Intersections

2010 Album of the Year Picks

2011-01-07T09:12:00.000-08:00

Indie: “Have One On me” - Joanna Newsom

On paper, it seems that Joanna Newsom’s latest release, Have One On Me, with its 18 songs spanning two whole hours, is a pretentious and futile attempt to trump her previous masterpiece Ys. But that was four years ago, and Newsom has changed quite a bit.

On the decidedly cosmic Kingfisher, she holds an internal debate over the credulity of mankind and her penitence under God. Then, on Baby Birch, she ruefully ponders the beauty and life of her miscarried child; in it, she then skins a rabbit “kicking and mewling, upended, unspooling, unsung, and blue” and threatens to find it wherever it may go before “it ran, as they’re liable to do.” Lyrics and material such as these prove that Newsom has reached womanhood in her musical expression; each word and chord serve a grand purpose in the greater scheme. And yet, one cannot help but doubt that Newsom has actually lived the subtle tragedies of which she sings.

Unlike the naïvely blissful debut or her audacious teenage foray into experimentation on her sophomore album Have One on me is a lyrical masterpiece of maturity. If you give this album the immense attention that it deserves, she will tell you stories deeper, darker, and ultimately more joyous than you had thought possible through music.

-Michael Becker ‘14

Hip Hop: “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” – Kanye West

Accompanied by ludicrous amounts of fanfare, preceded by weeks of free G.O.O.D. Friday releases, coming with a sprawling half-hour music video, and resulting from months of isolated work from an island stronghold, Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy seemed to be burdened with crippling hype. But then the album actually dropped.

It is more than a hip-hop album. It takes the typical conceptions of what hip-hop should be and runs them through the grinder that is Kanye West’s mind. And the genre may not have survived the trip, as Mr. West succeeded in blowing it up with his swirling, staggering opus.

Personally, it’s the only album I’ve heard in a long time that gave me chills, and when I emerged from my first listen, I spent the rest of the day in a bewildered fog. This is because MBDTW takes you through Ye’s mind, a place of staggering ego, crippling self-consciousness, brilliant rhymes, and groundbreaking production. From Nicki Minaj’s intro to Gil Scott-Heron’s outro, and through all the hits in between, MBDTF is a towering accomplishment, a maximalist hip-hop manifesto.

-Trap Yates ‘14

Indie: “Contra” –Vampire Weekend

It is easy to just bob your head along with the light-hearted tunes of Vampire Weekend’s 2010 release, Contra. But underneath the understated ease, there is often an intricate intermix of energized

beats, vocal harmonization, and a splash of heart-rending orchestral reflections. It is clear that Vampire Weekend has definitely taken the time to craft their encore album, collapsing various genres and sounds into each one of their songs without losing that quirky simplicity that characterizes the band.

They sing of poetic images and treat serious subject, especially human hypocrisy and pretensions, with the same flippant tone and the listener can never be completely sure whether they’re serious or not. And it is easy to be infected by that uplifting, happy-go-lucky attitude towards life whenever you listen. There is something very exquisite and endearing about their music-box, bubbly children’s rhyme quality. So even under the crushing load of dean’s date papers and JPs, pop in the Vampire Weekend CD and somehow, be tempted to just shrug everything off!

-Grace Ma ‘14

Folk: “The Wild Hunt” –The Tallest Man on Earth

Musicians don’t drop 10 out of 10 albums the way they drop good beats. A great album, even a BEST album, might only be a 5/10, and a hyped album even less. And then there is “The Wild Hunt.” 10 out of 10 tracks, 10 out of 10 stars. It is a work of music so distinctive, so profound, and so stunning that the thrill of its discovery was to me something akin to my first encounter with a band like the Rolling Stones.

To put it short, Kristan Matsson, the brains behind The Tallest Man on Earth, is an artist with the ability to truly remind you why you even bother looking for music in the first place. His has a pungent, yet utterly compelling voice that, when paired with the unpretentious jangle of his guitar makes you do a double-take, and then a triple-take, until before you know it, you’ve listened through the whole CD about 15 times through.

Critics are generally quick to compare Matsson to Bob Dylan, and it is not unfounded in terms of the visceral voice, complex melodies, and folky feel. But equally as impressive is that in all of his artful optimism and contemplation, Matsson is entirely his own person. Just as Joanna Newsom can be no one else except Joanna Newsom, Matsson is the one and only, the Tallest Man on Earth.

-Lisa Han ‘13

Experimental: “Cosmogramma” –Flying Lotus

The staggering beats of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy will always take center stage in any discussion of the beatmaking of 2010. Of equal worth, if not equal notice, however, is the unique genius of visionary L.A. producer Flying Lotus. Since his first beats hit the masses a few years ago, FlyLo has been churning out a ridiculous volume of material, developing his sound from hazy instrumental hip-hop into…well into Cosmogramma.

At first listen, especially to the uninitiated into FlyLo’s sound, Cosmogramma sounds dangerously disjointed. That Flying Lotus manages to weave together all the disparate elements that make up his music defies belief, and initially, defies the ear. But once you adapt to the flood of sounds barraging your ear, the pattern emerges.

It’s a beautiful pattern. The songs are amazingly lush, and each new listen-through reveals an entirely new layer of precisely placed sounds. The album lacks singles, allowing the songs to just flow together. And in between the sounds clarity emerges, until when listening you have a hard time even hearing Cosmogramma’s random elements in the midst of its manic cohesion.

-Trap Yates ‘14

Mixtape of the Week: K’ La –The Coldest Winter Ever

2011-01-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

Who knew Gary, Indiana, of all places, was such a hotbed of rap? I wouldn’t have guessed it, but there must be something in the water. K’ La joins Freddie Gibbs as one of the GI’s top ambassadors as she sings and raps her way through The Coldest Winter Ever. Honest, and introspective in all the ways that most rappers aren’t, K’ La impresses with her debut, which explores love, being left, raising kids in material America, and trying to break into the game.

When I say K’ La raps and sings, I really do mean she does both well. She is not like some femcees whose rapping overwhelms her singing (here’s looking at you Minaj) or vice versa. She is genuinely versatile, smoothly transitioning between crooning and rapping in a style reminiscent of Lauryn Hill, not to drag K’ La into that tired old comparison.

K’ La also shifts equally comfortably through subject material. She plays the angry lover, the loving girlfriend, the up-and-coming artist, the struggling mom. She is able to switch around so comfortably because of she is unrelentingly down-to-earth. This is best typified by the tape’s standout song “Who I Am,” an unflinching, soulful reflection upon her personal development.

Overall, it’s an exciting start for K’ La, and now that she’s out of The Coldest Winter Ever, I think it’s only a matter of time before she gets hot.

Cop it from her site: http://www.klathelyricist.us/download-music

-Trap Yates '14

Classic Movie of the Week: Die Hard (1988)

2010-12-22T11:31:00.000-08:00

It’s the holiday season, so I thought I would post about my favorite holiday movie. The cinematic masterpiece Die Hard features neither Santa nor Hanukkah, nor the Holiday Armadillo (if you don’t know who the Holiday Armadillo is, you should click here). Yet, Die Hard is a movie about what the holiday season should be about: killing terrorists by means of one’s own sheer awesomeness.

John McClane (Bruce Willis) is a detective with the NYPD, who is attempting a Christmas reunion with his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia). He finds her at a holiday office party in the high-rise Nakatomi Plaza. After a fight with his wife, McClane finds himself alone in a private bathroom. Before he can attempt to rectify the situation, a group of terrorists (the majority of which look quite a lot like Fabio) led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) seize the building. In the confusion, McClane is able to slip unnoticed into the building’s maintenance areas, but now it’s up to him to safe the rest of the hostages, including his wife.

Click here to see McClane spreading the holiday spirit.

Click here for the trailer.

Have a great winter break everyone!

Die Hard sadly cannot be found at any of the Princeton University libraries. However, it can be watched instantly on Netflix.

--Lolita de Palma '14

Singles of the Week: December 22, 2010

2010-12-15T08:02:00.000-08:00

Rap: “Roman’s Revenge” – Nicki Minaj ft. Eminem

What could Eli Manning, Aladdin, dungeon dragons, Roman Polanski, Lil’ Kim, S&M, the Vatican, and straightjackets possibly have in common? Well, they’re all somehow relevant in the eagerly anticipated collaboration “Roman’s Revenge” between provocative rap icons Nicki Minaj and Eminem. And it certainly delivers; Nicki’s more aggressive than most male rappers could dream of being, and Eminem’s crazier than a Brown student. It’s angry. It’s explicit. It’s twisted. This shit’s as cathartic as it gets. So whether you like it or not, listen, because it seems as though music like this has become a legitimate form of artistic expression; and to be honest, I think it’s brilliant. As these icons say, “when Shady and Nicki’s worlds clash, it’s high class meets white trash”, and I think they’re here to stay.

(Just for fun, try to determine which rapper is high class and which is white trash. I haven’t slept in days trying to figure it out. It’s driven me mad.)

-Michael Becker ‘14

Hip Hop: “Beast Mode”- B.o.B.

I should preface this by saying that I grew up watching “Beast Wars” and “Beast Machines,” the shows from which this song draws its central metaphor. So any song drawing upon that paragon of nineties cartoons had a direct line to my heart. But besides my own personal nostalgic satisfaction, “Beast Mode” is a great song. It’s the B.o.B. I came to know and love before “Airplanes” seized America’s radios by the throat and choked the general population, threatening to extinguish B.o.B. the up-and-coming rapper entirely. But with “Beast Mode,” that version of Bobby Ray is back. He brings the manic energy that made his Lawnparties show so live, and complements with an attitude of seething desire bordering on anger. And it’s awesome. This is the B.o.B. that got himself noticed in the first place, as “a beast unleashed, raging.”

The accompanying vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vvuLAl99ec

-Trap Yates ‘14

Indie: “Chinatown” – Destroyer

Why I decided to finally break my yearlong Pitchfork abstinence to pick this song is somewhat of a nebulous explanation. I was craving something smooth, and something modern, and this song by Destroyer turned out to be about as satisfying as a cream filling. The intertwining voices, acoustic guitar and rhythmic beat is sensually light, almost a seamless homage to Nico in “Femme Fatale” with the Velvet Underground. Then there’s this smooth jazz horn section from the 80s, something from an elevator or a sitcom, which makes you think first, “this is totally wack” and then immediately afterwards, “I kind of like it.” There’s a strange irony as I listen to Dan Bejar and Sibel Thrasher croon into my ear “I can’t walk away/you can’t walk away” whilst scrambling to finish the semester with one foot out the door. But this song, altogether too short and too sweet, is as soothing as a bubble bath. Let it be a reminder, it’s never too late to take a mental break.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRSwdKclcpg

-Lisa Han ‘13

Fashion Trend of the Week: Phone Cases

2010-12-14T14:18:00.000-08:00

Since the holidays are right around the corner (or for some they have already passed), I thought this week's fashion trend should also be a great gift idea. After searching far and wide, there is one gift that is perfect for everyone and anyone, no matter their style, age, or gender. What is it? A phone case!

Phone cases serve many purposes. First and foremost, they protect your phone. Duh. A good phone case is worth its hefty price tag, considering it is MUCH cheaper than purchasing a new phone nowadays (a new Blackberry costs about $450). Also, phone cases can put your personality on display. Whenever you text, talk on the phone, or check e-mail, everyone around you can see what your phone says about you. For girls, phone cases serve them well on weekend nights when they go out to the Street. Some phone cases, especially gel skins, allow you to put your prox and some cash in them, which means you don’t have to bring a purse or wallet with you to the Street—you simply need your phone!

If you don’t want to make an extreme statement with your phone case, go for something like a gel skin or a plain hard case. Gel skins are VERY popular for Blackberrys. On E-bay, you can get 5 Blackberry skins for about $6, including shipping. There is nothing cheaper than that! However, you must be aware that every make and model of Blackberry is different—be sure to get a skin that is for your Blackberry!

Although gel skins are enough protection for a Blackberry, a touch-screen phone such as a Droid or an iPhone really require a hard case of some sort. This Talon case for the Droid X runs only $14.95 and comes in 3 different colors. For iPhones, there are many options, but Belkin and Incase are the two top brands. At Best Buy, these cases will run you about $30, but they are very durable and come in a multitude of colors. For all other phones, your best bets are SPECK cases. Although most stores don’t carry them, you can still find them online at speckproducts.com.

If you want to make a statement, go for a “blinged out” case. These cases are covered in rhinestones (or real Swarovski crystals if you REALLY want to go all-out) and will certainly draw some curious glances. These are most easily found at the little kiosks in the mall or at fashion-forward boutiques, such as Niko Niko in Princeton. You can get any design you like, from skull and crossbones to stars or leopard print. One thing you need to be aware of when purchasing a bedazzled case is that quality is VERY important. You want the sides to look as seamless as possible and you want the stones to be evenly spaced. Although you can get low-quality cases for as low as $15, a high-quality bejeweled case costs around $40.

If you have butter hands and can’t help but drop your phone ALL the time, then an Otterbox is a good option for you. Otterbox cases, meant for those who are very tough on their phones, are indestructible. Although the case just about doubles your phone in size, you literally cannot break your phone. Not only can you throw it across a tile floor, but you can throw it in the pool and your phone will be perfectly fine! It may seem ridiculous, but it works! Otterbox cases retail for about $50.

To be honest, phone cases never go out of style (I mean, who wouldn’t want to protect their phone?), but they are an integral part of your style choice on a daily basis. Make sure you choose a phone case you love and it will always be able to brighten your day. Cases make a great gift for friends, family, or even yourself!

--Lisa Fierstein '14

Mixtape of the Week: No Genre - B.o.B.

2010-12-13T11:15:00.000-08:00

Dear Trap,

I just heard B.o.B’s new mixtape, “No Genre,” and it made me very sad. I feel like my upcoming mixtape is now irrelevant. Hell, my actual album doesn’t seem worth it anymore. What can I do to get back my self-esteem and make my career important?

Sincerely,

Up-and-Coming Mixtape Rapper

Dear Up-and-Coming,

Honestly, give up. B.o.B’s tape is better than your tape and your album put together. From the bangers that it opens with, through it’s more introspective moments, and even when B.o.B gets weirdly paranoid like on “Dr. Aden,” “No Genre” is an absolute classic on every level.

His production would be inspired for an album, and is beyond brilliant on a mixtape. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t even know what to do with beats this good. His use of Coldplay’s, “Lost!” is a stroke of genius. I want to meet whoever put together the beat for “Shoot Up the Station,” one of the most creative tracks I’ve heard in a long time.

“No Genre” jangles, bumps, and generally just barrels through your headphones with palpable energy perfectly suite to Bobby Ray’s flow. He can mix double-time raps with actual singing. His lyricism is piercingly intelligent. And despite his recent commercial success and Grammy nominations, B.o.B sounds hungrier than the vast majority of other rappers, including you.

This hunger causes him to rap like he’s got something to prove. And he did have something to prove. He had to prove he is more than that one song. As it turns out, he is. He’s one of the best rappers in the game.

Good luck with your career,

Trap

The tape: http://hulkshare.com/asvetqwoo72f

“Watchers” video: http://vimeo.com/17500294

--Trap Yates '14

Classic Movie of the Week: Gone with the Wind (1939)

2010-12-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

Gone with the Wind has always been one of my favorite movies. I grew up watching it. I’ve secretly always wanted to be Scarlett O’Hara (probably not the best role model) and I’ve always not so secretly wanted Rhett Butler. Scarlett and Rhett are what make Gone with the Wind brilliant. These two characters are so real, so strong, and so magnificent that they are impossible to turn away from. And if you’re not looking at them, you’re looking at the bewitching backdrops that make this film so special.

The movie begins with Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh), the very pretty and very headstrong daughter of an Irish plantation owner, flirting with two twin boys. It is the South right before the Civil War, all is calm and idyllic, but the viewer can sense chaos on the horizon. She goes to a party at her neighbor John Wilkes’s house, where she confesses her love for his son Ashley (Leslie Howard) and learns of his impending marriage to his sweet cousin Melanie (Olivia de Havilland). She also meets Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), witness to her rejection. He ridicules Ashley and further enrages Scarlett (a not unusual state for Scarlett, who spends the majority of the film enraged, especially where Rhett is involved). Then, the Civil War breaks out and the peaceful picturesque world of the Old South is set on fire…

For a great Scarlett and Rhett scene, click here.

For the trailer, click here .

Side Note: The book is awesome too.

Gone with the Wind can be found at the Humanities Resource Center and Netflix.

-Lolita De Palma '14

Princeton Trend of the Week: Work Wars

2010-12-12T09:39:00.000-08:00

Contestant A: “Ahhhh I have two tests, a presentation and a paper due tomorrow.”

Contestant B: “Mmhmm that sucks…I’ve got three problem sets due, a lab practical and an orgo test on Monday.”

Who wins? Your vote will probably go to A if you’re a humanities freak, like moi, and with B if you’re more scientifically inclined (but that’s just a guess). In any case, this little trend of subtle/passive aggressive workload one-upmanship is all the rage here at P-ton.

Ok, let’s be real, this is not really a super-“current” trend. Yes, Princetonians, you…okay we…have been playing this game forever. It’s par for the course at a university made up of some of the nation’s most competitive youngsters. Nevertheless, I think it’s high time we openly acknowledged this game we too often play.

The semester is coming to an end, which means more work and the best part of the year—post-break papers and finals!!! And this undoubtedly means that the courseload competition will only get worse.

So a plea to you (okay “us”!) all for the coming month: when your friend is in despair, even if he/she’s just rubbing in your face how epically genius they are that they can take three lab classes and two 500 level seminars, be understanding (also, you should just feel bad for them for being so dumb/masochistic when they signed up for courses). When you say “that sucks,” mean it. Give them a piece of chocolate and a hug. And if you know your measly two finals and one paper can’t match up, don’t try to inflate it just to make yourself look all macho-Princetonian. We know you’re a clever one (or clever enough).

And if your friend is a little pisher who’s just complaining over a “ton” of work that amounts to a fifteenth of what you’ve got in store? I suggest a death glare and blasting music. Actions speak louder than words.

Now back to my third all-nighter this week…

-Nava Friedman '13

Fashion Trend of the Week: Snug Sweaters

2010-12-08T14:11:00.000-08:00

With weathermen predicting the first snow will fall at Princeton this week, Princeton students are scrambling to get together a winter wardrobe warm enough to survive the impending forecast. The most fashionable way to update your wardrobe for winter is definitely with some sweaters.

Sweaters are a classic. Sweaters can never go out of style as long as you go with one that is reasonably low-key, meaning it has a simple design and is a “safe” color, such as grey or black. Sweaters can be worn with leggings or skirts (for girls) or jeans (for guys and girls). There are so many different styles of sweaters out right now, but some are definitely more “in” this season than others.

As per my last post, eggplant purple and olive green sweaters are definitely great choices this season. These colors are really popular right now and you can find these colors at basically any clothing store you go to. Guys—no matter how manly you feel, you should not wear a dark purple sweater. Go for the green instead. There are a lot of options in terms of green sweaters out there. If you are feeling really adventurous, try an emerald green sweater, NOT an eggplant one. Girls—try to experiment with different shades of olive and eggplant. Try maybe a brighter purple or an army green to think outside of the box while still staying current. Also, if you can find a sweater that has a cool detail you like, go for it! I’m sure it will be a hit!

One thing you definitely want to avoid is the old-sweater style, meaning that it is pilling and looks as if it has gone through a war and back. If you have a pilling sweater that has seen better days, I would invest in a sweater shaver. This one, from The Container Store, costs only $7.99 and will keep your sweater looking brand-new.

Girls—one really awesome way to wear a sweater is on your feet. And yes, I do mean on your feet. Take a look at the Classic and Tall Cardy boots at UGGaustralia.com! The boots take classic sweater colors and styles and revamp them into a whole new trend. These boots are just as warm as the regular UGG boots we wear on campus, but they definitely look a lot different. If you like them, I’d order them now—UGGs sell out pretty quickly during the winter months, and you won’t be able to grab them until next season!

Sweaters are all the rage on college campuses, especially here at Princeton! Take some time to find a sweater you like, considering they can last you forever. It’s worth the investment if you find one you love—the more you like it, the more you’ll wear it and the longer you’ll keep it. I can’t wait to go home and get some more sweaters!

--Lisa Fierstein ‘14

Q & A with Vinnie Paz of Jedi Mind Tricks

2010-12-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

Vinnie Paz, the lyricist behind underground hip hop legends Jedi Mind Tricks, was nice enough to let Intersections interrupt his dinner for a quick chat about his love for Slayer and the lyrical merits of late-night vodka.

Make sure to check out Jedi Mind Tricks at Terrace this Thursday (12/9). According to Vinny, they’re gonna “fucking tear the building down.”

You were just touring in Europe for a month. What’s it like doing a show over there versus in the U.S.?

I think they’re way more appreciative and knowledgeable about the old [Jedi Mind] Tricks stuff. Typically when you say someone is stuck in a “time warp” it’s a bad thing but in that case there, it’s a great thing. It’s kind of like the 90’s there, at least in hip-hop. We had 15 straight sold-out shows.

How did you like releasing your first solo album Season of the Assassin in June, and how does it compare to working with Jedi Mind Tricks?

It was the most fun I’ve ever had making a record. Very liberating. Being in a group is a great thing but there are pros and cons in every aspect of it. I’m very much a control freak and that’s not really conducive to being in a group. Doing a solo record allowed me to be the maniac I really am.

How has your creative process changed as you’ve grown older?

It hasn’t changed really since I was a kid. My creative process is weird—my creative process is a lack of a creative process. The only thing that must have evolved is that for my creative process today it has to be really late at night and vodka has to be involved.

How do you feel about your home city of Philly? What are your three favorite things about it?

I’ve been everywhere around the world so I think I can say better than most people that it’s the best city in the world. And for my three favorite things…my mom is the first thing for sure. Let me see, I guess my mom, the food, and the boxing.

You like Rocky?

[Laughs] Well, I like real boxers too, not just Rocky. Philly’s actually one of the most legendary fight cities in the world and a lot of the most amazing trainers are still here.

Since you started making music in high school and have now made it big…any words of advice for high school kids thinking about making music as a career?

I started before that in terms of writing but I first recorded stuff in ninth grade. I got no advice for them. I’ll tell them to quit – don’t do it. Go to college, get a job, and make legitimate money. You’ve got the same chance of making it in this game as you do of making it to the NFL or NBA. It’s one in millions that you can live off it. If you wanna do it for fun then God bless you, but as far as a career? Keep your head in the books

If you could tour with any artist or group right now, who would it be?

Slayer. They’re my favorite band of all time. I saw them live back in the day on their Rain and Blood Tour when I was 11 with my brother.

