Who are we?

INSIDEBEATTHE WEEKLY ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE OF THE DAILY TARGUM

SEPT

EMBE

R 3

0, 2

010

• VO

L. 2

8, N

O. 1

4

A generation withan identity crisis

September 30, 2010ColumnPage 2 • Inside Beat

Gwendolyn Breitstein, Inayah Bristol, Ciara Copell, Yorbelid Hererra, Shama Huq, Gianna Stefanelli, Zoe Szathmary

ARIBA ALVI..........................................................................TV EDITOR

EMILY GABRIELE...........................................................MUSIC EDITOR

NATALIA TAMZOKE...................................................THEATER EDITOR

ROSANNA VOLIS..........................................................FASHION EDITOR

AMANDA LITCHKOWSKI.....................................................ART EDITOR

NANCY SANTUCCI..............................................................COPY EDITOR

RAMON ANGELO PAOLO GUTIERREZ DOMPOR.............PHOTO EDITOR

KATHERINE CHANG.........................................................FILM EDITOR

NIDHI SARAIYA..............................................................BOOKS EDITOR

ASHLEY PARK..............................................................ONLINE EDITOR

E D I T O R I A LB O A R D

Rutgers Student Center126 College Avenue, Suite 431

New Brunswick, NJ 08901Phone (732) 932-2013

Fax (732) 246-7299Email beat@dailytargum.com Web www.inside-beat.com

Advertising in Inside Beat, Call (732) 932-7051Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

INSIDEBEATTHIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS TO

INSIDE BEAT :

STACY DOUEK..............................................EDITOR

NATALIA TAMZOKE.....................................ASSOCIATE EDITOR

ROSANNA VOLIS............................................ASSISTANT EDITOR

Cover Photo of The Social Network

Courtesy of allmoviephoto.com

BY AMANDA LITCHKOWSKIART EDITOR

It’s crazy, I know. Do I think I’mtoo cool? Or the opposite: Am I atotal loser? Is it really that distract-ing? Is it really that necessary?

Too few experience the giantrelief of deactivating your Face-book account. It’s like shedding30 pounds, moving out of Momand Dad’s, being let off a leash. Ihave friends who told me theywish they could do the same. De-spite the appeal, they’re afraidthey won’t get invited to partiesanymore. They’re scared to losecontact. “Who could I be if the en-tire digital universe couldn’t seeme getting plastered on a Thurs-day night?”

You could be someone — any-one. Facebook is not the be-all andend-all of your identity. Granted,it’s difficult to relinquish the powerof vanity. It’s fun broadcasting yourlife to the world. As soon as I saidbye-bye to good ol’ FB, I created aTumblr account. Someone neededto know I existed.

I Don’t Go onFacebook

rantInterested in writing for Inside B eat?Come to our meetings every Monday night at9:15pm in room 431 of the Rutgers Student Center or Email us at beat@dailytargum.com

But a month and six posts later,Tumblr wasn’t that exciting any-more. Keeping up with a digital ex-istence is nearly twice as hard askeeping up with a physical one.Having a Tumblr is like living yourlife and then taking an hour to re-live it through vigorous typing.One word: Unnecessary.

Just like status updates, tag-ging photos and Farmville. Justlike the “like” button. Just like fanpages and group invites. Accord-ing to Facebook’s statistics, peoplespend more than 700 billion min-utes per month on their accounts.That is a ridiculous amount of timefor stalking.

The other day my Mom askedme if people could see if she ig-nored friend requests. I told herthat luckily, they cannot. “Good,”she replied. My mom is a prettytame 50-year-old housewife, whosefriend request could she possiblybe ignoring? That’s when I realizedthat Facebook is not just a genera-tional pandemic, a constant worryreserved for high school and col-lege kids, it’s a plague itself.

BY INAYAH BRISTOLSTAFF WRITER

A title like A Visit from the GoonSquad and a picture of a broken gui-tar on the front cover can lead youto many assumptions about the con-tent of a book. You can try as muchas you’d like to guess what the bookis about, but you’ll probably fail. Thisis a book of many complexities.

Jennifer Egan, the author of TheInvisible Circus, Look at Me and TheKeep, tells an interesting tale with AVisit from the Goon Squad (June2010), a book which even includes a75-page PowerPoint presentation.Egan uses an unconventional sto-rytelling approach because shedoesn’t just mention the people inher main characters’ past lives —she takes you back to those pastevents mentioned as well and tellsthe story from their points of view.It can be a bit confusing as sheswitches time and place so often,but Egan does it tactfully and taste-fully. Learning about these people isjust as interesting as the main char-acters’ stories.

