Nicki Minaj- Pink Friday

Back in June, RedEye columnist Kyra Kyles wrote the article Nasty Girls of Rap, Pop, Rock and R&B,  a list of female artists that were known for their shock value. Amongst the list were Madonna, Lady Gaga, Trina, Lil’ Kim, and Nicki Minaj. When thinking of artists known for their perverse lyrics, names such as Spank Rock and Amanda Blank come to mind. Back then we only knew Nicki Minaj from songs such as “Bed Rock” or “Roger That.” So is Nicki Minaj nasty? Not quite. Foul and Tough? That’s more like it. Her debut album Pink Friday starts off just right, aggressive without trying too hard.  Her lyrics are more of earning her spot in the rap world. Track one she claims “What the fuck they gone say?/ I’m the best bitch doin’ it” Being surrounded by male MC’s, she does a fine job of holding her own and making it look easy.

What must be noted about Pink Friday are the big name male rappers that are featured. “Roman’s Revenge” includes a verse by Eminem, someone known for being foul mouthed and controversial. A few years back, he was at the top of his game. Nowadays,  the hype surrounding him and his music has died down a bit. Both his and Nicki’s styles compliment each other well. He offers legitimacy to the album and she gives him a youthful feminine touch that could help revive his career. Also featured is Will.I.AM whose style is strong and overpowering in “Check It Out” as it would be in any Black Eyed Pea’s song. Nicki doesn’t miss a beat and is adaptable,  making it her own. One would think that such high profile names would overpower Nicki on her own album. That didn’t happen. The lyrics in “Did It On’em” Minaj contends with “All these bitches is my sons/ If I had a dick I’d take it out and piss on ’em.” Acts such as Kanye West and Drake play backup to  Minaj, who dominates and simply uses big names to build her own reputation. What else would they be good for?

There are two criticisms of Pink Friday. The first being Rihanna, who lends her whiney vocals to “Fly.” The song and the album itself could do without her and Nicki was doing just fine, thank you very much. Second would be the timing. Pink Friday was released in November, but it has summer album written all over it. It starts off with a bang and lightens up with “Right Thru Me” and “Save Me.” Back in the warmer months we were all introduced  to “Your Love.” Her songs don’t contain the gloominess that goes along with the winter season, but the strong energy that most feel in the summer.

Nicki Minaj is fun with her random pop culture references and a style reminiscent of Missy Elliot. Minaj isn’t shy with her words and experiments with their delivery. Many are making comparisons of Minaj to Lil’ Kim, someone she has noted as a big influence. Such an idea didn’t sit well with Ms. Kim who released a track slamming Minaj earlier in November without being provoked. Perhaps this was Kim’s way of putting Minaj in her place, or maybe Minaj poses a legitimate threat to Lil’ Kim and her reputation. Out with the old, in with the new and it seems that Ms. Kim is jealous:
           See the fact is, what you doing I did it
           Lames trying to clone my style, run with it
          That’s cool, I was the first one with it
          You deluded Kim wannabe you just hate to admit it
          I’m the Blueprint you ain’t nothing brand new
          Check ya posters and videos, you’ll always be number 2 (Lil’ Kim)

Overall, Nicki Minaj is all about attitude and paying her dues. Pink Friday tells the story of her and the obstacles she climbed to claim her well deserved spot amongst the leading contenders of modern day rap music. She is a much needed change of pace amongst Jay-Z’s many comebacks and all the buzz about Lil’ Wayne’s incarcerations. The best part is she is actually attractive. You’d expect someone with such a potty mouth to have a face that matches. Her pink and feathery album cover  is sweet and deceitful. She’s Katy Perry meets Brooklyn. The next revolutionary force in girl power since the Spice Girls.

Mickey Avalon

Crack-addiction, male prostitution, Judaism, and “My Dick“; that’s what you get when listening to Mickey Avalon’s self-titled debut album. It would be easy to write off the white rapper from Michigan as just another honkey glamorizing substance abuse and STD’s to build legitimacy, but it is highly recommended to Wikipedia him before making judgments. Most of the content Avalon centers his album around he’s actually lived through.  In the chorus of “Friends & Lovers” Avalon concludes “All my friends and all my lovers are Dead.” In his mid-twenties, his sister overdosed. and his father died in a car crash on the way to AA. “Dipped in Vaseline” is reminiscent of Avalon’s days working as a prostitute. Avalon chooses his words cleverly to bring light to such heavy topics and is able to pack his whole life into a twelve track disc.

