Friday, Feb. 22, 2008

8 pm, 155 Dwinelle

$5 student, $10 general

A cappella is great. Knowing that you’re supporting a cause while listening to harmonized melodies? Even better.

Some highlights from the show:

Perfect Fifth
-Although normally specializing in medieval and Renaissance music, they sang a fun bit of gospel for us.

The UC Men’s and Women’s Chorale
-They joined together to make a massive interpretation of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You.” The meter for the verses felt a little strange and rushed, but the chorus paid off with so many singers.

Cal Jazz Choir
-sucked the audience in with a super-catchy, energetic “Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing”

DeCadence
-Wow, Muse’s “Starlight” is actually a pretty song… when not performed with buzzing guitars and a super-nasal voice. Props to them for making it sound so lovely—who knew it was possible?

UC Men’s Octet
-As always, it was impossible to watch them without grinning and falling in love with their energetic, silly antics, especially that night’s version of “Help!”

In general, red, black and white seemed to be popular with the performers. Same with air guitar-ing and Beatles songs. But hey, a little extra “Hey Jude” or “When I’m 64” never hurt anyone.

Popularity: 19%

Things were looking grim for a while there, but with the WGA strike finally over, the Oscar ceremony will go on as planned. Tune in to ABC at 5 p.m. tonight to watch the show live. Or you could just read about it here!That’s right—I’ll be liveblogging the Academy Awards for your reading pleasure. Refresh your browser frantically for up-to-the-minute announcements of the winners. Sure, you could just check IMDB, but they simply can’t offer the same snarktastic commentary. (Snarktastic commentary contingent on the ceremony itself, but given how over-the-top the Oscars are every year, I think we can count on something to mock.)See you all in 40 minutes! Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 25%

We don’t consider it often, but music is really scientific. Although Paul McCartney often composed in his sleep, music is made up of many complicated elements—melody, rhythm, texture, and timbre among other things. It’s just as much about numbers as it is notes. This truth is expressed in the final scene of Amadeus when Mozart is dictating “Requiem” on his deathbed for Antonio Salieri. As you watch Mozart volley his ideas to Salieri and reach a mutual understanding of the piece with him, you acquire a good sense of how music follows certain rules and principles that allow musicians to open the doors to the rooms where their colleagues create music.

But the aspect that makes music special is the human element (yes, that’s from the DOW chemicals commercial). All art is a product of human thought, experiences, and, most importantly, feelings. And without emotion, music is just a computer program that has no function or a math equation that solves no problem. For all the utility of polyphony and poetry, music is nothing if it doesn’t move people.

It is in this realm that Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea succeeds like only the best records do. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 19%

So I know a lot of you went to the Berkeley Art Museum Student Committee’s opening party for Enrique Chagoya’s Borderlandia, but let’s be real: amidst the huge crowds, free food, and “see and be seen” vibe, you probably didn’t get to view as much of the art as you would have liked. This is precisely why you should go back to BAM and immerse yourself in the artist’s provocative images of Mickey Mouse, cannibals, and biting-yet-hilarious social satire. Oh yeah, and Chagoya himself will appear at the museum a whopping three times before the exhibition ends– on February 17th, March 16th, and April 13th. Get excited!

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 21%