Tarantino once again proves maverick status


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Quentin Tarantino is such a punk. Against all reason, Inglourious Basterds might just be cinema’s final word on World War II and the Holocaust. And, Tarantino is a punk for making it that way. Without giving too much away by suggestion, the much-discussed ending of his highly stylized, spaghetti Western influenced movie explosively rewrites history. […]

Yearly fires part of LA culture


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Remember Prometheus? He stole fire from the gods and gave the gift to mankind. As a result, he was sentenced to the grisly fate of having his liver eaten by a bird every day while chained to a lonely rock. It must have been hard for the poor guy to watch his own guts be […]

Rob Zombie revitalizes gore of Halloweens past


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Writer-director Rob Zombie possesses a lot of ambition that has yet to be perfected. His new film, Halloween 2, which itself is a sequel to his 2007 remake of John Carpenter’s 1978 slasher classic Halloween, clearly illustrates that while Zombie has a long way to go, he is certainly heading in the right direction. Zombie’s […]

Summer camps spark transition into adulthood


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This weekend, I flew across the country to my favorite city in the continental US: Boston. Say it with me now, “Baawston.” There, I did a few of my favorite things: I devoured some lobster bisque, spent a few hours at Newbury Comics and even enjoyed some of the best crab cakes I have ever […]

Local band’s catchy full-length album enchants listeners


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After much anticipation, Los Angeles indie pop band The Happy Hollows releases its first full-length album this fall. For those lucky enough to have seen the eclectic group live on campus at KSCRfest last semester or for those who where hooked on its Imaginary EP, the wait is finally over. To say that this album […]

‘Woodstock’ captures spirit of era, but lacks energy


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In the bathroom of the Arclight Cinema in Hollywood, two women with graying hair and beaded scarves draped over their shoulders chatted excitedly 15 minutes prior to the screening of Taking Woodstock. “Where were you during Woodstock?” one asked the other, to which she replied with a detailed description of a weekend 40 years past. […]

New album fails to ‘Breakthrough’ sophomore slump


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You know that ditsy, naïve, overly cheerful girl in class you just can’t stand? That’s Colbie Caillat on her sophomore album, Breakthrough, a dim-witted collection of redundant, uninspired and excessively sunny boy-crush songs. I’ll be the first to admit my soft spot for Colbie Caillat and her deliciously raspy voice; Coco was a solid feel-good […]