The story starts off with a bang,as she begins the tale with SashaBlake, a kleptomaniac, sitting on her

BY SHAMA HUQSTAFF WRITER

Out of the drought for gen-uinely good fiction came a won-derfully cool drink of water in theform of the novel Skippy Dies byPaul Murray (Aug. 2010). Thestory revolves around Daniel“Skippy” Juster, a jaded 14-year-oldstudent at Seabrook College inDublin and his overweight room-mate Ruprecht Van Doren, a whizkid who happens to be more thana little obsessed with the 10-di-

September 30, 2010 Art • Books • Fashion Inside Beat • Page 3

BY ASHLEY PARKONLINE EDITOR

There is trouble afoot in thefashion world. UGG Australia andJimmy Choo Ltd have joinedforces to create a hideous, illegiti-mate love child — UGGS byJimmy Choo. This calamitouscombination of footwear geneticsproduced a child with a severeidentity crisis. The entire linelooks as if they took a potato,wrapped it in zebra print, and shotit up with a bedazzler. It was avaliant effort, but in the end, a po-tato is still a potato. After morethan a decade of fabulous, sky-scraping stilettos, the House ofChoo has stumbled and smackedits head hard on the runway. BY AMANDA LITCHKOWSKI

ART EDITOR

New Brunswick may oftenseem drained of expression. It’shard to find art in the place we lov-ingly, sometimes cynically, call“Hub City.” Where is the sense ofa creative community?

It’s hiding in a small galleryspace above Kairo Kafe on Ba-yard Street. It’s run by NewBrunswick locals, many of themUniversity graduates and MasonGross School of the Arts stu-dents. Even so, Collaborative Artsfocuses on what it means to be anartist in the dirty and irresistiblecity of New Brunswick.

Collaborative Arts, colloquiallyknown as coLAB, reopened itssummer show last Thursdaynight. Titled Cognitive Disso-

Paul Murray | A+

BY YORBELID HERRERASTAFF WRITER

Although the weather may be trying to fool us, fall is officially here. As theleaves begin changing colors, why not change your nail color too? Eversince Chanel’s Fall 2009 “Jade” nail polish became so popular it sold oneBay for $165 per bottle, there has been an increased awareness of nailvarnishes. Inside Beat has your guide to this fall’s must-have nail trends.

Skippy Dies

Bringing Art to New Bruns

Jimmy Choo | F

Chuggs

A Visit from the Goon Squad

Jennifer Egan | B-

Fall Nail Guide

Chanel launched a limited series ofthree nail colors called Les Khaki byPeter Philips, global creative directorof Chanel makeup, in celebration oftheir boutique re-opening in SoHo.The collection includes three shades:“Khaki Brun,” “Khaki Rose” and“Khaki Vert.” Flattering to all skintones and a good way of keeping upwith the military-inspired look, theyare sold separately at $25 per bottle.

For school, work and even a night outGreige is the perfect color to have. This hy-brid color is a blend of gray, beige andbrown, creating the perfect neutral shade.Feel free to go lighter or darker until youfind the perfect hue. Our favorite look isOPI’s “Bright Over the Taupe.”

If you want a minx manicureà la Katy Perry but can’t af-ford a designer nail artist, trySephora by OPI Chic Printfor Nails. The set costs $15,comes with 16 nail patchesand comes in eight designs.

While Sally Hansen has never been an “it”beauty brand, their new collection withPrabal Gurung is sure to give Chanelsome competition. The collection pre-miered at Gurung’s spring show duringNew York’s fashion week. It’s made up ofcolors like “Runway Red-y,” “Paparazzi,”“Without a Stitch,” “Model Behavior,”“Casting Call” and “Strike a Pose.” Thecollection hits stores next spring.

1.Chanel

4. Sally Hansen

3. Nail Art

2. Greige

COURTESY OF THEFRISKY.COM

COU

RTES

Y O

F M

AKEH

ERU

P.CO

M

COURTESY OF FASHIONFAME.COM

COURTESY OF MAKEUPANDBEAUTYBLOG.COM

COURTESY OF UGGAUSTRALIA.COM COURTESY OF UGGAUSTRALIA.COM

mensional string theory. What en-sues is both pure comical and darkgenius, backed with genuine heartand spirit and one heck of a story.

