Triptych Window from the Avery Coonley Playhouse by Frank Lloyd Wright

Featured in an exhibit at the Art Institute titled “American Perspectives”, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Triptych Window from the Avery Coonley Playhouse originally linked the interior with exterior through openness and light. Now it hangs next to two pieces similar to it, in a forced imitation. Wright designed this stained glass piece for his well known Riverside, Illinois clients the Coonleys. A whimsical addition to the playhouse for the Avery Cooney School this stained glass piece features shapes that can be interpreted as confetti, balloons, and flags. Wright’s interest at this time in Japanese prints and design are revealed through this glass composition. This Japanese influenced piece mixed with Wright’s love for “festive Americana” breathes celebration and is known as a “kinder-symphony”. By including primary colors and clean lines, these windows represent a simplicity that can be interpreted as the innocence and simplicity of the children that inhabited the space. Though these windows are at the Avery Coonley’s gifted school, they are primarily part of the playhouse area, hence the whimsical and playfulness.

Wright never planned on his art glass being viewed outside of the natural architectural context for which they were designed for. He believed the glass and the architecture complimented each other, and with out one, the other could not stand on its own. Now a day, no one really believes this concept to be true. When Wright designed a house for a client, not only did they get a famous architect who buildings are now landmarks, they got numerous, sometimes hundreds of beautiful stained glass art pieces. Sadly, it is hard to see Wright’s original intent with his architectural/ glass concept since many windows have been removed and placed in museums. This individual piece, though it shouldn’t be viewed as an autonomous piece, successful conveys the feeling, the times, and space it once was a part of.

Black Dogs

Black Dogs: The Possibly True Story of Classic Rock’s Greatest Robbery is a short novel that can only be described as an attempt at Gonzo literature. Gonzo Literature, a genre created for and by Hunter S. Thompson to describe his style, merely means when fiction and nonfiction cross paths. In this particular novel, the author, Jason Buhrmester, does exactly that. He takes the infamous robbery of Led Zeppelin in 1973 and recreates what might have happened, creating a book that is vivid, ingenious, captivating and impossible to put down.

Having no more facts than what the public knows, Buhrmester imagines a crazy and almost believable solve to the greatest mystery and robbery in classic rock’s history.

Here are the facts of the event; in July of 1973 Led Zeppelin played three sold out shows in Madison Square Garden in the heart of New York City. Before the final performance, over $200,000 of the band’s money was stolen from a safety deposit box at the Drake Hotel, where the band was staying. The money has never been recovered, no one has even been caught, and the hotel ended up having to pay the band in full. Those are the only facts in the book; Buhrmester imagines the rest.

The story follows 19 year old Patrick Sullivan who has managed to botch every robbery job he has attempted. After his last job went horribly wrong, he left Baltimore eager for a fresh start in New York, and left his best friend Alex, sitting in jail for his crime. But when Patrick sees a briefcase of money backstage at the Led Zeppelin concert, he gets a crazy idea but realizes he is going to need his crew back for just one more job; the greatest robbery in rock history.

He returns to his hometown to rope his crew into the job. His crew is a bunch of misfits, including Alex, who is still slightly bitter from the last job, Frenchy, a music loving nobody, and Keith, who specializes in theft of car radios. The way Buhrmester describes these friends, they could be anyone’s friends. They have traits that are relatable to recognizable to just about everyone. This makes the audience want to see these crazy misfits succeed at something for once.

While Patrick rounds up his crew, every location he visits, the record store, the pawn shop etc are all very vividly described. Through Buhrmester’s descriptions, the audience is able to get a genuine feel for the dingy locations and the times. It is because of Buhrmester’s attention to detail that sometimes you forget this is all made up. It becomes so believable; you almost want this to be the real story.

But before the gang can put the petal to the metal and get their insane scheme going, they run into a biker gang made up of Christian Bikers, The Holy Ghosts, after trying to steal a Les Paul guitar from their pawnshop. After this ordeal, the gang gets wrapped up in trying to execute their plan stumbling across great characters such as Boggie, a front man from a band called The New York Giants. Because the end of the story is true, and the money is missing after all, we know the story is just going to get more interesting from this point on.

Black Dogs is truly brain candy for rock n roll fans. From the many song and band references, to the infamous robbery, this novel will surely fix any craving for a crazy, unbelievable, rock n roll good time. The characters and descriptiveness really show just how much thought the author put in to it. He basically took the idea that this event happened, now who and how in the world was it done? By a group of pot smoking, beer drinking, good time loving, group of friends who were never able to pull off anything before. That’s who.

Cowboys and Aliens

Cowboys and Aliens is a hodgepodge of old west and science fiction elements, a combination that doesn’t sit well with audiences. With a title that suggests imagination, creativeness, and action packed fun, this film disappoints on almost every level.  The plot is farfetched and comical yet still better than many comic book movies that have hit the box office lately. After removing the Indians from the classic equation, what could be a better replacement than gold greedy aliens that used humans as guinea pigs? I would think “anything”.

Directed by Iron Man director Jon Favreau, Cowboys and Aliens follows a pretty standard blockbuster plot with pretty standard special effects. There’s a little bit of mystery, love, action, and suspense but nothing to write home about. The plot goes a little something like this, Daniel Craig, our main cowboy, wakes up in the desert with a mean case of amnesia and a mystery metal bracelet. He immediately has to prove his bad ass ness by killing three guys before the credits even roll in. His travels lead him to a town where he gets into a little bit of trouble with the law and ends up witnessing the kidnapping of the towns people by the alien space ships. During this kidnapping he discovers that the mystery bracelet is some kind of weapon against the aliens. From this point on, he teams up with some friends ( a lovely cameo by Harrison Ford) and his new gal pal (Olivia Wilde) in search of the kidnapped people and the alien colony. The remainder of the film is nothing new to the silver screen, including the ending. It consists of some explanation, alien / human love interests, futuristic planets, and old west style action.

