his jokes.
However, before Cook came on stage Saturday, up-and-coming comedian Robert Kelly pumped the crowd up with jokes about weight, even his own, as well as jokes of male-female interactions.
This readied the crowd for Cook, who ran to the stage between lines of massive security guards, as the near sell-out crowd of thousands screamed section by section for his arrival.
Cook came out with jokes about going to sports pits, comparing them to an extraordinarily aggressive church, complete with the praying and a cuss word sprinkled throughout.
He spoke of actions we all take, deleting people’s phone numbers from our cell phones as if we were deleting them from our world.
A fan of forensics shows, Cook came up with an ingenious means of committing a murder with a knife.
After committing the murder, first wipe the knife off then simply break into a neighbor’s house and put it in their knife drawer. No one ever checks his own knives, according to this logic.
He went on to make fun of the awkward paparazzi pictures of people, specifically Britney Spears getting out of limousines. He refused to leave the sexual awkwardness out of the show, going on about “jerkin’ off on the top of the fridge,” and “sweating like Shaq at the foul line.”
After the show, as people were leaving, he came out again for an encore appearance, humbly thanking the crowd for their support.
He read a hate letter from anonumous@yahoo.com, one that motivated him to give the best shows of his life.
After explaining how Anonymous e-mailed him back and apologized for the e-mail, he showed the audience the e-mail and how he responded with a cruel joke of his own.
The crowd erupted and just before he went off stage, Cook vowed, “Virginia, I will be back.”