Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9)

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Balkan Beat Box

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What do you think? Enough to break our your dancing shoes again?

However praises be answered! Instead of having to find sites yourself, now you can simply lazily click your interests online and the magical people of Stumble will find websites from around the inter-webs that match what you selected! All without you having to use any of your precious time to find them!

Stumble is filled with categories of interests from cars to geology to music to just about anything (except for really messed up stuff. Probably.). You just sign up for their fun e mail list and pick your interests and you’re all ready to stumble upon the internet!

The first few Stumbles I did immediate made me fall in love with the program because it sent me to everything from the best sunset photograph I have ever seen, to this ridiculous but amazing site. So next time you have some time on your hands and don’t feel like stalking that cute person you’re sorta friends with on Facebook, head over to stumbleupon.com and start finding the real gems.

Hurt Locker Poster courtesy of Summit Entertainment

Lost in Translation Poster courtesy of Focus Features

The 21st Century began with a transformative decade in film. From films that captured the chaos and insecurity of a post 9/11 terror-centric world to comic depictions of post-modern family values; this decade’s host of films sought to depict a rapidly changing world with ingenuity and creativity. Directors challenged everyone from the food industry (Food Inc) to President Bush (Fahrenheit 9/11), and handled subjects ranging from dysfunctional families (Little Miss Sunshine, Juno) to a zombie infested apocalypse (28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland) to historic civil rights leaders (Milk, Bobby). This list of the 25 best films of the decade (spanning from 2000 to 2009), not only represent the best in filmmaking but also encapsulate the decade known as the naughts.

25) Trouble the Water (2008) – Best Documentary of the Decade

This horrifying documentary, tracing an eyewitness account of Hurricane Katrina, not only criticizes the inability and apathy of federal government, but shows the struggle of an entire community attempting to rebuild not only their homes, but their identity. Kimberly Roberts is not only a reluctant documentarist in this film, but the best representation of New Orleans, a city that despite deep despair has the unrelenting capacity for hope.

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24) Brick (2005) – Best Noir Film of the Decade

Though there were several brilliant representations of noir films this decade, including Robert Altman’s opus Gosford Park and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, Brick is truly a 21st Century take on a classic cinematic art form. Centered around teen drug pushers living in suburban California, Brick sets film’s most compelling genre in the most unique of environments. Rich in intelligence and wit, Rian Johnson’s take on noir is seductive and thrilling without resorting to sex and extreme violence. This film will no doubt leave you gasping for air… in more ways than one.

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23) The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) – Best Wes Anderson Flick of the Decade

Wes Anderson is truly the king of whimsical absurdist humor and he is by far at his best in The Royal Tenenbaums. Tenenbaums centers around an affluent family, including three child prodigies, struggling to reconnect with their estranged patriarch. With dark themes such as incest, abandonment, suicide, and depression, Wes Anderson develops a film that creates humor and optimism out of the starkest of circumstances.  No one tells a story with more fantastical creativity than Wes Anderson.

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22) Sideways (2004) – Best Film Centered Around Alcohol

The comedy team of Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor have always been able to comedically interpret the middle-aged man in crisis. Sideways, a film that focuses on the bachelor party of two best friends while in Napa Valley, grows and develops into maturity like the fine wine used as a metaphor. In an industry where comedies often resort to absurd scenarios, Sideways has an element of reality and depth that is lacking in a world of sex-crazed teen comedies. It’s always nice to have some sophistication with the funny.

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21) Once (2007) – Best Musical of the Decade

It’s difficult to develop a film around two of Ireland’s most famous musicians, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, and stay true not only to the narrative, but to the music that moves the story forward. Director John Carney, also a musician, develops a film that is naturalistic and allows the music to take as much a central role to the film as the characters. Carney merges the storytelling of music and film in a truly original way. Truly a focal point of contemporary Irish film.

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20) The Hurt Locker (2009) – Best Iraq War Movie of the Decade

It seems strange that the director of the cheesy cult favorite Point Break, would develop probably one of the most important films of our generation in The Hurt Locker. Kathryn Bigelow’s film about a military unit whose responsibility is to disarm IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device), is much more than a movie about this country’s most controversial war zone; it is a conscious analysis of the psychological consequences of violence and war.

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19) Brokeback Mountain (2005) – Best LGBT Film of the Decade

At its heart Brokeback Mountain is a classic American love story, in reality it is a complete revision and criticism of the ideal American lifestyle. Ang Lee perverts the traditional image of the American family, and asks his audience to see that structure as unnatural instead shaping his story around the romance of two headstrong cowboys living in Wyoming. Brokeback is a film that in many ways asks us to criticize the way we view love and happiness, as Lee’s dynamic characters reject both constantly seeking an unrealistic image of normalcy.

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18) Up (2009) – Best Animated Film of the Decade

With cherished films like The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, and Wall-E, this decade could be viewed as the decade of Pixar. Pixar is counted on time and time again to develop films that really appeal to people of every age, and the shining accomplishment of Pixar’s legacy this decade would have to be the dynamic Up. Pixar took a gamble in investing in a film centered around an elderly man rediscovering his childhood after the passing of his beloved wife. The gamble paid off, as Up has as many tear filled moments as it does humor.

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17) District 9 (2009) – Best Sci-Fi Thriller of the Decade

While everyone discusses the much overhyped Avatar, my sci-fi flick of the decade is far more original and trusts story and character development over mere CGI porn. District 9 is based in an internment camp of creatures from another planet who are being moved from a slum in Johannesburg to a government monitored concentration camp. Neill Blomkamp, a South African native who grew up during apartheid, develops District 9 into a film that more than pleases the eyes, but also has a message for a western society struggling with the changes of a post-racial world.

