With summer just around the corner, the United States prepares for an active musical season of summer tours, festivals and hotly anticipated album releases. Having already investigated the largest of the summer music festivals in a previous Weekender feature, the Daily decided to focus instead on the top records slated for release this summer.
Summer is a time for Slip 'n Slides, Arizona Iced Tea and, best of all, adrenaline-pumping action flicks and raucous comedies. Here is a list of 10 movies to see this summer when you aren't scrambling to find a job and give your life direction.
A man named V.K. Krishna Menon once spoke for eight hours in front of the United Nations Security Council. Strom Thurmond filibustered Congress for one day and 18 minutes straight. William Henry Harrison died from pneumonia contracted while giving a 90-minute speech in an ice storm.
The trailer for "A Nightmare on Elm Street" gives every horror movie fan exactly what he or she is looking for. The adept viewer may even recognize Jackie Earle Haley's raspy voice as the menacing Freddy Krueger and remember his creepy−but−cool performance as Rorschach in the film "Watchmen" (2009). Haley's distinctive growl on a brutal snatch of dialogue — "Why are you screaming? I haven't even cut you yet" — allowed even the most diehard horror fan to think this remake would have the potential to revitalize a franchise worn down by countless generic and forgettable sequels.
To promote its new drama−mystery series "Happy Town," ABC has been using the arch slogan, "Don't let the name fool you." On Twitter.com last week, Sam Simon (one of the creators of "The Simpsons") quipped, "Hey, ABC, if your promo has to be, ‘Don't let the name fool you,' maybe ‘Happy Town' isn't such a good name." The show, which attempts to create intrigue from a vague murder mystery and random suspicious behavior, fails to live up to any of the sly disquietude its name attempts to evoke.
The members of indie−rock band The National can't agree on anything. For its upcoming fifth album — "High Violet," due out May 11 — the band did more than 80 takes on one song alone. But this attention to detail and obsession with finding the perfect sound makes "High Violet" a reverberating masterpiece.
"If money didn't matter, then I might tell you something new/ You can't tell people what they want to hear, if you also want to tell 'em the truth," sings The Hold Steady's front−man, Craig Finn, on the second track of the band's latest release, "Heaven is Whenever." The album is due for U.S. release on May 4 from Vagrant Records. In many ways, Finn has little new to tell his listeners; the songs follow Finn's usual narrative themes of booze, sex, drugs, crime, Catholic guilt and his eclectic record collection. Yet The Hold Steady still keeps the material fresh on this album by producing a classic rock sound that oscillates between exuberant and cinematic.
A slam poet, or spoken word artist, can be a social activist, a stage performer and, above all, a passionate poet at the core. Slam poetry is a fairly new, unique form of expression that began with older generations performing their pieces in dingy, Chicago lounges in the '80s. Since then, spoken word has grown to include a large youth slam poetry scene, as students trade in paper for the power of their voices, soap boxes for open mics and claps for snaps, proving they've got something to say to the world.
This Saturday, the rock band OK Go will headline Spring Fling, playing to thousands of Tufts students. The band, started in 1998, has released three albums, the most recent one entitled "Of the Blue Colour of the Sky" (2010), for which they have been touring the past few weeks. Damian Kulash (vocals, guitar), Tim Nordwind (bass, guitar, vocals), Dan Konopka (drums, percussion) and Andy Ross (guitar, keyboards, vocals), who replaced Andy Duncan in 2005, make up OK Go.
Though Tufts students usually first think of Davis Square when they think of off−campus dining and cafes, another square also offers a collection of eateries and coffee shops: Ball Square.
Rafter Roberts — a man who skillfully splits his time between mixing for artists like Sufjan Stevens and Fiery Furnaces, playing in the band Bunky, writing ad jingles and producing his own solo albums — seems to be having a ball. If the riotous, eclectic material on his most recent solo record "Animal Feelings" is any indication, that is.
Dear Insane Clown Posse, How's it going, Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope? Congratulations on your recent mainstream "success!" The hipster corners of the Internet have been exploding with ironic, detached enjoyment of your "horrorcore" brand of hip hop and your crazy, exuberant fans, the Juggalos. "Saturday Night Live" even parodied your new video for "Miracles," a contemplative ditty in which you marvel at many of life's joys, including giraffes, magnets and childbirth.
