As a child, I thought it was the coolest thing ever to play with a Polaroid camera and watch a photo develop right in front of me. Then there was the family camera, an old Olympus point and shoot contraption. My parents would snap dozens of photos of my sister, the dog and me. It was always quite a feat to get all of us–generally in a restless blur of motion–in one clear photo. We wouldn’t know how the photo turned out until after we retrieved it from the neighborhood Kodak lab. Since my dad invested in a digital camera, however, we get results in a jiff! Not only that, my dad could edit a pet unicorn into family photos or change the background to exotic locales, much to my sister’s and my delight. The technology for digital photography has come a long way since then, transforming what was once simply a convenience factor into a high art.

Take a couple seconds to admire the luscious images below:

Eric Larson-”On McAllister St.”

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Among the panoply of alternative rock bands who’ve been jamming around Southern California for the past two decades, Incubus is what you’d call a big banana. They might not have much in the ways of number one singles — the band’s notched only four in their eighteen year history — but the group spent a good part of the nineties quietly touring their way to stardom. Not so shabby, for kids who started banging drums together in tenth grade.

Outside Lands Music Festival was the band’s end point in their tour for their compilation album, Monuments and Melodies. The Daily Cal snagged a few minutes with Jose Pasillas to talk about about breaks, babies, and the current state of the music industry.

The Daily Californian: So it’s been two months that you’ve been on tour?

Jose Pasillas: Right, about seven weeks. Since July.

DC: Before that, the band was on hiatus. How did being on hiatus change the dynamics of the band, considering that you had a daughter born to you, while a bandmate of yours went to study music composition at Harvard?

JP: It didn’t really change much. We’ve taken breaks before, but this was just a good year off for everyone to do their own thing. So it was fine. We always stay in contact with each other when we’re not on tour, but when we finally got together to play music, we were all interested and excited to start playing again.

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Growing up, your parents probably had a steady arsenal of carrots, peas, broccoli and other such nutritious veggies in store for your daily dietary fuel. “Eat your vegetables,” was the mantra du jour. They were on to something, but last weekend’s Eat Real! fest takes the idea a whole lot further.

For wholesome snacks, step away from that vitamin fortified Wonder Bread and day-glow orange Sunny-D. If you’re not conscious about where your food is coming from and how it’s being produced, your carbon footprint may rival the size of Big Foot’s tracks.

As demonstrated by food enthusiasts at West Oakland’s Eat Real! festival, solutions to better eats and improved health may be lurking in your backyard, on the side of the highway or in a food truck in your local neighborhood. Last weekend dozens of food vendors, performers and speakers gathered to promote messages of sustainability, or just how fun getting sustainable food can be.

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Welcome, True Believers, to the inaugural post in our Study Break series, which will feature the study music favorites of several members of the Daily Cal’s Arts Staff just in time for finals (see this feature from the Daily Californian’s print edition for a preview of what’s to come).

I’ll be your soundtracker this evening. The following list of albums (and a couple individual tracks) should encourage any keen mind’s efforts to learn complicated material and then synthesize it, all while hyped up on inconceivable quantities of caffeine (or other substances).

Keep in mind, I’m an English major, so I am most often occupied with reading fiction or poetry and writing essays (and articles for the Daily Cal, to boot). The music on this list is chiefly intended to complement said activities, though hopefully it will help you focus on your problem sets, too.

1. Burial by Burial
The first album by this formerly anonymous dubstep/electronic master mixes ambient oddness, engaging beats, and even some incredibly convincing rain sound effects. I never really thought about how perfect it was for studying till my friend insisted, but I can basically listen to this music anytime. It creates an immersive backdrop, on speakers or headphones, which means fewer distractions–it’s the sort of music where people talking in the next room, sirens on the street, or strains of Guitar Hero from your already-finished-with-finals floormates just seem like part of the sound.

Listen to: Burial – “Southern Comfort”

2. The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place by Explosions in the Sky
This old stand-by always helps me focus. Maybe the only post-rock album I’ve ever really loved. You’ve probably heard strains of EitS’s life-affirming muscle in one or two movie trailers. The rousing melodies will motivate you and the soaring instrumentation will calm your overclocked neurons. I put it on during the home stretch–the last 100 pages of a book, the second half of a paper–and fist-pump as I work. Though when I put it on to plow through the final third of “Paradise Lost” in one night, I think I was a bit too tired to raise my arm . . .

