Kiri Oliver

Quiet Little Voices single

admin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:29:00 +0000

Hyped-up Scottish indie rockers We Were Promised Jetpacks have been around since 2003, but are only now releasing their debut album, These Four Walls (out June 15 in the UK and July 9 in the U.S.). They opened for fellow Scots Frightened Rabbit in 2008, and that connection led them to their deal with Fat Cat Records.

The single “Quiet Little Voices” opens with a restless guitar line that is soon joined by a pulsing bass line, frenetic cymbals, and Adam Thompson’s powerful, lightly accented vocals (his brogue is much stronger on some of the band’s other material). Despite being over four minutes long, the song doesn’t have much substance; if you know the title, you know the majority of the lyrics, as each line of the first (and only) verse starts with those three words, and the refrain consists of the same words backed by a rousing chorus of whoa-oh’s. When it sounds like the second verse should come in, a brief return to the intro instead leads into a second round of the chorus, and then a third. It’s lazy songwriting that manages to get by on charm and stadium-ready glory; it’s not hard to imagine a room full of people grabbing their friends and singing along with fervor, even though the lyrics are so repetitive and don’t really mean anything.

With its memorable hook and anthemic quality, it’s easy to understand why “Quiet Little Voices” was chosen as a single. However, it’s not nearly as strong as the other tracks from These Four Walls that were made available online in advance of the album’s release, which are less formulaic and boast copious amounts of Scottish charm.

Written by: Kiri Oliver, August 20th 2009

Ani's Raw Food Desserts: 85 Easy, Delectable Sweets and Treats

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:34:00 +0000

By Ani Phyo

Da Capo Press

Raw food chef Ani Phyo’s latest cookbook is a creative and diverse collection of no-bake dessert recipes. All of her creations are free of wheat, gluten, dairy, and processed sugar, and rely instead on nuts, seeds, fruit, and natural sweeteners like agave nectar and maple syrup. The hot summer months are a perfect time to explore the world of raw foods, which are mainly prepared using a blender or food processor, although Phyo also includes a chapter on treats requiring a dehydrator. Additionally, the book’s simplest recipes require no appliances at all, just the creative pairing of fruits with herbs (in the “Fruit Simples” chapter) or wine and champagne (in the “Sparkling Desserts” section) for palate-stimulating, party-ready delights.

All of the main dessert food groups are represented here: cakes, cookies, chocolate, ice creams and sorbets, puddings and parfaits, cobblers and crisps, sauces and creams. The book’s gorgeous full-page photographs advertise the recipes well, with sumptuous portraits of Ice Kream Sandwiches, Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake, and Filled Chocolate Truffles sure to inspire the comment, “it doesn’t look raw!” Although cookbook authors throw around the word “easy” all the time, Phyo’s recipes actually are; often, they’re as simple as combining all of the ingredients in the blender or food processor and then forming the mixture into the appropriate shapes. It’s instantly gratifying to blend nuts, fruit, and spices together and have a ready-to-eat cookie in your hand a couple of minutes later.

The sweet fruit sauces, rich nut creams, and hearty cookies I tried sold me on the merits of incorporating healthy raw treats into my diet. The fact that Phyo’s creations are actually good for you makes for a surprisingly positive, guilt-free dessert-eating experience. However, one of my favorite discoveries about raw food is also a drawback: it’s possible to taste all of the individual ingredients. While it’s exciting to actually know exactly what’s in your food and experience the flavor as a true blend of a few well-chosen fresh ingredients, this also means that if your cookie is made of dates and nuts, it’s going to be dense and taste like dates and nuts rather than resembling what you’d normally think of as a cookie. Therefore, it’s necessary to keep an open mind and appreciate the recipes for what they are rather than comparing them with the dessert forms they are based on.

Given Phyo’s focus on the health benefits of raw foods, I was surprised to see that her recipes do not include any nutritional information. It would be useful to see more concrete information about the nutrients in the desserts, as well as the caloric and fat content of each serving, especially given the fact that some recipes call for several cups of nuts in place of flour or a whole cup of coconut oil.