The characters steal your heartand mind right from the start;Murray truly holds nothing backwhile capturing the tragic hilarityof what it means to be an adoles-cent on top of the world and notsure where to go from there.Within the first five pages, Skippyends up dead on the floor of a localdoughnut shop, his last crypticwords to his friend Ruprecht scrib-bled in jam on the floor with onefinger: “Tell Lori.” Immediately,the reader is drawn into the tale:Exactly who is Lori and what onearth happened to Skippy in thatdoughnut shop on that fateful day?While presenting a comical front,there is no mistaking the dark andalmost sinister undercurrents al-ways running beneath Murray’slyrical writing. Skippy serves asboth a cynical hero and anti-hero

of sorts, holding the novel to-gether cohesively and beautifullymuch like the strawberry jam thathe inscribed his last words with.

Murray’s writing style andemotional breadth are also some-thing to be admired. He managesto craft a portrayal of adolescencethat is hilarious, heartbreakingand painfully bittersweet all in onenovel. This is Murray’s secondnovel. He is also the author of AnEvening of Long Goodbyes, whichwas shortlisted for the WhitbreadFirst Novel Award in 2003.

Withot a doubt, this is one ofthe best new fiction books this re-viewer has had the pleasure ofreading in a long time. Skippy Diesis the whole package, with a depthunparalleled by many of the “best-sellers” being published today. Ifyou want a read that will make youlaugh, cry and feel like your heartmight just burst out of your chestfrom the gravity of it all, SkippyDies is the perfect choice.

nance, the exhibition showcasescoLAB’s summer interns whosespecialties range from the writtenword to sculpture to digitalmedia. There were only six sum-mer interns so the show looks alittle sparse, but there is depthwithin the work itself.

Entering the gallery feels likeentering a blurry version of NewBrunswick. Mason Gross seniorPavol Olsavsky creates oil paint-ings from thick blocks of color,and, close up, they look like ex-actly just that. But from a fewfeet away, his pieces (one, for ex-ample, is titled “Rutgers Bus”)resemble the New Brunswick weall know: Buildings caught out ofthe corner of our eye, detailssmudged, colors striking.

Around the corner of coLAB’sone of two rooms is a small hallway

that can fit about two and a halfpeople. It’s convenient, of course,because there’s a knockout piecehanging right inside. The show’scurator, Mason Gross sophomoreTheresa Francisco, saved the spotfor “The Characters.” Atop thewall’s waist-high molding standfive Alice in Wonderland-like crea-tures including a well-dressedwomanizer with a cat head.They’re exaggerated and brood-ing, and there’s no better place forthem than a dim little hallway.

Cognitive Dissonance may notbe that dissonant at all. Al-though a seemingly random se-lection of ar t, the exhibition’swork carries a coherent theme:The alliance of up-and-comingartists in New Brunswick. It’sexciting and new. Such collabo-ration just screams coLAB.

therapist’s couch talking about aparticular incident where she stealsthe wallet of a girl in a bathroomwhile on a date. She talks about howstealing made her feel and how shequickly grew tired of her date. Thestory then goes into the life ofSasha’s boss, record exec BennieSalazar. At this point the storyswitches to Bennie’s point of view ashe tells of his growing affection forSasha and how his life has lost itsspark. Then the book takes a tripback in time and tells of Bennie’steen years when he was in a bandwith a group of his friends and firstmet Lou Kline, Bennie’s mentor andthe final “main” character. The bookcontinues going into various char-acters’ lives before finally endingwith Alex, Sasha’s date.

The book is set up in layers andeach chapter peels back anotherlayer to the main characters’ lives togive a better understanding of them.But by the time you get to the sev-enth chapter, you’re left questioning,“Why was I originally reading this?”and “Who is the main character ofthis book again?” It takes youthrough so many personalities thatyou find yourself forgetting who thealleged main characters are or what

the book was essentially about. Thebook could easily be mistaken as acollection of short stories since notone chapter is told from the sameperson’s point of view or from thesame time period.

One thing can be said aboutEgan’s composition of this book,though: Each chapter leaves youcraving more. You crave to knowmore about these sad charactersand how their lives unfolded. Eganleaves it all up to the imaginationof the readers.

