A&E

GAMING: The latest installment of this Disney/“Final Fantasy” hybrid fails to thrill players.

SOULFUL:Legendary southern rock artist Gregg Allman explores the blues with his latest album.

WALK: Peter Weir’s latest film only tells a shade of the extraordinary story it tries to portray.

SUPERHERO: This remake of the classic action series is disorganized, but still a fun watch.

ROMANCE: A portrait of a dying relationship, “Blue Valentine” is beautiful, if sometimes hard to watch.

BUZZ: The best new electronic artists are finding their place in the world, outside of raves and nightclubs.

HIATUS: Cake proves the old adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is true when it comes to their music.

Piano-driven electronic rock band Suddyn played a noontime concert at the Student Center Jan. 12, showcasing their rock anthems to the UCI population. Suddyn is comprised of two brothers from Montauk, N.Y. and an Irishman, and this trio has already had hit singles in Ireland and toured around Europe. Now they’ve come to America and are ready to conquer the West Coast. Lead singer and keyboardist Alan Steil, guitarist and backup vocalist Jarrett Steil, and drummer Brendan Connolly sat down with the New University to talk about their aspirations for Suddyn in the U.S.

RAPTURE: Arthur Miller’s classic is brilliantly brought to life by talented UCI thespians.

The University Art Gallery opened its January exhibition last week, entitled “Cult of the Ruin: Strategies of Accumulation.” The exhibition is curated by MFA candidates in the Studio Art program at UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts.

How do you get over the old dictum that being honest means telling the truth? As a culture, Americans have a troubled relationship with honesty, with very crude notions about how a person “is” honest or acts honestly. On one hand, we expect narrative films to portray human interactions honestly — we’re begging to be conned by the films we watch. On the other hand, we have silly ideas about how our actions define us; an actor “is” gay in a film, but “is” straight in “real life” — we like to feel like we’re in charge while we’re being conned.

With the advent of the Internet, the rap industry has been forced to adapt to an entirely new type of release — the mixtape.