2008 Woodie Awards
With baited breath I raced to pick up the latest release by Evanescence. After ripping the disc out of its shrink wrap and dropping it into my CD player, I was greeted with the wonderful feeling their music often evokes, melancholy. It turns out it's a live album.
When a person dies a horrible death in extreme anger or sorrow, it leaves and impression on that place and all the people who enter it. Sounds like a good premise for a movie, does it not? Well, that is the plot line for "The Grudge." Unfortunately, this movie attempts to be "The Ring" and fails on many levels.
Imagine, if you will, a kingdom where every official decree is written in Old English lettering, where all women wear four inch platform heels, where every citizen is assigned four Japanese female muses named Love, Angel, Music, and Baby. This is Gwen Stefani's world, and she's Queen G.
Originally published in 1985, The Polar Express is a haunting hush tale of a child who has lost his faith in Santa Claus and Christmas all together. What you get for the movie is quite a bit different. It's more like if you mix a load of children, a loud obnoxious conductor, a ghost, a train track that runs like a roller coaster, hundreds of crazy elves and Santa Claus, then you have all the ingredients for this years holiday animated movie The Polar Express.
Artist: U2 Album:How To Dismantle and Atomic Bomb Genre: Rock Album Highlights: "Man and Woman" U2 brings it back home with "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb." The boys from U2 have returned to their roots with their latest release, singing about God, love and ideals.
Creative writing students at Skyline got a delightful treat Nov. 30 when Bay Area poet Dan O. came for an intimate reading in the Café. Dan was soft spoken, but nonetheless enunciated every word as he recited his poetry. The poems centered on themes, such as anger, violence, war, love, relationships, politics, and even feces.
The world of indie rock has given us yet another wonderful band to get down to: Louis XIV. With guitar-driven songs and vocals reminiscent of the early days of rock and roll, this band is surely one to watch. Their song "Finding Out True Love Is Blind" is being picked up on radio stations across the country.
In this day and age, it is not too often that something fun, light-hearted, and adventure-filled comes along, but that is exactly what "National Treasure" is. No, some may call it campy and silly and not a good film, but it is these things that make the movie enjoyable.
Cobb's Comedy Club 915 Columbus Ave. San Francisco Doors 7 to 8 p.m., all $20 Dec. 9-12 Jim Short Rob Cantrell Dec. 16-19 Jim Florentine Dec. 30- Jan. 2 Greg Proops Patton Oswalt Dana Gould Jan. 6-9 Jake Johannsen Popscene 330 Ritch St.
1: "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town":This Jackson 5 tune rocks as a Christmas song. Its catchy, it's fun, it's sweet, and it is from Mr. Jackson less creepy years. 2: Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol": A lovely book to read with the entire family, I just love this book because it's filled with beautiful language and the holiday spirit.
