AltWeeklies Wire
Madden Match: Brett the Jet is the New Curse of the Gamenew
Electronic Arts surely thought they had finally found a can't-miss dodge to the legendary Madden Curse — you know, the maybe-it's-really-true phenomenon that holds that any athlete who appears on the cover of videogaming's most-hyped annual franchise is sure to suffer a career-altering injury (Daunte Culpepper, Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb) criminal ignominy (Ray Lewis, Michael Vick again), or a stinkbomb season (Vince Young).
Charleston City Paper |
Aaron R. Conklin |
08-20-2008 |
Video Games
Tags: video games
Blackface vs. Black Faces: It's the claim of authenticity that's truly offensivenew
It isn't the act of painting the hands and face black that's offensive and harmful. It's the claim of authenticity that goes along with that act, the assumption that something real and true is being represented when someone darkens his face, paints on a huge red mouth, and shucks and jives on a stage. So Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer is offensive, as is C. Thomas Howell in Soul Man. But so is Samuel L. Jackson in Black Snake Moan, Terence Howard in Hustle & Flow, and 50 Cent on any given day.
Charleston City Paper |
Conseula Francis |
08-20-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Ben Stiller, Tropic Thunder
The Bollywood Connection: Local company ReelSports, like Sylvester Stallone and Snoop Dogg, is on the vangaurd of India's global ascentnew
What's fueling this fusion of East and West? Partly the desire of Westerners to seize the opportunity to work in an interesting and hospitable environment. Far more important, though, has been the desire of Bollywood to impress Western audiences and to make larger forays into savvy and lucrative Western markets.
Charleston City Paper |
Dan McCue |
08-20-2008 |
Movies
Tags: Chakde! India, Shimit Amin
Food Plays a Starring Role in Russian Emigre's New Short Story Collectionnew
Food, like music, can bring you back to a moment in time. For the cast of Broccoli, the smell and taste of spinach or memories of puffed rice help them relive their Russian past and hold on to a piece of their heritage.
Charleston City Paper |
Alison Sher |
08-20-2008 |
Fiction
How an Englishman Became America's Most Fearsome Book Criticnew
Normally a literary assassin, New Yorker book critic James Wood proves he's a softie at heart in his new book How Fiction Works.
Charleston City Paper |
John Freeman |
08-20-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Funny Munnys: What is It About Vinyl Toys That Gets Everyone So Excited?new
Just about any artist can take the Munny, a chubby doll with an oversized head and cartoonish ears, and turn it into a unique character, a diminutive reflection of his tastes and sensibilities. What is surprising is the childhood glee that burns in the eyes of someone who has just opened a box containing one of these three-dimensional canvases.
Charleston City Paper |
Kevin Murphy |
08-20-2008 |
Art
Tags: visual arts
America's Energy Crisis Belongs in the GOP's Lapnew
In recent weeks, we've heard a rising chorus of Republicans blaming America's energy woes on the Democrats. It seems that they've all forgotten how Ronald Reagan gutted Jimmy Carter's energy plan.
Charleston City Paper |
Will Moredock |
08-20-2008 |
Commentary
'Stop Me If You've Heard This' Is as Valuable as You'd Thinknew
I once took a class in which the professor believed the point in studying Shakespeare's comedies was not amusement so much as profitable scholarship. The Bard's comedies, in his view, were his most serious work. To see this, though, students had to assume that funny and serious weren't at odds.
I hoped similar reasoning informed Jim Holt’s new book, Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes.
I was wrong.
Charleston City Paper |
John Stoehr |
08-13-2008 |
Nonfiction
Where-Fi?: An underground scouting report on Lowcountry wi-fi hotspotsnew
How to find the best places to leech wi-fi.
Charleston City Paper |
Joshua Curry |
08-13-2008 |
Tech
Tags: computers & technology
The End of Deliberate Ugliness: How to reclaim the historic role of art in expressing spiritualitynew
Gail Sickel was searching in the 1970s, a dynamic period still roiling with the social and political upheavals of the decade before. The United States was still sunk in the quagmire of a foreign war. Coming of age amid this influence of anxiety, Sickel was part of a boom of young, idealistic Americans searching for new ways to express spirituality.
"I was looking for oneness," she says, reflecting on that time. "I was a seeker and eventually I found an experience that was heart-focused."
That experience was the Dances of Universal Peace.
Charleston City Paper |
John Stoehr |
08-13-2008 |
Performance
Tags: performance
Americans Might Find it Hard to Enjoy a Novel About Men Who Hate Womennew
This is easily one of the worst books I've ever read. And bear in mind that I've read John Grisham. I've read the Sweet Valley Middle School, High School, and University books.
Charleston City Paper |
Susan Cohen |
08-13-2008 |
Fiction
Marc Acito's New Novel is a Fun, Easy Read for One Catty Couplenew
To give it a fair shot, Attack of the Theater People, a new novel about a gay musical lover, was assigned for review to a couple of hopelessly devoted theater people who, a decade ago, shared a script on the set of their college production of Oklahoma!, swapped silly jokes about chaps, and longed for each other amid the rolling thunder of papier-mâché tumbleweeds.
Charleston City Paper |
Greg Hambrick and Shane Sears |
08-13-2008 |
Fiction
Republicans, Democrats Trade Barbs Over Energy Independencenew
The war on terror. The war on drugs. Welfare reform. Family values. Remember those? Every single one was a signature issue of a general election campaign designed to distract the voting public from critical challenges facing the US. This year it's energy independence. Woo-hoo!
Charleston City Paper |
D.A. Smith |
08-13-2008 |
Commentary
Here's the Drill: The Sticky Truths About Offshore Oilnew
Approving drilling now would mean that oil reaches our gas tanks in a decade, under the best estimates, and the small quantity relative to global production would do little to alleviate prices. Still, advocates argue, anything that reduces American dependence on foreign oil is worth pursuing. That pursuit becomes sticky, however, when weighed with drilling's definable risks to the environment and public health.
Charleston City Paper |
Stratton Lawrence |
08-13-2008 |
Environment
Starch in the Collar, But Not in the Spine: 'Gentleman's Guide' Lacks Ballsnew
For all its mannerly reserve, its upper-crusty starch, A Gentleman's Guide to Graceful Living is a thing so wispily fabricated — more eiderdown fluff than sailcloth — that any critical gust aimed at it is likely to scatter the whole works all over the floor.
Charleston City Paper |
Jon Santiago |
08-06-2008 |
Fiction
