Arts
From the office of the Tufts Daily
October 8Dear unborn fetus of Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz,
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Collection of lost and found home videos allows embarrassing childhood moments to become art at Found Footage Festival
October 8Remember that home video you made with your siblings when you were 10 years old? You know the one. You were probably wearing something you'd never be caught dead in today, belting a song (out of key) with horrifically cheesy lyrics. Thought you had thrown out that videotape long ago? Stop by the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline tonight for the Found Footage Festival, and you might just see some of those moments relived on the big screen.
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Devin Toohey | Pop Culture Gone Bad
October 7Ladies and Gentlemen, our freedom is in danger. Back in the day, films were a way to access another world, to see a place similar to ours but different in so many ways. That ability to be stylistic, to transcend the boundaries of what is plausible, however, is being threatened. Who are the fiends attacking it? Batman and James Bond, among others. Poor Indiana Jones and Juno MacGuff have already fallen victim.
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Jack's Mannequin's newest 'Glass' shatters
October 7Jack's Mannequin's much-anticipated new album "The Glass Passenger," a follow-up to its debut "Everything in Transit" (2005), feels a bit lackluster in comparison to the band's first piano rock foray. The reflective piano notes and punk-sounding vocals are still in sync on the new disc, but the magic of the musicians' interaction is shattered this time around.
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The Scene | Fleet Foxes at the Somerville Theatre
October 7As flashes of colored lights glint in the gilded interior trim of the Somerville Theatre like reflections from stained glass, five voices harmonize in a way that can only be described as angelic. Faces in the audience gaze in rapture, some swaying. Last night's Fleet Foxes concert was more than just a performance. In the words breathed by one glowing listener as she left the theater, "it was an epiphany."
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Lecture | Kaplan speaks on minority roles in Renaissance art
October 7Jews and black Africans are not necessarily the first minority groups that come to mind in a discussion of Renaissance Art, but Professor Paul Kaplan believes their place in art history is invaluable.
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Newest Pegg endeavor shows 'How to Lose Friends' and alienate audiences
October 7No matter how catchy the title or how talented the actors, nothing can hide how awful a movie like "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" actually is. In between star Simon Pegg's usual antics are recurring 20-minute periods of dead jokes and stupid plot points that almost guilt the viewer into laughing out of pity for whoever thought these bits of fluff were funny.
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Anberlin waves white flag with 'New Surrender'
October 6Anberlin hasn't been around long enough to be considered seasoned in the rock scene, but the group is definitely getting close to entering its golden years of rock-age. With its first major label album, "New Surrender," the band takes a cue from George W. Bush and stays the course, sticking by the sounds and techniques that have served them well for so many years as a pseudo-underground Christian rock act.
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Time-constrained search for love proves a witty, intriguing premise in 'The Ex List'
October 6CBS premiered its new attention-grab for the female population over 30 last week: "The Ex List." Starring Elizabeth Reaser from "Grey's Anatomy," the show has potential with its interesting premise and star power, but it must compete with a multitude of other similar, already well established series, a fact that could ultimately thwart efforts at true success.
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Blindness' stares straight into the heart of fear and desolation
October 6A Nobel Prize-winning novel, an award-winning director and an A-list cast fashion a compelling mix in Fernando Meirelles' new film, "Blindness" (2008). Movie-goers familiar with Meirelles' work (notably, "The Constant Gardener" (2005) and "City of God" (2002)) and those searching for another intellectual thriller will not be disappointed with his new release. Do not let the mediocre reviews and the bad response at Cannes fool you — "Blindness" may not be a cutting-edge art film, but it is solid and thought-provoking entertainment.