Have you ever met them?

I talked to [vocalist and bassist] Tom Araya on the phone once because we were thinking about collaborating. It didn’t work out but hopefully it will someday.

What can we expect from your show at Terrace next week?

High energy, man. From the beginning to the end. We come to fucking tear the building down. Some people stand there and rap but we don’t. We’re bringing that heavy metal shit. We’ll do our best to make sure it’s the best fucking show this college has ever seen.

Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Sara Wallace ‘12

Mixtape of the Week: “Soul like Khan”

2010-12-07T08:43:00.000-08:00

Soul Khan is a battle rapper trying to break into the rap world, and if not the mainstream, at least the underground stream that runs right below the attention of the general populace. His first major effort is his tape, “Soul Like Khan.”

What he served up is an interesting fusion of jazzy self-aware rap that sees itself as part of a larger society of hip-hop and straight up battle rhymes. Khan’s flow is pretty much unchanging, but this isn’t really a bad thing. He machine guns through every track, his mesmerizing voice pounding through bar after tongue-twisting bar. It is a verbal barrage, and you can either let it flow over your ears or try to pick it apart to see what is really going on.

The production matches Khan’s rapping, mixing booming bass with piano and horn loops. It is music both subtle and remarkably upfront, perfectly suited to Khan’s brand of lyricism.

But at the end of the day, Khan is a battler, so everything on the tape comes with the same tongue-in-cheek, punchline-heavy attitude that accompanies that brand of rap. This might best be captured by the intro to one of the songs, in which Khan requests that, “Ladies and gentleman, let’s get on some deep, intellectual, superscientific shit!” before giving way to the song’s hook (and title): “Suck my dick!”

At 41 minutes, and for a price of $Free.99, there’s no reason anyone interested in double-time rhymes and the battle aesthetic shouldn’t check out Khan.

Songs to get it for:

“Shot Glass Magnified feat. Sene” (the tape’s best track, and worth getting if you don’t get the rest), “For That, Soul Like Khan”

Incredibly creepy music video for “Fahrenheit” in which Khan kills evil clowns with a crowbar before going home to his wife who is, surprise, a clown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6vNFqGz7RU

Get the tape:

http://www.mediafire.com/?gnxhyxeztpgox24

--Trap Yates '14

From Naked to Gloria: "Go," a Collaborative Dance Thesis Show

2010-12-07T01:12:00.000-08:00

What can we define as “dance”? Where do we draw the line between “dance” and “performance art”? Fred Astaire is quoted as having said, “I have no desire to prove anything by dancing. I have never used it as an outlet or a means of expressing myself. I just dance. I just put my feet in the air and move them around.” I understand that sentiment. When I attend a dance performance I want to see dancing. I hope to be transported from my seat by the beauty of movement. I want to experience afresh how the body can play with space and time.

What does this mean for a performance like “Go,” where five out of the six pieces represent the thesis work of seniors in the dance department, asked to create something new and fresh for this final product of their time at Princeton? It’s a tough question when there’s so much pressure to create a masterpiece unlike anything before it, and I think it’s the wrong question to ask. I don’t mean to undermine any of the hard work and dedication of the students, but it’s clear to me that this pressure to over turn tradition in every sense of the word led to works that were in some cases far less successful than what could have been produced by such talented students.

Before looking at the seniors’ pieces more specifically, it might be beneficial to consider the last piece in the performance: “Gloria,” choreographed by Mark Morris in 1981 and staged by Dance Department faculty member Tina Fehlandt. A renowned modern dance choreographer, Morris is well known for his interests in folk dancing and forms of religious expression, which often inspire his choreography. “Gloria” is set to Vivaldi’s Gloria in D, a musical setting for part of the traditional Roman Catholic mass.

In “Gloria” Morris has created this full and joyous movement, born out of Vivaldi’s music and working within the world of “Glory be to God.” It is movement born of tradition and freed by its own artistic merit. The difference between “Gloria,” the final work in the performance, and the very first is striking. In so many circles, “tradition” is seen as some manifestation of the fear of change. And yet what it really represents, and what I think Morris is so fascinated with, is the expression of our humanness. While “Gloria” embraces this expression, “/.The Flower Child-- Forty Years Later /..” by Sarah Fingerhood seems both to reject it and also to willfully misunderstand it.

Throughout the piece, a dejected-looking woman in a frumpy dress meanders about the stage acting depressed. All around her dancers strip down to nude unitards and draw on each other’s breasts with marker. There are several sexual-looking vignettes, a little bit of dancing, and at the end the dancers spit water onto the dejected woman and leave her folding their discarded red dresses. After the show I was told that it was “one of those pieces you’re not supposed to get.” I think I got it, though. I believe I’m right that the woman—who begins the piece by playing the piano beneath a crystal chandelier and changing out her flower vase—in some way represents “tradition” and “society.” And yes, she was actually spat upon. By any definition, this aspect at least constitutes not dance but performance art.

Though rather high in shock value, this piece did not manage to steal the spotlight. “Internal Laws” by Jennifer Oswald featured live musicians and both live and recorded speaking, both of which added a unique dimension. “if/when” by Patty Chen was a fascinating exploration of Billy Collins’ poem Walking Across the Atlantic, although it could have benefitted from a little more attention to the principle of visual unity, and Kate Adamson’s “…within and without” left me both satisfied and curious from its playful juxtaposition of adult longings and childhood games. “5 Minutes to 3” by Bridget Wright was one of my favorites. The choreography was well thought out and showcased the dancers’ technique extremely well, and the ending was striking as a wooden hoop spins faster and faster in a spot of light before finally collapsing.

In all, the show was enjoyable, and many of the pieces were successful. However, the misguided idea that we must always have something newer than new to thrust in the faces of our unsuspecting audience will always lead us down an ugly path. If I wanted to see performance art, I’m sure I could find plenty to see in the City. I went to the Berlind to watch dance, and if it hadn’t been for Mark Morris and one or two of the Dance Department seniors I’m afraid I would have left it rather disappointed.

--Chloe Davis '12

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: “Floyd Collins” or “127 Hours”?

2010-12-06T10:27:00.000-08:00

Before your next rock-climbing trip with Outdoor Action, you should consider seeing the new production of “Floyd Collins” which opened this past weekend at the Matthews Acting Studio at 185 Nassau Street. The well-acted musical, directed by Andrew Linz as his senior thesis, is based on the true story of cave-explorer Floyd Collins who got stuck between rocks and was unable to get out of a cave.

As I watched the musical, I was struck by how similar it was to the new film “127 Hours” that recently opened in the Garden Theatre. The film is based on the story of Aron Ralston whose arm was crushed when a boulder falls and pins it against a canyon wall. Directed by Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”) and starring James Franco (“Pineapple Express,” “Spiderman”), it tells an epic story of survival in the desert with no hope of help arriving.

But you’re busy, so which one should you go see? It depends on what you like. “Floyd Collins” is a lively musical, with some very creative musical arrangements. My favorite was a round made out of Floyd’s yodels when he first discovers the cave. Also, the setting of Depression-era Kentucky was very clearly established through the bluegrass music, period costumes, and strong performances.

“127 Hours,” being a film, is much more easily able to show what Ralston was thinking, remembering — or even hallucinating. Oh, and it could show him graphically cutting off his arm with a pen-knife (If you’re squeamish, either look away or don’t go at all). I liked the ending of “127 Hours” better than “Floyd Collins,” but to be fair, because they were both based on true stories, there really wasn’t much creative license to choose the endings.

Basically, if you’re usually a moviegoer and can handle seeing blood, I’d recommend “127 Hours.” If you typically like theater and musical acts more, go see “Floyd Collins.“ Or if you regularly go spelunking, go see both. I know I won’t be going into any tight squeezes for a while.

--Eric Hagstrom '13

PSAT's "Dial 'M' for Marriage" - Comedy Theater Review

2010-12-05T12:16:00.000-08:00

In a promotional video posted on the Princeton homepage, Myra Gupta ’12, co-president of Princeton South Asian Theatrics, describes reading about a murder at an Indian wedding over the summer and being inspired to write a play about it. The result is “Dial ‘M’ for Marriage,” a South Asian whodunit that is PSAT’s latest amusing original comedy.

The play opens at a lavish puja celebrating the impending marriage of two Princetonians who met as TA (Kashyap Rajagopal ’14) and student (Rachita Jain ’14) in a differential equations course. The local Panit played by Vikram Rao ’11 is officiating the ceremony when, after a few spastic convulsions, he abruptly drops dead, prompting a labyrinth of investigation and intrigue that occupies the production’s remaining two hours.

It is unfortunate that Rao, one of the company’s strongest actors, expires less than five minutes after the curtain goes up, but he makes the most of his brief appearance. PSAT has a strong tradition of showcasing the talents of performers not otherwise active in the Princeton theater scene, and “Dial ‘M’ for Marriage” is no exception in this regard. The freshman leads both turn in solid performances, competently handling a good deal of responsibility for first-timers. Brandon Bark ’13 is effective if a bit clichéd in his performance as the American detective called in by the bride’s family to investigate Rao’s untimely demise. Several cast members, including Sanchali Pal ’12 as the maid Pai and Joey Barnett ’12 as the heartthrob wedding planner Alejandro, turn in especially strong comic performances. Overall, the acting is adequate but unspectacular, appropriate for PSAT’s distinctive brand of off-beat and unvarnished (in the best way) farce. As usual, the accents are great.

PSAT shows, with their de-emphasis on realism and focus on creating an intimate, participatory theater experience for the audience, always play particularly well in blackboxes. The Frist Film and Performance Theater, where “Dial ‘M’ for Marriage” is being staged, feels almost too conventional and impersonal for PSAT. The greater resources available in Frist do allow for relatively crisp technical work and transitions, an important consideration for keeping up the energy of this production. Since this review is based on the dress rehearsal, I was not able to evaluate how heckles from the audience, which usually add significant vitality (and a lot of laughs) to PSAT’s shows, augmented “Dial ‘M’ for Marriage.”

PSAT deserves credit for the ambitious agenda of penning two full-length original plays each year. The writing in “Dial ‘M’ for Marriage” is generally strong, keeping a sprawling plot focused and moving forward, a few slow scenes notwithstanding. With their somewhat limited repertoire of topics, PSAT faces the additional challenge of striking a balance between recycling effective old material and keeping jokes and plotlines fresh. “Dial ‘M’ for Marriage,” which, in contrast to several recent PSAT productions, is not set at Princeton, accomplishes this well. As noted in the same video by Anjali Bisaria ’12, the troupe’s other co-President, structuring a play around an Indian wedding makes a wide range of material—from elaborate rituals and meals to crazy distant relatives brought together—available as comic fodder, all of which gets exploited effectively in the play.

In my last review for The Daily Princetonian, of the Program in Theater’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s “The Good Person Of Setzuan,” I wrote about the difficulty of comparing a piece that received ample professional support to the work of an average campus theater group. For very different reasons, PSAT’s plays are also difficult to evaluate in relation to other Princeton performances. In the actors it features, the issues and perspectives it considers, and its irreverent approach to theater, PSAT is really unlike any other group on campus. I consistently find its work entertaining and valuable, and for that I’m willing to overlook the occasional flubbed line or sloppy acting.

3 Paws

Pros: Solid original comedy based on a cool premise.

Cons: Limited range in the acting.

--Joseph Dexter '13

Classic Movie of the Week: Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

2010-12-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

I wake up Wednesday morning, roll out of bed, somehow clothe myself, rush downstairs, open the door, and…. THERE IS A MONSOON OUTSIDE!!!! Or at least that was my immediate response to this unexpected weather (I’m from L.A.; we don’t have unexpected weather). In any case, as I wrestled with the wind to gain some semblance of control over my umbrella, I couldn’t help wishing that the gales were gone, that I had no place to be, and that I was singing in the rain…

What is so amazing about Singin’ in the Rain is the happiness, the “glorious feeling” (as the tagline says), it brings to its audience. It’s why I can’t help watching it again and again. It’s why monsoons make me want to dance and sing, to try to recreate the pure joy Gene Kelly radiates as he splashes around with his umbrella in a rainstorm. However, there is more to Singin’ in the Rain than just that one musical number. It is the story of Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly), a silent movie star making the transition to talkies with his frequent costar Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen). Lina, however, does not have a voice suitable for sound, so they bring in the young and beautiful Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) to dub over Lina’s lines. Lina thinks she is in love with Don, but Don falls in love with Kathy. And Don’s best friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor) is just spectacularly hilarious. Thus, comedy ensues.

If you are still not convinced that you should be happy and watching Singin’ in the Rain right now instead of dealing with lame real life issues, these are some of the great musical numbers in the film:

Singin’ in the Rain, Make ‘Em Laugh, Good Morning, and Broadway Music Ballet.

You can also view the trailer here.

Side Note: Glee’s mashup of Singin’ in the Rain and Umbrella was decently cool. It’s recreation of Make ‘Em Laugh was pretty pathetic in comparison to the original. Or am I being too harsh?

Singin’ in the Rain is available at both the Humanities Resource Center and the Mendel Music Library. It’s also available through Netflix.

--Lolita de Palma '14

Movie News: Sucker Punch

2010-12-02T13:58:00.000-08:00

What the f***?

Seriously, though, what the f***?

That was the first thing I thought after watching the trailer for Sucker Punch. There is some crazy stuff going on in that short two-and-a-half-minutes clip, and it took a few viewings (and some Googling) for me to figure out what was actually happening. Now, let me make it clear that I want to give Zack Snyder the benefit of the doubt. After all, he made 300, the greatest man movie of all time, as well as Watchmen, one of my favorite super hero movies of all time (if you didn’t like Watchmen because you thought it was too long and confusing, suck it up and watch it all the way through. In fact, some of the best movies ever made are three-plus hours long, so all you people out there who get bored after a 90 minute Adam Sandler movie should stop hitting shuffle on your iPods every five seconds and grow an attention span. I digress.) So yes, I do want to buy the premise of Sucker Punch hook, line, and sinker, and be blown away by its amazing effects, but I can’t. To be quite honest, it looks to me like the worst attempt at originality I have ever seen. Almost every aspect of the trailer and plot is lifted from a movie made in the past decade or so, in some cases movies that are out right now.

To be fair, I think it’s near impossible for any movie to be completely original. Most filmmakers have seen tons of movies, and when they’re not doing remakes or sequels they still subconsciously incorporate elements of the movies they’ve seen into their own work. It just frustrates me to no end how this movie wants to be original yet fails so miserably. With a tagline like “Close your eyes, open your mind, you will be unprepared,” they are clearly trying to make us think the movie will break some new ground. Funny enough, after watching the trailer a second time I could easily match elements of the movie to parts of movies still fresh in my memory. You may disagree with me, but see these incredibly blatant examples don’t change your mind:

Using your imagination to free yourself from a harsh reality, lifted from Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). Back when this movie came out the concept was quite novel, but not anymore.

A bunch of scantily clad, bad-ass chicks with guns, lifted from Sin City (2005). Now that was an original movie.

An old dude with karate clothes giving sage wisdom, lifted from Kill Bill Vol. I and II (2003, 2004). Seriously, that guy in the trailer looks EXACTLY like Bill as played by the late David Carradine.

A creepy insane asylum from the 50’s, lifted from Shutter Island (2010). It even looks the same.

Needing to find a bunch of random items to complete a quest, lifted from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. I and II (2010, 2011). You really thought you could slip this by us while the movie’s still in theaters?

The entire concept of entering a dream world, lifted from The Matrix (1999) and most recently

Inception (2010). Can we have a once-every-ten-years limit on this type of movie, please?

This dream world having vastly different environments where you need to complete missions, lifted from Inception, again. Alright, this is just getting ridiculous.

Dear Zack Snyder,

We know you’ve only made movies based other people’s material, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Not everyone has to be Quentin Tarantino. And you’ve made a big step directing a movie you wrote yourself, no one’s denying that. But, from the looks of things, it seems like original material might not be your strong suit. Don’t worry, we still want you to make a follow-up to 300 and direct the next Superman, but in return we’d appreciate it if you kept you ideas to yourself.

Thanks,

Me and anyone who agrees with me, if you’re out there.

--Benjamin Neumann ‘14

Terrace Preview: El-P December 4th Concert

2010-12-02T10:56:00.000-08:00

When I asked how he discovered his musical talent, Terrace’s next performer El-P responded “I’m still not sure if I have any”. That’s certainly a modest response coming from rapper and producer extraordinaire Jaime Meline, the man that music critic Steve Huey once said is “one of the most technically gifted MCs of his time, spitting out near-impossible phrases and rhythmic variations that simply leave the listener’s head spinning”.

Perhaps it's the unconventional nature of his brilliance that makes his talent so elusive. As the son of a jazz pianist and a Brooklyn resident, El-P (short for El-Producto) was always surrounded by eclectic types of music. Although he took piano lessons at a young age, he was never passionate for the instrument, and he would constantly tinker with his father’s record collections instead. In retrospect, such habits seem indicative of his innovative work in recent years.

He cites George Orwell and LL Cool J in his rhymes. Each song is a diverse patchwork of samples and influences. He is the CEO of his own record label. He’s not afraid to offend his listeners with the truth, no matter how brutal or gritty his verses may be. He’s an iconoclast whose music is meant to offend, not to placate. The infamously picky and pretentious Pitchfork Media has favorably described his genius as “tense and paranoid…blending waves of cacophony over broken rhythms…haunted by the prospect of a dystopian near-future”. And it works for him; his raps are more taboo, witty, and provocative than most mainstream rappers could fathom. Isn’t that what rap should be?

So, if you want your head to spin from something other than Milwaukee’s Best this weekend, hit up Terrace to see El-P for what he claims will be a “dope and intense rap show experience”. However, the squeamish need not apply; El-P says he is going to have LOTS of fun, even it gets a bit loud and uncomfortable for us Princetonians. I say we show him that we know how to have a good time too.

For a taste of his latest and greatest creative endeavors, listen to “Habeas Corpses” off I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead and “Time Won’t Tell” from Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3, available, of course, on YouTube.

-Michael Becker ‘14

Singles of the Week: November 29

2010-11-30T08:00:00.000-08:00

Hip Hop: “I Luv My Life”- Nitty Scott

Right from the title through the laugh it concludes with, Nitty Scott’s “I Luv My Life” lets you know exactly how Scott feels about her life. She loves it. But whereas most rap songs about how great the artist’s life is focus exclusively on all the shit they have that you don’t, making you feel small and insignificant, Nitty’s jam makes you feel good about your life too. Lyrically, she keeps it down to earth and relatable. You instantly recognize the feelings Nitty is talking about, even if you’ve never been in her situation. The beat is structured around a laid-back acoustic guitar groove interspersed with a synth hook and simple drumming that gives Scott plenty of room to work. And she goes to work. Scott can spit. Straight up. So take Nicki Minaj out of your rotation. A new femcee deserves time in your speakers.

Youtube it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw3YIxEJLVY

-Trap Yates ‘14

Alternative Rock: “Don’t Walk Away”- Sick Puppies

Sick Puppies was virtually unknown until their track “Maybe” appeared on NOW 36 as a NOW What’s Next Bonus Track. This Australian band’s new CD, Tri-Polar, was released last month and features the song “Don’t Walk Away.” Although classified as an alternative rock song, the song sounds like a rock version of Ryan Cabrera. A striking similarity to Ryan Cabrera is the somewhat unusual chord progressions that clash at the end of the verses and chorus. As a whole, the song is easy to listen to and has pretty good lyrics. This is definitely a band I’d follow in the next few months—they have star potential.

Youtube it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oslt7EgHkSQ

-Lisa Fierstein ‘14

Electronic: “Inner Sanctum” – DVAS

Canadian duo Jered Stuffco and Darren Veres of DVAS recently dropped a fresh new album called “Society,” a compilation of club dance beats that hit the top of Canadian college radio charts. Now, “Society” is burning up across iTunes and radio stations in the states. Their single “Inner Sanctum” is just one of the many songs that has experienced exceptional success, invoking the synth pop sensibilities of notorious electronic musicians like Daft Punk with a disco twist. Whether or not you find yourself dancing to it, running to it, working to it, or just letting it wash over you, “Inner Sanctum” is a guaranteed stress-reliever.

Youtube it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5s4GqpqqHo

-Lisa Han ‘13

Mixtape of the Week: J. Cole - Friday Night Lights

2010-11-29T10:59:00.000-08:00

This November will be remembered in the hip-hop world as the month Kanye dropped his game-changing My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. However, it could also be remembered as the month when J. Cole finally stepped into the well-deserved limelight with his tape Friday Night Lights.

The tape captures what makes J. Cole the most-anticipated new artist going into 2011. Cole’s lyricism is undeniable, whether he is rapping about mixtape standbys like girls and his own fame, or incredibly heavy topics like the death of five-year old Shaniya Davis on “See World,” a truly moving, disturbing take on the it’s-a-cold-world hip-hop trope.

Cole’s production is no less impressive than his rapping. He knows exactly the kinds of beats that allow his voice to work, a pared down style of production that leaves Cole with plenty of room to weave his verses. Even more impressive is that Cole produces the vast majority of his own stuff, demonstrating a good ear for beats and a keen awareness of his own strengths. He’s not Kanye, but he knows what works for him. And it works quite well.

Cole’s website crashed when he released Friday Night Lights, and if the mixtape had crashed musically, it would have been disastrous for young Cole. Personally, I’m still partial to his previous tape, the Warm-Up, which I feel is a little more creative lyrically and musically, but Friday Night Lights is a welcome addition to Cole’s discography. I can’t wait for his album to come out, and anyone somehow uninitiated into Cole World needs to get introduced.

I’d highly recommend “Blow Up, ”Back to the Topic,” and “In the Morning feat. Drake.” But get the whole tape. It’s free here from Cole himself:

http://dreamvillain.net/

The Warm Up can be gotten here. Worth it. Do yourself a favor and get it.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ytmdmjtntod

J. Cole’s trailer for FNL, if you still need to be sold a free hour of good music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjOB1_dFbBk

--Trap Yates '14

Trend of the Week - Princeton Air Edition: The Weather?

2010-11-23T14:20:00.000-08:00

As a native New Jerseyan, even I am utterly confused by the bipolar weather the Princetonian atmosphere has been dishing out these past few weeks. Coming back from Fall Break, I thanked my lucky stars that I had remembered to grab my winter coat as I ran out to catch my train, and for two days was wearing it all times, while by week’s end I felt perfectly comfortable in just a T-shirt. This pattern has been continuing non-stop since our return from break—chilly to freezing to mild and back again, with rhyme, reason and seasonal propriety eschewed.

