2015 Tag

The following article contains SPOILERS of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’ Proceed only if you’ve already seen the movie, and if you haven’t what the heck is stopping you? If its $1 billion take is any indication, most of us have already witnessed the force awaken (maybe three times if you, like me, were alone this holiday season). For the most part, Star Wars: The Force Awakens seems to have done a great job washing out the bad taste left in our mouths from the much maligned prequels. The reviews have beenRead More

College is well underway and it’s that time of the year, everybody! The time when you want to slowly smother your roommate with a pillow when they sleep because their little habits are starting to seriously annoy you, and you’re wondering why you didn’t just shell out the extra three thousand for the single suite. Interspersed with the grand moments and adventures where you find yourself really grateful that you didn’t opt to live alone, of course. But if you still find yourself sighing loudly instead of laughing loudly becauseRead More

“Excuse me, sir. Do you have a minute to talk about rock and roll?” The question comes somewhat meekly during a break in an otherwise vicious wall of sound. Wearing a sharktoothed sundress, Rebecca Bortman looks more Alice in Wonderland than garage rock heroine. Nevertheless, she and her monochrome bandmates that make up lo-fi outfit Happy Fangs serve up the good word of rock and roll with a feverish bite. The night is still young at the Silverlake Lounge in Los Angeles. At 9PM on a Tuesday, I’m usually plopped onRead More

  I’m a huge fan of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In my opinion, it’s the funniest show on television, and there ain’t a close second. Watching the escapades of a group of sociopaths who run a bar – a motley crew known as “the Gang” – provides a dark sort of comedy that stands out from most laugh-tracked garbage that cable channels try to pass off as humor. It’s no coincidence that in watching the last few weeks of turmoil unfold at the University of Missouri and Yale University, I’m remindedRead More

  This weekend marked yet another windfall for one of cinema’s most iconic characters. Falling just short of Skyfall‘s record-breaking $88.3 million debut, Spectre came on its heels at a healthy $70 million, etching another notch in James Bond’s recent winning streak. Let’s face it, the world loves to watch Britain’s most famous spy traverse exotic locales, drink martinis, thwart cartoonish villains and bed beautiful women, all while decked out in the sleekest suits money can buy. Bond is a cultural phenomenon that, while birthed in Ian Flemming’s books, belongsRead More

The throng inside Anaheim’s famed House of Blues presses toward the stage in silent, rapt attention. In the heart of Downtown Disney with all its lights, glamor and themed uniformity, one doesn’t expect to witness the raw expression and stripped-down performance of the act currently in residence. Keith Goodwin and Dan Schwartz of Philly folk trio Good Old War — armed with only an acoustic guitar and their searing vocal harmonies — hold the crowd in the palm of their hand. “When you play this way, the songs have to beRead More

From your resident college student, here are five things you absolutely should not do while attending college. I mean, you can do them, but people will not like you and will probably write mean things about you on Yik Yak. 1. Introduce yourself to the professor in a 300-student lecture I know it’s like the new “thing” – introducing yourself to the professor increases the chances of them giving you extra credit or letting an absence slip by – but please, for the love of all that is good and holy, doRead More

Living with Epilepsy is like this: It’s going to a theme park with your best friends, only to pass out and have a seizure in the middle of a ride, and waking up with all of them around you. It’s asking, “how long was I out?”, in a heavy, slurred voice, hearing, “only a couple minutes”, but feeling like it was forever. It’s heavy limbs and incredible nausea, being unable to eat your favorite foods in your favorite place on what should be your favorite night. It’s the inability toRead More

College has forever been pushed as perhaps the greatest time in life, but does anyone ever mention the drawbacks? Well, besides the pretty much unimaginable cost, which is touted as one of the biggest drawbacks to anything ever, but doesn’t actually feel real to anyone. For example, I currently owe $8,032 to my university. Having never seen more than five hundred dollars at once, this number feels obnoxiously big and like it could be way, way, smaller. But wait, there’s more…   1. There’s walking. Like a lot. Can someone please explainRead More

With the American hard court season upon us (the men take over Montreal this week), all eyes will be on Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. The former will begin a quest to win his second U.S. Open title after 3 consecutive years of earlier losses. Meanwhile, the world number 9, Nadal will aim to re-establish himself as a grand slam threat. But these two are not the only top stories as we sail into the North American hard courts… Where is Dimi? At this time last year, the tennis universeRead More

If you’re like most of world, you will find your butt in a movie theater sometime over the next couple weeks reliving the heyday of early 90’s blockbuster cinema. This Friday will see the revival of a former Hollywood powerhouse franchise and what was for many of us a seminal moment in our childhood. Whether or not Jurassic World is any good, we will see it. Why? Because Jurassic Park is. It encapsulated a generation, bringing unprecedented visual wonder, classic characters and Spielberg’s singular stamp of sustained awe and sheerRead More

The Nashville music scene seems to favor a certain type of up and coming artist. But if you don’t wear a cowboy hat and boots and sing about tractors, is it still possible for you to find an audience? In the case of Tennessee natives COIN, that answer is a resounding “yes!” Though they may bear little resemblance to Alan Jackson or Lady Antebellum, they still owe their rise to the same renowned music scene, which nowadays churns out bands in nearly every genre imaginable. Chase Lawrence (lead vocals), JoeRead More

There’s a very good chance that a little indie outfit from Ithaca, NY is one of your favorite bands and you don’t even know it. X Ambassadors have been making waves on the underground for quite some time. From the snowballing success of their EPS to the World Cup virality of their single “Jungle” and a score of featured collaborations including both Eminem’s “Wicked Ways” and Zedd’s “Transmission” released earlier this week, it seems almost impossible to turn one’s head without catching wind of their urgent blend of indie rock andRead More

Game of Thrones. Orange is the New Black. Gossip Girl.   There’s a good chance that you, the reader, at some point in your life, will binge watch a TV show. It may be one of the ones above (s/o to season three of OITNB, out June 12), but you will end up in your blue jeans at two am, bleary eyed and yet not yawning, ice cream stuck to your shirt, wondering where the hell the time went. And then you’ll look down at your computer, see that you’veRead More

Remember a little Swedish Kickstarter project making the rounds in early 2014 that played like an 80’s time capsule overload? We certainly do. In David Sandberg’s Kung Fury, a “kung fu renegade cop” travels back in time to defeat the most evil kung fu master of all time – wait for it – Adolf Hitler. Along the way he enlists the help of ancient, gun-toting Vikings, fights a sentient arcade game, and rides into battle astride a Tyrannosaurus Rex all to a bombastic 80’s synth soundtrack that’s equal parts nostalgicRead More