The art of a society says almost as much about it as its history does. Works produced by a culture reflect the society's trends and are often times a direct reaction to some of its most important historical events.
Comedy in our post-Sept. 11 world has an increased fascination with the man-child, who is physically adult, but mentally a young male. The man-child never wants to grow up and deal with the real world. In writer/director David Wain's new comedy, "Role Models," Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, two actors not unfamiliar with playing this Peter Pan-esque archetype, do nothing to help the man-child grow up but they take him to a new level.
I love the Internet; I really do. It's given humanity so many great things -- most of them pornographic in nature -- but, more importantly, it has given us all new reasons to never leave the house and interact with other living beings. As my dad has always said, "There's all kinds of great things on that there 'interwebs.'"
On the surface, the debut album from self-proclaimed lover of pop, Lady GaGa, seems like it wouldn't be of much interest to a college-aged crowd, but surprisingly it's seeing heavy rotation in nearly all demographics. Moreover, it's been heralded as the future of pop music, or conversely, according to All Music Guide, "anti-pop," whatever that may be.
Grant Beighley | Pants Optional Twitter this I love the Internet; I really do. It's given humanity so many great things -- most of them pornographic in nature -- but, more importantly, it has given us all new reasons to never leave the house and interact with other living beings. As my Dad has always said, "There's all kinds of great things on that there 'interwebs'." In addition to porn, the Internet has brought with it many not-so-pleasant things, namely the dawning of the age of self-importance. It started in the middle-school years with things such as Xanga.com and LiveJournal.com, and, before too long, impressionable youngsters had thrown themselves whole-heartedly into blog-rings and blogspot.com. Now, I can understand why having a day-to-day blog is fun and interesting, and I'm guilty of having read a few of them in my day, but unless you're someone famous and REALLY important (like Pete Wentz or John Mayer, both of whom keep blogs) and your thoughts actually matter, I just can't see the use in putting your thoughts up on the 'interbox' for others to read. After a while, blogs began to become something different: something dark, evil and more than a little bit concerning. A few of my friends who kept blogs began blogging about their everyday tasks instead of the thoughts that were precipitated by these daily drudgeries. For example, instead of saying, "while waiting in line at the Grocery Store, I considered why it is exactly humans feel the need to regard food as such an important part of life," he or she would simply say, "I waited in line at the Grocery Store today. Then I bought underwear. Then I ate a hot dog. It was mediocre. I am unhappy." Needless to say, when Twitter came around, I was less than pleased. For those who have no idea what this service is, Twitter is a micro-blog (a blog less than 140 characters) that can be updated from cell phones or computers. Essentially, Twitter is made up of usernames sending their daily activities out to the depths of the 'interblogs' for others with far too much free time to read. The sociological concerns behind the Twitter phenomenon are what actually concern me. Twitter seems to suggest that if you're alone and thinking without anyone else hearing your thoughts or seeing your actions, you don't exist. Since when have humans needed to be so connected to others, even strangers who they know very little about (user circles get very weird…) that they must report what they're having for dinner or update their mood status every twenty minutes? Here's a novel idea: Live your life as you want to and stop thinking that other people need to justify your actions or feelings to make them legitimate. I can certainly understand the need to keep friends and family up to date on your life, but if these people mean so much to you, pick up the phone (or Skype, it's FREE) and tell them about it in a more personal manner. If you feel lonely or bored without your Twitter account constantly bleeping and blooping to update you on what others are doing, go out and join a club, sit in a coffee shop and look at cute girls/guys, just do whatever it is you like to do to be proactive about meeting new people. REAL people. Reading about someone else's life in no way makes your life any more interesting. There is nothing stopping you, dear reader, from leading a life similar to those of Pete Wentz, John Mayer, or (god forbid) Paris Hilton, so stop reading about their lives and go make the most of your own.
Breathing new life into an old mystery, "Sherlock Holmes: Baker Street Adventures" offers a glimpse into the twisted mind of the well-known detective. Adapted by senior Matthew Diamante, who also directs the show, from the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the narrative hinges on the interactions between characters rather than the detective's ability to solve puzzles.