Usually, one can count on the cold to kick in definitively by Thanksgiving, but this year the universe (global warming? Voldemort?) seems to be whistling to its own tune. The most interesting effect this has had is the wide range of outerwear one can see on a walk down Elm—a scarf, hat and gloves can easily be followed by a thin, long sleeve T, and depending on the hour, they can both be right.

The only thing the air has yet to dish out is snow… and for that I eagerly await. Last year’s snow day still stands as a beacon of awesomeness in my freshman year, and I eagerly anticipate a repeat performance. Let’s just hope it stays cold enough for the flakes to fall!

If you think weather is boring, here’s a way to make it more exciting:

http://thefuckingweather.com/?zipcode=08544a

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Nava Friedman '13

Fashion Trend of the Week: Eggplant Purple and Olive Green

2010-11-23T10:09:00.000-08:00

Walking around campus this week, I couldn’t help but notice two new popular colors—eggplant purple and olive green. They are everywhere, from sweaters to corduroys to everything in between!

Purple and green jackets are the most popular way to wear these colors right now. Most people choose purples and greens that are pretty dark in order to tone down the jacket, and this is definitely a good choice. A lime green jacket is a pretty big statement to make on campus. But more power to you if you would like to give it a shot! A lot of these jackets, considering they are pretty fashion-forward, feature cool details such as metallic buttons or interesting closures. If you are looking to get a gemstone-colored jacket, it is a good idea to look for something with an interesting detail or a unique style in order to set yourself apart from the crowd. Personally, I like this jacket from sheknows.com (right). Not only does the jacket feature metallic buttons, but the flaps by the shoulders, as opposed to a simple collar, offer a different take on a common style. Although a guy cannot wear the purple jacket below, there are definitely some great options out there. For example, the Buffalo Jeans Jacket below is a way to wear dark green while still looking cool (below).

If you want to be unique, colored corduroys are the way to go. Most people get that orange-rust color, navy blue, and black, but stand out by wearing olive green or purple ones. Stores such as the Gap offer a lot of different colors and styles of corduroys, giving you the ability to pick out a style and color that fit your personal style. The olive green pair (at right) even offer 5 pockets! Guys, this is the perfect style for you! Most of you already wear corduroys around campus, so test-drive a new color for a while—you’ll be glad you did!

These two colors have been all over the runway as stylish colors for this fall and winter. Designers such as Jill Stuart and Oscar de la Renta had models in purple on their runways back in October (you can see their styles to the right). Marc Jacobs and Burberry Prorsum had models wearing olive green, as pictured below, which illustrates the growing “military trend” of the past year or so.

Olive green and eggplant purple are highly fashionable this season. I would definitely take a look this weekend to see if you can find some great Black Friday deals on some of the trendiest clothes this season, especially if the item comes in olive or eggplant. Then you are good to go!

-Lisa Fierstein '14

Mixtape of the Week: Johnny Polygon - The Catch-Up

2010-11-23T10:04:00.000-08:00

I have no idea why I’ve never heard of Johnny Polygon. He can rap. He can sing without Auto-Tune assistance. His lyrics are genuinely clever, defying typical mixtape convention. Some of the top mixtape DJs craft his beats. His hair is out of control. Maybe it’s because he’s from Oklahoma?

Whatever the reasons, the fact that Polygon is so far under the radar of the general populace is borderline criminal. This becomes clear across the sprawling thirty tracks on his new mixtape, appropriately called “The Catch-Up.” Designed for the still-sleeping to get up to speed on Polygon, the tape covers his career from the age of 17 to now.

It’s a scattershot career. The songs range in length, topic, style, tone, and musicality. They vary in quality. But despite the tape’s lack of a focus, the promise Polygon shows throughout it is undeniable. I feel like Polygon is one hit collaboration from breaking into the mainstream. He already made waves with “The Riot Song,” and a Nas collaboration. My prayer is that someone uses Polygon like Kanye did Kid Cudi on 808’s and Heartbreak, and Polygon will enter the mainstream cultural consciousness.

As for the tape itself, it’s hard to take away a single song as indicative of the talent involved. I’m partial to “I Been Runnin,” “Push It Back,” and “The Riot Song,” each of which shows a different side of Polygon. But get the whole tape, sift through it at your leisure, and keep an eye out for Polygon.

The tape can be found on Polygon’s site here.

The surprisingly clever video for “The Riot Song”

-Trap Yates '14

A Dramatic Reading of Noa Noa, the Script that Was Almost a Film

2010-11-21T22:07:00.000-08:00

In the late 1800s, French artist Paul Gauguin epitomized the dramatic persona of a struggling artist. Upon his return from his first voyage to Tahiti, Gauguin not only came back with a taste for savage and mythical visions on canvass, but an intent to construct the myth of his own artistic facade. Gauguin’s Paradise Remembered is comprised of 32 works and ten revolutionary woodcuts, intended for his book, Noa Noa. Though the book failed to become published, the illustrations have remained as highly influential works to the creative community.

To introduce the exhibition, the Princeton University Art museum hosted a dramatic reading of a script that was almost a film on Thursday about Gauguin’s experiences, titled “Noa Noa,” and written by James Agee. Armed simply with stands and few props, the cast brought alive a powerful story in a matter of just two weeks. Check out the event in the video below:

--Lisa Han '13

Classic Movie of the Week: Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

2010-11-19T09:34:00.000-08:00

Long before Alec Guinness was Obi-Wan Kenobi (or Prince Feisal or Colonel Nicholson for that matter), he played eight characters in what is one of the best black comedies ever made. Kind Hearts and Coronets is the story of Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini (Dennis Price), related to the aristocratic D’Ascoyne family. Louis’s mother married his father for love in spite of his lowly position as an opera singer and was promptly disowned. Even her dying wish to be buried in the family crypt is disregarded by her haughty relatives. Louis is disgusted by their conduct and decides that the only solution is to murder the remaining D’Ascoyne family members (all played by Alec Guinness) to avenge his mother and inherit their dukedom.

The whole twisted story is narrated with the greatest dry British humour by Louis himself and so, what could be a drama becomes a hilarious comedy. For example, after Louis unties a boat in which an older relative (played by Alec Guinness of course) was cavorting with his younger mistress and causes them both to fall over a waterfall to their deaths, he tells the audience, “I was sorry about the girl, but found some relief in the reflection that she had presumably during the weekend already undergone a fate worse than death.”

For a clip of a few extremely comical death scenes, click here.

For the trailer (which is not nearly as amazing as the above clip), click here.

Kind Hearts and Coronets is available in the Mendel Music Library and through Netflix.

Mission Possible: MOMS Prepares to Launch its Debut Album

2010-11-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

1 band, 1 month, 15,000 dollars. This is what it’s going to take for Princeton’s favorite orchestral alumni band, Miracles of Modern Science, to finally release their long-awaited debut full-length album. But as daunting as the figures seem, it takes no stretch of the imagination or even miracle to succeed in this endeavor.

In a world of Bittorrent, iTunes, and social networking, artists around the world are finding that spending months haggling with record labels and producers is a hassle, but it’s also unnecessary. This is where online crowd-fundraising services like Kickstarter come in. As indie rock musicians on the frontier of digital space, the members of MOMS are launching themselves on a new mission. Rather than put themselves at the mercy of traditional procedures, they have turned to fans to help them cover costs of mixing, mastering, pressing, packaging, distributing and promoting their album.

So far, the response on their Kickstarter site has been very positive. At $7,711 dollars and 143 backers, MOMS are already halfway to their goal, with an impressive 21 days left before the project ends.

“We’re hoping the Princeton community and alumni network will catch on and help us hit our target,” said Evan Younger ’08, MOMS’ lead vocalist and double bassist.

In fact, MOMS’ frequent concerts on campus means that their album is to many students both familiar and all the more exciting to look forward to. Part of the recording even took place in Terrace Club over spring break, where the vacancy allowed a good opportunity to record drums.

The 11 track album itself is a culmination of six months of recording and six years of writing and performing. But according to Younger, it’s been worth the wait:

“We’re really, really proud of how it’s sounding. This is the first time we feel that a recording really does justice to our live energy. Spaceman Sound did a fantastic job of capturing the natural sounds of the string instruments, drums, and vocals, so when you listen back it feels like the band is playing in the room with you.”

Before December 9^th, you can go check out their Kickstarter and watch their informational video at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/moms/miracles-of-modern-science-release-their-debut-alb Contributions can range anywhere from $1 to over $3000, but if the $15,000 mark is not reached by the deadline the project will not be funded at all. Check it out! With Kickstarter, students and fans alike are given the opportunity to participate not only in the future of the band, but also the future of the music industry.

-Lisa Han '13

Fashion Trend of the Week: Fleece Jackets

2010-11-14T12:06:00.000-08:00

It is mid-November, and it isn’t quite cold enough to warrant breaking out your puffy winter coat. However, you need to stay warm as you walk across campus. How can you do this? Simple: By wearing a fleece jacket.

Fleece jackets are all the rage on campus right now, especially because many residential colleges gave them to students this fall. This is probably the most useful free item will you receive on campus (other than food). These jackets are light-weight enough to give you full movement of your torso and arms, something you can’t say about puffy winter jackets. Fleece jackets are very warm, but are very thin as well, giving you the ability to comfortably wear a backpack around campus. Practicality is one of the best parts about fleece jackets.

By far the most popular fleece color is black. Black jackets are much more mellow that bright colors or even pastels, so a lot of people opt for black. Also, since black is a unisex color, residential colleges opted to hand out black fleeces to the incoming freshmen. However, black is probably the most boring color out there. If you happen to be wearing a residential college fleece, be sure to display your college’s shield with pride. There is no reason to cover up the shield with a scarf, backpack strap, or, for girls, your hair.

One great thing about fleece jackets are the zippered pockets. They are perfect for items such as gloves, your prox, your cell phone, and other small items. However, just because you have pockets does not mean you should stuff them to overflowing. It looks ridiculous when you have two tennis ball-sized lumps on your hips from overstuffing your pockets. If you really have that much stuff to carry, bring a bag (for girls) or a backpack (for guys).

One way to make a plain fleece more fashionable is to wear a scarf. Girls—scarves should make a statement. A plain knit scarf does not make the cut here, especially when you end up wearing the scarf in class. Knit scarves tend to be really bulky and look pretty ridiculous when you are wearing them in lecture. Try to wear a thin scarf that says something about you, whether it is leopard printed or covered in sequins. Guys—unfortunately, scarves don’t really work for you. If you feel you must wear a scarf, don’t. Wait until it is really cold.

Probably the most popular brand of fleece is North Face. North Face fleeces come in every single color imaginable and are very durable. Although a bit pricey, they are certainly well worth the money. The North Face, shown above, even features two breast pockets, which are great for cash or your prox when you don’t want to carry a bag.

Fleeces are the most popular jackets on campus right now. Whether it be from your residential college or from somewhere else, a good fleece is definitely worth its price. You can even wear it under your winter jacket when it gets cold! I wouldn’t be caught without a fleece on campus!

--Lisa Fierstein '14

Theater Review: "Waiting" by Princeton Chinese Theater

2010-11-12T13:16:00.000-08:00

Multiple stories with independent characters connected by a central frame seem to be in vogue these days. But a multi-plot production centered around the concept of waiting is still unique enough to grab your attention. Waiting, that state of inertia, seems to be the antithesis of theatre, which depends on acting, on motion pictures, on progressing plot. It certainly provokes some thought even before one enters the theatre. But one can say that this inherent contradiction was never quite reconciled in the production of Waiting, put on by the Princeton Chinese Theatre. Oh, did I mention, all this abstract contemplation on waiting, alienation, estrangement…was done completely in Chinese! (with English subtitles, don’t worry)

The best part about Waiting is the beauty of the language, which sadly, might be lost through translation. Most of the thought-provoking meditation on the concept of waiting is done through understated monologues that do not involve animated body language. It’ll be hard to pick up on the meaning if you don’t hear the speech. However, the language really brings out the sense of poignancy and frustration in the characters. For the seven characters, waiting takes many different forms. An estranged family awaits reconciliation, yet they cannot forget the past events that broke them apart. Two smitten young men hope expectantly for their love to be reciprocated. An old man relives the past, perpetually waiting for something that is long gone. An old woman bitterly describes a marriage, in which the love has decayed, as aimless waiting. Aided by the music and voice overlays simulating thoughts, the audience can definitely feel the pathos of each character as he/she is introduced.

The pitfall of a play about waiting is that as the mood of waiting pervades the characters on stage, so does the audience get the sense that it is waiting. The tragedy of these characters is that their life does not move forward, and as a consequence, neither does the plot. The goal of the play may be to recreate this lethargic feeling of waiting among the audience, so that they can fully identify with the characters. If so, should achieving this goal really be desired? The meditative pacing, the ruminating gaze into the distance, the hesitating potency of the silences all contribute very well to this sense of waiting. But the plot stops moving, the plot waits, and the audience waits. They lose their vested interest in a plot that does not seem to suggest progression in the near future. The old man paces as before, the lovers have the same dialogue that leads to no fruition – this is of course necessary in conveying the sense of waiting and repetitive monotony. But there’s the danger of making “waiting” too real for the audience. The most interesting things happen when the characters are not waiting. There are really humorous interludes and even a funny, quirky musical number. That’s when the characters have the license to be active, to act! So to get the audience to feel the poignancy of waiting, the audience needs to be interested in the plot, and actions need to happen that does not involve waiting. It is somewhat contradictory.

One can appreciate what the play is trying to do, and in theory, the play has done exactly what it wanted to do. It is a provocative topic – the idea of waiting. But in actual practice, it is not quite as enjoyable to vicariously relive “waiting.”

Rating : 3 stars out of 5

Pro: Accurately capture all the facets of the idea of waiting

Con: Too accurately capture the idea of waiting…

November 12 – 8 pm

November 13 – 2 pm and 8 pm

Whitman Class of 1970 Theater

Students: $7 Public: $10 - Tickets at Frist

--Grace Ma ’14

Classic Movie of the Week: Sunset Boulevard (1950)

2010-11-12T12:41:00.000-08:00

So I was watching this crazy awesome never-finished silent movie called Queen Kelly during break (a main character wears a cat - and only a cat - for a good portion of the film, so I definitely recommend it) and I couldn’t help thinking about Sunset Boulevard. Queen Kelly stars Gloria Swanson, one of the most famous silent film actresses, who had basically disappeared from the big screen when she starred in Sunset Boulevard 21 years later.

Norma Desmond, Gloria’s character in Sunset Boulevard, is in a very similar situation. She is a former silent film star who has passed her prime and lives shut up in her mansion on Sunset Boulevard. Norma is not mentally stable and believes she is as great a star as she used to be. One day, Joe Gillis (William Holden), a struggling screenwriter, ends up at Norma’s mansion in an attempt to evade his creditors. She lures him into her life and eventually into her bed. The more Joe becomes a part of this woman’s life, the more he realizes the horrible situation he has gotten himself into. And there doesn’t seem to be a way for him to escape unscathed…

Billy Wilder directs this piece just as masterfully as The Apartment. And William Holden is handsome and sympathetic as Joe. The real star of the film, however, is Gloria Swanson, whose portrayal of the creepy, but captivating Norma Desmond will remain with you long after you watch the film. Most likely showing up in your most disturbing dreams…

The trailer exists here.

Side Note: Erich von Stroheim, who plays Gloria’s super sketch butler/ex-husband, was the director of Queen Kelly. His career as a director was ruined after that movie because he made it so expensive and outrageous that the film could not be finished. I guess cats are very costly garments…

Sunset Boulevard can be obtained through the Humanities Resource Center and Netflix.

-Lolita De Palma '14

What makes a Bond film a true Bond film?

2010-11-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

Last week, MGM Studios finally confirmed that production on the next James Bond movie will start sometime next year. As a life-long James Bond fan (since I was five, really), this truly warms my heart, but there is a major downside: the past two Bond movies have not been real Bond movies. While everyone agrees that Quantum of Solace sucked on all fronts, some people actually liked Casino Royale as an entry into the Bond canon. I’m sorry, it may work as a generic action movie, but it does not follow the legacy of Goldfinger, Thunderball, The Spy Who Loved Me, and GoldenEye. There are certain features every good Bond movie has, and every future one must have in order to be considered a true Bond film.

Five things all James Bond movies must have:

The Bad Guy: A main villain with a unique or grotesque physical feature who is putting the fate of the world in jeopardy and has a henchman with an awesome preferred method of killing

The Bond Girls: At least two beautiful women for 007 to, um, rendezvous with while completing his mission, one of whom turns out to be working with the main villain and the other gives James vital assistance in taking down the main villain.

The Gadgets: Innovative and explosive gadgets that are housed in ordinary items, along with the newest model Aston Martin fitted with spy gear and weaponry, given to 007 by Q or a Q-like figure played by someone with great comedic timing.

The Action: Scenes taking place in at least three countries located in at least two continents, including at least one of the following: a foot chase through city streets, a car chase, and a chase involving another type of vehicle (boat, plane, etc). The final action scene must involve some sort of set piece.

The Humor: James must dispense a solid amount of witty one-liners when talking about sex or right after he kills someone after a drawn-out fight, and must impersonate someone in a way that it’s obvious he’s an impostor.

Clearly, the previous two entries in the series can barely be considered Bond movies. The villains have been weak, the plots too new age, and Bond not as suave and clever as he used to be. In order to steer this iconic series back in the right direction, I will present to you my half-baked proposition for the plot of Bond 23. As a disclaimer, this plot harkens back to the days when superpowers actually fought each other and does not reflect my views on the parties involved in the present day international climate. I just want the movie to be patriotic and badass. Here goes:

The United States, Britain, Russia, and China have just negotiated the final elimination of all nuclear missile silos, marking a major step towards end to the threat of global nuclear war. Meanwhile, while on assignment in Argentina investigating a secret arms deal between China and Iran, 007 meets a female Israeli intelligence agent on the same assignment from her government. The chemistry between the two is obvious, but their relationship is severed when Bond stops her from assassinating a Chinese official (in a foot and car chase in the streets of Buenos Aires), and she disappears. Cue theme song and opening credits.

He then returns to England, where M debriefs him on unrest within the Iranian military over its clandestine nuclear program, with a right-wing faction bent on conducting an atmospheric nuclear test in the Indian Ocean. M tells 007 that such an attack would spark a war between Israel and Iran that would threaten the stability of the entire region while driving the cost of oil to astronomical levels, crippling the world economy. To gain more background information on the Iranian situation, Bond is paired up with a sultry British-Iranian expert on the Iranian military and government, and the two quickly develop an intimate relationship.

Meanwhile, the Chinese official covertly enters Iran and meets up with a general of a rogue division of the Iranian Republican Guard. We learn that the China has sold the general computer equipment that will allow him to override the security system on Iran’s first operational nuclear device, which he has stolen without the Iranian government’s knowledge. Somehow, this is all involved in a plot to take down the world economy to create a world communist order under Chinese auspices by elements of the Chinese government who are appalled by their country’s adoption of capitalism. It would turn out that the general was the henchman and the Chinese official the true villain. Also, the British-Iranian women would turn out to be a spy for the Chinese, and 007 gets with the Israeli spy at the end of the movie.

Alright, so I haven’t really been able to incorporate all the necessary parts, or figured out how the plot actually ends, but I think I have the makings of a damn good Bond movie. Alas, MGM will probably make another Bond about a random dude preventing Bolivian peasants from getting access to drinking water or something like that, but we true Bond fans can only hope they bring the series back to its roots.

Q and A with Pink Martini: Live at McCarter Theater Tomorrow

2010-11-10T09:19:00.000-08:00

Pink Martini’s fifth album is sure to be a hit. “Joy to the World” is being released at Starbucks stores and music retailers nationwide on November 16^th, but Princetonians have the opportunity to see the band live tomorrow at McCarter Theater. This non-denominational holiday album features songs in 9 different languages, including French, English, and Ladino (the intersection of Spanish and Hebrew). Intersections catches up with lead singer China Forbes on the album, her career, and advice for aspiring musicians.

Q: Technically, a Pink Martini is a Cosmopolitan. Why did you choose Pink Martini?

A: Thomas was really into cocktails at the time when he started the band. Between his love of Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany and cosmopolitans, I think he thought of the name. And then later lived to regret it, but I think he’s accepted it by now.

Q: What inspired you to sing in so many different languages? Are you fluent in any of the languages you sing in besides English?

A: I speak French fairly well, I studied it throughout elementary school through high school had a grandfather who was half French. I studied Italian in my senior year in high school because I thought I was going to study opera. I don’t speak all the languages I sing in, so a lot of it was inspired by loving songs from films that I sang on the first album, like the Japanese song from the film The Black Lizard and the Greek version of “Never On Sunday,” …so it kind of started that way and we were just inspired to try more and more languages.

Q: What do you hope people will come away with after listening to your album “Joy to the World”?

A: I think it’s just a selection of really beautiful holiday songs that are familiar and then some totally obscure ones. So I think it's kind of a revolutionary holiday album in that its not specifically Christian, it’s not all about Christmas, it’s in tons in different languages, and it really weaves together songs that are known and not known. It’s a fresh approach to a holiday album.

Q: What was it like working with Saori Yuki?

A: We got to work with her when we were in Tokyo last March- she performed with us at our show. She was so gracious and elegant and it was so cool because she was kind of the Barbara Streisand of Japan in the 70s. We covered one of her songs on our Hey Eugene album called “Kaya Tan” and because of our covering her song, somebody sent her the clip of our version of the song and it sort of inspired her to go back to performing after she had retired. It was such an amazing outcome-you never know what’s going to happen.

Q: What is your favorite song on “Joy to the World”?

A: I love “La Vergine Degli Angeli” which is a song that’s basically an aria by Verdi, and it’s not traditionally a holiday song but it’s about the virgin and angels and it’s just a beautiful song that Thomas and I have always loved. “Do You Hear What I Hear” is a really nice recording as well.

Q: Thomas Lauderdale, your bandleader has said that, “In actuality, these albums are actually produced by whoever happens to be in the room at the time, band members, friends, random people off the street who wander in … everybody has a chance to weigh in.” How do you think this influences the music that your band makes and the final product you put out?

A: It has a nice spontaneity to it, the fact that the process is open to suggestion. It is very much the combination of group work and individual work. Sometimes it’s just Thomas and me in the studio for hours and hours and other times there are tons of people there and everyone’s giving their opinion. I think this just helps convey the inclusivity that Thomas really brings to everything he does.

Q: Did you think you would be doing this when you started out as a musician? What encouraged you to pursue this type of music?

A: No it actually kind of happened by accident. I always thought I would be a singer songwriter, which I was doing before I joined Pink Martini- I wrote all of my own songs, and played guitar, which was a totally different style. And then Thomas called me and invited me to sing with this band he started. It was fun, but it was completely not what I saw myself doing. Over the years, I grew to like it more and realized that it was actually maybe a better direction for my style of performing and my voice. It actually became something that I wouldn’t have thought of for myself but really suited me.

