Photographs by Joey Lozano

This past First Friday was the kick off party for La Parada, an ongoing arts, music, and social event held each and every First Friday of the month in Downtown El Paso at the San Carlos Building located on 501 Texast Street.

There were live performances by Chrissy Gurrola, Resistencia, Emnesty, and The Stanton Street Collective. Live art by Serro, Raymond (Ray Ray) Segura, as well Albuquerque-based graffiti artist and fashion photographer Unek (cbs). The evening was closed out by DJ’s Bless 1ne, Rob Bass & System Addict.

The Focus of La Parada (aka First Fridays) is to showcase the local talent, to give artists and musicians a place to network and grow and give the people a monthly session to come and celebrate life together.

The next La Parada is set for Friday October 1st. There is an ongoing open call for artists, musicians, djs, and vendors interested in participating. The organizers can be contacted directly online. For more information about La Parada, check out: http://www.firstfridaysep.com

UTEP DINNER THEATRE

2010-2011 Season of Musicals

Presents

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN

Based on the 1952 MGM Film Screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green with music by Nacio Herb Brown and lyrics by Arthur Freed. You remember the plot. You love the characters. You know “the song.”

It’s no less than the stage adaptation of one of the most celebrated and beloved films of all time, Singin’ In The Rain.

1920’s Hollywood is the setting for this zany, light-hearted romantic comedy about the early days of sound film, when many a movie studio found itself scrambling to salvage the career of it’s chipmunk-voiced silent picture star!

Singin’ in the Rain features some of the best loved comedy routines, dance numbers and songs ever written, including Good Morning, Make ‘em Laugh, You Were Meant For Me and of course the most famous song and dance number of all time, Singin’ in the Rain.

Guaranteed to lift your spirits and send you out singing and dancing whatever the weather!

This show is appropriate for the whole family!

First performance is on October 22. The UTEP DINNER THEATRE is located in the 2nd Floor Union Building West, UTEP Campus.

Tickets On Sale Soon…

UTEP Students/Fac/Staff & Groups 20+ September 20, 2010

General Public September 21, 2010

Please note:

*Children 3 years and under are not allowed in the theatre.

**One ticket per valid ID.

ALL TICKET PRICES INCLUDE A $1.50 UTEP FACILITY FEE

TICKETS CAN BE PURCHSED AT THE UTEP TICKET CENTER (747-5234) OR AT ALL TICKETMASTER OUTLETS IN EL PASO. CHARGE TICKETS BY PHONE BY CALLING 747-5234 OR (800)745-3000. PURCHASE ONLINE AT www.ticketmaster.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CALL 747-6060

It is this highly recognizable voice that drives Interpol from beginning to end; sometimes dull, sometimes enigmatic.

As a whole, the self titled album is a solid set of what you would expect their new album to sound like.“Success,” the opening track, is a borderline modern metal track that ends with Mr. Banks sounding more like Ozzy Osbourne than Ian Curtis.

“Memory Serves,” and “Lights” act as the slow tracks, whereas “Always Malaise” and “Safe Without” seem like incomplete ideas. “Barricade,” the first single off the album, serves as the track with the best song structure and clearly the most memorable one.

Part of what warrants longevity and critical praise in a band is the ability to evolve while staying relevant. Interpol has stayed relevant, but hasn’t succeeded in the former.

Interpol is comprised of a handful of tracks that never really meet their climax, but it makes for a nice soundtrack to your day at a local coffee shop while you search craigslist for employment.

-Luis Flowers

photographs by J. De Santiago

Titus Andronicus, the indie rock touring machine performed at the Percolator Thursday night. A lot more people should have been there to watch these four guys with beards and a chick that plays guitar AND electric violin play their hearts out.

The show, as promised by Patrick Stickles, lead vocalist and guitarist of Titus Andronicus, consisted of a dynamic sounding set of songs.

Their songs are very emotional and nuanced. They tend to start very soft and build up into symphonic sounding choruses. Some of them went a little long but since they throw in many different riffs, rhythms and sections they keep you enthralled throughout their epics. Titus is like a good record, interesting and worth hearing again and again.

The crowd was a little too stiff most of the time, but none of that mattered really. Titus is a group that is already playing to large crowds at music festivals and they played an intimate show, literally at eye level with their audience. I don’t think that can happen anywhere else other than EP and the crowd should have at least gotten into it a little more.

But, I know that this kind of band is not on the radar of a lot of El Pasoans and that’s cool. People should just give bands they’ve never heard of a chance and come out to the shows.

