The Valdosta Daily Times

Thursday, September 24, 2015
The Valdosta Daily Times
7A
a little old fashioned for a 2015 audience (although
Neil Patrick Harris seems to be doing just fine with
his very enjoyable and live variety show “Best Time
Ever”).
The first episode of “The Muppets” aired Tuesday night on ABC. The reboot brings back all the
characters you would expect: Gonzo, Fozzie Bear,
Beaker, Pepe the Prawn, Rizzo the Rat, Animal. But
instead of putting on a variety show like their late
‘70s show, these Muppets all work for Miss Piggy on
her late night talk show. Fozzie is the announcer,
Animal is in the house band and Kermit is the
show’s producer.
“The Muppets” is shot faux-documentary style,
like “The Office” and “Modern Family.” The format
aims to place the characters in real-world settings
for comedic effect. The problem is that faux-documentary staging is a tired device, something even
ESS
ASSOCIATED PR
Gonzo acknowledges, and making The Muppets
more like everyday people robs them of what makes
them special in the first place.
The original “The Muppet Show” and each of the
Muppet movies, even the two most recent outings,
are silly, irreverent, joy-filled affairs which pull in
viewers, not because the furry blue monsters are
like us, but because we are like them. Deep down,
we are all ridiculous furry blue monsters.
The greatest sin of “The Muppets” is not that
FROM ADAM
it isn’t funny (and it isn’t). Its greatest sin is that it
lacks joy. There’s no joy in
ut of all the new shows
s
Kermit and Piggy’s
scheduled to arrive this
s
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complicated
fall, I was most exd
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relationship.
cited about the return cia
o
There’s no
of The Muppets.
joy in Sam
Then I watched
the Eagle
the show and died
telling the
a little inside.
cast what
Kermit and
they can
Miss Piggy were
and cana significant
part of my childnot say on
network telehood, and my
desire to feed my
vision. There’s
nostalgia was enough
no joy in Fozzie
to build anticipation deBear joking about his
unique problems with
spite the warning signs which
online dating.
have been known for months:
I plan to keep watching “The Muppets” in the
“The Muppets” would not be a
hope that it gets better, that it finds its joy. But until
variety show, Kermit and Miss
the show opens with “It’s time to play the music.
Piggy have broken up and the
It’s time to light the lights,” I’m not
show would be an “adult” take on
sure there will be much joy to be
the characters.
found.
Despite all that, I was willing to give
it a chance. The Muppets have always
been edgier than their Sesame Street counAdam Floyd can be reached
terparts. The frog/pig split could be grounds for
some interesting conflict. And variety shows are
at adam.floyd@gaflnews.com.
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Joe: Power of persuasion
Jason: Sarcasm. No one ever knows if I’m being serious.
Kristin: Ability to talk to animals
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Desiree Carver can be reached at
desiree.carver@gaflnews.com.
12 FORD
F-150 FX4
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very year, multiple times a
year, I put on a custom-made
cowl and catsuit to become
one of my favorite comic book
characters.
As an unexpected child, I grew
up with my brother’s old toys,
leading to a fascination with video
games and comic books.
Male protagonists dominated
most of the things in my young
world, but I was given a few glimmers of hope including Wonder
Woman, Batgirl, Poison Ivy, and,
one of my personal favorites, Catwoman.
As the years progress, I have
continued playing video games and
reading comics. I can tell you more
about Gotham than I can about my
own family and know the names of
more Pokemon than U.S. Presidents.
The discovery of conventions
that grouped together like-minded
individuals appealed to me, leading
to my life of dressing up as characters, better known as cosplaying.
I’ve been many different people
over the years. Catwoman is by
far my favorite and I’ve put a lot
of time and money into getting
together what I feel is an accurate
representation of the character.
More specifically, the Catwoman
from the New 52 run of the comics,
but honestly, no one reading this
knows what that means.
A lot of judgment has been
passed on those like me over the
years and the few bad seeds, such as
the man recently wanted for sexual
assault at DragonCon, make the rest
of us look less than appealing.
Liking things such as comics,
cult classic films, anime, video
games, action figures, etc. does not
make you a pedophile, sexual deviant or basement-dwelling weirdo.
Appreciating nostalgic pieces of
your past is not unusual. For many,
it acts as a bit of comfort and adds a
bit of fun to an otherwise mundane
adult life.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting
lawyers, doctors, business owners,
fellow journalists and many other
professionals at conventions, all for
the love of nerd culture.
Do I think I am Catwoman?
Not at all.
