Over the Edge + October 12, 2005 Reviews 11 Movie Movie of Cancelled TV Series Pleases Rabid Cult Following GRAPHIC SUBMITTED DIRECTOR Joss Whedon MOVIE Serenity STUDIO Universal Studios YEAR 2005 EARSON GIBSON ARTS EDITOR Serenity has arrived! The long await- ed Sci-Fi Western is a one-of-a-kind film based on Joss Whedon's T'V series, Firefly, Famous for his alternative style, Whedon is best known for creating the long-running series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Unfortunately, Firefly was can- celed by Fox before the completion of the first season and is now only avail- able on DVD. Firefly fans are particularly tenacious and organized, and made their dis- appointment known with such zeal that Universal Studios thought it would be worth it to make a Firefly-based movie. Serenity has accomplished what very few science fiction movies have: been a good, all round show. It’s a cultural buf- fet, incorporating classic sci-fi settings with dialogue and fashion influenced by Western and Asian cultures. In short, you get people flying in space- ships shooting pistols and swearing at each other in Mandarin. Visually, the movie is seamless, sub- merging us in-a wild world of space piracy and civil war that has the self- contained integrity one expects from Whedon. However, the movie's best quality is its lack of reliance on action sequences to keep us hooked, The dia- logue and character interaction drives the plot, making it a movie more about people than spaceships and technology. Fans of sci-fi in general and the Fire- fly series specifically are going to love this movie. It attempts to address all the threads left hanging from the series without being too fast-paced or hav- ing to cram the content in. The movie doesnt wrap the whole story up, leav- ing the possibility of a second movie or a series continuation. However, fans be warned: Whedon is a notorious char- acter killer, and if the show continues, there will be some openings for new crew positions... All told, this is a great film, and I give it 5/5 imaginary units of quality meas- urement. Review Askew New Grandaddy Album Great for New Fans GRANDADDY. Cone toe ARTIST Grandaddy ALBUM Excerpts From the Diary of Todd Zilla LABEL V2 - YEAR 2005 NATHAN KELLY STAFF WRITER Grandaddy's new EP, Excerpts from the Diary of Todd Zilla, acts as a precursor to their new full-length album, Like the Fambily Cat, that is due in early 2006. At seven songs in length, the album works as a quick re- minder of what an interesting entity Grandaddy is, and it also displays the boundaries to which they can stretch their unique and enthralling sound. Excerpts From the Diary of Todd Zilla is Grandaddy’s first official re- lease since 2003's warmly-received Sumday, and continues that album's themes of escape and nature-loving, The album is remarkably cohesive, despite being comprised of older ma- terial that didn't make it onto any of the band’s numerous albums or EPs. The EP begins with “Pull the Cur- tains’, a track in the standard Gran- daddy mode. Quite similar to Sum- day's opening track, “Now It’s On; “Pull the Curtains” evokes an insular: feeling that comes from its message of self-reliance. The album's most:in- teresting and poignant lyrics are con- tained within second track, “At My Post”: “Here at my post, I've learned a lot. I've learned that the fruit on the ground is gonna rot,’ sings Gran- daddy mastermind Jason Lytle in his distinct voice (think a stronger-lunged Wayne Coyne). The lyrics address the thought that is the main thrust of the EP; stagnation is death, Whether Lytle means this literally, or just in re- lationship to the artistic process, is up for discussion. The most interesting track on the EP is “Florida”. The track starts out is a fairly standard Grandaddy mode, and then goes apeshit on the chorus. Lytle voicing the thoughts of the surly mall employee is indeed a scary and wondrous thing to hear, and comes as a welcome surprise from a band that usually lets its discontent smolder rather than flame up. This album is as good a place as any for a new fan to jump on the Gran- daddy bandwagon and defiantly wets the appetite for the band’s upcoming new album. Too bad we have to wait until 2006. Rating: 4/5 If you like this try: The Flaming Lips ~ Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell (Warner Brothers Records) cD Nicks Newest Album Potentially Unforgettable ARTIST Nickelback ALBUM All The Right Reasons LABEL Roadrunner Records YEAR 2005 TANYA ALVAREZ STAFF WRITER Love them or hate them, there