AltWeeklies Wire
Killing Time: Ike Reilly Assassination is America's Best-Kept Secretnew
Critics have had a hard time deciding whether the Ike Reilly Assassination are the best bar band in America or, more potently, a vehicle for a gifted songwriter to fuse the wise-ass ramblings of Dylan with the lovable underachiever fight songs of the Replacements.
Boston Phoenix |
Matt Ashare |
03-11-2005 |
Profiles & Interviews
In Praise of Sin: Or Why the New Puritans Threaten Us Allnew
When was it decided that the dorks and the squares would be calling the shots? Who empowered these teetotaling chumps, these jogging crypto-fascists with spotless livers and unblackened lungs, to decide where we smoke and how we drink and what we eat?
Boston Phoenix |
Mike Miliard |
03-11-2005 |
Commentary
Riding the Pine: MLB2K5 is a Solid Second-Stringernew
You can't judge a video game by the pretty boy on its cover, and the truth is that MLB2K5 isn't bad; there are just some little things that could have been improved upon.
Boston Phoenix |
Ryan Stewart |
03-11-2005 |
Video Games
Tags: video games
The Contender: Fight Night Round 2 Brings Itnew
Fight Night does a lot of things well, none more so than capturing the bone-crunching hits of professional boxing. This isn't a gleeful, Punch-Out-style interpretation of pugilism – it's a gritty and mimetic experience that emphasizes aerosolized blood and spit as much as ducking and weaving.
Boston Phoenix |
Mitch Krpata |
03-11-2005 |
Video Games
Tags: video games
Trying Ethics on for Sizenew
Los Angeles-based American Apparel is one example of a wacky strain of capitalism, a delightfully oxymoronic collection of disparate efforts that flies under the banner of socially responsible business. Profit-making enterprises such as these aim to do well while doing good.
Boston Phoenix |
Camille Dodero |
03-09-2005 |
Business & Labor
Tags: business & labor
Jon Stewart: Too Smart for His Own Good?new
Some half-dozen years after assuming the anchor desk at The Daily Show and transforming what had been a celebrity-driven yukfest into biting political satire, the 42-year-old Stewart and his fellow performers and writers have reached the top of the heap. But being taken seriously — and, for that matter, expecting to be taken seriously — is the death of such humor.
Boston Phoenix |
Dan Kennedy |
03-09-2005 |
TV
Tags: TV
Over There: New Jersey’s A Girl Called Eddy Heard London Callingnew
New Jersey native Erin Moran grew up listening to albums by English women with a knack for singing about immense emotion without necessarily sounding like it. So when she signed a deal with a publishing company based in England a few years ago, Moran, who performs under the name A Girl Called Eddy, thought it was a great excuse to move to London.
Boston Phoenix |
Mikael Wood |
03-09-2005 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: A Girl Called Eddy
Major Indie Rock: Hot Hot Heat Take their Quirks to the Massesnew
Indie in ethos, acts like Franz Ferdinand, the Postal Service, the Walkmen, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs made unprecedented mainstream media inroads in 2004. Now, Elevator, Hot Hot Heat’s major-label follow-up to 2002’s Make Up the Breakdown, could be indie’s next major commercial success.
Boston Phoenix |
Nick Sylvester |
03-09-2005 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Hot Hot Heat, Elevator
Ad Hominem: Anarchy Online Explores a New Digital Frontiernew
Remember back in the mid-'90s, before the Internet had advertisements? Boy, was it bleak to surf the web without pop-ups, blinking banners, and unshuttable Flash ads. So we’ve got news for you: video games have entered a new era of advertising – and the people behind it promise they won’t annoy you.
Boston Phoenix |
Chris Dahlen |
03-09-2005 |
Video Games
Tags: video games
Get Your Kicks: FIFA Street Pumps up the Beautiful Gamenew
What makes FIFA Street enjoyable, though, is that unlike the other Street games, the moves these players execute are very nearly possible in real life. In fact, you see them often in real soccer games (though certainly not to this degree, and never strung together in the orgy of tricks, headers, and bicycle kicks FIFA Street provides).
Boston Phoenix |
Mitch Krpata |
03-09-2005 |
Video Games
Tags: video games
Play Ball! EA Smacks MVP Baseball Out of the Parknew
MVP Baseball 2005 is better than good, and not in that Krusty-the-Clown "It’s good enough" kind of way.
Boston Phoenix |
Aaron Solomon |
03-09-2005 |
Video Games
Tags: video games
Surprisingly, Game Onnew
Video games are as susceptible as any medium to the winter doldrums. The year 2005 is different. Never before have we seen a glut of top-shelf titles so soon after Christmas.
Boston Phoenix |
Mitch Krpata |
02-28-2005 |
Video Games
Fallen Star: A Schizophrenic Star Fox Disappointsnew
Star Fox: Assault is baffling -- a game that seeks to undermine itself at every turn. Those aspects of the game based solely upon the franchise's rail-shooter roots can be almost deliriously fun; as for nearly everything else, well, how many synonyms are there for "disaster"?
Boston Phoenix |
Mitch Krpata |
02-28-2005 |
Video Games
Tags: video games
Concerns About John Negroponte Go Beyond His Bloody Pastnew
President Bush's choice for director of national intelligence will face many obstacles to getting the job done right -- among them, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Boston Phoenix |
Jason Vest |
02-24-2005 |
Politics
Darkness Falls: Leave Uwe Boll's Latest Video Game Adaptation Alonenew
Alone in the Dark, the movie, has very little to do with Alone in the Dark, the game. But whereas the game drew on film noir and the faceless horrors of H.P. Lovecraft to create an ominous atmosphere, the movie seems primarily inspired by Boll's sense of self-satisfaction.
Boston Phoenix |
Mitch Krpata |
02-08-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Uwe Boll, Alone in the Dark