Breathing new life into an old mystery, "Sherlock Holmes: Baker Street Adventures" offers a glimpse into the twisted mind of the well-known detective. Adapted by senior Matthew Diamante, who also directs the show, from the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the narrative hinges on interactions between characters rather than the detective's ability to solve puzzles.
There is no doubt that critics and audiences alike were nervous about "Soul Men" in light of the passing of two of its stars. Would it do justice to the legacy of Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes, or would it ultimately tarnish their reputations? Judging by the trailers, it looked conventional, lowbrow and just plain bad. It may indeed be conventional and a tad lowbrow, but thanks to a breezy tone and sincere, hilarious performances by Mac and Samuel L. Jackson, "Soul Men" is one of the better comedies this fall.
For fans of the New York City based groove quartet U-Melt, seeing is believing. Anyone who has witnessed the sheer spontaneity and energy poured into a U-Melt performance knows that each musical experience is always surprising and never like the last. Luckily for Boston residents (and Tufts students), the band is on its way to Beantown tonight for a live show at Bill's Bar, near Fenway Park, as part of their 12-state tour taking them from the East Coast to the Rockies and back again.
"The Madwoman of Chaillot," directed by Associate Drama Professor Downing Cless, will continue its run this weekend after last week's successful opening. Tickets are $7 with a Tufts ID and are still available for the remaining performances tonight and tomorrow night at 8 p.m. in the Balch Arena Theater.
A first listen of Amber Rubarth's EP, "Unfinished Art" (2006), will immediately hook practically any listener. Her sound is fresh and quirky, filled with honest, image-driven lyrics. The melodies showcase folky guitar string sounds and her husky yet high-pitched voice. Rubarth's newest, equally impressive project is The Paper Raincoat, which its MySpace.com page describes as "an imaginative collaboration between Brooklyn songwriters Amber Rubarth and Alex Wong." Those who enjoy Rubarth's solo work will be thrilled with The Paper Raincoat. At 8 p.m. on Saturday, The Paper Raincoat will be one of the acts playing at Club Passim's "Next Generation Celebration," conveniently located at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square. Passim Folk Music and Cultural Center, located in Harvard Square, is celebrating its 50th anniversary as an independent music venue by showcasing a range of up-and-coming acoustic talents, including The Paper Raincoat. Saturday's performance sees the duo alongside acts such as Laura Cortese, Kris Delmhorst and Girlyman. "We had decided that we wanted to be a band before we knew what that was going to be," explained Wong. "We knew that we liked working together and decided to take time off to do some writing." That time certainly helped their music develop, as these songwriters came up with truly innovative material. The Paper Raincoat is unique in that its album makes a conscious effort to portray one original story, a story about a woman named Grace. "We had a friend who was taking a comedy improv class at the time," Wong explained. "She kept coming home and telling us about these weird exercises they would do in class. We decided to try one for our writing to see what would happen." Grace's story emerged from the exercise. The concept band's narrative follows Grace as she reaches her 50th birthday and begins to reevaluate her life. While cleaning out the house of her late father, she stumbles upon the designs for one of his inventions: a paper raincoat. This particular item reminds her of how she, in seeing her father's failure as an inventor, decided to give up on her childhood plan of becoming a writer. What follows is a reflection on her choices and the possibilities of her life had she held onto her original hopes and dreams. "We would like all of the songs we write to relate to the story and kind of paint this picture little by little of this world, and at the same time, add some of our personal resonance to her own experience," Wong said. "It should be a larger story [to which] everything could be connected." Rubarth agreed, saying "We don't have this whole story written out already. It doesn't have an end. The back-story keeps developing. We want the songs to be able to sit alone, but for people to also hear the songs as an album, as one whole." Wong and Rubarth hope that listeners will see the complete picture in their songs. "It's very visual music," Rubarth said. "It's not stuff where people are going to wear all black — it's about color and excitement." The songs do suggest a certain whimsical exuberance that a listener can connect with something colorful. "There's a creative energy in the melodies that goes back to this idea of the story, of this fantastic image that is a paper raincoat," Rubarth said. The group's self-titled EP consists of piano-driven melodies, lots of sporadic percussion, and both Wong and Rubarth's strong, clear voices. The duo will also be experimenting with some new songs, making Saturday's performance a unique opportunity to catch a glimpse at an up-and-coming group with a bright future.
