Lady Gaga?! With Kid Cudi!? At the Fox?!
Yes, that’s correct Gaga fans, the Lady herself will take stage at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis on January 7. The concert is part of her film-referencing “Monster Ball” tour, which launched in late November (Gaga announced plans for this tour about two weeks after the Kanye-Gaga tour fell through).
Lady Gaga's "Monster Ball" tour is in promotion of her latest album, "The Fame Monster". Gaga and rapper Kid Cudi will perform at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Swings into Columbia
One of the forerunners of the modern swing movement, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy visited Columbia and played some jazzy numbers as part of the University Concert Series for Jesse Auditorium Wednesday night.
Emoticons: A Debate
A dear friend did what people in our brave new world do when they encounter a good article on the internet and emailed one from Salon by Mary Elizabeth Williams titled “Death to Smiley: why emoticons need to die :-(”
Williams finds the birth place of the smiley before it became an epidemic in text messages and emails across the nation. Like most things on the internet, the emoticon was invented by a geek before it was adopted by the cast of The Hills and Perez Hilton, who I presume texts a lot of smileys. It was birthed on September 19, 1982 by a Carnegie Melon computer scientist.
But Williams hates emoticons. To her they are a lower and simpler form of communication that reveal desperation on the part of the sender. They are childish and require too much effort; one has to turn her head sideways.
What is it about the emoticon that fills me with such loathing? Maybe it’s the wastefulness of the enterprise, the redundancy of it, the implied lack of confidence in the writer’s ability to communicate, or mine to comprehend. If you say, “I’m looking forward to seeing you tonight,” I think you’re looking forward to seeing me. If you say, “I’m looking forward to seeing you tonight. :-),” I think you’re not sure I understand the extent of sentiment in that seven-word message. And if you write, “I’m looking forward to seeing you tonight ;-),” I think your assumption of getting laid this evening may have been a bit premature, Winky.
I, however, like emoticons. Once you discover that a colon and a closed parentheses looks like a sideways smiley, you can create a variety of alien smiley’s and other fantastic facial expressions. They are fancy exclamation marks with more versatility than the conventional ‘!’ or the ‘?’.
Sure they may be reminiscent of the failed “happy experiment” of the 70s. But the yellow smiley face of the flower children of the 70s has grown up, it has adapted to amuse us in our texts and emails while still making great foggy-mirror art.
I don’t know why Williams has to be so cranky about emoticons =] They do nothing but shed a little joy on our increasingly demanding digital existence. My personal favorite is the Cyclops *) which admittedly works best on the cell phone. Dollar signs make great shades too $).
I suggest that hating emoticons is like accusing Barney the purple dinosaur of plotting to convert children into large purple beings. I suggest that those that have issues with emoticons are revealing deep flaws that are probably the consequence of severe trauma.
I suggest that if you hate emoticons, you visit a qualified and prestigious psychiatrist and inquire about the latest psychological disorder making its rounds around your neighborhood. I suggest that if you hate emoticons, there is something wrong with you. 😉
Ensemble Galilei Performs with NPR’s Neal Conan
Consider a picture book with background music in a movie theater and you will find “First Person: Stories from the Edge of the World.”
Experience thoughts from Charles Darwin literature and many more famous explorers, aided by Ensemble Galilei’s music and National Geographic Image Selection Photographs.
A group of musicians known as Ensemble Galilei have combined visuals and narratives with their melodic compositions. Neal Conan, the host of NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” narrates their latest show titled, “First Person: Stories from the Edge of the World.”
Pictures from National Geographic are displayed on a movie screen behind the performers on their various instruments. Their music incorporates Irish, Scottish, early and original music.
The next local showing of Ensemble Galilei with Neal Conan, is in Joplin, Mo., March 6, at Pro Musica Joplin in the Central Christian Center, 410 Virginia.
Performers:
- Kathryn Montoya, recorders, oboe, and whistle
- Sue Richards, Celtic harp
- Carolyn Anderson Surrick, viola da gamba
- Hanneke Cassel, Scottish fiddle
- Allison Edberg, early fiddle
- Glen Velez, percussion (selected performances)
- Neal Conan, Narrator
For selected performances: actor Bill Pullman and Liane Hanson from National Public Radio
Stephen Colbert has his Eyes on the Gold
This winter, the U.S. Speedskating team will have a very unusual logo on their suits, that of the Colbert Nation.
Photo from AP
This past October, team’s original sponsor, DSB Bank, was forced to declare bankruptcy by a Dutch Court, according to a report on Bloomberg.com.
With competitions at the World Cup and the Winter Olympics quickly approaching and the loss of its financial backer for the past three years gone, the team was short $300,000.
KCOU Sponsors a Battle of the Bands
Thirteen bands are gunning for your votes at kcou.fm. The station and the Student Union Programming Board are sponsoring a battle of the bands. They’re all fighting for the chance to play at Memorial Union.
Audrey Tautou stars as Coco, becomes new face for Chanel
Opening tonight at the Ragtag is a French film on the early life of Coco Chanel, probably the most well-recognized fashion designers of the 20th century.
Amélie star and most recent Chanel face, Audrey Tautou, plays the young designer before she achieved fame in Coco Avant Chanel.
Chanel created a name and style for herself by wearing and creating clothes that were dark, chic and not filled with flowers or frills. She is now seen as an early feminist, creating clothes for a more modern and on-the-go woman.
A gala affair
A short while ago, world-renowned cello master Yo-Yo Ma gave a gala performance at Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis as part of a fundraiser for the many programs provided by the city’s world-renowned orchestra. It’s always the case – as I suspect it might be with others – that after I go to a concert it’s mandated by some unseen force that I listen to that band or performer on repeat for at least a week. I’ve never quite been able to explain why.
Ruben Toledo Creates New Covers for Classics
Penguin Books unveiled new covers for three of their classic pieces of literature on August 25 to coincide with New York Fashion Week: Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights and The Scarlet Letter.
Toldeo's covers for The Scarlet Letter, Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights
They are available at the University Bookstore! I read about them in Vogue and The New Yorker a few months ago, but as is usually the case with designer specials, I didn’t think Missouri, much less Columbia, would get access to them. Until I saw them in the “Classics” section while perusing the fiction at the MU bookstore.
The brooding Heathcliff
Toledo is known for his whimsical drawings which can be seen in Nordstrom’s national designer ad campaign as well as The New Yorker, Vogue, the New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar and Interview. His wife, fashion designer Isabel Toledo, designed the dress First Lady Michelle Obama wore at her husband’s inauguration in January. The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City had an exhibition back in 2000 called “Toledo/Toledo: A Marriage of Art and Fashion” that showcased his artwork and her designs.
The covers are fantastic, and even though I read all three books years ago, they made me want to read them over again (and I did). The New York Times called his Lizzy Bennet on the cover of Pride and Prejudice “a Regency gossip girl and Darcy as her Mr. Big in knee breeches”.
Check out the covers at the MU bookstore in the Classics section.
The Scene 