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RJD2 to Rock the Arts Quad During Orientation ... for FREE
July 22nd, 2008... And we're back! Welcome once again to the big show, Cornell. Prop up your feet; make yourself comfortable and ready for a new school year. Could I get you anything? A mineral water with a spritz of lime? A foot massage? I do regret to say, dear readers, serving is not my strong suit, but how about I serve you a free show on the Arts Quad instead? You will forget all about your parched palate and your hurting high arches when you hear RJD2's fine beats rip across the quad, Sunday, August 24. RJD2 will be headlining the annual free show sponsored by the Cornell Concert Commission (CCC). Following in the relatively new, yet nevertheless grand, tradition of Arts Quad concerts, RJD2 represents a sort of turning point in CCC’s bookings, as RJD2 will be the first experimental hip-hop act brought to Cornell since the Roots raised the roof in 2002. Previously, the Concert Commission has hosted six free shows, including the National in 2007, Motion City Soundtrack in 2006, Virginia Coalition in 2005, They Might Be Giants in 2004 and Guster in 2000. RJD2, therefore, is the obvious turntable-toting outlier on this list. Read More
Other News
The Arts Staff's Guide to Having Fun (and Failing School)
July 13th, 2008Cornell is hard — extremely, exhaustingly hard. It’s important you know that now. It’s also important you know that there are plenty of things to do at Cornell and in Ithaca besides your (nearly impossible) school work. It may come as a surprise, but some of those things don’t even involve drinking. Read More
Welcome to the Show
July 13th, 2008A recently released preview for an upcoming teen comedy presents the following scenario: Hordes of college students file into an enormous frat house, inside of which partygoers find a full bar, Chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling and a fire pit. At one end of the room, a famous rock-and-roll band is performing on stage; dispersed throughout, girls are pole dancing on platforms; and, even though the party is undoubtedly a wicked rager, everyone seems to enjoy a surprising amount of personal space. One character revels in the festivities, exclaiming, “This is insane!” His companion — obviously more versed in the ways of the world — retorts, “No, dude. This is college!” Read More
Paper Me and Paper You: 3D Tune for a 2-Dimension Culture
July 13th, 2008Homogenized product and hackneyed melodies take note: today is the end of days. Rec-execs, feel free to point the finger of blame at Reel Karma's latest offering: the youthfully exuberant Paper Me and Paper You. Read More
Archived Stories
Movie Review: Sex and the City
June 5th, 2008“Carrie fever” is not an affliction experienced solely by Beyonce in Jay-Z’s “’03 Bonnie and Clyde.” Racing to get to an 8:01 p.m. showing of Sex and the City, I ransacked my room searching for something worthy to wear in the presence of The Sex. There was no dress code printed on prepaid tickets, or any memo passed on by the media, but any loyal Bradshaw fan knows that Sex and the City is synonymous with “Sex and Manolos.” Alas, my pragmatic self proved too strong and I chose jeans and a sweatshirt instead, but upon entering the theater I quickly found out that I was severely underdressed for the occasion. Read More
Slope Day Preview: Cranking Up the Hot Hot Heat
May 1st, 2008I fear the lyrics to Hot Hot Heat’s 2002 hit single will morph into reality following the drunken debauchery that will surely ensue on tomorrow on Slope Day. People will be singing, “Bandages, bandages, bandages / Up and down on my legs my arms from you!” But whether or not these words will simply be the result of a catchy, stick-in-your-head chorus or of a horrible drunken accident … I guess time will only tell. Perhaps best known for “Bandages,” Hot Hot Heat has authored four best selling albums, which together include four top 50 hits. The band’s most recent album, Happiness Ltd., was released last year. Hot Hot Heat will perform second and directly before Gym Class Heroes tomorrow afternoon. Read More
Test Spin: Madonna
May 1st, 2008Over Madonna’s 25-year career, it’s always been nearly impossible to separate her music from her image; the two reflect each other so much that it’s often difficult to discern which came first. This tendency worried me, as the garishly horrific — and eerily pornographic — cover to Hard Candy suggested that the singer’s new album would be an equally atrocious listening experience. Thankfully, Madonna — for the most part — breaks from her image-equals-music tradition, as Hard Candy is a relentlessly modern, savvy collection of hip-pop that gleams with sleek, silky R&B and disco influences. Read More
Test Spin: The Kooks
May 1st, 2008The Kooks lead singer, Luke Pritchard, might have slipped into a bit of a depression over a girl, but resisting the uppers was a great decision. This broken heart has written an album full of depressing lyrics that, somehow, doesn’t dishearten the listener. Read More
Test Spin: Santogold
May 1st, 2008Delightfully boisterous, the Brooklyn-via-Philadelphia band Santogold focuses a dizzying array of reggae-dub, groovy surf rock and buoyant pop melodies into a truly promising debut album. Led by front-woman Santi White’s shape-shifting vocals and bandmate John Hill’s scorching synthesizer play, Santogold does not linger in any single genre of music for too long — a scheme that works to stellar effect. Read More
Test Spin: Atmosphere
May 1st, 2008One of the best things about the hip-hop duo Atmosphere is how articulate rapper Slug is. One of the worst things about When Life Gives You Lemons is how an army of overpowering instrumentals, led by louder-than-necessary snapping snare drums, negates whatever advantages clear vocals usually bring to an Atmosphere track. With the music out in front of the vocals, otherwise noteworthy beats grow mundane, rarely changing, which further diminishes the listening experience. Adding to the monotony of the album, most songs carry a dark, ominous tone; songs simply mesh into each other. The album lacks strong distinction among the individual tracks. Read More