Ten years after the release of its predecessor, "Fallout 3" brings players back to the post-apocalyptic wasteland for more tales of deceit and heroics. Published by Bethesda Softworks, the game is an ambitious attempt to imagine a living, breathing Washington, D.C. after a nuclear war. Fortunately, the game's setting delivers the freedom of choice without sacrificing the quality of execution. Like the previous "Fallout" games, "Fallout 3" puts the player in the body of a vault-dweller. Born and raised in an underground shelter, he is a newcomer to the harsh reality of the nuclear wasteland and is forced to make do with whatever resources he can find. Upon leaving his vault, the vault-dweller is greeted with a dystopian vision of human nature gone awry. Nuclear war has laid bare man's basest tendencies, and he must struggle to survive in the most hostile of environments. Whether he does so by forming an alliance with the greedy crime lords or by running errands to gain the trust of small-time merchants is entirely up to the player. The game's various crossroads affect how the story progresses. Early in the game, the character discovers a town of people who worship an active atomic bomb as a religious idol. One can choose to disarm the bomb in exchange for a shack in the humble town or to detonate the device in exchange for more a more luxurious apartment owned by a xenophobic aristocrat. "Fallout 3's" primary quest consists of the search for the vault-dweller's father and is driven by well-executed in-game cinematic segments. The plot loses some credibility after the sixth helpful bystander explains that the character's father "just passed through here." Even at its most repetitive points, however, the conversations are some of the best examples of dialogue writing found in video games today. Taking up most of the game-play time are various sidequests which challenge the player to help cure a friend of an addiction to one of the game's numerous narcotics or to use irradiated sugar cereal to develop a stronger brand of the same drugs. While the dark humor and morose realism of "Fallout 3's" dialogue distinguish this game from its many competitors, the combat system is equally appealing. Eschewing the turn-based systems of the previous "Fallout" games, "Fallout 3" uses the same first-person active combat system of Bethesda's "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" (2006), from which the game's engine is derived. Fans of first-person shooting games, such as the "Call of Duty" or "Halo" series, will find most of the combat familiar. "Fallout's" RPG heritage is apparent with the stop-time targeting system. At any point in combat, the player can choose to enter into a turn-based combat mode, selecting which body part belonging to which enemy he or she wants to attack. Because it is only advantageous to one side of the combat, this targeting system can become a crutch. If first-person shooting skills are not enough to get out of a tight situation, one can simply stop time and fire four bursts at the head of the nearest enemy without fear of retaliation. The combat system is also heavily biased toward conventional gunplay. Although "Fallout 3" includes melee weapons, grenades, mines and other interesting combat choices, most encounters are clearly designed to be approached with either a pistol or machine gun. Melee weapons are difficult to aim, they cannot target specific parts of the enemy's body, they do less damage than most guns, and they are useless against enemies in elevated perches. Fans of the previous "Fallout" games may find other features missing as well, although each has been traded for a new one. Characters with particularly low intelligence scores are no longer given unique dialogue options, but every line of speech is beautifully voice-acted. The targeting system no longer includes the eyes or crotch, but the slow-motion effects animate the explosions of irradiated limbs. The band of well-armed children is completely invincible, but players can still sell the gullible ones into slavery. These faults are minimal, excusable and predictable. A game as darkly comic as "Fallout" could not be brought into the mainstream without some reservations. Fortunately, its mass-market development has created one of the most compelling and technically complex games available today.
