Its Always Sunny in Philidelphia

Within the last 10 to 15 years television programs have morphed the humor for the future of television. With shows like South Park, The Chappelle Show, Family Guy, and many more, it is hard for one to argue that what Americans find funny today, most would be offended by no less than twenty years ago. The FCC used to shut down Elvis Presely shows back in the 50's and he was just a hungry guy dancing around in funny costumes singing completely harmless songs. We can thank shows like south park for changing what is funny, and making things that aren't suppose to be funny hilarious. However, the funniest show on the air today would have to be "Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia", Created by Rob McElhenney.

Rob McElhenney also plays one of the main characters on the show as well, attributing to a lot of the shows success. McElhenney plays as Mac, a semi white trash co-owner of "Paddys Bar" in Philadelphia. He owns the bar with his friends Dennis(Glenn Howerton) and Dee Renolds(Kaitilin Olson) and Frank(Danny Devito), who is also more like a father to all the characters. These four characters are their lives are the main focus of this show.

The bar is run mostly by Dee, often referred to as "Sweet" Dee and Charlie, the bar janitor and modern day village idiot. While the bar is being run by Dee and Charlie, Co-owners Mac, Dennis, and Frank are usually finding ways to make their lives either as awkward or as miserable as ever. It is considered by many as extremely controversially. With a casual flow of crude references of alcohol, drugs, sex, violence, and overall foolish and mostly illegal behavior, Its Always Sunny became an instant hit in the morphed market of sitcom television. Over the last five years the show continually gets funnier. It also is pushing the envelope for the future of TV, in regards to what is and isn't funny.

Another reason to watch the show now is because soon it will be on all of the time. On July 15, 2008, it was reported that FX has ordered 39 additional episodes of the series which means that the show will run until at least a seventh season. All remaining seasons will consist of 13 episodes. All five main cast members were secured for the entire scheduled run. The fifth season premiered on September 17, 2009. Beginning in 2010, comedy central will be airing reruns of this show as well.

Almost Famous

Most people that listen to music, or see a band perform live, understand at least in a very small how difficult it can be to for a group or musician to even become that successful. The success of music is affected by many aspects that doesn't even involve the music itself. One being reviews written by music critics. If some one hasn't heard an album that is supposed to be a very good one, more than likely they will base their first opinion on what he or she reads about it. So a good or bad review can really make or break a career, even for the writer. The movie, Almost Famous best exemplifies this.

The movie begins in a small families home in San Diego, California. The mother and the daughter of the family are fighting because the daughter feels contained in the house, so much to the point where the mother wont even let her daughter listen to a vinyl record of Simon and Garfunkle. The daughter decides to become an airline worker so she can chase her dreams of traveling the world. However, she leaves William, her little brother, her entire collection of vinyl records as a gift. This inspires William to become a writer for a rock magazine. When William turns fifteen, he meets famous music critic Lester Bangs. Bangs tells William, to write a review on the Black Sabbath concert going on at the San Diego sports arena. After William struggles to get into, he meets a group of self acclaimed band-aides. Penny Lane, played by Kate Hudson, uses her underground fame to sneak William into the concert. It was here he met the band, Stillwater, who he chooses to write about instead of Black Sabbath. Eventually he gets dragged along onto the tour with Penny Lane and the band Stillwater, leaving his school work behind and his mother extremely worried.

Almost famous is a classic rock and roll story. It can be appreciated by those who are struggling musicians, those who struggle with love, or even simply some one with a dream. The movie is throughly entertaining all the way through. For the younger crowd, it is an interesting trip into the past of rock and roll, and for the older crowd, it is a walk down memory lane.

"Blue Screen Life" By Pinback, 2001

The year 2000 began many changes in the music industry. For all of the 80's and a majority of the 90's recording studios used reel to reel analog tape consoles. Meaning, studios used magnetic machines to transfer waveforms, or sound, being sent from a microphone or instrument onto a reel of tape. The reels of tape would later be produced into a vinyl record, or now more commonly a compact disc. By the mid to late 90's software engineers were able to invent computer programs that could record waveforms and transfer it into a computer. So instead of becoming a waveform on a piece of tape, whatever was recorded into a computer would be come binary code. Then that binary code could be burnt to a CD, which is an instant action of transferring music date as opposed to making a vinyl which takes more time and work. This had a huge impact on the industry because recording engineers had access to a faster and more efficient way of recording music.

