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10 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2005 THE QUICK speed reads for your entertainment needs MOVIES • 'JUNEBUG' A fun film that puts North Carolina in spotlight, page 8 'THE MAN' The sort of trash fit for the cutting-room floor, page 9 'THE BROTHERS GRIMM' Maybe some day it will be one of those cult classics, page 10 ALBUMS • CALVIN JOHNSON A legend returns and makes an awesome rock album, page 8 PLEASANT Can't complain about stuff that sounds like The Cure, page 8 CRITERIA Will emo music ever die? It doesn't seem so. page 9 ROOFTOP SUICIDE CLUB There's nothing to like (and nothing to hate) here, page 10 KIMYA DAWSON Lo-fi anti-folk themes strike hard in this fine LP. page 10 CONCERTS • THE OCTOPUS PROJECT Over-the-top theatrics don't overshadow this act. page 8 SIGUR ROS This is what live shows are all about. One of a kind, page 9 dive recommends [ BECK, GUERO] On par with Odelay in terms of its lighthearted and quirky feel, Beck’s 2005 release finds the art ist more refined and focused than on some of his earlier albums. Each track flows seamlessly into the next and the album works as a complete package ifcther than as an amalgam of hit singles. Stand outs include “Que Onda Guero,” and “Girl,” which benefit from production by the Dust Brothers. [KANYEWEST, LATE REGISTRATION ] Despite West’s recent outburst in the media, he can still craft a fine album. Late Registration, which drips with layered production, interesting guest appearances and downright fun lyrics, is no exception. Anyone who liked The College Dropout should definitely pick this one up. ["ENTOURAGE"] If you missed it the first time around, don’t worry. An encore presentation of the second season of HBO’s hit series started up Tuesday. Contact Jim Walsh at walshjp@email.unc.edu. O '^ uest ' onsa^out . sev ' # Need a free pregnancy or STD test? m We’re here for vou. ■7wmis imm-- Pregnancy Support Services All services are free & confidential 3700 Lyckan Parkway • Suite D 431 W. Franklin Street • Suite 23 Durham, NC 27707 Chapel Hill, NC 27516 ill DUKE UNIVERSITY W MEDICAL CENTER Data Manager Position available in the laboratory of Dr. David Madden at the Duke University Medical Center http://www.geri.duke.edu/cogpsych/main.htm. The lab is located in the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, and the research focuses on age related changes in cognitive function. Duties for this position involve processing different forms of imaging data (e.g., fMRI, diffusion tensor), using SPM and locally developed software, as well as programming stimulus presentation for behavioral studies, and network administration. Minimum educational qualification for the position is 8.5./ B.A. Background in computer science and/or biomedical engineering, familiarity with MATLAB, helpful; two-year commitment preferred. Duke University is an equal opportunity employer. Submit resume to harri@duke.edu ‘Brothers Grimm’ not quite fabulous Even Damon can’t save flick BY ALAN HAYES STAFF WRITER Terry Gilliam’s movie, “The Brothers Grimm,” may best be remembered as a film with tre mendous potential that failed to live up. The movie brings a lot to the table. Director Terry Gilliam is a former member of Monty Python and director of the critically acclaimed “Brazil.” Matt Damon and Heath Ledger play the lead roles, which should attract a few females to the flick. If that wasn’t enough, the film’s source mate rial comes from some of the most well-known and popular stories of all time: the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. But the film’s potential does not translate into greatness. This is not a terrible movie by any means, but it is one that is probably worth a rental rather than an expensive night at the theater. The film begins, predict ably, with “Once upon a time ...” followed by a “Jack and the Beanstalk”-esque scene (a fairy tale not written by the Grimms, by the way) that sets the tone for the brother’s relationship throughout the film. Jacob (Ledger), the elder Grimm, comes home with a handful of magic beans, having traded them for the money that was meant to be used for a doc tor for his sister. Will (Damon), his brother, never forgives him for this. The brothers later become trav eling hucksters, tricking people to believe in their own superstitions, until a French general forces them to rescue a group of missing girls from an actual enchanted forest. The personas of the two broth Derivative power pop yields useless album BY BEN PITTARD ASSISTANT ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR “The rooftop suicide club is a band. It is not a real club. Please do not commit suicide.” So reads the disclaimer that runs with a packet of information on The Rooftop Suicide Club, a indie pop outfit from Massachusetts. The band, like its disclaimer, is a bit too cheeky. The throwback sensibilites it attempts to imbue fall short and it has little to offer lyrically. With its latest release, Always Like This, Rooftop Suicide Club makes a play for the hearts and minds of the college youth demo graphic. Citing influences from Wilco to Air Supply, the band fails to do anything original, and falls back too easily on singalong choruses and overly choreographed harmo nies. One tune churns out after another with few attempts at depth that is, beyond the obligatory Diversions Bp Hr ';w 4 - COURTESY OF DIMENSION FILMS Despite the star power of multiple A-list celebrities such as Matt Damon and Monica Bellucci, 'The Brothers Grimm' packs little punch. ers, however, are not entirely fleshed out until the latter half of the film, and by this point it is too late for an audience to identify with the bumbling protagonists. Anyone