Kaleidoscope

	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Apr 7, 2009

Yeah, it's the 10th anniversary, but what can we really learn from Dave Cullen's Columbine? Plenty, as it turns out. The book aims to set the record straight on the oft mythologized and misreported 1999 school shooting. Informed by police reports, eye-witness testimony and the killers' diaries and home videos, Cullen paints a picture not of bullied outsiders pushed to the brink, but of a methodical psychopath and his self-loathing alcoholic sidekick in pursuit of plain old American immortality.

The British show Skins is like any well-written American teen melodrama, except the characters curse, take copious drugs and fuck like bunnies. But Skins really scores points for not treating teenage issues with kid gloves; they feel real. Each episode focuses on one person, like asshole Tony (About a Boy's Nicholas Hoult) or observant Muslim Anwar (Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel) who just wants get laid. Netflix the first series now; the second one hits our shores April 14.

We can't all be Shepard Fairey, but badpaintingsofbarackobama.com proves that anyone can try. There's Obama as bare-chested Latin lover with unicorn. Obama coming out of Abraham Lincoln's head. Obama as slightly-racist-looking Indian warrior. Obama with the White House for teeth. And, incredibly, Obama, wearing a taco as a sombrero, balancing a pair of boxer-briefs on the palm of his hand. It's an icon in the making.

If you think the Main Line's soul blinked out the moment The Point shut its doors, then you need to get yourself to Milkboy in Ardmore. The coffee shop (and recording studio) is brewing something special, as evidenced by MilkBoy Live Vol. 1, a new compilation of rock/folk performances recorded in the warm and friendly café. Highlights include notable locals (Swimmers, Brakes, Carsie Blanton), some choice imports (Don Dixon, Light Years, Josh Dion) and (possibly) the last recording of the late, loved Robert Hazard.

Mind Made Up
Gerald Kolpan
Un-Nature
Jihad Jones
ArtHouse
Here[begin] Dance Co.
East Expected
How Not to Write a Play
Power Play
Buy Shaver: "I Don't Know"