College Media Network - Search the largest news resource for college students by college students Jobs and internships for students -

Top Story

Crazies

Crazy cool? Not so much:

The Crazies musters a meager "meh".

"Standard" is the word that first came to mind upon exiting last week's preview screening of The Crazies. Full story

Faust1

The devil is in the details:

The Lyric Opera gives an uneven performance with The Damnation of Faust.

Before I attended the Lyric Opera’s production of Hector Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, my closest association with opera was Elmer Fudd’s rendition of Wagner’s The Ride of the Valkyries (“Kill de wabbit, kill de wabbit ...”).

Wolf

Insert lone wolf pun here:

Josiah Wolf opts for sentimental lyrics and diverse musical combinations in solo venture.

Josiah Wolf, drummer of the indie and alternative hip hop band WHY? released his first solo album, Jet Lag, on March 2. 

Egg1

Y’all come back now:

The Art Institute showcases the South.

William Eggleston’s photographs are simple. They offer a snapshot of the nouns (people, places and things) of the South.

Websessed

Websessed

I visited Dixon, Ill., last Friday. It is a sleepy little town, about two hours west of Chicago. People can reach Dixon via the I-88, but I just used Google Maps.

Crazy Heart

Film Queue:

Bridges over troubled Oscars.

Shortly after his performance in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, we lost one of the better actors of our generation, Joaquin Phoenix, to the destructive allure of a music career. Oddly enough, he went into hip hop, of all things. Yet with an album still yet to materialize, I am inclined to believe that Phoenix’s career change was actually a dramatic retirement coup wrapped in a joke. Jeff Bridges, on the other hand, already has an album, 2000’s Be Here Soon, now available on iTunes. He also did one hell of a job on the Crazy Heart soundtrack, which he sang on and helped to write, along with his friend T-Bone Burnett (also one of the film’s producers) and the late Stephen Bruton (music producer, composer and one of the inspirations for the protagonist, Bad Blake). So take that, crazy Joaquin.      

Peace1

Of WASPs and war:

Steppenwolf’s A Separate Peace captures the mood of WWII.

Steppenwolf Theatre’s production of A Separate Peace is full of WASPy adolescents, preppy outfits, friendship and betrayal.

Joanna Newsom

Have three on me:

Joanna Newsom returns with a massive and masterful triple album.

Though Joanna Newsom’s fans have been waiting for Have One On Me for a few years, they may not have been expecting an album quite like this. Newsom’s latest release, her first since 2006, is a sprawling, ambitious triple album that delves deep into new styles of songwriting and instrumentation.


Have One On Me is enormous. The album is roughly two hours long and contains 18 tracks, most of which fall in the six to nine minute range.

Grumpus

The Phoenix's own Siskel and Ebert: Part II

The Quin-pire Strikes Back

The Oscars are arbitrary, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love them. It’s like March Madness for film geeks, but unlike college basketball you can’t rely on any empirical data like stats. It’s all randomness; it’s all an issue of inter-Hollywood politics and posturing. So who has postured best and posed themselves to win big? Certainly, and here I’m not saying anything radical, it’s those two very different films by those two equally overrated former spouses, James Cameron’s Avatar and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker.

Work Shout Out Louds

Working it out and succeeding:

Shout Out Louds get down to business with their newest album.

Shout Out Louds’ latest album Work doesn’t feel overworked at all. Their basic, stripped down sound gives the impression of a bunch of friends just getting together and jamming. Without resorting to gimmicks or high concepts, Shout Out Louds have made an album that is easy to listen to and ultimately enjoyable.


Work represents a new stage in the evolution of their sound. Forming in Stockholm, Sweden in the early aughties, Shout Out Louds first toured with Bud Fox Recordings. The band released their debut album Howl Howl Gaff Gaff in October 2003. The release was only heard in Sweden, but after further recording, the group released a revamped American version of the same album in May 2005.

Permalight

Riding the Wave:

Rogue Wave’s Permalight capsizes listeners with a tsunami of sound.

When the weather is lousy or you’re generally in a bad disposition, a method of escapism becomes a necessity.

North Face

Snow, wind and Nazis:

North Face masters the adventure genre with its take on German mountaineers.

The Eiger’s North Face has long been considered a poetic symbol of Switzerland, but for a few unlucky athletes, its near-vertical surface has been hell on earth.

Mexican Mural Art

Painting revolutions:

American artists inspired by the Muralist School debut at the National Museum of Mexican Art

If you are a minimalist who doesn’t enjoy looking at visuals with bold form and color, you might want to stay away from the new exhibition at the National Museum of Mexican Art. In Translating Revolution: U.S. Artists Interpret Mexican Muralists, grand gestures and overwhelming emotions take precedence over subtlety of any shape or form.


The exhibition, which opened Feb. 12 and runs through Aug. 1, contains American artwork inspired by the Mexican Muralist movement as well as some pieces created by “los tres grandes”—“the three greats” — of the scene themselves.

Wu Tang album cover.

Practice makes perfect:

Wu-Tang sticks to the basics with this series of remixes.

Don’t be confused, The Return of the Wu & Friends is not a totally new Wu-Tang album. But in some respects, it is new. The latest album featuring the Wu name is more of a remix album than anything else. Compiled by the group’s main producer and DJ Mathematics, the album features the cuts Wu recorded from 2000 to 2008. Because the release is comprised of content from Wu-Tang’s least productive and successful decade, The Return of the Wu & Friends starts 2010 on a sour note for the notorious clan.

