With an album title like A Different Kind of Truth you’d think the Pasadena, California band was either being serious about changing up their sound a little bit or they were just coming up with a name that sticks out.

Let’s just go with the latter option because the way this album is designed, it’s like the band members made a time machine after they released “Panama” and “Hot for Teacher”,entered the present time and made another album with no knowledge of the change in rock styles today.

That doesn’t mean it’s an album not worth listening to. However, this is more of an album that if you’re into the generation of music Van Halen came out of about that sexy woman you see in the corner at a bar (that leads to love or a one-night stand), pick up a copy.

Although I felt the whole entire album resembled the music you hear at a bar or tavern (and eventually block out), if you listen to it closely the songs do provide that “Van Halen sound” that you’re used to hearing. You can pick each song apart from the other ones.

The starting tracks like “Tattoo”, “She’s the Woman”, and “You and your Blues” have the same vibes. When “Chinatown” begins with its flourishing and smooth sounding hammer-on guitar riff I thought I was going to hear a different song than the first three.

Give it a few seconds though, it’ll be the same as the first three songs, just faster paced. After being fooled into thinking you’ll hear a different song from the intro with “Blood and Fire” and “Bullethead” we’ll land with the song “As Is”. I swear I thought  I was about to hear David Lee Roth sing the verse and chorus of their hit song “Panama” over and over again.

The next few tracks until “Stay Frosty” are not surprisingly distinguishable but recognizable. “Stay Frosty”, even though it’s a well-written acoustic riff, the lyrics and singing patterns are so cheesy and hilarious it’s hard to not get into a mode of laughing.

The last track “Beats Workin” is definitely a worthy track, simply because it’s different from the rest of the album but it sounds like it’s more worthy as the introduction rather than the conclusion of the album.

Generally the whole album, that took nearly over a decade to release, you’d imagine would sound a little different given the years the band has broken apart and gotten back together. In reality, it doesn’t. It sounds almost like previous Van Halen songs tried cloning themselves and failed only slightly.

But as a whole, the album is catchy and fun to listen to (if not involuntarily comical at some parts) and if you’re on a long drive or boring day at work it’s not a disappointment. A lot of the tracks have beginnings that sound like the song will be different than the last one but the stereotypical Van Halen will come out during the verse’s and chorus’s.

It’s not their best album, but being their twelfth studio album it’s tricky to best your prior successes. For the return of the original members this album is worth the purchase and worth feeding your ears to with its “feel-good-have-fun” sound but it’s repetitive and somewhat silly at several instances.

Sir Paul McCartney is now 69 years old and he may have never sounded more relaxed this side of his forties.

He has finally recaptured something he hasn’t had in over a decade. He’s comfortable making music again. There is an enormous amount of pressure that goes along with being known as one of the greatest song writers ever. That pressure had taken its toll on his work and you could hear that with every lackluster effort he released.

Kisses On The Bottom is a fine collection of standards. However, where this differs from John Lennon’s Rock N Roll album from 1975, in which he covered primitive rock and blues hits like “Ain’t That A Shame” and “Stand By Me”, McCartney’s reflection is on the jazz genre.

The last few releases that McCartney has made his fans suffer through are quickly forgotten as the opening track starts. “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” sets the mood quite well. This is an album that is inspired by his latest marriage. The entire work’s undertone is that of love.

Unfortunately, this might get filed under the ‘Easy Listening’ category, but it’s much more than that.

As a group, the entire ensemble is very strong. McCartney worked with Diana Krall’s band and the listener can really appreciate that. They’re a tight group and support his vocal contributions nicely. This attention to his vocals benefits the album immensely. In some of his previous works, McCartney has been known to tackle too much. He becomes like Orson Welles and tries to control every detail. This time he understands that the band is there to make him sound better, not vice versa.

There are two original tracks on Kisses. “My Valentine” fits the mood and feel without sticking out, but that’s not really the goal. It offers very little to the album and gets lost in the fold of the older songs. One could argue that is the goal when making a compilation album, but that goes against everything McCartney has always stood for. Of course, this genre is not the norm for him either.

