Artsweek

October 13, 2011

Raised by Pop Culture: Why Everyone Should Know About ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’

By Damion Damaske

Ever watch a terrible movie with friends? Isn’t that experience sometimes better than watching a good film with them — everyone just sitting around, lobbing jokes at the shoddy production values, terrible acting and ...

October 13, 2011

Clooney and Gosling Bring ‘Ides’ to Big Screen

By Damion Damaske

George Clooney is a white Obama. That’s essentially the plot of “Ides of March,” the new film adapted from Beau Willimon’s play Farragut North. While the stage play, written in 2008, was loosely based on Howard D...

October 6, 2011

‘Scary Wives of Windsor’ at the Park

By Mathew Javidi

It is often said that Queen Elizabeth I commissioned The Merry Wives of Windsor, a spin-off of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, out of her fondness for the iconic character, “Sir John Falstaff.” That may be true, but in the...

October 6, 2011

Malkovich Brings ‘Infernal Comedy’ to the Granada

By Madison Medeiros

Thirty minutes after curtain call, Musica Angelica finally started Michael Sturminger’s show, “Infernal Comedy — Confessions of a Serial Killer”, with their beautiful performance of C.W. Gluck’s “Don Juan.”...

October 6, 2011

Lisa Hannigan Sweetly Serenades SOhO

By Madison Medeiros

Irish singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan played to a full house at SOhO on Saturday night. Dressed in an emerald dress and stylish boots, she looked as beautiful as the music she performed. Many of the songs Hannigan played...

October 6, 2011

KCSB Celebrates 50 Years of Free Radio

By Carly Bonilla-Flores

In 2010, the Santa Barbara Independent regarded KCSB as “one of the few remaining free form radio stations in the United States.” It was this kind of praise and recognition that KCSB received and commemorated at its ...

October 6, 2011

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

By Demi Anter

Hippies. Homeless. Hipsters. Heaven. These may seem like some incongruous terms, but they actually add up to produce one incredible thing: the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Hardly Strictly is a free festival put on...

October 6, 2011

Why Music Fans are Inherently Terrible

By Damion Damaske

When you’re talking to someone about what kind of music you like, it can be as treacherous as bringing up politics or religion. Most people hold the music they enjoy as sacred, and many do so to the point of fanaticism...

October 6, 2011

Students Interview Comedy Central Cast

By Damion Damaske

If you haven’t heard of “Workaholics,” the work-place comedy from Comedy Central that’s now entering its second season, you’re missing out. The comedy, from creators and stars Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson and An...

October 6, 2011

Kingsley Proves “Yes” is Just Long Enough

By Demi Anter

On Friday, Sept. 30, 2011, “Yes is a long time,” a theater and dance production written by Sibyl O’Malley and directed by UCSB faculty member Mira Kingsley, opened for a three-night run at UCSB’s Hatlen Theater. ...

September 29, 2011

Big Sean Plays UCSB

By Fabian Garcia

In true UCSB fashion, Big Sean greeted students with an evening of chardonnay, lemonade and bullshittin’ last Saturday for the Welcome Back 2011 concert. The Detroit rapper stepped on stage at 10 p.m. and played a soli...

September 29, 2011

Superheroes: More Than Just the Spandex

By Damion Damaske

For those of you like me (i.e. without lives), you know DC comics created a vast, universe-spanning reboot for 52 titles that are now arbitrarily labeled with #1 issues across the board. This is the biggest reboot for DC...

September 22, 2011

Tom Freund: Lyrically Lacking, but Musically Magnificent

By Phoebe Light

When Tom Freund walked onto the stage in front of a very sparse SOhO crowd last Thursday night, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Shaggy-haired, scruffyfaced and clad in a baggy T-shirt and jeans, Freund’s appearan...

September 22, 2011

Mario as Michelangelo: Video Games as Art

By Damion Damaske

It takes a long time for a new form of art to be accepted as a “true” form of art, whatever that means. Generally when people think of art they think of paintings, literature or sculptures, but art is so much more. F...

September 15, 2011

The Worst Movie in Existence. Period.

By Damion Damaske

A lot of people talk about the worst movie ever without knowing what they’re talking about. To them “the worst movie ever” is simply a long movie filmed in black-and- white, declaring every movie pre-1960s worthy o...

September 15, 2011

The Joy Formidable Bring the Spunk to SoHo

By Emily Hunt

When The Joy Formidable steps on the stage, audiences may have a few questions. Is this metal or pop? Are bassist Rhydian Dafydd and drummer Matt Thomas aloof or merely professional? Is front woman Ritzy Bryan eyeing the...