Dazed and Confused in the Desert

April 23, 2009 by , and

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 glasse...
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UCSB Actors Prove “Conways” To Be Timeless

March 5, 2009 by

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 playwrig...
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Watching the Oscars: A Bore of a Chore

February 26, 2009 by

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....
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Why Must We Be So Tacky?

February 25, 2009 by

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 tacki...
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Legends Perform Ginsberg Tribute

February 19, 2009 by

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 reb...
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Rourke Keeps It Real While Accepting the Riviera Award

February 5, 2009 by

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-nominat...
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Rolling Down the Red Carpet

January 29, 2009 by

"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 als...
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Festival Free Flow

January 29, 2009 by

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 i...
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Targeting a Net Audience

January 8, 2009 by

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 televis...
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Top Dog ****

December 4, 2008 by

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-w...
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Ronstadt Brings Retro Charm to State Street

November 13, 2008 by

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.
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Creative Title for Paper Goes Here

November 4, 2008 by

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 ...
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The Boner Killers

October 30, 2008 by , , and

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...
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Electro-house Revolution

October 23, 2008 by

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 fou...
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Wimpy Love Songs

October 9, 2008 by

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 tha...
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