Wealthy families in Renaissance Italy often celebrated marriages with grand processions, including the parading of cassoni, marriage chests that were commissioned to be painted for the occasion. The parades, which led from the bride's house to her new home, were later criticized for their opulence and even banned in Florence in the 1460s. The painted cassoni, however, remained a lasting tradition and testament to the lavish marches, often decorated with scenes of parades, journeys and movement. Now, 15 cassone panels are on display in "Triumph of Marriage," a special exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The Gardner is a house museum, famous for its founder's eccentric display of valuable furniture, artworks and tapestries, left relatively unchanged since the early 1900s in the vibrant setting of a 15th-century Venetian palace. The guest curator of the show is Cristelle Baskins, an associate professor and chair of the art and art history department at Tufts, and this marks her first opportunity to curate an exhibition. The idea came out of a casual question asked by Alan Chong, curator of the collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, as to whether she would be interested in doing a show. That was six years ago, and it wasn't until 2005 that the collaboration between Baskins and Chong began to take shape. When planning an exhibition at a museum, the lead-up to the actual opening tends to be extensive, involving drawing up a loan list, designing the space and getting rights to images for the catalogue — which, in this case, is a full book. Baskins has worked on cassoni, an uncommon subject in Renaissance scholarship, for 25 years. In an interview with the Daily, she called the exhibition a "dream come true," considering the objects' obscurity in the realm of art history. "I could never have anticipated that cassoni would be of interest to the general public," she said. "When I worked on them as a graduate student, I was being discouraged left and right. I kept meeting people in Italy and New York, and they'd say, ‘Why in the world are you working on cassoni? You'll never get a job, you'll never be a success.'" Baskins' work on cassoni has been a bit of a fairy tale itself, as her successes seem to come every 10 years: She wrote her dissertation in 1988, published her first book on cassoni, "Cassone Painting, Humanism and Gender in Early Modern Italy," in 1998, and finally opened this exhibition in 2008. Baskins' success is remarkable, considering furniture paintings are not popular or well-known forms of Renaissance art. "People were really cautioning me that to succeed in the Renaissance, you had to pick a well-known established canonical master, and if I didn't do that I was just going to suffer the consequences," she said. "Well, I'm glad to report that I've done okay." The "Triumph of Marriage" show at the Gardner has unexpectedly found itself to be one in a line of similar exhibitions happening around the world. In 2006-2007, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London did an exhibition called "At Home in Renaissance Italy" which featured everything domestic from clothing and jewelry to furniture painting, including cassoni. This year, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art arranged "Beauty and Duty: The Art and Business of Renaissance Marriage;" later this month, the Metropolitan Museum in New York will open "Art and Love in Renaissance Italy," which will include about 10 cassone paintings; and next February "Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence: The Courtauld Wedding Chests," will open at the Courtauld Gallery in London. As Baskins put it, "The floodgates have opened." This surge of cassone exhibits implies a recent interest in moving away from the lofty objects made by Renaissance "geniuses" — all religious and political masterpieces. In these shows, the Renaissance gets domesticated, and museum visitors get pulled into the bedrooms and living rooms of ordinary Renaissance citizens. The Gardner show seeks to unify the panels according to their moralizing subject matter, revealing many standards and values related to marriage in 15th-century Italy. The title, "Triumph of Marriage," was inspired by a cassone from the Isabella Stewart Gardner collection, painted around 1450 by Francesco Pesellino, which depicts the "Triumphs of Petrarch," featuring images of love, chastity, death, fame, time and eternity. This particular piece reveals a larger theme in cassone paintings that the curators could work with: triumph. "The logic of the show is that there are some allegorical triumphs like Pesellino's Petrarchan triumphs, there are some ancient historical triumphs like all of the Etruscan and Roman triumphant generals, and there are a couple of scenes of contemporary 15th-century triumphs," Baskins explained. Viewers used to seeing canonical Renaissance works must look at cassone paintings with open minds, as they are crammed with detailed narratives and dynamic action that moves along the panel like a linear story. Processional imagery evokes a sense of nostalgia for the spectacle of marriage parades. The eye follows finely costumed figures as they march horizontally across imaginary landscapes, full of mountains and cliffs, towers and distant cities. Baskins often relates cassoni to the "slow food" movement. "Cassoni really demand slowing it all down," she