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16) Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) – Best Adult Fairy-Tale of the Decade

Before Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro was merely a comic book geek whose only notable directorial credits were Blade II and the critically tortured Hellboy. Now, years after the release of his “adult fairy-tale”, del Toro is universally lauded as a visionary director, and rightly so. Pan’s Labyrinth, which centers on a young girl who is identified as the heir to the throne of a fantasy world during civil war era Spain, does what film does best, and that is to take its audience into a completely new world with a recognition of the pain, despair, and courage that exists within our own worlds.

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15) Juno (2007) – Best Teen Comedy of the Decade

Juno proved that no screen writer has more of an ear for “Generation Y” lingo and culture than the former Minneapolis stripper turned Academy Award winner Diablo Cody. Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody are the perfect tag team in this comedy about a teenage girl struggling to cope with an unexpected pregnancy. The dialogue is quick and witty, the music is apt and playful, and the acting is comedic without appearing forced or over done. Juno presents a heartwarming message of trust and family with a conscious recognition of what it means to be a teenager in contemporary society. This is not your mom’s Breakfast Club.

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14) Volver (2006) – Best Dysfunctional Family Flick of the Decade

Director Pedro Almodovar has a way of shaping his protagonists with delicacy and insight, so its no wonder that the best actors in Spanish film seek him out and are delighted to work with him. This is never more apparent in Penelope Cruz’s portrayal of a mother coming to terms with her troubled past in the eye catching film Volver. Cruz’s role as Raimunda is not only brilliant its captivating as Almodovar crafts a film about the sanctity of feminine sexuality and the power of motherhood.

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13) Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003) – Best Epic of the Decade

Peter Jackson has come a long way from his zombie gorefest roots, as Lord of the Rings drew comparisons to another popular trilogy by none other than George Lucas, but Rings popularity pales in comparison to the way Jackson crafted a beloved saga of novels into breathtaking film after breathtaking film. Jackson’s films also created an apt parallel to our own society which was coping with a new worldwide war and an undetermined enemy.

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12) Flags of Our Fathers (2006)/Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) – Best War Films of the Decade

Clint Eastwood (by the way he grew up in Seattle and almost attended SU) is no doubt one of the most prolific directors of the decade, with films like Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino, but he gets most personal in his sister films Flags of Our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima. Eastwood, a Korean war veteran, knows the personal and tragic consequences of war and, through the eyes of both sides of the most famous battle of WWII, Eastwood challenges the very reasons we fight war delivering the powerful message that men do not fight wars for their country, but rather their brothers in arms.

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11) There Will Be Blood (2007) – Best Film about American Identity

No film has ever made me rethink my identity as an American more than Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Based on Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil, Blood centers around a power hungry oil man known as Daniel Plainview and his ugly feud with the fundamentally religious pastor Eli Sunday. The feud between Daniel and Eli has a very real place in contemporary American society and history as we feud within ourselves between the capitalist secular greed of Daniel Plainview and the unrealistic optimism grounded in religious reciprocity of Eli Sunday.

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10) Children of Men (2006) – Best Apocalyptic Action Film of the Decade

No one revolutionized the way we make movies in this decade more than Alfonso Cuaron did in his compelling film Children of Men. Based in apocalyptic London as the world struggles with the inability to procreate, a man attempts to rescue the world’s last remaining pregnant woman. The film is dark and brutal, presenting a society at an utter standstill waiting and preparing for the end of times, completely devoid hope, and Cuaron allows the audience to step into this world using probably the best cinematography of the decade as his primary tool to do so.

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9) A History of Violence (2005) – Best Film Based off a Graphic Novel

This decade saw a flurry of film adaptations of graphic novels, from the bitterly unsatisfying adaptation of Watchmen to the homoerotic/homophobic 300, but the only adaptation to truly outshine its source material is David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence. Cronenberg’s film is compelling in the way he attempts to analyze the use of violence, through the actions of a small town family man. The film asks: Is violence justified? How far is too far? What is more violent our actions or the lies we tell? And nothing is more eerie than watching a father argue with his son over the use of violence then watch them as they kill a group of gangsters.

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8] Paranoid Park (2007) – Best Psychological Thriller of the Decade

To watch Gus van Sant’s films is like watching a psych patient with dual personality disorder. He see-saws between marketable main-stream films like Good Will Hunting and Milk, and high concept ethereal dramas like the controversial Elephant. In Paranoid Park (which unfortunately came out the same year as Milk), van Sant merges both of his styles into a film, which is by far the hallmark of his career. Focusing on a young teenage skateboarder entrapped in a murder investigation, Paranoid Park moves with beautiful ease enticing the audience into van Sant’s analysis of lost innocence.

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7) Lost in Translation (2003) – Best Romantic Comedy of the Decade

With Lost in Translation, Sophia Coppola proved she has a place in the family business. The film focuses on a burgeoning romance between a young artistic newlywed and a middle aged former celebrity as they struggle to find purpose and meaning in their lives despite the end roads they’ve encountered. In Translation, Coppola exploits the varied hues and diversity of Tokyo to create a Wonderland out of the city developing her characters’ relationship into a colorful utopia. Translation is more than a romance, its a rediscovery of what it means to truly live.

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6) Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007) – Best Acted Film of the Decade

From the first shot of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Marisa Tomei having full nudity sex, the audience knows this is not your run-of-the-mill drama, which then leads to shock at the fact that the director of this film is 80 year old film legend Sidney Lumet. Lumet completely re-invents himself in this crime thriller, about two brothers’ attempt to rob their parents’ family jewelry store. Lumet allows his star studded cast to shine in every frame, and Hoffman plays his most frightening role yet in this mind-boggling film, which is surprisingly innovative.

