February 2012
29 posts
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Now Hear This: I Am A Fan. You Were A Fan.
I Am A Fan. You Were A Fan.
My title is also my opening: I am a fan. You were a fan.
There’s a difference. That’s what I’m here to explain.
Maybe it’s my longtime love for Glen Phillips’ music and maybe, just maybe, this article was spurred on by my recent experience at the Jack’s Mannequin concert a few weeks back. I’m a little tired of people...
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Now Hear This: America's Linsensitivity Problem
It was like the start of an old joke: “So an Asian bench warmer from Harvard walks onto the basketball court…” But that’s where the joke ended. Game after game, New York Knicks once-water-boy, Jeremy Lin, continued to dominate, leading the scoreboard and breathing life into the franchise that even Spike Lee was growing tired of. “Linsanity” had begun.
Say what you will about his...
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The Mix Tape: Deafen the Creatures - This World of...
Deafen the Creatures - This World of Ours EP
A few months back, I gave a review of Deafen The Creatures’ first EP, The Way the Noise Began. I loved the airy dreamscapes they created with their sound and the fact that a band so young could produce something with such sonic complexity. I’m a little late to the table with this review of their latest EP (which is FREE to download from...
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The Reaction: MD and Marriage
Today’s Reader-Submitted Question: Now that Maryland is well on the way to passing Marriage Equality, how has it affected your sex lives?
Jared: Our readers think we’re gay?
Grant: I mean, we’re both good-looking, well-dressed men with good taste so I can see why they’d think that.
(P.S. The Maryland marriage equality is almost guaranteed to go to referendum on the...
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Oscars 2012: And The Winner Goes To...
It’s that time of year again, when a group of old, white stuffed shirts tell America what movies they should have liked the most and which need to ascend to the tops of their Netflix queues. The contenders are vast and varied: Spielberg is back in the running and for yet another year, an animated flick has gotten the nod (and, of course, has no hope of winning). It’s anyone’s...
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Margin Notes: "I Marked My Skin With Words I Need"
The Quote: “I marked my skin with words I need/Last winter while you were asleep” -Wolftron, “Provocations of Starman Jr.”
Margin notes:
I’ve always been hesitant when it comes to tattoos. The idea of permanently etching something onto a human body is nothing new. It’s a longtime part of human culture, sometimes used for marking criminals, bandits, or...
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Five Things You Didn't Know About The Vice...
Yesterday, Americans celebrated their most powerful figure by sleeping in and watching daytime television. We rejoiced in the name of Washington, Lincoln and the forty-two other men who once filled their great office. But on President’s day, the second in command, the Vice President never gets any love. In fact only sixty percent of Americans can even name Joe Biden when asked. So...
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The Mix Tape: E for Explosion - Echoes of...
E for Explosion - Echoes of Reinvention EP
It’s clear from the opening thirty seconds of Echoes of Reinvention that this batch of re-recordings is a labor of love. Jamison Covington has clearly shed his pop-punk skin from Reinventing the Heartbeat and the Hold Grudges, Not Hands EP. He’s moved on to acoustic guitars, piano, drum machines, chimes, and ambient swells.
Take, for...
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The Reaction: Country Music
The Question: What is your favorite country music song?
Jared: I hate the song “Red Solo Cup.” The fact that a man made a music video about drinking cheap beer in a disposable cup is terrible enough, but the music video has Toby Keith wandering through a college party with drunk kids half his age. That’s some creepy shit, Toby. ...
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The Top Five Movies That SHOULD Be Made In 3D
Has the 3D bubble really not blown yet? With the release of Jar Jar in the third dimension and Titanic 3D trying to be “King of the World,” the madness doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. But can’t they choose better movies to redo in 3D? We have a few suggestions.
Citizen Kane – Just as Orson Welles would have wanted it. The 1941 Oscar winning best picture—which...
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D.C.'s Best Pizza
Is there any food that fills the role as our nation’s quintessential comfort food more than pizza? Families and friends gather round their pies like campfires, sharing stories and having laughs. Some cities are known for their pizza—New York and Chicago, for instance, with their respective styles—and while D.C. might not be known as a mecca for Italian delicacy, there is still some fine...
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Channel Surfing: Archer, Season 3
Archer
Remember that time when James Bond got wasted, lost track of his mission, berated his butler, and still somehow managed to saved the day? If you do, then you’ve obviously been watching FX’s stellar animated spy comedy, Archer. You’re also a fantastic person.
