Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Kooks

By Jennifer Terranella

I studied in London nearly two years ago now, and I miss it daily. I am constantly on the look-out for anything that reminds me of my time in England, so to get my fix of British music, I ventured down to Providence to see The Kooks play at Lupo’s.

For those of you who haven’t been there, Lupo’s is a great venue. It is a mid-size place that draws a variety of acts from alternative to cover bands to washed-up pop trios. Nevertheless, I have always had a good time at their shows. There is seating in the balcony if you aren’t that interested in the opening bands, a bar for those of you who are legal, and lots of floor space to get you as close to the band or as far away from the screaming tweens as you want to be.

I was only interested in seeing The Kooks, but I made it down in enough time to see the second of the two opening bands, called Illinois. Although put off by their opening song which had quite a country influence, I was pleasantly surprised as their set continued. It moved into a more alternative rock, with an alt-country vibe. Definitely eclectic and worth checking out.

The Kooks are a fairly new band that haven’t gotten a lot of exposure yet in America. They came out with their first CD Inside In, Inside Out in 2006. The record is a collection of upbeat alternative rock tracks that have a great garage band sound. Much like The Strokes earlier stuff, but with happier vocals. The debut made major waves in England, but didn’t break into America until they released their cheerful single “Naïve.” Earlier this year they dropped their mature sophomore disc, Konk. Not as fast and fun, but definitely still worth picking up. The more you listen to the tracks, the more they will grow on you. Although it is not the Kooks of Inside In, it is the logical next step in a long career in music.

Now, I have been to my fair share of concerts, but this one definitely ranks in the top five. Not only did they play every song I could have hoped for, the crowd was into the music without being over-zealous and put on an exhilarating live show. The lead singer has a unique voice, so it would have been easy for the concert to be a complete bust, but I was excited to hear that they sounded better than their CDs. Since they only have two CDs and an hour and a half set, they ended up playing most of their songs, maintaining a nice mix of the mellow tracks off of the second disk and the crowd pleasing favorites of the first, keeping the audience engaged, dancing and singing along the whole night.

The stand-out moment of the night came when the band came out for an encore. They started with “Seaside,” the forgettable intro track found on their first disc. I was blown away by the acoustic rendition. I never really paid much attention to the song, but you couldn’t help but feel the heartbreak that Luke, the lead singer, must have been feeling by the passion and ache in his voice. The song is about someone he fell in love with, and by the tone of the song that night, someone he is still in love with and misses deeply. Easily the best song of the night. He later jumped into the crowd, which made the audience happy even though security didn’t look pleased, but the heart-wrenching version of “Seaside” still stands out in my mind, even two weeks after the show.

All-in-all, it was an amazing experience. I already loved The Kooks, but this show made me appreciate the band even more. Not only can they produce a fun or pensive album, but they are truly talented musicians. If you ever see that The Kooks are making their way through your town, make sure you grab a ticket. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

PC Gaming vs. Console Gaming

By Scott Markoski

Ever since I can remember, I’ve liked playing video games. The first video games I ever played were on an old computer from the early 1990s. It wasn’t much but it had a color screen and the games were comparable to anything you might play on a Playstation or Nintendo console. In the mid ‘90s, desktop computers were starting to become very commonplace and unlike a Playstation, you could do a lot of different things on a PC. It could satisfy almost all of your home computing needs including gaming. If you were lucky enough, you could even plug it into a phone line and explore the internet--albeit a very different internet from the one we know today.

Throughout ‘90s I had a few different PCs the longest lasting of which was one of the first “laptop” computers made in 1989. It weighed twenty pounds, needed to be plugged in and had a 15 inch monochrome screen but I was able to play all sorts of games on it. As computers evolved I started to play games with better graphics, better sound and more elaborate game play. But since then I’ve never owned a console. No Nintendo-64. No Playstation 1, 2 or 3. No Xbox, no Game Cube or Wii. It isn’t that I don’t like those systems it’s just that I already have a PC and it can do a great deal more than an Xbox.

There is something even more than that though. I think PC gamers often take a certain pride in their machines in the same way car enthusiasts take pride in their cars. Many PC gamers do a great deal of customization to their computers. They buy fancy graphics cards with names like “FireGL V8600” or “Radeon X1300 Pro.” They hook up the processor with a liquid cooling system or maybe they install nice case fans with cool looking lights. I won’t even bother talking about tweaking the operating system or other software components. Herein lies the biggest difference between PC gamers and console gamers: while many diehard console gamers may choose to modify or “mod” their Xbox with some fancy soldering hack, most are content just to play more games with the system as it came out of the box. This isn’t to say that there aren’t any really serious gamers using consoles. Quite the contrary. Consoles and their games clearly dominate the market and they show no signs of relinquishing that status any time soon. The casual gamer is obviously a big portion of the gaming market and most would rather play games than buy or modify high end PCs. Game makers know this and so create more games geared towards that demographic.

Here our story takes an interesting twist. The latest generation consoles, like the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, are no longer the distant cousins of conventional PCs. Both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 come fully equipped with regular old hard drives, motherboards, integrated graphics processors and CPUs. Sounds an awful lot like a PC doesn’t it? After passing through the 90s it seems PCs and consoles have become more like brothers. How did these newer consoles become the way they are? The people that designed them are the same people that spent untold hours upgrading and modifying their PCs. And so our story of gaming seems to have come full circle. While I still probably won’t go out and get the latest and greatest console, I think I might be more inclined to do so as they become more and more advanced. Maybe someday they’ll come out with one you can build yourself.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Juno

By Grace Lapointe

Teenage pregnancy may seem like a strange subject for an independent comedy, but Juno succeeds because it tells the story of an unconventional teenage girl. Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) is an intelligent, sarcastic sixteen-year-old girl who unexpectedly becomes pregnant. Juno initially considers an abortion, but then decides against it. With the help of her loyal friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby), Juno decides to go through with the pregnancy and give the baby up for adoption to Mark and Vanessa Loring (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), a young couple desperately seeking a child. Bateman (Arrested Development) and Garner (Alias; Daredevil) skillfully convey the growing tensions between the Lorings. The film follows Juno through the ups and downs of her pregnancy, which makes her an outcast at her high school. (“They call me the cautionary whale,” Juno quips.)


Directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking) and written by first-time scriptwriter Diablo Cody, Juno defies typical Hollywood conventions. Unlike other movies dealing with the same topic, Juno does not romanticize teen pregnancy or make it seem hopelessly catastrophic. The script is full of witty dialogue, and the unique characters are brought to life through the actors’ strong performances. Through the role of Juno, Ellen Page (X-Men) showcases her remarkable acting talents. She captures the full range of Juno’s emotions, from her snarky wit to her insecurities. Michael Cera (Superbad) is likably awkward as Paulie Bleeker, Juno’s sometime boyfriend and the father of her baby. J. K. Simmons (Oz; Spider-man) and Allison Janney (The West Wing) play Juno’s supportive dad and stepmom. The film uses songs from artists including The Kinks, Cat Power, and Belle & Sebastian, which perfectly complement specific scenes. Juno is a truly original, entertaining movie that manages to balance wry humor and poignancy. It has been nominated for multiple awards, including three Golden Globes, and Academy Awards in four categories: best director, best picture, best leading actress, and best original screenplay.