All Entries in the "Entertainment" Category
‘Off Center,’ but on Target
If you like music, or theater, or dancing, or food, the Off Center Festival is for you. Every year, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts puts on a fantastic festival unlike any other I’ve ever seen at a playhouse. The festival will consist of two plays, two musical acts and two dance companies. All from [...]
Alicia Keys: ‘Girl on Fire’
Alicia Keys may not be in the top 10 lists of the richest contemporary R&B singers like her peers Beyoncé or Rihanna, but she has managed to create a powerful 11-year music career with her famous contralto voice range. Unlike her peers, Keys believes in creating music, touring and then moving away from the public [...]
Prancing Past Stereotypes
This is not your sister’s “My Little Pony.” This isn’t a bunch of poorly animated equines with awkwardly large eyes prancing around in circles and singing poorly composed songs on rejected Hanna Barbara backdrops. And this definitely isn’t all a cheap gimmick to sell some crummy plastic dolls made in China that, let’s be honest, [...]
‘Tinseltown’ Lacks Luster
I don’t know what is so great about the holiday season. Yeah, Christmas is cool and everything, and I enjoy a good rendition of “White Christmas” now and then, but the cash cow that this holiday has become for “feel good” movies for the holiday season is almost out of control. Therefore, when I saw [...]
‘Killing’ Is too Soft Spoken
Set against a backdrop of the 2008 financial crisis, Andrew Dominik’s “Killing Them Softly” portrays criminals dealing money, beating and killing people, all in a dreary-looking environment where the sun never seems to shine. Based on George V. Higgins’ novel “Cogan’s Trade,” the film has some fine moments, yet is undone by a frustratingly unbalanced [...]
New Album Is Outasight
Michael Jackson. Kanye West. Britney Spears. Ray Charles. They appear in flashy images splashed on my screen in the latest Pepsi ad with the series premiere of “The X Factor USA” last fall. However, the song in the background caught my ears. With lyrics such as, “Tonight is the night is the night / That [...]
Not Your ‘Regular’ TV Show
Sometimes, I feel like television shows are trying too hard to be cool. It’s more common now more than ever to find TV networks desperately trying to get our attention with fancy and conspicuous realities, cheesy gimmicks and flashy, yet annoying, plastic-like hosts. It’s because of this that I believe that it’s a pretty cool [...]
Claire Trevor School of the Arts Presents ‘New Slate’
Two Fridays ago, I went to see “New Slate,” the yearly graduate choreography exhibition. The phrase “New Slate” promises a start-over, something new — a place to sketch a vision.Did the promise deliver? In some very remarkable ways it did — and did not. Even so, it was a vivid, memorable show. The first piece, [...]
Can’t Quite Reach All the Stars
“PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale” is Sony’s direct answer to Nintendo’s “Super Smash Bros.” While many would love to have a worthy alternative to “Smash Bros.,” “PlayStation All-Stars’” high barrier to entry limits its appeal to only determined hardcore players. On the surface, “All-Stars” and “Smash Bros.” look very similar to each other. Instead of picking [...]
‘Hitman’ Just Misses the Target
I was a bit concerned about “Hitman: Absolution” at first. It wasn’t about the fact that I’ve never played a “Hitman” game in my life. It wasn’t even so much my complete lack of knowledge about the “Hitman” franchise. Really, the reason I didn’t think I would enjoy this game is because I felt like [...]
