e

 

 

POP CULTURE PURCHASES

 

Promises to Keep: On Life and
Politics
Joe Biden

One of the most prominent political figures
at the moment is Joe Biden. Reading Joe
Biden’s personal memoir is a perfect way to
better understand one of the men poised to
lead the free world. Promises to Keep is one
of the best autobiographies that I have ever
read. It is a fascinating study of how the
American Dream really does exist, as Biden
went from very humble beginnings, and

a terrible stutter, to becoming the second
youngest state Senator in American history. .
It is filled with interesting and entertaining
stories about his political career.
Throughout the book, Biden is very candid
and forthcoming. He holds nothing back
and isn’t afraid to talk about the toughest
times in his life and the mistakes that-he’s
made. He’s also not afraid to reveal what

he thinks about certain politicians. Overall,
though, Biden does a good job of remaining
bi-partisan and is perfectly fair throughout
the book.

—Garth McLennan

 

 

 

Journey into Mystery #73

Marvel Comics

Imagination in the middle part of the
century was bound by no rules. As many
of you might not know, most comic
heroes did not start off in a self-titled
comic. In fact, many of them were not
even a main character initially. For
example, there is no issue #1 of Thor.
Thor began his adventures in Journey
into Mystery #83. Ant-man/Giant-man
started off as a side story in Tales to
Astonish #27. Spider-man first appeared
in Amazing Fantasy #15. The list goes
on. Many popular characters even went
through multiple prototypes. An early
version of Spider Man, in Journey into
Mystery #73 shows him as an actual
spider. Peter Parker, you should be
ashamed of your body hair.

—Kris Watrich

 

 

NICKELBACK

 

Dark Horse
Nickelback

The songs on this album are simple to a
degree never before seen on Nickelback
albums. Say what you will about the quality
of their mega-hit, “How You Remind Me,”
but the lyrics and theme of that song were
far more complex than anything on the
albums that have followed it. I’m by no
means saying that this band was once made
up of musical geniuses, but it’s easy to see
that the many years of touring and partying
have reduced their brains to mush. Chad
Kroeger doesn’t think anymore. He doesn’t
need to. All he does is write simple songs
about whatever basic human feeling is going
through his head. Sex, party, love, anger;
pretty much sums up the album. I imagine
that by their tenth album he’ll barely be able
to use words with more than one syllable.
While all of the songs on this album are
basic and primal, they also seem very
genuine. Nickelback isn’t smart enough or
fake enough to write a love song they don’t
believe in or an angry song that they don’t
actually feel. That would require actually
thinking about it, and they have better things
to do than that.

—Mark Fisher

 

 

 

Wall-E
Disney/Pixar

Tuesday, November 18'" was the day
that the will-be classic robot romance
Wall-E became available on DVD. The
film grossed $223.3 million at the box
office and rightly so in my modest
opinion. The film follows the last robot
on an empty planet Earth through his
journey to find love and save the world.
It sounds cheesy, I know, but it’s not!
Not only is Wall-E super entertaining,
but it’s funny and really makes some
important statements about the human
race and our responsibility to maintain
our planet. And, not to mention, there is
something heartwarming and charming
about the cute little robot beeps and
clicks. Overall, I’m a total sucker for
this flick.

—Chloé Bach

 

 

 

 

Whatever happened to the cast of Clueless?

 

Alicia Silverstone

Alicia Silverstone, who got her big break doing
music videos for Aerosmith, played the role of
Cher Horowitz in the 1995 classic, Clueless.
This role led to her wining a couple of MTV
Movie Awards, which launched her into some

of her other well-known roles. And, by well
known, I mean as Batgirl in Batman & Robin
for which Silverstone won a Razzie Award for
Worst Supporting Actress, and Blast From the
Past. In the new millennium Silverstone took a
few years away from the Hollywood scene and
in 2003 returned to star in a short-lived (as in
cancelled almost immediately) television show
called Miss Match. Since that time she has been
a part of at least three pilot shows that never even
made it on the air... she’s really got the magic
touch. Currently, Alicia Silverstone is writing a
diet book on living a vegan lifestyle, entitled The
Kind Diet.

Donald Faison
Donald Faison played the role of Murray,

Dionne’s hairbrained boyfriend, on both the
Clueless movie and for the television series from
1996 till its end in 1999. Since that time, Faison
has actually and surprisingly played several
well-known and respectable roles. For example,
he appeared as Tarik in Waiting to Exhale, had

a reappearing role on Felicity as Tracy, played
Petey in Remember the Titans and even made

an appearance in Josie and the Pussycats.
Somehow, all those roles are more than I ever
would have expected from him. Faison even had
the opportunity to contribute his voice to the
animated series Clone High as many different
characters. Nowadays, Faison lends his talent to
the NBC comedy series Scrubs as Chris Turk.

   

Stacy Dash
Stacy Dash’s big break was in fact the Clueless
movie for which she played the character Dionne,
Cher’s BFF. Consequently, Dash reprised her role
as Dionne for the Clueless television series. After
the conclusion of the series in 1999, Dash starred
in a few low-budget films, none of which were
very successful, although she did play a minor
reoccurring role on CS/ as Eve. In 2004, at 38
years of age, she starred in the Kanye West music
video for “All Falls Down,” and what’s even
more impressive is that at age 40 (after having
two children), Dash posed nude for Playboy...
and if that’s even an option for me at 40 I’ll be
pretty stoked. Currently, Dash is working on

her own personal lingerie line called “Letters of
Marque.”

  

Elise Donovan

Elise Donovan played the oh-so-obnoxious
schoolmate of the aforementioned characters,
Amber. Again, Donovan played Amber in both
the Clueless movie and television series. Since
her Clueless days, Donavan has had a few
notable roles like for Night at the Roxbury and as
Morgan Cavanaugh on the teen sitcom Sabrina,
the Teenage Witch. Since those jobs, she has had
predominantly small, unknown roles in both
television and film. Donovan has also received
her fair share of media attention for personal
reasons; Donovan has admitted to battling
anorexia with her weight dropping to an all time
low of 90 Ibs. To help other people with these
struggles Elisa has even contributed her story of
her battle to a Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul
book.

23

 

arts & entertainment esitor