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5) Traffic (2000) – Best Multiple Narrative Film of the Decade

Multiple narrative became a popular story telling device in films such as Crash and Babel, but what many don’t know is that Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic was the first film to experiment with this style of filmmaking. It is no mystery to the public that hypocrisy runs rampant in a bureaucratic society, in Traffic, which focuses on the American war on drugs, Soderbergh crafts a film with no clear protagonist or antagonist demonstrating the pervasiveness of greed and affectation. In Traffic, the nations most trusted drug enforcement agent is portrayed as no more moral than the most nefarious drug dealer.

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4) City of God (2002) – Best Foreign Film of the Decade

City of God, a film centered around a brutal gang war spanning three decades in Rio de Janeiro’s “city of god” slum, is dynamic in its raw honest portrayal of destitute poverty and the violence that pustulates from it. Brazilian filmmakers Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund, develop a film that far outpaces any Scorsese gangster epic. Whereas many urban gang films can get caught up within character development and action, Meirelles and Lund focus their attention on the perspective of the young photojournalist named Rocket. The film builds effortlessly from childhood innocence to adolescent curiosity to adult loss and disappointment. Growing up is hard to do… especially in a world of violence and corruption.

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3) Almost Famous (2000) – Best Comedy of the Decade

1973, the year rock music died, according to Cameron Crowe’s version of super critic Lester Bangs in his semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous. Almost Famous centers around a teenage Rollingstone journalist who gets the assignment to follow the band Stillwater on their nationwide tour all the while falling in love with a mysterious groupie named Penny Lane. Crowe’s film is much more than a representation of his own unique adolescence and is far more than a nostalgic piece referencing 70’s rock music. At its core, Almost Famous is a coming of  age story as three people find what it truly means to grow up, while discovering their own individualism in the process, but they have to battle their own demons to get there.

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2) The Dark Knight (2008) – Best Action/Superhero Film of the Decade

No film was more popular or more discussed than Christopher and Jonathan Nolan’s dark take on the Batman legacy known as The Dark Knight. By focusing on the greatest rivalry in superhero mythology between Batman and his arch nemesis the Joker, the Nolan brothers developed a film that was not only a physical battle between two comic book characters, but a psychological battle over the understanding of human nature. In many ways The Dark Knight is a tragedy, and Harvey Dent is used as the perfect pawn to force Batman to criticize his own world view. In the Nolan’s film, the world is incapable of protecting itself, there is no white knight that will resonate the values of mankind, instead it takes a “Dark Knight” to maintain the status quo. The Dark Knight took the squeaky-clean image of the superhero film and drug it through the mud, and we are more than grateful for that.

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1) No Country for Old Men (2007) - Best Drama/Film of the Decade

I have to admit I’ve never been a huge Coen brothers fan, but I can’t deny that No Country for Old Men is a work of pure genius. Coen brother’s films often come across as intellectually pretentious and overwhelmingly cynical focusing almost exclusively on dialogue to push a film forward (i.e. Burn After Reading), but in No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen show a brilliant command over the power of image and its ability to move a narrative. No Country for Old Men focuses on a drug deal gone bad causing a cat-and-mouse chase between an opportunistic cowboy and a hell bent hitman. The Coen brother’s create a film that is delicately and precisely developed in every way from the haunting sounds of Chigurh’s captive bolt pistol to the captivated image of a Southwestern thunderstorm. Anyone could watch this film on mute and enjoy it just as much. Not to mention the brilliant acting on the part of Javier Bardem who, sorry Heath Ledger fans, plays the most frightening character since Anthony Hopkin’s Hannibal Lecter. Haunting yet beautiful, violent yet subtle,  No Country for Old Men is empowered by its contrasts and its ironies. The western will never be the same.

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Gives Me Hope is a website that began in May 2009 as a hopeful counter to F-My Life, a website dedicated to how posters days were ruined. On Gives Me Hope, posters write of incidents and moments of their life where they were inspired, sometimes by the simplest of things. In turn, the stories leave readers a bit more hopeful. The website was created by two University of Notre Dame grads, Gaby Montero and Emerson Spartz, who write in their about us section, that “with all of the hurt and suffering in the world, who couldn’t use a few more reasons to hope each day?”

The site is described as “Chicken Soup for the Soul – the 21st Century, Twitter-style version.” yet don’t expect it all to be sappy, goopy stories. The insight into the goodness in people is tempered by the self-professed battles we all face. A kind word, a show of tolerance are powerful indicators of humanity than that sweet, “right” word. GMH demonstrates how that old adage “it’s the small things in life that make it worth living” is demonstrated through the simple acts of kindness we are all capable, and sometimes overlook in our rush-rush lives.

Akara in Madison, WI posts about her fears and reinvigorated hope in people ”Yesterday, I missed the bus to school, so my Muslim Afghani mother dropped me off with her headscarf on. I was scared about what the other kids would think when they saw her, but instead they bombarded me with questions about Islam and seemed fascinated to learn about another culture/religion. Their religious tolerance GMH!”

 Another post by Mary J. of Boston expressed the beauty of friendship and the randomness that “Last summer, my best friend came over to cheer me up after a tough breakup. In the middle of our conversation, she jumped from my couch, and chased the ice cream truck four blocks down the street, because she thought ice cream would make me feel better. She was barefoot. Her love GMH.”

Take a moment from your hectic life and smile. It’s nice to have a reminder of the beauty and hope that exists in the world.

If you are looking for more fully fleshed out avenue where technology and literature meet, check out Librivox.  Librivox is an all volunteer website that offers free audio recordings of books in the public domain. Thus far, they are over 2300 works to choose from. From poetry to classic literature to philosophical waxings, Librivox provides a unique service and one that helps we students who can’t manage read another word. You now listen, instead.