Q: What was your most memorable moment as a musician?

A: Playing at Carnegie Hall for the first time sort of felt like a Cinderella moment. Everybody was so excited for us because all of our fans who had watched us over the years from little clubs downtown work our way up to Carnegie Hall. It just felt really special.

Q: What advice would you give to others trying to break into the music industry?

A: I would say play an instrument, write songs, and team up with people who you think are talented and who you like to hang out with. Experiment with collaborating, and find and discover what best suits you. In this day and age you can do everything on your own, you don’t really need a record label, so make a record.

Q: Do you see any collaborations on the horizon? What is the next step for the band?

A: It would be really fun- my cousin is one of the members of Grizzly Bear and I keep wanting to do something with him. It would be really fun to sing with Natalie Merchant who I met this year and got to sing on stage with at the Cambridge Music Festival in England. She called me up on stage and it was like this high school fantasy coming true. But who knows? I haven’t actually arranged any of these things. They’re just dreams right now.

Interview conducted, condensed, and edited by Lisa Fierstein ‘14

Princeton Trend of the Week: Princetonians Become Potter-heads

2010-11-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

Harry Potter has been slowly but surely creeping back onto the radar of the kids, former kids and kids-at-heart who grew up ingesting the adventures of the hero of the wizarding world as the release of the seventh Potter film approaches. At Princeton, this trend has been particularly notable with the proliferation of the Harry Potter Facebook quiz.

These quizzes come in many varieties—there is the “Which obscure Harry Potter character are you?” quiz (Vincent Crabbe…several of my friends found this quite entertaining), the “Which Harry Potter professor are you?” quiz (McGonagall) and the classic “What Hogwarts house are you?” quiz (Yea Gryffindor!)

Potter quizzing spiked during midterms but still seems to have held on to its place as a trusty new way Facebook can enhance your procrastination time. One strung out student completed enough of these quizzes to prompt a curious Facebook comment from a friend at a different school wondering what the hell was up with the sudden Potter addiction.

The humanities major in me would analyze this new craze as a typical vicarious fleeing of the real, ever-stressful academic world of Princeton to the magical, adventurous world of the brave and adventurous Harry and his colorful cohorts.

In case you haven’t had a chance to flex your Potter-themed quiz skills, here are a couple of fun ones (in addition to those listed above) that you may want to try:

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=94569418342 (“What is your signature spell?” Please not Avada Kedavra, please not Avada Kedavra…)

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=49372207474 (“Twilight vs. Harry Potter.” Is this even a competition? Magic spells over lovey dovey vamps any day!)

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=125487422480 (“What is your Harry Potter wand?” Does yours have phoenix feather?)

-Nava Friedman '13

Classic Movie of the Week: Rear Window (1954)

2010-10-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

It’s Halloween this week. And Halloween is amazing, so I thought I’d pick an amazing horror-suspense film for this week. I was originally going to choose Night of the Living Dead and then I watched it… It was not a bad film, but I have to admit that I was pretty bored for a good portion of it (except for the ending, which is terrifying and awesome and definitely worth watching the entire movie for). Maybe it’s better on the big screen?

In any case, I decided that I should go with a different film, one that I can easily recommend to everyone. And that film is Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Not only is this film one of Hitchcock’s many masterpieces, but it also stars James Stewart, who, as I might have mentioned, is my future husband. And it involves a possible murder. And creeper-ing (but in a good way?)…

L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries (James Stewart) is a professional photographer and he just broke his legs taking an action shot at an auto race. Now he is stuck in his New York apartment until his legs heal. Out of boredom, he begins to watch his neighbors through his rear window and over time becomes very involved in watching their personal lives. One day, he sees something particularly suspicious and begins to believe that one of his neighbors has murdered his wife. However, no one will believe him until he proves it…

One of my favorite aspects of this film is the relationship between Jeff and his girlfriend Lisa Carol Freemont (Grace Kelly). Grace Kelly is Grace Kelly; she is the gorgeous future Princess of Monaco. And at this point in his career, James Stewart is definitely getting on in years. Yet, throughout the entire film Jeff is constantly trying to avoid Lisa’s attentions. She says something sweet to Jeff; he deflects with sarcasm. She gets the chef of a fancy restaurant to come over and make Jeff dinner; he ruins the evening by trying to convince her that she won’t fit into his life. She decides to spend the night at his place in a sexy nightgown; he is more interested in what his neighbors are up to… I truly hope that this is not what all committed relationships are like. Especially those involving James Stewart…

You can watch the trailer here.

Side Note: Happy Halloween!!!!

Rear Window can be obtained through the Humanities Resource Center and Netflix. It may also be on YouTube. In English…

--Lolita De Palma '14

Princeton Trend of the Week: Procrasti-pooping (and other methods of avoiding studying at all costs)

2010-10-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

Midterms are upon us, and with them the need to bravely face the mountains of books that have gone unread and equations that have gone misunderstood for the first half of the semester. But for every line memorized, the astute midterms studier always manages to find a way to put off the next moment of cramming with some sort of creative activity, including those not usually associated with procrastination. Some of the more imaginative methods (in addition to the typical, largely Web-based ones) I’ve noticed being employed over the last couple of days (a personal one, by the way, would be writing this post):

1) The Procrasti-poop: going to the bathroom is no longer just a necessary bodily function—it’s a way to avoid memorizing the steps of the Krebs cycle.

2) Procrasti-eating: Late meal! C-store run! 2 AM Frist study break! For every moment where you can’t digest another word of text, there’s something edible to digest instead.

3) The Procrasti-nap: You know you’ve seen it done, and probably done it yourself—just put your head down for a couple of minutes on the brick-hard library table and taken a quick nap. (Hopefully your snoring is in check and you set an alarm so that “quick” doesn’t turn into “exam in half an hour and have only covered half the material.”)

4) The Procrasti-stroll: Take a walk. “Clear your head.” This one’s pretty popular.

5) Procrasti-working: Sometimes you just get so desperate that taking a break means writing that paper due Friday instead of studying for that test tomorrow morning. Designation as procrastination is admittedly debatable, but I vote for inclusion.

This list is undoubtedly incomplete—thus I invite you to add anything you feel has been a creative and integral part of your procrastination routine.

But only if you’re studying.

--Nava Friedman '13

Fashion Trend of the Week: Brightly Colored Accessories

2010-10-25T20:00:00.001-07:00

Everywhere you look on the Princeton campus, you see students wearing blacks, whites, and creams. Most people are wearing some form of dark-colored jacket or sweatshirt on top, and jeans on the bottom. However, some people, who don’t want to look just like everyone else, are trying out a new style this week—wearing bright colored accessories.

Girls are quickly picking up on this fashion trend. Bright colored scarves can be spotted all over campus. Reds and pinks are especially hot right now, but bright blues are becoming more popular. Pastel colors are rarely seen right now. Pastels tend to look faded and bland, especially when the rest of your outfit lacks color. Plaid scarves are pretty popular right now, but if you are looking for a more unique look, try to purchase a scarf with a cool pattern on it. Colored animal prints and polka dots can spice up any outfit.

Another way people are wearing this style is in their backpacks. Backpacks are now made in every shape, size, and color, so be sure to express yourself! Wearing a bright red backpack definitely says more about you than a plain black one. However, your backpack doesn’t have to be bright red to show off your personality. A more subtle way of showing who you are is by having a black backpack with some design or interesting detail on it. As long as the detailing or pattern is brightly-colored, you can get away with the “blackpack.” My personal favorites are from Jansport, which offers a variety of different styles and colors for both guys and girls. The backpack, pictured right, uses bright pink circles to brighten up an otherwise dull backpack.

Probably the easiest way to incorporate some brights into your outfit is to wear Princeton attire. Considering our school colors are orange and black, any piece of Princeton clothing will have a pop of color. Most commonly, students wear sunglasses that have orange arms, usually bearing the year you will graduate Princeton. Given out at different sporting events and the like, these glasses have become quite popular here. Residential college gear is also a good way to go. Most of the colleges have given out great outwear this fall, all bearing some bright pop of color. Forbes sweatpants, although black, have white and red writing that is pretty in your face. Mathey fleeces bear the college’s name and shield in bright red, providing a subtle yet bright pop to the all-black jacket.

Bright colored accessories and accents are all over campus now. Every morning, try to pick out something that has a little pop of color. Don’t let midterms get you down! Keep spirits up by wearing something bright and fun! Bright colors are definitely the way to go.

--Lisa Fierstein '14

Singles of the Week: October 24

2010-10-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

Pop: Taylor Swift – “Back to December”

Princetonians, I urge you to think back to the time that you had a soul. You remember, before midterms and theses and labs sucked out all your emotions. I know, it’s tough, but that’s what Taylor Swift is for. On her newest single, “Back to December” Swift returns to her brilliant formula: simple sugary lyrics, that cute country twang, and a sense of melancholy that no 20-year-old should have. You don’t even need to understand what the song is about to love it. Sure it may be tacky, but Swift proves she can make any grade-grubbing hermit remember that people exist.

-Michael Becker ‘14

Hip Hop: Big Sean- “Fat Raps Remix”

Big Sean gained a lot of press when he signed with Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music label. The result of that press? Songs like Fat Raps Remix. As if Big Sean’s laid-back delivery wasn’t enough to attract listeners, the roster of featured artists reads like a whose who of up and coming artists. Cool Kids’ emcee Chuck Inglish eases into the song, then hands it off to one of the West Coast’s rising stars, Dom Kennedy. But the fun doesn’t end there. Asher Roth and Chip tha Ripper arrive to drop verses to close out the track over a noticeably uncluttered Don Cannon beat. Long and short: Young emcees get together and have fun rapping over a beat that threatens to blow out your system. What else do you need? Cop the song, along with the whole mixtape, right here from Big Sean’s website. http://uknowbigsean.com/music/

-Trap Yates ‘14

Indie: Belle and Sebastian “Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John”

It’s difficult to tell if this track ought to be called “Belle and Sebastian feat. Norah Jones” or “Norah Jones feat. Belle and Sebastian,” but you can essentially think of it either way. This poignant slow-jam is saturated with Jones’ own musical sensibilities, an utter anomaly to the majority of Belle and Sebastian’s lighthearted pop tunes. But whether or not you’re a Norah Jones fan, you’ll appreciate Stuart Murdoch’s contributing solo and harmonies that showcase the softness and flexibility in the voice. As it is midterm week, consider this the perfect lullaby to cap off a long day of work.

-Lisa Han ‘13

Classic Movie of the Week: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

2010-10-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

I’m feeling quite colorful this week, so I thought this week’s movie should be in color or at least mostly in color.

The Purple Rose of Cairo is the story of Cecilia (Mia Farrow), a waitress in the Great Depression who tries to escape the horrors of her daily life by going to the movies. After a particularly bad morning, Cecilia goes to the cinema and watches the same movie, The Purple Rose of Cairo (a fictional black and white film), all day until one of the lead characters, Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) announces his love for her and leaves the screen to be with her. This causes all sorts of chaos: the other characters are stranded in the middle of the film because they cannot continue without him, other “Tom Baxter”s begin to attempt to leave the screen at other cinemas nationwide, and Gil Shepherd (the actor who plays Tom Baxter) may no longer have a career because producers worry that his characters are too real for the big screen. And it looks like Cecilia is the only one who can save the day and convince Tom to return to his world. But does she want to?

The Purple Rose of Cairo is a Woody Allen film, but is it is definitely not as famous or critically acclaimed as Annie Hall (a film that will most likely show up here soon, once I get around to re-watching it) and some of his other films. Still, I’m featuring it here for two reasons. The first is that it is a great Woody Allen film for people who don’t like Woody Allen films. What I mean by this is that if you don’t like watching Woody Allen act in his films, this is the perfect Woody Allen film for you because Woody Allen is not in it. Thus, the comedy in the movie is much more situational and not created by him in accordance with his sense of humor (which I personally love, but I know that there are people out there who don’t). Second, the ending to this film is AMAZING!!!! It’s one of those endings that stayed with me weeks after I watched the movie and still comes back to haunt me. It’s just so thought provoking and emotional and fitting and brilliant! It’s as good as cotton candy and that is definitely saying something.

You can watch the trailer here.

Side Note: I promise I will start featuring movies that are not romantic comedies next week. I just have a thing for romantic comedies…

The Purple Rose of Cairo can be watched instantly and rented through Netflix. The full movie might also be on YouTube… In Spanish…

--Lolita De Palma '14

Trailer of the Week: Restless

2010-10-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

“Grief is nature’s most powerful aphrodisiac.”

I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say that Will Ferrell’s portrayal of Chaz in Wedding Crashers is the best cameo in movie history. Chaz may be a sleazy pervert who lives with his mother, but he pretty much saves the movie, which has just gone through the boring part where Owen Wilson’s character acts really desperate and depressed (yeesh, I guess life imitates art. Sorry, too soon?). Every one of Chaz’s lines is ridiculously funny, and Will Ferrell’s delivery is impeccable, but the real beauty of the character is the fact that he crashes funerals. Seriously, he goes to funerals in order to sleep with random women, and isn’t even ashamed to admit it.

Now, I’m not condoning this behavior in any way, but whoever came up with that is awesome. Crashing funerals is probably the most morally reprehensible/hilarious idea I have ever heard of, which brings me to the movie for this week, Restless. Watch the trailer here:

My God, someone actually made a movie about a funeral crasher. An entire movie! Granted, he doesn’t intentionally do it for sexual purposes, but Enoch (played by Henry Hopper, son of the late Dennis Hopper) still goes to random people’s funerals he doesn’t know for selfish reasons. That this is the premises for what seems like a pretty serious movie is way too much for me. I couldn’t take any part of the trailer seriously because Chaz quotes kept popping into my head that related to things said in it. Here’s an idea of what I mean (these are all lines taking directly from Restless and Wedding Crashers):

“This is the fourth funeral I have seen you at this month, and if I see you around here again I’m calling the cops…”

“I almost numchucked you, you don’t even realize.”

“Did you know that kid from the other funeral?”

“Dude died in a hang gliding accident, what an idiot. ‘Ahhh I’m hang gliding, honey
take good picture – I’m dead.’ What a freak.”

“I was lying about working at the hospital. I’m a patient, is that okay?”

“Hey babe, yea, you do whatever you have to do.”

“Annabel tells me you’re a funeral crashing drop-out with a ghost friend.”

“I’m just livin’ the dream.”

You might think that I shouldn’t be so juvenile in analyzing a movie about disturbed and terminally ill people. Then again, I can’t lie to myself and pretend that I didn’t immediately make the connection between Restless and Chaz. I really am capable of taking things seriously, but it’s hard to when they have anything remotely to do with funeral crashing. To be honest, I find it funny under pretty much any circumstance, and although Restless may turn out to be a great movie, I probably won’t see it. Instead, I’ll use the time to come of with a premise for a Chaz-centered Wedding Crashers spin-off. Funeral Crashers anyone?

(If you haven’t seen Wedding Crashers and therefore have no idea what I am talking about, I have nothing but pity for you. If you have time, watch it immediately. If not, this should help you understand my point.)

-Ben Neumann ‘14

Fashion Trend of the Week: Plain Blue Jeans

2010-10-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

Levi Strauss invented jeans in 1853 during the heart of the California Gold Rush. Shortly afterwards, jeans became an integral part of every American’s wardrobe. Over the years, jeans have gone through extreme transformations, changing their look, color, and style every season. No matter how they change, jeans will always be in style because of their practicality and comfort.

While walking around campus lately, you'll see relatively little variety when it comes to this fashion staple. This season, everyone is wearing plain blue jeans! No pocket detail, no rips at the knees, just plain jeans! Although many stores on Nassau Street are displaying jeans with eye-catching studs and designs, Princeton students are loving their plain blue jeans.

Girls have many more options when it comes to their blue jeans. On campus, most girls choose to wear medium to dark skinny jeans, paired with sweaters and jackets to combat the cold weather. Skinny jeans are definitely more stylish than boot cut jeans, but either look can work depending on what you pair with them. If you choose to wear boot cut jeans, be sure to wear some fabulous accessories with them, like a cool scarf or some bright-colored bracelets. Do not go with the “faded at the knees” look—it is definitely not as classy as just plain color. Also, jeans should be blue! Colored jeans, such as purple, pink, turquoise, etc. are so last season!

For the guys, it is important that your jeans actually fit you. At a place like Princeton, it is not acceptable to wear your jeans around your knees. You NEED to wear a belt. Belts are a great way to show off your personality and keep your pants up. Obviously you shouldn’t be wearing tight skinny jeans (unless you are a skateboarder), so go with the fitted boot cut jeans. The bottoms of your jeans shouldn’t be dragging on the ground and they shouldn’t be all bunched up around your ankles. Jeans should be resting at the top your sneakers, and should be almost to the floor in the back. A solid medium wash is definitely the way to go for color.

Why do we wear jeans?, you might ask. Sophmore Eric Peñalver says he likes to wear his jeans “because I don’t want to be too formal and wear khakis. Guys don’t have too many alternatives other than jeans when it comes to long pants other than sweatpants. And I’m not a sweatpants kind-of-guy.”

Jeans have become more popular on campus this past week as the weather has gotten chillier. A solid pair will last you for many seasons to come, so it's definitely worth investing in some jeans that you really love.

--Lisa Fierstein '14

Princeton Trend of the Week: Midterms Malaise

2010-10-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

Cough. Hack. Sneeze.
These are probably sounds you’ve been hearing a lot recently.
Princeton students seem to have contracted a myriad of fun ailments just in time for midterms. From the common cold to bronchitis to the always attractive “pink eye” (or as Princetonians call it, conjunctivitis), a slew of diseases have been making their way across our campus.
Looking around a classroom, it’s especially clear how students have been taking a biological hit. There will invariably be the kid hacking continuously, the girl with the pile of tissues, the guy scratching his pink blob of an eye, and of course, the conspicuously absent who have passed the malaise margin into the realm of the bedridden (and yes, you are probably secretly happy not to be one of those…while also a bit jealous that you’re not in bed right now.)
A pre-med I am not, so I will not try to biologically explain Princetonians’ increasingly astute ability to contract illness. In mommy mode, I can suggest lack of sleep and poor diet choices as possible causes, along with, well, being around each other all the time.
So as you gear up for the next week of paper-writing and cramming, stock up on Vitamin C, perhaps put a few more inches between you and the next guy (however cute he may be) at the library table, and good luck on your exams…
Aaaaaaaaaaaa-choo!
-Nava Friedman '13

Roundup: This Week on TV - Mixed Drinks and Mixed Emotions

2010-10-18T19:25:00.000-07:00

My Top TV Choice for this week actually happened last night, but I think it’s okay to look backward a little considering it was the season finale of Mad Men, “Tomorrowland.” If you don’t watch the show or are a few episodes behind, you can jump to my other TV choices for this week. Spoilers ahead.

For me, “Tomorrowland” wasn’t as “aww”-inspiring as Don’s Kodak pitch, nor was it as exhilarating as the formation of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Instead, it left me a little confused. In fact, I’m pretty sure I looked like all the all the guys in the room with Ken when he told them his fiancée was the most important part of his life. Well, that wasn’t the answer I was expecting.

Maybe it was because, like Ken, “Tomorrowland” put family over work. I was surprised that there wasn’t more focus on the office. I was very surprised that nothing major happened to Sally. I was yelling-at-my-TV surprised that Don proposed to Megan. (I wasn’t surprised that Joan was still pregnant, but I’m pretty sure no one was).

There’ll be plenty of time to deal with the consequences of everything that happened (and everything that didn’t) next season. But I do want to say that I started liking the episode a lot more when I remembered that even the events that bothered me happened for a reason.

We had to spend a lot of time away from SCDP. Otherwise, we’d have no perspective on how little anyone appreciated Peggy’s efforts to save the company. Because nothing happened to Sally, I have to keep worrying about her for another season. And of course I’m supposed to be completely uncomfortable with Don’s impulsivity. I didn’t know how to feel when the episode was over, but I’m starting to feel very satisfied with the episode as a whole.

Final thoughts and favorite scenes:

- Sal’s unfair termination finally has some competition in the category of “most heart-breaking firing. I’ll definitely miss Carla if she’s gone, but her absence could bring Betty and Sally’s issues to the surface.

- It was nice to see that Don can be silly and sweet with his children.

- I loved that in the end, Don needed Peggy’s approval. And that she gave it to him, even if she was lying.

- I loved even more that Peggy and Joan gossiped about the day’s happenings afterwards, since that’s all I wanted to do too.

Other Workplace Relationships I’m Watching this Week:

House and Cuddy (House, Monday on Fox at 8/7c)

House and Wilson wind up taking care of Cuddy’s daughter, Rachel. Hilarity (some of it heartwarming?) is sure to ensue.

Andy and Erin (The Office, Thursday on NBC at 9/8c)

Andy forms a band, and I’m hoping it’s another attempt to woo Erin with his singing skills (like his charmingly earnest Sweeney Todd exploits two weeks ago).

Dexter and Lumen (Dexter, Sunday on Showtime at 9/8c)

Okay. It’s not a workplace per se, since Lumen’s getting involved in Dexter’s homicidal side job, but I’m excited to see an innocent (albeit damaged) character step into his secret world.

-Nora Sullivan ‘12

YouTube Video of the Week: Pandas and Cheese

2010-10-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

Please, although the following advice may seem bizarre, heed it: if you ever happen to be offered a mysterious dairy product by a panda in Egypt, accept it immediately. You may wonder what on Earth I might be talking about. I would love to explain, really…but I can’t. So just watch this video, eat cheese whenever you are offered it, and beware the panda.

- Michael Becker '14

Classic Movie of the Week: The Philadelphia Story (1940)

2010-10-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

Every time I watch The Philadelphia Story, I feel that there is something very special about the film. Of course, it could just be my future (although sadly deceased) husband and Princeton alumnus Jimmy Stewart in the only role he ever received an Oscar for, but I think there is more to it. The film forces me to reassess the way I judge the world and the people around me. At one point, Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) says (while intoxicated), “The time to make up your mind about people is never.” And there is a lot of truth to that.

Tracy Jordan, a rich socialite, is about to marry for the second time. Her first marriage to C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), another rich socialite, was a very passionate affair that ended quite violently (in a fantastic wordless scene, Tracy breaks Dexter’s golf club as he is leaving and then he retaliates by grabbing her face and thrusting her back into the house. You can watch it here. I promise that C.K. Dexter Haven’s treatment of his wife does not look nearly as abusive as it sounds.). Now, she is about to be wed to George Kittredge (John Howard), a self-made man and an aspiring politician.