familiar with Gilliam’s previous work is aware of the type of visual world that he typically creates in his films. This is the largest budget he has ever had access to as a direc tor, but surprisingly, the Gilliam world doesn’t measure up. Visual seams run through the movie and are highly visible. Gilliam’s shots are frequently bathed in a glut of orange light, and the computer-generated effects fail to mesh with the real life actors and sets. The special effects look like special effects. But “The Brothers Grimm” is not without redeeming qualities. It has a lot of potential to even tually say 10 or 20 years down the road achieve the status of other cult B-movies, like “The Evil Dead” or “The Neverending Story.” MUSIC ROOFTOP SUICIDE CLUB ALWAYS LIKE THIS irk piano overlay during such tracks as “Plea for my Life.” While not necessarily anything special, the band isn’t anything particularly bad either. Suicide Club plays a formulaic brand of indie rock that is com pletely nonoffensive and fails to challenge listeners. Multi-instrumentalist Chris Haskell is harmless enough as a vocalist, singing simple pop songs with no preconceived notions that they are in fact pop songs. That is the band’s selling point and its Achilles’ heel. The music itself presents nothing new to the already cluttered indie music world. Haskell’s vocals won’t cost the listener any peace of mind, nor will they cause any thought. Like the majority of the record, they’re underwhelming at worst and medi ocre at best. In the grand scheme of things, Always Like This isn’t a bad record at all. It just seems completely unnecessary. Contact theA&E Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu. Open Daily Mon-A in,in'- Sat. 7am to 2pm • Sun Bam:to .2pin. Since 19/2 173 fast Franklin St • Chapel Hill • 91 ‘.1.929.9192 ±rC/ydHil \ \Ajorlcfd Cso. KhitU. t3>cdfl, .Spit 'd S % *5 Minutes from Campus * Upscale, All Inclusive membership I / /-2 | with Day Spa Atmosphere ■ • Group Exercise, Spin, Yoga, Pilates / • Free Weights, Strength Training v • S • Cardio Deck: Treadmills, Ufecydes, ••*• •“* Ellipticals, Steppers / \ * Personalized Programs, Massage Therapy I I * tuc * ent discounts & Corporate Programs * I • No Waiting in Lines \ {p&Wtt/d&'lfiAtTfi / * Certified Instructors and Personal Trainers \ S •We Honor Fitness Memberships from ''** <•*.• ■*' other Clubs (call for details) I Women Only Fitness Center • 127 Rams Pinza • 929 7474 MOVIE 'THE BROTHERS GRIMM' ★★ It’s got the type of over-the-top acting, bad writing and cheesy special effects that can actually be quite appealing. When this movie comes on TNT 10 years from now, check it out. The suits in charge of Dimension Films probably didn’t intend to spend more than S7O million on the movie’s produc tion, but given the innumerable delays and complications the film suffered, they’ll take what they can get. At one point in the movie, Damon says his supposedly enchanted homemade armor is “not magic, just shiny.” It seems appropriate in a movie like this, which had the makings of a gem but, in the end, lacked enchantment. Contact the AdEEditor at artsdesk@unc.edu. CONNECTS FROM PAGE 7 content-management system for student affairs. He said that he talked to a stu dent painting the cubes near the Pit one day and asked him if his group had a Web site. The student said no, adding that he didn’t know how to set one up. Payst asked him if his group would create a site if they had the tools to do so, to which the student responded enthusiasti cally. “So I thought that maybe I was on to something,” Payst said. He took the idea to Student Body President Seth Dearmin and members of his Cabinet and talked about the potential to use the soft ware for student groups. Dearmin said the desire for an organized system for student groups to communicate among themselves and with the public has always been strong on campus. “Anybody you talk to, if you ask what their top three priorities would be to make student organi zations as effective as they could be... 99 percent of the time they’re gonna talk about a system of gain ing information about other groups ... and having a centralized location to find that info.” The hope is that by taking the technological burden off students’ shoulders, more groups will be able to use cyberspace for better com munication. Not unlike the templates offered by popular blogging services Livejournal.com and Blogger.com, Mambo is designed so that even Sunny LP glides over dark themes BY BEN PITTARD ASSISTANT ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR “Exploding the teenage under ground into passionate revolt against the corporate ogre since 1982.” The mantra of long-time DIY .record label K Records perfectly encapsulates the theme of the lat est release from ex-Moldy Peaches member Kimya Dawson. Dawson has been pandering her particular brand of 10-fi anti-folk since the turn of the millennium, collaborating with the likes of Ben Kweller. With her latest outing, Hidden Vagenda, Dawson takes her music and moves in the direction of a very blunt, very sunny protest. The tracks deal with an array of themes including the fallen victims of the Iraq war, economic hardship, corporate rule, the current state of government, loyal fandom and girl crushes. “Viva la Persistence” discusses the troubles of families, using her own as an example, that struggle in the lower rung of the U.S. eco nomic ladder. Dawson chirps over a sunny gui tar beat so easily it could incite the local anarchists to skip down the street on their way to destroy the machine. “And mass graves make strong foundations, for the giant corpora tions, that own all the TV stations,” she sings. In “Singing Machine,” Dawson speaks her opinions on meddling