Arts & Entertainment - The Lunch Break Blog

On Super Bowl Sunday, a winner emerged, and a loser returned to the locker room, dejected. No, I am not talking about the victorious New Orleans Saints or the toppled Indianapolis Colts. I am referring, of course, to Sandra Bullock and Patton Oswalt. (This is an Arts & Entertainment post, after all.) Yes, on the biggest sports day of the year, my guy and I took in two football films before the big game itself, Bullock’s Oscar nominated The Blind Side, in theaters now, and Oswalt’s overlooked indie Big Fan, recently released on DVD.

Thursday

11Feb2010

Yet Another Salinger Postmortem

Martin Roche |

Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 1:49PM | tagged

writers |

5 Comments | in

As a reader, my interests go places that my adolescent self would have found “boring” (that all-encompassing word). As a teenager, the focus of my reading was almost exclusively JD Salinger. I was a defensive, fearful, mistrustful, dogmatic and sheltered young man from an idyllic little town, so it makes sense. Though still fearful and defensive, I’m more broad-minded. When I was in an English graduate program, I regarded Salinger the way one comes to disregard a younger self - as embarrassingly naive. Dragons live forever, not so little boys. Like Puff, Salinger stopped being magical.

The Wicked Witch of the West,

Wednesday

20Jan2010

A Wicked Revision

Patrick Edmonds |

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 11:32PM | tagged

Good and Evil,

History,

Revisionist History,

The Wizard of Oz,

Wicked |

7 Comments | in

Yet… as I reflect on the smoke pouring out of a giant mechanical dragon, and on the faces of the children one row in front of me, faces of glee and terror (at certain points), I am unable to contain my thoughts from pondering the dangerous implications of a seemingly innocent musical.

Monday

04Jan2010

Beethoven, Brahms, and Bugs Bunny

Lady Godiva |

Monday, January 4, 2010 at 8:46PM | tagged

Music,

brahms,

mozart,

tv,

tweety bird |

6 Comments | in

All I really needed to know about classical music and world culture I learned by watching Saturday morning cartoons! I am a product of the 80s. With that comes a number of wonderfully nostalgic memories, including watching Saturday morning cartoons. Among them are Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny and Sylvester and Tweety, just to name a few. It wasn’t until college that I realized I actually knew Mozart, Gershwin and Beethoven because I had never chosen to listen to classical music. My choices lied in the Go Gos, Madonna and New Edition, hardly considered “classical” (although now, over 20 years later, may be considered classic!).

Wednesday

30Dec2009

Drumming Rules

Steele Fields |

Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at 1:40PM | tagged

Essay,

Music,

Volume |

Fortunately, the drummers can’t ignore the beating outside anymore than the cardiologists can ignore the beating inside because without them, the seconds no one’s hearing tick away a little softer and the minutes no one’s counting click away a little faster. For a drummer, the meter’s always running. And so the drummer’s always drumming.