The James Logan Courier

By Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune (MCT)

CHICAGO — "Anonymous" contends William Shakespeare was a lying, scheming, boorish clown who never generated a word of the plays attributed to him. Written by John Orloff and directed by Roland Emmerich, the picture follows the main argument put forth by what's known as Oxfordian theory — that the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, convinced Shakespeare to claim authorship while the politically connected courtier, de Vere, continued his literary and theatrical career in secret.

By Jack Bragg, Courier Entertainment Editor

For a band that has broken up and gotten back together on a more consistent basis than possibly any band not named Oasis, Jane’s Addiction’s second comeback album, The Great Escape Artist, is essentially flawless in its approach. The new album shows a new approach to the band’s sound without abandoning their old sound. Rather, the new album sounds undoubtedly like a Jane’s Addiction album, which at the same time weaving a new modern sound throughout the song’s influences.

By Rae Atabay, Courier Staff Writer

In the book, How Soon is Never by Marc Spitz, Joe Green is a 30 year old cocaine addict who falls in and out of love his whole life. Joe is a protagonist most people can agree with, but by the end of the book no meaningful lesson is learned, and for all the Smiths fans, Morrissey never even shows up.

This book is very underwhelming and hard to follow if you are not a Smiths fan. There are many song and band member allusions throughout the book, which can make it very confusing. Even if you are a Smiths fan, the book is very disappointing because Joe never meets with Morrissey to interview him, which was the main goal of the book.

By Joseph Agharanya, Courier Staff Writier

Judith Tarr, a writer, who has written for many years now creating many great works of fantasy novels, demonstrates once again her talent of commanding narrative writing to contemplate ancient history.

Her book King and Goddess, a fairly well written novel, possesses all of the building blocks that make up a good story. The novel informatively describes the life of Maatkare Hatshepsut, a notorious Egyptian queen who is given a vision that she was destined to rule. Tarr's in-depth knowledge of Egyptian culture shows insight to the social lives of all of her characters within the story, and gives the reader a taste of ancient civilization in ancient Egypt. Readers explore the life of how common people operated and lived in Egypt, and observe the drastic contrast of those who live in the royal palace.

By Greg Kot
Chicago Tribune (MCT)

Artists and fans discuss the impact of the iPod:

HOW WE LISTEN:
Alex White, singer-guitarist in White Mystery: "The iPod created a new format for the music-listening public, and a new way for bands to get in their fans' heads, literally, in the form of two white earbuds. My question is, what's the product cycle for portable music players? Was there a 10th anniversary celebrating the CD-playing Discman? Is it the iTunes marketplace that actually makes the iPod so prolific?"

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

Have a seat, "Ace Combat" fans, because this might hurt.

"Ace Combat: Assault Horizon" is a startling departure that trades in the series' mild-mannered temperament and fictional universe for a crank-it-to-11 summer blockbuster set in our world, and the change of pace — along with how effectively "Horizon" pulls it off — will shock and thrill many who play it expecting the same old aerial dogfighting game.

Problem is, the series' most ardent fans may not be among that many.

Before we get carried away, let's clarify: "Horizon" isn't completely unrecognizable. Most of its missions still take place in a wide-open sky in which the objective is to track, chase and shoot down enemy aircraft. The campaign offers a nice selection of planes to fly, and a few special weapons complement the standard-issue machine gun and homing missiles.

By Fred Jedder, Courier Staff Writer

If you've ever traveled down Van Ness Avenue to get to the Golden Gate Bridge, you may have noticed a rather ostentatiously painted eating establishment on the corner of Geary and Van Ness called Tommy's Joynt.

This week, I finally got a chance to stop in when I attended an event nearby with a friend.

My friend and I had wandered the nearby neighborhood south of Van Ness, an area we were unfamiliar with, looking for a place to eat before the event began. Not wanting Thai food - there are several Thai restaurants in the area - and eschewing chowing down in the more seedy, scary establishments, we were despairing of eating at all before we spotted Tommy's Joynt a couple of blocks away. It's hard to miss with the bright paint job and the rather large red "The Original Tommy's Joynt" wrapping around the building.

By Ivan Magana, Courier Staff Writer

Santa Clara's Great America amusement park has undergone a temporary makeover, pumping up the scary with mazes and haunted houses to augment the usual assortment of thrill rides.

There are so many added attractions that I was only able to go through three of the six mazes.

By Jack Bragg, Courier Entertainment Editor

Few albums have so large an impact that they change the scope of the genre they encapsulate. In 1991, Nirvana’s smash-hit album Nevermind did just that. Before Nevermind, grunge rock was a strange subgenre of alternative rock. By 1992, the success of Nirvana’s debut made grunge rock the most talked about and influential format for a rock band in the early 90’s. Now twenty years later, we still can see the many artistic and aesthetic features that made Nirvana one of the biggest bands in history.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

The bad vibes rush in almost instantly, too, during the breakdown of what should be a good idea. "X-Men Destiny's" premise drops you into the shoes of your own custom-designed mutant — except it doesn't, because outside of a few choices regarding attack strategy, you're not allowed to design your character at all. "Destiny" provides three rather bland character designs from which to choose, quickly punting away whatever point there was to playing as an unknown mutant instead of the powered-up X-Men who adorn the box. Even a pitifully rudimentary character creator would have done wonders for this game getting off on the right foot.