If you like a simple read, thismight not be the book for you. Butif you like books that delve intothe minds of the characters, or ifyou’re looking for a way to escapeyour own troubles, this will makea good read. If you do pick thisbook up, be prepared to readabout life, music, and everythingthat comes in between.

The collaboration has sentsome in the fashion world reel-ing while others, like NickyHilton, happily post “UGG-shots”on her twitter. Her pair was prob-ably gifted, but the thin-pocketedlaity will have to pre-order theirpairs online and shell out $495-$795 in the process.

Hopefully, the new line ofCHUGGS will not reinstall the ideathat abominable snowman shoes areback in vogue. If Jimmy Choo playsits cards right for the next seven sea-sons or so, perhaps we will restorethe House to its previous status asthe high priest of high heels, andCHUGGS will become a laughablememory of the past safely buried inthe fashion faux pas graveyard be-tween ’90s hair and parachute pants.

However, it is pos-sible to determinethe many forms ofmedia that are ofinterest to ourcurrent genera-tion. Thoughthey may notnecessar i l ystick aroundforever, theyare a big por-tion of whatactually “de-fines” ourgeneration.Thus, the fol-lowing is acondensed listof all that cur-rently monopo-lizes a goodamount of ourtime.

Many ohave been defined b

ment or a momentous pis nearly impossible to defin

one singular trait as today’s wjust constantly changing. Wherea

cal artists like The Beach Boys anderation cannot even seem to agree on

popular songs today may garner some atransient at best. While the ’70s are define

against the Vietnam War, today’s generatiogether to agree on whether they support the “

produced some of America’s most-loved classithe Future and The Breakfast Club, and favorite re

by the Bell and Full House, but today’s generation cand TV shows that probably will not be able to statime. Today’s generation just cannot seem to agrthing; it’s no surprise that in the past few decadgeneration has received (and will continue to recea plethora of names — from Generation X to thPeter Pan Generation to the Me Generation toGeneration 9/11, and so on.

Hence, I bring up the original ques-tion: What defines our generation?The masses’ fervent interests tendto change on an hourly basis, sotrying to pinpoint a commonpassion found in the gen-eral public would benearly impossible.

What de

neration

KATHERINE CHANGFILM EDITOR

Whatcame before

Google:The library, government

records

While back in the day, it wasYahoo! and Ask Jeeves that everyone

turned to when they had a query, Google hasbecome the most used search engine in the UnitedStates today. The term “to google” has been entered

into several established dictionaries with the definitionof (1) searching for something on the Internet using a

search engine and (2) checking the credentials of some-one by searching for websites containing his or her name.

Though Google may be known for its search engine, ithas also established a name for itself in several other

fields, such as e-mail, humanitarianism and synergy. Asper its transformation into a multinational company,

Google’s spheres of influence have spanned thecircumference of the earth.

Google

FunFact:

According to Word-tracker, 14 of Google’stop search terms are

sex/porn related.

Whatcame beforeWikipedia:Encyclopedias

The first things thatthe average person thinks to

do when he or she hears about aterm, person, event, etc. with which he

or she is unfamiliar? Look it up onWikipedia. When the average person has to

write a research paper, what’s one of the firstsources that one turns to for more information?Wikipedia. If the average person was curious to

know how many degrees of separation werebetween Alexander Hamilton and a fish? SurfWikipedia. Wikipedia serves as not only an

endless source of information, but alsoan endless source of entertainment.

Wikipedia

FunFact:

Wikipedia is solely main-tained by volunteers, soanyone can sign up andstart adding or editingpages right off the bat.

Though in the past there have been severaldifferent websites dedicated to the sharing of

videos, Youtube revolutionized the entire process.In the beginning, Youtube was just a website where

friends, families and coworkers could share homemadevideos. As time passed, the range of types of videos beingposted varied greatly. Today, official record labels and pro-duction companies promote their next big item by posting

music videos and trailers. Television channels offer previewsand sometimes even complete episodes of popular TV

shows to entice and draw in more viewers. Youtube haseven created a community of sorts among the most sub-

scribed users, such as NigaHiga and Smosh. Youtubeallows viewers and users to connect in a fun and en-

tertaining manner.

Youtube

FunFact:

The Youtube domainname was registeredon Valentine’s Day

(February 14,2005).

