AltWeeklies Wire
Ólöf Arnalds: 'Við og Við' ('One Little Indian')new
Icelandic multi-instrumentalist Ólöf Arnalds' solo debut was originally released in Iceland back in 2007, and is only finding a U.S. home this week. Arnalds' songs invite you to listen closely, sway, hum along and get sucked into her world.
Tucson Weekly |
Annie Holub |
01-13-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Við og Við, Ólöf Arnalds
Fluffy Fun: Vampire Weekend's 'Contra'new
The frenetic buzz surrounding the band — the blogosphere debates over the band's merits — has made them into the Jonathan Safran Foer of indie rock. On Contra, debates about Vampire Weekend will not be settled, only recycled. If anyone still cares.
Tucson Weekly |
Sean Bottai |
01-13-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Contra, Vampire Weekend
Mark Growden Kicks Off a Monthly Concert Series at the Screening Roomnew
Mark Growden admits that he might never have started singing and writing songs had he not been ripped off. Growden was a jazz saxophonist and music teacher in his adopted hometown of San Francisco—until in 1997, when his instruments were stolen. So he started writing songs on accordion and singing. Soon, he was playing banjo, piano and guitar.
Tucson Weekly |
Gene Armstrong |
01-13-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Mark Growden, Saint Judas
More Magic Needed: 'Parnassus' Doesn't Worknew
Heath Ledger is solid in his final film, but the movie itself doesn't work. Ledger had already filmed a bunch of scenes when he passed away in January 2008. Rather than scrap the film, Terry Gilliam and friends came up with an idea to keep the project moving forward.
Tucson Weekly |
Bob Grimm |
01-13-2010 |
Reviews
Pretentiously Played: Peter Jackson's Sickly Sweet Schlocknew
'The Lovely Bones' is a steaming, treacly pile of excrescence, frosted with visuals that look like they were adapted from the pink, lace-covered dream journal of a unicorn-collecting scrapbooker. Essentially, if Walt Disney made a movie about the rape and murder of a teenager, this is the movie he'd make.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
01-13-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson
Philip Caputo Uses the Border as His Inspiration in 'Crossers'new
When writer Philip Caputo first came to Patagonia in 1996, he wasn't looking for the Arizona-Mexico borderlands to become a canvas for his fiction. The borderlands have a way of taking whatever part of you is given over to creativity and setting it on fire. The result, 2 1/2 years in the making, is his latest novel, Crossers.
Tucson Weekly |
Leo W. Banks |
01-13-2010 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Sweat Lodges Are Usually Sacred Places of Purification, Not Profiteeringnew
Google the words "sweat lodge," and the third result is a CNN report about the Sedona sweat-lodge deaths at James Arthur Ray's $9,695 Spiritual Warrior retreat in October.
Tucson Weekly |
Irene Messina |
01-13-2010 |
Religion
The Town of Arivaca Attempts to Recover After a Grisly Double Murdernew
A double-murder in the small border-area town of Arivaca, Arizona, has the nation's anti-immigrant movement reeling. We have mementos from the night that armed intruders entered the modest home of Raul and Gina Flores, the 911 recording of Gina among them.
Tucson Weekly |
Tim Vanderpool |
01-13-2010 |
Immigration
'Black Future' Will Make You Feel 16 Againnew
One small label, Heavy Artillery, has thrash-metal down pat, scooping up young, ambitious, intelligent metal bands that honor yesteryear's greats while striving for a semblance of originality in a genre that blew its wad 25 years ago.
Tucson Weekly |
Jarret Keene |
01-06-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Black Future, Vektor
Lymbyc Systym's Michael and Jared Bell Blend Post-Rock Influencesnew
Lymbyc Systym's songs captivate instead of falling into background noise. On Shutter Release, Michael and Jared Bell blend their Sigur Rós and Explosions in the Sky influences; room-filling drums give way to microbeats, and dramatic guitar hooks give way to quieter and more contemplative synthesized melodies, often within the same song.
Tucson Weekly |
Annie Holub |
01-06-2010 |
Reviews
Exmortus' Blend of Neoclassical Melodicism and Brutal Thrashnew
Rare is the metal band that can shred your face clean off while using virtuoso techniques worthy of Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini — with all the sonic subtlety of a pissed-off Japanese giant monster. Which is why Whittier, CA's Exmortus tends to stand out amidst the current thrash-metal resurgence.
Tucson Weekly |
Jarret Keene |
01-06-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
Emily Blunt Proves She Can Carry a Film With Her Portrayal of Queen Victorianew
Emily Blunt absolutely sparkles in period-drama The Young Victoria, a film that manages to be a good (though embellished) piece of history and strikingly romantic at the same time.
Tucson Weekly |
Bob Grimm |
01-06-2010 |
Reviews
An Autistic Child Gets Aid From Mongolian Shamans in an Effective Documentarynew
The Horse Boy is a documentary about Rowan, a 5-year-old boy with severe autism-related behavioral problems. His father, Rupert Isaacson, is a journalist and human-rights activist who loves horses.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
01-06-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Michel O. Scott, The Horse Boy
Tea Party Medicine: Jane Orient is Leading the Fight Against Health-Care Reformnew
Jane Orient is a Tucson doctor who happens to be the executive director of a national organization that's getting a lot of attention lately, thanks to the Tea Party movement and the debate over health-care reform. She has been executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons since 1989.
Tucson Weekly |
Mari Herreras |
01-06-2010 |
Policy Issues
West Coast Music: Devotion to the Same Heronew
This odd pairing has made a record interesting enough to not only spark more curiosity in Kerouac, Big Sur and the album's accompanying documentary, but also how and why American artists across generations keep approaching the same themes.
Tucson Weekly |
Eric Swedlund |
12-31-2009 |
Reviews