Following the tremendous success of “Exhibitions in Dis/Connection” the Border Theatre is embarking on a new project designed to expand the knowledge and talent pool of El Paso.

Beginning September Saturday 4th, the Border Theatre will guide all Performer Project participants, through actor coaching and directing, towards a December 11th performance for the public.

The pieces for the performance will be selected based on the comfort and growth of the performer to ensure a positive experience.

There are no auditions. Anyone who attends will be guaranteed an opportunity to perform.

The Border Performer Project is completely free to the public, although donations will gladly be accepted, and the only requirement for a performance slot is continual attendance and active participation in the Saturday sessions.

The Public performance is designed to function as a showcase piece for actors to be seen by local film directors, advertising producers, and theatrical companies.

Border Performer Project Dates:

All sessions will be in the Main Library Auditorium from 2-5 PM unless noted otherwise.

September 4th

September 18th (9AM – 12 PM)

October 2nd

October 16th

November 6th

November 20th

December 4th (Performance)

The Main Library is located at 501 N. Oregon with free parking available at City Hall on Saturdays.

For more info contact the Border Theatre at their website or 915.412.5283

or info@bordertheatre.org.

There will be out of town bands (The Black from Austin, TX and The Ferocious Few from Cali), the Cult Heroes (from the famed Souldies Parties will DJ) and local bands Mattox and the Electric Panther will perform.

Show begins at 9 pm, it will be $5 at the door, special discount if you Like our page on Facebook.

And… First 25 people get a FREE EP Culture Beat button.

The more upbeat songs act as bookends, lying at the beginning and at the end of the album; some examples being the Of Montreal-ish opener “Phone” and the optimistic puppy love song “Cry With Me Baby.”

The album comes to a halt with the dreamy melodies in “Hideout” and the waltz-like “Summer.” Although most of the album channels a Pet Sounds era Beach Boys sound, “Girlfriend” is more reminiscent of their earlier work.

The album is not without its dismissible tracks, like the repetitive “Good to be” and the very bland “Sailin.” I suppose that it didn’t hurt Magic Kids that the latest episode of Weeds concluded with “Hey Boy,” possibly the most powerful track of the album.

“Memphis” may not be the most authentic musical composite to hail out of Tennessee, but it’s an undeniably uplifting way to say farewell to summer.

-Luis Flowers

listen for yourself: Hey Boy

photographs by Apples

Its rare when an acclaimed band known to give outstanding performances actually stops in EP to play a show. Especially when its a group like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

The group performed an energetic and unforgettable show to an overwhelmingly packed crowd at Club 101 during June of last year.

Karen O, the hyper active and very photogenic lead singer, dominated the stage as fans marveled at her very presence and clung to every lyric she sang or growled.

The New York based trio was touring in support of their latest disc, “It’s Blitz!”

“We love El Paso,” said guitarist Nick Zinner.

Many of the tracks on the disc were written and recorded at El Paso’s own Sonic Ranch studio. Zinner said the group chose the recording studio because it stood out amongst other options.

“It was like a great return for us,” Zinner said about the night’s performance.

“We’ve been trying to schedule a show in El Paso for a while and it worked out,” Zinner said. “It was really great to play at the place where a lot of these songs were written.”

As soon as the house lights went out, the well-rehearsed group commandeered the stage (which was accentuated with a giant revolving eyeball) like a street gang looking to make ears bleed. O, ever the style chameleon, sported a glowing neon mask during the opening number that added a surreal vibe to the group’s onstage mystique.

The crowd was largely female but that didn’t mean the rowdiness was scaled down. The trio ably worked its audience into an ecstatic frenzy, and had many fans shouting along to lyrics and festively tossing water and beer towards the stage.

The group tore through an incendiary set made up of new and old favorites.

Live highlights included “Black Tongue,” off their debut album, “Fever to Tell,” their catchy hit single, “Gold Lion,” which comes off their sophomore effort, “Show Your Bones,” “Zero,” the lead single off their new album, and an acoustic rendering of one of their biggest hits, “Maps.” For the encore, they played powerfully raw renditions of “Y Control” and “Date with the Night.”

O is quite possibly one of the best front women in rock. Her kinetic performance, punctuated with wild dancing and dramatic posing, dazzled the crowd. O’s hypnotically whimsical stage antics, compounded with her natural flash and charisma, make her an undisputed rock queen.