corporate executives who control the direction of their artists. The song specifically focuses on everyone’s favorite forgotten son, Julian Lennon: “Some producer said to young Lennon, they can’t all be ballads Julian.” Although many of the tracks dis play something of a sunny dispo sition, sometimes weighty subject matter burdens the listener. “Moving On,” for example, is the frighteningly realistic tale of a woman trapped in an abusive novices can use it. “I have no absolutely no back ground or skill level for technology, and I can go in, create a Web page and update it,” Dearmin said. Even with the cubes, fliers, list servs and Pit-sits, it’s often difficult for students to find out specific information about all the activi ties on campus. Laabs echoed the sentiment that a program like Mambo would be a helpful tool in alerting students to the bevy of events happening every week. “There’s huge amounts of things going on on UNC’s campus, but the most likely time to find out about them is the day after when someone who actually heard about it told you how great it was,” he said. One of the features of Mambo is that it’s able to publish news and events that students post on their Web sites as real simple syndica tion feeds. Those feeds allow the posts to be automatically e-mailed to other group members. That feature also means that when a group updates its own personal calendar, the information is automatically collected into a larger calendar. The main calendar will be searchable by date, event or organization, he said. “Essentially, the most effective campus calendar that can be cre ated,” Dearmin said. Laabs said he thinks students will want to use Mambo because it offers so many useful features. “Mambo is more effective than a listserv because it keep records of everything that is posted on the Web site.” He also said the software sup ports public and private sections, so groups can post content that the public can access easily, as well as a private section that group mem bers can use to plan and organize. According to Payst, the program Brand New 20 Bed Salon, Largest in the Area! • Now Offering Tanning Enhiincements . ■■ • li.iy Sp i .pin it j fL • Brand New IJlliii High PirsMirv Hi <K • Medium Piessuiv Beds ,md Rnnllts y • Sunless Express Airbrush Tahning JmP { '■ Jm ■ •-Open 7 Days <i Week • UNC Student's, show, your UN.C ID for a discount i— , ■ Designer Skin • Licensed Lollegiiitf Handbags I 105 A Rams Plaza • 968-3377 <lbp SaiUj (Tar Uppl MUSIC KIMYA DAWSON HIDDEN VAGENDA ★★★ relationship with an alcoholic hus band. Dawson recreates disturbing scenes of violence during a con versation of a man returning to a wife ready to leave her trapped existence. Thankfully, the album picks up its pace again with a few more rol- j licking tracks. One such example would be * “5 Years.” The song is an album highlight with clever wordplay by Dawson. It’s here that she details her schoolgirl crushes on Strokes guitarist Nick Valenti and Isaac Hanson. She goes on to detail a happy married life with the former teen-icon. This kind of disarming charm and crafted songwriting is what pushes Dawson to the head of the neo-folk pack. But even these aren’t enough to save the second half of the album, which drags on with themes that were rehashed in earlier tracks. The sing-song style of “Parade” is simply too reminiscent of “Viva la Persistence” to truly move the song beyond anything but a throw away. Hidden Vagenda is an album ‘ that, considering the wholly depressing and often inflamma tory subject matter, impressively avoids taking itself too seriously. Asa whole, the album is a cute and blissful romp through modem folk that listeners are sure to enjoy. The LP is instantly accessible and listenable for any audience, despite otherwise heady content. Dawson displays a knack for put ting a sugar coating on a distasteful spoonful of bad medicine, which is perhaps her greatest strength as a songwriter. Contact the AidE Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu. will encourage student groups that moved away from UNC’s web ser vices in order to host their own sites to return to the University’s online community. “The largest sites were finding that the University didn’t support their needs and were going out side,” he said. “Now what the office of the vice chancellor is trying to do is provide those supports and encouraging student organizations to come back in to the University URL.” Payst said that Mambo also makes it easy for groups that already have a Web site to move their information over to a site powered by the software. “It used to take six months for me to turn around anew depart mental site ... now I can redesign a Web site in an afternoon.” Though there is no set date for the launching of the initiative, Payst and Dearmin both said it should be ready to go soon. Jon Curtis, assistant director for student activities and organiza tions, said that after all the student groups are officially recognized for the 2005-06 year and the equip ment is in place to offer Mambo to students, postcards will be sent out with information about the pro gram. Sept. 23 is the deadline for all groups filing for recognition. So while the kinks are worked out and the planning approaches its final stages, Dearmin said he is awaiting the launch of what he hopes will be a powerful tool to unite students on campus. “This fits into the broader goal of facilitation of student govern ment, and working with other student organizations to provide leadership... and to make campus events a more collaborative effort on the whole.” Contact the AdE Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Sept. 15, 2005, edition 1
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