On the eve of her wedding, C.K. Dexter Haven shows up Tracy’s door with a photographer, Elizabeth Imbrie (Ruth Hussey), and a reporter, Macaulay Connor (Jimmy Stewart) for the tabloid Spy magazine posing as two friends of her brother’s. From there, in traditional comedic fashion, all hell breaks loose.

You can watch the trailer here.

Side Note: There is a musical remake of The Philadelphia Story called High Society. Don’t watch it.

The Philadelphia Story can be rented through Netflix or through the Princeton University Library. The full movie might also be on YouTube…

-Lolita De Palma ‘14

The Next Bob Dylan?: Q & A with Anthony D'Amato '10

2010-10-16T13:46:00.000-07:00

At age 22, Anthony D’Amato ‘10 is three albums and a New York Post feature further than your average college grad. Fresh out of Princeton, D’Amato immediately affirmed himself as perhaps one of the University’s most successful student musicians. Already he has shared a stage with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, and most recently received rave reviews from publications like The Star Ledger extolling his newest album, “Down Wires.” Street catches up with D’Amato as he talks about the album, college, and Bob Dylan.

Q: How would you describe your music? Do you have any strong musical influences?

A: I make folk music--sometimes I make it with acoustic guitars and banjos and sometimes I make it with electric guitars and a laptop, but I think it's all still folk music in its own way. I've been heavily influenced by the usual suspects (Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young) and younger artists like Josh Ritter, Joe Pug, and Jesse Malin.

Q: You've just graduated from Princeton. Looking back, can you describe your college experience in 3 words?

A: It went fast.

Q: Were you in any student groups on campus? Eating clubs?

A: I was in Terrace Club. I've always been a firm believer that Terrace is the future.

Q: How did you first get into writing music?

A: You can only spend so long learning other people's songs before you start to feel like 'I bet I could do this.' And then you do it and it's terrible and incredibly discouraging and you go back to learning other people's songs for a while. But then you get that feeling again, and so you try to write something else, and this time it's a little less terrible. Repeat infinitely.

Q: You seem to put a lot of emphasis into lyrics in your songs. What is the process of writing lyrics like?

A: It's a constant process. I'm always scribbling down ideas, writing down a million different variations of the same line until I find the exact right one. I'm very interested in the sounds of words, how certain words or phrases can interlock with each other. Sometimes if I have music and no lyrics I'll just sing gibberish until I find certain sounds I like or a certain pacing that feels right. Then I'll start to approach the words from there.

Q: What was your most memorable musical experience?

A: My most memorable musical experience was last year's Light of Day, which is an annual benefit show in Asbury Park for Parkinson's research. I opened the show, and later in the night Bruce Springsteen showed up as a special guest and performed an amazing set. At the end he had all of the night's performers come out to sing "Twist and Shout" and "Light of Day." Being onstage with him was an absolute thrill. At the time I was writing my thesis, in which I traced his music back to Puritan sermons from the 1600s, so I got to chat with him a bit about that backstage, too.

Q: Tell us a little bit about Down Wires- what are the concepts behind the album, where did you get inspiration from?

A: I was interested in writing from different perspectives on this record. A lot of times songs would start out with a character I'd invent or adapt, and then I'd try to write from their point of view. You inevitably filter everything through yourself and your own experiences, though. Inspiration comes from all over the place--certain phrases just plant themselves in my brain or I'll wake up with a melody in my head. I don't know exactly how it works but I'm thankful for it and try not to squander those moments when they happen.

Q: Is there a song on the album that is particularly meaningful to you?

A: They all are in their own way, but "One Good Time" is very special to me because Sam Roberts sings on it. Sam's a big star up in Canada, and I've been a huge fan of his since I was about 14. Last fall I got to open for him, and when it came time to make this record, I sent him some music. He dug the song and was kind enough to record some vocals up in Montreal and send them back to me. It's very exciting to have someone who's been such an inspiration over the years put his stamp on a piece of music I wrote.

Q: What was it like working with members from so many well-known bands like Mark Stepro (drummer for Ben Kweller) or Gabriel Gordon (guitarist for Natalie Merchant)?

A: Gabriel changed the whole arc of the record. I was thinking of making a low-key acoustic album, and once Gabriel got involved, it suddenly became this souped-up electric thing. Once that happened I knew we needed Mark in the mix. He stepped in and knocked his parts out in no-time flat. They're both unbelievable musicians who volunteered their time because they liked the music, and it was really an honor to just step back and watch them do their thing.

Q: Critics have compared you to both John Lennon and Bob Dylan. What do you make of that comparison? What's your opinion on those two artists?

A: It's obviously very flattering and I love both of those artists, but I feel like a Little Leaguer standing next to Mickey Mantle or Joe DiMaggio when someone says something like that. My focus is making the music, and I hope that people get pleasure out of hearing the records and coming to the shows. That's my measure for success.

Q: What's the next step for you?

A: Well this record just came out, so I'll be playing a lot of shows in support of it. It's so much fun to play these new songs live and I can't wait to share them with everybody. My tonsils have to come out this week, which is going to knock me out of commission for a bit, but I'm hoping to come back and play a record release show at Princeton once I'm back on my feet.

To hear some of Anthony's music, check out:

http://www.myspace.com/anthonydamatomusic

http://www.facebook.com/anthonydamatomusic

-Lisa Han ‘13

To Reboot or Not to Reboot?

2010-10-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

THIS JUST IN: Some Welsh Dude Has Been Cast as the Villain in the Upcoming Spider-Man Reboot

This news probably caused at least one of two questions to immediately pop into your head: 1) “Since when are they rebooting Spider-Man?” and 2) “Who, pray tell, is this ‘Welsh Dude?’” Evidently, back in January Sony simultaneously cancelled Spider-Man 4 and announced a plan to reboot the franchise with a bunch of relatively unproven actors and filmmakers.

To be honest, I’m quite skeptical of the whole “reboot” thing, because clearly movie studios just want to bank on moviegoers’ familiarity with the title. But blatant greed does not necessarily lead to bad movies. In fact, the recent history of reboots has brought out both the best and worst of filmmaking. Batman Begins is a fantastic movie that made killing at the box office and with critics, Casino Royale successfully modernized the James Bond formula while going back to the roots of the original novels, and Star Trek pretty much kicked ass. Then again, Superman Returns kind of sucked, as did The Hulk (which was so bad that they had to reboot the reboot), and all of those horror movies that have so many sequels that they just go back to the original title (you know who you are).

I tried to come up with some of the criteria for what makes a movie reboot successful, and I came up with two I think make sense:

1) The original franchise must have started out really well but eventually left a bitter taste in our mouths because of endless/bad sequels and the like.

2) The reboot must add a significantly different element to the story to make sure its
not just a the same movie with better special effects.

Going back to Spider-Man, the franchise clearly passes the test of ending on a bad note. Spider-Man 3 was a convoluted mess of a movie with more pointless villains and crappy dialogue than Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (alright, maybe that’s a stretch), and I for one am pretty pissed off that they followed the amazing Spider-Man 2 with such a poor effort. Whether it passes the second test, however, remains to be seen. Andrew Garfield (Eduardo in The Social Network) will be playing the nerdy yet heroic Peter Parker, and Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) is slated to direct. That second fact startles me a bit: the only feature-length movie Webb has directed is 500 Days of Summer, as he usually directs music videos. I’m sorry, but I don’t think directing the video for “Ocean Avenue” or “London Bridge” makes you qualified to direct a special effects-heavy action movie. Yes, I’m looking at you too, McG.

Because I’m not sold on the director, I’m finding it hard to get excited for this movie, which is set for release in 2012. The news of the casting of the “Welsh Dude” (whose name is actually Rhys Ifans) is actually the best thing the new Spider-Man has going for it. Ifans played both the pissed-off British kicker from The Replacements and one of Satan’s mean-spirited sons in Little Nicky. Although both mediocre movies at best, each holds a special place in my heart, and Ifans is absolutely brilliant in both of them.

And now for your reading pleasure, here are a few reboots I think should be made as soon as possible (the theme, of course, being cartoons from my childhood).

1. Hey! Arnold. First of all, who didn’t love this show? Second of all, how great would it be to see Arnold and company go through high school? You’re already excited, I know.

2. Dragon Ball Z. Granted, it’s been a while since I’ve watched the anime series, but I’m pretty sure the whole human vs. alien identity crisis along with some sweet action could lead to an awesome movie. Plus, that recent Dragon Ball movie sucked because everyone knows Z is way cooler. Just saying.

3. Rocket Power. A few days ago I stumbled upon this awesome website full of Uncle Tito’s hilariously ridiculous Hawaiian wisdom. Needless to say, I have a fever, and the only prescription… is more Tito.

4. Ed, Edd, and Eddy. I really want them to make a live-action version with the Eds as adults, and I have the perfect cast in mind. Will Farrell as Ed, Steve Carrell as Double D, and Vince Vaughn as Eddy. Think about it.

5. Pokémon. If you’ve seen this fan-made trailer, you know exactly how a live-action reboot should play out. Pokémon battling has gone underground because animal rights activists have made it illegal. Ash must choose between letting Pikachu or his (human) friends die. Gotta catch’em all.

-Ben Neumann ‘14

"I want to make an eye-gasm": An Interview with King Khan and the Shrine

2010-10-13T16:55:00.000-07:00

Based in Germany, King Khan and the Shrine have dazzled audiences with their huge stage presence, complete with go-go dancers and pom-poms. We interviewed the band as they were traveling on tour from Montreal to the United States. They will play at Terrace on Thursday. Described as “berserking Maniacs” and “soul and punk fanatics” on their own biography page, the band is definitely one the more colorful bands we’ve seen.

Q: You guys are a psychedelic big band, so how would you describe your sound? What influences are you channeling?

A: I guess psychedelic soul pretty much says it. But also a lot of R&B with psychedelic elements. Our influences…there’s too many to pinpoint. But a lot of R&B and soul, psychedelic music, punk music.

Q: From several sources, it seems that you guys are pretty wild and visually arresting on stage. What do you want to accomplish with the visual part of your performance?

A: As I describe it, I want to make an eye-gasm. I guess I want to continue to bring back the whole tradition of a nicely dressed soul band

Q: You guys are traveling right now on tour right? How is that going?

A: So far, most of the shows have been really good. We just came back from Montreal. It’s been going well.

Q: Can you describe your songwriting process? Where do you get your inspirations?

A: There are three main songwriters, basically come up with stuff. They teach everyone else in the band.

Q: Do you guys rehearse a lot together?

A: No, not really. Everyone lives in different cities. But everyone is kind of centralizing in Berlin. For the past 10 years, we’ve all been living in different cities.

Q: So how did the band come together?

A: We all played together in 1999. I moved to Germany, I wanted to do that. I found people all over, from traveling and such, and just put everyone together. We’ve been pretty much the same line-up since.

Q: Do you guys value your interaction with the crowd?

A: Yeah, definitely. We try to incorporate the crowd frequently.

Q: If you could go on tour with any band right now, who would it be?

A: Well, we’re gonna be playing a couple of show with Red Nash, who’s based in Montreal

Q: What can we look forward to at Terrace Club this Thursday?

A: Hopefully a gospel, kind of erotic rock. A lot of dancing, definitely

Interview conducted, condensed, and edited by Grace Ma ‘14

Princeton Trend of the Week: Poster Pinching

2010-10-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

People say the Orange Bubble is one of the safest places to go to school—beautiful campus, idyllic, low-crime town, motivated students who are here only to learn, perhaps enjoy a party or two.

But beware Princetonians—there are thieves in your midst.

Don’t call Public Safety just yet—the thieves of whom I speak are mostly harmless creatures, interested in one thing and one thing only: the numerous, colorful posters which adorn every pole and billboard on Princeton’s campus.

Poster pinching takes a variety of forms on campus, and is usually employed as a mode of dorm decoration. No doubt many of you have stepped into a friend’s room (or perhaps even--*gasp*--your own) to discover walls ornamented with announcements for the Triangle Show, the latest offering from Disiac, or a Nobel Prize Winner’s scholarly address.

Hopefully these artfully designed, eye-catching and “low-cost” hangings are outdated, taken only after the subjects of their deliberate phrasings have long passed. Occasionally, you will find the odd transgressor who has boldly taken a poster touting a current event—but I’m sure (err…hope) there were just a lot of extras.

Subject matter takes on interesting variations. I have seen a single room bedecked with fifteen copies of the same poster, others with a wide variety of shapes, sizes and themes. Some will choose a particular genre—theater, dance, notable speakers, others simply reach for whatever they can get. Poster configurations go from Top Design worthy spreads to paper-vomit sequences that could barely be called collages. The possibilities are numerous, and Princeton students, never failing to exhibit their ingenuity, explore many avenues with their questionably acquired goods.

A note of respect—try to keep your poster-swiping until after the advertised event has taken place. Trust me, it’ll look just as nice on your wall next week!

-Nava Friedman '13

Roundup: This Week on TV

2010-10-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

This year’s crop of new shows was kind of anti-climactic. There were no major breakout hits, and the biggest critical darling was canceled after just two episodes (Sorry Lonestar!) So where does that leave us? Well, I haven’t added anything to my TiVo yet, but I did give some new shows a few weeks to win me over. (You can only tell so much from a pilot.) Here are my feelings on some of TV’s new additions.

THE EVENT (Mondays at 9/8c, NBC)

The Basics: Weird things are happening. Government intrigue. Disappearing girlfriends. Possible aliens. I’m pretty sure one of them is the “Event.”

The Appeal: This year’s entry to win the title of “the new LOST”

The Good: As wrongfully accused Sean Walker, Jason Ritter is an earnest protagonist everyone can root for. And after a somewhat jumbled pilot, the show seems to have struck a nice balance between mysteries and answers that leaves me anxious to find out what’ll happen next.

The Bad: The Event needs more character development. There’s so much going on plot-wise that’s it’s hard to learn anything about anyone involved. They could also use a more streamlined system of flashbacks.

The Verdict: This is the show most likely to eventually end up on my TiVo, if it doesn’t get canceled first. It’s got good long-term potential, so long as it doesn’t get so mired in mythology that we never learn anything about the characters.

UNDERCOVERS (Wednesdays at 8/7c, NBC)

The Basics: Steven and Samantha Bloom are married ex-spies who get pulled back into the spy game.

The Appeal: Creator J.J. Abrams knows spies (see: Alias and his Mission Impossible sequels)

The Good: This was my favorite pilot of the bunch, with strong sexy leads (Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and an amusing if sometimes over-the-top sidekick.

The Bad: There’s a reason partners on these kinds of shows don’t usually start out together, and it’s because it gives the story somewhere to go. I’m still not sure where this one is headed.

The Verdict: Still up in the air. As I said, it was my favorite pilot, but it felt so self-contained that I wasn’t all that anxious to see what happened next. They need more drama and higher stakes. Until they get there, I’m going to favor the funnier, more complicated Chuck.

HAWAII FIVE-O (Mondays at 10/9c, CBS)

The Basics: Remake of the long-running series about a special task force in Hawaii.

The Appeal: Critics were surprisingly excited about what could have been another run-of-the-mill criminal procedural.

The Good: They were excited because it’s a fun mix of action and drama with strong cast camaraderie. Plus, the smaller island setting allows for more personal stories, including the sweet but not saccharine relationship between Danny (of “Book ‘em, Danno” fame) and his daughter.

The Bad: A procedural with well-developed characters is still a procedural.

The Verdict: I won’t be watching this weekly, but the classic theme song sets the stage for a well-paced, action-packed, always enjoyable show that I wouldn’t mind catching occasionally.

TOP CHEF: JUST DESSERTS (Wednesdays at 10/9c, Bravo)

The Basics: Pretty self-explanatory.

The Appeal: It’s just like the Emmy-winning original Top Chef! But with more chocolate!

The Good: Just Desserts follows the Top Chef tradition of having clever and accessible challenges, plus the sugary results are nice to look at.

The Bad: Now that SPOILER ALERT Dexter look-a-like Seth is out of the fray, the competition could use a little more drama. Also, it’s possible that we don’t need another TV show about desserts and dessert-related competitions.

The Verdict: Who am I kidding? There is always room for more shows about desserts. Reality show spinoffs can do crazy well (see: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition) or fail miserably (see: American Idol Juniors). This one is somewhere in between. I’m not sure it’s quite as good as the original, but it’s fun to watch creative people at work, particularly when they’re making cupcakes.

RAISING HOPE (Tuesdays at 9/8c, Fox)

The Basics: Man-child Jimmy has to raise the baby girl he didn’t know he had when her mother goes to jail.

The Appeal: This was the first new show to get a full-season pickup.

The Good: The baby is cute and the cast seems to be having a good time.

The Bad: I can only take so many jokes about stupidity, and they seem be all this show has to offer. It’s stuck in mediocre sitcom tropes, without offering a truly original take on any of them.

The Verdict: Meh. I get my weekly dose of (better) jokes about charming idiots from Brittany on Glee, which is on right before Raising Hope. I’ll stick with Brittany and her gay sharks for now.

Top TV Choice for the Week Ahead:

30 Rock’s live episode (NBC Thursday at 8:30/7:30c). Tina Fey and company have plenty experience in live performance, and Tracy Morgan is just crazy enough that he’ll keep things unpredictable. Plus, Jon Hamm is guest starring. He’s always pretty good on SNL, and who doesn’t love Dr. Drew Baird and his hook hands?

-- Nora Sullivan '12

Fashion Trend of the Week: Lights and Whites

2010-10-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

Although fall has certainly arrived here in Princeton, we have been pretty lucky with the weather this week. With the temperatures in the high 70’s, everyone across campus is enjoying this week’s fashion trend: lights and whites.

You may be thinking you can’t wear white after Labor Day, but a large number of Princeton students have been sporting this trend this week. Considering white and black are this year’s winter colors, it is no surprise students are jumping on this bandwagon early.

Probably the most popular styles on campus are white skinny jeans for girls and light khaki shorts for guys. The “skinny jeans” style is usually paired with a bright sweater or something with extreme contrast.

It is definitely not stylish to wear an all-white or all-light ensemble, so be wary of what you pair with your light bottoms. Guys in dark polo shirts and light bottoms look quite dapper on campus, but guys have to make sure they do not look “too dressed” when trying to pull off the “light bottoms” look. Don’t wear a blazer with the khakis—you’ll look like you are going home to “meet the parents.” That’s not classy on campus.

I caught up with freshman Alexis Feliciano '14, who couldn’t stop raving about this new trend. Alexis, pictured here, wears her light-colored jeans with a long-sleeved Princeton shirt. This is definitely a great way to pair your light jeans. Light jeans or khakis are a pretty preppy look, so pairing them with a casual dark shirt is the perfect way to tone down the prep while still sporting the new trend.

White has been seen all over the runways this fall, especially in the new lines by Chanel and Valentino. White is a statement color this fall, and designers are rewriting the rules about wearing white after Labor Day by cranking out white sweaters and coats that will make you stand out in the crowd. I’d definitely look out for that amazing statement piece, whether it is some great white jeans or a fabulous white blazer. This style is here to stay.

-Lisa Fierstein '14

Pearls of Wisdom: A Compilation of Prince Comments

2010-10-10T18:27:00.000-07:00

Article: “The price of a free concert”

Posted by
Wake up
The presumption that your community service actually benefits anyone but yourself is flawed. The world sucks and you are not going to change that with your silly Pace Center projects. Wake up.

Wow, harsh. Someone definitely woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

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Article: “Casanova on the Street”

Posted by
nickiminaj
just google image searched you...confused

And that’s not creepy at all…

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Posted by
grow up

…If you're looking for a gentleman, go to Colonial or to church…

Aww, we still love you, Colonial.

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Article: "The Politization of Judaism”

Posted by
tafarA

Finally, Islam is WITCHCRAFT!!!!!!
Here's a website you should look at: www.Israelisnotasbadasgenghiskhan.org

Israel is not as bad as genghis khan …dot org?!?!

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Article: “Wilson School to conduct review of operations”

Posted by
not just the 20th

yo buchanon, imma let you finish but woodrow wilson was the worst president of all time--OF ALL TIME!

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Posted by
on the table
I dunno, Lincoln was pretty (incredibly) awful.

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-Grace Ma ‘14

Classic Movie of the Week: The Apartment (1960)

2010-10-08T16:49:00.000-07:00

It seems that more than half of Princeton’s student body and I have been fighting an evil cold of doom these past few weeks. And while I’ve been sneezing during lectures, sharing cough drops in the dining halls, and sniffing Afrin between classes, I couldn’t help thinking about Billy Wilder’s The Apartment. Now, this movie has very little to do with fighting apocalyptic colds, except that the main character in this dark comedy, C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon), has a pretty persistent cold throughout the film. Yet, at the same time, this cold demonstrates just how all the forces of nature seem to be against C.C. Baxter.

Baxter is a young lonely guy trying to work his way up from the bottom of a large corporation. He needs a way to stand out from his competition, so he lends his superiors the key to his apartment for their illicit affairs. In theory, this is a brilliant idea, but all it seems to lead to is Baxter roaming the rainy streets of New York late into the night, waiting for his apartment to be free again. When he finally gets up the courage to ask the beautiful elevator girl, Miss Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) out on a date, Baxter is stood up because she is too busy with his boss… In his apartment…

I won’t reveal any more, but I will tell you that you need to watch this movie because the plot only thickens from there. And you get to see pasta being strained by means of a tennis racket. I don’t think I need to say anymore, but if you do need more persuading, I could tell you that this film won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1960 and the director Billy Wilder is the mastermind behind such films as Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard, and Double Indemnity. But I bet the pasta-straining tennis racket is more than enough.

Click here for the trailer.

Click here for an awesome scene featuring Evil Cold of Doom.

Side Note: Promises, Promises is a Broadway musical based on The Apartment and it’s awesome, so you should see it if you get the chance.

The Apartment can be rented through Netflix or through the Princeton University Library.

-Lolita De Palma ‘14

Shakespeare's "Henry IV: Part I" is brought to life by an excellent cast

2010-10-08T14:48:00.001-07:00

Though the Princeton Shakespeare Company’s production of “Henry IV: Part 1” is occasionally stilted and confusing, a sterling cast makes for an undoubtedly fun and thought-provoking evening out.

“Henry IV: Part 1” is one of Shakespeare’s least known but most effective history plays -- and in this production, director Elizabeth Swanson '12 makes the bold decision to modernize the setting. King Henry IV’s eldest son, Hal (Nicolas Hybel ’12), has rebelled and is now hanging out in a bar with outlaws such as Falstaff (Joshua Zeitlin ’11) and Poins (Evan Thompson ’14). An upstart son isn’t all the king’s got on his hands, however. Henry IV is also trying to suppress a revolt of the Percies clan, one of whom -- Mortimer -- may have a claim to the throne. At the play’s emotional climax, Hal goes to his father and repents, and vows to kill Hotspur (Tadesh Inagaki ’14), leader of the Percies revolt.

