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(09/29/10 6:00am)
As I sat behind the stage staring at the back of President Barack
Obama's head Tuesday evening, my thoughts centered not on the
leader of the free world standing before me, but on the senator
fighting for his political life who spoke minutes earlier.
(09/29/10 6:00am)
As I sat behind the stage staring at the back of President Barack
Obama's head Tuesday evening, my thoughts centered not on the
leader of the free world standing before me, but on the senator
fighting for his political life who spoke minutes earlier.
(09/29/10 6:00am)
Maybe Feingold was just been getting overshadowed by Ron Johnson
and his primary victory, but it feels like ages since we last got
to see the fiery, not apologizing for anything Feingold that made
him a Badger political staple. But Tuesday's Moving America Forward
rally brought that Feingold back in a big way.
(09/22/10 6:00am)
""The Town"" begins with the tried and true Hollywood staple of the
bank robbery scene, and much like a Bruce Springsteen concert, all
the old hits are there. You have the meticulous band of thieves
monitoring the entrance, bursting violently into the bank, yelling
at customers and staff to get down on the floor. The calm,
collected leader reminds everybody that their money is insured and
they have no incentive to fight back. The hot-headed member grabs
the most attractive woman on the bank's staff and forces her to
open the vault. The bandits grab all the cash they can handle, take
the attractive bank employee hostage and make their getaway.
(09/22/10 6:00am)
(09/08/10 6:00am)
In 2007, fanboy favorite film makers Quentin Tarantino and Robert
Rodriguez attempted to revive the exploitation films of their youth
with the throwback double feature ""Grindhouse."" But despite some
quality schlock from Rodriguez's ""Planet Terror"" and tense
thrills from Tarantino's girl power infused ""Death Proof,"" the
movie bombed. Kids lemonade stands made more money. After such a
dud, it looked like trashy '70s style B movies were going to stay
in the '70s. Thankfully, that wasn't the case, as Rodriguez was
able to continue the trend by directing the filthy fun gem that is
""Machete.""
(09/07/10 6:00am)
The birth of a television series begins with a pilot. The show's
creative team puts together one sample episode of the series, shows
that to the network execs, and hopes it gets picked up. That's
basically what this column is today, only you, dear readers, are
the network execs. I hope you relish the power.
(08/26/10 6:00am)
(08/18/10 6:00am)
(08/03/10 6:00am)
Hollywood really doesn't know what to do with film noir anymore.
Not since 1997's ""L.A. Confidential"" has there been a truly
successful major studio film noir effort. Instead, the genre has
been littered with missteps such as ""The Good German"" and ""The
Black Dahlia,"" forcing fans to go elsewhere for their regular
dosage of sardonic gumshoe protagonists embroiled in sleazy,
sensual plotlines. Film noir has flourished in independent and
foreign cinema, with films like Rian Johnson's ""Brick"" and the
Korean drama ""Mother"" earning considerable critical success.
Recently released crime thriller ""Winter's Bone"" tries to
continue this indie film noir trend, and while it succeeds on
several levels, it fails to inject the same freshness into its
conceit.
(08/02/10 6:00am)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin's psych-pop outfit Jaill have been around
the block more than a few times, though anyone who fails to notice
this can be forgiven. Despite almost a decade of activity, Jaill
only recently put out their first LP, 2009's There's No Sky (Oh
My My). And even taking that into account, the band plays like
a bunch of kids just out of college with energy to burn, disguising
their experience. So it only seems natural to look at their latest
release, That's How We Burn, in the context of emergence.
And although it may be cheating to bill Jaill's sophomore effort as
such, if this is the album that introduces them to the world at
large, it is one noteworthy first impression.
(06/28/10 6:00am)
Podcasts are well on their way to taking over radio's place as
the third dominant form of media, and nothing is more indicative of
this than the big names currently working on the podcast landscape.
Two of the biggest names around are writer-director Kevin Smith and
his production partner, Scott Mosier, the men behind indie movie
classics ""Clerks"" and ""Chasing Amy,"" with their online banter
show, ""SModcast."" Particularly for Smith, podcasting has been a
natural fit, considering many of his scripts are often hailed (and
sometimes chided) for their highly stylized dialog, much of which
takes place in conversations between surrogate characters for
himself.
(06/25/10 6:00am)
After just 17 years of life, the young Miley Cyrus has managed
to achieve ubiquity. This past year, it has been impossible to go
anywhere without hearing the chorus of her hit single ""Party in
the USA."" The local shopping mall, sporting events, your
grandmother's wake; everybody was ""moving their hips like yeah,""
and the world was powerless to stop it, even though Cyrus' voice is
what one would imagine a Gummi Bear sounds like.
(06/18/10 6:00am)
If possible, this review would start with the ""A-Team"" theme
song. Even people who have never seen an episode of the classic
'80s TV show recognize its signature music cue and cultural impact.
Whether that be the iconic image of Col. Hannibal Smith gnawing on
a cigar, the group's multitude of plans coming together or the fact
that Mr. T ain't getting on no airplane, ""The A-Team"" is 100
percent certified Americana. Because of this, it seems almost
pointless to introduce Smith, Faceman, B.A. and Murdock to a new
generation, but director Joe Carnahan seeks to do just that with
his new film adaptation.
(06/10/10 6:00am)
Movie science makes
absolutely no sense. This is a fact of life. In the sanitized labs
of Hollywood, science is sexy, science is quick and science is
terrifying. In reality, it is none of these things: It is
indecorous, slow and about as scary as Biddy Martin's toy poodle.
But you wouldn't get that impression from a movie like ""Splice,""
the new techno-horror flick from director Vincenzo Natali. Nope, in
""Splice,"" science is going to kill us all in very fast, sexy
ways.
(06/02/10 6:00am)
We knew this was coming, but that still doesn't make it any
easier. ""Lost,"" possibly the most cultishly obsessed about show
in television history, is over. And as many people feared, when we
left our final close-up of Matthew Fox's twitchy eyeball, numerous
questions had not been answered. What exactly is the bright light
at the center of the island? Why do people like Walt and Miles have
mystical powers? How exactly does the sideways world relate to
anything at all?
(05/19/10 6:00am)
(05/06/10 6:00am)
This decade UW-Madison has taken a lot of flak from students, alumni and other frequently frustrated persons for its track record with commencement speakers. And it's not without reason, as the recent list of speakers hasn't really had much of a ""wow"" factor.
(04/25/10 6:00am)
For those of you keeping score in the battle for the state of
Wisconsin's reputation, alcoholism increased its commanding lead
over responsibility last week.
(04/12/10 6:00am)
Somewhere buried beneath the modern-day musical behemoth genres
of rock, pop and country there lies an oft-forgotten sect called
bluegrass. It is generally associated with toothless hicks in
Branson, Mo. scraping on washboards and blowing on empty jugs of
moonshine. It's also frowned upon by music elites sitting in their
upper-middle-class high-rise apartments. However, Minnesota-based
Trampled by Turtles do their best to avoid such stereotypes by
taking their core bluegrass sound and adapting it to the current
indie-folk wave, reaching their critical apex with their 2008 album
Duluth. Two years later they have sent forth the album
Palomino as the successor to their most widely acclaimed
record, and, if anything, it should draw more people into the
bluegrass fold.