A band named Pinback, from San Diego California, became one of the first bands to take advantage of the advancements in digital recordings. In 2001 they released a full length album called “Blue Screen Life”. The CD features only two musicians, Rob Crow and Armistead Burwell Smith IV. Rob and Armistead switch between drummers for live performances and recordings, however for this album the drummers were all programmed digitally through a sound module. This is a huge part the overall ambience of the album, considering its one of few indie rock albums to not use an acoustic drum set. The song that best exemplifies the ambience of the album is the track entitled “Penelope”. The song has traditional instruments, such as acoustic guitar and bass. However it also features an electric drum pattern, a keyboard set to simulate a jazz organ, as well as melodies from a synthesizer. If one were to hear only the acoustic guitar “riff” than the song maybe seem boring, however when other instruments being performed digitally are thrown into the mix, it really adds a whole new perspective for the listeners ears. Another digital enhancement that really brings this album alive is the use of a pitch corrector.

A pitch corrector, today more commonly known as auto-tune, is exactly what it sounds like. It is a digital tool used to correct the pitch of any melody. Since its existence people have been turned off by the idea of a pitch corrector. However it is very uncommon for any producer or engineer to put out a CD with out it. It can be modulated to sound extremely digital i.e., T-Pain, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, etc. However engineers also modulate the pitch corrector simply to add a bit more strength to a vocalist with a softer or nasally voice i.e., Maroon 5, Fall Out Boy, Death Cab for a Cutie etc. Pinbacks 2001 full length album wasn't any different from the industry standard. Though maybe it is not a popular decision it definitely benefited the sound of an already strong singer.

Aside from all of the digital enhacements, “Blue Screen Life” is great album purely because it was written by two musicians with a fresh look on how to play rock music. It is the perfect album to put on after a long and stressful day. Halfway through the ablum one should find themselves nearly hypnotized by the ambience. Everyone knows that one can hear music, but one may not also realize that a listener can also feel music. Sound is just air pressure changing over time. The right combination of frequencies will make a listener feel a certain way. Pinback was able to feed off of that and bring their listeners an album that will put any one into a trance.

Zombie Land

America shares a guilty pleasure for zombie movies. Some people view it as entertainment, others see it as a safety video for when the zombie apocalypse supposedly happens. Regardless, don't expect to see an empty theatre when a zombie movie is being shown. As was the case one of this summers bigger movie hits "Zombie Land." The film debuted at #1 at the box office in North America, with ticket sales of $24,733,155 on the opening weekend. By October of 2009 $75,590,286 domestically and $102,133,700 worldwide was made. The film grossed $60.8 million in 17 days, becoming the top-grossing zombie film in history.

The movie starts off focusing on a scrawny college student who named himself Columbus. All the characters in the movie name themselves based off where they are from. On his way back home, Columbus encounters another survivor, played by Woody Harrelson. Though they question each other, they travel together. When they stop at a grocery store, they meet two sisters who scam them into handing over their weapons and Tallahassee's car. The two men walk and soon find a truck loaded with weapons. Eventually the two groups cross paths again and decide to team up instead of fighting each other. By the end of the movie the disgruntled survivors become an elite zombie killing task force.

Zombie land exemplifies great cinematic camera work and a lot of classic one liners as one would expect from a zombie film. However, its best feature is the group of actors and actresses they were able to cast; which included Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. Though the trio formed a dynamic group, the best actor in the film was Woody Harrelson. Harrelson plays a lone cowboy with an unexplainable love for twinkies, and the ability to demolish any amount of zombies in his path. Bill Murray was also casted for a but key role to the film.

When the groups decide to team up, they drive to hollywood and stay at famous actor Bill Murray's mansion, thinking he is dead and the residence is abandoned, safe, and zombie free. Tallahassee and Wichita, the older of the two sisters, find him disguised in zombie make up to protect himself from a zombie attack. Part of the reason for Zombie Lands popularity was because its the first Zombie movie that is also hilarious to hit the big screen.

If you want to watch a film that has bullets flying through out its viewing and be able to laugh when there aren't bullets being blasted, than Zombie Land is perfect. It is the number one selling Zombie movie ever made, so its very unlikely that zombie fans will be disappointed. Even if you aren't a zombie fanatic, the film is over a 90 minutes of old fashioned entertainment.

