- Courtesy of Sony/Columbia
'2012' has giant explosions and no plot
By: Nick Coston
As a work of cinema, “2012” deserves no stars. It’s a horrible film with horrible acting and horrible editing. But as an experience, as a ride, as a freakish and brainless parade of explosions, it earns five Mountain Dews, ten bags of beef jerky and three lower-back tattoos.
A florist that rocks
By: Brigid Kilcoin
"Flowers" isn't must-see TV, but it's an entertaining diversion and a positive step away from TLC's overload of programs focusing on freakishly oversized families. While it might not shed a huge amount of light on the flower arrangement business, star Jeff Leatham is entertaining enough so it doesn't matter.
Born to preach, Brother Ali brings his rhymes to the Blind Pig tonight
By: Sharon Jacobs
With songs that tackle tough issues like homelessness and drug abuse, Brother Ali doesn’t like the oft-used term “positive” in reference to his style. But his ultimately hopeful message makes Ali one of the more uplifting messengers from the underground rap world.
The enigmatic Devendra Banhart hits The Ark tonight
By: Jasmine Zhu
When I spoke with Devendra Banhart, he was in front of a kitchen table in Los Angeles while Rodrigo Amarante of Little Joy fame played guitar in the background. Banhart was in the process of getting ready to go on tour to promote his new album, What Will We Be. He'll be playing at The Ark tonight at 8 p.m.
Guitar gods 'Get Loud' in bangin' new documentary
- Courtesy of Sony
By: Andrew Lapin
Putting these three masters in a room together with their guitars sounds more like an epic jam session than a full-fledged documentary film. And yet here we are with “It Might Get Loud,” the new movie that does exactly that. Even though the film isn’t interested in revealing great, hidden truths about its subjects, it’s still an absurdly fascinating ride through the past and present of three crazy good musicians.
Jamie Block: Interactive TV, the real new media
By: Jamie Block
Plenty of people play video games on TV screens, but soon we could be playing games on TV shows. And I, for one, am absolutely thrilled. Interactive TV is an idea that has been tossed around for some time now, with game shows where viewers call in to answer obnoxiously easy trivia questions, but this retirement home-esque chipper activity is hardly groundbreaking or innovative.
Tonight at Hill, the Indian American Student Association puts on a cultural spectacle
- Clif Reeder/Daily
By: Kavi Shekhar Pandey
“Vistaara,” this years IASA culture show, showcases the efforts of 250 participants who have been practicing their routines since September. The show spotlights various dances that encapsulate aspects of Indian culture.
The Macpodz get their weird on tonight at the Blind Pig
By: Kristyn Acho
Tonight, Ann Arbor's own the Macpodz are "landing their dance-party mother ship" at the Blind Pig. Or at least that's how they put it.
With mixed results, 'Men Who Stare' reaches for classic war satire
- Courtesy of Overture
By: Kavi Shekhar Pandey
A certain degree of lunacy and silly behavior is expected from a film with a title as peculiar as “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” And antics abound, as the movie follows in the tradition of “MASH” and “Catch-22” with its absurdist approach to war and all of its troubles.
Darwin dreams of the future of science
By: Molly McGuire
2009 is an important year for Darwin enthusiasts and natural history scholars. It marks Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his most influential work, “On the Origin of Species.” As part of the celebration at the University, a cast of students and faculty are performing an original play, “Darwin’s Dreams: The Struggle for Existence,” at the Exhibit Museum of Natural History tonight, Saturday and Sunday.
Hip hop's hardest rapper can't cash in
By: Jeff Sanford
In case you don't know by now, 50 Cent is hard. Curtis “Fiddy Cent” Jackson is the hardest hard-ass around and he wants you to know all about how hard he his. In fact, he’s going to tell you over and over again exactly how hard he is.
'The Baader Meinhof Complex' offers a view from the political fringe
By: Brandon Conradis
“The Baader Meinhof Complex” is a fascinating example of a film about the past made to address politics of the present. It’s not an overtly political film — in the sense that it doesn’t voice its own opinions about the proceedings — but it certainly poses many relevant and controversial questions regarding the origins of terrorism and the necessary acts a government must take to stop it.
Circles of epic boredom
By: Jeff Sanford
Unfortunately, Russian Circles’s most recent effort, Geneva, is neither inspirational nor poignant (whatever that means), and it's only occasionally sprawling.
Whitney Pow: Food, life, senses and memory
By: Whitney Pow
This past weekend I went to New York City for 36 hours for a museum studies class. While I was there I ate at Lombardi’s, the self-proclaimed “first pizzeria in America,” and tried the white pizza, which was sauce-less, dotted with giant florettes of ricotta and drizzled with garlic-infused olive oil. I ate soft pine-nut-studded pignoli and tri-colored, chocolate-lined rainbow cookies at Ferrara, a patisserie in Little Italy.
- Courtesy of Focus
Rocking the high seas with 'Pirate Radio'
By: Hans Yadav
But what about the men who sit in the lonesome radio towers, broadcasting those soul-shattering tunes for millions to hear? If rock stars were the spotlight-hogging Don Quixotes of this world, then the radio disc jockies would unquestionably be their trusty Sancho Panzas. But the normally unsung heroes of this tale transcend to god-like status in the comedy “Pirate Radio.”
VH1 gets filthy with 'Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew'
By: Ant Mitchell
Congratulations are in order for VH1’s newest creation. Not every network can claim to have produced the reality-show equivalent of a used condom.
The Flashbulb brings groove to UMMA tomorrow
By: Joshua Bayer
At a creatively throbbing 31 years old, bipolar electronica artist Benn Jordan has pumped out a whopping 14 LPs in just the last decade. His most prolific pseudonym is the Flashbulb, the label he’s deciding to wear when he plays at the UMMA for free on Saturday night.