Whether you need a reaffirmation of the books you are reading or a new venue in which to explore books, these websites are fantastic resources to have in your bookmark.

Pretty much sums up my childhood. Courtesy of howstuffworks.com

People play video games for two reasons. Most play these time wasters as a form of recreation; to lay back with their friends and unwind with a game of Madden or two. A select few people, ie. the hardcore gamer crowd, play them for more masochistic reasons. The concept of a nerd with a need to prove himself is admittedly hilarious but video games easily provide that outlet.

Below is a small selection of five video games that nerds such as myself have found particularly challenging. They aren’t so much played for fun as they are played for pain. That being said, there’s nothing like wasting an entire weekend to beat a game that has been repeatedly stepping on your face for the last month.

I’ve omitted any games created before the year 2000. Eliminating 20 years worth of gaming back log is just easier. Keep in mind that this is just one man’s opinion.

5. Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)- This ninja combat franchise got reinvigorated into the 3-d realm when it was remade for current-generation platforms. Besides the main character and many favorite weapons and characters, the series’ punishing difficulty also made the jump to 3-d. Combat against hordes of other deadly ninjas or one big monster was a typical norm. Though amazing weapons such as staves, katanas and one strange nunchuk-scythe hybrid made the combat fast and furious, only skill could carry players past the more difficult areas. The remade ‘Black’ version of the game added an even steeper level of difficulty as well as numerous challenge missions that pit the player against seemingly impossible odds. In Asia, world Ninja Gaiden tournaments are held to determine who is the best motherfreaking ninja around.

4. F-Zero GX (Gamecube)- This game made Gran Turismo look like Mario Kart. The concept: take 30 suicidal pilots and put them in 30 racing machines each capable of pushing 2000 kilometers/hour then make them race along a miles-long track covered in explosives and sheer drops. The winner of each race earns the privilege of surviving to race another day. Saying that this game is adrenaline-pumping, high-octane fun is a serious understatement. Around half of all races end in the death of the player’s character, forcing an indeterminable number of restarts that only make you want to try again and get better. Track setting range from the middle of a metropolitan megacity to the innards of a space volcano to the exterior of a spaceship experiencing a meteor shower. The arcade version of the game features a cockpit that twists and turns along with the racing machines in the game, including sections that are completely upside down.

3. Trauma Center (Wii)- It takes almost a decade of schooling to become even a decent surgeon. With ‘Trauma Center,’ all it takes is $50 and a free weekend. This game put you in the hands of a surgeon fresh out of med school and thrusts you into impossible surgery situations. With the Wii’s motion functionality, this meant that you had to physically do the operation with your hands, instead of just pressing buttons on a controller. Stitching, cutting, resuscitation are all quite literally in your hands. Early surgeries involve the setting of broken bones or the removing of cancerous tumors, but those are the easy levels. Later, the patients’ own bodies fight back, regrowing tumors in a matter of seconds or causing self-lacerations that have to be stitched immediately lest the patient die. If that weren’t bad enough, some surgeries have ridiculous secondary conditions such as a heart transplant on a turbulence-happy airplane or a baby-delivery next to an undetonated ticking time bomb.

2. Resident Evil (Gamecube)- The remake for this popular first entry into the Resident Evil series wiped away any previous knowledge experienced gamers procured from the Playstation original, reinvigorating the frights and fights that made the original game so good. That also adds a higher degree of difficulty and terror. Updated graphics and craftier game developers have many tricks up their sleeve. You’ll find yourself dying to more than one re-animated zombie or giant mutated Venus Fly Trap. The difficulty of the game was mostly due to the sheer lack of ammunition lying around. At times, the game would give you a meager 15 bullets and then refuse to dole out any more until an hour later. In that 15 minutes you most likely expended most of your ammo, leaving you with just a couple shots to take on God knows what. Also, if you don’t cremate a zombie’s corpse, it comes back to life. FML.

1. Demon’s Souls (PS3)- Just when you thought video games had entered a soft period, here comes a game straight out of Asia to give you a real vigorous kick in the behind. Demon’s Souls comes off as a typical challenging RPG set in medieval times. Your starting character (essentially a warrior, thief, or magician) strolls merrily into the countryside slaying one easy enemy after another. All of sudden you encounter an ogre the size of Campion, who crushes you in one blow. Game over. Death is a regular occurrence in Demon’s Souls, and you will die very often. You’ll get eaten by dragons, bombarded with arrows and fall to your death many times. You might even die of the Black Plague at some point, not kidding. To top it all off, this game is required to be played online. If the hordes of demons weren’t challenging enough, the occasional jackass will come into your game and assassinate you for fun. Did I also mention that when you die, you lose all of your experience points? True Fact.

A curious window into the lives of East Germans during the Cold War. Courtesy of impawards.com

The Berlin Wall came down 4 days and 20 years ag. In light of “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”, Seattle U is celebrating the 20th anniversary with a full week of festivities appropriately titled ‘Fall of the Wall.’ This included a week-long nightly film showing in Xavier relating to East Germany. “The Lives of Others” is arguably the most high-profile of the four, having won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.

“The Lives of Others” tells the story of a ‘Stasi,’ a German secret police official, whose job is to weed out any dissidents to socialism in East Berlin. Stasi captain Gerd Wiesler is exceptionally good at his job, specializing in interrogation and surveillance techniques.

His latest assignment is to survey a man named Georg Weyman, a renowned German architect and playwright. Wiesler’s department has reason to believe that Weyman is a West sympathizer and it is Wiesler’s job to confirm it. Wiesler gets to work immediately, bugging Weyman’s apartment with microphones and keeping a 24-hour listening post operational right in the man’s attic.