Hal’s reconciliation with his father – which provides the play’s main emotional arc – is effectively staged. When Hal eventually greets his father, he genuinely does seem to be seeking forgiveness.

The friendship between Hal and Falstaff is the show’s most poignantly-depicted relationship. Hybel and Zeitlin banter in an utterly convincing manner, exchanging teasing quips with the habit of old friends. Hal and Poins (who walks with a very specific bow-legged swagger) plot to rob Falstaff and others of their recently acquired loot, and Hal listens to Falstaff’s exaggerated tale of his encounter with two, now four, now eleven enemies before laughingly rebuking him and proving Falstaff’s story wrong. Then Hal and Falstaff are suddenly role-playing Hal’s apology and reconciliation with his father, Henry IV. All these exchanges are pulled off with zest by the performers.

As Falstaff, Zeitlin is responsible for much of the play's comedy. His performance complicates our perception of Falstaff as a mere clown, however. Zeitlin is able to play both the humor (as when he rolls Hotspur across the stage, having stabbed the already dead man once again in the thigh so as to get credit for his death) and the grimmer aspects of Falstaff’s character with an even hand.

Sir Henry Percy (or Hotspur) and Lady Katherine Percy (Julia Keimach ‘12) were also fun to watch, as the actors created a sense of relaxed intimacy that rung true to their characters' relationship.

Despite the strength of the cast, there were some elements of the production that left me cold.
Most notably, the decision to modernize the setting of the play wasn’t easy to follow. For much of the play, Hal, Poins and Falstaff seem to have come from some ‘50s biker flick, cruising around on motorbikes and pulling out guns to rob people. But for the final battle scenes, the very same characters were suddenly using swords and daggers in one-on-one combat.

At the same time, however, the choice of costumes was effective in differentiating between the play’s many different groups of characters, creating a strong sense of social hierarchy. At Mistress Quickly’s pub, actors wore jeans and a white t-shirt; in Henry IV’s meetings they wore dark business suits; and for the battle scenes, they wore a color-coded shirt (white for Henry IV’s side, black for the Percies), and cargo pants. The lighting and set emphasized the differences between Hal’s new environment and his old one. The battle scenes were well-choreographed and fun to watch.

Despite an extremely short rehearsal process, the Princeton Shakespeare Company has produced an enjoyable production of one of the Bard’s most under-rated plays. It’s definitely worth a trip to the Frist Performance Theater tonight or tomorrow, even though you may walk out with a few unanswered questions.

3.5 Paws
Pros: acting and details of characterization were very strong.
Cons: parts were inconsistent, also some lingering questions and unexplained details

-Merrill Fabry '14

"Henry IV: Part I" is showing at the Frist Performance Theater tonight and tomorrow.

Terrace Club’s International Music Festival Celebration: Explore your Senses with MIMA

2010-10-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

When I first learned that the 501(c)3 tax-exempt Modern Improvisational Music Association was to perform at the über-trendy Terrace Club, I was baffled. Maybe I was being a typical freshman, but it struck me as paradoxical. What was the logic behind organizing an association for improv musicians? Why come to sleepy Princeton and, more specifically, to Terrace Club? And why should we bother to see them?

Unfortunately, I’m not the only one on campus oblivious to this organization. MIMA was founded 10 years ago this week by its current trustees Cristoph Geiseler, Jonathan Barnes, and Adam Nemett, with whom I had the immense fortune to speak. These Princetonians felt that music should have more passion in it, elicited by the art of improvisation. Essentially, they believed that the over-produced Billboard Top 40 MTV pop played on repeat on Prospect Street was getting old. Together, they pursued a humble goal: to expose their peers to something new and exciting outside the insular Orange Bubble.

To accomplish this end, they brought innovative musicians and DJs to Princeton parties and organized trips to underground shows in Trenton, NYC, and Philadelphia. In fact, by the end of Nemett’s tenure in MIMA, there were over 500 undergraduates associated with the organization. It seemed as though MIMA had single-handedly stimulated Princetonians’ appreciation for more authentic music.

Afterwards, Geiseler took over the operation and transformed MIMA into an international non-profit NGO that aimed to empower individuals from countries around the world through the art of improvised music. The trustees saw musical education as a way to rescue kids from risky situations in their communities. So, they found and trained musicians in such areas to teach local children how to make music and improvise with each other. Such activities kept teens out of trouble and afforded them opportunities for upward mobility. Additionally, they learned to maintain and promote the traditions of their respective cultures. Through this newly acquired talent, these children were empowered with confidence, respect, and leadership in a way that could improve their communities immeasurably. Since 2004, MIMA has hosted 30 such outreach programs for 700 students in 15 cities in the United States, Cyprus, Argentina, Brazil, China, Jamaica, and elsewhere.

And now, 10 years later, they’re back. After having established such centers in impoverished communities around the world, MIMA wants to show Princeton what they’ve accomplished. They’re kicking off this week of celebration for the International Music Festival with an incredible sequence of interactive exercises at Terrace Club on Saturday night. Visitors can learn and practice musical traditions and improvisation from around the world in each room of the club while DJs entertain everyone else in the dining rooms and basement.

The next night, alumni of the association will host a fundraiser concert at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. Students will then have several opportunities at their residential colleges every night during the week to attend more songwriting and improvisation workshops. The anniversary week will culminate with a concert and keynote speech by Brazilian culture minister, Grammy award winner and political icon Gilberto Gil in Richardson Auditorium.

MIMA has proven to be a generous and effervescent organization that deserves our attention, so don’t forget to visit mimamusic.org for more information about the association and this week’s festivities, as well as ways in which you can help to fund this most righteous of causes.

-Michael Becker ‘14

Trailer of the Week: Black Swan

2010-10-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

I guess Darren Aronofsky isn’t done trying to mess with our heads. I consider his 2000’s effort Requiem for a Dream the most disturbing movie of all time and by far the best piece of anti-drug propaganda out there. Seriously, they should cancel D.A.R.E., stop making those annoying “above the influence” commercials, and show kids Requiem in fourth grade health class instead. They won’t do drugs until they’re at least 30, trust me. But then you have to take into account the cost of psychiatric counseling they’ll need after seeing the movie, so I guess someone should run the numbers and figure out which option is cheaper. My vote’s still with Requiem (see the trailer here).

Anyway, his newest movie, Black Swan, disturbed me just from the trailer. Take a look at the trailer here.

After watching it a few times, these are the things that freak me out the most:

1. Natalie Portman’s mom. Played by the same actress as the teacher from Hoosiers (one of the best sports movies ever made), the part when she’s clipping Natalie Portman’s character’s nails gives me the creeps. I think Aronofsky is some sort of expert at making middle-aged women scary.

2. The fact that it’s about ballet. Typically, dance-themed movies deal with coming of age (Step Up, Step Up 2: The Streets, Step Up 3D, you get the picture). Funny enough, Black Swan also seems to be a coming of age tale, except more of an incredibly dark, loss of innocence/descent into insanity sort of coming of age. Speaking of which, I really hope they make Step Up 4: Your Lives and turn it into a horror movie. Cinema gold.

3. Mila Kunis. I know you’re thinking, “What’s so scary about her? Natalie Portman’s the one going nuts,” but hear me out on this. Mila Kunis does the voice of Meg on Family Guy. Mila Kunis is very attractive. Meg is horridly ugly and is the butt of everyone’s jokes for being so hideous. Mila Kunis is very attractive. This does not compute.

4. This is the first time Vincent Cassel has front billing for an American movie. For being pretty much the only good part of Ocean’s Twelve, stealing the show in Eastern Promises, and starring in a bunch of popular French films, I figured he had by now starred in at least a couple American made movies. However, a quick scroll down his IMDb page proved me wrong. This is a travesty, and hopefully Black Swan will convince Hollywood to finally embrace this guy. He’s the real deal.

5. NATALIE PORTMAN IS TURNING INTO A F***ING SWAN! Need I say more?

Basically, I’m really excited for this to come out (it’s scheduled to be released sometime in December). I know for some of you out there the part of the trailer where Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis make out is enough to make you want to see the movie, but still, if you enjoyed Inception, Shutter Island, Memento, or any movie that screws with your head, you might want to check out Black Swan when it comes out.

Oh, and did I mention that Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis make out? I did? Okay, good. Just making sure.

-Ben Neumann ‘14

Princeton Trend of the Week: Learning By Osmosis

2010-10-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

“The political landscape of Taiwan exemplfiesjlkldjffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff”

If there’s a line in your notes that looks anything like this (or if you laughed when you read the words “your notes”), you may share my affliction—I’m an occasional class-napper. And judging from my experience as a class-attending student (impressive, I know), there are many others like me on Princeton’s campus.

Don’t worry, I know that it’s not because you’re not interested (if that were the case, you’d just use the time to do your online shopping), or that your professor’s voice is the academic equivalent of “Rock-a-bye Baby.” You were probably just up all night working on a problem set, in rehearsal, flirting with that cute freshman…important Princetonian stuff.

And no—I won’t tell you to get more sleep. That would be pointless, and honestly hypocritical. (I’m somewhat known among friends for my all-nighting.)

But I will offer some of the tips I have learned from a varied mix of successful and horribly failed (and unintentional) attempts at catching up on shut-eye in class, or as I like to call it, learning by osmosis:

1) If you can, relegate your naps to lecture classes. Napping in seminars or language classes is NEVER a good idea…and pretty embarrassing. Especially when the teacher notices, which he/she will…trust me.

2) Two words: back corner. Get there a few minutes early if you must, but claim that seat. Much better than snoring in the teacher’s face, front and center.

3) If you feel your eyes starting to shut as you sit down, take a second to set a vibrate alarm on your phone for halfway through class (maybe more than one, if you can).

4) Sit next to a friend who will wake you up—pinch you, punch you, whisper sweet nothings in your ear—whatever works.

5) If all else fails, and you feel that you need to stay awake, there’s always the energy drink. I personally recommend Red Bull shots (not tasty, but quick and mostly painless).

Wakey wakey!!

-Nava Friedman ‘13

An Insider's Guide to the Dining Halls

2010-10-05T20:02:00.000-07:00

In the battle of the dining halls - WuCox vs. Whitman? Rocky/Mathey vs. Forbes? - it can be extremely difficult to determine which dining hall around campus is the best option for your eating experience. Some dining halls cater to specific needs better than others, and that’s where “Intersections” comes to the rescue! Here is a quick and dirty guide to which dining hall will best fit your specific taste:

The Vegetarian / Vegan: Wu/Wilcox boasts the most options for vegetarians and vegans around campus. There’s a fully-stocked salad bar with the typical iceberg lettuce, olives, mushroom, tomatoes, and carrots that can be found at all dining halls. However, there are also some great twists on the traditional Caesar salad, even making non-vegetarians fill their plates with the deliciously healthy choices. As a flexitarian (vegetarian on certain days), I love eating the sweet tofu, peas and tomato mixture, as well as the tomato and mozzarella cheese chunks mixture. When you want to lose that Freshman/Sophomore/Junior/Senior 15, hit up WuCox for sure.

Chipotle lover: I have to admit I am slightly disappointed that the nearest Chipotle to campus is about a half hour away. But Tex-Mex lovers, have no fear! Whitman dining hall almost always features a Mexican bar at lunch and dinner. Choices include tacos and soft shells, along with fillings like black beans, chicken, beef, mixed corn, and salsa. Sometimes Whitman goes even a further to include chili-type soups, complete with tortilla chips to put in the soup. Who needs Chipotle?

The fancy restaurateur: For those who enjoy the true experience of eating out, where complex dishes are pre-made to order, Rocky/Mathey is the way to go. You'll see platters of grilled chicken served with sauteed vegetables, and salmon fillets with asparagus spears lined up blissfully alongside them. Word on the street is that there was even steak one time. I wouldn’t put it past the chefs at Rockey/Mathey. So for those who want to pretend to eat on Nassau, Rocky/Mathey is the place to be.

Chocolate die-hard: Forbes has a chocolate fondue foundation. That’s all that needs to be said.

“I scream for ice cream!”: Every dining hall on campus. And that’s why Princeton is the best university in the nation.

-Sophia Deng ‘14

Music Q & A: Josh Ritter

2010-10-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

Though he didn’t pick up a guitar until he was 17, singer-songwriter Josh Ritter has quickly made a name for himself as a leading Americana artist. His music straddles the line between folk and rock, and he has been compared to Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, and Paul Simon. Ritter’s sixth album, “So Runs the World Away,” was released this spring to positive reviews. Ritter will perform a solo acoustic show at McCarter Theatre on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Before he comes to campus, Street sat down with Ritter to discuss what he brings to performance and songwriting.

Your performance on Wednesday will be a solo acoustic show, without the Royal City Band, who usually backs you up. Will you be altering your set list or the songs themselves?

JR: Well, the songs don’t change, which is the great part about playing solo. I always consider myself a solo performer first. I think it’s really good to do it — it keeps you sharp. It’s pretty much like when you go to a steak restaurant and you order steak and they just bring it out to you on a plate and that’s it. That’s what I think about the solo stuff. If the songs don’t stand out solo, they don’t stand out in a band — you can’t hide. I really love it. I love playing solo.

Do you feel like the other band members in your group have a big influence on your music?

JR: They do. They’re tremendous musicians and they’re good listeners. They’re listeners to lyrics, and for that reason it’s good for me.

Are your lyrics necessarily important to you in the exact way they’re written? Are the words just interesting things that pop into your head, or do they have deep emotional significance?

JR: I think it’s funny because a lot of writing is caring about what you say, but also being cold-blooded about it. You have to really care about what you say but you have to willing to change it as well. And to work all day writing something and then playing it for someone and realizing you don’t like it and then you can’t let it survive, you can’t let it live. Some songs you have to put down. And it’s important to do that.

But then the other part of writing is that you have to be willing to accept your inspiration coming from anywhere. It never comes from the same place. For a song like “To the Dogs or Whoever,” that’s a song where I just realized I liked a bunch of words; I realized I had to let go of any kind of storyline or anything. It’s very different from, for instance, “Girl in the War,” where images are important and specifically important.

Do you write your lyrics with your audience in mind?

JR: When I started, I started playing open mics, and open mics are a really good way to start thinking about how a song affects an audience. When I started making records I kind of went at it from “performance first” — that is, a record should be a collection of moods. One mood all the way through never holds my attention. When everything is dark and dreary or when everything is just a joke, it becomes monochromatic. I really enjoy the shows where I see somebody taking on a full spectrum of emotions, and I feel the same way with albums. That’s why I feel like while I may write a lot of different songs, there’s only a spot for so many of a certain type on a record. But that’s what great about it: If you’re really honest with yourself, there’s some songs that do that better than others, and some where maybe it’s good to hold on to them and let them wait until the next time (kind of a “Put me in, coach” sort of thing).

What goes into constructing your albums and putting the songs together?

JR: An album is your chance to show that you’ve been spending your time doing what people give you money to do. It’s your responsibility not to be the same every time. Whatever the charm that you have that makes people listen and makes your music what it is — you have a responsibility to stay true to that while cutting free and going someplace else. People want to hear some of the songs they’ve heard before, but your career and your art won’t progress if you become afraid of playing new things. That’s your responsibility, and a record is like that as well. It’s like when you’re standing on the edge of the dock and you’re about to jump into the cold lake. You know it’s going to be one way or another — maybe it won’t as bad as you think, or maybe the shock will be incredible — but it will be exhilarating no matter what. Putting out a record is kind of the moment that I think most people who make music for a living become pretty addicted to — that great moment of delivery.

A lot of your songs use religious imagery or references. What role does religion plays in your music?

JR: Religion is a set of rules, but what people actually believe is what’s fascinating to me. That’s never an easy thing to quantify. It’s one of the most freeing things to write about because our culture has religious images everywhere. For some reason in our pop music it’s not there — it’s like a desert for that — when it’s almost like a universal language.

Earlier this year you went on tour with your wife, Dawn Landes, who opened for you. What was that like?

JR: The ideal job with the ideal woman.

This interview was conducted, condensed, and edited by Daily Princetonian Street Staff.

Albums of the Month: September 2010

2010-10-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

Indie: “The Suburbs” - Arcade Fire

The hype for Arcade Fire’s new album, The Suburbs, had been building all summer, but, for once, the album still manages to impress wary listeners, even with all the inflated expectations. Inspired by his youth in the Houston suburbs with brother William Butler, the front man, Win Butler, layers an anguished voice full of yearning on top of pulsing grooves in “Modern Man.” While certain parts still envelope the listener in the band’s characteristic grand, orchestral sound, Arcade Fire has opted to be more restrained and bare in this album centering on middle class malaise. Nevertheless, the album is filled with beautiful melodies and spiritual introspection, and has been lauded by many critics as their “masterpiece.”

-Grace Ma ‘14

Electronic: “Cheese” - Stromae

Parles-tu français? If you said oui, pay close attention. I want to tell you about Stromae, a Rwandan-Belgian electronica rapper who’s taken all of Europe by storm but is, as of yet, completely unknown in this country. He’s like a hybrid between Kanye West and Jacques Brel – a suave iconoclast with a formal education in music theory and provocative existential lyrics delivered with a French accent thicker than Pepé Le Pew’s. His first single, “Alors On Danse”, was released over a year ago, but remains at the top of a majority of European charts for its infectious rhythm and vibe. Other highlights of his debut album “Cheese” are the angsty “Te Quiero” and the religious-rave song “House’llelujah”. This album is hard to define – it’s like a Congolese salsa instructor’s first time as a DJ at a Jersey Shore rave. Give this entire gem of an album a good listen, but if ABBA makes you dread anything dubbed Europop, at least find Kanye West’s remix of “Alors On Danse” released last month. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

-Michael Bennet ‘14

Hip Hop/Rap: “I Am Not a Human Being” - Lil Wayne

Whatever reviewers of Lil Wayne’s new album, “I Am Not a Human Being,” will say, the real appeal to the album is simple: It’s Lil Wayne! From jail! Actually rapping! No more of that so-called rock music on “Rebirth”- this is real rap. For his millions of deprived fans, that’s enough. But for everyone else, it doesn’t hurt to say that the music is actually pretty damn good.

-Trap Yates ‘14

Pop/Rock: “Maximum Balloon” – Maximum Balloon

Do you like TV on the Radio? The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s? Well it won’t make a difference if you don’t, because TVOR member David Sitek’s new project, with all its vigorous creativity and contributors is an animal of its own species. Released September 21st, Maximum Balloon’s debut album featuring Sitek and Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s offers a different perspective with each track. One moment, you might hear a bit of Chromeo, while another might drown you in airy female vocals a la Goldfrapp. When it comes down to it, Maximum Balloon might not change your life, but it’s absolutely a lot of fun.

-Lisa Han ‘13

Fashion Trend of the Week: Ankle Boots

2010-10-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

As summer weather briskly turns to fall, Princeton students must adjust their wardrobes to the new temperatures. Gone are the days of miniskirts and flip-flops, and girls welcome the new weather so they can show off their new knit dresses and this week's fashion trend: ankle boots.

Ankle boots are taking over campus. After being modeled first by students from overseas, this trend has quickly spread to a broader group of girls in the Princeton population. Not only do they look fabulous with that new sweater-dress you bought at J. Crew, but they will keep your feet cozy as you make the trek from the Street to your dorm at 4 AM on a Saturday night.

Suede and studs are definitely in-style this fall, so booties featuring these two styles are definitely a good choice. Leather styles are also quite chic, but are not very practical for wearing around campus. Dark neutrals and black are the most popular, but there is definitely something to be said about choosing ankle boots that are a little more unique. However, if you go for some brightly colored boots, make sure they are the center of your ensemble, not the afterthought.
Celebs are even sporting their ankle boots. Erin Wasson’s black scrunched ankle boots looked fabulous on the red carpet, while Jessica Alba and Nicole Richie wore theirs in a much more casual setting. On campus, ankle boots aren’t worn casually yet, but think about trying them with a pair of tight jeans to replace your UGG boots. It’s not the wintertime just yet! So instead of breaking out the UGGs in the beginning of October, invest in a pair of ankle boots for the coming months—this is definitely not a trend to pass up.

- Lisa Fierstein '14

Pearls of Wisdom: A Compilation of Prince Comments

2010-10-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

Article: Where’s the Orange and Black?

If we’re just basing it on the number of comments on the article, Princeton students definitely have lots to say about our football team. Amid the many vitriolic 5-paragraph essays, complete with thesis, primary source, and conclusion, defending the fact that students DID have face paint, we found these little gems of truth, proving that a few words could go very far.

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Posted by Peems

I sweat, bleed, excrete, and egest Orange and Black.

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Posted by RAWRist

Yo... I was painted up for the game. My fat rolls were tiger stripped. My mother and your mother would have cringed.

Tmi, dude.

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Posted by G-Ro

Wow. We come from a very open nation where people are free to express their opinions without fear of repercussion. But upon reading this article, I am forced to call into question the securities guaranteed First Amendment. Some people really need to be censored and their verbal diarrhea forced into the privacy of their own head.

Yup, my first thoughts exactly after I read this article seemingly about football tailgate, yet with so many implications for the fundamental nature of American’s right to free speech…

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Posted by elder

What's this? RAWR has been impugned? Call the councils together. Sharpen the sticks! Light the fires! Drum tum tum tum. Drum tum tum tum.

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Anonymous

A Princetonian envious of DUKE! Ha!

Just made a Duke student’s day…

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Of course, in the middle of the fray, there is Bob Turkey, who would’ve led the wave of support, if only he had been in the right place…

Yeah, I couldn't find the Prince tailgate anywhere. What's up with that?

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Posted by Get Over Yourself Already

The fact that Princeton students have the peculiar habit of "sipping beer from styrofoam cups" instead of spraying it all over each other is because the latter behavior isn't integral to football fandom - it's just a waste of beer. And Princeton students are too smart to waste beer.

We are so practical!

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Posted by lax

The truth is no one here knows how to tailgate, unless they are members of the men's lacrosse team. Everyone else sucks.

We formally apologize that not every one of us can be a lax bro…

-Grace Ma ‘14

The Dance Floor Scientist: An interview with Drop the Lime

2010-09-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

Drop the Lime, A.K.A. Luca Venezia may be a native New Yorker, but his outlook on dance music draws from styles on every continent. From producing, to DJing, to starting his own record label, Drop the Lime’s distinctive basslines, fusing UK dance beats with US ones is known to make dance floors throb from Australia to China. Now, Venezia is making his second trip to Terrace Club this Thursday and bringing his fresh “Cowboy House” style. Drop the Lime is currently touring and working on his album, and will be dropping his newest single, “Hot As Hell” this November.

