It may not be a story as old as time, but the trope of Okies wandering to California in search of opportunity goes back at least to the Dust Bowl. And while the paucity of prospects may not have the same harrowing look it did in the 1920s, people still move from windy plains to […]
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On the Road
An ode to poet Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation, On the Road fails to elicit nostalgia for all things Beat, but not for lack of ambition. Its Americana backdrop depicts the unbridled beauty of the West. The visuals are a testament to a time when these United States were more innocent and collectively curious. […]
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Terror on a Train
As the title has it, the film is more concerned with the work half of that equation. A terrorist has planted a package of explosives on a train — or, as one character puts it, “Some joker’s been monkeyin’ around with your load!” — and Lyncort is called into action to diffuse the situation. Meanwhile, an […]
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Kanye West — Yeezus
Ego alone isn’t what makes Mr. West such a fascinating figure; any other schmo with a head his size would be scoffed and discarded as parody. There’s actually a certain degree of legitimacy that keeps his maniacal sense of self-importance from devolving into full-scale megalomania: that Kanye’s vision and production chops are currently unmatched in […]
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On the Road
Walter Salles’ On the Road extends a fragmented blip on the map of American poetry — one that doesn’t necessitate resurrection. An ode to poet Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation, On the Road fails to elicit nostalgia for all things Beat, but not for lack of ambition. Its Americana backdrop depicts the unbridled beauty […]
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Here for the party
A lot of singers are more than happy to release an album every two years, maybe once a year if they’re especially fastidious. But for Gretchen Wilson, that’s not good enough. This year alone, she’s releasing three (her latest, Right on Time, dropped April 2) while embarking on a tour. This, mind you, is all […]
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aDD it up
“I try to balance drawing, graphic design and music. I use each to feed my creativity,” he said. “My first love was art. I’ve been drawing practically my whole life. That turned into a passion for graphic design. I really enjoy being able to express myself through art; it may be through words, pictures or […]
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Birdemic 2: The Resurrection
You asked for it, you got it. And you have no one to blame but yourself. Birdemic 2 is every bit as incompetent as its big bro, and then some: blurred images, sound dropouts, repeated establishing shots, public high-fives and leaden dialogue (“I don’t know about the movie business, but I know how to read”). […]
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Toby Keith — Hope on the Rocks
For many years, on my late, lamented Colorado-based radio show, Damaged Hearing, whenever I felt like especially annoying the decidedly unpatriotic community-radio audience, I would sing along, loud and proud, to Oklahoma-born Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.” Of course, the more I would sing along to the song, the more I […]
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Future’s so bright
Imagine for a moment that you’re perched atop a pristine body of water. As you gaze downward, ripples contort the natural world, and all of your tangible surroundings seem strangely elusive and engulfed in fantasy. The other side of that reflection? The world in which Future Islands live. Appearing tonight at Opolis, the Baltimore trio […]