September 2008
The people's gravelly voice →
Alan Lupo, 1938–2008 There’s a lot to be said about Alan Lupo. All of it good. Much of it colorful as hell.
The people's gravely voice →
Alan Lupo, 1938–2008 There’s a lot to be said about Alan Lupo. All of it good. Much of it colorful as hell.
Dance, Monkey: Baratunde Thurston →
We put a comic on the hot seat. This week’s victim … I saw Biz Markie in concert. He remixed “Just a Friend” to “Obama, you got what I need. Ooooobama youuu!” This is obviously the next big…
Photos: RISD's Chace Center →
Images from Rhode Island School of Design’s new museum
Photo by Flint Born
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It’s about time . . . →
The Ditson Festival of Contemporary Music starts in Boston It’s been 17 years since Boston’s last local festival of contemporary music, the New Music Harvest organized by composer Charles…
Twitheads →
Is it time to dial down journalism’s latest fad? Is Twitter bad for journalism?
It’s always dicey to question technology’s forward march: do so, and you risk being labeled a…
Franky N the Boys →
One good thing Franky N the Boys, a new cash-only Brookline Village storefront, serves only simple burgers, fries, shakes, and sodas.
Townsend's →
Go out of the way for good food and a welcoming atmosphere It’s south of Cleary Square, which is similar to what Davis Square was like 20 years ago, a world of mom-and-pop stores leavened with…
Therapy lubricant →
Reality check
Interview: Dennis Lehane →
Mystic River author’s new The Given Day gets down and dirty in the North End circa WWI Dennis Lehane’s big new book, The Given Day , is full of bloodshed, mayhem, power, corruption, and lies.
Are universities selling out to oil nations? →
As big bucks beckon, Gulf campuses of American universities are booming As Academia searches for elusive dollars in a downward economy, oil-rich nations are enticing American schools to open…
Scars & stripes →
American vets discover that their military uniforms — like their service — look better on paper “Dude, that shit right there? That’s Iraq.”
PAPER VICTORY: At Combat Paper…
Hello, old friend →
Sports blotter: “Past Pats” edition There was a recent arrest of a onetime member of the Patriots defensive backfield — old friend Lawyer Milloy.
Lawyer can’t pass bar Quick…
Odium at the podium →
This year, with such a close contest, the debates could have an impact like never before. Here’s what to watch for. In most presidential elections, the importance of the debates is over-rated.
Blunt object →
The political fight over a November marijuana-reform ballot question has sparked a Battle of the Bong Question 2 supporters claim Massachusetts district attorneys committed “at least 15…
True dat? →
Rory O’Connor ponders the future of journalistic trust at Harvard Rory O’Connor’s timing couldn’t be much better.
Rory O’Connor’s timing couldn’t be much better. We’re in the…
Literary import →
Ploughshares lands a new editor One of the first things Ladette Randolph tells me is that she’s a fifth-generation Nebraskan, that her great-great grandparents settled there, that the landscape…
More different than alike →
Searching for national identity in State By State: A Panoramic Portrait of America In 1935, Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) as part of the New Deal’s…
Personally speaking →
Abortion and Life tells whole truths For decades, feminists have rallied behind the phrase “the personal is political,” meant to remind us that our personal lives are intrinsically affected by…
Debatable →
Can Obama show grit? Will he connect? Can McCain stop lying? Will he remember? With the presidential debates about to begin, political pundits are full of advice for Senators Barack Obama and…
Nights in Rodanthe →
Weepy, made-for-TV material Diane Lane has become typecast as the older, disenfranchised woman who runs away to find solace but instead rediscovers romance, or at least sex.
My Best Friend's Girl →
Predictability ensues. Hilarity doesn’t. How many awful films must audiences sit through before producers realize that Dane Cook is not a romantic lead?
The Big Hurt: Hagar the horrible →
Plus award-winning awards and buggering Beatles I was reading a fascinating article about Sammy’s new record deal, and an epiphany struck: every year, Sammy looks more and more like the Dude.
The Lucky Ones →
A contrived film about the war in Iraq A roller-coaster ride toward spurious patriotism; a road trip transporting unlucky viewers from hoo-rah to ho-hum.
