I was getting a haircut one day around when Santana’s album “Supernatural” came out. The album’s hit single, “Smooth,” came on the radio, and the barber jumped and nearly Van Gogh’d my ear. I asked what was wrong, and he said that it was the 16th time that day he had heard the song … […]
Author Archives: Mark Humphrey
Absent-minded DJ better than any music
Somewhere between Casino Morongo and the only Burger King in Indio, a part of me died on May 1, 2005. I’m exaggerating, but when you half expect to see the Fox News text crawl reveal which celebrities have developed a taste for human flesh, it’s obvious that hyperbole is now the new black (forget pink, […]
[Orientation Issue] Arts and Entertainment: Get to know your community, one iPod at a time
A friend once told me that life is nothing but a series of highly awkward moments. I initially thought this to be witty but wholly untrue. Then I opened a conversation that night with the timeless, “What’s your major?” and was met with the equally timeless uneasy chuckle followed by the search for the quickest […]
Campus Events books success with hot acts
One day when Franz Ferdinand is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the band will look back fondly on its first shows in America. They’ll likely recall their humble beginnings at New York’s Bowery Ballroom, Los Angeles’ own Troubadour and … the Coop? Thanks to UCLA’s Campus Events Commission, this potential memory […]
Reaching fans on tour, Internet
Up-and-coming musicians know all about sacrificing for their careers. And the guys in The Bradbury Press, who gave up their day jobs in order to do their current tour, are no exception. “We gain a lot of influence just from being on the road,” said the most recent addition to the band, drummer Greg Garcia. […]
Band finds success as “˜failure’
While perusing a band’s biography on its Web site, the last thing one would expect to find is a proclamation by the lead singer and guitarist that he has made a conscious choice to be a “total failure.” In the world of Okkervil River singer and guitarist Will Sheff, though, this is all part of […]
Cultural Night raises awareness
In February 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into action Executive Order 9066, calling for the immediate relocation of Japanese Americans into internment camps in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Now, more than half a century later, Japanese American students in the Nikkei Student Union at UCLA use the anniversary of this dubious event […]