With eyelids pressed tightly together, Thao Nguyen crooned into the microphone while her lips trembled underneath her strong voice. With her left hand, she placed delicate, small fingers across the neck of her guitar, while her right hand slammed a drumstick across the strings.
There is little that Broken Social Scene hasn't done. It has released three albums that are all uniquely blissful and arguably have as much staying power as any band in modern rock not named Radiohead.
Listening to The Hold Steady's fourth album "Stay Positive," one cannot help but draw comparisons to rock predecessors like Bruce Springsteen & the E. Street Band. And while some critics find The Hold Steady's unapologetically classic rock sound to be a blatant rip-off of music from a bygone era, this reviewer begs to differ.
THE HYPOTHESIS: Every Dodger fan at UC Irvine owes famed sports agent and Anteater baseball fan Scott Boras a handshake at Anteater Ball Park next season. Why? The best dreads in sports are swinging under an L.A. Dodger hat now and Boras was the orchestrator of the blockbuster deal.
A recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Andrew Klavan argues that the characterization of Batman in the blockbuster film "The Dark Knight" is representative of our Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush. While on the surface there may be similarities between the two, the conclusion that Batman somehow symbolizes conservative principles clearly misses the point of not only the film, but the mythos of Batman as well. For readers who have yet to see "The Dark Knight," be warned that spoilers are ahead.
At the age of 71, comedian George Carlin died from a heart attack. During his career, what differentiated him from other comics and contributed to his success was his willingness to make remarks that some of his contemporaries found controversial.
The federal government, the military, the media and the public have largely ignored the war in Afghanistan since the conflict began in 2002. By January of 2003, the Bush administration turned their attention to Iraq and became preoccupied with the logistical and financial aspects of that impending war. Since then, Afghanistan has taken a backseat in importance. Even the death of 500 American soldiers in the region earlier this year wasn't enough to rekindle media interest in the territory.
For more than a decade, the folks at Pixar have provided the world with the finest family entertainment. However, the label "family entertainment" has turned many people away from the Pixar brand. Too often, people say that Pixar's tales are only entertaining for children. There are also whispers that the latest Pixar film, "Wall-E," is too serious and political, but these are probably the same people who put "The Lion King" in slow motion to find hidden sexual messages.
The gender politics identified by Nathan Tumazi in "The Problem with Gender Identity" [published on July 14] would be less prominent if the media did its homework on domestic violence and rape instead of using sexist, men-are-bad/women-are-good language that "anti-sexists" like Jackson Katz use, which stigmatizes male victims and leaves half of the violence invisible.