Wiesler soon finds out the real reason he has been given this mission, however. A prominent German politician wants Weyman out of the way, whether he really is a West sympathizer or not. Wiesler, a prominent believer in the authority of the socialist German state, is taken aback by this blatant abuse of power.

He torn between his own sense of duty and his moral character. Throughout the movie is a battle between Wiesler’s growing attraction to his surveillance subject and his career. Most of the film’s drama comes in this startlingly deep and complex character development in Wiesler.

A lot of the tension the film produces, though, is in it’s ability to convey the sense of life in the Eastern Block during the mid-80’s. The entire population is seemingly monitored by state security. Just one bad word out of any citizen is reason enough to be sent to 48-hour isolation. Ideas such as despair-driven suicide and freedom of speech are explored and fleshed out with reckless abandon. More than one scene involves an aggressive act of violence or just blatant nudity.

The film does a wonderful job of crafting it’s iconic setting. Gray was apparently born in this movie. The flushed cement undertones and washed out background colors underscore the gritty underside of East Berlin. The film’s timeline finishes several years after the fall of the Berlin wall, tying up many loose ends along the way.

Overall, “the Lives of Others” is an interesting case study into an almost alien way of life. It’s one part historical drama, one part espionage thriller and one part gothic biography. If you believe in democracy, I’m telling to Czech out this film.

Blueberry bagel french toast with sausage, grapes and hashbrowns. Photo by Frances Dinger.

Eating and cooking are two of my favorite things but both can be kind of an inconvenience while at college because of time and budgetary constraints. However, it doesn’t have to take hours to prepare a good meal and it really doesn’t have to cost all that much.

Through this series of posts, I will be bringing you good recipes that take under an hour to prepare and, in most cases, cost under $20. You can be cheap, strapped for cash and time and still make good food.

The first recipe for the series is a recent invention of mine: BLUEBERRY BAGEL BAKED FRENCH TOAST! It’s incredibly easy and incredibly delicious.

Ingredients:
3 blueberry bagels, sliced
3 eggs
3 tbs milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 tbs butter
Enough brown sugar to sprinkle on the bottom of a glass 9×12 inch pan

Directions:
1.) Preheat the oven to 375 F. Whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon.

2.)Before submerging the bagel halves in the egg mixture, melt the butter and spread on the bottom of the glass baking pan. Sprinkle the buttered pan with brown sugar, this will create a really delicious crunchy glaze on the french toast that makes syrup almost unnecessary.

3.) Dip the bagel halves in the egg mixture, coating both sides. Let the uncut side of the bagel half sit in the egg a little bit longer, as it doesn’t absorb moisture as quickly as the cut side. Place the bagels cut side down into the buttered and sugared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Whether or not the excess sugar at the bottom of the pan is caramelized is a pretty good indicator of whether the toast is done or not.

This recipe serves 3-6, depending on personal appetites and the number of sides offered. A slightly spicy breakfast sausage and fresh fruit goes well with this awesome toast.

“He [Foer] posits that consideration, as promoted by Michael Pollan in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which has more to do with being polite to your tablemates than sticking to your own ideals, would be absurd if applied to any other belief (e.g., I don’t believe in rape, but if it’s what it takes to please my dinner hosts, then so be it).”

The feminist in me is deeply disturbed by the allusion that the free choice to eat meat is in any way comprable to such a vicious and invasive act as rape. Her point, of course, is just because dinner guests want meat, vegans shouldn’t acquiesce to their demands. Of course, to even go so far as to say if dinner guests want to rape someone (an illegal act), one should acquiesce is absurd and her point loses the validity she garnered throughout her essay.

She further loses validity because of her support of Roman Polanski, who pleaded guilty to rape and then fled the country in the 1970s. Recently, Polanski was arrested and  hundreds of Hollywood alums signed a petition entitled “Free Roman Polanski!”  Whether you believe Polanski should be free or not is not the issue. He has pleaded guilty of raping a 13 year old girl. And Portman’s support for him, in light of her attempt to condemn both rape and eating animals in her essay, is highly hypocritical. She can’t support a rapist, because he happens to be a brilliant friend, but then condemn rape, and further write something so drastic as to equate the act to eating animals. She reveals herself as a hypocrite.  And that is a sad reflection an otherwise brilliant talent.

Will it turn me veggie? (Courtesy of Little, Brown and Company)

Animals are delicious.

My two favorite foods:

-BBQ pulled pork sandwiches

-Chicken Korma

The thought of never again eating of my mother’s famous slow-cooked crock-pot BBQ pork again, or feasting upon tender chicken smothered in curry makes me shudder in horror. This is why I am nervous to read ‘Eating Animals,’ the new book by Jonothan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which apparently has turned Natalie Portman into a vegan activist.

Foer is my favorite author of all time. I worship him and everything he has ever done. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, mind-bogglingly amazing, changed my life after I read it, shifting how I looked at literature and what books were capable of.

Thus, I am obligated to read his freaking vegetarian manifesto thing, even if I love love love meat x100. Actually, x∞.

Sigh.

The work is an investigation into, well, eating animals. According to the New Yorker, Foer has been an on again/off again vegetarian since he was 9 when he first realized that chicken is in fact chicken and not some magical delicious substance that appears at dinner time. Despite many relapses, after marrying his wife (fellow novelist Nicole Krauss) who also had been trying to be a veg half-successfully for most of her life, they both vowed to do better. He wrote this book after having his first child, feeling compelled to articulate why he chooses to abstain from meatly delights.

Did I mention Natalie Portman liked it? She wrote a whole article for The Huffington Post outlining how much she liked it, especially the chapter on ‘animal shit’ which she emphasizes quite a bit.

Even if it doesn’t turn me into a vegetarian, I can’t pass up reading about animal poop.

Can you?

Forget print – it’s a lost cause. But it is never too late to save good journalism.

