3rd Quadrant 7/30-8/6 '07

Week of July 30-August 6, 2007

Album Art for We Are the Fury's Venus

Jeremy Lubin, the lead singer for Ohio based We Are The Fury, said that a lot of the songs on Venus dealt with sex and love, and that the group wanted to incorporate that into the album art. He further stated that Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, summarized the artwork. The full interview is here.


According to an article on Wired, the importance of album art has being dying a slow death for decades, and with music moving online, album art has further decreased, literally this time, down to the size of a thumbnail. However, label designers are working to reverse the trend, by using new tools, “…to reinvent album art for the digital age…”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Musical

Uncool Kids writes about the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Musical as an “interactive extravaganza” based on the “Once More With Feeling” musical episode from the sixth season of the show. The episode is shown on a giant screen with subtitles, which allows fans to sing along. Goodie bags are also given out at the show. The bags contains puppets, streamers, kazoos, and evil bunnies. The extravaganza started in Boston, is currently based in New York City, and is “performed” once a month at the IFC Center.

Here's a clip of the show, with an interview with the shows creator:

buffy sing a long ap report
Uploaded by buffyangelfirefly

"The Bronx is Burning"

Gothamist has a good post on "The Bronx is Burning," which is an eight-part mini-series about the 1977 New York Yankees. Oliver Platt plays George Steinbrenner, and John Turtorro plays Billy Martin. The mini-series is adapted by ESPN from the book Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning: Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City by Jonathan Mahler. The title of the mini-series comes from Howard Cosell's announcement during one of the 1977 World Series game, "Ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning."He wasn't referring to the Yankees performance on the field, he was referring to an actual burning building. The Times has a review of the mini-series, and mentions that the show is not only about the World Series, but that is also about, "...the search for the Son of Sam serial killer, the contentious mayoral race and the devastating blackout in July." The mini-series started on July 9th.


Here's the trailer for the mini-series:

Death by Chick Lit

Huffington Post has an interview with Death by Chick Lit’s author Lynn Harris. Lynn Harris is a contributor to Nerve.com, Salon, and Glamour. She is also the co-creator of BreakupGirl.net. Death by Chick Lit is Lynn Harris’ second novel. The book is a mystery and satire of the chick lit genre and its critics. If you’ve read Lynn Harris’ first book Mass Media, Lola is back as the protagonist in Death by Chick Lit. Kate Harding’s review of the book on Blogcritics writes that Death by Chick Lit frequently refers to events in Mass Media without giving a summary or review; however, she also praised the book by saying that, “Death by Chick Lit isn't just a mystery any more than it's just chick lit; it's a character-driven novel about ambition, relationships, friendships, and fame. The fact that Harris hung all that on a good, solid mystery is just gravy.” Read Huffington Post’s exclusive excerpt of Death by Chick Lit here.

"Mad Men"

According to the Times "Mad Men" is a new drama set in the golden age of Madison Avenue (1960s). Matthew Weiner, who was a producer and writer on “The Sopranos,” created the show. Here is the Times full review, and iTunes has a free video download of the making of the show. "Mad Men" is showing on AMC on Thursday nights at 10:00 Eastern.

Here's a "Mad Men" Preview