Arts

Record Review: 50 Cent

Mike Gelinas  —  Sep 13, 2007

All that’s ridiculous about 50 Cent’s rap persona — his bravado, his fantasy, his Vitamin Water — usually doesn’t matter. All that comes after the music. And to his credit, 50 Cent has a great ear for beats. In the past, big beats made big hits. But none of Curtis’ singles have equaled the glitz of “In Da Club” or the lust of “Candy Shop.” What made these singles (50 Cent’s unflappable ego) is now nowhere to be found. Somehow, his swagger can no longer match his success.

Before the album’s release, 50 Cent warned, as he often does, that he would be “switching his style up,” and for us to brace ourselves. But besides a very select few, Curtis’ beats could have been the leftovers from a previous album.

Record Review: Okkervil River

Maurice Chammah  —  Sep 13, 2007

There is little I could say about Okkervil River’s The Stage Names that lead singer Will Sheff hasn’t already said in his lyrics. This time around, instead of the grand, embellished story-weaving that defined Black Sheep Boy in 2005, the lyrics are literally about being a rock ’n roll fan, with all of the intensity and borderline spiritual (sexual?) obsession that being a fan can entail.

In only nine songs, Sheff spins out themes of suicide, self-reference, pornography and getting wasted over straight up rock ’n roll riffs in a way that is somehow wildly accessible, and not cliched, but still genuinely intellectual.

Record Review: Kanye West

Samuel Gordon II  —  Sep 13, 2007

Between collaborating with Swedish indie-rockers Peter, Bjorn and John, flying Vincent Chase’s entourage to the Cannes film festival and “singlehandedly” combating climate change at Live Earth, one would think that Kanye West might be feeling rather complacent (not the case). With irrepressible swagger, the indefatigable Louis Vuitton Don has managed to channel all of his excess exuberance, witty one-liners and staggering samples into his latest ambitious effort, Graduation.

Overheard: Excuse Me, I Need To Go Refrigerate My Urine

Monika Derrien  —  Sep 13, 2007

Get the real news about your campus in Overheard, every Thursday right here in Daze. And when you’re not reading, send your submissions to overheard.cor­nell@g­mail.com. Keep them coming!

Girl: I can’t come with you. I need to go refrigerate my urine.

— Ag Quad

Adorable hotelie: Your shoes are so cute! Where’d you get them?

Nicely-shod undergrad: El Salvador.

Adorable hotelie: I live in Ithaca; I don’t know that store. Where is it?

— Ithaca

Engineering Girl: It’s weird seeing frat boys sober. It reminds me that they’re real people too.

— Engineering Quad

Cornellian: What is a pearl necklace anyway? Does it have something to do with semen?

— Libe Café

Tall Skinny Kid: Oh man, she tasted so bad.

Record Review: Los Campesinos!

Sammy Perlmutter  —  Sep 13, 2007

During every moment on the five-song Sticking Fingers Into Sockets, the band either explodes with 1,000-Watts of adolescent adrenaline or coos softly with beckoning foxiness. That is, the two — three? four? — well, the entire gang of singers do.

The Bias Cut

Martin Ambrose  —  Sep 13, 2007

Awkward hellos after a summer of forgetting names — this is the stuff of early first semesters. You’re forgiven for the blank stares at new transfers, freshmen, the guy/girl you talked to at The Palms last spring and the favorite random you used to eye in Olin Café. However, you should all be pretty familiar with the name attached to all of those quilted bags in flashy colors: Vera Bradley.

If you’re not, let me jog your memory — you would recognize her very distinctive bags from having been on display in the Cornell Store where, in my opinion, they are given far too much attention. (And my grudge has nothing to do with the fact that my glam shot is not hung poster-size in the window. . .)

Record Review: Robert Francis

Benj Gilman  —  Sep 13, 2007

Are there too may singer/songwriters in the world? Maybe. But who cares? It’s the execution that matters — the ability to make that “man and his guitar” image really work.

VIVA LA VIRAL! Intertube Explorer

Matt Palmer  —  Sep 13, 2007

Last year, aged Senator Ted Stevens (Alaska, R) issued a rousing speech against network neutrality as only an eighty-something year old man could. Stevens described the internet as a series of “tubes” being stopped up by the large amounts of data streaming across the world. Flying in the face of both the conventional rules of network data protocol and conventional syntax for the English language, Stevens infamously related a story of personal woe arising from Internet data logjams. “I just the other day got … an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday. I got it yesterday,” Stevens mourned. “Why?

These Things Matter: Where Have You Gone, HBO?

Justin Rosen  —  Sep 13, 2007

Almost as important as the return of the NFL last weekend was the return of Larry David. Curb Your Enthusiasm has returned for its sixth season, and HBO desperately needs it. Not only is HBO under a frontal assault from networks like Showtime and FX, but it is also undergoing a near-crisis internally.

What was once the unquestioned best collection of TV is now in danger of becoming just like all the other networks it tries to distance itself from: one or two hits surrounded by failed series after failed series.

The Cornell Connection: Jason Reich '98

Rebecca Weiss  —  Sep 12, 2007

Hey there Ignorant Ivan! Name two cool alumni from Cornell! Well, you probably can’t, so Daze comes to the rescue (again) by talking to Cornell alums in arts & entertainment that you can aspire to be (before you end up taking a soulless job in finance.) In the inaugural installment of Coolnell (tentative title …), Daze talked with Jason Reich ’98, a four-time Emmy award-winning staff writer at The Daily Show.

Sun: What was Cornell like for you? You studied Communications while you were here, right?

Jason Reich: Um hmm.

Sun: Was that ever particularly useful later in your life or in your job, or both?

Hello