| The Behrend Beacon
Bright ‘Futures’ for
Jimmy Eat World
Review by Aaron J. Amendola
staff writer
Anyone trying to call Jim Adkins and the rest
of Jimmy Eat World another f izzling punk/emo
band of the late nineties and early millennium
will soon be eating their words. In their sopho
more effort "Futures." they show as much class
in their music as a new age "Pomp and Circum
stance." Showing more confidence with a new
label as well as Gil Norton, an experienced rock
producer (Foo Fighters) helping them, Jimmy Eat
World has put together some of their best work.
Opening the album with the title track “Fu
tures," the band sets off a more serious tone for
the album than their self-titled work has. The very
first lyrics are "1 always believed in futures/ I
hope for better in November,” getting political
right out of the gate. Is it any wonder that the
album is being released mere weeks before an
election? The politics in the track are laced with
the same sugar pop riffs you came to find in their
previous album but that's where it ends. Sure,
there's a few prerequisite flat-out rock anthems
like "Pain” and "Just Tonight,” but the rest of
the cuts are layered, intricate songs that really
make you go somewhere out of your mind. In
the end. that's what the album really is about:
Escapism.
Ambient tunes like "Night Drive” really speak
to people with it's haunting and also (dare I say?)
sexy rhythm. Adkins’ quiet yet powerful vocals
really transport the listener to the situation he was
in when he wrote the song. The deliberate build
ing crescendo of the song is constructed in a per
fect harmony, almost like a musical trance. Other
more melodic tracks, like “23,” capture what
Jimmy Eat World was like back in the late nine
ties when they were still writing songs like
“Fucky Denver Mint:" introspective, smart, and
inspired. With the 7:23 running time, you can tell
Ask ASCII:
Power Outage
By Logan Stack
staff writer
Dear ASCII
When the power went out last weekend, I lost all the
stuff 1 was working on. Did my computer get damaged
in any way? How can I prevent losing all that stuff next
time?
Perplexed
Dear Perplexed,
When the power goes out, usually there is no dam
age to the computer. If the power flickers and your com
puter is turning itself on and off rapidly, then damage
may happen, also power surges can cause damage. You
can prevent power surge damage by getting a surge
protector. These often come with insurance so that if
they fail, the company that made them will buy you a
new computer.
To prevent data loss, you can set most programs (such
as Word) to automatically save every minute or so. Then
if the power goes off, you lose no more than one minute
is work. In Word, go to Tools>Options, click on the
“Save” tab, and make sure the “Save Autoßecover In
formation every: xx minutes” option is checked, and
set the number of minutes to whatever you’d like. Sav
ing the data takes the computer only about a second so
there is really no reason not to save often. If you are
like me and have a bunch of open web pages which
you donit remember how to get to, you can use the
Opera web browser, as it will save your open windows
and reopen them all when next you start.
If you really want to make sure you don’t loose any
thing, you can buy an Uninterruptible Power Supply.
Have a story
E-mail the Beacon at
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uLi SkJT 1 IP 36
Adkins is taking his time, developing his feel
ings into a whole complete song with heartfelt
vocals. It’s risks like writing partially inacces
sible tracks like this that keep Jimmy Eat World
such an interesting band. Put these songs on in a
dark room and lay back; it’s an experience akin
to transcendence.
“Drugs or Me" is a real departure for the band.
Almost dominated by a piano, the song is 6 min
utes and 25 seconds of what Jimmy Eat World
does best: emotionally charged tunes with lyrics
that capture Adkins’ soul. It’s essentially a song
that is a cry for help and you can't help but sym
pathize with Jim. If you thought the band
wouldn’t progress past sugarcoated cuts like “The
Middle,” give this a spin.
With an album like this, I’d be surprised if the
band doesn’t get more recognition. In a world
dominated by Britney Spears, reality shows, and
a world consumed by appearances, Jimmy Eat
World braves their ventures by not conforming
to a new sound, but by re-inventing themselves
while sounding oddly familiar. If the album
weren’t so good, none of this would matter, but
the album is amazing. Not only are the songs
memorable and catchy, they make you think and
these lyrics will keep with you. Adkins writes
the lyrics that we want to speak but are always
too shy to let flow past our lips. There’s a certain
honesty to his words that make the songs con
nect with you just a little more than any other
song normally would.
Jimmy Eat World is a real band; there’s a real
singer and real people playing instruments. None
of the studio constructed stuff you hear inces
santly on the radio like Hilary Duff or the dreaded
Ashlee Simpson. Do yourself a favor and pick
this album up. Better yet, download it off Napster
for free. Last I checked, "Futures” was going for
$11.99 at Best Buy and that’s just down the road.
Take the trip. Buy the album. Escape.
A UPS is a battery which constantly charges when there
is power and gives you a bit of time to save everything
youire working on after the power goes off before its
battery runs out. These are very heavy, and become
increasingly hefty, expensive, and bulky as the battery
time increases.
You can buy a UPS which provides a few seconds to
save stuff for less than a hundred dollars (9 pizzas) with
a unit which looks like a large power strip. For a few
hundred dollars, you can buy an hour or so of battery
time, with something the size of a loaf of bread. Com
panies that provide web hosting have UPS units which
weigh hundreds of pounds and provide hours of power
for multiple computers, giving them time to make sure
the generators kick on so that web sites lire never un
available. Thau's a little bit of overkill for your desktop
and would require an exhaust vent to run a diesel gen
erator in your dorm room.
When the power went out over the weekend, my two
roommates and I, all of us geeks, spent a while discuss
ing how wefd all considered buying a UPS but each
had decided to spend the money elsewhere. I bought a
larger hard disk, which (of course) was useless when
the power went out.