is something about Nickelback you have to respect: whether it be their music, their business savvy, or the simple fact that they are Canadian. They toured across the nation incessantly when they were first starting out, and, now that they have made a name for themselves, they haven't forgotten the people or the places that helped them along the way. This is shown in The Long Road tour, when they came to Prince George twice, instead of just skipping us over like other artists have been: known to do, and it is shown through their first single off of All the Right Reasons, “Photograph’. Nickelback retained their hard-rock sound from their last album, but the songs are a bit more wistful and a bit more profound. The lyrics have the strength and the images that made Silver Side Up infamous. “Photo- gtaph” is probably the simplest song on the album, but it works for the theme behind it, The band actually went back to their hometown to do the filming for the music video, “Ani- mals” is intense and lewd, like “Fig- ured You Out’, but this one's amusing. “Faraway’ is going to be a definite hit: its a passionate ballad, unlike any- thing they've done before. I thought this album would be exact- ly like The Long Road, but it is more of an amalgamation between that al- bum and Silver Side. Up.;The under- tone is serious in the lyrics, while the thythm has slowed down from what it used to be, Overall, this album has the potential to be unforgettable. Book Why Penny’s Book is Full of Crap RIANT 10 US AUTHOR Laura Penny BOOK Your Call is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit PUBLISHER Crown YEAR 2005 _ EMILY SHEPARD THE ARGOSY (MOUNT ALLISON UNIVERSITY} SACKVILLE, N-B. (CUP) ~ Clap- trap. Poppycock. Merde. Bullshit. This is the subject of Laura Penny's first book, “Your Call is Important to Us: The téuth about bullshit’. Through chapters on public relations, corpora- tions, governments, insurance, the service sector, and the press, Penny dis- sects our culture to reveal the obvious bullshit that we have all learned to tol- erate. A hysterical yet educational book, it is a must-read for the average North American who is slightly alarmed at the state of the world. “Your Call is Important to Us’ is the first book written by Penny, who is cur- rently a PhD student and teaching fel- low at King’s College, in Nova Scotia. The book begins with an introduction to bullshit, which Penny claims is an omnipresent industry. Bullshit has two functions — to save or to sell — which can be accomplished by. “covering arses or kissing them,’ respectively. It is in- escapable for both those who think they have mastered the bullshit code and those who seem far too apathetic to be tuning into bullshit central. Penny makes an interesting distinc- tion between “expert” and “moron” bullshit. Moron bullshit is designed to please. Shiny and simple, it is most often found in advertising and on the six oclock news. Complex bullshit uses jargon to confuse and impress, and is often found nestled in government and corporate policies. A series of chapters follow this intro- duction, taking a closer and well-re- searched look at common examples of bullshit in our society. Although her anti-corporatism and anti-American- ism are evident throughout each chap- ter, she is in no way ashamed of her blatant biases. Highlights include the chapters on the pharmaceutical and in- surance industries, which clearly detail the inner-workings of two industries saturated with complex bullshit. Penny's tone is one of the most unique aspects of “Your Call is Import- ant to Us”. Her informal writing, which can be initially distracting, often uses common slang and expressions such as “crappy; warm fuzzies’, and “old fogies’. This does not, however, undermine the sophistication of the book, which is full of philosophical and historical refer- ences, Her writing is also phenomenally clever. Full of puns, witticisms, and occasional black humour, nearly every sentence holds some quick quip. While this makes for a unique and hilarious read, it requires the reader to go slowly to fully decipher Penny's ingenuity. At times the writing becomes too dense, to the degree that it obscures Penny's point. ‘The final chapter of the book begins by stating that Penny never intended to offer a solution to all the bullshit she presents. She writes that she has “chosen to deal with all the horrible things... by making fun of them.’ It is clear that her only defense against the increasing tide of bullshit is to reveal it and mock it mercilessly. —