“Only Our Hearts” stands out. It’s the concluding track to the standard edition of the album, but it’s worth the wait. This is his best vocal performance, hitting every high and low he desires. It’s reminiscent of “The Long and Winding Road,” but somehow completely unique. Once you add in Stevie Wonder’s harmonica solo towards the end, it’s a fitting way to tie down any loose ends. Fortunately, there are very few at that point.

McCartney set out to create an album that reminded him of, and payed tribute to, the music of his parents’ generation. We can only speculate what they’d say about it, but one has to think they would enjoy putting the needle down on this record.

The Fray’s newly released album, Scars and Stories, starts off  strong but soon degrades into a horrifically cliché album, a mix of generic alternative sounds that lack originality and fail to inspire enthusiasm.

When the album first opens, it seems to have potential. The track “Heartbeat” is a power ballad with strong chords and catchy lyrics. This song was released for download on Oct. 11, for the radio, so it makes sense that it is lyrically the strongest and most catchy.

But even this first song lacks originality. It has the catchy sound, but it has no depth. The original idea the song was based off of was a woman from Rwanda telling her story of the genocide. But this has not been clearly expressed in the song, rather it contains only a generic message about love. A much deeper song could have been created from such a powerful story.

Another song with a deeper meaning, “1961” contains references to the Berlin Wall, but with lyrics like, “Wanna feel your love right now, wanna see the night and feel the day,” it may as well be another love song. It’s chords are unremarkable, and there is no distinction between this song and the rest of the tracks.

The album does not get any better in the aspect of originality. Most of the songs are about love and heartbreak, which is as cliché as an alternative band can get. This is further aggravated by the stereotypical whine of the lead singer’s voice.

The Fray cites bands like Pearl Jam as their inspiration and it shows. They take the same style and make it more mundane. This album is interchangeable with most alternative albums released in the past few years.

After an album like this, The Fray should just quit while they are ahead. Well, perhaps that is the wrong phrase, because this album definitely set them back. Scars and Stories has damaged the name of The Fray, something they will have a hard time redeeming.

Silverstein’s new album titled Short Songs is just that; a track list of 22 songs that all fall within the 90 second mark. The first half of the album consists of original songs by Silverstein and the second half are covers of short songs originally performed by various punk artists including Green Day, Gorilla Biscuits and Descendents to name a few.

Much like a ’5-hour Energy’ shot, the undersized songs pack a powerful punch that will leave listeners feeling the aftereffects for a period much longer than the entire 20 minute album.

The original songs on the album are more of what one would expect from a Silverstein album with songs like “SOS” and “Sick As Your Secrets,” that bring them towards the heavier end of the punk spectrum. “Sleep Around” is a slower melodic song that speaks to how this band does not need a heavy bass and screeching vocalist to deliver lyrics such as “Start with best intent, you’ve earned it. Promise was made, not kept, you’ve burned it.”

The cover work is not overly impressive but, then again, how much can you change in a song that lasts about 28 seconds like “xOn Our Kneesx” originally by The Swarm.

Overall, “Short Songs” is a unique piece of work that shows how truly talented these guys are as a band and how versatile they can be with their music. Each song is a brave attempt to do something creative and I applaud Silverstein for their twist on this record.

Safe House was a suspenseful, action-thriller directed by Daniel Espinosa that brings the audience intense chase scenes, stylish fight sequences, heart-pounding action and a bad-ass performance from Denzel Washington.

Denzel Washington, who also as served as executive producer, is Tobin Frost, the CIA’s most dangerous agent, who has turned rogue.  He is suspected of being a double agent and mercenary who is suspected of dealing top-secret intelligence with foreign enemies, including many names of people from MI6, CIA, and many others that can jeopardize national security matters.  Let the conspiracy begin.

Frost has been off the radar for 10 years and after a group from an organized unit comes to intercept him and his intelligence, he makes his safest escape by walking into the American Embassy in Cape Town, South Africa and surrenders. The CIA is in a desperate, frantic battle to find out what his motive was for walking right into the Embassy.  Frost seems always one step ahead and the CIA is aware of this as top operatives Vera Farmiga (Catherine Linklater) and Brendan Gleeson (David Barlow), go into lock-down mode to make sure Frost remains in custody.  He is taken to a safe house in Cape Town, where a low-level operative and an agent waiting for his big chance, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds), serves as the ‘housekeeper.’