Whatcame before

Youtube:MTV and DVDs

other erasby a social move-

political event. But ite today’s generation byorld is so fast-paced and

as the ’60s saw huge musi-d The Beatles, today’s gen-n a genre of music — whileattention, such fame is onlyed by the hippie movementon cannot seem to ban to-“War on Terror.” The ’80sic films, such as Back toe-runs, such as Savedcranks out moviesand the test ofree on any-des, thiseive)

he

efinesourgen

GScripted by The West Wing’s Aaron Sorkin and directed

by David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac), the remarkable story ofhow Facebook came into creation finally comes to the big screen.Set in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming ge-

nius Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg, Zombieland) began layingout, in his dorm room, the foundation for a social-networking websitethat would forever change the way we communicate. After a mere six

years and 500 million friends later, this ambitious entrepreneur be-came the youngest billionaire in history. But as the saying goes, it is

nearly impossible for one to be successful in personal, vocationaland societal matters all at once. In Zuckerberg’s case, his entrepre-

neurial success leads him to both personal and legal complica-tions. Justin Timberlake co-stars as Napster co-creator SeanParket, with Andrew Garfield playing the ousted Facebook

co-founder Eduardo Saverin. The Social Network isbased on the book The Accidental Billionaires by

Ben Mezrich.

The Social

Network

Though when it first came out,people had used it as just another way

of keeping in touch with others, Facebookhas grown into one of the top — if not the

No. 1 — social-networking websites. Today,Facebook can be used for almost any sort of

communication, from creating and planning so-cial events, to spreading awareness about hottopics, to simple instant-message chatting, tostaying connected to as many people possi-

ble in one singular moment. It revolu-tionized the way we communicate,

forever changing the world aswe once knew it.

Facebook

Whatcame beforeFacebook:

Myspace, instant mes-saging, e-mail, phone

calls, invitationcards

FunFact:

In 2007, Facebook was blockedin Syria. According to Ammar al-

Qurabi, head of the National Associa-tion for Human Rights, “[government

officials] said Facebook could become aconduit for Israeli penetration of our

youth, but the real reason for blockingthe forum is because it provides

for criticism of the authorities,"

While it was foreseeable that the Internet wouldbring together all different kinds of people, it defi-

nitely was not expected that such a melding of vary-ing cultures would lead to not only the introduction ofdifferent kinds of slang, but the creation of new slang

words altogether. Today, when someone doesn’t under-stand the new cool word on the street, he or she can

just go to Urban Dictionary, where people around theworld contribute appropriate definitions for thesenew terms and vote for the definition that best fits

what they believe the word actually means.This forum allows you to prevent poten-

tially awkward moments and societalmishaps.

Urban

Dictionary

Whatcame before

Urban Dictionary:Mass chaos and

confusion

FunFact:

One of the first defini-tions on the site was "theman," referring to "thehead of the establish-ment put in place to

'bring us down.'”

When the Internet first became a phenome-non, everyone was wary about letting the

slightest bit of information about their true iden-tity slip. But today, it’s all about sharing ab-solutely everything with everyone; constantupdates on what they are doing, innermostthoughts, private conversations, personal opin-

ions, etc. Nothing is off-limits in this newwebosphere. The world — online, at

least — has gradually transformedfrom private and secluded to

public and open.

Blogging &Twitter

Whatcame before

blogs and Twitter:

Diaries, Xanga,AIM chats

FunFact:

If you printed all of thtweets on Twitter, it wouldcover 350 million sheets of

paper; 37 times the number ofpages used in bills intro-duced in Congress since

1955.

Seriously...September 30, 2010Art • Film • TheaterPage 6 • Inside Beat

Fanny, Annie & DannyPlaying Friday Oct. 1 at Voorhees Hall 105, 7 p.m.

What happens when a trio of siblings is forced to reunite? Di-rected by Chris Brown, Fanny, Annie & Danny follows the lives ofthree siblings who are all very different. As the oldest of the three,Fanny has long been the source of strain and resentment withinher family. She is a disabled 39-year-old living in a home for de-pendent adults. Her world goes into chaos when the candy factorywhere she works is declared bankrupt. It does not help that jitterysister Annie has spent her entire life taking care of Fanny insteadof living her own life, while their successful but elusive brotherDanny has breezed through life, avoiding all sense of familial re-sponsibility. Hence, when Fanny, Annie and Danny are all forcedby their mother to reunite for a holiday dinner, everyone’s inner re-sentments and regrets come out to play.

