Questions, comments or a tip? Let us know.
Alexandria Symonds
Alexandria Symonds's Articles
More Than a Simple Ballast From the Past
| Oct 1Lance Hammer, writer and director of Ballast, is a slight, soft-spoken man, a fact that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who sees his first film.
Always the Brideshead, Never Quite Right
| Aug 9There's at least one occasion on which Julian Jarrold's new film adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's classic novel Brideshead Revisited could be indispensable. If you're assigned the novel for a class, don't want to actually read it, and need to develop a passing familiarity with its basic plot and thematic structures, look no further!
On MTV, The Paper Beats Rock—Sort Of
| Apr 14Say what you will about MTV reality shows—call them trashy, exploitative, or amazing—and you’ll probably be right. One indisputable fact, though, is that MTV is incredibly adept at developing the reality villain.
Le Loup Shows Audience the State of the Union
| Apr 11Union Hall is a perfect match for Le Loup. The D.C.-based band is a seven-piece ensemble, and you often get the feeling that its music is just barely contained within its confines—a three-minute song on its excellent debut album The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, or, in this case, a little room in the basement of a neighborhood bar.
Cut Copy and Paste Yourself into a Rocking Concert
| Apr 3Major holidays, as a general rule, make it tough to fill a concert venue. Mondays are also tough. When the two happen to align, you can pretty much guarantee a subdued set.
No Loafing on the Path to Nirvana in Mediocre Meatloaf: In Search of Paradise
| Apr 1“Well, the film is about—you don’t know what it’s about,” Meat Loaf says to filmmaker Bruce David Klein in an early on-camera interview in Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise. “That’s what it’s about.”
Van Sant's Paranoid Park Offers a Fresh Take on Teenage Drama
| Mar 25At first blush, Gus Van Sant’s newest film seems a lot like an extended M83 music video. Paranoid Park explores a Portland skateboarding community in the aftermath of grisly tragedy, with skate scenes shot on Super-8 against a backdrop of dreamy French ambient pop.
My So-Called quarterlife or Something
| Feb 26“Why do we blog?” asks Dylan, the lead character in the new NBC series, quarterlife, already a series of web episodes and a social networking Web site.
Staying in the Loop With Le Loup
| Dec 7If there’s one striking thing about Sam Simkoff, the front man of D.C. indie collective Le Loup, it’s how he straddles the continuum of time.
Slick Production Undermines That Rock and Roll Magic
| Nov 1Follow the Lights is not a Ryan Adams record; it is a record by a band called The Cardinals, of which Ryan Adams is a member. At least, this is what Adams would like you to think.
Stop Morrissey If Your Girlfriend's In a Coma
| Oct 31Sure, there were plenty of tall, skinny, bespectacled guys at the final concert of Morrissey’s five-night stand in New York at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Sunday night.
A Last, Lingering Look at Another CMJ Gone By
You couldn’t go anywhere last week without hearing, or hearing about, M.I.A. “Jimmy” and “Boyz” have been blasting out of headphones on the subway since Kala came out over the summer, and the hype reached new levels as everyone in town clamored to get into her two sold-out shows at the newly-opened Terminal 5.
My Tuesday With Maury
| Oct 23Though I’d never consciously spent time thinking it over, on some primary level I was pretty sure I had Maury all figured out.
Sigur Ros Admits They Only Do It Drunk
| Oct 9To call the Sigur Rós event at the Alliance Francaise on Saturday a “concert,” without further clarification, would be a disservice to Dean DeBlois, the director of Lilo and Stitch.
Literature, Social Misfits, and the End of the Ivy League
The renowned New Yorker Festival had more in store for Columbia students this year than ever before.
Patrick Wolf Finds the Magic Position
| Oct 3It’s been quite a year for baroque-pop wunderkind Patrick Wolf.
Successfully Hacking Into High School Cliches
| Sep 27Remember The Perfect Score, that absolute blot on Scarlett Johansson’s then-burgeoning career? It’s okay if you don’t—thankfully for Johansson, nobody else does either.
Beirut Is Actually in Albuquerque
| Sep 27I wanted so badly for Zach Condon to come onstage looking a little bit eccentric.
Unfortunately, Christmas Season has Come Early for Harry Potter
| Sep 17It takes a very special kind of movie to feature a major montage of orphans taking turns riding a motorcycle with the carefree songs of the sixties swelling in the background.
Another Full, Sad Tale From Ondaatje
| Sep 13It’s not as if the author of The English Patient needed another testament to his dexterity at crafting love stories.
The Arcade Fire's Second Coming
| May 14If music is a religious experience-and at least one Montreal septet seems intent on proving that it is-then attending an Arcade Fire show is something akin to a trip to Mecca.
Jindabyne: The Third Time's the Charm
| May 2Though Ray Lawrence's new film, Jindabyne, may be set in the desolate, barren landscape of rural Australia, it doesn't exactly map uncharted territory in terms of cinema.
The Year of Theatrical Thinking
| Apr 27After winning a Pulitzer, it's not uncommon for a playwright to go through a period of stagnation.
"Writing Home" with Ten Out-of-Towners
| Apr 27"The first poem is about conception," Pia Tafdrup explained timidly during her allotted time on the Town Hall stage last Wednesday night, delving immediately and passionately into a first-person poetic narrative of what life was like before it began.
Tony Sarg's Art Will Go On For A New Generation
| Apr 20At first glance, Tony Sarg's art book Up & Down New York looks like a particular staple of pediatricians' waiting rooms: Where's Waldo.
Every Rose is Horny in Showtime's Tudors
| Mar 30It's been a harsh, barren March for fans of The OC, which signed off for good on Feb. 22.
Next Stop on the L Train, Los Angeles
| Mar 26At the outset of Jonathan Lethem's newest novel, You Don't Love Me Yet, Lucinda Hoekke and Matthew Plangent meet in an art museum to end their relationship.
The Number 23 Doesn't Quite Add Up
| Feb 23To its credit, The Number 23 is better than its trailer makes it out to be.
Baraka Blows Up Controversy Again
| Feb 22Ever since October 2001, when Amiri Baraka wrote a poem called "Somebody Blew Up America," controversy has inevitably followed the author around like an annoying, obstinate puppy.
Nudity Saves Williams' Lost Play
| Feb 21Eric Watson Williams has a hairless, chiseled torso, and the world needs to see it.
Printing Heroically, Hoping For Readers
| Feb 7"You can be the first to report on this," Eli Horowitz, the managing editor of the San Francisco publishing house McSweeney's, said across the three-hour time difference.
Armed and Famous Viewers Have the Right to Remain Skeptical
| Jan 17Imagine being arrested for prostitution or disturbing the peace. The officer seems vaguely familiar, and a glance at his lapel confirms your suspicion-it's that guy from Chips! Or Ozzy Osbourne's son! Or one of the Jackson siblings! At first, the premise of CBS's newest experiment in prime-time absurdity, Armed and Famous, sounds like the love child of Cops and Dancing with the Stars.
-->






