Arts
Arts
Mitchell Geller | Makes it Rain
April 20In my other life I'm a student of science — in May, I'll be graduating with a B.S. in psychology and English — so I took this very seriously. I'm nothing if not a man of my word: Just as I promised I would last week, I sent my dad a selection of rap songs, and just as I predicted, he was more than willing to give them a listen and share his thoughts. The results of my experiment will be presented in (sort of) APA format.
Arts
Company One's 'Book of Grace' takes the stage
April 19A humble home in Texas offers a border patrol officer and his wife a certain type of life, albeit not the brightest one. The dim light that guides their delicate and fractured lives grows brighter with the arrival of the officer's son from a previous marriage, and the events that follow the son's arrival ignite a match that threatens to set fire to all three lives.
Arts
Foo Fighters comes back strong with 'Wasting Light'
April 19The Foo Fighters is perhaps the only band to have survived the alt−rock revolution and come out more popular and creative than before. Having released seven studio albums, one live album and one greatest−hits album, and with countless stadium gigs and under their belt, the Foo Fighters is without a doubt a band to acknowledge.
Arts
Chef tries to fix LA's nutrition problems in new reality show
April 18Jamie Oliver has a mission: to create a healthier, better−fed world. He's been successful across the globe, and his next destination is Los Angeles. "This is not reality TV: This is a campaign," Oliver says as he speaks to concerned parents about the food their children are being served — and the audience believes it.
Arts
Hanna' offers fresh spin on thriller genre
April 18Joe Wright is a literary man. Having previously adapted "Pride & Prejudice" (2005), as well as Ian McEwan's "Atonement" (2007), he's proven himself adept at making the transition from novel to feature film, making the shift into action movie territory with "Hanna" all the more beguiling.
Arts
Madeline Hall | The Tasteful and the Tasteless
April 18A ticking countdown of days, hours, minutes and seconds normally indicates an event of significant importance. For example, when featured in movies, the detonation of a bomb that threatens the entirety of human existence is often preceded by ominous shots of a countdown clock attached to a complex series of wires. Countdowns are also great for holidays (see: New Year's Eve), sporting events and space shuttle launches. Countdowns are a big deal, OK?
Arts
Trident Booksellers & Cafe has winning combination
April 18Generally speaking, two things mixed together tend to be better than one. Chocolate−and−vanilla swirl frozen yogurt is better than either flavor individually. New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys have fused to form a new boy band supergroup with the potential to surpass all '90s fame. And the same goes for Newbury Street's Trident Booksellers & Cafe, which assumes the roles of bookshop and restaurant simultaneously.
Arts
MFA hosts extravagant environments of Chihuly glass works
April 14Dale Chihuly has suffered a number of injuries. A 1976 car accident, for example, left him blind in one eye. But he has never allowed these setbacks to deter his creativity. As a highly celebrated artist among those using the glass medium — arguably the most famous since Louis Comfort Tiffany — Chihuly has created thousands of pieces during his career, ranging vastly in size and scope.
Arts
Top Ten | Statements Not Intended to be Factual
April 13During the recent legislative budget debates, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) falsely claimed on the Senate floor that abortions account for "well over 90 percent" of what Planned Parenthood does. After it was revealed that abortion services actually count for about 3 percent, Kyl's office issued a statement that the figure was "not intended to be a factual statement," to which Stephen Colbert promptly replied on Twitter with a swarm of his own not-intended-to-be-factual statements.
Arts
Album fails to get band out of its one-note musical cave
April 13Cold Cave, the musical brainchild of Wesley Eisold, has significantly evolved from its last studio album, "Love Comes Close" (2009). The band's original sound was an amalgamation of synthpop and haunting melodies showing tribute to the new-wave goth movement that Eisold discovered in New York City.
Arts
Embrace the stupidity and let 'CHAOS' reign
April 13Kitsch, when wielded properly, can produce masterpieces — the Teletubbies, movies about horses, so on. It's the kind of personalized, winking absurdity that makes shows like "Jersey Shore" shine. Unfortunately, CBS' new government-themed comedic drama "CHAOS" just doesn't quite get it.
Arts
b.good could be a lot better
April 13Every city has its culinary specialty. In New York, you eat pizza; in Munich, it's bratwurst; in Boston, it's the lobster roll.
Arts
Weekender Feature | American television: Not quite the land of opportunity
April 13What do "Two and a Half Men," "Glee," "NCIS" and "House" all have in common? To start, they are four of the most popular shows on television. But they also share a trait that is endemic throughout television and the broader entertainment industry: They are all led by white actors, with few (if any) performers of color making up the supporting casts.
Arts
Mitchell Geller | Makes It Rain
April 13I was having trouble starting this column. For whatever reason, nothing jumped out at me this week. It's not writer's block, exactly, because I wrote a few hundred words and then decided they weren't up to snuff. It was more like false starts.
Arts
Boston Ballets Midsummer makes for a midApril dream
April 12Ballerinas generally don't often choose their career with the expectation that they will emerge from their time on the stage as seasoned actors. Years of daily classes with 15 other girls in black leotards accompanied by the plinking of a single pianist isn't exactly an environment that lends itself to the development of a highly tuned sense of the theatrical - that's something you learn gradually on the stage.
Arts
Mountain Goats solidify as a band on newest album
April 12In an age of Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, the understated talent of a lone man with an acoustic guitar often goes underappreciated. However, since their inception in 1991, The Mountain Goats have been breathing new life into indie folk music, and have recently started to make their music accessible to a wider fan base.
Arts
Meek's Cutoff' a powerful picture with strong directing, ambitious story and precise acting
April 12"Meek's Cutoff," Kelly Reichardt's articulate new film, is technically a Western, though it is nothing like the ones people are accustomed to seeing. The film has little in common with the cowboy pictures John Wayne and Clint Eastwood used to star in. Instead, it is actually more like Reichardt's last film, "Wendy and Lucy" (2006), in that it is a fascinating, minimalist character study of wondering and desperate individuals.
Arts
Source Code' begins promisingly but loses steam
April 11All right, there's officially a conspiracy. Big−name studios are ensnaring talented, indie−minded directors and using them to churn out shoddy films. First came the catastrophic blunder of "X−Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009), then last year's critical misfire "The Tourist" and now this. OK, in all fairness, "Source Code" isn't actually shoddy. But as a disappointing follow−up from Duncan Jones, the man who brought us "Moon" (2009), it can't help but be a heartbreaker for his fans, in spite of its relative decency.
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