The recent Madonna-themed episode of teenage musical-drama series "Glee" might have been the best yet. Sue Sylvester sported a medley of fabulous hair styles in a "Vogue" (1990) homage, three characters settled between the sheets in a montage to "Like a Virgin" (1984), and the dynamic duo — Kurt and Mercedes — broke it down for a halftime performance of "4 Minutes" (2008). That got us thinking about other themes that might keep the show fresh: 10. Nickelback: Oh, wait. No. Not once. Not ever. 9. Dexy's Midnight Runners: Who doesn't love "Come On Eileen" (1982)? This might be a short episode. 8. Enya: Wait, have we changed songs yet? 7. Mozart: There's nothing we like better than a little "Eine kleine Nachtmusik," and we think that the "Glee" cast would totally own a Mozart medley. The thought of a whole episode of this virtuoso's music truly excites our classical sensibilities, and we are, frankly, amazed that Fox hasn't thought of this yet. 6. Shania Twain: Shania's accessible pop-country would kill on "Glee." We're thinking a rendition of "Man, I Feel Like a Woman!" (1999) by Sue Sylvester with the entire crew in the background dressed in "men's shirts, short skirts." O-woah-oh-oh! 5. Michael Jackson: A King of Pop episode of "Glee" would be such a "Thriller" (1983), we don't think anything could "Beat It" (1982). It's as easy as "ABC" (1970). 4. Miley Cyrus: Miley's shamelessly addicting pop songs will fit in perfectly with a TV show that succeeds by being cheesy. This combination will make you want to break it down and put your hands up (or together). 3. Wu-Tang Clan: Watching the "Glee" kids try and master the rhythmic flow of the likes of U-God and Ghostface Killah will be comic gold. A capella ain't nothing to f--k with. 2. George Michael/Wham!: He puts the boom boom into our hearts, and so does Mr. Schuester. Perfect match for a cover? We think so. 1. "All Out" by Lights Out: "Glee" is all about the underdogs, so here you go: a whole painful episode backed by the electro-pop tracks of two awkward, self-absorbed college boys desperately trying to live out their dreams as 3OH!3 posers. Love ‘em or hate ‘em — it's two against six in the Arts department — lyrics like, "You say that I'm a loner, and you're godd--n right," pretty much sum up the cast of "Glee."
In the world of premium cable, most half-hour comedies — like Showtime's "Weeds" and "United States of Tara," or HBO's "Hung" and "How to Make It In America" — tend to not elicit many laughs out loud, instead choosing to simply tell more grounded, melodramatic or serious stories in a shorter format. On the other hand, "Party Down," Starz's first original effort, delivers laughs in spades and became the funniest show on TV last year. The show launched its anticipated second season last week.
What can we create meaning from? What activities in life are just banal and unnecessary, and what can we find something greater in? Since the time of Marcel Duchamp, artists have declared insignificant and everyday objects as art, and whatever the reception may have been initially, a porcelain urinal is now accepted as a witty and insightful masterpiece. This groundbreaking movement at the beginning of the 20th century is now almost commonplace, but the pushing of the boundaries of art continues. Artists are still interested in the objects we take advantage of, and they have come to question even the simplest of life's actions.
This year's independent film to watch, "Winter's Bone," screened last Friday night at the Somerville Theatre as part of the Independent Film Festival of Boston. The film won the Grand Jury Prize earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, and it also snagged the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the festival for director Debra Granik and co-writer Anne Rosellini.
Tomorrow night, the topic of melancholy will be addressed in senior Brenann Stacker's thesis project, "Sigh." The title perfectly describes the performance, which seeks to explore the depths of human emotions and shows that sometimes words just aren't enough.
Every April, you can find people on this campus in the midst of a serious quarter−life crisis. Seniors, you know what I'm talking about. Within the span of 10 minutes, I oscillate between being unbelievably ready to graduate to walking up to my freshman−year dorm and hugging the outside of the building, wishing I could go back four years. This crazed state is nothing new to Tufts in April, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with.
"Dancing Across Borders," directed by newcomer Anne Bass, is a tale of Western chauvinism at its best. This documentary tells the story of Sokvannara "Sy" Sar, a young Cambodian dancer whom Bass, a New York socialite and prominent patron in the ballet world, discovers. While the story of Sy's success is nothing short of miraculous, the film fails to confront the price that Sy pays to attain a dream that was never truly his. Although Sy's story is one of personal triumph, the question lingers at the end of the film as to whether he would have been happier living at home with his own traditions and culture.
