Leisure

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

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Critical Voices: Bon Iver

There are some albums that would have been impossible without just the right recording environment. Example: Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers), which owes much of its grit to the grimy gutters of Staten Island where six of the nine Wu Tang Clansmen honed their craft. Likewise, For Emma, Forever Ago, folk artist Justin Vernon’s debut as Bon Iver, owes its gorgeously sylvan vibe to the hibernating Wisconsin woods where Vernon wrote and recorded most of these songs.

By February 14, 2008

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Critical Voices: Mountain Goats

Who’s responsible for the state of the Mountain Goats in Heretic Pride? Overproduced and with lyrics that would make high schoolers at a Battle of the Bands blush, this once-fantastic band has released a lamentable album, and someone must be to blame.

By February 14, 2008

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Critical Voices: Strangefolk

Strangefolk, British psychedelic outfit Kula Shaker’s first album in eight years, is a tight set of tracks that works best when striking at the heart of the classic rock tradition.

By February 14, 2008

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Forte: An open letter to Apple

The bottom line is that between the iPod, iTunes and the Apple image, you’ve made being alone awfully convenient, even attractive. If the streak continues, maybe we can expect streaming concert footage on iTunes and albums made entirely with GarageBand.

By February 14, 2008

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SBF, seeking love and redemption

“In the Blood,” staged by the Black Theater Ensemble and written by Susan-Lori Parks, is a dark tale of a woman whose poverty and sexual prowess have given her five bastard children and a life of perpetual social exclusion. The story is loosely based on Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter”—although the only vestiges of that archetypal classic are Hester La Negrita (the heroine) and an abundance of A’s (the only letter that Hester can read or write).

By February 14, 2008

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Culottes for you lots: Pretty in pink

When it comes to dressing up for the holidays, Valentine’s Day is notoriously short-changed. We get to wear pretty hats for Easter and little black dresses for New Years, but the idea of dressing up for Valentine’s Day seems, to many, a decidedly tacky thing to do. Mention anything about a Valentine’s Day outfit, and two visions come to mind: the middle-aged elementary school teacher in a voluminous cardigan covered in sequin hearts, and her polar opposite, the lingerie model in a trashy see-through teddy and crotchless panties. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

By February 14, 2008

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Finding Love, Etcetera

This Valentine’s Day, why not expand your cultural horizons? The Davis Center is putting on “Love, Etcetera,” a stupendous dance show by the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange based on the work of those two classic romantic Wills, Shakespeare and Nelson. A surprising pairing, but as Artistic Director Peter DiMuro explains, “their works are about human foibles, and they’re great storytellers.”

By February 14, 2008

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Recognize! what what?

Recognize!, the National Portrait Gallery’s new exhibit about hip-hop culture, is slightly self-admonishing, born of a desire to recognize the movement’s work as “museum-worthy.” Doing a bit of sampling of its own, the Portrait Gallery chose a photographer, a painter, a poet, a video artist and two graffiti artists to showcase different aspects of hip-hop. Forgoing its usual strategy of sticking to retrospectives, the Smithsonian museum has produced an awkward first foray into current culture. Although the exhibit feels disjointed and insufficient at times, most of its pieces are unique and worth seeing.

By February 14, 2008

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4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days in the life

4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, the latest success from Romania’s growing filmmaking community, is honest and brilliantly directed. The film recently opened in D.C. after winning the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or and garnering international praise for writer/director Cristian Mungiu’s nonjudgmental portrayal of a young woman seeking an illegal abortion with the help of a close friend.

By February 7, 2008

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High School Musical, the Musical!

I spent one week babysitting my cousins over winter break. And so, by no fault of my own, I just so happen to know every single word to the High School Musical soundtrack by heart. I even might have it on my iPod. Okay, okay—I just may be a secret HSM fanatic.

I love the utter corniness of Disney’s uber-simplistic version of high school, where the main characters don’t even kiss until the sequel. So when given the option to see High School Musical live, I hauled out to the National Theatre.

By February 7, 2008

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Popped Culture: Romcoms and Reviews

It’s February, which means that, in addition to more sunlight and an influx of pink at CVS, we can expect lots and lots of bad movies. The beginning of the calendar year is the usual dumping ground for movies no one expects to be considered for Oscars: action movies too dull for the summer, comedies that have been “reshot” six or seven times, and a plethora of formulaic romantic comedies (romcoms, if you will), a genre that gets less respect than almost any other.

By February 7, 2008

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Talking vaginas in Poulton Hall

Giant, talking vaginas. It’s the image that comes to mind when one hears the title Vagina Monologues, and which the play’s opening line intentionally invokes. “My vagina’s pissed off,” the first actress declares, before explaining what her “vagina would say if it could.”

By February 7, 2008

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Critical Voices: British Sea Power

Nationalist rockers British Sea Power return on February 12 with their third album, Do You Like Rock Music? Occasionally leaving behind some of the radio-friendliness of 2003’s Open Season in favor of their debut’s less nuanced—though arguably better—rock sound, the lads from Brighton, England hope your answer is yes. Although the band still fails to write great hooks consistently, the uptempo songs here are among their best to date.

By February 7, 2008

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Vox Around the Blocks

Compiled by your lovely Leisure staff, this calender covers upcoming events in D.C. for the museum-goer and concert-goer alike.

By the February 7, 2008

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Lez’her Ledger: COLBERT!

As we live less than an hour from the National Portrait Gallery (right by the Verizon Center), a few friends and I decided it was incumbent upon us to make a pilgrimage to Stephen Colbert’s portrait, hanging next to a bathroom in that esteemed institution through February as part of an elaborate prank by the show. (The need to fill time without writers might have something to do with it). We weren’t the only ones—the place was packed, and we kept turning corners and running into vaguely familiar people, possibly from campus.

By January 31, 2008

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Critical Voices: Hot Chip

Hot Chip’s third album really should have been called The Warning Pt. II instead of Made in the Dark. The latest installment from the British quintet has all the trappings of a great album, but there’s no avoiding the similarities to their 2006 sophomore effort, The Warning.

By January 31, 2008

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Critical Voices: Nada Surf

After listening to “The Film Did Not Go ‘Round,” the quiet love song that concludes Nada Surf’s fifth studio album, Lucky, I searched for one word to best capture the latest effort from the New York-based rock band. Unfortunately, the word I settled on was “unimpressive.”

By January 31, 2008

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Culottes for you lots: Books = Looks

It’s not my job to tell you what’s new and hot. Figuring out what everyone is wearing is as easy as looking around in class or watching people in Red Square. It doesn’t take a dedicated Vogue reader to know that neutrals are in and that classic shapes are making a slightly-better-fitting comeback. The more interesting question is finding out where these trends have their genesis. Why am I drawn to toggle coats and tiny pleats? Luckily for you, I’ve done some sleuth work, and have come up with a provocative new theory about why we dress the way we do: children’s books.

By January 31, 2008

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Forte: Wedding Songs

I’ve been slowly whittling down the playlist for my wedding reception for the past five years or so. Just to clarify, I didn’t want to get married at fifteen; it’s just the age when I realized how much the atmosphere can make or break the reception.

By January 31, 2008

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Warm up on Wisconsin Ave. with cafes

Smaller than a restaurant but with more room to relax than a carry-out joint, cafés are meant for light bites with little wait and warm coffee for defrosting. Despite their name, cafés are not limited to French cuisine, and a bounty of options is available just north of campus on Wisconsin Avenue.

By January 31, 2008