To me, this is just Halloween a
few extra times a year with a lot of
other nerds.
Does this make me any less of
an adult?
Nope.
I pay bills and work a full-time
job. I support myself on my solitary
income.
Dressing like Catwoman may be
weird to many, but painting your
face, and occasionally your body,
the colors of your favorite sportball
team is weird to me, so...
Let’s just say we are even.
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Photo by Ansley Fender
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What would your power be?
Tell us on Twitter using #vdtxtra.
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Hayley: Power to grant wishes
Adam: Absorb other superpowers
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Derrick: Weather manipulation
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Paige: Shapeshifting
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Desiree: Telekinesis
Stuart: Felix Felicis Potion granting unlimited good luck
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What superpower would you choose?
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VALDOSTA
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Jesse Cole
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8A
Thursday, September 24, 2015
HOLLYWOOD RECO
RDS
The Valdosta Daily Times
Midnight in the garden of
desire and Grace Potter
BY STUART
S
olo albums are a toss-up.
Sometimes you get something better than what came before: See Justin
Timberlake.
Sometimes you get something far worse
than what came before: See literally any
other boy band alumnus.
And then you get my favorite kind of
solo album, one that’s interesting, that
allows an artist to explore a side street, a
different avenue, something similar but
new: a hard rocker picking up an acoustic
guitar, a rapper turning to R&B.
That’s “Midnight,” Grace Potter’s first
solo effort since forming up as Grace Potter and the Nocturnals in the mid-2000s.
In “Midnight,” Potter brings in funky
synths, crunchy guitars and touches of
disco and dance-pop, like if N.E.R.D. hung
out with Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars
for a week.
She apologizes for the change in the
first track, “Hot to the Touch,” after the
opening horns and strings turn to guitars.
“Forgive if I’m not myself tonight. My
body’s in a battle with my
mind.”
Lyrically, Potter reflects the
album’s upbeat
vibe through a
dark mirror (what
else would you expect from an album
titled “Midnight”?).
“Alive Tonight”
finds her refuting
doomsday scenarios,
the dystopian apocalypse reflected in
so much of the 21st
century: “The Hunger
Games,” “The Walking Dead” ...
And if it all is coming to an end, “Alive
Tonight” posits, at least we’re alive right
now, tonight.
She also chills it down, with the bassdriven “Your Girl,” a not-gonna-steal-yourman anthem and “The Miner.”
Much like “Midnight” itself, forever
caught between one day and the next, the
album straddles the line with some tracks
almost gushing with a love of the night
and others playing a melancholy 3 a.m.
blues.
You’re breaking me down, cries “The
Miner.”
If only I hadn’t met your girlfriend, I
could have stolen you away, cries “Your
Girl.”
And sometimes she does both in a
single song.
“Delirious,” whose never stop, never
sleep vibe breaks down 2/3 of the way
through before screaming back to life
with a small choir and the kind of wailing guitar that made “Guitar Hero” a hit.
There’s singalong handclapping anthems as well:
“Empty Heart,” whose
dark title belies a valentine aimed at someone
too bruised to fall in love.
But, much like her
full band, Grace Potter
and the Nocturnals,
it’s her voice that ties
everything together,
keeping a vocal
through line as the
album switches
from dance tunes
to downcast heartbreak to clap-along
anthems, from the
howling in “Look
What We’ve Become”
and the end of “Delirious” to the smoky
croon of “Low” and the rising whisper of
“Let You Go.”
We scream our bloody lungs out, she
howls out on “Look What We’ve Become”
— something she does on several tracks.
If “Midnight,” in all its glory and regret, is the central theme of the album,
desire is the plot.
“Empty Heart” finds Potter in love with
someone too love-bruised to fall in love.
Why won’t you let me fill up your empty heart? Potter asks as the song closes.
“Let You Go,” a song which follows in
the great tradition of can’t-get-over-you
songs, finds the singer struggling to, well,
let go.
There are other desires here. The desire to prove people wrong in “Look What
Ashley Street Station
Happy Hour from 5-7 p.m.
($2 wells, $5 pitchers, $1.50 Rolling Rock,
Natty Lt, PBR, High Life, or Schlitz)
$2 PBR Tallboy and High Life
$2 off all Whiskey
EVENTS
What’s happening
around town?
Ashley Street Station
Bleu Cafe
Happy
hour from 5-7 p.m.
($3 craft drafts,
$3 well liquors, $3
house wines).
Happy hour
all day.
Drink
Live Acoustic @ 10 p.m.
