It almost goes without saying that the Oscars tend to disappoint, year in and year out. In my humble opinion, the Academy gets it wrong far more often than right, and the lengthy award ceremony itself has been upstaged as of late by the much leaner and meaner Golden Globes boozefest.
“The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them,” the great French poet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in his 1939 memoir “Wind, Sand and Stars.” This issue lies at the heart of “Her,” the latest cinematic effort from writer-director Spike Jonze. The film, which blurs the line between romantic comedy and heavy drama, showcases the terrific power of technology in helping us to cope with trauma and create human connections, but it also emphasizes the limitations of systems and machines in offering a rich and sustainable lifestyle.
In an ideal world, there would be no such thing as a “guilty pleasure.” We should be able to pop in a Demi Lovato album, DVR the latest episode of “Pretty Little Liars” and marvel at Sandra Bullock’s performance in “All About Steve” without so much as an ounce of shame.
A new administrative policy on academic space reservations has performing arts CIOs up in arms, as scores of theatre directors and a cappella group leaders scramble to find available spots for rehearsals.
The Lawn will come alive Wednesday as students congregate to take part in one of the University’s most treasured traditions: Rotunda Sing.
The Lawn will come alive Wednesday as students congregate to take part in one of the University’s most treasured traditions: Rotunda Sing.
The words “pompous” and “pretentious” are bound to come up in any discussion of Aaron Sorkin, given the award-winning writer’s propensity for stuffing his characters’ mouths with the sort of pseudo-intellectual babble you might expect to hear in a high school politics classroom.
Over the course of the past decade, LGBT groups have made massive strides with regard to the portrayal of so-called “queer” characters on television.
“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?” Joni Mitchell asked in her 1970 single “Big Yellow Taxi.” Mitchell may have been singing about paving paradise to put up a parking lot, but her message applies just as well to the way in which we, as a society, tend to approach pop culture.
As a general rule, it’s safe to say acoustic albums are a bad idea. Whether you’re a mainstream chart-topper or a soulful indie crooner, you’re bound to have something to gain from an instrumental or electronic arrangement that consists of more than the endless strumming of guitar strings.