Her vocal style is uncanny and unlike any of her influences or contemporaries. A casual listener’s ears won’t grow weary after a few listens because her vocalizing contains many understated nuances not found in a lot of popular music today. Like a siren, she can seduce listeners with a sweet heartfelt melody and can easily up the ante by sticking the microphone in her mouth and letting out a fierce goose bump-inducing howl.

Zinner prowls within the shadows of the stage like a rock and roll vampire and plays the hell out of his guitars. He is a tasteful and artistically minded guitar powerhouse that provides much of the sneak attack blast that carries many of the group’s tunes. For a group without a bassist, Zinner’s guitar and occasional synth playing fills the group’s sound like a flash flood. Drummer Brian Chase passionately pounded out the beats with a smile. His playing is a mix of jazz precision and classic rock bravado. His snare chops and acrobatic fills and crashes really define the group’s sound.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a group that knows how to have fun onstage. Their zeal for stage performance is noticeable and is an addictive element for their fans. This rare quality makes them worth seeing over and over again and worthy of their reputation as a ferocious live act.

When the show ended, fans slowly came down from their adrenaline high and were soaked with the kind of sweat that only comes from a great rock and roll performance.

I think Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is probably the worst book I have ever read in my life. How did I suffer all the way to the end of the worst book I’ve ever read in my life? Because once I got going and realized how awful it was I had to keep reading and taking notes just so I could give the person that recommended it to me honest feedback. Excruciatingly honest feedback. What actually wound up happening was I never talked to this person again as I felt I would never trust their opinion on anything. Ever.

This book is about an affluent, whiny snob of a journalist that received an advance to write a book. This book. She took her advance and booked some experiences to write her book. If only the world worked this way for all of us it would be filled with even more crappy “finding myself” books.

This is absolutely the worst writing ever. She is constantly using parenthesis to explain herself, good writers don’t need to do this every few sentences. She stops, if you can say stop because there is no flow to her writing, and says things like “let me explain something first” and “if you must know” and goes on about how she doesn’t have time here to explain something, but why even bring it up at all? You sure do have the time to tell us you’re not going to tell us.

Besides the bad writing she tries to describe things and people and make herself sound really hip but she comes off as a lame, pampered, yuppie girl who doesn’t know what’s cool besides what the media and her lame brain has told her is cool. Yes, Ms. Gilbert, I’m sure you’ve found the hip place in the city because you’ve spotted a girl with dreadlocks.

She also shows us through her lameness that she’s never had any real life experience so she had to go off and do some cool things and meet some cool people in order for her ego to feel credible and justified. She is SO whiney -  “I’m so broke, my husband won’t let me sell our mansion in Manhattan so I have to rent an apartment on the Upper Eastside” or some other such drivel. I just really don’t feel like having to suffer through this book again.

This whole book is supposed to be about how enlightened she has become, yet, at the end, through her sloppy writing, she displays how unenlightened, snobby and elitist she still is.

There is a part where she is with a medicine lady and someone comes in asking for help for their “god awful constipation” and the author writes: “I was thinking, Sing it a little louder, honey, and we can all dance to it…” What? You’re the lame, rich, healthy, my-poor-suffering-soul, whiney white lady sitting all day with the medicine woman in Bali striving to wrangle out a spiritual experience, and you’re complaining about hearing people with real physical ailments coming in for help? Guess traveling for enlightenment doesn’t teach tact, class, or compassion.

Richard, the character from Texas, says a few interesting things that she captured alright, but that’s about it. Do not squander your money on this piece of junk. And if you find it for free pass it up anyway, please don’t waste your time nor energy on this. This book is so lame I couldn’t even pass it off to someone for fear they’d actually read it.

I only forced and struggled my way through it to make sure I would find nothing redeeming so I could be absolutely confirmed in my bashing of it. Which I did today when I saw someone sitting down reading it. And I never interrupt someone reading.

I guess at its best it invoked some passion in me. A Passion of rage that crap like this gets published and the general American public eats it up putting crud like this on bestseller lists! We are so a society of American I-dull.

As for the movie coming up, the snob in me doesn’t watch Julia Roberts movies but I’m conflicted because I absolutely love James Franco. Maybe it’s just him being a goofball, like when he joined General Hospital for a few seasons. If I was James Franco I’d probably be doing silly stuff like that for kicks. Or as a study for a probably cheesy movie since it’s based on a cheesy book like this. Maybe I’ll youtube his parts later. But I definitely won’t be purchasing a ticket for it. You’re on your own with that, so long as you don’t buy the book and support things that absolutely suck.