‘Bird. How to dress street savvy and keep your textbooks! A year for retro glam and faux fur By Stephanie Trembath s September ends, the school year A: well underway leaving students with lighter wallets and heavier backpacks. Soon enough the rain will start, exam and essay headaches will set in, and everyone will be forced indoors for the next four months. This fall, instead of wearing the same lululemon pants and Ugg boots as everyone else, try acid wash jeans, broad shouldered jackets, and leather... The Breakfast Club is officially back in style and its bringing the look of the “80s into 2009. This season features chunky lace-up shoes rather than last year’s colorful rubber boots, the peplum jacket in place of the pea coat, and cropped cigarette pants instead of thick tights. The soft romantic look is done; bubble skirts, soft pastels, and long coats are out this fall, so prepare to fill your closets with neon pink long gloves a la Madonna, and leather pants and wide-shouldered jackets with narrow waists Michael Jackson style. It’s a season of statement; sequins, chain accessories, and velvet are all back and ready to be worn this fall. For the average students it’s too time consuming to look presentable for school, let alone keep up with the latest fashion fad. However, once the weekend hits everyone wants to look good for the hockey game, movie date, or the bar. School fees, transportation, food, weekend events, coffee to get through exams, and other odds and ends that nobody really notices buying (toothpaste, socks, and ziplock bags for instance) all really add up. This typically makes it harder to put aside the cash to keep buying the latest fashion items, and is why so many people end up looking like they walked out of a lululemon ad. Thanks to the ‘80s comeback, this season it is possible to be stylish while keeping your credit line in check. Value Village is a great place to look for vintage clothing and carries a wide variety of acid wash jeans and offbeat jewelry, as well as many other consignment stores where people go to donate their old clothes. If you have a bit more money to burn, H&M has a great selection of jackets in metallic sequins, cropped leather, and faux fur, from $50 to $120. Urban Outfitters carries a wide assortment of eclectic accessories to update your look or add some funk to an outfit, and tight cigarette pants for $60 in purple, deep blue, grey, black and of course, acid wash. Whether you go vintage or brand new, select pieces that will be fashionable this fall and help create your own signature style, whether it be badass in faux fur and chunky boots, retro with acid wash and neon pink, or classic in leather and defined shoulder jackets. You can’t go wrong with style like Madonna, unless you do the big hair and hot pink lipstick. — te Totally Insane for Arkham Asylum Downloadable content falls short By Angela Espinoza s some of you may know, Batman: Arkham Asylum announced that it would be releasing two sets of downloadable content within two weeks... and they’re both free! Sounds pretty sweet, right? Well... let’s just think about it for a moment. The first downloadable content (DLC) is a map pack entitled Insane Night, and was released on September 17. Personally, I had high hopes that maybe they extended the particularly short storyline (a la Fable 2). Instead we were given two additional mini games... you can call them “map packs” if you want, but they are just mini games. The Predator-based mode, known as “Nocturnal Hunter,” is really no different 12 | Re SSR RR Na aera from any of the other Predator games. Your basic tasks are a little trickier, but overall it’s nothing new. What left me satisfied was the free- flow combat challenge, “Totally Insane.” In this expansion, you have an unending onslaught of enemies coming at you. It seems like every time one goes down, two more take his place. What makes this game additionally challenging is that those run-and-jump “crazies” are in on it too—so keep your guard up, because those pricks hit hard; armor or no armor. Overall, the DLC is nothing special—basically, you get what you pay for. Although, it did leave me wondering why they left “Totally Insane” mode out of the game in the first place? As for the second DLC-pack, Prey in the Darkness, we’ |l just have to see how it is. Its release date is September 24. iP By Jay Schreiber, Arts Editor ound together through the years B by heavy metal riffs and a shared love of music, Burn Cottage are on their way to success. Formed in Surrey by lead singer Michael Guppy and bassist Sam Eckout, Burn Cottage went through several line changes and name swaps to get to where they are today. After half a decade of drunken rehearsals and the addition of members John Bull and Hunter Muler, the group is now Vancouver music scene. “Musically we’re serious, but the lyrics are all just fun and games,” said Guppy, who describes the group’s style as hardcore stoned death metal with a jazz influence. The line-up has remained relatively solid for the past year and a half while they’ve used the Burn Cottage alias. Douglas College has been a good jump-off point for Guppy and guitarist John Bull, who both currently spend their daylight hours studying musical theory and practicing their craft. “Believe it or Burn Cottage not, the Douglas College choir has helped a lot with my vocals,” Guppy commented Burn Cottage has released a three- track EP that was recorded in New Westminster last year with then-fifth member, guitarist Darren Gaymes III. Since the guitarist’s recent departure from the group, the four remaining members have been working on a full-length album that should be available this winter with plans of a tour as soon as next summer. Playing venues such as Pub 340 and the soon-to-be-deceased Cobalt Hotel, the group has developed beginning “Believe it or not, the Douglas College choir has 4 steady tomake — helped a lot with my vocals” —Michael Guppy {ollowing headway amongst in the young metal heads. Recent sponsors from Tortex Dunlop guitar picks and plans of filming a music video for the group’s song, “Mount Brutal” prove that Cottage have momentum and are not slowing down any time soon. While musically sound, the group is still looking for a second guitarist who has heavy metal chops, and can shred around 200 bpm. Check out the band’s MySpace for contact information, shows and if you just want to check out their sound.