Leisure

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

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

Leisure

The (not so) Great Buck Howard

The Great Buck Howard doesn’t deserve the following review. It never meant to offend, and I hate to be so hard on it. Nothing about the film is storm-angrily-from-the-theater bad;... Read more

By March 26, 2009

Leisure

Wilco who? Pronto is pimpin’

Since joining Wilco for the production of their 2002 magnum opus Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Mikhail Jorgensen has mostly lurked in the shadows of frontman Jeff Tweedy, playing keyboards and sampling for... Read more

By March 26, 2009

Leisure

Ahh, monsters!

Classic Japanese monsters in D.C.? No, the newest exhibit at the Sackler Gallery isn’t about Godzilla and Mothra, it’s about Shuten Doji, a mythical monster described by Wikipedia as a... Read more

By March 26, 2009

Leisure

Fellini in Rimini

Federico Fellini is one of those directors—the kind whose name gets tossed around cocktail parties and chic uniplexes. But anyone who’s managed to sit through one of his rather long... Read more

By March 26, 2009

Leisure

Smooth opera-tors

I think I’m pretty tolerant when it comes to other people’s musical tastes. However, I refuse to credit purely Pavlovian responses of negativity and disdain, such as, “I like all... Read more

By March 26, 2009

Leisure

The gossip boy

During my time watching television, one person or another has mocked nearly every show I watch. Grey’s Anatomy is too soapy, The Wire is too boring, Lost is too twisted,... Read more

By March 26, 2009

Leisure

Critical Voices: The Decemberists

Long known for their bookish indie ballads stuffed with folk tales and time-worn legends, the Decemberists have taken their critically acclaimed formula to a new level with their latest release,... Read more

By March 26, 2009

Leisure

Critical Voices: Swan Lake

Swan Lake’s debut, Beast Moans, was my joint, man. I was on that shit like white on rice, yelpy vocals, amorphous melodies, and all. It probably didn’t hurt that I wasn’t... Read more

By March 26, 2009

Leisure

Critical Voices: Yeah Yeah Yeahs

If you last heard Karen O and Co. in 2003, after the fist-pumping Fever to Tell, I wouldn’t blame you if you thought It’s Blitz was the work of another... Read more

By March 26, 2009