“Young Adult” is a movie about a seriously messed up writer (Charlize Theron) who comes back to her hometown to steal back her now happily-married high school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson). Theron plays tragic heroine Mavis Gay, who alienates the audiences with her antics. The story follows Gay, an aging, divorced, alcoholic writer of young adult fiction, as she travels back to the town where she was crowned prom queen.
When Amy Winehouse’s voice first makes its debut on opener “Our Day Will Come,” one cannot help but be pulled in. After Winehouse’s death, her record company released an album with miscellaneous recordings of her they accumulated over the years.
“Our Day Will Come” is probably the best song on the album, and at times it might even making you forget that she is gone. The next song, though, “Between the Cheats” is underwhelming. It struggles to find a cohesive sound, which results in a somewhat chaotic listening experience. On “The Girl from Ipanema” Winehouse loses some of her charm and sounds almost unoriginal. “Half Time” is a good listen and sounds more like songs from “Back to Black,” but it is nowhere near as charming or witty as the best songs from that album. “Like Smoke” is a valiant effort to provide a modern slant on her classic voice. Her cover of “Valerie” though, surprisingly hosts the records most impressive vocal performance. It reminds listeners of all the things they loved about Winehouse.
This past Friday, both of the Oredigger basketball teams faced off against Chadron State in RMAC competition at Lockridge Arena.
Denver was treated to two sellout concerts this past weekend as Fitz and the Tantrums and Wilco both paid a visit to the Mile High City. Crowds trickled into The Ogden at around seven o’clock and were welcomed with a mellow opener from American Tomahawk. While the band suffers from a few indie rock cliches and perhaps too many apparent influences, their set was short, sweet, and a good warm up. They were followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.. Cranking up the energy level ten-fold, the two lead singers took to the stage in glowing technicolored blazers while “J” and “R” block letters flashed in front and behind them. The entrance was captivating to say the least, and forced them into the potentially awkward situation of having to back it up with their music. Despite a few instances, they actually maintained the crowd’s attention and even went beyond expectations on their hit “Vocal Chords,” adding dimensions that could only be experienced live.
It is not a particularly shocking concept that politics in this country consists of corrupt individuals continually sacrificing principals in order to get ahead in the polls. It is also not an entirely original idea to focus on the people behind the scenes. Perhaps this is why even the most shocking revelations in “The Ides of March” feel a bit trite. Everything from the protagonist’s journey from idealism to cynicism to the compromising politics of both sides, seems like a path that is all too familiar to the audience.
On Thursday, November 17, the student government met in Ballrooms D and E of the student center for their bimonthly meeting. The meeting started with a presentation from guest speaker Chief of Police George Hughes about the new rules against riding bikes and skateboards on the newly-completed pedestrian plaza. Hughes explained the biker/boarder collisions and subsequent complaints that inspired the new rules.
On July 24, 2010 approximately 80,000 people from 192 different countries all uploaded videos to a single YouTube page for the same purpose, to document their days. Academy Award winning director Kevin Macdonald had tasked the world to participate in what seemed to be a modern day time capsule. On the same day, all participants would film all or part of their day, answering a few questions if they felt so inclined. On first glance, it sounds like a terrible idea. There is nothing special about the 24 of July and, for the most part, the videos depict the monotony that no one on earth seems capable of escaping. However, when the 4500+ hours of footage is condensed down and organized into an hour and a half of edited film, the monotony turns into something that unites not just the 80,000 amateur filmmakers, but the entirety of the human race.
In February 2008, Nate Reuss’ band The Format was supposed to release a new album to follow up their sophomore album “Dog Problems.” Instead, the increasingly popular band broke up. The news devastated fans, but it was not long before lead singer Reuss debuted his new project, a band called “fun.” Despite an unfortunate name with awkward punctuation, the band’s first demo “Benson Hedges” featured the same powerful vocals and surprising instrumentals that had become The Format’s trademark, but whereas most of The Format’s song centered on a brooding Nate and his struggles with women, this single was more upbeat. The song featured gospel singers and fast paced lyrics about Nate’s desperation to get out of Arizona. The song is about moving on, and while it was clear that fun. would still have obvious ties to The Format, this was a different band.
Sports are in a mess right now. The most popular stories on ESPN have more to do with off-the-court or off-the-field drama than actual game day scores. The NBA isn’t even going to have a season. Conference realignment in college sports has been entirely dictated by money without any regard to tradition. Rivalries are dying. Recruitment rules are becoming so numerous and strict that its no longer a question of if a school violated them but instead if they actually knew they were doing it. Sports as a whole seem to be going through somewhat of a slump, but then last week, the start of the college basketball season brought new hope to sports fans across the country.
It really should not come as a surprise that the newest release from The Decemberists continues where their last full length album ended, but it is disappointing nonetheless. On their last full length album, “The King Is Dead,” many listeners applauded The Decemberists for what was, once again, another album filled with literary references and Colin Meloy’s strange but always engaging voice. However, while the album was still very much a Decemberists album, something had been lost. Instead of songs that surprised the listener with original melodies and surprising twists, “The King Is Dead” sounded a little too predictable. Much like its predecessor, “Long Live the King” fails to surprise and instead features a band that has embraced everything about them that worked but left behind a lot of the nuance that made them appealing.