Q: Can you describe the concept behind the music of Drop the Lime?

A: Basically dance music that combines all sorts of genres- it can be dubstep, it can be electro it can be house, techno, rockabilly. And I just try to really bring things together that all share the same attitude and energy, and usually revolving around bass. If there’s a good bass line, then I’ll try to combine the two genres no matter what.

Q. How did you get involved in the electronic music scene? What were your influences getting started?

A: Definitely my first influences were two-step music from London. I’d say that that had a big influence on me. And then I started to listen to actual New York house and Chicago House like Nervous records and Strictly Rhythm records. All those styles blended together and created what I do now, so I’m still very influenced and inspired by all of those and trying to apply it to modern ways.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about where you see your music going and styles you want to work with?

A: I just finished my album and my new single is going to be coming out this November, called “Hot As Hell.” And everything is very rockabilly and surf inspired dance music. So I’m playing a lot of guitar again- I was in bands before I was doing the whole DJ thing. And I wanted to incorporate the human element to the very dominantly electronic styles of club music…I’m really incorporating a lot more of that kind of 50s rock sounds into the club style of today.
Q: If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be?

A: In our scene, everyone is so open-minded and friendly and adventurous. I’d say that working with people like Diplo has been really awesome, and people like Bart B More. Even working with people who are like Spank Rock or Ninjasonik, who are more on the rap side, has been a lot of fun…it’s cool to work with people where we all share the same passion for music but we all make a different style of music, so when we get together we’re really making something exciting.

Q: You’re a producer in addition to being a DJ…how are the attitudes like towards making material?

A: When you’re producing a remix, you think of it in terms of DJing it, and you apply the suspense that you want to create on the dance floor, and the impact that you want to have on the crowd on the dance floor. But when you’re producing a song, you’re putting a little more emotion into it, rather than party energy. When I DJ, I also sing and I’m doing a lot of live things like looping, I almost approach DJing as if I’m producing…I’m still creating live.

Q: You also have your own dance label, Trouble and Bass. How has the experience been working with that?

A: It’s unbelievable. It’s our fourth year now so we’re still really young, but it feels a lot lot longer. Me and this DJ Star Eyes started out throwing a small party in a 200 capacity venue under the Brooklyn bridge, and it just expanded….Basically we were combining UK dance music with US dance music, so like grime and dubstep bass lines combined with US house music or electro, to create this different kind of style that didn’t really exist.

Q: Do you have any particular venues that you enjoy?

A: The Prince in Melbourne, Australia, Fabric in London-incredible, Razmatazz in Barcelona-all these places have a kind of warehouse vibe but they’re solid and strong with amazing sound systems and professional clubs, and I think that’s how they keep them so fresh. When you go to a warehouse party, everyone feels liberated and you feel like you can let loose…you’re not posing for the party you’re just enjoying the party.

Q: What can we expect from your show at Terrace this week?

A: Everything. It’s going to be a party. I want people to have fun, I want to have fun. I was there-maybe it was two years ago, but it was bonkers. It was so much fun. The vibe was amazing. It’s the same kind of house party warehouse vibe and people really let loose and have fun.

Q: Will we be hearing any of your new material?

A: I’m going to showcase a lot of new material- a lot of new album material. I’ll do a lot of the weird surf rockabilly house music. I don’t really know what to call it but people are saying Cowboy house and Western house. It’s crazy, but people are really feeling it. We DJ and people want to go to parties with DJ because they want to have fun.

Interview conducted, condensed, and edited by Lisa Han ‘13

A Dictionary of Chic: Coast to Coast Edition

2010-09-28T14:46:00.001-07:00

By Prihatha Narasimmaraj '14

As a Californian, I had never heard of a Lilly Pulitzer dress or Brooks Brothers shirts, and Bergdorf existed only in Gossip Girl. But once my gracious hallmates introduced me to the intimidating and somewhat ridiculous world of East Coast fashion, I’ve expanded my couture lexicon.

Boho Chic (California): Fringe, lace, tie-dye, headbands, flowers, oversized sweaters, oversized anything, scarves. Can often be found at Goodwill or your mother’s closet.
Boring Chic (Anywhere): Generic shirts, generic pants, generic sweaters, generic shoes. See a trend?
Ethnic chic (California): Anything that hails from another country, usually bags, scarves, or shoes. Bonus points if it’s from India or South America. More points if you bought it in India or South America.
Guidette Chic (general New Jersey area): I saw two guidettes on the plane here, so let me tell you, this is no lie. The more orange, the better. Extra points for orange man-candy.
Hipster Chic (Anywhere): Also known as vintage chic. Thrifted/handmade clothes are a must (the closest I’ve gotten is cutting up my old jeans. Hello, knockoff Daily Dukes). If you don’t want to/can’t try that hard, go to Urban Outfitters.
Old Lady Chic (Princeton): Vera Bradley wristlets, wallets, bags, or backpacks (huh?). I always thought old ladies bought this stuff. Apparently not.
Prepster Chic (Princeton): Also known as douchebag chic. Anything involving polos, cashmere, Sperry Top-Siders (which don’t look bad, but still—they’re boat shoes), and those Longchamps bags that I see everywhere in every single conceivable color. Seriously, there’s such a thing as too much brand loyalty. Also anything Vera Bradley (see: Old Lady Chic)
Surfer Chic (California): Roxy, O’Neil, plaid board shorts, Rainbow flip-flops (which, incidentally, rock), and sunkissed skin, preferably hot enough to melt a Popsicle. Seen on beach blonds and people who want to be blond.
Trashcan Chic (California): Made popular by Ke$ha. Boho chic, but worse.

I’ve noticed East Coasters are a whole lot more into “brand-name” chic than Californians…which is completely fine, if that’s your cup of tea. But that doesn’t mean I should ditch my Target tote bags or my cheap Forever 21 jewelry (at least, I won’t until they start rusting inside my earlobe again). I say, the quirkier, the better. Isn’t style more important than fashion anyways?

Cannes Dispatch #10 - Epic Festival Overview

2010-05-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

A few final thoughts for my last entry on Cannes:

- The general consensus among critics seems to be that the 2010 was one of the worst years in recent memory for the Cannes Film Festival. The consensus has also said that there were at least a few masterpieces at the festival this year and at least a dozen or so films that were solid filmmaking of the highest order. Oh, woe is the life of the jaded film critic!

- Juliette Binoche is quite good in Abbas Kiarostami’s “Copie Conforme”, but for the festival to give the official poster-girl of this year’s Cannes a Best Actress award doesn’t so much suggest “conflict of interest” as it does scream it. No doubt that Francophilia also played some part in Mathieu Amalric’s Best Director award for his excellent but relatively minor “On Tour”.

- I will miss many things about Cannes – the movies, the breathtaking beach views, the beautiful pastel-colored beach-front architecture, the preponderance of famous and attractive people milling about, the free press espressos, etc. But perhaps what I will miss most of all is the cheapo sandwich cart which was the only place I could afford to eat at regularly, whether it was the South-France specialty pan bagnat sandwiches made from tuna, Nicoise olives, eggs, and assorted vegetables, or even the hot dogs, which were served with ultra-high quality baguette bread that was almost comically mismatched to the humble origins of the contents it would hold.

- You may have noticed that I’ve talked quite a bit about press kits, mainly because this is the first time I’ve ever had access to actual physical versions of them for writing reviews. As you may have gathered, some of them are helpful, but most of them are decidedly not, spewing fawning enthusiasm as they do. The kit for “The Housemaid” (which, as noted below, I rather like) sets some new records in this regard. This obvious rush translation job not only gushes over every person involved in the production, but even humors director Im Sang-Soo’s attempts at poetry. To quote his statement about the film:

“Our main character who looks empty-headed and naïve…
What is it that she couldn’t endure for the life of her?
That is…
Something we give and take from each other,
we stomp in agony and try to forget
but we cannot so we crush on it and live on…
It is like the hard callus stuck around out soft, erogenous zones.”

The kit also features Im’s ground-breaking costume design philosophy: “All women have to be sexy!”

As a final entry, here is a comprehensive list of everything I saw at the festival, complete with new thoughts about films I haven’t yet discussed, links and snippets from past coverage, and lazy listings of films that I am now too tired to talk about. The films are ranked in tiers I, II, and II, which respectively correspond to excellent filmmaking of the highest order, solid filmmaking with issues, and films that range from noble failures to unholy messes (the ranking within each tier is meaningless). This officially concludes my coverage for The Daily Princetonian – if you simply can’t get enough my writing, feel free to take a look at The Asphalt Jungle, where I usually write every week or so. In any case, thanks so much for humoring my humble film musings – I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this coverage at least half as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

Tier I

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (dir. by Apichatpong Weerasethakul) – Palme D’Or Winner - In Competition

Just as it defies the basic conventions of narrative, imagery, and filmmaking itself, Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul's "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" defies any conventional form of critical analysis. But that's precisely why it's so exciting - more than any other film in competition, "Boonmee" stretches the limit of what can be done with filmmaking, pushing its boundaries towards new ways of sensory, allegorical, and metaphysical expression (that should give you a pretty clear idea of the level of trippiness we’re dealing with here). "Boonmee" shares a fair amount with the rest of this Thai filmmaker's oeuvre, which includes past Cannes award-winners like "Tropical Malady" and "Syndromes and a Century". Using an enigmatic and symbolic narrative as a framework, Joe once again focuses on painterly compositions highlighting the contrasts between the verdant lushness of Thai jungles and the plasticky, artificial radiance of Thailand's urban spaces. He also again complements that visual emphasis with a complex sound design that pairs natural jungle recordings with ebullient pop music.

What's new this time is a new emphasis on the spiritual and supernatural. The elliptical narrative this time focuses on Uncle Boonmee, a man dying from a kidney infection who starts to be visited by ghosts, which appear both in human form and as startling shadowy shapes in the forest with laser-bright red eyes. This central story is surrounded by other vignettes, such as an ox breaking free from his master and a beautiful fairy-tale like story of a princess seduced by a catfish, which are suggested to be past lives that Boonmee is remembering. The film treats these supernatural ideas quite earnestly, but for Joe, "past lives" aren't solely the province of otherworldly realms - the recording of lives of film, self-image and memories of one's past self, and even political consciousness. For Joe, flow between these lives is a universal constant, despite the emphasis we put on the transition of death. History also keeps on repeating itself, even visually - the garish Christmas lights at Boonmee's funeral hall echo the naturally sparkling rock formations in a cave he visits near the end of his life.

I heard a critic in the press room noting that the amount of praise a certain writer bestows upon “Uncle Boonmee” is directly proportional to said writer’s pretentiousness, a statement that I find both thoroughly obnoxious and not too far from the truth. But if you can give yourself over to the mystery of Joe’s work, there are immense satisfactions to be had. Joe has made a film on a cosmic level that at the same time has deeply autobiographical elements (the kidney infection comes from Joe’s father, and the red-eyed ghosts are hilariously revealed by direct light to be men in cheap gorilla suits, an homage to the horror films of Joe’s youth). It’s a film with staggering artistic ambition that nevertheless encourages the audience to laugh with and at it, a film with laser-guided formal precision that nevertheless luxuriates in the swaying, gentle rhythm of wind rustling the palm trees. It’s a film quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and it’s a daring and truly deserving choice for the Palme D’Or.

Ha Ha Ha (dir. by Hong Sang-Soo) – Grand Prize - Un Certain Regard
Poetry (dir. by Lee Chang-Dong) – In Competition
The Housemaid (dir. by Im Sang-Soo) – In Competition

South Korea was the country to beat at this year’s festival, with all three of its films ranking as some of the best that the entire festival had to offer. My favorite of the trio was “Ha Ha Ha”, the latest film by two-time Palme D’Or contender Hong Sang-Soo, the winner of the top prize in the Un Certain Regard category, and essentially the Woody Allen film at the festival that Woody Allen himself could not provide. Hong’s detailed depictions of relationship minutiae have garnered comparisons to Allen and Eric Rohmer, but he has an extra interest in formal and structural games. Here, he tells the story of two friends reminiscing about their recent visits to a Korean shore town. They believe they went separately, but they were actually there at the same time, becoming entangled in love triangles with the same people. Hong ends up doing less with this structure than you might expect, but his writing and performances are pitch-perfect the whole way through. Hong is one of the premier poets of awkwardness, drunkenness (a trademark directorial method of his is to get drunk with his actors), and immaturity – imagine Judd Apatow’s films with less scatological humor and actual empathy for the female sex as well as the male and you’re not too far off.

Another past Palme D’Or contender, Lee Chang-Dong, returned this year with another character study after his “Secret Sunshine”. “Poetry” took home the best screenplay award on Sunday, fittingly enough given the rich, novelistic texture of this off-kilter morality tale. “Poetry” focuses on Mija (Yun Junghee), an aging grandmother who takes a poetry class hoping to counteract her gradual memory loss and starts to rediscover the beauty of the world. You’ll be forgiven for ignoring the movie based on this description – I skipped the first press screening myself – but “Poetry” quickly reveals itself to run darker and deeper. Mija’s grandson, whom she lives alone with, is implicated in a terrible crime, and “Poetry” soon becomes a fascinating parable about the parallels between personal artistic repression and broader societal repression, looking incisively into a word where hush money is enough to cover up even the most egregious offenses and writing a poem is only for the occasional rare genius. Rounding out the film is the brilliant performance by Yun Junghee, who probably deserved the best actress award for this year’s festival. Yun is brilliant as a woman rediscovering deeper emotions that shake up her shallow world, and her performance is the binding emotional glue that holds together this wide-ranging story.

The visual aesthetic of Im Sang-Soo’s “The Housemaid” reminded me quite a bit of Tom Ford’s “A Single Man” – here is a film where the human presence struggles to compete with the impossibly polished fashion-spread set design and the immaculate tailoring of the haute-couture costumes. Unlike that film however, “The Housemaid” applies this aesthetic to the kind of film to which it is best suited: a trashy tabloid romp of a thriller. On that level, Im’s latest film is some kind of idiot masterpiece, a potboiler on which the heat is ramped up until the pot starts to melt. “The Housemaid” is based on a 1960 Korean film of the same name, a film that is revered as perhaps the greatest Korean film of all time. As you might expect from a director whose last Cannes entry (“The President’s Last Bang”) played the assassination of a South Korean dictator for laughs, the irreverent Im plays fast and loose with his source material – where the original was about a psycho maid terrorizing a happy rich family, here the rich family terrorizes the maid. As said maid is seduced by the head of the family and plotted against by his vengeful wife, Im goes for broke with baroque formal gesture after baroque formal gesture – it’s safe to say that Im never met a cant angle he didn’t like. I can’t say I was ever able to take Im’s thoughts about class warfare too seriously given the fundamental silliness of the enterprise, but I was continually held in thrall by the nutzoid spirit of the work, and the sheer chutzpah of the ending is unforgettable.

My Joy (dir. by Sergei Loznitsa) – In Competition

Where the hell did this come from? I ignored this during the festival due to generally tepid reviews and went to the final repeat screening mostly because nothing else was playing at the time, only to be pretty blown away by first-time feature film director Sergei Loznitsa’s nightmarish vision of rural Russia. “My Joy” starts with a throat-grabbing opening – we see a churning maw of concrete swirling around like a vortex, followed by a shot of a body being dumped into a ditch. The rest of the film never explains these events, but they set an appropriately brooding tone for this story about a truck driver who finds himself trapped in a Russian village. Working with Oleg Mutu, the DP for “4 Months, 3 Weeks 2 Days”, Loznitsa captures much of that film’s overt-manipulation-free suspense as things get worse and worse for the truck driver in a seemingly post-apocalyptic landscape. Far more interesting is his decision at the halfway point to explode the film’s narrow focus and map out a canvas of the many sociopaths and victims of his setting, creating something like an Altman film on mushrooms. The film is probably too unrelentingly nihilistic for the social criticisms at play here to really scan, but the filmmaking holds you all the way through to the horror-show ending, which seems about as absurd as it seems right.

Copie Conforme (dir. by Abbas Kiarostami) – In Competition

On Tour (dir. by Mathieu Amalric) – In Competition

Carlos (dir. by Olivier Assayas) - Out of Competition

...It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a biopic that so thoroughly scourged its subject, and I’ve certainly never seen a movie that spent this much time doing it. “Carlos” seems like a reaction to movies like “The Baader-Meinhof Complex” (or for that matter, nearly any gangster film), which eventually get around to condemning their criminal protagonists, but not before admiring the thrilling way they live outside the law. You’ll be thrilled in “Carlos” as Assayas bounds from country to country, from criminal enterprise to enterprise. But you’ll be hard-pressed find anything admirable in this sleazily charismatic womanizer with frightening fetishes (Carlos quite literally makes his women handle his weapon), this self-aggrandizer willing to sell any cause he adopts out to the highest bidder, this dialectical materialist who couldn’t stop showing off his Mercedes...

Another Year (dir. by Mike Leigh) - In Competition

...As the synopsis may suggest, not all that much happens plot-wise. Leigh has always been much more interested in meticulously observing the way that people interact. Leigh used his trademark method of letting his actors interact in character off-camera for about a year, and then fleshing out a loose plot outline with improvisation during filming. As a result, the film's relationships have an unforced realism - characters who have know each other for years have the kind of gentle rapport where glances can sometimes substitute for full conversations, while characters who have just met have a painfully chilled awkwardness to their interactions...

Outrage (dir. by Takeshi Kitano) - In Competition
...Kitano has the kind of exquisite formal control that makes the film’s flaws easy to forgive, at least for this viewer. Every shot is carefully crafted to exhibit the symmetry to sleek lines, to catch the play of Tokyo neon light on gunmetal gray and waxed Mercedes black, and to plant disorienting visual surprises - what appears to be an iris shot in one early scene, for example, is created through millimeter-precise placement of a camera between two suited gangsters. This intense visual focus is a joy, and Kitano uses it to depict some inventive and gut-wrenching examples of violence – the traditional yakuza collection of fingers comes in way you might not expect and Kitano’s twisting camera moves and unpredictable cuts manage to make the expected approach of death consistently surprising...

Of Gods and Men (dir. by Xavier Beauvois) - Grand Prix Winner - In Competition
...Beauvois dispassionately watches the monks as they waver in their decision to stay and continue to pray, for deliverance, for strength to match their convictions, for courage to accept their fate. And this plot focus is exactly why Beauvois' clinical nature as a filmmaker is absolutely critical - for most materials, addressing topics like this would no doubt lead to mawkishness or sanctimony (and this film does in a few moments), when the monks try to drown out the noise of an army helicopter by loudly singing a hymn), but understatement both in formal terms and restraint in the performances lets the audience feel the full weight of the emotions at play without feeling unduly manipulated...

Aurora (dir. by Cristi Puiu) - Un Certain Regard
...Puiu has a sharp visual eye as a director, imprisoning his characters in the industrial wasteland of Bucharest with vertical barriers and Ozu-esque hallway shots, and the sheer unknowability of the early sections maintains enough suspense that you could charitably call this a crime thriller, especially in the shocking scenes of violence. But those virtues and Puiu's own excellent performance don't change the fact that the audience is left begging for a hint of explanation as the final scene rolls around. And in the fascinating payoff of the ending, they get it - without spoiling anything, Puiu provides all the answers we could have asked for and more in a comic rebuke to our expectations of explanations, psychological or otherwise. "It worries me that you seem to understand this," says a character as the info begins to flow and reduces a ordinary person into a familiar type. Puiu wants the viewer to recognize the inherent falseness of attempt to patly explain the three-dimensional psychology of a real human being, and his epistemological approach to the mind reminded me a bit of Scorsese's struggle to understand Jake La Motta in "Raging Bull"...

Tier II

Blue Valentine (dir. by Derek Cianfrance) - Un Certain Regard

As the great American indie hope of the festival, Sundance breakout “Blue Valentine” was one the best reviewed films to play at Cannes. I did find the film to be a pretty powerful experience as I was watching, although I couldn’t help shrugging my shoulders at it after it was over. The film’s central idea is to intercut the happy courtship of a couple (Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams) with the final days of their marriage. For the most part, this central structural device is kind of pointless, seeming to reveal only that many divorcing couples were actually happy at one point – making the film sometimes feel like empty aping of something more substantive like “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”. But the performances by long-time indie darlings Gosling and Williams do quite a bit to save the film, bringing believability and palatability to the shrill verbal battles of the to-be-divorcees as easily as they bring romantic charm to the courtship.

Carancho (dir. by Pablo Trapero) - Un Certain Regard

A Screaming Man (dir. by Mahamet-Saleh Haroun) - In Competition
...the heart of the movie is Haroun's sensitive depiction of a man dealing with a shattered world. Haroun makes clear that the sense of identity created by one's profession and the ensuing existential crisis following its loss are not solely applicable to white-collar businessmen (like the similarly struggling men of Laurent Cantet's "Time Out" and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Tokyo Sonata"). Even in his menial task, Adam finds immense meaning, and the drastic change to his life induces a temporary madness with horrifying consequences. "Man" is all the more powerful for the understated stoicism that Djaoro brings to his performance - when cracks inevitably appear in his facade, they truly mean something...

Route Irish (dir. by Ken Loach) - In Competition
...I'm going to be vaguer than most critics have been about the film's central moral arc, because I do think that the way it slowly and surprisingly reveals itself is quite stunning. Suffice to say though that where the first part of film takes pains to emphasize Iraq's distance, relying on the mediating technology of cell phones and Skype to separate the two worlds and depicting the Liverpool setting with watery blues and sleek modern architecture, the second half brings Iraq home in frightening visual and thematic ways. "Route Irish" soon reveals itself to be a novel take on depicting the toxic effect of war on men returning home, employing metaphor instead of the relative realism of films like "The Messenger" or "Stop-Loss"...

Film Socialisme (dir. by Jean-Luc Godard) - Un Certain Regard
...There’s a wealth of ideas here, to be certain (I’ll spare you my rambling attempts at interpretation). There’s surely also plenty of nonsense, as well as contempt for segments of the audience. Godard’s English subtitles generally only translate nouns and the occasional preposition from the original French (although there’s plenty of German to alienate native viewers). I’m terribly suspicious of anyone who exalts or dismisses this film after a single viewing – there’s no way anyone could fully engage with the density of the flurrying images here after a single viewing. Not that many really want to – avant-garde cinema of this sort has never packed seats and was never intended to. But it’s great to see that even at the age of 79, Godard is still frustrating, exciting, and provoking viewers as he did when he was a young man...

