Film mirrors director's life

Russian prostitutes and Orthodox Jews don't normally fall in love.

And independent films from first-time directors don't normally make a splash.

But "The Holy Land," written and directed by Eitan Gorlin, is proving both these assumptions wrong.

The film premiered in New York on July 15, 2003, but the movie had already won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2002 Slamdance Film Festival and Best Film at the Avignon/New York Film Festival. Gorlin was also nominated as Someone to Watch by the Independent Spirit Awards. [Read article]

T he signs of life on the streets and highways of this country have been reduced to a dull repetition of chain restaurants and super-stores. Since there is no soul at a Cracker Barrel, we look to the unique relics of the back roads for a sincere voice.

Painter Red Rohall's exhibition "Funky Roadside Attractions," which will run through Feb. 12 at the Union Gallery in the Student Union Memorial Center, is a collection of oil paintings that seek to capture the character of roadside attractions, such as diners, motels and ice cream stands. [Read article]

It was nighttime and a crescent moon hung above the UA Mall. The streetlights cast a sepia filter over the dead grass, and I could see my breath hang before me as I waited for the last couple of joggers to make their way past Old Main.

I was standing outside the razor-wired fences surrounding the alleged construction sight of the Alumni Plaza.

Yeah. Right. It was time to find out what the UA didn't want me to know. I slipped on a pair of leather gloves and pulled down my ski mask. Wire-cutters gripped between my teeth, I began to climb. [Read article]

"Along Came Polly" is like a frozen burrito. It looks decent in the frozen food aisle at your local grocer but then after emptying the frost bitten brick onto a paper towel and burning your mouth on the meaty, cheesy, beany mess ...Well, if you would have looked deep within your heart, you'd have known it was going to suck.

That's it. "Along Came Polly." End of review.

But I'll indulge you with a plot summary and some other key points. [Read article]

Floetry
Sounds Like: R&B under free verse
See Also: Digable Planets, Alicia Keyes, India.Arie

Floacism "Live"

After rocking to the first song featuring Mos Def, I began scratching the back of my neck and muttering, "I don't know, man. I don't know." But after multiple replays of Floacism, I came to appreciate the melodic poetry of the London-based duo.

Natalie Stewart's spoken word delivery is captivating, and Marsha Ambrosius' unfailing voice is probably the strongest aspect of the album. [Read article]

Buzzed patrons of Plush might confuse Bob Log III - sporting his onstage getup of space helmet and shiny suit - for an astronaut tomorrow night.

Yet the closest the local guitarist will get to the orange sand of Mars is during one of his face-melting slide-guitar solos.

More people, however, have confused Log with an ape because his extremely hairy guitar hand. The furry appendage, complete with opposable thumb, is often likened to a monkey's paw. Such a comparison recently caused great confusion in a former Nazi holdout. [Read article]

The most striking thing about debut writer/director Patty Jenkins's biopic "Monster," the story of prostitute and serial killer Aileen Carol Wuomos, is the degree to which it actually does seem to be a biopic.

While many films of this genre have a tendency to wrap up the lives of their subjects in neat packages, complete with well-delineated and easy to digest morals (a certain "best picture" featuring an idiosyncratic yet ultimately loveable math whiz leaps to mind),"Monster" revels in the ambiguities of Wuomos's choices and situations. [Read article]

Walking into Ghini's French Caffe feels like the first warm rays of sunshine at the dawn of spring. Yellow walls complement each of the surprisingly counterfeit sunflowers standing tall in a wine bottle vase centered on each table. Customers of all ages scan newspapers or catch up with old friends, giving the airy bistro-style dining room an energetic buzz.

This vibrant ambience (achieved despite the strip mall location at the northeast corner of Prince and Campbell) revved up my expectations and my appetite for lunch. I started out with a well-made breve latte that gave me just the boost I needed to sift through the lengthy breakfast and lunch menu. Ghini's Wilted Spinach Salad ($6.95), with fresh spinach, mushrooms, hard-boiled eggs, bacon and a warm, bacon vinaigrette, stood out among the 10-plus salad choices, ranging from the basic garden salad ($3.75) to the grilled Portobello mushroom and smoked Gouda salad ($7.95). But when it arrived, I started to wonder if all the salads were prepared as light on the dressing and tame on flavor. [Read article]

Reading Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" is often reminiscent of watching an Indiana Jones movie - complete with handsome professor cast as protagonist, a quest for a holy relic, cheeky one-liners, an exotic foreign locale, and a little bit of PG-rated sexual tension thrown around for good measure.

Those elements alone would be enough to make an enjoyably breezy mystery novel. Brown has taken "The Da Vinci Code" to another level by literally "riddling" the book with anagrams, word codes and (you guessed it) riddles. "The Da Vinci Code" is also based on what must have been hundreds of hours of research into the history of the Catholic Church, secret societies, Leonardo Da Vinci's work, and the myths that surround the origins of the modern Christian bible. [Read article]

Today

Annie Oakley (yes, I said Annie Oakley) isn't anything that you might expect. She's not a gun-slinging cowgirl. She's not a gun-slinging cowgirl impersonator. And despite the fact that she founded the Sex Workers Art Show Tour, she's not sex-obsessed, or a weirdo, or anything else that you might assume. She's actually a really nice person, who loves to read, cannot control her urge to buy shoes, and spends her spare time fixing up a '78 sedan. [Read article]