Cinematography adds suspense in Jackson’s latest film
By: Steve Mesa/ Staff Writer Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson attempts to depict the emotional chain reaction that occurs after a young girl is murdered and how her family reacts to the crisis in his first film in four years with the adaptation of Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel, *The Lovely Bones*. Oscar-nominee Saoirse Ronan plays Susie Salmon, a young girl with a loving family that includes her mother (Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz), her father (Oscar-nominee Mark Whalberg), her grandmother (Oscar-nominee Susan Sarandon) and younger siblings (Rose McIver and Christian Thomas Ashdale). After she is done with school one day, Susie is murdered by her pedophilic neighbor, George Harvey (Stanley Tucci). After discovering that she is dead,…
Beach House sound matures
By: Ryan Morejon/ Columnist Within the past couple of years, Baltimore has become somewhat of a pop-culture hub of sorts, all thanks to David Simon, creator of the critically-acclaimed HBO series “The Wire,” and Dan Deacon, father and ringleader of the city’s burgeoning art collective, Wham City. Now, if you were to round up all the musical acts that parade around B-More, or the Copycat Building they reside in, you’d find the majority are loose, aggressive and flamboyant electronic-based screwballs who are all about getting crazy and feeling like a community. Yet, I’m sure Molly Siegel of Ponytail, or Wham City regular Jimmy Joe Roche, need to crash and weep over something, right? Maybe their…
Exhibit examines propaganda, gender roles in America
By: Ashley Capo/ Staff Writer The Frost Art Museum will open a new gallery Jan. 20 that combines both art and class curriculum. *Women’s Work/Men’s Work: Labor and Gender in America* will be the first installation of a program by the Frost Museum in collaboration with the Wolfsonian-FIU. The Wolfsonian Teaching Gallery at the Frost, with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will centralize a theme each semester around curriculum being taught at the University. Each semester’s theme is chosen by a Visual and Material Culture study group made up of faculty and select students, who choose from proposals sent in by faculty interested in using the Wolfsonian collection to enhance what they are…
Vampire Weekend gets comfortable in their own skin
By: Chris Towers/ Staff Writer There has always seemingly been a premium in music placed on authenticity. Kurt Cobain talked about how depressed he was – and joked about killing himself – so the only possible way to secure himself a place in the annals of musical history was to put a shotgun shell through his skull. Tupac often talked about the merits of “thug life” and was gunned down the same way a common drug dealer might be. It made him a tragic figure, but it also lent legitimacy to his career. In most cases, artists can only be helped by being true to themselves, no matter how stupid their true self might be….
Pundits insensitive to Haitian tragedy
By: Chris Towers/ Staff Writer In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, on Jan. 12, 2010, Americans, as we have a tendency to do, largely joined together as an expression of sympathy and remorse. As with the 2005 Christmas tsunami in the Indian Ocean and other natural disasters, Americans have shown a capacity for compassion that rises beyond our typical partisan infighting. So when someone doesn’t go along with the general feeling of the day, people generally react with shock and anger at the insensitivity of those expressing those viewpoints. Just hours after the earthquake, ancient “700 Club” show host Pat Robertson made the claim that the Haitian population was feeling…
Blackwater cannot erase past crimes with settlement
By: Romney Manassa Staff Writer A few days ago, the private military contractor Blackwater (now called Xe) settled seven federal lawsuits enacted by Iraqis accusing the company of “cultivating a reckless culture that allowed innocent civilians to be killed.” The plaintiffs sought compensation for injuries and deaths, with the firm offering $100,000 to families whose relatives had died, and $30,000 to those injured. Contrary to federal probes, which sought to indict specific Blackwater employees for their actions, the lawsuits charged the company as a whole with perpetrating an environment of impunity and recklessness leading to a pattern of civilian deaths. One lawsuit asserted that “Mr. Prince personally directed and permitted a heavily-armed private army ……
