The A.V. Club - Recap

Film: Recap: Wearing borrowed pants in Brazil: A report from the 8th annual Amazonas Film Festival

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:00:00 -0600

Being invited on an all-expenses-paid trip to a film festival you’ve never heard of in the rainforest of Brazil raises some questions, like “Is this some sort of elaborate international con that will end with me in a bathtub minus a liver?” It seemed much too good to be true, but remarkably my invitation to cover the Amazonas Film Festival in Manaus, Brazil, as a guest of the state’s Minister of Culture was legitimate. This promised to be a film festival like no other. It was, for example, a film festival where the international press is feted like ...

Music: Recap: Bjork, beats, and beer: a trip to Iceland Airwaves

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Americans have no shortage of options when it comes to music festivals, so heading all the way to Reykjavik for Iceland Airwaves may not make a lot of sense. But plenty of the people who actually attend all those Stateside festivals spend a fair amount of time complaining about the experience. Maybe it’s their scale—270,000 for Chicago’s Lollapalooza, the overwhelming array of options at South By Southwest—but it seems that, while festivals are more plentiful than ever, completely enjoyable ones have never been scarcer. A trip to Reykjavik starts to seem less outlandish that way ...

Features: Recap: Sex and candy: The A.V. Club visits The National Association Of Convenience Stores convention

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:01:00 -0500

It’s not often that A.V. Clubbers find themselves in situations where bikini-clad models are sliding into hot tubs filled with water and numbered balls while onlookers cheer and gulp energy drinks. (It happens, at most, six or seven times a week.) But the National Association Of Convenience Stores convention—NACS for short—isn’t your everyday situation. It’s a controlled bacchanal of electronic cigarettes, regular cigarettes, candy, snacks, shelving units, guys in Tony The Tiger outfits, instant ice cream, self-heating cans of soup, a “robot store,” and yes, a plethora of so-called “booth babes.” Monster Energy Drink ...

Music: Recap: All Tomorrow’s Parties

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:00:00 -0500

The change of venue for New York’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival—from a country club in the Catskills to Asbury Park, New Jersey—seemed fitting, going as it did from one faded summer-vacation haven to another. But while Kutsher’s and many of the other dilapidated (or defunct) resorts still dotting the Borscht Belt are no longer what they once were, Asbury Park has been experiencing a much-needed resurgence over the past few years. The city that Bruce Springsteen wrote about in “My City Of Ruins” just a decade ago has new condos under construction, restaurants along the ...

Music: Recap: Austin City Limits Music Festival 2011 Recap

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:00:00 -0500

Going all out for its 10th edition, the annual Austin City Limits Festival was the usual mix of veteran favorites (Arcade Fire, Coldplay) and living legends (Stevie Wonder, Randy Newman), and one first-timer who’s already a legend in his own mind (Kanye West). It was also the usual mix of niche indie acts suddenly thrust onto giant stages, festival-goers making their own unlikely bids for attention via ridiculous headgear and handcrafted flags, and, of course, hot and humid weather, with Austin ending a nearly four-month drought just in time for the one weekend everyone goes outdoors. Oh, and Christian ...

Music: Recap: Watching Kanye while standing on ancient ruins: A trip to Norway’s Øya Festival

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500

On my first day in Oslo for the Øya Festival, I inadvertently passed the part of town that had been blasted by a local terrorist’s bomb on July 22. The incident—which was the precursor to an even more deadly gun attack by the same perpetrator—had clearly cast a shadow across the beautiful old city. A chain-link fence was covered with flowers and candles left in tribute, and the courtyard of Oslo Cathedral—already partially cleared out—was knee-deep with remembrances and flowers. It was an eerie start, especially considering how magnificent (and sort of quaint) downtown Oslo ...

Music: Recap: My weekend in Canada: A trip to NXNE

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:00:00 -0500

You don’t have to be an American to know about South By Southwest. But if you’re familiar with North By Northeast, a similarly patterned five-day music and film festival and conference that’s taken place annually in Toronto since 1994, you’re probably a Canadian. At least I had never heard of NXNE before I was invited to attend this past weekend. While SXSW has an international reach, hosting thousands of bands from around the world and premièring major Hollywood films, NXNE is more of a regional event, featuring mostly Canadian acts in around 50 clubs throughout ...

Music: Recap: The A.V. Club at Bonnaroo 2011

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:40:00 -0500

The most consistent sensation at Bonnaroo not pertaining to heat or dehydration is the constant pendulum-swing from “Oh wow, this band is playing right here!” to “Oh no, that band is playing way over there!” As is the case when there are approximately 47 stages going at once, you will not see every last band you came to see. Acceptance of this tough fact will lead to a much better time. Plus, if you strategize, you’ll catch many of the best acts, assuming you have the good sense to duck out of a few sets early enough to catch ...

Games: Recap: Out with the old, in with the new-ish: The A.V. Club’s post-E3 games preview

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:00:00 -0500

“Shoots-y and kids-y” is the way one PR rep on the show floor summed up last week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. If you’re unfamiliar, E3 is the annual trade show in which the titans of the mainstream game industry proclaim that they are on the cutting edge of art, thought, and the world. Then they dump out a wheelbarrow full of predictable genre standards. Prime among those standards this year was the first-person shooter. Motion-controlled kids’ games came in a close second. The dominance of the shooter is hardly a recent development, but guns were so prevalent at the ...