Websessed

There are a few big names on the Internet that everyone should learn. Biz Stone is the co-founder and creative director of Twitter. Chad Hurley is the CEO of YouTube. And of course there’s the pope, but that one is obvious.


In early 2009, the Vatican launched its own YouTube channel. Every day, the channel uploads a video of the pope doing his usual pope things. People can access the channel to see the pontiff’s Sunday readings, speech clips and updates on Benedict XVI’s life.

12AngryMen

Crime and punishment:

Raven Theatre brings Twelve Angry Men to the stage.

Perhaps there is poetic justice in the fact that the Raven Theatre’s production of Twelve Angry Men is so lopsided.

Alkaline Trio

Surviving chemical addiction:

Alkaline Trio decides to play it safe for its seventh album.

Rock stars are notorious for addictions.

QFilm

Queue Film

Documentaries sometimes get an undeserved bad rap, but there’s more to this genre than meets the eye

We’re more familiar with documentaries than we might think. Just look at our televisions. Not only do we have Ken Burns’ PBS opuses like The National Parks: America’s Best Idea topping off a list of famous treatments of such all-American topics as jazz, baseball and the Civil War, but there was also the jaw-dropping BBC/Discovery tag-team effort known as Planet Earth, perhaps one of the most re-watchable documentaries ever made.

King John1

Get thee to a puppet show:

Loyola’s Bohrs Hoff directs a rare adaptation of King John.

Risky” is probably the best way to describe Bohrs Hoff’s production of The Life and Death of King John.

QuinFish

The Phoenix’s own Siskel and Ebert:

Diversions Editor Felipe Fisher and Film Queue’s Quintin Slovek get ready for the Oscars.

With the Oscars looming ever closer, Diversions has decided to take this opportunity to offer up its assessment of the past year in movies, with due consideration to those contenders vying for the golden statuettes come Mar. 7.

Cheap Date

Cheap Date

Sharing a milkshake on a winter afternoon never seemed sweeter.

Is a date still a date if it involves three people? Not sure.

February 17, 2010

Not quite Mozart, but almost:

The Phoenix talks to Anthony Molinaro, Loyola’s resident virtuoso.

 As another week of classes ended, plenty of establishments offered refuge for those wanting to unwind and escape to a place where deadlines and syllabi didn’t exist. For the students who nestled among the nearly packed Mundelein Auditorium, refuge took the form of the performance by Loyola’s own assistant professor of music — pianist Anthony Molinaro, along with alto saxophonist Greg Ward.


 The warning light dimmed to coax people to their seats as giddy audience members sat comfortably waiting for the concert to begin. Once it did, we were asked to hold our applause until each section ended. It wasn’t an easy task as people repressed the instinct to clap approvingly after each piece.

Chairs MCA

A room of one’s own:

Exploring the interior life of the artist at the MCA.

For centuries, the artist has been placed on a cultural pedestal, shrouded in the myth of creative genius. Our society’s image of the eccentric creator has been popularized and given credence by such larger-than-life figures as Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, two among many whose artistic works and storied personal lives have contributed to our conception of the artist.

Katrina III

Five years later and still coping:

Loyola’s theater department documents the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The disaster of Hurricane Katrina has been brought to the stage by Loyola University Chicago’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts. Thursday marked the Midwest premiere of the docu-drama Katrina: The K Word in Mullady Theatre. This work, written by playwrights Lisa Brenner and Suzanne Trauth, attempts to bring the devastation of the hurricane closer to the audience to give them a more personal view of what happened in New Orleans during the summer of 2005. While the audience is able to hear more stories about life surrounding the hurricane, there are no real emotional upheavals or revelations about the hurricane that will surprise viewers.

Harold Green

If poetry be the food of love:

Poet Harold Green confirms reports of his craft’s death are greatly exaggerated.

At first glance, poet Harold Green appears to be just another normal guy. Your eyes are immediately drawn to the long, full beard that covers half of his face and the tattoos that cover his hands.

3 comments

Heliogland

Nobody panic:

Massive Attack comes through with Heligoland.

Almost 20 years after their debut album Blue Lines was released, Massive Attack has released their fifth studio album, Heligoland. 

Point Omega

Bridge to eternity:

For the refined bookworm, DeLillo continues to delight.

Don DeLillo should not be graded for his work or what his work seems to do — his time in school is over.

Websessed

Websessed

Remember before everyone had a Facebook, but after everyone had a Xanga, when everyone had a MySpace? Those were the days.

Wolfman

Film’s new Howlin’ Wolf:

The Phoenix introduces a text-synopsis of The Wolfman.

08:11:09
 
Mariann: r u ready 4 wolfman lol
Abby: Not as ready as the guy w the wolf puppet!
 

Odd Blood

Yeasayer inspires optimism:

Odd Blood’s infectious electronica is worth saying yea to.

Being forewarned that Yeasayer was a little too electronic for most people, I was slightly worried after listening to the opening track of Odd Blood.

Queue Film

You can trust Tommy Wiseau to make a terribly entertaining movie.

 Directors often become synonymous with one trademark. For James Cameron it’s an overblown budget. 

IIT

Moholy Smokes:

LUMA celebrates multimedia artist Moholy-Nagy.

Moholy: An Education of the Senses, one of LUMA’s latest exhibits, contains a collection of some of the greatest works of art by the modern American artist Laslo Moholy-Nagy.

2 comments

Palate Jacked: Dessert Pizza

Remember dessert pizza? Well, it’s not just for little league parties anymore.

For months, I wanted to make a recipe for a healthy dessert pizza, with whole oats, fruit and yogurt   …  and maybe a drizzle of honey.