 MANIC

Have you ever wanted to see what Zooey Deschanel looked like before she was the beautiful front woman of She & Him and the star of 500 Days of Summer? Then go watch Manic, an incredibly low budget indie film that also stars her 500 Days co-star Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The film is centered around the juvenile ward of a hospital that is home to young adults with varying personality disorders and looks as though it was filmed on someone’s personal video recorder. Gordon-Levitt plays main character Lyle, a young man with severe anger outbursts. Levitt does a damn good job of capturing how out of control his characters rage becomes, but the film does little to elaborate on why this kid is so pissed off while explaining why more minor characters were placed under such treatment. If such drama is up your alley, the film is incredibly addictive and is most likely to leave a deep impression.

 SIX FEET UNDER

 

HBO series Six Feet Under captured the lives of a family run funeral home and the dysfunctions of the Fischer family as they lived directly above their business. They literally shared a home with the dead. In the first season, the youngest child Claire stole the foot of a dead man and stuck it in her boyfriend’s locker for revenge, middle son Nathan struggled with his homosexuality and being the only child dedicated to the family business throughout the whole series, and eldest David tried to accept the fact that he had become his father even though he tried his best not to. The characters are as well developed as the storyline as both evolved together throughout the  six seasons of the show. Death was a major concept that was never a taboo and the series ended with death by showing each characters demise in their future years.

Skins UK

“Just say NO to the American version of Skins.”- Afterlife. Similar criticisms and hesitations have been written about the U.S remake of the UK television series Skins, a TV show set in Britain about a group of young friends who enjoy the occasional party, drugs that are a little more intense than weed, and having sex for the hell of it. The U.S. version is set to premiere on MTV in January 2011. When contrasting between the two different versions of the same series, some critics have been concerned with censorship. The U.S. has guidelines that are far more strict than in the UK because lets face it, America is lead by a bunch of prudes telling us what is and isn’t good for us. With fans of the original taking to the internet to bad mouth the upcoming remake, it makes one who has never seen the original curious and wanting to know what the big ‘effin deal is?

Season one, episode one begins with lady’s man Tony waking up to terrorize his father and help his sister, who looks cracked out, sneak back inside undetected. Just by the demeanor of this character you can tell he is a wise cracking smart-ass. The rest of his day is spent going to class and attempting to help his best friend Sid lose his virginity before he turns 17. What a good friend, right? Not quite. The purpose behind such a task is due to if Sid doesn’t have sex before his birthday, he will lose Tony’s friendship because “it’s embarrassing.” With the help of Tony’s girlfriend Michelle, who Sid is in love with,  they pawn him off on a girl named Cassie who isn’t crazy, she’s just “not allowed to handle knives.” Such details make for an exciting plot that you want to be as twisted as the storyline of Larry Clark’s Kids, but the entire 60 minute comes up short until the near end of the episode when Cassie takes a shit load of pills. Something about this show makes you want to turn it off from boredom, but won’t because you’re desperate for it to get better. Small perks of the first season are recognizing small characters such as Anwar, played by Dev Patel who broke out in the movie Slumdog Millionaire.

One shouldn’t judge a whole series by its first episode, but first impressions can be lasting as well as deadly. The UK version of Skins first episode didn’t start the series off with a bang. Boo-hoo, a young kid is still a virgin and is wanting to have sex. That’s nothing we haven’t heard back here in the states with a movie like American Pie. With the characters changing each season, the show is reminiscent of our own Degrassi that has its own constant changing list of characters. With the content of the show dealing with reckless young adults, it is hard to see how a network like MTV who loves to exploit the more fucked up side of today’s youth with such reality shows as 16 & Pregnant or Teen Mom could butcher such a show. With someone like John Waters being added to our own U.S. version of Skins, that has to give viewers some hope.

The Aqua Building

 Approaching the Aqua building located at 225 N. Columbus Drive, it is hard not to notice. It stands out from boring, brown brick buildings such as the Columbus Plaza and The Fairmont located across the street. Aqua is sleek and interesting with  uneven, wave-like balconies that are ironic to it's name. The design was inspired by the Great Lakes and pays homage to our own Lake Michigan. If it wasn't for it's inspiration, it would be easy to classify Aqua with other skyscrapers such as Trump Towers, which some consider to be what's becoming wrong with modern day Chicago architecture.

 If one were to walk around the corner and go north on Michigan Avenue, you would see such buildings as the Wrigley Building or where WGN Radio is located. Such structures are "old school" and their looks are classical. If you continue going north, you'll come across the Michigan Avenue Pumping Station that survived the Great Chicago Fire. This is the architecture that represents Chicago. Is it possible to compare Aqua to such buildings? Not quite. But Aqua is able to hold it's own. Such buildings are sacred to Chicago because of their history and where Aqua may be lacking in such, it is made up for with it's details. It is the tallest skyscraper to be designed by a woman, Jeanne Gang. It was given the Emporis Skyscraper Award 2009 skyscraper of the year. The building contains 55,000 square feet of office space, 215 hotel rooms, 476 rental units, and 263 condos as well as Penthouses.  Aqua was built with a rainwater collection system and a green roof that is the largest in Chicago. More on the luxurious side, there are accommodations such as a fitness area, hot tub, pool, and garden area. Aqua may not have a classical look, but it will certainly help add to the positive reputation of this city.