Overall, Ani's Raw Food Desserts is a surprising and satisfying tour of the possibilities of raw dessert preparation. Raw food connoisseurs and novices alike will find new favorite snacks and treats among Phyo’s imaginative creations.

Written by: Kiri Oliver, August 18th 2009

Stolen Sharpie Revolution 2: A DIY Resource for Zines and Zine Culture

admin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:32:00 +0000

By Alex Wrekk

Lunchroom Publishing

First published in 2002, Alex Wrekk’s Stolen Sharpie Revolution has served as a resource for untold numbers of people both in and outside of the zine community. For the uninitiated, zines (pronounced like the second half of "magazines") are self-published and usually photocopied booklets focused on an incredibly wide range of topics, from politics to how-to guides to personal essays.

One of the great things about zines is that anyone can make one; you could get started today without a guide and figure it out as you went along as I did a few years back after I picked up a free zine at a local show and became inspired to create my own. However, it certainly helps to have a place to go for practical instructions on things like page layout and postal regulations, creative ideas for zine assembly and presentation, and information on how to distribute your zine and connect with other zine writers. That’s all here, along with an extensive resource list comprising zine libraries, websites, annual zine events around the world, distros (zine distributors), and publications that review zines.

Unlike the majority of zines, Stolen Sharpie Revolution 2 is a bound book, although it's anything but a normal book on the inside. On most of the pages, paragraphs of typewritten text have been cut out and pasted on different patterned backgrounds, which Wrekk tells us are from the insides of security envelopes. Some of the tutorials provided by other people are typed on a computer or handwritten, with drawings included. Stolen Sharpie Revolution 2 isn’t the best example of a professional quality, self-published product; there are numerous misspellings and grammatical errors, and one page appears twice in a row, with the following page nowhere to be found. However, the guide successfully embodies the do-it-yourself ethic and community spirit of the zine world, and provides a comprehensive introduction to both the nuts and bolts of zinemaking and the workings and etiquette of the zine community as a whole. It’s a staple for every zinester’s bookshelf, and will delight and enlighten writers, artists, librarians, and educators.

Written by: Kiri Oliver, August 17th 2009

A Wink and a Smile

admin — Sun, 17 May 2009 23:02:00 +0000

By Deirdre Timmons

First Run Features

Deirdre Timmons' documentary A Wink and a Smile is a love letter to Seattle's thriving burlesque scene. Our tour guide is Miss Indigo Blue, veteran performer and headmistress of the Academy of Burlesque, which offers classes including a six-week Burlesque 101 course culminating in a public performance. The film focuses partly on the ten women who took the Fall 2007 course. We learn about their diverse backgrounds and reasons for being attracted to the art of burlesque, and follow them as they develop their routines for the performance.

As the women learn to dance with feather boas between their legs and apply pasties, the film also takes us beyond Burlesque 101—a smart decision, as it allows us to better understand what the students are working toward and what attracted them to burlesque in the first place. Miss Indigo Blue discusses the history and makeup of the burlesque scene in Seattle, and we're treated to full performances by a diverse cross-section of the city's most daring and talented burlesque artists. They show that burlesque can mean any number of things and involve complex props, body paint, professional-level dancing, humor, men, drag, and social and cultural commentary of all kinds. In addition to being entertaining and titillating, a routine by a great performer can truly be an artistic achievement.

With the proliferation of reality shows on TV offering drastic makeovers and consistently delivering against-all-odds radical transformation narratives, it's easy to assume that A Wink and a Smile will do the same in regards to the Burlesque 101 students. However, Timmons doesn't exploit her subjects and set us up to be shocked or entertained by the fact that a woman of any particular age/size/type would or could do burlesque. In the end, the biggest surprise is that after learning more about burlesque and its endless possibilities, it's not a surprise to see any of these women morph into burlesque performers. A Wink and a Smile is a unique and joyous celebration of the human body, mind, and spirit—complete with tassels.

