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The Dartmouth
May 3, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth
Duncan Bryer
The Setonian
Arts

Creative differences mar Fiasco's ‘Lasers'

By Duncan Bryer | April 3, 2011

Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco's third album "Lasers" is a difficult album to review. While it fails to reach the lyrical or production levels of his previous album the critically and popularly acclaimed "The Cool" "Lasers" is an innovative and unique album in its own right, representing some of the best and worst aspects of hip-hop today. Perhaps the biggest talk surrounding "Lasers" was the delay of its release, a result of Fiasco's creative differences with his record company, Atlantic Records, who were pushing for (read: demanding) a more commercial framework for Fiasco's "conscious rap." Not to say this is necessarily a bad thing I'm the last person to criticize music because its production is catchy.

The Setonian
Arts

INTERNET MEME: Not About Love

By Duncan Bryer | August 12, 2010

The video starts with shots of Grammy-winning pop star Fiona Apple lounging in bed and sitting around her apartment with low-key piano notes playing in the background.

The Setonian
Arts

Musicians, theater troupes to perform at the Hop next year

By Duncan Bryer | August 2, 2010

The Hopkins Center for the Arts has a packed agenda for the coming year and will be bringing in a variety of exciting performances from internationally acclaimed and innovative artists. Fans of chamber and classical music will relish a highly-touted lineup that includes the Kronos Quartet a celebrated, Grammy Award-winning "chamber ensemble [with] the mind-set of a rock band." Piotr Anderszewski and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, distinguished for exhilarating, "spine-tingling technique" (Los Angeles Times), will come to campus to perform the likes of Beethoven, Mozart and Mendelssohn. Soloist, chamber musician and orchestra leader Joshua Bell will performing works by Beethoven, Kreisler and Schumann, and the Grammy-nominated Trio Medieval will perform the Worcester fragment a series of over 100 polyphonic compositions from the 13th and 14th centuries. This fall will also feature concerts by the Hop's pianist-in-residence Sally Pinkas as well as live, high-definition simulcasts of the Metropolitan Opera. The Hop will also show a variety of dazzling and innovative dance performances, including "The Lives of Giants" a groundbreaking homage to Cambodian dance and mythology coupled with contemporary politics led by choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro. The Armitage Gone!

The Setonian
Arts

‘Cyrus' offers enjoyable movie-going experience

By Duncan Bryer | July 29, 2010

In a particularly memorable scene, Cyrus (Jonah Hill) assures John (John C. Reilly) that he is "out of [his] league," to which John responds, "If you want to mess with me, I'm gonna mess with you right back." So begins Mark and Jay Duplass' "Cyrus," a hilarious battle of wits that presents a fresh twist on the classic "fight for the girl" storyline. Cyrus and John are fighting over Molly (Marisa Tomei), Cyrus' beloved mother and John's new girlfriend in this humorously bizarre "love triangle." The film is a comedy, drama and romance all rolled into one and makes for an hour and a half of solid entertainment. In this "dromanedy," John a hapless loner recently informed of his ex-wife's engagement falls for the similarly lonely, yet very beautiful Molly.

MICHAEL RIORDAN, The Dartmouth Staff
Arts

‘Made in Hollywood' exhibit opens at the Hood Museum

By Duncan Bryer | July 12, 2010

Ben Gonin / The Dartmouth Staff Ben Gonin / The Dartmouth Staff Eternalized in the annals of American popular culture, from the Library of Congress to your local video store and now featured in the Hood Museum of Art, is the so-called "Golden Age" of American cinema.

The Setonian
Arts

‘Greek' delivers laughs, thin plot

By Duncan Bryer | July 5, 2010

You could say that the opening scene of Nicholas Stoller's "Get Him to the Greek" the most recent installment produced by the Judd Apatow comedic enterprise sets the tone for the entire movie: The narcissistic yet talented Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) is an aging rock-star who walks through an African guerilla gunfight in his music video for "African Child," a song through which he frames himself as an "African White Christ from space." Stoller employs this sort of satirical self-awareness throughout the film to both pay homage to and mock the music industry. This paradigm is reinforced by various characters in the movie from Snow's equally immature and self-absorbed father (Colm Meaney) to Sergio Roma (played to perfection by Sean Diddy' Combs), a hilariously over-the-top, yet realistic, music mogul.

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