Artsweek

Big Sean Busts Big Nut All Over Velvet Jones, Crowd Pleased

Detroit rapper Big Sean performed live at Santa Barbara’s Velvet Jones Night Club to a large audience on Saturday, Jan. 8.
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The Future Is Now for James Blake

Up-and-coming electronic artist James Blake’s self-titled debut album is due for official release on Feb. 7.
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Country Strong, Plot Weak

My musical tastes lie somewhere between gangsta rap and a little-known genre called “pirate metal,” so the honky-tonk bar tones and sappy, tongue-in-cheek, cowboy romance lyrics of country music a...
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Season of the Witch: Not Even Ironically Entertaining

The simplest way to describe this miserable failure of a movie is that it is “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” without any jokes and worse special effects.
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Natalie Portman: Lady in the Streets, Reportedly a Freak in the Sheets?

Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” is a movie obsessed with doubles: mothers and daughters, mentors and protégés, teachers and students, mirrors and reality, art and life, layering on the tropes ...
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Tron is an Eyeball Massage with a Happy Ending

I’m gonna get one thing clear and out in the open: I like 3D a lot. It’s easy to say it’s a gimmick only good for a cheap thrill when things pop out toward you or that movies are good enough, or...
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Going “Somewhere” With Coppola, Fanning and Dorff

In 2004, Sofia Coppola made history with her work “Lost in Translation,” becoming the first American woman nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards. Since then, Coppola has continued to...
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Yo Kanye I’m Really Happy for You

Few albums come out that make me say, “Damn, this is perfect.” Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is one of those albums.
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True Grit: Truly Great

I’ll be the first to admit that: I am not a fan of the Coen Brothers.
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“Somewhere” Reviewed

Sofia Coppola burst into the filmmaking scene in 1999, writing and directing an adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’ “The Virgin Suicides.”
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Artsweek’s Number One Movie of the Year: “Inception”

Looking back over 2010, it becomes clear that we are in the middle of a major shift within the film industry. For better or for worse, 3D is a part of Hollywood.
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“The Social Network”: Better Than Hitler

The plot synopsis is one that, if it weren’t for the overly positive reviews, I would avoid like a plague of AIDS. A movie about Facebook?
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Beach House’s Teen Dream

It took me forty-nine-and-a-half minutes for Beach House to convince me that they’re one of the best things happening in music right now.
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Arcade Fire Takes on The Suburbs

I will admit, when Arcade Fire first blew up, I was somewhat skeptical; all the “Neighborhood #1”-infinity songs seemed gimmicky at best.
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Album of the Year: Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty

Who could have guessed that the Outkast’s more gangsta half would put out the most revolutionary hip-hop album of the new decade?
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