By: Brennan Carley

On Friday April 28, Boston College welcomed home novelist and screenwriter Chuck Hogan, BC ’89, as part of the Lowell Humanities Series. The event, co-sponsored by the Alumni Association, featured a conversation between Hogan and Christopher Wilson, a professor in the English department and an expert in the crime fiction genre.  

By: Brennan Carley

When I was younger, I distinctly remember playing Poohsticks with my dad on a bridge in our local park. The aim of the game was for each player to drop a branch in the water on one side of the bridge. Whichever one came out first on the other side was the winner. I bring this up because earlier this week, Disney unveiled new clips for its upcoming Winnie the Pooh. It is a return to hand-drawn animation for a company whose main focus has been on computer animated features recently (save for The Princess and the Frog, of course).

By: Brennan Carley

Rock’n’roll, as a cultural movement, has taken a dormant backseat in the past 20 years. Pop now drives the car of musical dominance in America, led by Katy Perry and her legion of likeminded “musicians.” Likewise, what little is left to be found of rock music today lacks the feminine edge lent to the style by icons like Janis Joplin and Joan Jett.

By: Brennan Carley

By: Brennan Carley

“Why don’t you love me babe?” crooned Grace Potter coyly as she pranced seductively around the stage on Friday night. Performing to a sold-out crowd at Boston’s House of Blues, Grace Potter and The Nocturnals delivered a blisteringly hot set over the course of two hours, proving to the crowd that the band is one of the best live acts in the music industry.

By: Brennan Carley

James Blake is not for the impatient listener. As evidenced on his self-titled debut, released digitally on iTunes last month, his music takes a while to sift through. It’s worth sitting with for a while, contemplating on what exactly music has become in today’s day and age

By: Brennan Carley

A hum rises in my throat. A few lyrics murkily surface, muttered almost unconsciously, as my feet began to tap on the floor. There can’t be a chance that my head is bobbing side to side, is there?  After all, this is Avril Lavigne who I’m listening to, and it hasn’t been cool to listen to her since … well … well was it ever considered cool?

By: Brennan Carley

Though not as flashy as Toy Story 3 or How To Train Your Dragon, the third Best Animated Picture nominee, The Illusionist, charms and sparkles with melancholy. Largely dialogue-free and wonderfully drawn, the film explores the life of a disenchanted French magician who wanders to Scotland. In a tiny village in the highlands  of the country, he stumbles upon an enthralling girl who changes his life forever.

By: Brennan Carley

I long for the days when Nicholas Cage had his head on straight, that time when Lindsay Lohan took the world by storm in Mean Girls, and when John Travolta wasn’t constantly battling rumors about his private life rather than making quality movies (I mean come on, Road Hogs, John? You were in Grease, for God’s sake). The days of when actors’ private lives didn’t actually overshadow the reasons for which they had their fame to thank (namely their acting) are long gone. Who can honestly say that they’ve seen a Tom Cruise flick more recently than they’ve read an article about his wacky antics on Perez Hilton’s website?

By: Brennan Carley

Taking a look at yesterday’s top 10 most downloaded songs on iTunes, one finds the list littered with predictable hits by Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, the cast of Glee, and Justin Bieber. Glancing further down the page, the far superior but vastly underappreciated British soul singer Adele dominates the albums chart with her pitch-perfect new album 21.