Tier III

Udaan (dir. by Vikramaditya Motwane) - Un Certain Regard
...My least favorite scenes in movies about artists force the viewer into accepting an opinion about the art they produce. Take one scene in "Udaan", a film about a boy who wants to be a writer and a father who wants him to go into the family business. At one point, the boy recites a poem he has written to a group of people that includes his father. The reaction that director Vikramaditya Motwane clearly is looking for from his audience is "What a talented young man! If only his father was more understanding!". The actual reaction is "Don't quit your day job"...

Outside the Law (dir. by Rachid Bouchareb) - In Competition
...Bouchareb is a thoroughly mainstream filmmaker - one who's interested in bringing an Arab's version of the history of France and its colonies to the masses - and he can achieve Spielbergian zest in his filmmaking sometimes (consider his rousing war epic "Days of Glory"). But "Law" feels like a half-hearted "Godfather" retread - oddly enough, considering that the film is about Algerian revolutionaries acting covertly in Paris. This is mainly because Bouchareb is far less interested in his character's psychologies here than he was in "Glory", which was gratifyingly thorough in getting into the heads of his characters....

Fair Game (dir. by Doug Liman) - In Competition
...those who were confused about why the director of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "Jumper" had a film in the most prestigious film competition in the world were thoroughly justified. "Fair Game" isn't ever bad, exactly, but it's nothing to write home about (ha). It's a pretty generic geopolitical thriller, right down to the irritatingly boilerplate score (pompous thumping percussion! little bits of electronic stuff!), and anyone who has a basic handle on the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal isn't going to learn anything here...

Biutiful (dir. by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu) - In Competition
...In lieu of a plot summary, here is a list of things that happen to Barcelona-based Uxbal over the course of the film: cancer, poverty, a bipolar wife, a cheating wife, a wife who beats his kids, kids in poverty, spooky ghost hauntings, guilt over exploitation of illegal immigrants, more guilt after exploitation of illegal immigrants goes wrong, a drug-addled brother, a drug-addled brother having sex with his wife, spiritual uncertainty, police brutality, bloody urine, bloody urine combined with incontinence, hangnails, etc. Could all of this happen to a single person? Possibly. Are people, even in extreme poverty, generally affected by only a subset of these issues? Probably. Would a film that reined in its focus be more effective at tackling one or a few of these issues? Definitely...

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (dir. by Woody Allen) - Out of Competition
..."Stranger" seems shallow on most every level. Few of the characters are sketched with any depth (as the titular attractions, Pinto and Banderas function mostly as exotic cardboard cutouts) and the comedy is often stale (Hopkins' slow realization of his wife's golddigging nature seems too obvious to ever be really funny). Worst of all is the ending. Late in the film, Allen introduces some dark twists that ramp up the drama, but at the point where better movies would be rolling towards a climax, Allen simply cuts the film off, leaving only a few lazy and abrupt implications as to his characters' ultimate fates. You get the unmistakable impression that he doesn't care enough about these people to follow their stories through to the end - and if he doesn't care, why should we?

The Princess of Montpensier (dir. by Bertrand Tavernier) - In Competition
...Tavernier hints in the press kit that his intent is in part feminist, given his heroine's lack of control over her destiny and the cruelty of some of the men in her life, but he seems a little too fond of gratuitous nudity for that explanation to really pass muster. Perhaps Tavernier was aiming for something like Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" (famously and unfairly slammed in its Cannes premiere), which captured a young queen's entrapment in royal ennui with sympathy and formal ingenuity. What he ended up with is a wealth of admittedly fine production values devoted to a knockoff Jane Austen story with none of the romantic heat that made those stories work. Full disclosure: I'll confess that I stopped paying much attention during the last 20 minutes. It was much more interesting to look around the theatre as a steady trickle of audience members walking out of the theater expanded into a flood...

Chatroom (dir. by Hideo Nakata) - Un Certain Regard
...Nakata's hyper-caffeinated style makes the mind-games fun for a while, and if the obvious telegraphing of William as "the evil one" dampens some of the suspense, Johnson's leering grin and nervy intensity mark a terrific step up from his bland performance in "Kick-Ass". Ultimately, though, Nakata doesn't have anything particularly interesting to say about the potential wealth of ideas concerning teenagers and the internet. The eerie terror that the early scenes conjure starts to fade quickly as the plot contorts far past the breaking point. It's a shame that the second half of the film resorts to characters acting in absurd and implausible ways (William's climactic push to make Ben kill himself is egregiously confusing), particularly when the incidents that inspired the film involve motives and behavior that are real, terrifying, and all too understandable...

Cannes Dispatch #9 - "Outside the Law"

2010-05-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

A busier day than expected, and I'm going to pack as many films as possible into Sunday - the entire competition slate is screening all day, and I'll be doing my best to fill in my blanks so far. This, therefore, will be my last entry from France. Once I've arrived back in the States and recovered from jet lag (let's say Wednesday or so), I'll put up an entry or two more about a few notables that I haven't yet addressed, as well as my reactions to the awards (which are revealed Sunday night) and my own picks for festival favorites. Before I go, though, here's a few thoughts on a film that I don't feel like talking about that much.

Outside the Law (dir. by Rachid Bouchareb) - In Competition
As aforementioned, this has inspired plenty of political tumult, but the filmmaking itself is hardly that interesting. Bouchareb is a thoroughly mainstream filmmaker - one who's interested in bringing an Arab's version of the history of France and its colonies to the masses - and he can achieve Spielbergian zest in his filmmaking sometimes (consider his rousing war epic "Days of Glory"). But "Law" feels like a half-hearted "Godfather" retread - oddly enough, considering that the film is about Algerian revolutionaries acting covertly in Paris. This is mainly because Bouchareb is far less interested in his character's psychologies here than he was in "Glory", which was gratifyingly thorough in getting into the heads of his characters. Two of the three central brothers (Sami Bouajilla and Roschdy Zem) are solemn, humorless sons of the revolution here, which also means that they are boring. The movie only sparks to life when the third brother, played by Jamel Debbouze (also the most fun at the press conference), bursts onto screen doing one hell of a sleazy Peter Lorre tribute as a pimp/boxing-trainer who could care less about Algerian independence.

Cannes Dispatch #8 - "Route Irish", "Udaan"

2010-05-21T06:58:00.000-07:00

Assorted assessments, as always:

- I was comically oblivious to the big news of the day. During the screening of "Outside the Law" that I was attending, apparently 1200 protesters gathered outside the theater and police wielding batons and riot shields were called in to maintain order. The protest was inspired by the film's depiction of the Setif Massacre in 1945, which the film depicts as an unprovoked slaughter of Algerians by the French - the protesters argue that the French were only restoring order and fighting armed militants. To be fair, this all isn't quite as big as it sounds - a large amount of the protesters were around at the time of the massacre, making the average age of the crowd about 65, and the protest dissipated before the end of my screening (hence my obliviousness). None of that stopped me from having a mild retroactive freak-out in any case.

- Best Red Carpet Performance of the Day: A quite-possibly drunk Jamel Debbouze decided to grab a camera from one of the photographers at the "Hors-La-Loi" photocall. He then spent his entire time on the carpet snapping shots of the wall of photographers in front of him. He later attempted to pull down the large plastic Palme D'Or affixed to the wall during the regular interview.

- Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" wins the award for best press kit by a country mile. At the screening, staffers handed out the small hardcover book, which has a gold-embossed cover and contains pages of Weerasetakul's sketches and fold-out photos to go with the usual information. But don't think it's just the press kit talking when I say that the movie is on another level compared to rest of the competition, which I mean partially in terms of quality but more in the cosmic space-time sense. I guess I have to find words to address this elliptical and mesmerizing experience (favorite reaction I heard about - Variety's Robert Koehler interrupting a conversation about the film with "Don't you dare try to explain it!"), but I know that I want to see this one again immediately, which is a feeling I haven't had about anything else in the competition.

- If the name sounds frightening, know that Weerasethakul goes in press conferences by the self-applied nickname "Joe", which may be the most endearing filmmaker gesture ever.

Route Irish (dir. by Ken Loach) - In Competition

Poor Doug Liman - not only was his Iraq War-related thriller met with overwhelming indifference by the majority of the press, but it was upstaged just six hours later by the new Iraq War-related thriller from legendary British director (and two-time Palme D'Or winner) Ken Loach. "Route Irish" represents a kind of culmination in Loach's slow progress towards the mainstream during the past decade with films like war movie "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" and the comedy "Looking for Eric" - "Irish" wouldn't be out of place in your average multiplex, and as it turns out, that's not a bad thing.

The title refers to "the most dangerous road in the world", the highway between Baghdad airport and the military-secured Green Zone in the center of the city. Private military contractors and best friends since childhood Fergus (Mark Womack) and Frankie (John Bishop) shared a tour of duty acting as bodyguards for travelers on this road, but after Fergus has returned home to Liverpool, Frankie is killed in a mysterious ambush. The official explanation is vague, a mysterious package Frankie left for Fergus has some frightening details about private military company misconduct, and Fergus needs to ask a lot of questions and look menacing, etc.

This, of course, is a plot that wouldn't be out place in a boilerplate thriller directed by, let's say, Doug Liman, but Loach does a lot of clever set-up to plant the seeds for the unexpected path the film eventually takes. I'm going to be vaguer than most critics have been about the film's central moral arc, because I do think that the way it slowly and surprisingly reveals itself is quite stunning. Suffice to say though that where the first part of film takes pains to emphasize Iraq's distance, relying on the mediating technology of cell phones and Skype to separate the two worlds and depicting the Liverpool setting with watery blues and sleek modern architecture, the second half brings Iraq home in frightening visual and thematic ways. "Route Irish" soon reveals itself to be a novel take on depicting the toxic effect of war on men returning home, employing metaphor instead of the relative realism of films like "The Messenger" or "Stop-Loss".

Once all the dust has settled, you may actually realize a strong plot similarity to a few other prominent films (annoying hint: both the ones I'm thinking of were in competition at Cannes!), and there is a dull preachiness to how the film handles the issue of military companies run amok. But it's hard to care too much, given the depth of feeling that Loach has summoned to back up the plot here. A romance between Fergus and Frankie's widow is haunting, although not as much as the bro-mance between Fergus and Frankie themselves, a pair of friends whose long-standing devotion to each other is expressed poignantly through a concise childhood scene where the two teens share a bottle of malt liquor on a ferry. I don't think that "Route Irish" is at the very top tier of competition titles this year, but it's a solid and moving accomplishment that reaffirms that Loach is a powerfully relevant voice even after a career of nearly 40 years.

Udaan (dir. by Vikramaditya Motwane) - Un Certain Regard

My least favorite scenes in movies about artists force the viewer into accepting an opinion about the art they produce. Take one scene in "Udaan", a film about a boy who wants to be a writer and a father who wants him to go into the family business. At one point, the boy recites a poem he has written to a group of people that includes his father. The reaction that director Vikramaditya Motwane clearly is looking for from his audience is "What a talented young man! If only his father was more understanding!". The actual reaction is "Don't quit your day job."

"Udaan" is the first film from India to play in a competition category in seven years. It is also, unfortunately, a film that has no business playing here, with its tediously overdone plot (this topic that has been done to death in any culture, but particularly so in recent Indian cinema), reliance on gushing mawkish sentiment, and child-in-peril emotional manipulation that would make Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu proud. This all may sound overly harsh for a modest little film from a first-time director, but I'm terribly disappointed given that Anurag Kashyap was a writing and producing partner. Kashap has been one of the most exciting voices in Indian cinema over the past decade, and his "Black Friday" is in particular a landmark of sorts - a "Battle of Algiers"-styled investigation of the build-up to and aftermath of the 1993 Bombay bombings.

In fact, commercial cinema in India as a whole has been undergoing an interesting transformation. The rapid growth of multiplexes in even the smallest areas of India has allowed for the new rise of niche film instead of the must-appeal-to-all-demographics bland universality of much of traditional Bollywood cinema. Other directors like Vishal Bhardwaj and Dibakar Banerjee have been doing exciting and innovative work, so it's especially irritating to see India being represented by piffle like this.

Cannes Dispatch #7 - "Carlos"

2010-05-21T02:14:00.000-07:00

More later today, but a movie this long probably deserves its own entry.

Carlos (dir. by Olivier Assayas) - Out of Competition

One of the key clues to understanding Olivier Assayas’ “Carlos” is right there in the soundtrack. Misidentified as punk rock by many reviewers, the throbbing rhythmic guitar tracks that play in the background throughout the film mostly come from the genre known as post-punk. Post-punk drew heavily from the sonic palette and methods of punk, but the spirit had been completely lost. Nihilistic though they may have been, punk rockers wanted a revolution - post-punkers just wanted to make music.

And so it is in Assayas’s 5.5-hour-epic “Carlos”, which functions not only as a biopic of internationally infamous terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known popularly as Carlos the Jackal, but as a survey of the international failure of revolutionary Marxist guerillas during the last half of the 20^th century – movements that started out as ideological above all else but descended into random violence that served no cause other than self-preservation.

As portrayed by Assayas, Carlos, played by Edgar Ramirez, is a perfect harbinger of things to come. Carlos talks a good game – his only religion, he says repeatedly, is Marxism – but it’s clear that Assayas thinks he’s full of shit. Carlos’ concerns are far more local than global; if the spitting-image Che Guevara get-up he wears for a major hijacking operation doesn’t convince you of his all-consuming narcissism and need to be an icon, his first words to the hostages he takes certainly will. “My name is Carlos,” he says, smiling. “You may have heard of me.” And, of course, when the situation suddenly changes and he is forced to choose between the Church of Carlos and the Communist Manifesto, he acts in a way that would have Guevara gyrating in his grave.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a biopic that so thoroughly scourged its subject, and I’ve certainly never seen a movie that spent this much time doing it. “Carlos” seems like a reaction to movies like “The Baader-Meinhof Complex” (or for that matter, nearly any gangster film), which eventually get around to condemning their criminal protagonists, but not before admiring the thrilling way they live outside the law. You’ll be thrilled in “Carlos” as Assayas bounds from country to country, from criminal enterprise to enterprise. But you’ll be hard-pressed find anything admirable in this sleazily charismatic womanizer with frightening fetishes (Carlos quite literally makes his women handle his weapon), this self-aggrandizer willing to sell any cause he adopts out to the highest bidder, this dialectical materialist who couldn’t stop showing off his Mercedes.

“Carlos” was designed as a three-part TV series (which apparently kept it out of the competition, despite its superiority to most of the competing titles) and unlike the similarly long “Che”, where seeing both parts together was a must to appreciate the connections between the mirrored halves, “Carlos” would probably benefit from being watched in multiple sittings. In something of a rarity for trilogies, the second part is actually the most accomplished. The first and third parts, which are devoted respectively to Carlos’ rise and fall as his associations with various terrorist networks and governments change, have a relatively standard biopic structure, although Assayas ensures they always remain far from conventional.

The second part, on the other hand, spends over an hour on a single riveting set-piece before moving to other material, Carlos’ kidnapping of the board of OPEC ministers and subsequent escape attempt. Unrelentingly taut, the sequence is also notable for the way its extended length allows for the depiction of minute detail that is always revealing – the way Carlos engages the politician captives in conversation as equals, the way the politicians mold Carlos through flattery, the way Carlos’ subordinates pace and puke to manage their nerves.

For my money, Assayas is second only to Arnaud Desplechin as the most interesting director working in France today and his achievement in making this behemoth feel relatively fleet is stunning. Even more impressive is his decision to emphasize character over incident throughout the film. “Carlos” is no laundry-list of happenings. It’s a detailed depiction of a world of Carlos and his co-conspirators, all of whom are fully realized individuals, from the German terrorist disgusted with the anti-Semitism of Palestinian collaborators to the devoted feminist who is helplessly molded into a petit-bourgeois housewife by the charisma of Carlos. For all the sturm and drang found in this sweeping story, “Carlos” is a film about people who are venal, flawed, and above all, human, and that’s why this epic sticks in the mind.

-Raj Ranade

Cannes Dispatch #6.5 - "Fair Game"

2010-05-20T05:24:00.000-07:00

No real entry today, as I attempt to get some sleep/sanity - the Cannes whirlwind has a way of wearing you down. Twitter-esque thoughts on Doug Liman's "Fair Game" though - those who were confused about why the director of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "Jumper" had a film in the most prestigious film competition in the world were thoroughly justified. "Fair Game" isn't ever bad, exactly, but it's nothing to write home about (ha). It's a pretty generic geopolitical thriller, right down to the irritatingly boilerplate score (pompous thumping percussion! little bits of electronic stuff!), and anyone who has a basic handle on the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal isn't going to learn anything here (one of the few novel insights the film has - about informants left in the lurch when Plame left the CIA - is completely forgotten by the film's second half). Naomi Watts and Sean Penn have pretty good chemistry together as Plame and Joe Wilson, but Penn's presence strikes me as a casting error - when Joe Wilson goes on a TV tour criticizing government officials, the meta-recognition of Sean Penn being shrill about politics on TV drowns out the character we're supposed to be seeing.

Light screening slates for Friday and Saturday, so expect plenty of coverage forthcoming!

-Raj Ranade

Cannes Dispatch #6 - "Of Gods and Men"

2010-05-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

When it rains, it pours (and it actually rained today) - in one day, I walked past Gael Garcia Bernal and sat two rows behind Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling, and Bollywood superstar Deepika Padukone. This was a bit of relief, not because I care all that much about star-searching, but because I can now tell stories that don't receive the immediate reaction of "Who?". Beyond shiny happy people, Cannes also provided a number of other odd insights yesterday, namely:

1. Press head into premiere screenings of competition films about a half hour before cast and crew members and other such notables, so you'd think that the paparazzi would know better. But as it turns out, if your neon-yellow press badge isn't clearly visible as you're walking up the red carpet, and you're dressed in some vaguely formal attire, photographers will not hesitate to unleash a flash-bulb fusillade.

2. If you're audacious enough to direct a 5 1/2 hour movie about international terrorism and present it at Cannes, as director of "Carlos" Olivier Assayas is, you are also audacious enough to enter your tuxedo-required premiere screening wearing a suit jacket over jeans and bright white sneakers.

3. The French apparently have no problem with leaving their phones on, answering their phones, or taking flash photography of the screen during screenings.

4. Walk-outs in the early morning screenings may be a less a function of film quality and more a function of industry people being hungover from their (presumably wild yacht) parties the night before. This possibility occurred to me when I noticed the pant-suited woman at the end of my row throwing up on her shoes during a not-particularly-disgusting movie.

5. If you decide to skip a movie (Lee Chang-dong's Poetry) because you'd like to sleep in before the 5.5 hour epic, by cosmic law, the film you skipped will be acclaimed as brilliant by everyone you speak to that day.

A shorter entry today, as "Carlos" is both fascinating and thoroughly exhausting to watch. More tomorrow on that film, the latest from Ken Loach, and the first Indian film to screen in a competition category in nearly a decade. But first, a review of the new film by Xavier Beauvois, which managed to overcome my immediate "Tropic Thunder"-induced skepticism.

Of Gods and Men (dir. by Xavier Beauvois) - In Competition

Xavier Beauvois' "Of Gods and Men" opens with pastoral calm. In a North African monastery, nine French monks tend their vegetable gardens, pray in respectful silence, and live peacefully with the Islamic village below the sloping hillside, providing them with advice and medical care and accepting gifts and respect. Coexistence seems written into the very landscape itself - the fertile soil of the monastery transitions gradually across the hillside into windswept Algerian sand, verdant trees and hills generously giving way to arid brush and plateaus.

It's serene - and of course, it can't last. Islamic radicalism encroaches - jihadis slit the throats of Croatian contractors at a local work-site, an occurrence that Beauvois shoots with Cronenbergian clarity. And so the audience naturally expects the worst when bandanna-clad rifle carriers force their way into the monastery gates. But Beauvois has no interest in making a simple story of martyrs versus demons - the fighters are only looking for medicine, though the monastery can't spare it. There's a tense chill as the head monk Christian (Lambert Wilson) and the rebel leader (Roschdy Zem) negotiate. Christian knows his Koran and recites a passage, and the leader, a man of genuine faith, respectfully defers. But it becomes clear through the conversation that the rebel's position amongst his people is precarious, and cooler heads may be losing their influence. Should the monks leave and abandon their flock?

Xavier Beauvois has a kind of clinical, detached style of filmmaking - long and static shots that often keep their distance from his characters - that can recall Michael Haneke, except for the fact that Beauvois actually has faith in humanity. His underrated last film, "The Young Lieutenant", would probably be categorized as a crime thriller by the time the credits rolled, but the first half of the movie was comparatively light on incident and heavy on calm observation. It instead soaked us in the rhythms of the lives of the characters, following their daily routines (not quite in "Aurora" detail, mind you) and keeping an eye out for the nuances of their interactions with each other, so that when dramatic incident arises, the audience has a much better grasp on how this changes the world of those in the film.

Beauvois uses that method again in "Gods", which is based on the real-life tragedy that befell a monastery of Trappist monks in Algeria in 1996. This time, however, the rhythm that his characters live in is one of fear and uncertainty. Beauvois dispassionately watches the monks as they waver in their decision to stay and continue to pray, for deliverance, for strength to match their convictions, for courage to accept their fate. And this plot focus is exactly why Beauvois' clinical nature as a filmmaker is absolutely critical - for most materials, addressing topics like this would no doubt lead to mawkishness or sanctimony (and this film does in a few moments), but understatement in formal terms and restraint in the performances lets the audience feel the full weight of the emotions at play without feeling unduly manipulated. Lambert Wilson, who was in perhaps the worst film in competition ("The Princess of Montpensier"), has now given one of the festival's best performances in one of its best films, portraying a man who has spent his life studying Islam and gaining the respect of its believers, only to see the world he so respects turning on him.*

"Gods" is probably too long (after a climactic epiphany, the time until the ending starts to feel a bit like repetitive padding) and it occasionally veers into excessive sentimentality (one scene has the monks joining together in song to drown out the noise of an army helicopter). But for the most part, it's a film of incredible force. The psychological process that the characters go through is understandably poignant, but Beauvois even manages to capture silent prayer in a way that's surprisingly affecting. In one scene, a monk prays in a shot lit by a single candle that's visible only as a small speck on the screen, a glimmer of light staving off overwhelming darkness. And the ending left me a wreck. In the final shots, we see aggressors marching the monks off screen into the distance, solid shapes slowly transforming into ghosts of their former selves. Beauvois also shows a montage of various shots of his landscape. Those features of the landscape that were so prominent early on the film have now been obscured by a dusting of snow, obliterating the memory of a land that once exemplifies the values of brotherhood and peace.

*Weird Dissonance of the Day: Lambert Wilson deciding to make out with the woman who plays his teenage disciple in the film on the red carpet before his premiere.