Editor's note: While Danny and I disagree somewhat on the year's best movies, remember he's the expert. Here are his picks.
When you're home for the holidays and get to the point where you can't possibly stand your relatives any longer, turn to the entity that truly shaped your childhood: TV.
"Hitman" is perhaps one of the better film adaptations of a video game. However, that is not saying much. It is quick and highly stylized but suffers from a lack of depth.
There is a scene in "Dan in Real Life" where one of Steve Carell's character's shrill, insufferable daughters ("She sounds like a tea kettle," to quote an earlier, better Carell movie) is pleading emotionally with him to let her boyfriend stay over. Once she uses the word "love," Carell suddenly laughs uncontrollably at his daughter's naïve stupidity. Not only is it the only genuinely funny scene in the film, but his line also accurately depicts how I felt watching "Dan in Real Life": "You've got to be kidding me."
With video games more popular this holiday season than ever before, do you know what to buy for the gamer in your life?
Every year it seems like there's more pressure to buy my loved - and sometimes not-so-loved - ones awesome, creative, flawlessly wrapped gifts. Yet even though Black Friday came and went, I have not one giveable gift.
Androgyny has had its place in high fashion for more than 30 years, but now it's finally made its way to the mainstream.
If you're wondering what to get your music-savvy friends for the holidays, consider buying them these releases to add to their record collections. Ha, just kidding - who actually pays for music anymore? Anyway, I couldn't mention only 10, so here's my baker's dozen of top picks for the albums of 2007.
We all have one to shop for - the friend who happens to be an über-finicky music fan. Here are five holiday gift ideas for the snob who wants a more in-depth present than the hottest Soulja Boy single on iTunes:
Wu-Tang Clan - "8 Diagrams"
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Holiday shopping season is rapidly nearing, and you know what that means: prime time for fossilized rock stars to release self-prostituting "best-of" compilations that collect and reorganize all the songs you already have.
Alicia Keys has carried a piano prodigy stigma throughout her career, yet her two studio albums and Unplugged album were punctuated with a hip-hop edge indicative of her Harlem upbringing. But with her latest, "As I Am," Keys' sound matures, often reaching adult contemporary. It's her most mellow, most boring album, but it's still pretty good.
There is nothing that defines relationships and sex for this generation more than Facebook.
Ever accidentally eavesdropped and overheard something so ridiculous you had to laugh and tell all your friends later? Well, share it with the rest of us. Send your ridiculous, funny or ridiculously funny overheard quotes to Beth Romanik.
It's tough for me to say, but if I had to pick one game that made me love playing video games, I would have to pick Mario 64.
Drawing a perfect circle will be the goal for some UF artists Friday night.
You know what I hate? When people (or more often, movie characters) say, "You just know," when referring to significant others. I even had an older relative once tell me that they just knew "like you know about a good melon." But even that bewilders me - many a time I have cut open a not yet ripe cantaloupe.
After my first viewing of the trailer for "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," with its rampant homophobia and the sheer presence of Adam Sandler ("Punch Drunk Love" notwithstanding), I knew it was going to be a film to avoid. When it turned out to be my only viable choice at a movie theater one night, I knew deep within my soul that I was going to hate it and write a scathing review.
Recording and releasing albums is no longer just for bigwigs in the music industry. Gainesville bands are also heading to the studios in order to give fans souvenirs, to get their songs heard and of course, to make some extra money.
Solutions by The State News
