Alkaline Trio - Agony & Irony

Alkaline Trio’s 2008 album Agony & Irony is a new run in the ladder of success for the band. It is a different sound for the Chicago band, it’s a little less raw but a little more relatable for many listeners. One of the best things of the album is that it’s a cohesive album that you can listen to over and over again but at the same time each song seems to be the best song on the album. There is no weak link in the album, which is rare for an eight album for a band.

The album starts off strong and loud with "Calling All Skeletons" as the vocals lead a few seconds before the guitars kick in behind him. The band's familiar lyrical content and humorous edge kicks in immediately, picking up right where Crimson left off. “In Vein” is a standout track that just makes the listeners want to jump around and expel some steam. As the lead singer since about an abusive relationship, the song musically sounds old school like Cash. The strongest track on the album is “Over & Out” which displays the bands unique and distinct sound and lyrical subject matter. A song that reminds you of The Cure with its downbeat and some what saddening theme, is a memorable song on its own.

The album continues with songs like “Love Love Kiss Kiss” and “Live Young Die Fast” that just strengthen your emotional connection with the songs. An album you can listen to blow off steam, scream along, or sometimes even slow dance too, Alkaline Trio has managed to strengthen their fan base and overall image with this album. So next time your mad or sad or stressed, turn on “Over & Out” and just let the music kidnap you.

The Fifth Element - Bruce Willis at his best!

When The Fifth Element was released in 1997 it was one of the hottest science fiction flicks out there. The graphics and special effects were the upstaging factor of the film, making the $100 million budget seem well spent. Though originally criticized for lack of substance, logic, and intelligence, the film has surpassed its time and still brings the science fiction world to a reality to audiences. Starring action star Bruce Willis at the top of his game, the film is full of action, sexy costumes, clever one-liners, and an interesting projection of what the future looks like.

The story line is pretty simple, every thousands of years an evil darkness tries to consume the world but there is one thing that can stop it. When the four elements, wind, earth, fire, and water are placed around the fifth element, the Supreme Being, the five elements destroy the evil. The fifth element is woken but the four other elements are stolen. The fifth element, Leeloo, escapes from a lab, and happens to fall into Bruce Willis’ cab, who happened to be an ex military officer. The two of them team up to find the four stolen elements and save the world. Not a film that should be watched based on its storyline or realisticness, but for its entertaining action and captivating characters.

The Fifth Element is a timeless science fiction film that still holds ground today in production design, creativeness, originality, and visual effects. One of Bruce Willis’ best roles as the badass Korban Dallas that saves not only the day, not just the girl, but the entire world. Awesome.

Favorite Book : The Time Traveler's Wife

The debut novel of Audrey Niffenegger The Time Traveler’s Wife is a timeless love story mixed with a science fiction twist. An unconventional love story that jumps around through time, just as Henry does. We follow the life of Clare as a young child meeting who she will later identify as her future husband, who is coming from the future where they are already married. And we follow the life of Henry, jumping around from present to past to future and even encountering himself during another time. It sounds complicated and hard to follow, but Niffenegger mastered the in depth detail of time traveling, which allowed her to perfectly weave the story together in a way that audiences can follow and become emotionally invested in.

The story starts out with Clare bumping into Henry, someone she obviously knows, while he has no clue who she is. That is because Henry time travelers, not by choice, but because of an uncontrollable genetic malfunction. At the beginning of the story, Henry has never met Clare, but Clare has spent her entire young life meeting an older Henry in a meadow behind her house. The older Henry she knows, comes from the future where they are already married, Henry’s present day, future for Clare.

Though time travel is not an original idea, the way that Niffenegger has structured the story, the audiences become so involved in the suspense that Henry could have an episode and disappear any moment, leaving Clare alone to wonder where in time he has gone and if he is visiting her as a child. A story that causes you to laugh, cry, and suffer just as the characters do. A great read that you will read over and over again, hoping that some how, the time that has passed since you last read it, changes something.

deviantART

deviantART is a online community launched in 2000 showcasing various forms of user made artwork. Since the evolution of the internet, artists have more of an opportunity to showcase their work than ever. This site provides just that, exposure, support, scholarships, and networking internationally. Many similar websites these days often can accidentally create a negative and a discriminatory atmosphere but deviantART is a no tolerance website. Ideally the website’s primary goal was to provide members or “deviants” with a relatively unrestricted creative environment to thrive in while also enforcing a friendly environment. Originating to showcase digital artwork, the site has grown to much more than that and fast.

The website showcases over 11 million “deviations” or artworks and has over 1 million deviant members. It is able to earn revenue through subscriptions, small advertisements, and services it offers to it’s members such as printing. Because of the nature of the website, the front page houses very little text and very large dominating graphics, all deviations of the deviants which are in a display rotation weekly. The site is user friendly and very uncluttered, simulating a gallery you could find any where in the world. To the left of the page is the category list ranging from digital, to traditional, to fan art, and even journals, with many more in between. You can browse through popular art or new art incase you cant narrow down what it is that you are looking for. Nonmembers and members alike can commission pieces or buy existing showcased pieces.

