2008 Woodie Awards
The arrangement of the current exhibits in the Colby College Museum of Art is deceptive. Upon entering, the viewer first comes upon a dramatic installation of floor to ceiling billowing white sheets that takes up the entire room, work by Taiwanese artist Lihua Lei.
Don't let the marketing campaigns fool you. "Pan's Labyrinth" has been presented to Americans as a gothic fantasy in the vein of a surrealistic and creepy take on the "Alice in Wonderland" story. A girl on the brink of young womanhood named Ofelia follows a mantis-turned-fairy into a labyrinth, down a deep and dark staircase where she meets a faun who will introduce her to a dream world that may prove an escape from the horrors of the real world.
Tiny glass legs buckle in the center of the room. There is no physical torso, but the haunting phantom of one lurches forward, yearning and threatening to fall to the ground. These are sad, twisted legs that alone would only be reminiscent of the fragility of the body and the inevitable flaws that taint it.
Bloc Party's Silent Alarm is an album to listen to on a night drive. It is blood pumping, hypnotic, and catchy with melodies that bounce and beats that seem to roll and punch. It was voted by NME critics as the 2005 album of the year, went to #3 on UK album charts, selling over a million copies.
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that music is to the soul what a water bath is to the body. For those of you with immaculate ghostly hygiene, listening to music on a daily basis is probably equally or more important for your mental health than sleeping or eating.
I love winter beers. Really, I do. Something about the colder months seems to give brewmasters license to make heavier, darker ales that carry a strong malt flavor to balance the usual dominance of hop bitterness characteristic of American beers. These seasonal brews usually carry more of an alcoholic punch than their summer or spring cousins.