In this day and age, we have come to realize that we in America can get jipped out of quality products, whether it’s music, movies, or video games. Being a gamer, I’ve come across more than my fair share of good yet relatively unknown games. I’ve made up a list of the top 10 games you’ve probably never heard about,…
Maxwell’s long awaited new album, BLACKsummers’ night, is all but stellar. Let me explain. It’s not that Maxwell, the genius known for creating sweepingly enchanting songs, hasn’t created “good” music on this album. Rest assured he has. But in an industry void of competition, the only person to hold him up against, is himself. And unfortunately, this album pales.
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By Jeremy Kotin
1. ART Robert Taplin: Everything Real is Imagined (After Dante)
These nine vignettes or dioramas interpreting Dante’s visions of hell as modern day parables are beyond provocative, stunning and gorgeously executed. Each diorama incorporates strikingly surrealistic resin figures set into these artfully crafted scenes with the most perfect lighting. In one, a living room is depicted, lit by a single lamp…
Last night I thought a lot about the idea of a tribute song. Aaliyah had a tribute video for her last single, “Miss You,” which came out over a year following her death. Biggie had his “I’ll Be Missing You” all-star tribute. It was released on May 27th, 1997 – a full 79 days after his untimely death.
With 30 seconds…
As a bit of an anti-paeon to the state of public tragedy, I offer this: an interwebs-eye view of all things “tragic.” What cream would settle to the top of the heap via our friend and trust magic-eight ball of relative importance, GOOGLE, when one types in the word, “Tragedy?” The results speak for themselves.
By Hawkes Klein
Speaking of mortality, what is the deal with child-cancer? More importantly, what is the deal with sad-ass movies and books that just make you insanely depressed? Hello, “The Notebook,” I’m talking to you! Authors like Jodi Picoult and Nicholas Sparks are feeding this fear of death to us and I just don’t think it’s fair. Have you seen “A Walk…
I’m young and the truth is, I could die at any moment from some freak accident or illness. But, aside from this random possibility, I will potentially live to die from old age (that’s ironic). According to the Actuarial Life Table, courtesy of the Social Security branch, I should be fortunate enough to have another 54 years added to my…
By Ji-Un Kwon
August 29, 1958-June 25, 2009
There are obviously far more than ten that I could listen to on a loop. Please feel free to add your own!
10. Another Part of Me
Two words: Captain EO. This song is sense memory for me. Summertime, Disneyland, a delicious churro (it was the ONLY thing I wanted to eat at Disneyland) and 3D glasses, watching…
We came of age with Obama.
This past November our generation, reacting to the final painful throws of our Bush puberty, elected a leader that reflected all the ideals we’d developed through our twenty-plus year childhood. His ascension and election was nothing less than the passing of the crown- now it was ours, now we were admitted into adulthood, now it…
Matt Ellsworth and I met while making Second Skin, a documentary I directed on virtual worlds. He’s one of the boys from Indiana who loves to game. Our conversations over the years have led to a few things, one of them was finding a common love for Johnnie Walker Black Label, and the second was a penchant for postulating about…
The geek have officially inherited the Earth, as was prophesied in Psalms 37:7 (more or less) so many bearded men ago. It’s a fairly recent thing, having happened somewhere between Google’s ascent to ubiquity, the second installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the eyebrow-raising popularity of Weird Al’s White & Nerdy. And since history is told by the…
How much does James Cameron ride George Lucas’ dick? Only enough to base an entire movie, Avatar, on the final battle sequence from the last good film in the Star Wars franchise, Return of the Jedi. Each film has its ragtag band of native creatures, each film pits basic bush weaponry against mechanized slaughter machines, each film has exploding trees.…
Come with me, friends, to another time. Let’s say 1998ish. Ross and Rachel rule the airwaves, ER is hailed as the Best Drama Evar. As the sun sets on Seinfeld, critics mourn its passing, proclaiming that we’re not likely to see a show of its brilliance ever again.
I watched an episode of Seinfeld yesterday. It’s still funny, despite the canned…
I sincerely hope I made every attempt to be fair and honest and if I left off a film you love, please know that it was not with malice and there are only ten spots. I even split them into two genres because taking any of these off the list kind of made my heart hurt. Also, feel free to…