Archives for August 2011

Considering that it was done by teenagers, “A Day In North Brooklyn” is an exhibit that is bound to surprise its guests with the talent put into each piece.

The artists come from the Manhattan and Little Neck branches of the Ashcan School of Art, which provides art classes to high school and college students. This summer, the students were offered the chance to exhibit their works at the Arts@Renaissance gallery (2 Kingsdale Avenue in Williamsburg) until August 26.

The gallery served as a mental institute where the old shower stalls and the tiled floors still remain as part of the gallery, creating a very eerie feel, drawing an interesting atmosphere to the art.

Supposedly inspired by the sights of Brooklyn, the 36 piece exhibit features several sculptures and paintings of severed body figures gives off a dark and mysterious feeling that don’t really make a connection to the Brooklyn community. These pieces push too hard for a deep and meaningful reaction.

Despite the lack of true meaning behind their works, the students of the Ashcan Studio of Art still are able to display their talent and skill. Each work was extremely detailed, and the technique in each piece was used correctly. In “Greenpoint Oil Spill” by 17-year-old Jinsoo Chan, the use of perspective drawing to represent three-dimensional images on a two-dimensional plane was used precisely. The quality of the work is professional, and there are several times the viewer needs to be reminded that the works were done by teens.

“Untitled” by 16-year-old Christine Lee was a piece that had the touch of a more mature person. “Untitled” was a depiction of a train stop in various mediums, including oil paint, cardboard and acrylic paint. The windows at the train stop were done with much detail, and the way Lee brushed a layer of charcoal to create a musty atmosphere made the work all the more interesting.

In an interview on the work, Lee said, “I learned a lot from my classes at Ashcan, and I used the techniques I learned in my piece. I didn’t try to think too hard about what the work meant, I just painted, glued together what was in my unconscious.”

However, this was not so for all the pieces. Many of the students tried to create a meaningful message with their art, and in turn, made several different pieces look the same. With this, parts of the exhibit lacked creativity and true meaning, although the pieces were well done.

Sgt. Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) is an Irish cop from the county of Galway who spends his time drinking on duty, stealing drugs from victims’ bodies, and having fun with prostitutes. So when an international drug smuggling gang causes turmoil in Boyle’s town, the FBI has no choice but to get involved and Boyle ends up teaming up with Agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) to catch the criminals. At first, Boyle’s personality clashes with Everett’s no-nonsense attitude and their opposite views is what makes the movie funny. For example, when Boyle raises his hand at a meeting and tells Everett in his heavy Irish accent, “I thought only black lads are drug dealers. And Mexicans.” This line is the start of a string of racist remarks from Boyle’s part.

The movie lived up to the great reviews it got and there were almost no boring moments. John Michael McDonagh did a fantastic job with the screenplay. He used a mix of dark humor and action to make the movie enjoyable. The jokes were hilarious and not clichéd, and Boyle’s amusing personality only helped make the movie memorable.

The final scenes were different from usual movies and the ending is something you wouldn’t expect. The movie’s explosive ending, literally, brought a different angle to the usual shoot-out scenes in the usual “two cops work together to stop the bad guys” movie.

Boyle and Everett together made a great team once they got over their differences and worked together. They made the movie watchable and their little disputes made it extremely entertaining.

Gleeson’s acting was great in “The Guard.” He always brings something good to his roles. What’s supposed to be funny, he makes hilarious, what’s supposed to be sad, he makes devastating (think “28 Days Later” when he played Frank and he got infected) so it was easy to expect something good out of this movie. 

Though the cinematography and the soundtrack weren’t amazing; they didn’t take away from the overall outcome of the movie. However, there were a few songs from the soundtrack that stood out such as the traditional Irish music.

Overall, the movie was great though some of the jokes might go over teens heads.

The iconic “Planet of the Apes” series was rebooted August 5^th with the premiere of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” which aims to show the franchise in a more human light as it paves the way for the dethroning of the human race at the hands of its simian counterparts.

The film is a prequel of 1968’s “Planet of the Apes,” the story of an American astronaut who travels to the future and finds that apes have become the dominant species of the planet, and humans are their mute slaves.

“Rise” stars James Franco as Will Rodman, a scientist on the brink of producing a cure for Alzheimer’s. But before Will can market his research, the test subjects, apes, are abruptly put down. Unbeknownst to Rodman’s superiors, one of the test apes gave birth to a chimp, Caesar which has greater than normal intelligence.  

The real stars of the film are the apes, largely due to the digital animators. For the first time in the 43-year history of the “Apes” franchise, the apes are completely digital and not costumed actors. These apes are realistic yet scarily human like. 

Will raises the chimp but despite his care, Caesar discovers how different he is from his human peers. When Caesar attacks a neighbor for scolding Will’s diseased father,  he gets sent to a primate sanctuary, where he is abused by the owners (Brian Cox and Tom Felton) and his fellow apes.

