Leisure

Reviews and think pieces on music, movies, art, and theater.

Leisure

Critical Voices: Tinted Windows – Tinted Windows

It’s tempting to say that power-pop supergroup Tinted Windows’s much-anticipated debut album is disappointing, weak, or even bad, but that’s not exactly the case. The truth is, the record, a... Read more

By April 23, 2009

Leisure

Low Fidelity: Dischordant Punk

What does it mean to be punk? Much of today’s music culture seems to exploit the idea of punk, as stores like shopping mall mainstay Hot Topic profit by misinforming... Read more

By April 23, 2009

Leisure

Ming finds cosmic harmony in space

The Air and Space Museum is fancy. Really fancy. The exhibits light up and elaborate spaceship parts hang from the ceiling. The escalators aren’t hidden off to the side because... Read more

By April 16, 2009

Leisure

Fire-crotched and shit-stained monsters in Tokyo!

Japan is a crazy place. Forget all the ridiculous stuff you’ve read on the internet; if Tokyo! is to be believed, the land of the rising sun is full of... Read more

By April 16, 2009

Leisure

Hannah Montana and the search for self

There are plenty of places most college students would rather be than in a movie theater filled with screaming, pre-teen girls—such as the ninth circle of Hell. If you have... Read more

By April 16, 2009

Leisure

Finding closure

Contrary to what Tom Petty may have said, ending is actually the hardest part. The past few weeks have seen quite a few shows bid adieu to audiences—some in their... Read more

By April 16, 2009

Leisure

The Fab Four

Few bands have had their music and legacy commercialized, merchandized, and downright exploited by money-snatching opportunists as the Beatles have. Sure, the Fab Four are undoubtedly one of the most... Read more

By April 16, 2009

Leisure

Cactus and Pretzel in stereo

If Serge Gainsbourg and Nena (of “99 Luftballons” fame) had a love child, and he grew up as latchkey kid in 1980s Berlin, there’s a good chance that kid would... Read more

By April 16, 2009

Leisure

Let’s celebrate the Earth!

Perhaps the only bright side to the degradation of the Earth’s atmosphere—besides, of course, a prolonged but double-edged tanning season—is the on-the-rise holiday known as Earth Day. Unlike St. Patrick’s... Read more

By April 16, 2009

Leisure

Critical Voices: Doves

Four years after their last release, Britpop outfit Doves revisit familiar territory with a renewed sense of urgency on Kingdom of Rust. Coldplay-esque grandiosity paired with New Order electronics remains the... Read more

By April 16, 2009

Leisure

Critical Voices: Death Cab For Cutie

One aspect of The Open Door EP that Death Cab for Cutie definitely got right was that none of its songs would have fit well on the band’s latest full-length, Narrow Stairs.... Read more

By April 16, 2009

Leisure

Critical Voices: Art Brut

Where Art Brut fits in, exactly, is a bit hard to pin down. They’re not quite the post-punk revivalist sort—we fell in love with them for their wit before their... Read more

By April 16, 2009

Leisure

Your friendly neighborhood cleanup

The more reductivist cinephile might tell you that Sunshine Cleaning was bad. The not-quite-discerning might tell you that it was good, entertaining even. Both groups are wrong. Directed by Christine Jeffs, Sunshine... Read more

By April 2, 2009

Leisure

An open letter from the Hoya Court Sparrow

To all those who watch, feed, coo over, or otherwise encourage the black squirrels on Healy Lawn, Please stop. Those stupid squirrels are nothing but furry attention whores. Don’t even... Read more

By April 2, 2009

Leisure

Duchamp, da champ

The best art is nothing but the purest reflection of its creator. In the case of French artist Marcel Duchamp, the intriguing life of the creator rivals the works themselves.... Read more

By April 2, 2009

Leisure

Quality: Unknown

In this country and this city, homelessness is an accepted feature of the urban landscape. We walk past it, clumsily hand it our change, and continue on. In our classrooms... Read more

By April 2, 2009

Leisure

Liquid candy-hol

Even though I gave up on Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny a long, long time ago, my Mom still puts presents from “Santa” under the tree and gives us... Read more

By April 2, 2009

Leisure

The quiet man

Giorgio Morandi seems to surface every few decades in the art world and leave as quietly as he enters. When I first noticed his work, at a retrospective put on... Read more

By April 2, 2009

Leisure

Critical Voices: Peter, Bjorn, & John Pro

“The paintings around me/ they don’t understand me/ I’m a bit too early/ I’m seen as development,” Peter Morén sings on “Blue-Period Picasso,” as if to justify the growing pains... Read more

By April 2, 2009

Leisure

Critical Voices: Peter, Bjorn, & John Con

Peter Bjorn & John’s Writer’s Block is one of my favorite albums of the decade, so naturally I found myself counting down the days until Living Thing leaked. Sure, the instrumental stopgap Seaside... Read more

By April 2, 2009