Artsweek

February 23, 2012

Raised by Popular Culture: “For Your Consideration”

By Damion Damaske

Wow, that was a fun and/or sobering week. I’m still deciding which. You see, from Tuesday, Feb. 14 to Saturday Feb. 18, the Pollock Theater at UCSB screened five of the Oscar-nominated foreign films for 2011. I was luc...

February 16, 2012

A Guacho Survives his Quarter-Life Crisis

By Jaime Oliveira

Many people have anxieties about their next step after college. With graduation looming around the corner, I, for one can attest to the feelings caused by my impending quarter-life crisis. According to recent UCSB gradua...

February 16, 2012

New Midseason Series Prove the Sun Always Shines on TV

By Darrell Hall

You may have noticed that streaming sites are being shut down. Thank God. For a while there, the Internet was killing the video star, but alas! It seems that TV is still kicking, still streaming and still dedicated to br...

February 16, 2012

Pollock Theater Screens Canadian Film ‘Monsieur Lazhar’

By Damion Damaske

Grief, depression and dealing with death are never easy things to come to terms with, especially when you’re young. What makes the film “Monsieur Lazhar” — one of Canada’s contenders for Best Foreign Language O...

February 16, 2012

I.V. Stand-up is on the Rise at Javan’s

By Emily Hunt

“Stand-up in its worst form is distilled ignorance and bigotry. In its best form, it’s a palatable form of philosophy,” fourth-year literature major and amateur stand-up comic William Buescher said as he took a sip...

February 16, 2012

Raised by Popular Culture: Tucker and Dale Take Fight Bad Cinema

By Damion Damaske

Drop everything you’re doing and see this movie right now. It’s awesome. It’s hard to describe exactly why this film is so special. For starters, it has a one-note premise. A bunch of dumb, drunk college kids mista...

February 9, 2012

Lana Del Rey’s Born To Die Keeps Her Fame Alive

By Carly Bonilla-Flores

Six months ago, nobody knew who Lana Del Rey was. Last October she released a grainy self-made music video for her single, “Video Games,” and the Internet exploded into a Lana Del Rey shrine. But, like a dysfunctiona...

February 9, 2012

Oscar-Nominated Foreign Language Films to Screen at UCSB’s Pollock Theater Next Week

By Corie Anderson

As the 84th Annual Academy Awards draw nearer (airing Sunday, Feb. 26 on ABC), more and more people are rushing to theaters to see the nominated films. However, the films of one category in particular are rarely shown at...

February 9, 2012

‘Smash’ Gives Theater Geeks Something to Love

By Corie Anderson

On Monday, NBC premiered its much-anticipated musical television show, “Smash.” As both a television and theater fanatic, I had high expectations for the show — which were unquestioningly fulfilled by the new music...

February 9, 2012

Kickstarter Helps the Starving Artist Creatively Succeed

By Howard Kahan

One could argue that artistic integrity no longer exists once you sell out. Those who agree could say mainstream is the antithesis to true art and creative expression. However, the opposition could argue that the creativ...

February 9, 2012

Santa Barbara International Film Festival Puts the Spotlight Back on Exceptional Short Films

By Darrell Hall

Short films have been marginalized for many years, considered easy to make and ‘‘primitive.’’ However, short films were the start of cinema and were respected during the early 20th century when visionaries such a...

February 2, 2012

Groupwork: A Living Breathing Monster

By Demi Anter

Many people compare visiting a museum to visiting a church. A place that houses art becomes sacred somehow. It becomes a destination for people to observe carefully constructed historical and personal expressions in quie...

February 2, 2012

Artsweek Wants You … to Watch Foreign Films

By Damion Damaske

When people think about foreign films, there seems to be a lot of derision towards them: “I don’t like subtitles,” “Dubbing sounds weird,” “Only pretentious hipsters would watch them,” etc. While there is s...

February 2, 2012

UCSB’s Palladino Premieres Film at SBIFF

By Corie Anderson

Each winter, downtown’s historic movie theaters play host to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. This year, SBIFF’s highlighted themes include Cinesonic (films about iconic musicians), Cinema Nouveau (film...

February 2, 2012

Take a Course in Laughology

By Damion Damaske

Stand-up comedy is not easy. It’s one of those art forms which seems readily accessible to anyone not already embedded in that world. “I can just go up on stage and say stuff? What’s so hard about that?” However,...

February 1, 2012