Harold Wells made up this headline, too →
Letters to the Boston editor, September 26, 2008
Beautiful Losers (2008) →
An energized portrait of Alleged Gallery artists A documentary, directed with Joshua Leonard, about an energized group portrait whose accessibility is abetted by the artists’ collectively keen…
I had an abortion →
Forty percent of American women have abortions by the time they’re 45. I’m one of them. Does anyone think about us, the people who have actually gone through with an abortion, and accepted that…
John McCain's economic philosophy →
Big Fat Whale
Kaidoku XXX →
Psycho Sudoku
Boston after dark →
Succe$$
Flow →
A somewhat wishy-washy exposé Instead of goading us with bits and pieces of the doom-and-gloom picture, some documentarian should come up with a unified theory of why we’re all screwed.
Photos: Weezer at Tsongas Arena →
Weezer at Tsongas Arena, Lowell, MA, September 23, 2008
Weezer Tsongas Arena, Lowell, MA, September 23, 2008 All photos by Carina Mastrocola
Rivers Cuomo porn ‘stache? Check….
Horse Feathers | House With No Home →
Kill Rock Stars (2008) It’s not a sad album, but it is mournful, in the hushed and satisfying way that Sunday afternoons in November can be.
Koushik | Out My Window →
Stones Throw (2008) Although unshy about his background, he’s a subtle arranger, reluctant to play the Bollywood card (there’s not even a teaspoon of Asha).
Choke →
“Gag” might be a better title Dotty old women, idiots in powder wigs, a fat guy beating off, and disgorged chunks of food — they aren’t as funny as you might think.
Hounddog →
A trite rehash of second-rate Southern Gothic Those undaunted or attracted by the hysteria will wonder what the fuss is about as they discover that Hounddog’s biggest offense is Fanning’s…
Lakeview Terrace →
Full of entrapping clichés LaBute tries to engage issues of race, class, and gender in this potboiler, but his usual vitriol gives way to blood in the swimming pool.
Battle in Seattle →
A docudrama that overcomes it’s obvious flaws Like Paul Haggis’s Crash , the film mistakes stereotypes for archetypes, staging absurd coincidences with timely epiphanies so everyone can learn a…
Ben Folds | Way To Normal →
Epic (2008) His attitude may remain young at heart, but his irony’s over the hill.
Jem | Down to Earth →
ATO (2008) The songs broadcast their emotional content — anxiety, melancholy, resilience — with a straightforwardness you rarely hear outside children’s music.
Ani DiFranco | Red Letter Year →
Righteous Babe (2008) This is DiFranco’s most sophisticated album, a musical convergence of her best qualities: warm singing, graceful writing, experimentation.
Dungen | 4 →
Kemado (2008) The playing is looser and rougher than you might expect, with tons of drum fills that teeter on the verge of sloppy, but this adds to Dungen’s trademark unpredictability.
Inner children →
Boston Society of Spontaneity’s MP3-EXP at Columbus Park It sounded simple enough to participate in the mysterious MP3 Experience, an absurdist flash-mob event organized by the Boston Society of…
Just a little bit →
‘Lossless’ at The Sert Gallery, ‘Overflow’ at Laconia Gallery, Garry Knox Bennett at the Fuller, and String-Theory-inspired art and music at NESAD Digital-era experimental filmmakers occupy a…
!!!!!!!!!!!! →
Exclamation Point! diversifies its portfolio The Exclamation Point! series started as an informal gathering of local poets, writers and theater folks, but this Saturday its organizers, the Fort…
New kids on the block →
Allow Dear Leader to introduce you Newly reactivated local gut-pop heroes Dear Leader will play two shows this weekend, with a handful of notable newbs and special guests.
Sith happens →
No new lease on life for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Many people regard anything produced in the past 15 years or so bearing the Star Wars brand as total garbage, and rightly so.
Interview: Amanda Palmer →
At home with the Dresden Doll’s solo joint So it’s the eve of the release of local sensation and Dresden Dolls vocalist/pianist Amanda Palmer’s solo debut album, and I’m sitting in her…
Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild →
A campy, smutty, neon-hued, extremely silly good time Todd Stephens brings back the characters from Another Gay Movie for a homo-erotic Where the Boys Are .
A real cut-up →
An interview with Robert Pollard on the occasion of the landing of Boston Spaceships Robert Pollard is a Renaissance man.
youtubeVid('EcamwNqJvzg') VIDEO: Boston Spaceships, “Winston’s…