Agents then are ordered to interrogate the rogue agent at the safe house.  They intend to use any means necessary to get hold of whatever vital information Frost might have.  Water boarding is involved but doesn’t seem to phase the highly trained Frost.  Before the agents can go any further in their interrogation, some uninvited, or maybe invited, house guests of brutal militants of a hired group crash the safe house and kill everyone except Frost and Weston.

The two agents then must flee and Weston finally gets the big assignment he has been waiting for.  His orders are now to bring Frost to an alternative safe house.

There are many more obstacles in young Weston’s way as he tries to bring Frost in.  This is where the psychological portion of the film sets in where Frost uses his highly trained skills to get into Weston’s head.

Washington delivers his role precisely, not only getting into Weston’s head but the audience’s as well.  Not knowing what is going to happen, which side is everyone on, and who led the militants to Frost at the safe house are among the questions that Frost brings up, using his manipulative skills to escape and infiltrate Weston’s head.  Washington sets the tone of the film, taking charge and showing how he can turn into any role and ace it for any sequence that it thrown his way.

He is known for his precise acting skills and giving the audience the right performance for any genre he is casted in.  Washington highly overpowers Reynolds in the film but Reynolds still delivers a strong performance in this action film.  He is known for comedy roles and some horror films.  In Amityville Horror he gives a strong evil performance that really shows how much emotion he can give in a film, and he brought that same emotion to ‘Safe House.’

Espinosa does an excellent job with his cinematography and choppy editing during wild chase scenes and car scenes.  He uses a hand-held camera to put you right into the action during a car chase through Cape Town and a heavy foot pursuit on the rooftops of Langa Township.

The movie is violent but captivating in the same way the Bourne series was.  Frost tries to tell Weston someone he knows let people into the safe house and he can’t trust anyone.  Let’s just say this film will give conspiracy theorists more reason not to trust any body of any government, including our own.

If you are Washington fan, go see Safe House.  If you’re a fan of intense action films, go see Safe House.  The one flaw is its similar story to many other films like it.  It’s good but it also is something we’ve seen numerous times.  Safe House delivers but if you can wait to see it on DVD, before spending $11.50 on a ticket, no one would blame you.

The guys from the reality MTV show The Buried Life came to visit CCSU to ask the question: “What do you want to do before you die?”

On Tuesday night, in Welte Auditorium, over 500 students sat and listened to how this group decided to pack up and travel around North America, in a purple transit bus named Penelope, in the hopes of completing their list of “100 Things To Do Before You Die.”

The twist is that for every item they cross off of their own list, they vow to help a total stranger cross something off of their own “Bucket List.”

The company was created by Ben Nemtin, Dave Lingwood, Duncan Penn and Jonnie Penn who are British Columbia University students. They created this “extreme hobby” after being inspired by a specific stanza in the 1852 Matthew Arnold poem entitled “The Buried Life.”

“But often, in the world’s most crowded streets, but often, in the din of strife, there rises an unspeakable desire after the knowledge of our buried life”.

During the presentation students were able to get up and tell the cast of the show, and the entire audience, what they wanted to do before they died, as well as show off some of their own talents by singing or dancing on stage.

The cast joked around and retold the stories of their travels and narrated a few key moments about what made them realize this is how they wanted to spend their summers.

Backstage after the show, Duncan Penn explained why they ask students the famous question and what stuck out to them the most.

“The people who were forthcoming and honest about what they wanted always hits home, and being able to stand up and say it in front on that many people takes a lot of guts,” Penn said. “Once you say out loud what it is you want to do, it gets you really thinking about it and that’s important”.

Many CCSU students at the event were impressed that CAN and events management were able to put together an event this large with a group as famous as they are.

Stanley Dombrowski was one of these students and he and his friends were one of the many who were lined up outside the doors of Welte Auditorium to get inside.

“We came because I’m a big fan of the show, it’s a great thing that these guys are doing and I’m happy to support it”, Dombrowski said. “I just feel like something really positive will come out of it”.

Freshman Kailyn Craham didn’t know much about the show, but the event was still something she looked forward to.

“I actually didn’t know what it was but a lot of my friends were really into the show so I just decided to come and see what it was going to be like” Craham explained.

