It’s the perfect time of year to discuss a longstanding moviegoers’ gripe: “The book was better.” Or “they changed the ending.” Or World War Z is an in-name adaptation only. (To be fair, that last statement, sort of uttered by World War Z novelist Max Brooks, isn’t a gripe. It’s the book’s fans who are […]
Everyone has his or her own way of processing information. Some of us think visually; the neurological place where seeing is believing and photographic memories are born. Others have an astounding knack for audio perception, memorizing information primarily with their psychoacoustic faculties. There are those who rely heavily upon numerical data and others who do […]
Hidden monuments Portland, Oregon-based folk collective Balto has been called “the band everyone should have heard of, but nobody has.” All that anonymity may be on the brink of dissipation, as the group heads east with a suitcase full of tunes from its latest EP, Monuments. The album was recorded in an old church over three days in […]
While the summer sun beats down outside this weekend, the Paramount stage will be replete with winter wind workers, blizzard bringers, icicle sharpeners, and snow smoothers – all local children cast in the Missoula Children Theatre’s modern adaptation of The Princess and the Pea. From kings, queens and phony princesses to flower gardeners and dust […]
Turn it up Delta Rae (left) is known as a folk rock act, yet such a flat description is no match for the electrifying tunes from this North Carolina-based sextet. On their debut album, Carry the Fire, the Hölljes siblings complement rich Carolina soul with rockharmonies a la Fleetwood Mac and the storytelling narratives of folklore and mythology. The result […]
After seeing Man of Steel, the Christopher Nolan-iphied Superman update, it’s become clear: Nolan is limited. He needs real-world characters who can supply real-world solutions, even if those real-world characters are fighting The Joker or swimming in someone else’s dreams. Starting off on an alien planet? It’s just too otherworldly for him to make worldly. An alien infant crash-landing on Earth needs a […]
This past year San-Franciscan folk rock duo Two Gallants returned from a five-year hiatus with a new sound on its ATO Records debut, The Bloom and the Blight.
The record-breaking success of 1989’s Batman green-lit a wave big-budget retro-adventure films, including the outlandish, neon ensemble piece Dick Tracy; the brash, moody grotesquerie of The Shadow; and the feather-light, straight-faced camp of latecoming entry The Phantom. Nestled amongst them is 1991’s The Rocketeer; though it was considered a modest disappointment upon release (Disney thought […]
Let’s get this out of the way: The name Japandroids doesn’t mean anything. Both members of the Vancouver-based rock band happened to come up with two-word names before their first billed show. Neither of them liked the other’s suggestion, so they combined them. The result is a play on words that Brian King and David Prowse expected to change before […]
On March 1, 2013, Justin Drew Bieber tweeted that he had just experienced the “worst birthday.” It was later revealed that the vague message had something to do with a club’s owners throwing Bieber and his pals out because they suspected some were underage. Bieber disputed this, and I dispute that this qualifies as a “worst” […]