Though down to the very last dates on the North American leg of the 21st Century Breakdown World Tour (and well over a year after the release of their last album), Green Day undoubtedly performed at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater with no less energy and gusto than they could have possibly exerted when the tour began in July of 2009 . If anything, at the very least, it can be said that Green Day can put on one hell of a show.
“Song of the Century” opened the set to an anxious …

Mention the term femme metal and it conjures up images of bands fronting beautiful singers such as Amy Lee of Evanescence, Carly Smithson of We Are The Fallen, Cristina Sacabbia of Lacuna Coil and maybe even Anette Olzon of Nightwish. But femme metal hardly does the genre justice and is probably just used for a lack of a better term. After all, femme metal didn’t start with Evanescence and it certainly isn’t going to end with them either. What makes these bands isn’t just that they are fronted by capable lead singers with sex appeal. What makes these bands is that, for the most part, they churn out great music in an industry that is dominated by men. Maybe this is why the surprise find, for me, was the band In This Moment.

Ozzfest has now become bloated and “Too Fat for Love.” This is pretty evident just by looking at the 2010 lineup. Sure you’re going to sell some tickets. When you headline Rob Halford, Motley Crue, and Ozzy himself how can you not? Hell, Ozzy is our Elvis. And the days are drifting closer to a time when this generation of fans will have to reminisce about the last time they saw Ozzy sing and where we were when he died. It will be for nostalgic reasons alone that we will never actually burn Ozzy at the stake or even blame Ozzy Osbourne himself for being let down.

On Christmas 2009, Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan handed in a demo for a song he had written entitled “Death” and proclaimed, “That’s it, that’s the last song for this record.” Three days later, the Avenged Sevenfold drummer was found in his home, dead from a lethal mix of prescription drugs and alcohol. Tomorrow, A7X will release that record, now called Nightmare, which is not only the last physical recording of The Rev’s legacy, but also his tribute.

It’s hard to describe festivals outside of the normal parameters of setup and slate. The DNA resembles one part carnival, one part concert and one part spectacle. On the surface, the analysis of the Mayhem Festival is no different. In short it’s a lot of bands, lots of merchandise, lots flying motorcycles and a veritable dustbowl of pits created by fans taking in the pulse of the ten hour feast of metal mania. The only way to understand it isn’t just to experience it. The only way to understand it is to live it.

I am not going to use words like “masterpiece” or “brilliant” to describe Inception; I won’t be calling it the best movie of the year or “the best movie I have ever seen” as I have seen it hailed on multiple Facebook status updates; I am not going to join the chorus of unabashed praise hailing Nolan as a genius filmmaker. A clock is a clock and a film is a film, and I expect a great film to be more than mechanistic perfection and narrative architecture. Inception is a good film and an interesting one, nothing more and nothing less.

I believe it is the invaluable Roger Ebert who claims that the effectiveness of a film is not found in what it’s about, but rather how it’s about what it’s about. This is the key to popular film criticism. This is what allows a critic like myself to write a great notice for a dyed-in-the-wool genre exercise like Nimród Antal’s Predators a few days after seeing the positively brilliant little rough-hewn gem, Winter’s Bone. The two films could not be more different, yet they both warrant positive reviews.

25 years ago, Mike Shea saw a growing divide in hordes of young, angry teenagers spread throughout Cleveland, Ohio. In an effort to unify an uprising voice he put together the first issue of “Alternative Press” in 1985 on his mother’s kitchen table. “Back then it was about choices and options and it was a reaction…”

As I start my drive up north to Ventura for Warped Tour 2010 I began recounting my previous experiences with the festival. Adjectives like ‘sweaty’, ‘bloody’ and ‘painful’ rang through my head. I sighed heavily, mostly for fear of what kind of teeny-boppers I would encounter screaming for the latest label-polished, family friendly band pretending to revitalize what use to be a no-holds barred, no apologies type of event. I reviewed my list of bands playing, hoping to recognize at least one name.

Fast forward to 2010 and the remake of The Karate Kid. Would Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith deliver that same power and triumph that made Ralph Macchio a star? The short answer is that it did. If you haven’t seen it yet, go see it. What follows are all the reasons why you should watch it. But before you read further please don’t forget your manners and remember that you must ask for permission to enter.