 Without knowing the story behind such a building, it is easy to pass of the Aqua as just another condo building that only the wealthy can afford. It isn't hard for it to stand out with the new-wave design in contrast to the dated buildings of it's surroundings. Does Aqua stand out for it's sleek design, or as a sore thumb? That is in the eye of it's viewers. You can love this building, you can hate it, or you can walk right by it without taking notice to it. The Aqua building has potential to become a popular structure within the city, but because of it's lack of solidarity, it doesn't have the potential to become a building that is associated with Chicago such as the John Hancock or the Sears Tower.

Jackson Pollock- Galaxy (Negative)

 The only difference between Jackson Pollock and Jim Morrison is Pollock was a painter and Morrison was a musician, but both of them were raging alcoholics who works were praised by others. One has to ask though, if you took away the crazy, would they still be good?

Jackson Pollock would spend his time standing around his canvas, splattering paint all over it. Is it really fair to call that art? Especially since all of Pollock's paintings are similar and just seem like a continuum of one another. In his work Galaxy, Pollock's color choice helps this painting to stand out from the rest. This detail making it the only exception, but still no better.  What was he trying to represent? This piece of work in no way is a resemblance of a galaxy, but more of a bad paint job in a cheesy night club from the 1980's. Jackson was considered an abstract expressionist but Galaxy, along with other works, if proof that Pollock was expressing his true self, and that self was insane.

Jackson Pollock- Galaxy (Positive)

Unrestricted by four corners of a canvas, Jackson Pollock had an interesting technique. What was on the canvas wasn't important, but the action of HOW it got there. The abstract expressionist also had an interesting way on naming his work. Instead of giving his art elaborate titles, he would use numbers or name it for what it was. He wanted his viewers to "...look passively and try to receive what the painting has to offer and not bring a subject matter or preconceived idea of what they are to be looking for." In his work Galaxy, 1947, outer space is exactly what Pollock gives his viewers.

 His color choice is complimentary, mixing black and metallic's with primary and secondary colors to create a solar system. This particular painting is exceptional in that it is both aesthetically pleasing and causes the use of one's imagination. At first glance, Galaxy appears as just a bunch of paint splattered onto a canvas. Not so bad, but then you start to see the formation of planets and constellations. Galaxy is proof that Pollock was on to something unique and his art was individualistic. Pollock's work makes his viewers curious as to what in the hell is going in his mind.

Black Dogs

 "Black Dogs" is a story of four friends who plan to rob Led Zeppelin that is similar to "Stand By Me," but with petty crime and a villain, Backwoods Billy, that could kick Keifer Sutherland's ass.

 The concept of the book is unique. Four friends who want to rip off Led Zeppelin instead of getting real jobs. Why hasn't this been done before? Not only does author Jason Buhrmester come up with an interesting story, but he was even able to write up a scheme for such a crime that is not only logical, but also doable.

 Buhrmester has a simple style of writing. He is descriptive without overwhelming a reader's mind with mundane details. He has developed a group of characters that are individualistic and play a role of their own within the story; Patrick, the smart guy, Alex the ladies man, Frenchy, the quirky nice guy, Keith, a dumb stoner, Danny, the scummy good guy turned bad by greed, and Backwoods Billy, the villain. Buhrmester's characters interact in a way that is realistic for a young group of friends. Occasionally, the small talk between them is unnecessary.

 The story is well developed and reads smoothly. There aren't any bumps in the road that could leave a reader feeling confused. The only beef with the story is some situations worked out too easily for these four guys. It was too much of a coincidence that Frenchy was able to win backstage passes to a Led Zeppelin concert. Why is it that four grimy looking guys are able to make their way into a famous rock group's hotel room, but all of the women who are more than willing to sleep with the band are booted by security? And how likely is it that Jimmy Page would spend time playing guitar with someone like Frenchy? And it just so happens that the local pawn shop in Baltimore has one of the rarest guitars around, one that the four of them need. When watching a horror movie, it seems ridiculous that a killer will survive after having their head chopped off, but it always happens because if it didn't, their would be no movie. The same applies to such ridiculous coincidences in Buhrmester's story. If they didn't happen, then their would be no "Black Dogs."

 "Black Dogs" is an easy read that will spark one's curiosity. Aside from the fact that they are thieves, the characters are normal and relatable. An older reader may feel nostalgic and think back to the crazy shit they did back in the day and a young reader will be inspired to create a crazy scheme of their own.

Waiting for Superman

"Either these kids are getting stupider each year, or there's something wrong in the education system."
-Geoffrey Canada.

A documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim, "Waiting for Superman" focuses on the failing public school system in America that will leave those who attended public schools feeling like a statistic, those who experienced this system within an urban area pissed off, and everyone else wanting to go home and do their research. The statistics that the film brings to attention are startling as it examines every cliché that has ever been blamed for the poor education of America: Tenure, drop outs, politics, funding, and neighborhoods. Guggenheim  interviews parents and their young children, those who have been influential in education reform, and the superintendent of Washington D.C., the dumbest city in the U.S. ironically.

 "Waiting for Superman" is a broad look at the flaws in the public school system that is informative but it fails to offer any type of solution. A main point made in the film is that education reform has become more about the adults involved as oppose to the education of young children. There are five children who were periodically interviewed throughout the film, all in middle school. Guggenheim does a good job of supporting this point with facts but is flawed in that he doesn't focus the film on the five children he chose to interview. If education reform is about the children, why not include more of them in the film? There is a particular scene towards the end where all of the children are waiting at their charter school's lottery, hoping that their name is called. A charter school is their last hope for a decent education. All but one make it in. This scene is hard to digest as all of the children portray strong looks of disappointment.

 Also hard to digest are the facts presented in the film. Less than 40% of 8th grade students in the whole U.S. are barely up to par with their math and science skills. American students place last in every subject compared to other countries, but are number one when believing we are smart. Guggenheim portrays these statistics visually to his audience in cartoon form with quirky sound effects. It all seems cute until you comprehend what it being presented to you. Portraying such facts in this manner seems like a  tactic used to lessen the blow that the people of America are not as smart as we all thought. The termonolgy coined by some professionals are quirky yet tragic as well, such as describing public schools as "dropout factories" and "academic sinkholes."

"Waiting for Superman" has its gray areas in that it can be jumpy and lacks some details, but it is still a brilliant film. It is a strongly emotional film that will jumble your head with your own thoughts. Those who received a decent education and are now in higher learning will be appreciative. What is beautiful about this film is that Guggenheim isn't only trying to bring awareness, but also trying to create reform. They say Americans are the dumbest, but this film will get us all thinking.

Kid Cudi- Man on the Moon: The End of Time

Kid Cudi's debut album is split in to five different acts, all depicting a long dream sequence and individually representing a different phase throughout. The purpose of these acts is to illuminate Cudi's own imagination and thoughts. Some tracks make mention of his own night terrors and paranoia's. His mind must be a terrible place to get lost in because having to sit through the entirety of this album felt like an awful nightmare.

 The acts are narrated by Common which gives a listener hope along with opening tracks "Soundtrack 2 My Life" and "Simple As." By track 4, "Solo Dolo," the pace is changed as it is the weakest track and  unable to hold its own. The half-assed lyrics fail to keep your attention and Kid Cudi's monotone voice puts you to sleep. The track itself creates a doom-and-gloom feel, but what do you expect, he's from Cleveland.

 "Solo Dolo" is monotone, but "Enter Galactic" is creepy. This is the only track on the album that is directed toward a love interest. I wouldn't want to be that girl due to Cudi's comparison of her anatomy to a moist towelette. How endearing.

 The album as a whole is whiney as Cudi is complaining about his childhood or the whirlwind that his life has become. The most promising tracks are "Day N Nite" and "Pursuit if Happiness," which explains why they are the only songs ever to be played on the radio. Not even the likes of Lady GaGa or MGMT can help this Kanye West wannabe.

Gold Motel- Gold Motel EP

 If you're looking for music that is aggressive, loud, and fast, Gold Motel isn't quite for you. However, if you prefer a sound that is simple yet won't put you to sleep, then Gold Motel is a pretty decent match. An EP with only five songs makes it a quick listen that is easy to get through. Gold Motel reminds you of an open mic band that mixed contemporary pop music with Smokey Robinson. It's quaint. The themes created in each song match their titles such as "Who Will I Be Tonight?' which speaks of a girl who molds herself to her lover's preference. If you're not paying close enough attention, you can get lost in between the first two tracks. Luckily, tracks 3 and 4 change things up with a more mellow pace and the last song, "Don't Send the Searchlights," picks it all up again.

 Gold Motel is the side project of singer Greta Morgan from The Hush Sound.  Her voice adds a feminine touch to the music that isn't self righteous. She not only lends her singing but her piano skills as well. Unfortunately they are not always the highlight of the song and can be drowned out by the rest of the band.

 Gold Motel doesn't compose the kind of music that you would necessarily hear being blasted at a house party, but it is still fun. It leans more towards the kind of music that your little sister likes to listen to and that you surprisingly enjoy as well. You won't be listening to them incessantly, but every so often you'll come across a song when your iPod is on shuffle and be reminded that you know who the band is and what they sound like. It's clean. It's easy. And it's upbeat.