J.P. Harris and the Tough
Choices, The Urban Pioneers,
Burlesque Troupe w/ Scarlett
Storm, Smurf-a-saur and
Maddie Bell @ 9 p.m.
TBA @ 10 p.m.
Wednesday: I Woke
Up Early For My Funeral
(acoustic) @ 10 p.m.
Bleu Pub
Trivia @ 9 p.m.
Mulligan’s
Karaoke @ 10:30 p.m.
Trivia @ 10 p.m.
Mulligan’s
$2 Tuesday (except
top shelf and Redbull)
$2 bottles, Jaeger
Bombs and Fireball, $8 liquor
pitchers
$2 wells and bottles
8 dollar buckets, 2
dollar well.
$3.50 Midshelf, $2
bottles
Spec als
Salty Snapper
Soulshine @ 7-10 p.m.
Backstreet Blazers @ 7 p.m.
Earth Tribe Revival @ 6-9
p.m. (Patio); Dirty Bird & The Flu
@ 9-12 p.m. (Main Stage)
Mark @ 6-9 p.m.
2 River Station
@ 6-9 p.m.
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No
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about y
FROM DESIREE
H
ow. How did
sending
photos that
only last one to
10 seconds become a billion dollar company?
Now, let’s not pry
into the implications
of photos that disappear after a few seconds, never to be seen
again.
It’s obvious.
If it isn’t obvious, then
you’re a much better person than everyone else.
The premise is that
three Stanford students
came up with this idea,
originally called Picaboo, and
presented to a group of their
highly skeptical peers.
Now they’re rolling in
cash.
Backing up to the previous mention of implications, nothing is ever
forgotten in cyberspace.
In fact, a breach scare
in 2014 led to lawsuits
and a lot of panic from
users.
Now settled, with
no major leaks of photos, Snapchat creators
claim the company’s
servers retain a log
of the last 200 snaps
that were sent and
received, but that no
actual content is stored.
When has any big company lied? I’m
sure we are all safe.
There’s also workarounds such as modified clients that allow
the saving of snaps.
Snapchat also allows
screenshots, but it
does alert the other
user that a screenshot was taken,
possibly leading
to blackmail tactics and pleading.
However,
let’s pretend
we are all
pristine
individuals
and have
no fear
of our
We’ve
Become,” the desire to not let a
good time end in “Delirious.”
If you’re just buying one track, make
it “Empty Heart,” two, “Look What We’ve
Become,” three, “Hot to the Touch,” but if
you want to explore the two-headed, Janusian nature of late nights, desire and late
night desires, pick up the whole album.
Is it possible to want something too
much? Potter asks in “Hot to the Touch.”
Maybe, but not when it sounds this
good.
snaps coming back
to haunt us, so let’s examine features.
Filters were added to snaps, along
with strange additions like the weather,
adding a sticker of your location and
the time.
If all of that seems extremely useless, there’s also the ability to add the
speed you’re currently going, which
came with the alert of “Do not use while
driving.”
….right.
Snappers can now enjoy emojis next
to people’s name so you can know who
your friends are. I mean, how else would
you know?
Probably the most notable of the new
features is this insanely odd ability to
make your face do weird things.
You can now step up your selfie
game to a whole new level with the
ability to have heart eyes, angry villain faces and vomit rainbows.
Stuart Taylor can be reached
at stuart.taylor@gaflnews.
com.
Bleu Pub
Happy Hour from
5-7 p.m. and midnight to 2
a.m. ($1 PBR, $2 wells, $4
craft drafts)
Happy Hour all
night
$2 wells all night
$1 PBR Tallboys
all night
$3 craft drafts all
night
Lucky’s
$2 domestic
bottles & fireball
$2 whiskey & 5
domestic pitcher
$2 wells all
night
Penny
Budlight & Yuengling 11-1,
$3 O Bombs & Grape Sodas
$1 Natty & PBR
Draft
$2 domestic
draft
$1 Natty & Rolling
Rock cans
You read that right.
Vomiting rainbows. It’s everything you
never knew you needed.
Actually, you don’t need it. Your
friends don’t need it. No one needs
Snapchat.
Do I have Snapchat? Yes. Am I a hypocrite? Absolutely. Do I get bombarded
with mundane photos of my mundane
friends’ mundane lives? No doubt. Do I
do the same exact thing? You betcha.
The moral of this is that Snapchat
has a new update, is still just as useless
as ever and none of us can stop using it.
Happy snapping.
Desiree Carver can be
reached at desiree.carver@
gaflnews.com.