One For The Money was Janet Evanovich’s first novel ever published about the frisky and frizzy haired bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. One For The Money is the first of the 18 book series, which includes Two For The Dough and Three To Get Deadly.

It was first published in 1994 and quickly became a long-time best seller, appearing for 75 consecutive weeks on the USA today list of 150 top selling books, peaking at number 59.

Stephanie Plum, our leading lady, is an unemployed lingerie buyer who applies for a job as an amateur bounty hunter for her cousin Vinny. His secretary  sets Stephanie up with a tough first target, Joe Morelli, who is a vice cop charged with murder and who is also a one time sexual acquaintance of Stephanies.

The $10,000 dollars that she can claim if she brings him in is more than tempting for Plum but she soon becomes entangled in the crime side of life and makes an enemy out of the town’s heavy weight boxing champ, who is accused of the sexual assault and murder of several women, and those affiliated with him.

Even though the plot and the characters are very entertaining in this book, I was disappointed in a lot of what Evanovich had to offer for her writing style. The fact that the book is written in first person did not really appeal to me as a reader, and it made me feel like I was listening to someone’s inner monologue constantly. The book could have been much more entertaining if we as readers could see what others saw and thought of Stephanie.

Evanovich created a very relatable and diverting leading lady, but almost every chapter starts with Stephanie talking about how she starts her day, including going for a run, feeding her hamster, doing her hair and putting on makeup. At the beginning of the novel I was okay with this methodical behavior because that may have been her personality, but as the plot thickened I didn’t really feel like Stephanie grew as a character at all and she became too predictable.  She did overcome a few obstacles, like her fear of guns and her ability to track down information, but overall I was hoping for more of a ‘butterfly coming out of its cocoon’ effect.

That being said, there are 17 more books based on Stephanie Plum, so perhaps the series is better as a whole rather than just based on the first book. Considering that the book takes all of 3 hours to read, it is more of a guilty pleasure to read whilst you are sitting on a beach, rather than a novel you would bring to a book club to discuss.

In regards to the other characters in the novel I was fairly happy with the amount of description and humorous details that went into their creation like Ranger, Vinny, and Lula the Prostitute. Benito Ramirez, the insane heavy weight boxer, put chills down my spine when reading about his harassing phone calls to Stephanie. I had trouble falling asleep after reading about him because he just got under my skin in the worst possible way.

Although I was marginally disappointed with the total effect of the book, I’m likely to continue reading the rest of the series because truth be told, reading One for the Money was a lot more fun than reading, say, the memoirs of Abraham Lincoln or something else required for my classes. The world of Stephanie Plum and her crazy family can be a nice escape for those of us who are feeling blasé about our own daily lives.

Several summers ago, I needed a new book to read. One of my friends suggested the Stephanie Plum series. Eighteen books later, I’m still hooked. So I was quite excited to find out that One for the Money, the first book in the series, was being made into a movie.

Starring Katherine Heigl as main character Stephanie Plum, One for the Money was one of the more faithful book adaptations to make it to the big screen. The plot centers around Plum, an out-of-work lingerie buyer from an exceedingly Italian neighborhood in Trenton, New Jersey. At dinner, she tells her parents that she had been laid off- six months earlier. Having had her car repossessed and receiving an eviction notice, Plum is in serious need of cash. So her parents suggest she get a job with her cousin Vinny (John Leguizamo), a bail bondsman . Intending to get a filing job, Stephanie soon finds herself doing skip traces. Knowing nothing about the bounty hunting business, she sets her sights on the file that promises to bring in the most money- Joe Morelli (Jason O’Mara), her high school nemesis turned police officer, who is wanted for murder. It very quickly becomes apparent that catching Morelli is more than Plum can handle, so office manager Connie sends her looking for bounty hunger extraordinaire Ranger (Daniel Sunjata) for help.

After Plum makes several failed attempts to drag Morelli to the police station, he makes a deal with her- he’ll go to the police and let her collect the reward if she helps him prove his innocence. At first she’s not sure that Morelli realty is innocent, but agrees to entertain the idea as a possible way to make her rent. As they begin to piece things together, it becomes clear to her that Morelli really is innocent, and they begin to form an awkward sort of friendship that has the hints of physical attraction dating back to high school. Although it never gets that far, and they alternate between hating each other and cooperating to reach their shared goal, there is an underlying possibility that things will go further.