Written by: Kiri Oliver, May 17th 2009

Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential

admin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:17:00 +0000

By Dan Pallotta

Tufts University Press

In Uncharitable, Dan Pallotta demands nothing less than a complete overhaul of the way charity is understood and expected to function. He traces America's nonprofit ideology back to the Puritans, for whom charity was a form of self-denial used to counteract and assuage their guilt about their unabashed self-serving capitalist pursuits. Ever since, he argues, charity has been kept separate from capitalism and held to different and damaging standards.

He takes issue with the fact that many standard practices at for-profit companies, the very practices that allow them to grow and succeed financially, are generally seen as off-limits to nonprofit organizations. These include paying executives market-rate salaries, taking risks, planning according to a long-term vision instead of just short-term needs, advertising prominently, and allowing investors to receive a return on their investment through the stock market. If nonprofits were permitted to engage in similar practices, he argues, they would be able to make much more money and have a much better shot at achieving their long-term goals of ending homelessness, finding a cure for AIDS, and so on.

Whether or not you agree with Pallotta's argument that the non-profit sector should have access to the tools of free-market capitalism, it's hard to deny his claim that charities are held to a double standard and often judged on the wrong criteria. The book's most persuasive chapter concerns the common donor concerns about overhead, fundraising costs, and what percentage of their donation "goes to the cause." The measure of so-called efficiency drives the assessments and ratings of influential watchdog groups like the Better Business Bureau and Charity Navigator, and often ends up completely replacing questions about what organizations are actually accomplishing through their programs. While Pallotta acknowledges that most of his visions for an improved nonprofit sector are impossible without a widespread change in ideology, something we can all start doing today is concerning ourselves with outcomes rather than percentages, and doing the most good rather than having the fewest expenses.

In case you're wondering how Pallotta's ideas would actually function in the real world, the book is supplemented by a case study of Pallotta TeamWorks, the author's company that produced AIDS Rides, breast cancer walks and other large-scale fundraising events that raised hundreds of million dollars for charity before being forced out of business by the public outcry about its unorthodox approach to fundraising. PTW came under fire for its "slick" advertising and brochures, high expenses, risks that usually succeeded but occasionally failed, and the fact that it made a profit. Amazingly, despite the huge amounts of money being raised for vital AIDS vaccine research and more, activists and news outlets consistently painted PTW as a parasite taking advantage of charities, and the company eventually lost its contracts and was forced to cease operations. Unfortunately, the result of its closure was the loss of massive amounts of charitable funding that has not since been replaced by other revenue streams.

Uncharitable is a visionary work that will change the way you think about charity, how nonprofits operate, and what they could accomplish under a different set of rules.

Written by: Kiri Oliver, March 4th 2009

Screen Your Stuff: A Fun, Funky Introduction to Silk-Screening Your Tees, Totes, Towels & More

admin — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:15:00 +0000

By Marion Levy, Veronique Georgelin

Watson-Guptill Publications

Screen Your Stuff is an extremely basic introduction to silk-screening, aimed at young girls. Marion Levy and Veronique Georgelin share a rudimentary method that involves covering the screen with plastic laminate with shapes cut out of it. Included in the book are templates for a few basic shapes like a circle, flower, and skull and crossbones, and the "projects" section that makes up the bulk of the book consists of photographs of these shapes screened onto everything from lampshades to underwear.

Levy and Georgelin, both professional textile designers, are clearly passionate about their work and about sharing the art of silk-screening with kids. The book offers young crafters a method of decorating their belongings that is more advanced than the old standby of using a stencil and spray paint, although that technique might suffice for many of the projects.

Screen Your Stuff is the kind of book that crafty ladies could use to fuel a fun afternoon of projects with the artistically-inclined youth in their lives.

