Amy Silverstein

April 23, 2009

Dazed and Confused in the Desert

By Amy Silverstein, Virginia Yapp, Michael Hafford

By the time Crystal Castles' set in the Sahara tent ended early Friday evening, my muscles were sore, my skin was covered in other people's sweat and one of the lenses from my prescription glasses had gone missing.&...

March 5, 2009

UCSB Actors Prove “Conways” To Be Timeless

By Amy Silverstein

Thespians from the UCSB Dept. of Theatre & Dance showed off their convincing British accents this weekend in a well-acted performance of "Time and the Conways," a melodramatic play written by playwright J.B. Priestley in...

February 26, 2009

Watching the Oscars: A Bore of a Chore

By Amy Silverstein

Sure, The clothes were pretty, and "Slumdog Millionaire" won a well-deserved seven awards, including Best Picture, but last Sunday's 81st Annual Academy Awards ceremony was an incredibly stupid event.  These were, i...

February 25, 2009

Why Must We Be So Tacky?

By Amy Silverstein

Throughout history, American society has become progressively tackier. The Victorian era is long gone. Clothes are now skimpy. Cars and soda cups are huge and gaudy. Even porn has managed to get tackier. In the 17th cent...

February 19, 2009

Legends Perform Ginsberg Tribute

By Amy Silverstein

Most college students might assume that "hipster" is a recently coined term, but the late poet Allen Ginsberg wrote about "angelheaded hipsters" in "Howl," his famous 1955 poem that celebrates the rebellious Beat movemen...

February 5, 2009

Rourke Keeps It Real While Accepting the Riviera Award

By Amy Silverstein

After a long wait by the Arlington Theatre red carpet last Saturday, I finally stood face-to-face with actor Mickey Rourke, who is currently enjoying a career comeback this year with his Oscar-nominated performance in &#...

January 29, 2009

Rolling Down the Red Carpet

By Amy Silverstein

"Did you talk to Jeff?" director Rod Lurie asked me on the opening night of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, referring to Jeff Bridges, a.k.a. "The Dude" from "The Big Lebowski," who also played the preside...

January 29, 2009

Festival Free Flow

By Amy Silverstein

In an earlier draft of Andrew Stanton's "WALL-E" script, the humans of the future were "big, green gelatinous blobs" who had lost the ability to read or speak, so that "the whole movie was basically in non-English." Not ...

January 8, 2009

Targeting a Net Audience

By Amy Silverstein

Independent and big-time producers alike have been pouring money into creating shows and films that are aired exclusively online. Some of these Web series have caught the attention of network television, such as "We Nee...

December 4, 2008

Top Dog ****

By Amy Silverstein

Hollywood films about heavy-duty social issues tend to fall into one of two categories: condescending melodramas that appeal to sentimental pre-teen girls ("Crash" and "Blood Diamond") and truly gut-wrenching films like ...

November 13, 2008

Ronstadt Brings Retro Charm to State Street

By Amy Silverstein

Linda Ronstadt's performance at the Arlington Theatre last Tuesday was shamelessly cheesy, but it was more on par with aged, quality Swiss than with Kraft Mac in a box.

November 4, 2008

Creative Title for Paper Goes Here

By Amy Silverstein

Most undergraduate research papers are dumb. I will defend my thesis by writing an introductory paragraph, so that I can announce what you are about to read. In paragraphs two and three, I will write a bunch of bullshit....

October 30, 2008

The Boner Killers

By Amy Silverstein, Virginia Yapp, Sara Weitz, Darek Cioch Reporter

More likely than not, your first sex ed lesson didn't come from mommy and daddy or from your wrinkly fourth-grade teacher. Your parents sat you down in front of the boob tube and popped in a VHS while they went out to ha...

October 23, 2008

Electro-house Revolution

By Amy Silverstein

Two Fridays ago, the Marley house was, in DJ Raphy's words, "packed packed packed" with partygoers. Last Saturday, he again played music for a packed house, this time on Pasado. But DJ Raphy, AKA fourth-year business ec...

October 9, 2008

Wimpy Love Songs

By Amy Silverstein

Throughout "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," Peter Sollett's film adaptation of the young adult novel by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, New Jersey teenager Norah is constantly being reassured that she is amazing. Bu...

October 2, 2008

Raconteurs’ Set at the SB Bowl Stops Short of Rocking

By Amy Silverstein

A curious thing happened last Thursday when I bought a $2 water bottle at the Santa Barbara Bowl: The vendor removed the cap, threw it away and handed me a now-decapitated bottle of Dasani.