Nearly 20 years in, and California’s Slightly Stoopid is still on top of its game. The reggae-punk fusion act released its seventh studio album, Top of the World, last August to its highest Billboard chart position to date. “It’s amazing. We’re living a blessed life,” guitarist, bassist and singer Miles Doughty said. “I don’t know […]
(of
Posted inArts & Culture
Boxy, but good
Fill a box with 18 random items. Give it to a team of employees from local businesses. See what happens. Science Museum Oklahoma has done just that with its second Out of the Box exhibition, featuring the creations of 11 local businesses whose task was to take those random items — such as springs, hinges, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
That’s what makes The Perks of Being a Wallflower so impressive. New to Blu-ray and DVD, it understands the excess of feeling that characterizes being a teenager, and it doesn’t prettify or minimize the trials faced by the shy and socially awkward kid sitting alone in the school cafeteria. Written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
In other words, if it’s all-out action you seek, stick to 13 Assassins. You won’t get that until about the last 20 minutes of Hara-Kiri, but I’d argue the wait makes the clash of swords sounding all the more sweet. I’d also encourage viewers to consider them companion pieces, and to consume both. Set in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
End of Watch / Officer Down
David Ayer has spent much of his career chronicling the life of Los Angeles law enforcement in his screenplays for Training Day, S.W.A.T. and Dark Blue, and directing Street Kings. With End of Watch, he pulls double duty. The result is an invigorating, pulse-pounding crime drama. Through a found-footage gimmick that really isn’t necessary to […]
Posted inMusic
The Flaming Lips — Playing Hide and Seek with the Ghosts of Dawn
Highly listenable, it’s an interesting take on prog-rock classics like “21st Century Schizoid Man,” adding the Lips’ patented fuzzy squawks and reverbed squeaks to songs only the geekiest of us know by heart. That said, Ghosts is also a maddeningly frustrating disc for fans desperately wanting a return to the brilliant, pop-psych form of The […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Perry Mason Mysteries: The Original Warner Bros. Movies Collection
But curiosity is curiosity, and interest is interest, so when Warner Archive issued an MOD DVD set of them in Perry Mason Mysteries: The Original Warner Bros. Movies Collection, I just had to check it out, your honor. Warren William (who also played another famous detective, Philo Vance, for the big screen) stars as the […]
Posted inMusic
Horny time
Photo: Harry Fellows Robert Perlick-Molinari had no idea that a secondhand instrument would set his life on a new course. “My oldest brother played French horn. He had an extra laying around the house,” he said. “I wanted to play a different instrument, but Mom was like, ‘Looks like you are learning the French horn.’ […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Rites of Spring
Realizing that’s been done before, writer/director Padraig Reynolds shrewdly introduces a second storyline in the form of a $2 million kidnapping scheme concocted by a white-trash trio on a wealthy family. For these two storylines to converge takes about 50 minutes, and just before they do, Rites delivers a welcome twist. Well, it would be […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Rudyard Kipling’s Mark of the Beast
Not only is the title superimposed over an image from the indie effort, but two clickable options, two URLs and four review blurbs, as if to convince you upfront that you are about to witness brilliance. To further complicate the eyesore, the blurbs are not presented in consistent typeface, color or size. In other words, […]