The acting from Wilde, Craig, and Ford seemed misplaced but made the film a little more viewable. The rusty Harrison Ford fit right in with the western time period, maintaining his bad ass, “don’t mess with me”, adventurous type. Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde create a believable on screen chemistry that helps keep the audience intrigued through out the many twists that are thrown at them. Their characters lack the proper development but in these kinds of films, we cant be too picky. The aliens are unfortunately as stereotypical as they get. They are large, bug eyed, greedy blobs that resemble just about every other alien in every other movie. They are both repulsive and intelligent and they had the potential to be much more if the thirst for creativity was there.

Overall, the film gives a really good sense of the time period through the production design and has surprisingly good acting but lacks on just about every other level. It might just be one of those stories that look good in comics but to be truthful it should stay off the big screen.

Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion

Animal Collective’s latest album Merriweather Post Pavilion is just one of those album that should include a hit of ecstasy so that listeners can enjoy it. Without drugs, a listener will probably emerge from the experience half deaf and confused for the rest of their lives.  There is no structure associated with the songs themselves or the album as a whole. It seems as if Animal Collective has found themselves stuck in a middle ground which is just plain unexciting and repetitive.

Most of these songs will be heard once and then never thought of again. It’s almost like they gave up on trying to be creative and clever and ended up with lyrics such as “There we could be dancing And you'd smile and say, 'I like this song'". Come on, that’s like a cheap shout out to yourself.  Though the melodies repeat themselves from song to song with small alterations, they become mundane when listening to the entire album. It’s almost like this album depended on the quirky and catchy melodies to move it forward and completely lacked on the lyrics side.

The first song on the album “In the Flowers” starts off with some abstract noise that catches your attention and then a melody that reminds me of a Pink Floyd song (just not done as well) penetrates and repeats throughout the song.  “My Girls” is definitely a catchy party song but when listening to the lyrics, they are equally as awful as the others.  The third song “Also Frightened” is a creepy song (maybe that’s what they were going for?) starting off with a sort of dripping water noise while drone like voices whine at you. Makes for an uncomfortable time and I cant imagine playing this for anyone not even as background noise. In the middle of this album, if you make it that far, emerges potential, titled “Daily Routine”. The song starts off slow and then quickens in pace, sucking you in, making you feel like you are on some weird off beat carnival ride. And then the title does it justice. Now it’s like the ride is stuck and you are just going around and around and around with no say. It gets redundant and annoying not even halfway through the song. The album goes on for a few songs with nothing special to mention until “Guys Eyes” which picks up-tempo and beat, causing an immediate interest. The lyrics are pretty much unimportant since you cant decipher because of all the layers of sounds on top of one another but its creates a change in pace which is over due in this album. “Lion in a Coma” is probably one of the weirdest intros to a song I have every heard. It reminds me of Australia or a kangaroo bouncing on his tail or something bizarre like that. Lastly are the only two songs really worth mentioning on this album and they are “No More Runnin” and “Brothersport”. Both songs are way different compared to everything else on this album. They are faster paced, catchy, lyrically clever, and intriguing from beginning to end. “No More Runnin” makes you feel like you are trapped (possibly drunk or drugged) and just kind of spinning around mumbling (all in a good way of course). “Brothersport” starts right out the gate with a constant pace and beat that makes it easy to relate and dance too. The lyrics are funny, clever, and catchy which makes for a great ending song on an album.

Overall Animal Collective did not deliver with this album as much as hyped and hoped for. It was a disappointment. This album is just a few specks of gold under pounds of dirt; not even worth digging for. 

Bloc Party "Intimacy"

Bloc Party’s album, “Intimacy” was release in 2008 and is just that, intimate. The subject matter flutters around personal relationships and is loosely based on the front mans break up of 2007. This is an album complied of songs that were obviously written and composed with compassion and great detail. More prevalent in “Intimacy” than any of the other albums from the band is the electronical and orchestral elements, such as violins, cellos, and basses. These elements combined create a feeling of melancholy and intimacy for those who emerse themselves in it. With this album the band strived to break away from the traditional rock pop band cliché.

The first song on the album “Ares” opens with an eerie yearning sound then breaks into what seems like a predictable Bloc Party song. One great thing about this song is that it ends with a melody that is similar to the beginning of the next song “Mercury”. The songs flow smoothly into each other and “Mercury” introduces the electronical and orchestral elements mentioned before. “Halo” and “Trojan Horse” introduce the new Bloc Party with the comfort of the old Bloc Party with songs like “Banquet” and “Blue Light”. The two best songs of the album are “Signs” and “Better Than Heaven”, they represent the entire emotional spectrum experience through this album. Anxiety, intimacy, frustration, and longing are the emotions most relevant. With lyrics from “Signs” such as “the last time we slept together, something just was not there” and “I can sleep forever these days, cause in my dreams I see you again” just pierce the heart with pain and the violins don’t help. “Better Than Heaven” has more of an upbeat rhythm but such dreary lyrics done in a wonderful almost techno’y style. It almost masks the meaning of the lyrics, which is fine if you are trying to forget about everything and just dance. But its good to know that Bloc Party is deeper than that, and it definitely shows through out this album. “Letter To My Son” is a song full of frustration and angst which just puts the cherry on the cake of this album.

Overall Bloc Party was successful in what they set out to do, and that was basically to reinvent themselves as artists. “Intimacy” is an album full of emotions, experiments, and chaos and is perfect to indulge in.