The Wake

Exaggeration, white lies and stretching the truth – all common ideas associated with Tim Burton’s latest film, Big Fish.A man who could never be accused of being unimaginative, Burton has not only matured with this heartfelt story of family ties but has also proved to audiences that his work is more than simply something to poke fun at.Burton, who directed such films as The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice and Batman, has been stuck in the ultra-imaginary, where the boundaries of the surreal are stretched through exotic settings and fantasy-like characters, competing with storylines that could only …

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If shows like Family Guy and The Simpsons have taught us anything, it’s cartoons are not just for kids anymore. Anyone who says differently has obviously never seen South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. Cartoons have always played on people’s senses of whimsy and humor, although some have more fun exploring the seedier side of human nature. The French animated film, The Triplets of Belleville, certainly belongs in the latter category. Animated films have long been a staple for adults as well as children and Triplets is no exception. A good old-fashioned tug-of-war between good and evil, Triplets is a treat, …

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Dancing in a leotard, flaunting his fully-exposed chest to the likes of David Lee Roth and Freddie Mercury, lead singer, Justin Hawkins, of The Darkness has re-established ’80s glam-rock. Hailing from England, the foursome’s debut album Permission to Land has already gone four times platinum in the United Kingdom. Once a band struggling for mainstream acceptance, The Darkness have now become a cult-like hit. And why not? With such rockin’ hits like “Growing on Me” and “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” they have made the theme of love a sexual escapade for all to explore. “I believe in …

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With a new singer in tow (Tim Owens replacing Matt Barlow), Iced Earth has accomplished a masterwork. On The Glorious Burden, band leader Jon Schaffer has put together a conceptual double album based on military history and his love for the U.S.A. The album opens with a classy and respectful guitar version of “The Star Spangled Banner,” followed by a power thrash track about the American Revolution (“Declaration Day”) and a somber ballad dedicated to victims of the 9/11 attacks (“When the Eagle Cries”). My favorite track on the first disc is “Valley Forge,” another power thrash masterwork that …

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It has been brought to my attention that it may be necessary for me to explain some things about underground metal. I have decided to go through a quick primer for you on metal’s sub-genres. The first topic I will touch on is the style of DEATH METAL. Death metal began in the early 1980s with bands such as Possessed and Death. It became a more extreme evolution of thrash metal. Death metal consists of ultra-fast guitar playing that is highly distorted and usually very intricate. The playing is quite often non-melodic. The vocals are a growled style as pioneered …

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I learned two valuable lessons from the Stills/Ryan Adams show at First Avenue last December: 1. I’m a weak person, at least musically. 2. Ryan Adams is akin to a coddled baby with one too many eight balls of coke in his carriage. The past couple of years have produced band after band of ‘80s revivalists borrowing from The Smiths, The Cure and Joy Division. Interpol, Hot Hot Heat and The Rapture have all enjoyed critical buzz and indie-sized success by infusing great songs with the sounds of Johnny Marr and Ian Curtis. As someone who spent a considerable amount …

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Four Fingers: Self Titled (RPO-SUBACA)Listening to this album gave me the impression that I’d somehow stumbled into a late-night, opium-induced Turkish escapade with a back alley belly-dancer. Self-Titled, the group’s debut album, shakes with the kind of raw Moorish sexual passion that you’d expect to hear wafting through a Moroccan street market. Employing acoustic instruments to convey a multitude of sounds, the members of Four Fingers passionately rip through their wordly art-jazz, creating the closest thing I’ve ever heard to a recorded musical orgasm. Best for fans of: Frankencense, Sitars, Tantric Sex
How to get it? Either buy it from …

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Mason Jennings is from Minnesota, and it shows. In his latest album, Use Your Voice, the rustic singer-songwriter serves up ten tracks of northern living, Dylan-style. Like the prophetic folk-rocker before him, Jennings basks in the simplicity of song. Much of the album features only Jennings’ gutsy acoustic guitar and harmonica, backed by a subdued drum and bass rhythm section. Fortunately for Jennings, his songs are able to hold up to such sparse instrumentation. Songs like “Crown” and “Fourteen Pictures” stab at the heart like an adrenaline needle, injecting it with the tortures of love and loss. Others, such as …

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Igloo is a side-project of Adam Pierce and Doro Tachler of Mice Parade. With eight whimsical tracks delicately simmered with shimmering atmospherics, carefree counterpoints and the occasional vocal stint, the duo’s self-titled debut is one warm, modest mouse of an album. The album is so warm, in fact, that even the songs in the minor key evoke that fuzzy feeling. Picture a baby chimp with a bib, and you’re halfway there. And it doesn’t hurt that Igloo uses its tonal charm like a flirtation device; you can’t help but blush while listening to it. But you also can’t shake the …

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The Micranots (I Self Divine and Dj Kool Akiem) have launched an album of social upheaval with The Emperor and The Assassin, full of messages of motivation, truth, inner-city life, love, and resilience. After waiting five years since their last release Micranots’ fans will be glad to hear that I Self is back in full-stride with forceful, staccato, innovative, poetic form and Kool Akiem has developed on the production side while still maintaining that original Micranots sound. The dynamic duo wastes no time beating around the bush immediately hitting their listeners hard with the second track “Glorious,” and never letting …

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The story of Mason Jennings’ decade-long musical start is the picture of indie rock perfection. Through patience and restraint, he has nurtured a following all his own with no help from major labels. While many artists may stay as true to their artistic visions as Jennings, they’re usually too busy waiting tables to be heard of by the casual concert-goer. Jennings grew up in Pittsburgh, but when he was 19, he came to Minneapolis as a high-school drop out to become part of its local music scene. Record companies offered him deals. Even a small label can make an offer that …

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Printmaking is beating and moving in new directions. A glimpse of this is currently at The 4th Minnesota National Print Biennial from January 13 to February 19 at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery, which is located in the Regis Center of Art, University of Minnesota. The exhibit shows the vitality and evolvement of printmaking in the United States with the help of artists from across the nation. “The Minnesota Nation Print Biennial is a very well respected exhibition nationally, and we’re very proud at the Department of Art about that,” commented Colleen Mullins, the director for the show. “Every …

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Rugby isn’t just bald, gap-toothed hooligans the size of boxcars playing overseas. Women at the “U” have a lot of that hooligan gene as well. But forget all that bald, gap-toothed, boxcar stuff. The University of Minnesota Women’s Rugby Club is the No. 1 team in the nation for Division II rugby programs and is participating in the national championship this spring. These women could pass through security posing as a gymnastic squad or even a basketball team. By the looks of them, it would be hard to imagine these same women engaging in one of the rawest forms of …

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And the list goes on and on for Gophers’ hoops star Lindsay Whalen. The senior guard surpassed Carol Ann Shudlick’s career-scoring record with one of her seven three pointers in the Gopher women’s loss against Michigan State January 25. Whalen, a senior from Hutchinson, MN, should be used to personal accolades and achievements by this point in her career. Before the start of this season, Whalen was named to the prestigious Wooden Women’s Award Preseason All-American list with the other top 29 women ball players in the country. Last season, she collected a Kodak first team All-American honor …

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The University of Minnesota’s synchronized swimming team can be seen practicing on Mondays and Wednesdays in the diving hole of the aquatic center. There are nine girls who all look alike, dressed in very similar bathing suits, wearing matching swim caps and twirling in circles at the same time. It looks like they are practicing for underwater foosball.The synchronized swimming’s a-team is made up of eight girls, coached by Sarah Nelson and Jessica Kampa. They compete against the other Big Ten schools throughout the spring semester and, at each competition, the team is judged upon two things: its technical …

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