Leisure

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

Leisure

Ladytron: Rehash or renaissance?

So new wave is back. This whole ‘80s revivalist thing and all its oft-cited trappings?President Bush, corporate greed and, just maybe, a decent Georgetown basketball team?have tracked a parallel course across lesser-known music circles through media spanning from Omaha indie new wavers The Faint to Brooklyn’s electro club renaissance.

By the September 26, 2002

Leisure

Russian pop legend swept away in tragedy

When James Dean was killed in a high-speed car accident on Sept. 30, 1955 at the age of 24, the actor became a symbol for a forgotten generation of youth living through the marked cultural shift of post-war America. Rarely can one individual embody and express in his art the fears and hopes of an entire generation, and yet today on the other side of the world, we are seeing the tragic story of Russia’s James Dean.

By the September 26, 2002

Leisure

Feel my pain, but don’t smell my hair

Bright Eyes takes the stage last Sunday at the 9:30 Club. The crowd claps. The crowd looks down, stares at feet. Bright Eyes bangs out first song, lead singer Connor Oberst warbles another epic of woe and, well, more woe. Crowd claps, brushes artificially black hair out of eyes, becomes eerily silent and fixes gaze at feet.

By the September 26, 2002

Leisure

That new fall feeling

The Fairline Parkway’s self-titled debut album off Atlanta-based Lazyline Records is meant for autumn. It is a “comfort album” for when the weather starts to get chilly and the schoolwork starts to pile up. Like an overcast day, The Fairline Parkway makes you want to turn off the heat, curl up and contemplate the mysteries of life with your closest friends .

By the September 19, 2002

Leisure

Buzz closes after nine years

In a sad turn of events for District clubgoers, Buzz, a weekly dance party that has been held at Nation (1015 Half St., S.E.) for the past nine years, has unexpectedly closed, effective immediately. Buzzlife Productions, which ran the event every Friday night, announced the closing on its website Wednesday evening.

By the September 19, 2002

Leisure

Cinema & spice

For all those D.C. residents who want to check out the Kennedy Center but don’t have the desire to see the National Symphony Orchestra or Shear Madness, the next two weeks provide you with a perfect reason: The American Film Institute Theater is hosting the fifth Latin American Film Festival from Sept.

By the September 19, 2002

Leisure

Kaydee tested, Mason approved?

As a sophomore, David Appelbaum (CAS ‘03) wrote an article in The Hoya chronicling the lack of academic and technical support for filmmaking at Georgetown. Tonight, having overcome the very barriers cited in that article two years ago, his new film Representing You will premiere in front of a Georgetown audience.

By the September 19, 2002

Leisure

Black House brings slammers to campus

Our ability to use language is one of our defining characteristics as a species. From sounds that become morphemes, morphemes that become words and words that combine to form complex narratives and dialogues, we convey our innermost thoughts and intellectual workings through language.

By the September 19, 2002

Leisure

Studio reveals Privates

In the contemporary world, Europeans and Americans continually search for ways to come to terms with a shameful history of colonialism and domination. Rather than critically examine this embarrassing past, however, most Westerners are content to compartmentalize and bury the sordid topic altogether.

By the September 19, 2002

Leisure

Anthems examines D.C. a year on

Washington is a city that often seems to lack a unified voice. From Anacostia to Capitol Hill, from Adams Morgan to Georgetown, there could hardly be a more disparate half million people. In the wake of last September, the question of a common identity for Washington has attracted new attention, and in its first show of the season, Arena Stage seeks to find an anthem befitting our impossibly diverse city.

By the September 12, 2002

Leisure

Egypt comes alive … well, not literally.

Many people would jump at the chance to see the pyramids in Egypt or the treasures of Tutenkhamen’s tomb. Just about anyone would if given the opportunity to see such wonders up close, but there’s always some excuse not to up and fly to the Middle East?school, work, geopolitical upheaval.

By the September 12, 2002

Leisure

Kurosawa classic hits AFI

When watching one of the “greatest films of all time,” there is often a troubling disconnect between the amount of pleasure one gets and the amount one thinks one should be receiving. It is difficult to fully enjoy a film with the sword of praise constantly dangling over one’s head.

By the September 12, 2002

Leisure

O-ska-ma bin Laden?

Dan Geller and Amy Dykes are more attractive than most indie rockers. Geller’s chiseled features and Dykes’ head of platinum-blond hair do nothing to suggest them as unintended victims of last year’s terrorist attacks. But the’ve paid a price?the duo call themselves “I Am the World Trade Center,” and have recorded under that name for several years.

By the September 12, 2002

Leisure

Photo realism

I can’t seem to find words eloquent enough to describe the emotions I felt a year and a day ago. Perhaps some of you can’t, either. But on that day, hundreds of people found something that could speak for them: They picked up a camera, be it film or digital, still or video, and allowed that device to capture what their eyes could not or would not believe.

By the September 12, 2002

Leisure

There’s bad taste … and there’s this

Once, John Waters was a director who existed on the fringes of culture. Now, he has a hit show on Broadway. From the underbelly of artistic legitimacy to the pinnacle of commercial acceptance, John Waters’ current status provokes only mouth-gaping confusion when one is confronted with what is considered his debut film, Pink Flamingos.

By the September 5, 2002

Leisure

Chomsky meets Kaplan in strange new book

It’s fair to say that recent events have not treated Marxism very well. Communism as a global ideological force has long since collapsed, replaced by the triumph of global capitalism. Ten years ago, Francis Fukayama took a page out of Marx and Hegel’s book and declared human society to be at the “end of history.

By the September 5, 2002

Leisure

Indie label offers its young

We’ve all seen them: Fluorescent bubble letters explode onto our television screen, followed by snippets of videos, catching impassioned artists shooting sultry looks. Brittany, Kylie, Hanson, even K-Ci & JoJo. An announcer shouts that this $20 disc is the key to a sweet party.

By the September 5, 2002

Leisure

Q&A: this is for U

As I cruised down the streets of Gainesville, Fla. during a summer road-trip with John, my long-time best friend, one question plagued us. We’d roll down the windows, hang out of them and blare either the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or the Faint while we checked out the people walking to and from the University of Florida campus.

By the September 5, 2002

Leisure

NME gushes; we vomit

In art as in life, the problem with being ahead of your time is that you tend to wallow in poverty and obscurity because the rest of the world doesn’t care about you. In our day and age, the problem has been partially remedied. Between the magic of the Internet and the compulsions of hipsters who have nothing better to do with their lives, there are seemingly millions of people spending all of their time trying to find the next obscure, unknown and unloved but nonetheless culturally significant “big thing.

By the September 5, 2002

Leisure

A spliff too far

The fanfare surrounding rock’s “latest trend” transcends garage rock’s stripped-down sound and careless attitude. Kids these days are bringing back the tight ripped jeans, staying away from the shower and cutting their own hair if the scissors are dull enough.

By the August 29, 2002