I wasn’t planning to attend Sled Island this year due to the financial costs but the great people at the Kids Up Front Foundation kindly gave myself and some other youth the opportunity to check Sled Island. The Kids Up Front Foundation provides children and youth the opportunity to attend events that they wouldn’t normally…
On April 23 of this year, the ‘Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act’ (AKA Senate Bill 1070 or SB 1070) was signed into Arizona state law. The new law has been called the US nation’s toughest on illegal immigration and has raised widespread criticism and outrage. SB 1070 makes it an offense for…
The weather is warming (ignore the random dumps of snow), green is beginning to return to the trees and those with allergies are making sure they have plenty of their favorite antihistamines in store. Spring is here and with it is a host of fantastic new record releases I’m very excited about. Here’s what’s coming…
Spring has sprung and this year’s season has been blessed with the release of some fantastic records that I am personally looking forward to quite a bit. So take a peek at what’s coming out May 4th – a new Broken Social Scene album. Broken Social Scene: Forgiveness Rock Record I love Broken Social Scene…
I recently came across an interesting blog which makes it its mission to objectively review animal species and award each a letter grade. Here’s an excerpt from the jellyfish review. (Important preliminary knowledge: Jellyfish don’t have brains.) Not only have they traveled the world and done fairly well despite their brainlessness, jellyfish also manage to…
Since September of 2008 the fantastic American public radio network, NPR, has been offering early listens to select upcoming records on their website. It’s called First Listen. For a period of time (up to the date the album is officially released) you can stream an entire album from NPR.com. It’s a pretty awesome service. Available…
I recently read an article by Douglas Hopper which made me revisit some thoughts I’ve had on Lady Gaga and her role in popular culture. I’m not a fan of Lady Gaga’s music. Her brand of pop-dance isn’t my thing. But beyond her music, there is something I can appreciate about her. She’s a determinedly…
Back when I was junior high school I remember Gorillaz making quite an impact on the radio and amongst my classmates, particularly the hit “Feel Good Inc.” What I don’t remember is ever really listening to them – just a group I never bothered to get into. So when their third LP (Plastic Beach) dropped…
A recent article by author Jonah Lehrer (Proust Was a Neuroscientist, How We Decide) in the Wall Street Journal discusses the connection between youth and scientific innovation. Check out my summary below…you might learn something new! Young Scientists & Innovation James D. Watson, at age 25, co-wrote Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for…
Reviews of Martin Scorsese’s psychological thriller, Shutter Island, have been mixed. The film is of the sort where only the last act brings to light the true understanding of the story you’ve been watching unfold for the last hour. (Read: twist ending.) The thing about telling stories this way is that the build up to…
In the 1970s, two Israeli psychologists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, performed an experiment by asking sets of two slightly differently worded hypothetical questions to large sample groups. Their most famous set of questions goes like this: The United States is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual Asian…
Last week, the nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards were announced. By the looks of the nominees, it seems that the Academy (of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) is making an effort to appeal to the general public more than in previous years. James Cameron’s Avatar is tied for the most number of nominations (nine…
For the last month Avatar has been the movie virtually everyone has been talking about. In the first week since its release my Facebook news feed lit up with glowing reviews in the form of status updates. Almost everyone told me they loved it. Initially uninterested in the film, my curiosity eventually grew to the…
Guy Ritchie has essentially been making the same film since Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), his feature film debut. With the exception of his romantic comedy outing (Swept Away, which was awarded the 2002 Golden Raspberry for Worst Film), his films have been very similar to one another. Ritchie’s directorial style is characterized…
Last summer, I had the good fortune to peek into a garage sale while walking home and find a record player for the excellent price of $10. When I brought it home, my dad asked why I was interested in playing records. My answer was somewhere along the lines of, “Dunno… they’re cool.” Later that…