The actors in the movie are well-cast as their counterparts in the book, and for the most part felt familiar for anyone who has read the books. Heigl is a believable Plum, though at times she seems to move in and out of her Italian-girl-from-Jersey accent. At first, O’Mara doesn’t strike me as the best choice for Morelli, but he gets better as the film goes on. There is definitely chemistry between Heigl and O’Mara that goes a little bit past that of the first book, but alludes to events that take place later in the series. Sunjata is a good choice for Ranger, a tough guy who has a bit of a soft side. Though the movie never brings Ranger and Morelli face to face, it does set up their relationship as two men who don’t like each other but respect each other, and share the common goal of helping Plum stay safe as she stumbles upon information that makes her a target for the bad guys.

The main difference between the book and the film version is that the movie moves much more quickly, and there are definitely parts of the book that did not make it into the movie. At first the film shows Plum’s ineptitude as a bounty hunter, but has her developing skills like shooting a gun and picking a lock much sooner than she does in the book. Some of the humor that accompanies her follies in the book is lost in the film, though the film does have some of the same laugh-out-loud moments as the book. The characters are rather well represented in the film, though they lack some of the depth that they have in the book.

For me, one of the main drawbacks to books being made into movies is that they tend to be quite different from their original version. But all in all, One for the Money was an enjoyable film that stayed true to the book that made it possible. It had to be hard to fit all of the action that took place in the book into 106 minutes, but it stayed true to the book and to the characters that I have come to know. I’m still partial to the books, but I was sad when the movie ended, as I wanted to see the characters catch up to where they are 18 books later. I don’t know if there are any plans to make any more of the books in the series into movies, but if there are, I know I will be seeing them. If you are a Stephanie Plum fan, you have to see the movie.

The Tuskegee Airmen are probably the most famous group of people that overcame racism and prejudice in the Second World War. Being black prohibited them to fight for their country in a big way. They were forced into menial tasks while the white pilots were given the big missions. However, through persistence they were eventually given the opportunity to fight. They were given new planes, to which the tails were painted red. They were known as the “Red Tails.”

In 1995 an HBO movie, The Tuskegee Airmen, was made in honor of these brave men. It was met with positive reviews. About 16 years later, another movie was made called Red Tails. This movie, though inspiring, feels mediocre, leaving the feeling that it could have been much more.

The plot is a simple one: Tuskegee pilots are being discriminated against, so their commanding officer tries to make things right. He gets his wish; the airmen prove their worth and they are regarded as heroes. The problem is that they add two sub-plots, one being completely unnecessary and the other being under-developed.

The first sub-plot involved a romance between David Oyelowo’s character and a local Italian woman played by Daniela Ruah. I have nothing against romance plots, but this was an unnecessary addition. This added nothing to the struggles of the airmen.

The movie was about men overcoming adversity in the military, not mixing it up with the locals. If anything, the relationship between Oyelowo’s and Nate Parker’s character should have been explored more considering they were at odds with each other at times.

The other sub-plot involved Tristan Wilds’ character being shot down and captured by Germans. He was sent to a POW camp where he became part of an escape plan lead by some soldiers looking to escape the camp. There were only two scenes in this movie that depicted this and personally I felt it should have been explored more.

I liked the action scenes. They were rather well done. You get the feeling of being up in the midst of the fighting with the pilots themselves. Given it was produced by George Lucas, the dogfights portrayed have a Star Wars quality to them. The movie thrilled at the right moments and the visuals were well done and environments portrayed beautifully.

The acting did not impress. They played their parts competently enough to where they’re believable, but in the case of character development it was lacking.

Only three actors’ characters, Parker, Oyelowo  and Wilds, were examined deeper than at face value in the movie and ironically the two main actors, Terrance Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr., were not given any real development. Howard’s character focused mainly on getting equal representation and Gooding just made some hollow impassioned speeches and went over briefings.

The dialogue borders on plain. Grante,d during a dogfight it’s supposed to be short and sweet, that’s understandable. However, outside the dogfight scenario it’s pretty weak and at times cliché.

Red Tails attempted at inspiring the masses, but fell flat doing it. The action sequences and barely competent acting do not make up for the other flaws: the scarce character development, and unnecessary and underdeveloped sub-plots.