Sterling Archer is, once again, up to no good. So far this season, his mother has dated Burt Reynolds,...
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Now Hear This: Love Do Cost A Thing
F. Scott Fitzgerald may have said it best when he declared that “I love her and that’s the beginning and the end to everything.” It’s Valentine’s Day, folks, and that can only mean one thing: Love is in the air. And how beautiful that notion is—well, was. In Fitzgerald’s day love meant something different than it does to us.
This simple fact dawned on me while I watched in...
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Now Playing: Jack's Mannequin
Jack’s Mannequin
Andrew McMahon loves his job. When he took the stage at the 9:30 Club on Friday night, he was humming with an electricity, a longing to be on stage. Yes, the show was sold out, and a packed house does kick that energy feedback loop into overdrive, but I’m willing to bet the man is just as thrilled to be in a coffee house with fifty people.
(I want to give a nod...
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The Reaction: iPad 3
In response to the rumors that the iPod 3 is being released the first week of March, what upgrades or features do you hope it includes?
Jared: I’m hoping and praying that it includes slightly moderate upgrades that will be outdone within another year and a half when the iPod 4 comes out so I will again be forced to go out and spend six-hundred dollars or face the wrath of a crack-addled...
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Top Five Super Bowl Ads of 2012
We’d be lying if we didn’t say that this year’s Super Bowl ads were a little lackluster. But on a night where a lame, half-assed, Dorito sling-shot won the heart of America and Bud didn’t even have one commercial of note, there were a few gems that really stuck out. Here’s our list of the top five Super Bowl advertisements of 2012.
D.C. got its fifteen minutes of...
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Five Things You Didn't Know About Bourbon
It’s America’s only native spirit and while it might not seem as classy as Scotch whisky, Bourbon whiskey (American brews are spelled with the “e”) is often said to be as good if not better than Scotch. Hemmingway drank it. Lyndon Johnson drank it. Humphrey Bogart drank a lot of it. But how much do we really know about this iconic spirit? Here’s a few things I bet you may not...
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Now Playing: Chronicle
Chronicle
In many ways, Chronicle might have fallen into a cliche-ridden, predictable narrative. Instead, it takes familiar character and plot elements and molds them into something far more distinguished.
Andrew, the loner protagonist, decides that he wants to start filming his life. At first, it seems as if his sole purpose is to deter his physically-abusive, deadbeat father by having...
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Now Hear This: Preach It Clint, Preach It
In the midst of the tepid clash between the titans of the Northeast—a game whose outcome most of America really didn’t give two shits about—there was one beacon of light, one item that stood out amongst the rest. And no, I don’t mean that slow, butt-first touchdown, nor am I referring to the Doritos baby slingshot. I’m talking about what should have been the most heralded and...
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The Mix Tape: Jack's Mannequin - People and Things
Jack’s Mannequin - People and Things
Andrew McMahon is one of the songwriters who emerged during the pop-punk storm of the early 2000s. His first major label release with Something Corporate’s Leaving Through the Window fit in with the likes of New Found Glory, The Starting Line, and Yellowcard. What few people predicted, though, was the heartfelt, despondent piano rock that he...
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Anonymous asked: If you had a snail that could magically grant wishes, what would you name it?
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The Reaction: Super Bowl Picks
With the big game only a day away, who do you think will win the Super Bowl?
(Click “Read More” to see The Dispatch’s predictions.)
Jared: Between the Giants of New York and the Patriots of the Northeastern coastal seaboard (really? you guys couldn’t even pick a goddamned city?), I would have to say that the big winner is most likely going to be Budweisser. Not only will...
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Now Hear This: End The Occupation
Never before in history have we had so many college educated people taking up residence in our city’s parks and public spaces. Even the homeless appear baffled as they pass these hipster looking street denizens sprawled out in their sleeping bags, iPods plugged in, feverishly reading On The Road.
What started as a movement to bring attention to the ever-expanding gap between the rich and...
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The Letterpress: Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
In the not too distant future, New Orleans is underwater, oil tankers have been abandoned, and a small collective of the wealthy runs trade routes through the recently melted polar regions of Earth. Down on the beaches somewhere in the Gulf, living in ramshackle huts, are the hopeless, over-worked ship breakers. They spend their days pulling whatever...
