This week in entertainment: Ben Affleck in denial, Tim Burton's narcissism, and more.
Hollywood has decided to use AU as its site for a remake of "National Lampoon's Animal House." Rumors are also circulating that "Big Sam" Gilman, former SC presidential candidate, will be asked to play the role of John "Bluto" Blutarsky. To achieve success in this role, Gilman will have to channel his inner Belushi.
From "Intermission," expect a low-budget art-house movie. Expect a departure from the usual Hollywood staple in both subject matter and style. Expect, of course, top billing for Colin Farrell, but be prepared to have all other expectations shattered during the opening scene.
In "Baby Plays Around," Helene Stapinski recounts her life in 1990s New York City and her attempt to balance a new marriage with a freelance writing career while playing in a rock band.
Before the word "emo" became taboo, bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Cap'n Jazz (which later evolved into the Promise Ring) and Jawbreaker consistently churned out landmark LPs for the genre in the early '90s. Since then, the sacred works of these bands have been bastardized by new acts like Saves the Day, Dashboard Confessional, Bright Eyes and, to a certain extent, the Get Up Kids. In a bizarre twist of booking, both the sacred and the bastards met on Tuesday at the 9:30 club.
Long before the White Stripes became the so-called "saviors of rock," Local H frontman Scott Lucas had perfected the two-man rock ensemble with drummer Joe Daniels. Rigging his guitar so that he is also able to play the bass line, Lucas eliminated the need for a permanent third member. Though touring members sometimes come onstage to shred some solos, Local H has stuck with the formula to maintain a band that truly rocks.
For the most part, N.E.R.D. mixes simple bass lines with live drums, keyboards and riffy guitars with funky success, although on its new album, "Fly or Die," some of the music comes off as sloppy and forced.
Music reviews from the Eagle music desk, including Eyes of Fire, Between the Buried and Me, Paul Simon, The Cooper Temple Cause, Hellogoodbye, Carina Round and Nellie McKay.
Anyone who has been to Rome before knows the troubles with ATAC, the system of buses, trams and metros that run throughout the city. Bus drivers don't have contracts, so there are transportation strikes at least a few times a month. In fact, as I write, the entire transportation system, plus trains in Italy, are shut down for the next 24 hours.
Being young and famous is a beautiful disaster: living out your prime in a bubble of sex, drugs, stale cigarettes and, well, rock 'n' roll. When "Headstrong" took to the charts of mainstream radio dials across the nation last year, something clicked, and Trapt's quartet was sucked into the vacuum of celebrity.
Hip-hop group N.E.R.D. will play the final Bender Arena show of the 2003-2004 school year on Friday, April 23. Fountains of Wayne, who recently hit the mainstream with their popular song "Stacy's Mom," and Throne will also be playing.
Adam Corpora's The Freshman for March 25, 2004: how to irritate your fish
Baseball season is starting on April 3 in Baltimore. Red Sox vs. Orioles. To me and my fellow New Englanders, this is a holiday on par only with the classic springtime Massachusetts days of celebration: St. Patrick's Day, Patriots' Day and Bunker Hill Day. Though I walk around with my new "Super Bowl Champion" New England Patriots hat, I live and die by the BoSox.
From surly convenience-store clerks to love-struck lesbians, filmmaker Kevin Smith has been making movies about Generation X for 10 years. According to Smith, it's time to grow up. The calls of sellout have been mustering in the midst of his core fan base, which consists mostly of potty-mouthed adolescent males who read comic books and can't get laid, this writer included.
Ross Nover's comic Not Quite Wrong on non-traditional education.
In the classy Georgetown Ritz-Carlton, 31-year-old comedian Marlon Wayans looks relaxed in worn jeans, a wool sweatshirt and a beanie, while most of the others surrounding him rush around in tight and serious suits. Considering his role in the high-profile film "The Ladykillers," a remake of a classic film, in which he appears alongside the legendary Tom Hanks and under the direction of the infamous Coen Brothers, surely Wayans might be worried that he was out of his league.
If writer/director Kevin Smith's 1997 masterpiece "Chasing Amy" was a machete, his latest film "Jersey Girl" is a butter knife. The film opens in a classroom, as the children are reading papers about their dad. As one shy-looking kid begins to say the word "shit," he is cut off at the "shh" and it is immediately clear that this Kevin Smith film is different.
It's Christmas break and my friend was at the airport going home. As always, she got pegged for the extra security check and was pulled aside. Amidst the security personnel was one woman while the rest were men. As the woman began scanning my friend, who was spread-eagle with her arms at her side, she noticed a man going through her bag. Not thinking anything of it, she sees him pull out the neck of a shirt. She froze. That is where she had placed her vibrator.
AUSTIN, TEXAS - South By Southwest (SXSW) had to happen to me. The journey had to take place - though I'm still not sure why, I just knew it had to happen. Of the past 22 years of my life, music has consumed the last decade. It wasn't until after I picked up a guitar that I had a girlfriend. It wasn't until after I tuned into the radio that I found the tools I would later use to build relationships. And 3,000 miles, 5 days, 3 cases of Red Stripe and 100 bands later, I know that the past 10 years have only been a warmup.
It's called "Scooby-Doo 2," but after seeing this excellent movie, "Scooby-Doo 2-riffic" is more like it. As the movie opens, we join Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Velma (Linda Cardellini), Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and the lovable computer-generated Scooby-Doo - five unlikely members of Mystery, Inc., who pile into their "Mystery Machine" to discover who has been stealing monster costumes from the criminology museum of Coolsville.
Solutions by The State News