Listen to: Explosions in the Sky – “First Breath After Coma”

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While “The Wrestler” is busy thrusting Mickey Rourke back into the spotlight and picking up Golden Globes wins and Oscar nominations, its screenwriter, Robert Siegel, is starting to promote his directorial debut, “Big Fan.”  “Big Fan,” which premiered at Sundance last week, explores the other side of the issues addressed in “The Wrestler”: the sports fanaticism that graces/plagues many American households. (Click here to read more…)

For the past decade, Danny Boyle and Darren Aronofsky have been individually responsible for some of contemporary cinema’s most original and exciting works. Here the two auteurs discuss the making of their latest films—”Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Wrestler”, respectively—in this series of studio clips released last month by Fox Searchlight. Definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of either director and/or of their films. Enjoy!

Link to entire playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FBD79C6E832F4618

While Barack Obama was being sworn in, I was trapped in Eccles Theatre in Park City, Utah, watching “Adventureland” a college comedy directed by Greg Mottola. Walking into the theater, I hated the film solely for making me miss one of the most important historic events of my lifetime. When the announcer told us that by the time the screening was over “we’re going to have a new president,” I almost cried.

The surprisingly serious film captures James (Jesse Eisenberg), a recent college graduate who calls himself a romantic because he sometimes reads poetry for pleasure encountering the real world after four years of shelter at college. When James’ parents can no longer afford to pay for his long-planned tour of Europe and grad school at Columbia, James is forced to find a summer job. And being an English major with no real skills, he’s forced to work at Adventureland, a dismal amusement park staffed by similarly overqualified, disillusioned students. Married couple Bobby and Paulette, played by SNL stars Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig, run the park and force the students to pretend to care about their work. The sad games booths James is forced to run and the dried puke he has to clean make a mockery of his romantic ideals, and he attempts to revive them with Em (Kristen Stewart), a fellow games employee. Stewart, 17, is able to carry off well the role of an older student midway through her undergrad at NYU, with familial grievances that have left her with a wry sense of humour, and the emotional maturity of a 15-year-old. (Click here to read more…)

I just saw “Humpday,” a very, very indie comedy by third-time feature filmmaker Lynn Shelton, about how two straight friends manage to talk themselves into making gay porn film. That premise is the film’s biggest flaw–I still don’t know how the characters could one-up each other to that point–but it’s so funny and so naturalistic that I liked it anyway and would recommend it to anyone. “Humpday” will probably get wider distribution–the theater full of hardened film critics howled through every awkward scene, and that’s pretty rare. (Click here to read more…)

Robert Redford

The 25^th Sundance Film Festival kicked off today with the opening press conference, completely packed despite the downturn and controversy over Prop 8. Festival Director Geoff Gilmore and President and Founder Robert Redford fielded questions which, for the most part, had nothing to do with the selected films. Spike Lee, in a giant fur hat, sat silently in the third row.

The Prop 8 controversy was one of the first questions posed and was dismissed after Redford responded with this: “I think to try and target Sundance seems sort of self defeating … Diversity is the name of our game.”

Redford wanted to talk more about the inauguration, and said he wasn’t at all annoyed that it had been scheduled during the festival. “I’m glad to see the group that couldn’t shoot straight get out of there. The sooner they’re gone, the better.” He said that with the new administration, arts and culture in America might be revived. “The political machine of the extreme right […] saw art as some sort of threat.” (Click here to read more…)

If you’ve ever dreamed about combining physics with film making (who hasn’t?), the 25th Sundance Film Festival, starting tomorrow, should be a ray of hope. “Magnetic Movie,” a five-minute documentary following research and including commentary from UC Berkeley professors, was selected to the International Shorts category. The short was created at the NASA UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory and captures the movement of magnetic fields in brilliant color on film. The groundbreaking technology that allowed the fields to be captured on film is a beyond my expertise, but I was still able to appreciate the film because it just looks really, really cool. All of you can watch art intersect with NASA space technology without trekking to Utah; the two filmmakers distribute all their work on their production company website, for free.

Joe Gerhardt and Ruth Jarman, two Brits who have had their experimental films showcased at the Tate Britain and closer to home at the San Francisco International Film Festival, directed “Magnetic Movie.” The two filmmakers have shot several of their shorts at the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, all of which can be watched here. I recommend “Brilliant Noise”–it’s dazzling, and would be really amazing for astronomy majors, or sun-worshippers.

I’m interviewing Jarman and Gerhardt over the phone this Saturday from the festival, so if you have any questions you’d like to ask them about “Magnetic Movie,” or their careers more broadly, please post them here or e-mail them to me at kmeyer@dailycal.org. “Magnetic Movie” is one of two UC Berkeley-related films screening at Sundance 2009; Daniel Kronovet posted about alumni-directed “Don’t Let Me Drown” last week.

Image Source: Semiconductor Films