Leisure

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

Leisure

Santa is a Louse

If you missed October’s French Film Festival because you were watching Borat previews on YouTube, the chance to redeem yourself has arrived.

By November 30, 2006

Leisure

The world according to Carlos Nicolas

If genius really is a form of madness, Carlos Nicolas proves that insanity can at least be aesthetically pleasing.

By November 30, 2006

Leisure

Concert Calendar

Tenacious D Jack Black will be the first to tell you that Tenacious D is the Greatest Band in the World. Maybe his screen performance has been in decline since... Read more

By the November 30, 2006

Leisure

Dinner date for one, finals are no fun

When your coffee per hour ratio reaches 6:1, don’t despair: no matter how bad things get, you can always eat. During exam week preparation time needs to be at a minimum, so here are some overlooked yet easy foods to help you put down the raw roll of cookie dough and get some better food.

By November 30, 2006

Leisure

Fountain spews chemical brilliance

If you’ve seen either of Darren Aronofsky’s first two movies—1999’s Pi and 2001’s Requiem for a Dream—you should take everything you thought you knew about the man and throw it out the window. The Fountain bears little resemblance to either of those films and is ultimately much better than either of them.

By November 16, 2006

Leisure

Chinese Elvis meets dominatrix mom

Martha, Josie, and the Chinese Elvis is a great production, not just because of its endearing portrayal of people with problems but because Woolly Mammoth Theatre has made this play into something respectful on many levels.

By November 16, 2006

Leisure

LEDs, toys as art

What happens when you put 19 grandmas and a great-grandma in one room? An industrial-sized tea and scones party?

By November 16, 2006

Leisure

Jay-Z, Kingdom Come

Jay-Z’s coming-out-of-retirement album Kingdom Come features an older, wiser rapping from the secure throne of a music icon. On this album, he has nothing left to prove. He has transcended the shuck and jive of mainstream hip-hop to create an album showcasing more depth and maturity than many typical Jiggaman tracks.

By November 16, 2006

Leisure

Swan Lake, Beast Moans

What happens when the powers of three Canadian indie gods unite? Swan Lake endeavors to test the equation, though the resulting Beast Moans falls short of its superhuman expectations.

By November 16, 2006

Leisure

Queen Newsom arrives

As a youngster I was a LEGO fanatic. Nary a moment went by when I wasn’t constructing a cowboy fort or an underwater sea lab out of those miniscule building blocks. As time went on, however, I learned that my passion for LEGOs—and many other childhood pastimes—had waned. I had simply outgrown them. The same phenomenon can and does happen with musical artists and their respective genres.

By November 16, 2006

Leisure

Joanna Newsom: Ys

It is difficult to write a review, in the conventional sense of the word, of Joanna Newsom’s sophomore release, Ys, because it’s unlike any other record you’ll hear this year, this decade, or perhaps even your life. At least until Ms. Newsom releases her third album, that is.

By November 9, 2006

Leisure

Trail of Dead: So Divided

The Austin-based band brought post-punk to new musical and conceptual depths with their thought-provoking musical and lyrical mosaic Source Tags & Codes. But So Divided suggests that the band’s struggle to find new meaning in these depths has proved futile. The entire journey has left the group unsure of whether to continue searching or resign and conform to everything it used to love to hate.

By November 9, 2006

Leisure

Isis: _In the Absence of Truth_

Ever since heavy metal’s inception at the hands of four young men from Birmingham, that is to say Black Sabbath, the visionaries have pushed the genre’s boundaries. Isis have cemented their place among such visionary artists with the release of their latest album, In the Absence of Truth.

By November 9, 2006

Leisure

Chinese triathlon: three dishes, three restaurants, one winner

Branching out can be a tricky step when it comes to trying new delivery places. When it’s Chinese, perhaps the wiliest beast on the fast food delivery circuit, there’s reason to be suspect.

By November 9, 2006

Leisure

Sugartown: not as sweet as it sounds

The book’s theme is epitomized in the poem, whose namesake is the collection’s title—“Sugartown”: “and it’s nice, what it’s doing/what it’s done too/to that popsicle stick/it’s licking./But what it said earlier,/it hurt,/I can’t remember the words/exactly/but they hurt.”

By November 9, 2006

Leisure

Eurydice gets wet

When you walk into the Devine Theater in the Davis Performing Arts Center this week, the first thing you notice is the river in front of the stage. From the 12-foot scaffolding to the huge blue sheets that provide the backdrop, it is clear that this is a major production.

By November 9, 2006

Leisure

GU alum writes, speaks

Author of the novel, “Last of the Red Hot Poppas”, Berry will be on campus Thursday to talk about the current situation in New Orleans after Katrina and reminisce about its past through his new book.

By November 9, 2006

Leisure

Silver reflections of a District long past

Volkmar Wentzel’s camera captures stunning images of Washington: street lights glisten through the fog of late-night D.C. and reflect off the rain-slicked streets, giving familiar sights a mysterious quality.

By November 9, 2006

Leisure

Running with Scissors trips up

With sex, drugs, smutty language and a slew of one-liners, Augusten Burroughs’ memoir Running With Scissors has all the ingredients of a great blockbuster. However, films rarely live up to their literary counterparts, and Nip/Tuck director Ryan Murphy has clearly made some nips and tucks that have left the story dull.

By November 2, 2006

Leisure

Lez’hur Ledger: Snoop Dogg’s grizzeat American novizzle

Awww, shizzle. Snoop Dogg wrote a novel. He’s ready to make an entrance on the literary scene, so back on up.

By November 2, 2006