Eventually, the apes realize they have a common enemy and Caesar assumes leadership over them. Now with an army to support him, Caesar ignites an ape revolution in San Francisco.

Despite the trailer’s indications, this $90 million blockbuster is not an action film or a sci-fi thriller, although there are elements of both and it is marketed as such.  In fact, for much of the movie, the plot has the pace of a drama. This is a showcase of the complexity of the primate mind: our cruelty, our power to love and our willingness to test the limits of nature.  NICE

Director Rupert Wyatt challenges the audience to cheer for the apes. Because they look so human, one starts perceiving them as such. One begins to understand why they’d want to wipe us all out based on the actions of the film’s humans.

Freida Pinto (“Slumdog Millionaire”), who plays ape doctor Caroline Aranha, has only aesthetic value. Pinto is given little impacting dialogue or action and appears to only be eye candy to attract a wider audience. 

Tom Felton, known for his portrayal of Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter series, once again plays a bully, this time in the form of Dodge Landon. Landon’s bullying is so effective that he sets the stage for one of the signature characteristics of the franchise: talking apes. When Landon attempts to tase Caesar into submission, the chimp yells “NO!” and grabs the Taser away from the frightened boy. 

”Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has intense man-to-simian violence and vice versa.

I can honestly say that the show “Hard Knocks” must be one of the greatest NFL shows in history. Every season, this show lets the fans take a look inside a specific NFL team’s training camp. Now that Hulu.com covers Hard Knocks, we can relive some of the best episodes. New York Jets fans will have to wait, because their season is not on the website yet.

So far, Hard Knocks has filmed the Baltimore Ravens (2001), Dallas Cowboys (2002), Kansas City Chiefs (2007), Dallas Cowboys again (2008) and The Cincinnati Bengals (2009). Then, they paid a visit to the New York Jets in 2010.

I have only watched the Jets and Bengals Hard Knocks episode, because I love the Jets and the Bengals are 100% insane. I really hope that Hard Knocks pays another visit to the Jets, because I love their whole organization. Now that the QB Mark Sanchez is becoming a leader, it will be nice to compare the before and after.

Other teams that should be filmed on the show from the NFC are the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles. These two teams seem are like a big family and play great football. It will be nice to see the nicer side of football after watching the Bengals on Hard Knocks.

Also, Hard Knocks lets the fans witness a team that they may not pay much attention too. I would love to learn more about the Minnesota Vikings, Houston Texans and the Denver Broncos. The whole situation going on with the two quarterbacks, Tebow and Orton, in Denver, seems so weird. It would be better to have cameras on them, so we can see their true feelings.

 Even though I like the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints, I feel like they will be boring on the show. In my opinion, there are not really any stand out players like Ray Lewis, Bart Scott and Chad Ochocinco on those teams.

Due to the current lockout, Hard Knocks couldn’t’t film this year, so let’s hope for a great and interesting team on Hard Knocks next season.

This week marks the release of Kanye West and Jay-Z’s new album, “Watch the Throne”. The album shows many hours of hard work and brings out the best in both of their talents. They collaborate with producers and artists such as RZA, Frank Ocean, Mr. Hudson, Beyonce, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, Eminem and many more. In terms of my personal preference, I like three quarters of the album. The quarter that doesn’t appeal to me is the songs such as “Lift Off.” On this song, Kanye returns to his “808 Heartbreak” flow, where he used auto tune and romance lyrics. This doesn’t even seem like genuine Kanye. Jay-Z brought back his timeless raw flow that any hip-hop fanatic knows so well. Following the release of the album, leaks on YouTube flooded the internet and were swatted down almost instantly.

The second season of Bachelor Pad aired on August 8th. This season is sure to bring a lot drama, with many split up couples living in the house. The notorious couple of the house is Jake and Vienna, who had an extremely dramatic and exposed breakup a year ago. They literally hate each other, and are being forced to now live under the same roof together. To add to this drama, Vienna has a new man on her arm, Casey, who is willing to do anything to protect her.

I’ve had a perm/relaxer in my hair before. I first got a perm when i was 5-years-old, which is really bad, but my mom didn’t want deal with my hair being “nappy” anymore. About 2 years ago, I stopped getting a perm, because it ended up destroying my hair and my mom made me realize how much black women want hair like white women. It’s a simple fact. This is the reason most black women get perms , weaves or wear wigs. They believe that “nappy” hair is hard to deal with, but it really isn’t. If perms were never created, black women would have to deal with it one way or another.
 
Before, when I had my perm, I just liked it because my hair was long, people loved it and it was easy for me to do. But, when i found out how many things you can do with natural kinky hair, i automatically fell in love with it. I don’t like that society expects women to have straight hair, and if she doesn’t than there’s something is wrong with her. I just wish girls knew that having a perm is not that great, because if their hair isn’t destroyed now, than it probably will be in the future. I feel that girls should just embrace where they came from and the hair they were born with. Its never too late.