Written by: Kiri Oliver, March 3rd 2009

Action Speaks Louder: Violence, Spectacle, and the American Action Movie

admin — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:21:00 +0000

By Eric Lichtenfeld

Wesleyan University Press

In Action Speaks Louder, Eric Lichtenfeld's illuminating history of the action film genre, the author claims that “the action film has deserved the right to be discussed in the same terms as those used to qualify other more established genres.” This idea, while not brought up until the book’s conclusion, forms the basis of Lichtenfeld’s study, which traces action film trends from the early hard-bodied heroes and martial arts stars like Stallone and Seagal all the way through recent comic book adaptations. Along the way, he covers post-apocalyptic action films, modern disaster movies, and the concept of “terror and the confined arena” originated by Die Hard and continued by a large number of films, including Speed and Air Force One.

As he discusses each film, Lichtenfeld traces the progression of common plotlines and hero and villain archetypes, keeping in mind the given time period, both in terms of available special effects and political and social concerns. Quotes from publicity materials and film reviews help to place each film in the content of how it was originally presented and received. Also discussed are the technical aspects of filmmaking, including editing, cinematography and production design.

Lichtenfeld makes a number interesting points about masculinity in action films, in relation to both physicality and weapons. Unfortunately, one major topic he barely touches on is the role of women in these films. While there are few action films that feature female heroes, he could have easily engaged in an ongoing discussion of the genre's stereotypical female characters, including “the victim” and “the prize.”

Overall, Action Speaks Louder accomplishes two things: it establishes action films as legitimate creative endeavors undertaken with the same considerations as other types of films, and it shows how action films are a window into the politics of the time at which they are made. Whether you're an action fanatic, casual fan or someone who always equated the genre with mindless entertainment, Action Speaks Louder will surely change the way you think about, and watch, action films.

Written by: Kiri Oliver, July 24th 2007

The Dust of Retreat

admin — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:15:00 +0000

By Margot and the Nuclear So and So's

Artemis Records

The Dust of Retreat is an impressive, eclectic debut from an eight-piece band that easily navigates the waters of folk rock, chamber pop and alt-country. Like Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, singer and multi-instrumentalist Richard Edwards can tell compelling stories with just an acoustic guitar, but many of his songs, while simple in melody and structure, ascend to thrilling heights when backed by the right combination of instruments. “A sea chanty of sorts” shimmers with layers of cello, piano and ethereal female background vocals; “Vampires in blue dresses” is accented by meandering lap steel and bells; “Paper kitten nightmare” features a jazzy trumpet solo and several vocalists singing the word “meow” repeatedly during the catchy chorus.

Edwards’ voice sounds comfortingly familiar, but not generic, and his style of singing is emotive in a vague and sometimes disconcerting way that leaves you guessing as to which emotions he’s expressing. His lovely melodies are often offset by dark lyrics; “Skeleton key” opens with the lines “I did a sick, sick, thing to my love/My lack of loyalty swallowed her up,” which he sings with feeling, but not necessarily with regret. Almost every song brings something different to the album, and while it’s easy to make comparisons to other bands, the resemblances are mostly fleeting. Every time to you try to pin down their music as one thing or another, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s slither out from under your grip and deliver another welcome surprise.

Written by: Kiri Oliver, May 25th 2007

The Lookout

admin — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 14:53:00 +0000

Directed by Scott Frank

Miramax Films

Before the accident, Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) had a beautiful girlfriend and was his high school’s star hockey player. Four years later, the victim of a serious head injury, he works as a night janitor at a bank and tends to forget things he’s told unless he writes them in his notepad. All he wants is to be who he was. Short of that, he would like to move up to being a bank teller, or to open a restaurant with his roommate Lewis (Jeff Daniels), an older blind man who looks out for him and appears to care about him more than his disappointed parents do.

When Chris befriends Gary Spargo (Matthew Goode) at a bar, he doesn’t realize, at first, that he is being recruited help rob the bank he works at. Lured initially by the promise of a return to his former glory and later by violent threats, Chris finds himself, and Lewis, in the middle of a dangerous crime. He must find a way to overcome his mental roadblocks, save Lewis and prove that while he will never again be a hockey hero, he can be a hero of a different kind.