All the President’s Men (1976)
-The top-dog of possibly any movie created about journalism. If you’re going into the field of investigative journalism and don’t know who Carl Bernstein or Bob Woodward is – hell, or even what Watergate was – go get a creative writing major instead. Classic movie.

Almost Famous (2000)
-The semi-autobiographical account of Cameron Crowe’s days as a young reporter for Rolling Stone magazine. The glamour of rock n’roll through the eyes of a 15 year old boy who gets the writing opportunity of a lifetime to follow an up and coming band on tour. The quintessential movie for any music aficionado trying to break into the biz as a journalist.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
-Gonzo journalism. I’m a big fan of it – though there are plenty who aren’t. That’s okay too. Just appreciate this oddball masterpiece of a movie for what it is and Hunter S. Thompson for who he is.

Good Night and Good Luck (2005)
-Edward R. Murrow’s days as a broadcast journalist who worked to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy during the early 50s’ communism scare. A great example of what journalism is all about: to tell and bring the truth to those that do not have a voice.

Superman
-Any movie involving Clark Kent working at the Daily Planet. Who wouldn’t want to work at the Daily Planet? Too bad the Seattle PI shut down – it eerily resembled the Daily Planet.

Courtesy of scifiwire.com

The trend of modern Hollywood rehashing an idea from its past and pretending it is original continues. ‘The Box’ was formerly known as ‘Button Button,’ a classic episode of the original Twilight Zone, before the concept of color dawned on the television industry.

Both stories revolve around a box-like object with a button, a large sum of money and a serious moral dilemma for one Charlie’s Angels superstar.

The plot of ‘the Box’ is admittedly fairly interesting. One financially strapped couple, Arthur and Norma Lewis, played by James Marsden and Cameron Diaz respectively, is given a black box with a single red button on top.

Norma is told by a mysteriously disfigured stranger that if she pushes the button two things will happen. First, someone on Earth whom she “does not know” will die. Second, she will receive a cash payment of $1 million. With a family to raise and a newly unemployed husband, the offer becomes very appealing, yet still appalling, to Norma.

Like the proverbial panic button, Norma struggles with her decision on whether or not to push the button, being given only 24 hours to do so. While her husband Arthur tries to unravel the mystery of the mysterious organization responsible for the box, it becomes clear the decision Norma has to make is not as simple as ‘to push or not to push.’

The film deals with questions of fate and how it shouldn’t be tampered with. It also deals with the moral quandary of killing someone from afar anonymously for profit. It is very similar to other classic ‘Twilight Zone’ stories such as ‘the Monkey’s Paw’ or the recent ‘Saw’ movies. A fan of those should find some fun to be had in ‘the Box.’

Add in the director of ‘Donnie Darko’ and Frank Langella, the actor who recently played Richard Nixon in ‘Frost/Nixon’ and it ends up being a very decent way to spend a Friday night.

The original short story was published in an issue of ‘Playboy’ in the 70’s and still remains a popular story for adaptation today.

‘The Box’ opens in U.S. theaters on November 6.

The Claw vs. the Machete. Courtesy of wallpaperbase.com

There are horribly terrifying films and then there are terrifyingly horrible films. Then there are Halloween films, which will really make your hair stand on end. There are some great flicks out right now such as the happy-go-lucky “Zombieland” or the latest “Saw” installment. Some could actually be scary, but those would be too stereotypical to watch on a Halloween night. Real men watch the really terrible movies, the worst of the worst. Only steel wills could endure such cinema veri-crap. These five movies make you want to pull your eyes out and feed them to a reindeer.

1. Hocus Pocus- This Disney witch romp featured a young but surprisingly sultry Sarah Jessica Parker as a witch who eats children. Along with her two witch sisters, one of whom evolves into Bette Midler, the trio cause havoc in a Disney-fied rendition of Salem, Massachusetts. As per the Disney standard, the pre-teen nerd, his social queen of a love interest and the spunky little brother are somehow the only ones able to stop this malignant and hungry force of evil. Magic, talking cats and a particularly ethnic depiction of Satan top off this wonderful foray into the dark heart of Walt Disney pictures.

2. Evil Dead 3- ‘Bruce Campbell in his prime’ would be the shortest way of summarizing this film. Campbell stars as the overcompensating Ash Williams in this final installment of the Evil Dead franchise. With a chainsaw on his right hand and a ‘fistful of boomstick’ in the other hand, Campbell literally tears a swath through the literal undead hordes of Sam Raimi’s concoctions. Like a bad WoW quest, this movie is all about obtaining one object, the Necronomicon. With plenty of bad jokes, cheesy lines and one battle that is reminiscent of Luke vs. Rancor, ‘Evil Dead: Army of Darkness’ will please all cult Bruce and Raimi fans.

3. Beetlejuice- The bastard love child of Michael Keaton and Tim Burton raised by parents Winona Ryder and Alec Baldwin in the ghetto of Geena Davis’ neighborhood. This movie will have clay-motion figures coming out of its ears just ten minutes into the movie. The basic premise is that two ghosts, Davis and Baldwin, are trapped in the Tudor house they owned when they were still alive. Since venturing outside somehow means braving the deserts (?) of Jupiter, they beg their only friend, Beetlejuice, to come save them. Uncle BJ isn’t content with just being a nice guy, though, and more clay-motion craziness ensues. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.

4. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown- Initially released in 1966, this animated classic actually predates the other four movies on this short list. Based on the timeless comic strip by Charles Schulz, this flick sees Charlie and friends searching for the elusive ‘Great Pumpkin,’ a famed spirit of the patch who possesses seemingly mythic power over vegetables. It’s standard Schulz fair with all the classic characters like Charlie, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy and the rest of the gang. Add in the famous football scene and a bit of five cent psychotherapy, and this is one Charlie classic that you could probably skip. Just read the comics.