More important to many users (especially the laptop
users) than the power going out was the lack of Internet
connection following the outage. While there was noth
ing you could do to reconnect to Penn State’s network
over the weekend, you can use a dial-up modem to
regain a (slow) Internet connection. The freebie AOL
disks youive been getting in the mail provide plenty of
free hours if you just need a backup connection for when
the network repair technicians arenit on call.
idea?
Eminem vs. Jackson:
Does anyone care ?
Eminem’s new music video makes fun of Michael Jackson and is stirring up controversy.
By Ben Wener
The Orange County Register
Despite what fine-crazy folks at the FCC want
you to believe, nothing in entertainment is that
outrageous these days. Not really. Not anymore.
Breast-flashing, foul language on the free air
waves, rockers putting down the president, barely
censored scenes of bachelor parties on Fox - sing
along now ... these are a few of my favorite things.
Everything that instantly stirs absurd morning
news outcry is so commonplace and calculated in
our post-Madonna, reality-show-saturated world,
one m which smart people (and me) actually tune
in to see if that witty lothario Flavor Flav will
succeed at getting it on with man-size Teutonic
tart Brigitte Nielsen on "The Surreal Life."
We are born suckers, hungry for lame-brained
sensationalism to distract us from, oh, another
sickening videotaped beheading. So naturally we,
the people and the media goons we let spoon-feed
us , would make a fuss out of the least outrageous
of all recent developments: the cheap-shot mock
ery of a celebrity.
You tell me: Why in the world does anyone care
how Eminem savagely or stupidly (depending on
your view) spoofed permanently embattled
Michael Jackson in his new "Just Lose It" video?
This is worth an uproar? Apparently so. Apart
from drooling descriptions of the many Vote for
Change Tour stops, plus two hopeful cancer re
ports - Charlie Watts licked his and Melissa
Etheridge stands an excellent chance at staving
off hers - this meaningless tidbit was surely the
hottest entertainment news of last week. Probably
the biggest talk of the month.
Well, that and the fact that Britney really is mar
ried this time. This week, anyway.
Go ahead and blame whatever Orwellian bo
gey man you imagine foists this stuff on us and
remain ignorant of your fellow humans, but don't
you ever get the feeling we're collectively pretty
pathetic? I've seen "Street Smarts." I know we
can't all pass college-entrance exams. Idiocy gets
the news it deserves, I suppose.
But back to this puffed-up Eminem furor. First
of all, Jacko needs to get a grip - at least on what
he can, which wouldn't include his fortunes, repu
tation or Peter Pan syndrome. Look, you alien
freak, talk-show hosts galore have long cracked
harsher jokes about your, um, eccentricities than
anything in this Em clip. They just don't have as
many visual aids, that's all.
So Jacko got the video pulled off BET. Big deal
- MTV's still gonna play it to death. So he de
nounced Slim Marshall Shady Mathers on Steve
Harvey's show - as if that's gonna keep "The En
core," due Nov. 16. from selling faster than Sirius
stock.
When will he ever learn to take ugly jabbing in
stride and stop adding fuel to the fire?
(KRT)
Friday, October 22, 2004
MICHAEL CAULFIELD/WIREIMAGE.COM
And when will Eminem stop making the same
video?
If you've seen the Jacko-lampooning bits,
you've seen what you need to; the rest looks like
all his other clips, with Em playing dress up, re
gurgitating stereotypes and making a jackass of
himself.
What should bother people isn't that he decks
himself out like Michael, loses his cosmetically
mutilated nose (later irreparably trampled), then
perches himself on a bed while young tots leap
up and down behind him. What's more insulting
is that Eminem reignites long-extinguished bum
ing-hair gags. Does he think that can still get a
laugh? Does his target demographic even know
what that refers to?
I'll admit I haven't heard his new album yet -
bet I don't before it drops - but I sure hope his
new rhymes aren’t so stale. Sure hope this
skewering of Jacko, the furthest thing from cut
ting-edge commentary, isn't a smoke-screen to
keep us from noticing that he may not be the mav
erick he once seemed to be that Eminem, too, is
no longer outrageous.
Then again, look how I just fell for his hype -
pick on poor, pitiful Jacko, stir up some contro
versy and, whoops, there goes another column.
That leaves me little room to blather about
things of value. Like Rhino Records' outstanding
new four-disc box "Left of the Dial: Dispatches
from the ‘Bos Underground" (I'll get to it soon).
Or the newly issued, extras-heavy, 5.1-enhanced
DVD edition of the Rolling Stones' "Rock and
Roll Circus," featuring a handful of slow-burn
ing "Beggars Banquet" -era Stones classics;
Lennon howling through "Yer Blues" with help
from Clapton, Keith Richards and Mitch Mitchell;
and a ripping take on "A Quick One While He's
Away" by the Who, so mighty it led the Stones to
shelve the project because they felt their stuff
paled in comparison.
And it also leaves me no room to discuss fresher
hip- hop titles that need no controversy to be great
- notably Mos Defs "The New Danger" (from
Geffen), which finally brings to light much of the
volatile, metal-blasted Black Jack Johnson mate
rial he's been conjuring for more than a year; De
La Soul's "The Grind Date" (Sanctuary), whose
drawback is a propensity of ill- fitting sex raps;
and, best of all, Toronto newcomer K-Os’ wildly
varied second album, "Joyful Rebellion" (on
Astralwerks), which battles against the genre's
ongoing stagnation by wrapping cliche-avoiding
lyrics in pastiches of reggae, rock and classic
R&B.
All of th jse deserve columns of their own (well,
maybe not De La's latest), yet none of them has
the clout to get noticed by anyone other than
fringe-seekers, which amounts to a miniscule frac
tion compared with the number of people who
could tell you their own version of the Eminem/
Jacko debate. Such a sorry state of affairs.