Embrace fall with easy and delicious bean soups


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A well-stocked pantry is my weeknight dinner savior, and it should be yours, too. Peanut butter, mixed nuts, Dijon mustard, sea salt and good olive oil are just a few items that I keep on-hand at all times. You won’t find any Cup of Noodles tucked into my cabinets; the Epicurean Dorm is a strict […]

Nick Cave and the mythology of the rock star onscreen


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From the ferocious Birthday Party concerts of the 1970s and ’80s to the release of last year’s soothingly sorrowful Bad Seeds album Push the Sky Away, Nick Cave has always been an artist whose work defies easy categorization.   The Australian rocker’s fearsome appearance — think Elvis Presley reincarnated as a fire-breathing, Goth-punk troubadour with […]

Chris Brown disappoints with retread of old albums


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There are hits scattered throughout Chris Brown’s sixth studio album, X. However, it is hard to escape the feeling that it is yet another disingenuous effort with the sole goal of being on the radio, rather than striving for musical expression. There are a myriad of high profile artists on the album, ranging from Kendrick […]

Boiled chicken delivers convenience and versatility


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Children are notorious for being the toughest food critics, and I was no exception. Immediately after my mother would pick me up from elementary school, I demanded to know what was for dinner. Spaghetti with tomato sauce was a reliable weeknight staple, as was anything that came out of Grandma’s kitchen. While I crinkled my […]

Final seasons a unique challenge for TV shows


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Last week Sons of Anarchy and Boardwalk Empire premiered the first episodes of their final seasons. Because television is an extremely competitive business, shows rarely get to finish their stories on their own terms like this. Ratings dip or fail to get off the ground in the first place, actors decide they want to leave […]

Jack the Ripper takes on new life through cinema


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No other serial killer has infected our collective unconscious quite like Jack the Ripper. He is history’s resident boogeyman, a nameless, faceless ghoul who stalked the street corners around London’s Whitechapel District from 1888 until roughly 1891, murdering and mutilating at least five women, most of them prostitutes, before receding into the fog of myth. […]

Jhene Aiko gets soulful, personal in major label debut


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Souled Out, Jhené Aiko’s newest album, was released Tuesday, and the soulful R&B singer’s creative composition and soft, haunting vocals create a soundscape that is both fresh and historic, blending genres into an album that operates as an artpiece.   While Aiko’s signature blend of R&B and hip-hop still remains, her most recent album opens […]

Affordable egg recipes liven up boring dorm food


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Eggs are the chameleons of the culinary world. Endlessly versatile, they appear in sweet and savory dishes as main ingredients or garnishes. Their bright yellow yolks can be served runny, unctuous and oozing, or hard-boiled, thinly sliced and sprinkled with flaky salt. For college students, eggs can bind a handful of random ingredients into a […]

Is Joaquin Phoenix a bit too strange for Marvel?


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In the weeks leading up to last summer’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, rumors were swirling like a cloak of levitation around Marvel Studios and its long-rumored big-screen treatment of Doctor Strange, the master of the mystic arts and sometime superhero whose arrival promises to inject Marvel’s ever-expanding cinematic universe with a welcome dose of […]

Brosnan’s rich history as a spy deserves another look


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From the suave swagger of Sean Connery to the steely-eyed pugilism of Daniel Craig, every generation gets the James Bond it deserves. In 1995, audiences were introduced to the latest incarnation of the dashing gentleman spy, played with a martini mix of mirth and magnetism by Pierce Brosnan, and the results were explosive. GoldenEye, directed […]