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Show www.r :NEWS.NET MONDAY • OCTOBER 30 • 2006 fckLtllfffiJS A magical motion picture theaters this week prafc Culfura/ learnings of America ffor Make Benefit G/ofipus Nation of Kazakhstan : Flushed Away ; y. r : . Santo Clause 3: The Escape Clause •— I < Photos/mOvfes.yahoo.com it:'/ ^ New on DVD t -'Mission Impossible til I C.S.J. Miami - The Complete Fourth Season !,. Barry Mani/ow - F/'rsf and Farewell Courtesy Photo/rottentomatoes.com Wireless light bulbs are somehow aglow in The Prestige. Director Christopher Nolan works magic with The Prestige part of a magic show. During one fateful performance, a Assistant Life Editor terrible accident happens that The Prestige is a daz- sets the two magicians adrift zling magic trick in and of as bitter, feuding enemies. They part ways and beitself, a veritable cinematic sleight of hand and one gin their own magic shows. of the best films this year. But soon they engage in Examining the depths a ruthless game of tit for tat, retaliating by bruof pride, pain and revenge, tally sabotaging each othThe Prestige tells the story of two rivaling magicians er's performances. Each in London, circa the early dastardly act is so despi1900s. Theirs is not a friendly cable, we find ourselves becompetition but a fierce one. ing fickle —silently cheerInitially, Rupert Angier ing for one, then the other. Jackman and Bale make (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian . Bale) are exceptional opponents. MiJason Pyles /Courtesy Photos/amazon.com top ten Farthest things chael Caine, David Bowie and Scarlett Johansson also enhance the magic of the movie. Christopher Nolan is a director who typically has something up his sleeve with his storytelling. His Memento (2000) is about a man with short-term memory loss who has witnessed the violent death of his wife and wants to administer revenge. In Memento, Nolan tells his narrative backward, sort of. The Prestige tells the back story of the past and the proceeding story of the present in alternating, interspersed segments, similar to The Godfather: Part II (1974). Revenge is a perilous game, easy to lose. When I was in high school, I dated a girl who initiated a practical-jokewar with me. I ate half of an oddly-textured cheese sandwich one day to find that she inserted a piece of notebook paper as a condiment. The next day I successfully rigged 1.000 Skittles to pour out of her locker when she opened it. Soon after that, we broke up. Welcome to Happy Hollow New Cursive album takes even newer direction Chad Hunt a errorr free© news-papro.; Life Writer "Welcome one and welcome all to our small town," Tim Kasher, front man and guitarist for Cursive, sings welcoming all listeners to the small town and the band's fifth full-length album Happy Hollow. Released August 2006 on Saddle Creek Records, Happy Hollow markS a move in a new direction for the Omaha, Neb. four-piece comprised of Tim Kasher (vocals, guitar), Matt Maginn (bass), Clint Schnase (drums) and Ted Stevens (guitar, vocals). Keeping course with the band's unquenchable thirst for reinvention, take The Ugly Organ, for example, and with the departure of cellist Gretta Conn, Cursive has added a section of horns, arranged by Nate Walcott, which nicely punctuate the starts, stops and strains throughout this 14-song collection. Even with so much change going on, somehow, Cursive stays true to their overall sound and Kasher to his disjointed son'gwriting style with Happy Hollow. Continuing with a theme of change on the album, Kasher not only takes on a modified sound, he also moves past drowning his troubles with women at the bar and has a much larger fish to fry, namely God. It becomes somewhat what Jonah Bayer of Alternative Press referred to as uthe Da Vinci Code for indie rockers." It isn't a direct stab at deity, but it does reveal a genuine skepticism about Catholicism with tracks like "Big Bang," "Bad Science," "Into the Fold" and "Bad Sects," which take definite aim at the religion.However, he never mentions the church, nor does he denounce organized religion directly, he does it by constructing stories based on Courtesy Photo/cursivearmy.com characters from the sleepy Album cover of Cursive's Happy Hollow town of Happy Hollow, such as Father Cole; the pregnant One track that puts a bit of on this track, but it doesn't reteenager named Jeannine; a kink in the fluidity of the re- ally ruin the overall listen of other characters who remain cord, even though it is some- the album. nameless; and Dorothy, while what of a roller coaster ride Happy Hollow is a beautinot directly related to the sub- and full of thought-provok- ful mix of storytelling, multiject of God or religion, strikes ing lyrics regardless, is the genre sound, and ambigua familiar chord as a girl who track "Into The Fold." Kasher ity that creates something of keeps living in dreams of em- recounts a philosophical dis- an eccentric package that is erald cities and chasing torna- cussion between a lamb and a definitely worth a few good does on the tracks "Dorothy at shepherd, which will generalForty" and "Dorothy Dreams ly lose most listeners. Kasher listens. Happy Hollow can be found in the music section of of Tornadoes." perhaps gets a little too deep most stores, most online mu- |