It’s reading week and right now, I should be writing an essay or reading Renaissance poetry. It also means I’m lacking in ideas for an article this week so instead, accept my humble apologies and a bunch of recommendations for stuff you should be checking out. Again, as with last time, this shit might be virtually unheard of, popular as hell or just a timeless classic, and I hope you find something you like in here!
Band of the week: Off With Their Heads
After seeing that a few of the Punksoc guys were into them, I decided to give my ‘unknown buy of the fortnight’ (it’s a great practise – go online/into a store and buy something that you have pretty much no idea about in the hope you might love it. I heartily recommend it!) to Off With Their Heads. They are a punk band from Minneapolis who potentially have the gruffest vocalist I’ve heard in a while. A supergroup of sorts, Off With Their Heads play hard and fast and from the heart, and it’s some of the most honest music I’ve come across in a long time. Debut From The Bottom is well worth a buy, and new material is being released on Epitaph soon. Get in there before everyone else does!
Movie of the week: Up
I know, it’s a kid’s movie, but come on! Pixar have released nothing but gold and this film is wonderful. Having missed out on it at the cinema, I decided to go halves with my sister and bought it on DVD on Monday and have spent the rest of the week quoting lines from it to her. It’s got some of the most charming characters around, found in old man Karl, wilderness explorer Russell and talking dog Dug who “does not like the cone of shame”. Plus, attaching balloons to your house in order to find a random waterfall in South America is possibly the coolest method of exploration ever put onto the silver screen.
Video game of the week: Bioshock 2
My friend Josh brought his PS3 back to uni this term, and for that, he deserves a sainthood or something because I have seriously had to feed my Bioshock addiction. Ever since the first one, I couldn’t wait to dive back into Rapture and have found a new and irritating love in the multiplayer. The lobby is crap but the gameplay itself is fantastic and there is nothing more fun than running around as a souped up Splicer. Or, alternatively, in single player mode as a Big Daddy. You have the best of both worlds presented in the new sequel and it feels good to kick some ass.
Book of the week: Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Until I had come to Warwick, I had no idea who China Mieville was. And then, I found out that he would be lecturing me in ‘Weird Fiction’, an optional module where we read Lovecraft and talk about tentacle rape. No, seriously. And I therefore figured that I should at least read one of his books and started with Perdido Street Station, the first in a series of books set in an alternate world known as Bas-Lag. It is fucking good. In a world comprised of humans and xenians in New Crobuzon, scientist Isaac begins work on creating a new method of flight for a garuda, one of Bas-Lag’s many interesting creatures, and then all hell breaks loose. It’s compellingly told and you really get to know and love the characters you’re shown. If you like science fiction, this is perfect.
TV show of the week: Destroy Build Destroy
Andrew WK teams up with a bunch of children and bids them to destroy some stuff, rebuild something out of the destroyed stuff, and then smash it to pieces again. So much fun. He’s wearing trademark white t-shirt as well, making it just that little bit more special. AWK deserves some love after all the recent rumours going around about him and there is no better way than watching the Party Hard master do engineering with kids. Aww.