Then again, once the action commences, those issues start feeling small compared to what follows.

"Destiny's" quest structure is pretty straightforward: Numerous recognizable X-Men show up to poke fun at your inexperience and hand out objectives during an attack by an anti-mutant force known as The Purifiers, and a stock morality system allows you to fight alongside or turn against the X-Men.

Editor's Note: Four of The Courier's staff recently dined out together.

By Candace Laxamana, Rae Atabay, Mark Godoy, and Gurpreet Bhasin, Courier Staff Writers

Madfish is a little Japanese and sushi restaurant located right on Mowry Avenue in Fremont. The ambiance of the restaurant is very modern and clean and quite spacious. This place is usually packed on Friday and Saturday Nights due to its "Happy Hour" menu bargains.

By Jessica Li, Courier Features Editor

Video games have long been the center of controversy for their portrayal of graphic violence, sex, criminal behavior, gender biases or stereotypes, references, and questionable themes. They have also been studied for correlations to aggressive behavior, addiction, increased physiological arousal, and decreased helpful behavior.

By Jack Bragg, Courier Entertainment Editor

Mark, Tom, and Travis are back and better than ever with their sixth studio album -and first since 2003’s self-titled album Blink-182- Neighborhoods. Long time fans of the band will be pleased with the new material as will fans of the many spin-off bands will find like +44, Angels and Airwaves, and Boxcar Racer will find these influences prevalent in the new album.

By Patrick Hannigan,
Courier Advisor

After watching veteran rocker Nick Lowe stand alone with his guitar and a microphone for nearly all of his Monday night show at the Great American Music Hall, I've come to think that there are two main routes that aging rockers can take.

One seems to be that of the megahit group reformed to attempt to re-connect with their glory days. What they've lost in vocal range, range of motion, or range of creativity, they make up with bombast and production. Because a band like, say, Def Leppard relies so heavily on its past to draw an audience, they sometimes respond by attempting to recreate that past, which can't be done. To hedge their bets and ensure the big payday, they set off a few more explosive devices, or other such camouflage.

It can be entertaining, but, ultimately, empty of anything but cheap thrills and the regret that we all can't be young again.

Nick Lowe takes the other route. At his show on Monday, he stripped his music down to nothing but his acoustic guitar, his supple voice, and a bit of reverb. And he didn't rely on his past commercial successes for the bulk of his material. It definitely wasn't a trip down memory lane.

By Tish Wells
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

According to the Humane Society, there are approximately 86.4 million cats owned in the United States.
And most of them shed.

Blogger / writer Kaori Tsutaya, a cat lover from Japan, has found a use for all that fine fur that usually ends up on an owner's pants, shirts, bedspreads, chairs and carpets.

In "Crafting with Cat Hair", she shows you how to create crafts — finger puppets, book covers, tote bags and pin cushions — that use your feline's contribution.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

John Carmack is to game programming what Steve Jobs is to consumer electronics, so when a new game releases under his watch and brings with it a new game engine over which he also presided, it's a bellwether moment for the future of game design and technology.

And if you don't care about any of that, "Rage" is a pretty good time as well.

"Rage" will draw superficial comparisons to "Fallout" insofar as it's a first-person, open-world shooter set primarily in a post-apocalyptic wasteland teeming with mutants, oppressive authority figures and some colorful settlers bent on fighting both groups back.

By Hadiyah Hassan, Courier Staff Writer

The new all boy group Mindless Behavior is starting to become very popular this year, with their new hit single "My GIrl" and one of their other hits "Mrs.Right" featuring another new young rap artist Diggy Simmons.

The group is called Mindless Behavior because it shows individuality and an effortless way of thinking yet still stand out, according to their publicity.

By Gregory Karp
Chicago Tribune (MCT)

CHICAGO — With the expected release Tuesday of the next iPhone, some owners of the current version of Apple Inc.'s hit phone won't sit home and grumble. They'll sell, then upgrade.

Smartphones and other tech gear that are rendered obsolete by the latest version, or just get a little old, certainly are far too valuable to stash in a drawer and forget about. In fact, with an iPhone, you might be able to sell it for nearly the price you paid. But you have to know how to play the "recommerce" game to get top dollar.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

With respect to the excellent high-definition remaster collections that preceded it over the last year or so, "The ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection" is and probably will remain this movement's high-water mark. Among the thousands of games that have appeared since "ICO" and "Shadow of the Colossus" first appeared, none has done what they do quite like how they do it. If you've wanted to play something like them in HD, only the genuine articles can help get it done.

To this day, "ICO" remains one of a very precious few games that found a way to make escort missions — those traditionally dreadful sections where you have to drag some defenseless person around and fail the mission if the dead weight wanders off and dies — fun.