—Katherine Chang

BY CIARA COPELLSTAFF WRITER

The Town tells the story ofDoug MacRay and his group ofbank-robbing friends from therough side of Boston. MacRay,played by Ben Affleck, falls in lovewith a woman his gang tookhostage during one of their jobs.What follows is a truly action-packed film that leaves the audi-ence both excited and constantlyguessing what will happen next.

Though Affleck has been in-volved in some questionable proj-ects (Gigli), The Town — which heco-wrote, directed and starred in —was absolutely phenomenal and hasthe potential to jump-start a large-scale comeback to his glory days.

Affleck plays his role of a sea-soned thief who is trying to get outof the game perfectly and is sur-rounded by an outstanding cast.Co-star Jeremy Renner (The HurtLocker) delivers a chilling per-formance as MacRay’s best friendwho has gone too far into a life ofcrime. Jon Hamm (Mad Men),Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) and Re-becca Hall (Vicky CristinaBarcelona, Frost/Nixon) are allspot-on, completing the movie’s in-credibly talented line-up.

Coming in at just over twohours, there was the potential forthe movie to lag a little bit, but

When the musical Spider-Man: Turn off the Darkwas announced, it felt like all theater aficionadoscould do was talk about the artistic catastrophe thenew musical would be. The reaction of theater fansraises the question: Has Broadway gone too far in itsadaption of movies into musicals?

The advent of turning Hollywood movies intoBroadway musicals is not a new one. For yearsboth Broadway and Hollywood have been makingmovies into stage productions and stage produc-tions into movies.

Though it seems the movie-into-musical formulais the prevailing rule it used to be the other wayaround. West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound ofMusic and Oliver! were all Broadway shows beforebeing made into Oscar-winning movies.

The TownBen Affleck | A

This Week at the NJFFSeriously...ALMOST 140 TONS OF DIRT

What were they thinking?

The down-low: In 1977 de Maria filled a 3,600-square-foot SoHo apartment with 280,000pounds of dirt and called it “The New York Earth Room.” Spread throughoutthe space, the soil lies about 22 inches thick. Somehow this room full of dirt isconsidered a sculpture and is the third installment of de Maria’s “Earth Room”series. The first two Earth Rooms, both in Germany, no longer exist, but theNew York version has been going strong for 30 years.

The unnecessary fun facts:Curators must regularly water the dirt to keep it smelling like musty, earthy soil.They have found mushrooms growing on occasion. The piece is estimated to beworth nearly $1 million.

ALMOST 140 TONS OF DIRT

The unbelievable: A New York City apartment full of dirt

The culprit:Walter de Maria

FromScreento Stage

BY GWENDOLYN BREITSTEINSTAFF WRITER

TOP: MAMMA MIA, MIDDLE: PHANTOM OFTHE OPERA, BOTTOM: YOUNG FRANKENSTIEN

COURTESY OF ALLMOVIEPHOTO.COM

COURTESY OF NJFF

COURTESY OF C4GALLERY.COM

COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES

COURTESY OF BROADWAYWORLD.COM

COURTESY OF THEATERDOGS.NET

COURTESY OF HOLLYWOODJESUS.COM

COURTESY OF PAUL KOLNIK

COURTESY OF IMAGEEVENT.COM

That is no longer the norm, and the successof shows like Chicago, Beauty and the Beast andHairspray have led to the creation of moremovie-based musicals. Other examples of showsinclude The Producers, Mamma Mia, The Phan-tom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, and Nine.The movie-into-musical formula does not alwaysguarantee long time popularity or success butdoes help to draw an initial crowd filled mostlywith tourists. Initially theater fans were drawninto the new musical adaptations of the moviesthey loved, but now the novelty has worn of f.

Broadway producers are now faced with the chal-lenge of drawing in theater-goers without copyingmovies. A hint to Broadway: An original play or mu-sical might be just the trick to draw them back in.

that was not the case. The plot ofthe film was both original and in-teresting, and the story wasshown in a way that the audiencekept asking for more. There wasnot a moment when the viewerwas left wondering how muchlonger it would be until the actionstarted back up.

There was a great mix ofdrama, comedy and action in thefilm, which made it all the moreenjoyable to watch. The dryhumor managed to keep the filmfrom being bogged down andpossibly depressing throughout.Action scenes were also exe-cuted very well and managed tolook both realistic and excitingat the same time.

The film was shot on location inBoston, which really added to theoverall feel of The Town. The citywas a major aspect of the movie(thus the title) and it was fittingthat they would take advantage ofBoston’s landmarks such as Fen-way Park, which played a promi-nent role in the plot.