5. Freddy vs. Jason- What do you do when you have two floundering slasher franchises? You combine them into one even more terrible movie that sucks worse than either franchise ever could on its own. Alien vs. Predator anyone? It’s obvious that this movie was made with little effort on the producers part. They seemingly took all the cliche’s from both movies such as Freddy’s dream sequences and Jason’s chase scenes, and simply alternate them on a 90-minute reel. Admittedly, the final fight between Freddy and Jason in a fiery building is pretty cool, but ultimately the ending is just not rewarding. Watch it if you’ve never seen either slasher icon in action and want to kill two birds with one stone.

From pictures of Super Mario to the recreation of the Mona Lisa – ‘Rubikcubism is being pioneered by a French artist only known as ‘Invader’.

May the geek in all of us emerge at Invader’s delightful art.

What?

Jesus wrote the Constitution- not our forefathers.

McNaughton's new controversial painting

McNaughton very clearly portrays his opinions in his newest painting entitled “One Nation Under God.” In the center of the painting, is an illuminated portrait of Jesus holding the constitution. Behind Jesus stands influential people like Ronald Reagan, Abigail Adams, and many others. In McNaughton’s words “they represent those who have influenced our country and our Constitution in a positive way.” However, those people painted on the bottom right of the painting (Jesus’ left) haven’t influenced our country positively at all.

That’s right. The judge you see there? He’s weeping over court rulings that have “set the country back.” Marbury v Madison (which gave us judicial review), Everson v Board of Education (because it started the separation of church and state), and of course he couldn’t leave out Roe v Wade.

Beside the judge is a pregnant woman. Why is she on the “bad side”? Because she mightget an abortion. Next to her is the stereotypical greedy lawyer counting out his wad of cash, a liberally biased news reporter (funny how FOX isn’t on here..), the self-absorbed politician, a liberally biased sleeze-bag Hollywood actor and a professor.

A professor?

According to McNaughton, professors tend to put themselves “equal to God.” That is why he’s depicted as the only person sitting on the top step that Jesus is standing on. The professor clutches his copy of Darwin’s “Origin of the Species,” which McNaughton claims infringes on the rights of those who don’t believe in evolution but in creationism.

Satan hovers behind the professor and the actor. Apparently they’re cool enough to hang with him.

On the opposite side, the “good side,” sit a family doctor, a business woman (a capitalist loving CEO no doubt), a farmer, a minister clutching his Bible, a mother holding her handicapped child, a marine and a school teacher. Oh wait, let’s not forget the cowering immigrant in the corner. Why is he cowering? Because he’s “shocked at the source of America’s greatness.”

The ridiculousness of this astounds me.

Image courtesy inhabitots.com

If your mom only hoards your baby teeth—and in my case, your bite-marked plastic Cookie Monster sippy cup, your crusty first soccer socks and your dismembered and sharpie tattooed Barbies–consider yourself lucky.

Parents will soon get to save the placenta their kid snuggled in before she was born.

Yes, her placenta. Far more special than some tattered blankie.

At least Alex Green thought so, when he created the world’s first placenta teddy bear kit for new moms and pops. Unveiled at Doing it for the Kids, a recent exhibition hosted by [re]design that showcased new sustainable toys, the kit “celebrates the unity of the infant, the mother and the placenta.”

Green’s ‘Twin Teddy Kit’ allows new moms an pops to fashion their dried out, tannin and egg yolk-treated placenta into a faceless, pee-yellow colored critter held together by thick black stitches.

In her finished form, Placenta Bear could scare the shit out of Frankenstein.

Still, I don’t know whether to squirm, or do a happy dance for a toy that might honor something that comes out of a woman’s body—instead of dismissing it as just plain nasty.

Western society sticks an ugly stigma on other feminine fluids, most notably menstrual blood. Menses are a woman’s “monthly curse,” a secretion that ladies ought discreetly and cautiously downplay.

Mainstream media and feminine hygiene companies chime in to suggest ladies hide  their monthly periods all together, so, in the words of a Tampax advertisement, women “can feel safe.”

I’m not sure exactly what makes Tampax tremble with fear at the thought of a biological cycle billions of people’s bodies engage in every month, but perhaps it’s the same thing that makes Placenta Bear so terrifying.

So before we condemn it as the most repulsive toy idea since Gak, I hope we  ponder the larger social norms and pop culture influences that may have predisposed us wrinkle our noses at placenta.

I don’t really want one. But these Teddies might help normalize placenta in common discourse and elevate this temporary organ that links a mother and her fetus in the womb to something more appreciated than “the crap that comes out after the baby.”

And even if it doesn’t radicalize the way we frame placenta, for least a few keepsake-crazed mothers like mine, a Placenta Bear might hold invaluable meaning.

Thousands of people of all ages packed into the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall Saturday for Brickcon 2009, a convention celebrating LEGOs and the adults who still love to play with them after all these years.

After a two-day private convention for solely 18-and-over enthusiasts, the convention opened its doors to the public on Saturday and Sunday and everyone got to see the incredible creations.

The LEGO masterpieces were on display in various themed areas, from “castle” and “town” to more over-the-top themes like  ”apocalyptic,” complete with a zombie theme park, and “space” with all kinds of recreations of your favorite sci-fi flicks.

There was Spock’s ship from the new Star Trek movie, there were TIE fighters from Star Wars, and there were all kinds of recreations of famous buildings. Art Van Bergeyk stole the show in that department, with his 1:100 scale recreation of downtown Seattle circa 1930. Composed of over 140,000 bricks, this was the first time the whole thing had been put together.