Gordon-Levitt gives a powerful, understated performance as a man struggling with both the difficulties of everyday tasks and the devastating loss of his former self. As Lewis, Daniels brings warmth, humor and wisdom to the film. Although the construct of Chris’s vaguely and generically perfect past isn’t necessary to demonstrate the tragedy of his situation, it adds a layer of complexity to Goode’s two-faced Gary, who attended the same high school as Chris and is still in awe of the former hockey star even as he takes advantage of him.

While The Lookout is being billed as a heist movie, this label is misleading because the heist is simply a catalyst for Chris’s journey of self-discovery. First conceived by writer and director Scott Frank many years ago, the film is clearly a labor of love for him, with every detail (and actor) carefully chosen and every character outfitted with complex emotions and motives. A skillfully rendered cross between a fast-paced crime story and a compelling character study, The Lookout will be on your mind long after it ends.

Written by: Kiri Oliver, April 11th 2007

El Perro Del Mar: Live at the Bowery Ballroom (3/1/2007)

admin — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 02:21:00 +0000

By Bowery Ballroom

New York, New York

Some musicians are primarily recording artists, and others excel when they play live. Because El Perro Del Mar (Swedish singer-songwriter Sarah Assbring) plays quiet, repetitive, melancholy pop songs that are great to listen to when you’re reading or half asleep, I had her pegged as belonging to the former category. However, her recent headlining performance at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC left me pleasantly surprised to find that she has found a way to make her music thrive in a live setting.

Backed by a three-piece band of men with long hair and sharp suits, Assbring sang and strummed her guitar forcefully, rocking her shoulders back and forth with confidence. While her recordings bring to mind a lonely 1960s woman sitting at a window and gazing out at the rain, her live set was peppered with electric guitar riffs and imbued with restrained but palpable energy and a sense of resolve. It was almost as if she were a new version of the woman singing on the record – a strong, modern woman looking back and sharing her stories of harder times that were now behind her.

Written by: Kiri Oliver, March 26th 2007

Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas

admin — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:23:00 +0000

By Chuck Klosterman

Scribner

Chuck Klosterman is a music journalist and pop culture critic known for his quirky theories and extensive knowledge of classic metal. Chuck Klosterman IV is a collection of his previously published work, including features, essays, and a short story.

The features that make up Part I of the book showcase Klosterman’s passion for talking to interesting artists (mostly musicians) and then explaining why they are interesting. Bono is interesting because he lets random fans ride in his car and preview the new U2 album during the interview. Billy Joel spends almost the whole time talking about his trouble meeting women, leading Klosterman to theorize about the downside of being able to write great songs while having relationship problems. In the standout piece, Britney Spears dismisses most of Klosterman’s questions and denies that her success is dependent on her sexuality. Some of Klosterman's other subjects are groups of non-famous but still interesting people, including Latino Morrissey fans in L.A., all-female hard rock cover bands, and goths taking over Disneyland for the day.

Part II includes an assortment of short, humorous musings and theories in the signature style made famous by Klosterman’s book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. He explains the difference between nemeses and archenemies, and how to recognize yours; lists the ten most "accurately rated" (as opposed to "overrated or "underrated") rock bands in history; and documents his quest to watch 24 straight hours of VH1 Classic (which, it turns out, unfortunately repeats material every eight hours). Before each essay, he places a marginally related hypothetical situation. For example, would you rather die without a legacy or be known forever for something "strange and neutral," like General Tso of Chinese chicken fame?

As can be expected of any large collection of works, Chuck Klosterman IV occasionally highlights Klosterman’s weaknesses. I am referring mostly to the forgettable short story that makes up Part III of the book, and to the essay “McDiculous,” a sloppy critique of the movie Super Size Me in which he blindly (and somewhat inexplicably) defends McDonalds and denies that there is any such thing as corporate responsibility. Generally, however, he sticks with what he’s good at – clever and insightful analysis of music and pop culture – and when he’s good, he’s the best at what he does.

Written by: Kiri Oliver, February 16th 2007