Sometimes action movies tendto lose the audience at the end, butThe Town was not predictable andtied up the loose ends of the filmnicely. Bearing this in mind, aswell as the plot and cast of charac-ters, The Town is definitely worththe $10 for a ticket, and maybeeven the popcorn too.

promising, with catchy beats andsynthesizer effects. The lyrics,however, are what truly kill bothsongs. For example, in “A YearWithout Rain” Gomez coos,“There’s gonna be a monsoon/When you get back to me/ Oh baby.”

Things don’t get much betteras the album progresses. “RockGod,” a track originally writtenand performed by Katy Perry,features intriguing, Bible-Beltconfessional lyrics, “Father,things aren’t always so black andwhite/don’t cast the first stone‘cause I’m not alone.” The song isabout Gomez refusing to give upher addiction to dating arocker. However, digital manipu-lation warps Gomez into sound-

ing like a member of Alvinand the Chipmunks.

Gomez attempts to play therole of a sassy life coach in “In-tuition.” She repeatedly tellsher listeners to follow their in-stincts because, “It’s gonna bea good day.” After the overpro-ducing and excessive amountof woah’s, “Intuition” gives lis-teners the indication to skip“Ghost of You” and “Sick ofYou,” two forgettable tracksabout Gomez’s heartbreak.

The last song, “Live LikeThere’s No Tomorrow,” feelslike a more serious take on the

same themes expressed in hersong “Intuition,” seeming verysweet and genuine. However, AYear Without Rain is too slick forits own good, not knowing how toflatter Gomez’s talents.

BY ZOE

SZATHMARYSTAFF WRITER

Disney starlet Selena Gomezand her backing band, TheScene, have put out their secondelectro-pop album, A Year With-out Rain. Despite all of the heavyproduction, big-name collabora-tors (including Katy Perry, FefeDobson and Dr. Luke), Gomezcan’t escape sounding like adozen other pop artists.

“Round and Round” and “AYear Without Rain” are thealbum’s lead singles. Both start off

September 30, 2010 Music • TV Inside Beat • Page 7

BY EMILY GABRIELEMUSIC EDITOR

When you think of Canada, what are some of thefirst things that come to mind? That’s right, funny ac-cents and hockey. Well, prepare yourself for a newword association.When someone says Canada, youthink Marianas Trench.

Marianas Trench is a quartet consisting of bandmembers, Josh Ramsay, Matt Webb, Mike Ayley andIan Casselman. The Vancouver-based band releasedtheir first album in 2006, titled Fix Me. The album did-n’t receive too much fan reception, but that didn’tkeep Marianas Trench from making more music.

In February 2009, the band released their secondfull-length album, Masterpiece Theatre. It is a well-thought-out concept album that has three featuretracks titled, “Masterpiece Theatre”— parts one, twoand three. The three songs all give great insight into

BY GIANNA

STEFANELLISTAFF WRITER

Covering so many genres ofsound ranging from funk to a littlebit of country, there is no bettertitle for Maroon 5’s third album,Hands All Over. With the help offamous producer Mutt Lange,bestknown as the man behindAC/DC’s Back in Black album,Maroon 5 has their hands all overseveral musical genres while stillsticking to their pop roots.

While Mutt Lange’s influenceover the album is apparent by thegeneric song formation— slightlyunder four-minutes with simple,but catchy hooks — he still knowshow to make a sweet pop song sell.However, as every song on thealbum seems as if it could be re-leased as a single, its experimental

BY NIDHI SARAIYABOOKS EDITOR

From a casual glance, GSN’s game show Bag-gage almost appears to be a run-of-the-millepisode of The Jerry Springer Show. People revealshocking secrets about themselves to the crowd.Host Jerry Springer observes everyone and pre-tends to weigh judgment, and ultimately every-one who came on the show pretty much leavesthe same sorry state of affairs.

But as much you might want to call Baggagethe “Jerry Springer of game shows,” there are afew key differences. There are no catfights,screaming matches or burly bodyguards. Theaudience is actually rooting for the contestantsto be happy instead of egging them on to fight.Most importantly, the contestants gain some-thing more than just 15 minutes of fame; theygain the potential for a date with all the first-dateawkwardness already out of the way.

