The Relationship Behind Education
By Jeff Wade,March 22, 2010
Frank Charles Winstead Promotes Personal Student-Teacher Connections Teaching embodies more than a lecture. It’s a concept guest speaker Frank Charles Winstead stressed when he kicked off a weekend of events on Friday, which served as a platform to teach future educators. Houston-based Winstead calls himself a true “Son of the South,” and the way he carries himself makes it hard to argue. With a characteristic and charismatic Southern drawl, he spoke at length and shared a collection of experiences,... Read more »
Cast Justifies Being Ranked Among Classics
By Jeff Wade,March 22, 2010
If there is one actor who has established the division between film and television as a medium for long form storytelling in the last decade, it’s Timothy Olyphant. Case in point. In film, Olyphant is frequently relegated to being the best thing about awful movies (see “The Girl Next Door,” or video game adaptation “Hitman”). On the small screen, however, Olyphant shines, particularly in the defining role of Sheriff Seth Bullock on the sublime HBO show “Deadwood.” “Justified” (FX,... Read more »
Gorillaz’s ‘Plastic Beach’ Lacks Standout Single
By Jeff Wade,March 18, 2010
If Damon Albarn is going use his Gorillaz project to release an environmentally focused concept album, then he should be taken to task for refusing to recycle. Recycle ideas that is. “Plastic Beach,” the third album by Gorillaz once again finds the virtual band funneling a new set of songs that sound like pop music from some kind of dystopian sci-fi wilderness. It bounces between genres, using both speed and finesse. While that may be expected from a Gorillaz release, it has never been executed... Read more »
A Personal Apology to Akron/Family
By Jeff Wade,March 4, 2010
Two years ago, I bailed on the band’s show early after they jammed for 45 minutes. It wasn’t the North Carolina-based trio’s fault. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine. Then again, it was 2008, and Akron/Family wasn’t the only thing to be undeservedly bailed on. But hey, that was the “Love is Simple” tour. It’s 2010, and the band currently on the tail end of the “Set ’Em Wild, Set ’Em Free” tour and deserve another listen. Akron/Family is the type of band that sees music... Read more »
Pavement’s Greatest Hits Leads Down Confusing Road
By Jeff Wade,March 1, 2010
Describing the sound of Pavement 20 years ago would have been a nebulous task, filled with unwarranted reference and comparison to The Velvet Underground and The Fall. It has gotten much easier to describe as the band’s brand of cryptic but emotive and evocative lyricism over ragged hooks has become prototypical indie rock. Since their breakup at the beginning of the millennium, Pavement’s star status has risen to the point that bands from The National to The Hold Steady have paid tribute to... Read more »
Harpist Makes Near Perfect Album
By Jeff Wade,February 25, 2010
For the most part, the record reviews I like to pitch for this paper are based on artists that may not be popular but could very easily catch on given wider exposure. Then there is Joanna Newsom, a female singer-songwriter/harp player whose latest album “Have One on Me,” is an 18-song, three-disk, two-hour affair. Newsom has a knack for making songs as pretty as she is, but previous efforts made it difficult for some to immediately see this. Barriers of entry included a distinctive and polarizing... Read more »
MTV No Longer for Music on Television
By Jeff Wade,February 15, 2010
Shifting Away From Music Programming, MTV Must Revamp Cutting-Edge Shows With 10 minutes in Photoshop, MTV has finally confirmed what people have joked about for all these years. With a little bit of cropping and a little bit of one certain Jersey/Oompa-Loompa princess, an iconic logo had its growingly unnecessary attachment removed. Music Television has finally had that unsightly and dangly “Music Television” bit removed. It is now free to begin a new life as just MTV. Now, bemoaning the fact... Read more »
‘Mass Effect 2’ Scores Big With Sci-Fi Fans
By Jeff Wade,February 8, 2010
There has been a lot of talk about how “Avatar” is this generation’s “Star Wars.” But science fiction’s newest and most fully developed universe isn’t in movie theaters. It’s playing out on Xboxes and PCs, in college dorm rooms across the country. “Mass Effect 2” is the second in a planned trilogy of games. Following the events of the first game, the sequel opens with the trilogy’s hero, Commander Shepard, and his ship being ripped apart by a powerful alien threat. Then Commander... Read more »
Oscars Throw Feel Good Bone
By Jeff Wade,February 4, 2010
They almost got it right for once. With the release of the Oscar nominations on Tuesday, rampant speculation about nominated movies will turn into rampant speculation about what movies will take home the golden statue. The most noticed change in the nomination process regards the Best Picture Category. This year the Academy expanding the big money prize from the traditional five-picture race into a more competitive 10-picture competition. While 2009 was not the strongest film year, the expansion... Read more »
Time to Get ‘Lost’
By Jeff Wade,February 1, 2010
“Lost” is a show about fate versus choice. It is about the interconnectedness of everything, and the power of seeming coincidence. It is about philosophy and literature. It is about time travel. It is about polar bears, smoke monsters, and four toed statues. Over the course of more than 100 episodes, “Lost” has spun a tangled, interconnected yarn of a story that is either absolutely brilliant or made up on the fly, depending on who is asked. So people left out of the loop are faced with... Read more »
Best of the 'Burg Supplement
April 29, 2010 Issue in Print