said. "You have to really take your time and piece it out. It seems that they were also really good for their intended context, which would have been a bedroom, so it's something that you're going to see every day, and you don't get tired of them because every time you look, you see something new." She imagines these chests would have been made for a young bride, who would have been attracted first by their storybook charm. The paintings would then remain relevant, however, the familiar tales and images becoming referents throughout the stages of her life. With only 15 panels included and only 15 visitors allowed in the gallery at once, the exhibition facilitates this deep viewing experience, fostering close, gradual readings of the works. Despite the authentic viewing experience, these works are certainly taken out of context in the gallery — originally intended as decorations for furniture, they now hang at eye level on stark walls, defined as paintings, and if a visitor neglected to read the wall text, the mistake of approaching them as wall panels would be unavoidable. The only hint to their larger context of wooden chests is a simple rectangular cube in the center of the room, on which three panels from the same chest are mounted in their original placement. "They didn't want to build a fake cassone in the middle of the room," Baskins explained. "It's almost impossible to borrow a complete cassone. They really got chopped up in the 19th century and sold to dealers, so it's not as though we didn't try to get one." The wall text does instruct visitors to continue upstairs in the museum to see the Gardner's permanent display, which includes intact cassoni in a more context-driven setting. The cassoni's subjects extend into literary contexts, and quotes from Petrarch, Camillus and Apulieus are painted on the walls. One in particular jumps out at viewers: "Even the most excellent painters exercised themselves in such labors, without being ashamed, as many would be today, to paint and gild such chests." The quotation comes from Giorgio Vasari, who in 1550 wrote "Lives of the Artists," a seminal text for biographies of great Italian artists. His quotation about cassoni seems to imply that furniture-painting was a shameful practice, but one must remember that he was writing about a time when decorative arts and fine arts were not distinct practices. Baskins explained, "He's trying to make the case to the Duke of Florence that artists are similar to poets, that they shouldn't have to belong to the guild; that they shouldn't be treated as artisans anymore, they should be treated as special individuals." Along with the exhibition, a fully illustrated catalogue, which Baskins considers the equivalent of a scholarly article, presents new information about cassoni and their uses. Overall, Baskins considers the exhibition a success, and said that the Gardner has reported high attendance numbers. "It's very gratifying that people are going," she said. "It's tremendous fun for me to be there in the gallery being inconspicuous. I see people looking together and they're pointing things out to each other, and I think that's the way it would have been in the 15th century, so I love the re-creation of the viewing experience." Educational programming connected with the show, featuring Baskins, occurs at least twice a week, and this weekend the Gardner will host a scholarly symposium for the exhibition which is free for students and will address the theme of triumph and issues brought up by the show. "The Triumph of Marriage: A Symposium on Renaissance Cassoni," chaired by Baskins, will include keynote lectures on Friday, beginning at 6:30 p.m., and a symposium followed by a reception on Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, visit the Gardner Museum's Web site, www.GardnerMuseum.org.
The Daily got a chance to speak with British actor Robert Pattinson, star of the new film "Twilight," which was adapted from a series of books by author Stephenie Meyer. In "Twilight," Pattinson, best known as Cedric Diggory from the "Harry Potter" franchise, plays Edward Cullen, a vampire who is trying to hide his secret from the world. He falls in love with Bella Swan (played by Kristen Stewart), and together they try to deal with their differences and with other vampires trying to get in their way. Question: What was it like stepping into the role of Edward [Cullen], since there were so many pressures behind it? Robert Pattinson: I guess just by ignoring it? I put off going into the audition because of that reason, and then I really thought I had no chance of getting it at all. When I went into the screen test with Kristen, I played him sort of different and not as strong. I tried to play him [as] a lot more broken. I was just thinking that the book was from Bella's perspective, [and how she] is completely in love and obsessed with Edward [and] would see him however she wanted to see him; it doesn't really have to correspond with reality. Q: You wrote a song for the film's soundtrack. Would you think about pursuing a musical career or just sticking to acting? RP: I have absolutely zero plans to actually actively pursue music. I'd like to record an album at some point, but I don't care if anyone buys it. Q: Is there added any added pressure to playing a character from a book compared to playing a character from a script? RP: I guess it's different. I guess there's more