More Than A Pleasure, A Real Joy

by Will Hastings
With the release of their 11^th studio album, Phish has reminded us that there is more to look forward to than the cookie cutter music of artists akin to Miley Cyrus and Jay Sean. Joy, which was self released September 8, seems to be a more serious take on Phish’s music. Could it be that it was because they turned 25 last November? It's possible, the album celebrates as well as looks back on all the years they have experienced together. The lead track expresses this clearly, “Backwards Down The Number Line” starts with ‘Happy happy, oh my friend/Blow out candles once again’. Joy’s lyrics draw from ideas about dealing with drug addiction to the death of Trey’s sister after her long battle with cancer and even singing about ocelots. As far as the signature jamming Phish is known for, the album is somewhat lacking as most of their studio albums are. The track “Time Turns Elastic” is a noteworthy jam song, although more of a “constructed progressive rock opus”, it runs thirteen minutes long, and it was recorded live in the studio over the course of 278 takes. Personally I think it was worth the time because it is a close to studio perfection as they come. This album is worth taking a look at for sure, but if you are not familiar with the music of Phish, it is not a true gage of their caliber. If you really want to understand Phish, take a look at their live album “Slip, Stitch, and Pass”.

Attention all Gleeks!

by Cristina White

Find yourself tuning in to Glee weekly? Even if you don't, you deserve to know what's going down on the new Fox series. High school Spanish teacher Will Schuester takes the Glee club in a new direction. Members of the Glee club include: Rachel Berry, Kurt Hummel, Artie Abrams, Mercedes Jones, Tina Cohen-Chang, and Finn Hudson. These students are considered the “underdogs” and Schuester wants the community of McKinley High to realize their true potential. Schuester is prepared to do whatever it takes to make Glee club the best that it can be. He is up against the coach of the “Cheerios” Cheerleading squad, Sue Sylvester. Sylvester believes that the Glee club is a joke. Sylvester schemed to have some of her “Cheerios” audition to be a part of the Glee club. Her plan was to destroy Glee club, but by the looks of it her scheme is not going as planned. The Glee club produces great music which can be heard on iTunes. Some of their recordings include “Don’t Stop Believin” and “Gold Digger.” Next time you find yourself flipping through the channels on Wednesday nights around 9pm EST, check out Glee on FOX.

Review on Tim Burton's New Movie '9'

by Christina Hurley

Some people are saying that Tim Burton’s newest movie was a complete waste of time. The new movie ‘9’ was released on 9-9-09 and it was directed by a man named Shane Acker and produced by the well-known Tim Burton. This movie came to being because of a short film created by Acker that was a huge hit on YouTube; that little 10 minutes and 38 seconds had almost 500,000 views. A lot of critics are saying that Burton should have declined the offer from Acker, because this movie was nothing but a complete flop and should have remained only 10 minutes and 38 seconds.

The plot to the movie was very unclear and scattered. It begins with the main character 9 waking up in the laboratory with the professor dead on the floor. You soon find out that the professor created a machine that was an artificially intelligent B.R.A.I.N (Binary Reactive Artificially Intelligent Neurocircuit), and was intended to help the failing economy and the post-apocalyptic world. In the wrong hands of the Chancellor, the artificialbrain is put to the test of making weapons for war. It ends up breaking under the stress and turning against humanity. When 9 wakes up, all of humanity is already destroyed and the world is a completely dry wasteland. This B.R.A.I.N. sets out to kill every living thing including all the little ‘stitchpunks’ including 9 himself.

The entire plot of this movie is the struggle of the (1 through 9) little 5 inch dolls running around trying to destroy this B.R.A.I.N. and all of its huge cat-like beasts. 9 is the only one who really wants to find out why he was created and for what reason. He sets out to the ‘1^st room’ to find a little box that the professor left for him, which ends up giving him all the answers on how to destroy the B.R.A.I.N.

Still, a lot of people enjoyed the movie and called it brilliant for the demonic post-apocalyptic feel of the movie. This was a really different turn for Disney where a normal monster would only terrify the characters and not kill them, and was even rated PG-13 for all the grueling sights including the dead bodies still left behind in cars. In the end the movie was left with a rating of 2.5 out of 5 stars and was not recommended for small children.