Evils Ways Demo

Evil Ways is a band that has been playing out of Rockford Illinois, since 2009. The group has yet to amount to any huge achievements as performers, though they have played a few shows at Chicago's local bars on the South Side. Evils Ways is looking for there break through into the music scene with their new self titled E.P.. It features four songs, including there more popular song “Watch Her Rise” The music has a bit of a grunge feel, like Sound Garden or Alice in Chains. They also represent the city of Chicago by throwing in bluesy guitar solos and lyrics. The band features Catherine Smith, lead singer, a popular local artist. Recently, they finished recording a demo in Lakeview Illinois at Rax Trax studio. The studio is run by Richard Barnes, who has worked with artist such as Smashing Pumpkins, Plain White Tees, Los Lonely Boys, Ice Cube, and much more. The studio also features top of the line gear that has produced platinum selling albums for nearly two decades now.

However, even with Barnes abilities, it is very unlikely that this band will ever amount to anything other than playing at bars in Chicago. The music is simply too typical. There are too many, wah pedal guitar solos. Not to mention, the members are all over 30, yet they sound like they are trying to be 16. Listeners will be able to guess how the song will sound as they are listening to it. The lyrical content is also an issue. “She's a phoenix, watch her rise. She's a tiger, she'll watch you die.” It may be hard for Smith to connect to her male audience because her lyrics are mostly about the struggles of being a women in a mans world.

If this CD is getting handed out for free, grab it. Evil ways is definitely a talented group. However, the lack of originality doesn't make it worth spending money on. If you like Alice in Chains or Sound garden, you may like this group; but you are probably better off just buying an Alice in Chains or Sound garden CD.

Carbon Tigers At Sub T

CARBON TIGERS AT SUB-T

When I go to a local show, I cross my fingers behind my back as I pay the person handing out tickets. Local shows tend to go one of two ways. One, every band was solid and it was a great night; or 2, the only good band was the headliner and you wasted 2 and half hours listening to some other crappy bands that you didn't pay to hear. Buy local show tickets at your own risk. However, when you do luck out and happen to end up at a good show, it should sound like how Carbon Tigers did at Subterranean on Feb 5^th of 2010.

I walked into the venue and members of the band were already on stage and ready to play. They all managed to dress fairly casual, but each member has a bit of personality to them, and collectively quite a bit of Tattoos. Don't let the ink scare you away though, because not only can the members of Carbon Tigers perform, but they are also incredible and experienced musicians.

Rather than building anticipation and waiting for more people to show up, they started jamming right on schedule. They let there music draw the crowd. When they first started playing there was a small gathering near the stage. It gave me enough time to grab a beer from the stand and come back before they started there second song. By the end of the second song when I finished my beer and wanted to get another one, the place was packed. I learned next time to stock up before these guys play because they will control your attention as long as they are plugged in and turned up.

Carbon Tigers is a five piece band. Though they formed in Chicago, all the members reside in states outside of Illinois. I feel this is key to there sound because they bring elements of east coast, west coast, and southern rock, and mix it all together with a chicago blues feel. I often hear people say they sound like As Tall As Lions or Minus The Bear. I can definitely hear the influences, however I feel they have found a way to take that sound and make it there own.

To me they sound like if As Tall As Lions and Pink Floyd collaborated on an album. You can find there songs on myspace. However, the two songs they have posted doesn't justify to how truly talented this band is. So keep a look out for new songs in the spring or summer of 2010. If you have ten dollars and want to see a great show, bring twenty and stock up on the booze because Carbon Tigers will keep you moving all night.

TimeOut Piece

Of all the reviewers in this article, Nathan Rabin was the most interesting. He has the ability to speak his mind and be critical with out being offensive. It is hard to get a point across to a reader when that person is offended by the way an article is worded. Rabin was able to catch the readers attention. The more important part was that he was able to sustain the readers attention. He was also able to bring up new sides to a argument or debate through out the interview. For example, "I think it has to do with an anti-intellectual bias that has long persisted in our culture. The idea that snooty eggheads don't know anything bout the movies that Joe Six-Pack doesn't." Rabin is able to not only show his opinion in this phrase but he also brings a new topic of reviewing to the table. Since Rabin is a writer for the onion, his opinion is going to be a bit more interesting because the onion is a newspaper based on producing articles and stories that aren't what one would typically find in a newspaper. This to me makes him a nuetral view in the review. Which also might make his opinion more credible to the reader.

good readers and writers

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/arts/design/29vogel.html?ref=design

I found this peice to be very interesting. I enjoyed that it gave me the history of the art work. Including how long it has been traveling from museum to museum for. It is interesting to know more than just how the painting was painted.

http://www.artnet.com/magazine/reviews/garcia-fenech/garcia-fenech2-18-99.asp

I was not intrested in this site, because simply I am not interested in looking at bad art. The whole point of art is to be creative and become one with the piece. Not to make somethine sarcastic or ironic for ones humor.