That’s because if you meet someone throughthe show Baggage, you are unlikely to be shockedby someone’s secrets again. The whole premise be-hind this dating game show is that the contestantsreveal their biggest secrets and flaws so everyonecan date with all their “baggage” behind them.

For a rather silly premise, Baggage has apretty ingenious sequence of events that willkeep you hooked until the last minute. First, themain contestant is introduced and then the threepossible dates are brought out, each with threepieces of baggage of varying sizes to indicate theoutrageousness of their secrets. From the get go,all three open up their smallest suitcases and re-veal their smallest secrets to introduce a little bitof their quirky personalities.

In the second round comes the dealbreaker stage. Jerry Springer opens up threemedium-sized suitcases with three medium-

GSN, Weeknights at 6:30 p.m. | B+

The NewKind of

CanadianPop punk band Marianas

Trench crosses the border torock your socks off. CO

URT

ESY

OF

FAN

POP.

COM

Hands All Over | B

Maroon 5

A Year Without Rain | C-

Selena Gomezand the Scene

COU

RTES

Y O

F G

LAM

MBA

MM

.CO

M

COURTESY OF GSN

COURTESY OF TRITON DIGITAL MEDIA

sized secrets but doesn’t reveal who they be-long to. The main contestant singles one secretout as a deal breaker and the person who hadthat secret is eliminated.

Then it’s time for the hot seat. The two re-maining competitors are questioned by JerrySpringer and try to rationalize their shocking,weird and embarrassing “baggage.” Of coursethe two try to put their best foot by insultingthe other.

Finally the two open their biggest baggageand reveal their biggest secret. The main con-testant deliberates for a while and then finallypicks the winner, but the game isn’t over justyet. The main contestant has a big red piece ofbaggage too and the winner gets to decidewhether the secret inside it is acceptable or just“too much baggage.”

This whole formula may sound contrived atfirst, but it really does build suspense, hilarity andshock. The small secrets aren’t so bad as they areteasingly foreboding, making you wonder howmuch worse it will get. In one memorableepisode, the middle secrets grew worse with “I’mbankrupt and live with my mother,” “I’ve datedmen in jail,” and “My best friend Lisa is imagi-nary.” Finally the show ended with the winningcandidate admitting that she “cheated on all ofeach of [her] 14 boyfriends.” All 14! The maincontestant’s “I was paid $1,000 to sleep with threecougars” sealed the deal. As those two walked offhand in hand, you can’t help but wonder howthey’ll ever get dates again.

Baggage is definitely one of those shows bestwatched with friends. It will getting you scream-ing at the screen like Family Feud, plotting outwho will end up with the main contestant like TheBachelor and shaking your head in disbelief likeKeeping Up With the Kardashians. It’s truly wor-thy of the cliché, “It’s so bad it’s good.”

the band’s style — harmony-filled and light-hearted— a unique style that is vocally reminiscent of Queen.

On Thursday Sept. 23, Marianas Trench made theirlive performance debut in the United States. The groupplayed at a very small venue in New York City, TheBowery Electric. The crowd consisted of mostly presswho aspired to promote the band to the States. Despitethe lack of true fans at their concert, Marianas Trenchput on an energetic, seven-song performance.

Typically, the band is used to performing in frontof sold-out arenas in Canada, so the small 30-by-20foot stage in the hole-in-the-wall venue was a changeof pace to say the least. Throughout the show, theband noted how they were ecstatic to finally bespreading their fan base to the United States. Re-gardless of the small confines, the band members did-n’t hesitate to enthusiastically jump around the stageto show the crowd that they’re ready to share theirtalent to the rest of the world. Thanks, Canada.

style isn’t enough to keep you fromzoning out around song six in analbum that contains 11 songs.

Their effortless lyrics are amain factor in why their albumstarts to linger in listener’s heads.Levine’s unique tenor voicecroons, “All I want is to be with youalways/ I’ll give you everything/Give some attention to me/ all Iwant is you and me always,” in thetrack, “Stutter.” Yet, this track it isnot enough to keep seasoned lis-teners impressed with the simplis-tic and somewhat juvenile lyrics.With that said, if you aren’t listen-ing to the album in hopes to relateto their music and you’re just crav-ing to dance, Hands All Over is amust listen. The colossal appeal totheir contagious tracks like “Mis-ery,” “Give a Little More” and“Don’t Know Nothing,” paired withthe sex appeal of their lead singer,is enough to keep their fans’ handsall over their new album.