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Caryn Horowitz | The Cultural Culinarian
October 6There is something about October that makes me sick, literally, not figuratively. The combination of the temperature drop and the rising amount of schoolwork has, without fail, landed me in bed with a cold during October since grammar school. This year seems to be no different. I have been sipping tea and popping vitamins for the past week trying to prevent my sniffles from turning into a full-blown cold nightmare. I failed. I spent my weekend in bed with a box of tissues, endless mugs of tea and season 4 of Entourage (to distract me from my misery). There was one thing missing, however, from my usual under-the-weather accoutrement: soup. Nothing can lift me from the October doldrums as quickly as a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup. No one, and I mean no one — except my mom — makes chicken noodle soup like my grandmother does. I don't know if she legitimately has the perfect recipe, if her 50-year-old soup pot has some magic in it or if she just puts the right amount of grandmotherly love into her cooking, but her chicken noodle soup has healing powers. Now, I know what you're thinking: My grandmother's soup probably kicks her grandmother's soup in the tuchus. Maybe you're right (you're not ... seriously), but regardless, chicken noodle soup seems to have some special ability to relieve cold symptoms. It could just be a self-fulfilling prophecy — I think the soup will make me feel better, so it does — or there could be legitimate medical truth behind it. Dr. Stephen Rennard, a pulmonary specialist at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre, wanted to see if there actually is any scientific merit behind the healing abilities of chicken noodle soup. Dr. Rennard tested 14 different types of chicken soup, including his wife's grandmother's recipe, in his laboratory, and the results of his experiment were published in Oct. 2000. He added the soups to white blood cells called neutrophils, which attack invading viruses. When neutrophils move quickly they cause a buildup of fluids in the chest, causing inflammation and congestion, which makes your nose and lungs stuffy. In all 14 cases, adding the soup to the cells slowed their movement, which would prevent congestion from occurring. So, did Dr. Rennard scientifically prove that chicken noodle soup has medicinal powers? Not exactly. He only did the test once, and each type of soup slowed the neutrophils at different rates, leaving the scientific community highly skeptical of his results. So maybe on a highfalutin medical level there is no proof for the power of chicken noodle soup, but there is a physiological basis for soup's healing abilities. Rachael Ray, of all people, knows what it is. It annoys me to no end when RR stands over a pot of soup and says, "Wow, that's like a chicken facial!" Unfortunately, in this one case, the woman knows what she's talking about. Even though chicken noodle soup itself has no accepted scientific credibility as a remedy for cold symptoms, the steam it releases does. The steam emanating from a bowl of soup breaks up nasal secretions so you sniffle less, and it decreases lung inflammation so you breathe more easily. I still think there's more to it than just the steam, no matter what the scientific community says. Chicken soup warms your body and keeps you hydrated. It also has the perfect balance of carbohydrates, protein and vegetables, all of which my sore throat could not handle unless they were in a soup-induced tender, soft state. Scientific proof or not, when it's October and Ari Gold just isn't cutting it, I'm reaching for the chicken noodle soup — preferably from my grandmother's kitchen.
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For Beelzebubs, appearance on ABC's 'Good Morning America' worth the wait
October 6It looks like the third time was the charm for the Beelzebubs.
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Gentleman's Bet hits Hotung
October 5Tufts band Gentleman's Bet performed at Hotung Café on Friday night, part of Hotung's series of Friday night concerts.
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Pushing Daisies' premiere mixes morbidity and 'punny' one liners
October 5The premiere of ABC's "Pushing Daisies" last Wednesday night sufficiently showcased the continuing charm of the show and its quirky characters, making clear that this budding television series won't sink into the grave of mediocrity any time soon.
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Ghostface Killah to headline fall hip-hop show
October 5Ghostface Killah will headline this fall's Hip-Hop Show alongside DJ Green Lantern on Oct. 16 for the annual event put on by Concert Board. A member of the Wu Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah launched his solo career with his first LP, "Ironman," in 1996 and is well-known for his high-energy, up-tempo rhymes. Green Lantern is a New York native who rose to fame through his role as the official DJ for Shady Records, a label founded by rapper Eminem.
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Ajax' blends the contemporary, ancient soldier
October 5Graduate students from American Repertory Theatre Institute recently participated in a workshop where they worked with playwright Ellen McLaughlin to develop a piece that examined the notion of war. Students explored the current situation in Iraq by examining casualty statistics and cases of military suicide, sexual assault and post-war trauma and then drew parallels between aspects of war today and those that characterized ancient Greek tragedies from the fifth century B.C. McLaughlin compiled the students' input and theatrical material from the workshop and came up with "Ajax in Iraq," a modern twist on Sophocles' "Ajax."
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All That Remains is noise in new metal album, 'Overcome'
October 2With the release of their fourth studio effort for Prosthetic Records, "Overcome," All That Remains has further cemented their place as just another Killswitch Engage wannabe in a melodic metal world that is truly and despondently lost.
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Make like a leaf and fall down to the Harvard Museum of Natural History's 'Looking at Leaves'
October 2As summer wanes and fall breaks, the glorious period of changing leaves comes and goes too quickly for most. But fear not, nature-lovers, the Harvard Museum of Natural History has its own store of treasures. The museum's current special exhibit, "Looking at Leaves," a collection of photographs by Amanda Means, is a life-affirming investigation of botany, photography, conservation and the fragile beauty of the natural world.
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Harris' return to the director's seat makes for a dramatic, intelligent Western flick
October 2Many people know Ed Harris from his acting roles in hits like "The Truman Show" (1998) and "A Beautiful Mind" (2001), but it's time to get to know Ed Harris the director as well. After an eight-year hiatus since his directorial debut in "Pollack" (2000), Harris is back behind the camera to direct the new Western, "Appaloosa." Utilizing simple techniques and some strong performances, this movie does not disappoint. A smart and entertaining Western, it has drama, romance and the perfect amount of action.
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Loyalty to Loyalty' is scarier than the Cuban Missile Crisis for Cold War fans
October 1Cold War Kids may have found the musical opposite of "easy listening." This quartet from Fullerton, Calif. has released a raw, searing, but frequently abrasive album in their second studio LP, "Loyalty to Loyalty."
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