Membership is free and for less than 5 dollars a month, members can subscribe in order to receive discounts on services, eliminate ads and pop ups, access to a message center and other features. For many members, showcasing their artwork on their own purchased website may not be an option, so having a devianART page allows students and artists to show off their work for free. Artists on deviantART also feed off of each other and depend on each other for honest, positive, and constructive criticism. Comments can be made by members on individual pieces of work and viewed by anyone. Because of the positive atmosphere of the site, many artists find that the constructive criticism they receive online is much more valuable than any criticism they find outside of the site. As a member or nonmember, deviantART is one of those websites you can browse for hours, getting happily lost in the endless tunnels of creativity. For nonmembers just looking to purchase or support, deviantART can inspire creativeness out of anyone.

As the site receives more members and more attention, they strive to bring the positive vibe of their online community to the outside world. Engaging artists and nonartists alike are now annually able to participate and form a real live community in California. The event is centers around gallery showings, seminars, instructional sessions, and business tips to inspiring artists.

Overall deviantART is the perfect online community for artists whether they seek criticism, feedback, exposure, to sell their work, to commission their work, or to even print their work. And the perfect online community for nonartists who seek inspiration, original artwork, employees, or who just want to zone out in a creative and visually stimulating website.

SOUTH PARK Season 15 Episode 14

Oh South Park, how you never get old! Now in it’s 15 season, Trey Parker and Matt Stone just don’t seem to run out of ideas. By this time in The Simpsons, the plots are getting redundant. But since South Park feeds off of celebrities, current events, and trends, the ideas are never ending. One great thing about South Park is its ok to love one episode and hate the next. That’s the only way the show maintains its fan base. “The Poor Kid” is one of those episodes you love for it’s obnoxious take on American culture and hilarious exaggerations. For those fans that have watched South Park from the beginning, you know how much of a treat it is to have an episode focus mostly on Kenny. Kenny is one of those characters that are not often focused on much but when he is the star, he has memorable episodes. Kenny, the character who used to be killed in every episode, who played the body double for Michael Jackson’s son Blanket in “The Jefferson’s” episode, and hit Butter’s in the eye in “Good Times with Weapons” is the perfect target for this episode (although the obnoxiousness of Cartman can never be escaped).

When Kenny and his siblings are placed in foster care because their parents were arrested for being “white trash”, Cartman is determined to figure out who the next poorest kid in school is so that he can pick on him. While doing research Cartman and Butter’s discover that Cartman is the next poorest kid in school. Finally, what audiences have been waiting for - Cartman to be the target of cruel jokes. But no, Cartman, not wanting to be made fun of, frames his mom so that he can get placed in foster care as well. The “soft room” at the police station where Kenny and Cartman are both taken, is a funny sight gag, a room filled with scary clown pictures that would give anyone the heebeegeebees. A room that is supposed to be comforting for these trauma kids, is actually the complete opposite.  The foster home that they boys are taken to is a home run by an Agnostic couple who enforce the idea that God may or may not be real and that only Dr. Pepper should be consumed because its not really root beer and its not really coke. The kids in the foster care are so on edge and afraid of committing to anything. The over exaggeration and twist of having an Agnostic couple instead of the cliché of overly religious foster parents adds an interesting and hilarious aspect to this episode.

Funny stuff, but back to Kenny. Its true that Cartman dominates the majority of episode but not only do we have Kenny, we have his alter ego and super hero side Mysterion Man. The costume is relatable to Kenny’s usual coat that covers his face, not allowing the audience to see Kenny. It is very rare when Kenny is shown and when it is done, the audience usually never acknowledges that it is indeed Kenny (like in “The Jeffersons”). We get the return appearance of Mysterion Man, who protects Kenny’s little sister at school and in foster care. One of the best scenes in the show is when Mysterion Man is trying to distract the foster parents from their torture session towards the kids after one kid states something instead of questioning it. Their weapon is a keg of Dr.Pepper that sprays the kid who is hanging upside down in order to force the indecision in them. As Mysterion Man is leading the foster parents away, he replaced the Dr.Pepper in the fridge with a can of PBR, which previously established is what cause people to become “white trash”. The couple shares the can and then they are arrested for being “white trash” after being disorderly.

Overall the episode struggled to incorporate time relevant jokes, like as many Penn State jokes as possible, into the episode without actually commenting on the matter in a way that worked. Being the season finale, much more was expected. South Park usually ends with a quite a bang. Still though, “Poor Kid” is right up there with the best of this season such as “History Channel Thanksgiving” and “You’re Getting Old”.