Rated M for ‘Mature’, not ‘Mediocre Parenting’.

With the ripped wrapping paper of Christmas still relatively close in the rearview mirror, it seems like an appropriate time to talk about something of possible concern. Video games have become the biggest of businesses during the holidays, and chances seem relatively high that, over the holidays, you purchased something video-game-related for someone on your list. Perhaps it is a...

Run, Stop... Listen: William Carn Quartet

If you were at the Music Studio this past Wednesday, you would have experienced a whole different take on modern jazz with the William Carn Quartet. The small group, comprised of guitarist Don Scott, bassist Jon Maharaj, and drummer Ethan Ardelli, stopped in Brandon for the release of their new album, Run Stop Run.

The album consists completely of originals...

Impossible Masterpieces: The Sound and the Fury

If Moby-Dick was the first book that beat me, The Sound and the Fury was the second, and it gave me a more thorough ass-kicking than Moby-Dick could have ever hoped to.

The Best of Everything in 2011

It’s 2012, and other than that whole apocalypse thing, there’s a lot to be excited about. So what better way to start the new year than to dwell on the past? 2011 was a fantastic year for entertainment. We were introduced to some great new creations and we said goodbye to some of the biggest and best commodities in history....

Movie Review: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part One

The dawn has finally arrived for one of the world’s most beloved film franchises. Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer’s final book in her wildly popular Twilight Saga series, makes its appearance on the big screen.

While it is immediately apparent that the Twilight Saga has a very specific key demographic, luck would have it that a free ticket to attend the...

Impossible Masterpieces, Part One: Moby-Dick

Personal story: Moby-Dick was the first novel to ever ‘beat’ me. I took my first stab at reading it when I was 11 or 12, believing in all my youthful arrogance that it was just a book about a whale that I could polish off in a week.

How wrong I was. After a month and 100 pages, I was...

Impossible Masterpieces: An Introduction

The Classics. Masterpieces. Great Literature.

There are books out there that have a reputation as being some of the greatest works of art ever produced by a human brain. There are also books that have a reputation for being impossible to read and even more impossible to understand or enjoy. Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, these two categories of...

Book Review: The Pale King

It’s been a while since this book came out… almost too long for me to be reviewing it now. But something that the late author, David Foster Wallace, pointed out in an interview with Charlie Rose stuck with me. He said that his best-known novel, Infinite Jest, had gotten rave reviews even though most reviewers wouldn’t have had time to...

Movie Review: 50/50

Films about serious illness walk a rather fine line. They can easily be overly sappy or rife with clichés, and they can also attempt to laugh the illness away with over-the-top comedy. 50/50 is a no-frills take on an unfortunate situation that looks to endear itself to viewers with its heart.

Inspired by screenwriter Will Reiser’s real-life battle with cancer,...