AltWeeklies Wire
With 'Fantasies,' Metric Has Assumed Control of its Own Destinynew
Without by-the-book label executives to answer to, or an out-of-touch A&R department breathing down its back, Metric revelled in the opportunity to be more daring in its musical choices this time around.
The Georgia Straight |
Jenny Charlesworth |
07-27-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Sportswriters Can't Decide Whether Steroids is a Black Mark or a Gray Areanew
Baseball scribes would rather moralize about performance-enhancing drugs than make hard decisions about whether their use should keep players out of the Hall of Fame.
Chicago Reader |
Michael Miner |
07-27-2009 |
Sports
Is Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels a Chicago-Style Bully?new
The idea of Nickels as a Daley wannabe is one of those ideas that has filtered down from the rhetoric of political insiders into general popular perception, even conventional wisdom. Trouble is, it's almost impossible to get any of Nickels' accusers to provide details about the mayor's supposedly Daleyesque behavior.
Seattle Weekly |
Laura Onstot |
07-27-2009 |
Politics
Take a Pass on Back Surgery and Decompress Your Spine Insteadnew
Spinal decompression, a procedure what involves computer-assisted application of "distraction forces" may provide relief for individuals with chronic back problems. However, critics feel that laypeople may be forking over large amounts of cash for a treatment that hasn't been scientifically proven to work.
The Georgia Straight |
Gail Johnson |
07-27-2009 |
Science
Eduardo Galeano's 'Mirrors' Rewrites Human Historynew
It's hard to think of another living author who would have the nerve to consider writing a book like Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. But for Uruguay's Eduardo Galeano, this collection of vignettes, covering the breadth of human history, was a natural fit.
The Georgia Straight |
Derrick O'Keefe |
07-27-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Crazy for the Storm' is a Wild-Hearted Story of Risk and Survivalnew
How to capture the spirit of a father and son’s relationship? Norman Ollestad, the son in this equation, does it grippingly and gorgeously in Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival.
The Georgia Straight |
Patty Jones |
07-27-2009 |
Nonfiction
A New Crop of Scrappy Troupes is Making Opera Accessible in Chicagonew
Chicago has a new crop of stereotype-busting little opera groups playing at bargain prices in intimate venues -- including the neighborhood pub. Faced with the traditional opera world's shrinking ticket sales, dying audiences, and dearth of opportunity, these artist-entrepreneurs are looking to crack that world open and cozy up to the masses.
Chicago Reader |
Deanna Isaacs |
07-27-2009 |
Theater
Bad Things Happen When Fans Get Behind the Cameranew
Digital democratization of the means of film production has brought us to the point where every subculture on the planet seems to have generated its own documentary. Formlessness and boosterism afflict all of these films to some damaging degree, but Until the Light Takes Us is in a class of its own for wasted cinematic potential.
Chicago Reader |
Cliff Doerksen |
07-27-2009 |
Reviews
Big Brother is Watching You With RFID Microchipsnew
Consumer-privacy advocate Katherine Albrecht advises people to resist RFID. "There are certainly things you can do with RFID that might be cool, but the costs of introducing this technology into our society so vastly outweigh the benefits, the technology shouldn’t be deployed at all," she says.
The Georgia Straight |
Erin Millar |
07-27-2009 |
Civil Liberties
Good Mama: Pondering Motherhoodnew
Four weeks ago I shot my own little "chick-let" out of my vagina and unceremoniously became someone’s parent. Although I've had almost a month to get used to the idea, I still sit around my house and scream, "Holy Crap! I have a kid!" at least once a day.
Jackson Free Press |
Lori Gregory |
07-26-2009 |
Comedy
Oregon Aims to Become First State Ever to Erase Gender Wage Gapnew
Working without a definite deadline, Bureau of Labor and Industries Commissioner Brad Avakian has tasked the newly formed Oregon Council on Civil Rights to create an action plan for making equal pay for equal work a reality in Oregon.
The Portland Mercury |
Sarah Mirk |
07-24-2009 |
Economy
Japandroids Escape Vancouver and Invade Americanew
It's easy to pin their heavy style as garage rock, but despite the abbreviated guitar-and-drums lineup, Japandroids' sound is anything but minimalist.
The Portland Mercury |
Ned Lannamann |
07-24-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Japandroids, Post-Nothing
'Sleep Dealer': Finally, a Science-Fiction Film About Migrant Workers!new
There are moments of goofiness throughout Sleep Dealer, just as there are moments when Alex Rivera's touch -- which serves him well when it's lighter -- gets too heavy-handed. But overall, the visually striking, impressively imagined film has an energy, purpose, and relevance that much film -- and much modern science fiction -- lacks.
The Portland Mercury |
Erik Henriksen |
07-24-2009 |
Reviews
'G-Force' is Less Fun Than a Gerbil Up the Heinienew
It's probably not surprising to learn that G-Force, the new 3D half-animated/half-real-life kids movie from Disney and über-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, isn't very good. It's noisy, crude, and nonsensical -- none of which is bad in and of itself -- but it's also insultingly stupid and not nearly funny enough.
The Portland Mercury |
Ned Lannamann |
07-24-2009 |
Reviews
Blister: Such is Our Horrible, Delicate Balancenew
The world is a bitter, deep-fried cocktail onion layered in pathos and prejudice; it just spins and it stinks and it spins again while we all have sex with gravity in hopes that it will keep us around, keep us down on the pickled, pungent surface of it all just long enough to be thrown up in ashes or pushed under, ever deeper into the skin.
Orlando Weekly |
Billy Manes |
07-24-2009 |
Commentary