“Nobody’s really known about this until I brought it here,” Van Bergeyk said. “It was just me, no help, this is actually the first time it’s been set up because it doesn’t fit in my house.”

Van Bergeyk said that he chose to model the skyline in 1930 because there was more diversity in the buildings then, and the older buildings work very well with LEGOs.

“Highrises are boring,” he said. “I could make the Columbia tower but it would just be thousands of black pieces.”

Glenn Pearson shows off a part of his model, "LEGO Springs" to a festival attendee. Photo by Angelo Carosio.

In addition to the LEGO showcase, there was also a “building zone” that was packed with kids building their own creations, which were also on display on a massive table.

The convention proved that building with LEGOs isn’t just for children, a more adult mind can put together some pretty amazing artwork with little rectangular blocks.

Some of the LEGO enthusiasts get their whole family involved.

“My whole family built this,” said Glenn Pearson, who built a piece based on the Puyallup Fair called LEGO Springs. “It took three months to build.”

Pearson’s piece included a Brickcon train and a train bridge complete with a timed motor to raise and lower the  bridge in time for the train to cross.

Brickcon is in its eighth year at Seattle Center, and is getting bigger every year as more people realize that there’s a LEGO scene for adults. Van Bergeyk, who has been building with LEGOs his whole life, just found out about the convention last year.

“I built with LEGOs for years,” he said. “Then I found out that other adults use them because of this convention!”

The two witches. Glinda the Good (left) and Elphaba the Wicked (right). Photo courtesy of eventchaser.com

There isn’t anything more American than taking a good thing and forcibly changing it. ‘Wicked’ is a Tony award-winning Broadway musical based on a novel by Gregory Maguire. It can be considered a prequel to the ‘Wizard of Oz’ tale, but is more of an adaptation and expansion especially focused on the characters from L. Baum’s classic tale. Most notably, it focuses on the Wicked Witch of the West and her rise to power.
Elphaba is a headstrong and green-skinned young woman who is the first-born child to the governor of Munchkinland. Her Kermit-like features contribute to her position as a social outcast. As a result, she has become disillusioned with the world, thinking of her fellow Ozlandians as nothing more than ignorant animals. She eventually meets Glinda, the eventual Good Witch. The two form a lasting bond that runs the gauntlet from bitter rivals to loyal friends.

Much of Wicked’s story depends on the duality and juxtaposition of these two characters. Often, what one character does is oppositely mirrored in the other. For example, the Glinda character often dresses in bright pinks in whites, with styled blonde hair. The Elphaba character usually chooses to dress in all-black, her hair done in a simple bun or weave. The way these two characters are presented, without revealing any plot points, is both humorous and tragic. The audience can often empathize with the dire straits that these two go through during the course of the 3-hour performance.

Many of the other classic Oz characters make a cameo in one form or the other. Wicked’s story flirts and intermingles with classic Oz in a way that is both clever and entertaining. You’ll find your sides splitting at some moments if you’ve at least glanced through the original tale. That being said, Wicked’s characters are nowhere near as stale and one-dimensional as their original counterparts. The Wicked Witch is not pure evil and the Good Witch doesn’t turn out so good after all. Each character’s actions seem so justified that you’ll wonder who in the expansive cast list is really the ‘Wicked’ one.

This is first and foremost a musical. As such, special attention had been given to the 20 or so musical numbers that remain the highlight of the show. Solos, duets and grand chorus numbers make ‘Wicked’ a feast for the ear lobes. Some of the bigger numbers are simply mind-blowing. One duet in particular tugs at heart strings harder than Robert Goulet.

The art direction is top-notch. The costumes, especially for the main characters, are completely believable and look like they were plucked directly out of L. Baum’s imagination. Set pieces are fantastic. In particular, the introduction of the titular Wizard of Oz raises goosebumps all around. The light support is equally impressive, supplementing the visual smorgasbord.

Don’t miss Wicked. If you can, turn back time and buy yourself tickets. Then, see it again. If you had any love for the classic tale of Dorothy and the yellow brick road, then this musical should only make you salivate.

If you were tiny, you would want to live here. Courtesy of brickcon.org

When I was 7, I attempted to build a child-sized house out of Legos®. I dreamed of how fantastical it would be to live in a multicolored house constructed of my own hands. I would be a real American pioneer- just like the settlers of the Oregon Trail which I had just learned about in my first grade class, albeit a pioneer in my family living room in a corner instead of the wild west.

Unfortunately, I ran out of Legos® before building one wall of my home and stopped there with a heavy sigh of disappointment. My dream home was never realized.

This year at Brickcon 09, the kids who actually built themselves those dream houses to completion convene, except now they have grown up and honed their art. They have constructed some absolutely amazing things that you can see October 3rd and 4th (this Saturday and Sunday) at the exhibition hall at Seattle Center for a mere $7.

Not only can you oogle at hundreds of what will assuredly be some “oh my god” inducing rad brick contraptions, you can also play in a sort of Lego® fantasia called the ‘Building Zone.’ According to brickcon.org, the building zone is a place where you ‘can explore your creativity using hundreds of LEGO® elements.’ Perhaps that dream house is not so far away.

In addition, the Brick Bazaar will be underway, where you can buy anything you want in rectangular form with tiny pegs on top. Even individual bricks will be on sale!. Iff you win the raffle you are automatically entered in by coming, you might not even have to go to the Bazaar, since you could walk out with a free Lego® set. Bring your friends, and bring your bricks, this is going to be an amazing weekend.

I had trouble finding the best one to put on here, so I’m going to put a random episode up and leave it up to you to check out the next 20+

Click here to view the embedded video.

In other episodes you’ll find the likes of Death Cab, Andrew Bird, Matt and Kim, Common, and even the boss himself, Bruce Springsteen!