pressure when there is no book because your performance has to make the movie. You have to make the character memorable for the film to be successful. When there is already a popular character, I guess the pressure is living up to other peoples' expectations, but in some ways it takes the pressure off. It's like you can still do what you want and everyone will still like the character. Q: How much of an influence did Stephenie Meyer have on the filmmaking process? RP: I think she had a lot of influence in the beginning and in pre-production, and I talked to her about some things, but by that time I had already been working on the character for about two months before I saw her. I pretty much knew what to do; I just had a few specific questions. Q: Is there anything that interests you in these supernatural films, or are you looking toward a different subject matter for other films you will be making? RP: It's been totally random that I've been doing these sorts of supernatural jobs. I definitely want to eventually play a normal person; everything I have done has been a period piece or a supernatural piece. Everything that I have coming out next year will also be really random. Q: How have you been affected by the rising fandom surrounding the "Twilight" series? RP: I haven't really been too affected, since I can really separate myself from it. I can step into a room full of teenage girls and it doesn't really go to my head. I think that I have finally gained an influence in America because of this role, so that definitely is something different. Q: What was it like doing a lot of your own stunts and wire work? RP: It's really hard. I did wire work with "Harry Potter," but that was just getting hit, which is not really hard to act out. On this, I had to be sort of agile, and you actually had to look like you were controlling the movements. There is no weight or anything that you have to deal with, but you just have to keep your body in the right shape and keep the physics correct. It was really hard and you need to be very talented to be good with wire work. It is also incredibly painful because all of your weight is on two little straps in your crotch, which is not always the most pleasant experience.
When the networks finally announced an Obama victory around 11 p.m. last night after polls closed on the West Coast, Americans had already been on a rollercoaster ride through the airwaves.
"Saint Joan," written by Nobel Prize-winning author George Bernard Shaw and performed at the Wheelock Family Theatre, tells the infamous tale of Joan of Arc, the zealous 17-year-old girl on a God-given mission to see the Dauphin crowned king and to lead France to victory over the English. Few characters in the play are truly likeable, and most fall into a trap of oscillating hypocrisy, where they make statements that serve their present purpose but leave the audience confused as to their true intentions.
Shapes occur everywhere in nature, yet they are also recreated in man-made objects. A careful look around reveals the way in which shapes, both natural and man-made, can combine, forming an endless repetition of form and patterns. John Kramer examines just that in his multimedia show in the Art Institute of Boston Gallery at University Hall at Lesley University, entitled "Interesting and Dull Shapes." Through a multimedia presentation of photographs, prints and film, Kramer examines the relationship between shape and form.
These days, rock music remains as prevalent as ever. Though genres fall in and out of fashion as bands seek to break new ground, the fact remains that the guitar-bass-drums-singer combo is here to stay. As most groups look forward, with some transcending genres even as they reinvent them a la Beck, a few look back. One such band is Eagles of Death Metal. This band worships at the altar of The Rolling Stones and T-Rex and feels that there is a real lack of old-school, good-times music. The group's latest, "Heart On," which seeks to inspire the listener to dance all of their troubles away, delivers an excellent set of toe-tappers and hip-shakers, with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
In general, artists are most profoundly impacted by the contexts — both historical and cultural — in which they live. Impressionists, for example, painted fluttering landscapes due to contemporary science about atoms and light waves and drew sidewalk scenes as Haussmannization transformed the Parisian streets. The current show at Pucker Gallery, "Icon of Loss: Recent Paintings by Samuel Bak," features an exhibition by Bak, a surrealist painter and, perhaps more importantly, a Holocaust survivor. His works are inspired by the atrocities and brutalities he witnessed in Poland during the 1930s and 1940s, but they are painted in such a way as to reflect on the Holocaust in an overarching sense.
Kaiser Chiefs are something of a phenomenon in the U.K., but they have yet to catch on here in the states. It's possible to be a fan of Kaiser Chiefs, but it doesn't quite seem possible to be a Kaiser Chiefs Fan; to define one's musical tastes through a band that lacks its own discernable identity just doesn't feel right. Their third LP, "Off With Their Heads," with its 11 tracks weighing in at just over a half-hour, is simply more of the same inconsequential, guilt-free Brit-pop-rock that they have been churning out since their debut, "Employment," in 2005.
