Friday, April 15, 2005
This week in rock kfr
By Sean Mihlo
staff writer
Ex-Models Prep New LP for European
Release
What do Twiggy, Rachel Hunter and
Cindy Crawford have in common? Well,
they're all ex-models of course.
Incidentally, New York post-punk band Ex-
Models are currently gearing up to release a
new album. “Chrome Panthers,” the band's
first full-length since 2003's acclaimed
“Zoo Psychology,” will be released in
Europe on April 19th via Germany's X-Mist
Records and Psychotica Records in Italy.
The record will only be available on vinyl
until the New Jersey-based label
Troubleman Unlimited releases it on CD
later this year. “Chrome Panthers” is packed
with six new tracks and, according to the
band's official website, is the longest album
they've recorded yet. Translation: It's longer
than 20 minutes! Oneida and Jah Division
member Kid Millions contributes drum
work to the forthcoming LP. Next week,
Ex-Models embark on a European tour that
will take them from England to France to
Germany to the Czech Republic. No sum
mer U.S. dates have been scheduled yet.
Garbage Get Heavy on “Bleed Like Me,”
Tour the U.S. and Europe
It's been ten entire years since Shirley
Manson and the boys of Garbage first hit
the alternative rock scene. And I can even
remember buying their first single, “Only
Happy When It Rains,” on CD at my local
National Record Mart. Yeah, remember
those days? Well, after four albums and a
rumored break-up, Garbage are back with
their fifth set of melodic, loud guitars and
Hilton gets serious
with new clothing line
REVIEWJOURNAL.COM
Nicky Hilton, sister of Paris
Hilton, has begun advertising
her new line of clothing includ
ing Capri jeans, hoodies and
sweat suits.
By Allison Kaplan
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
It's tough to be taken serious
ly as a fashion designer when
you're an heiress, and you party
a lot, and you're best known for
being the brunette little sister
of Paris Hilton, who can make
national news just by changing
lipstick colors.
But Nicky Hilton is deter
mined to show the world she
means business with her new
line of Capri jeans, chiffon
hoodies and ice-cream-cone
screen-printed sweat suits.
We caught up with her
recently as she kicked off her
"Shop Like a Hilton" national
department store tour in New
York.
Q: So, what is it like to
“Shop Like a Hilton?”
A: It is exhausting. There's a
lot of shopping involved. I love
shopping. I could shop all day.
I shopped all day today.
Q: Where do you shop?
A: Bloomingdale's, Scoop,
Louis Vuitton, Prada.
Q: And what did you buy?
A: A Balenciaga handbag.
Q: How much?
A: $1,200. I’ll carry it a lot.
I’m somewhat reasonable.
Ct
O
Manson's Scottish-snarling, the aptly titled
“Bleed Like Me.” Released on April 12th
via Geffen (and April 11th internationally
via Warner Brothers), this album takes
Garbage in a new direction, differing from
their previous releases as drummer Butch
Vig described in an interview with MTV:
“There's less layering, less electronic
things. It's basically just a really loud guitar
record.”
Over two years in the making, “Bleed
Like Me” was almost a complete bust. In
2003, Vig quit the band for four months,
and the rest of the band, including vocalist
Shirley Manson and guitarists Duke
Erikson and Steve Marker, went their sepa
rate ways as well. Eventually, “Rolling
Stone” reports, Vig decided that Garbage
was by no means over: “It's like we'd been
married for ten years, and it was worth it to
try one more time.” Garbage also decided to
bring in an outside producer this time
around, the Dust Brothers’ John King, but
decided to scrap all of those recorded ses
sions; the only track that remains King-pro
duced is “Bad Boyfriend,” which also fea
tures Dave Grohl on drums. The first single
from “Bleed Like Me,” “Why Do You Love
Me,” was released to radio stations last
month.
Garbage have already lined up a slew of
dates in support of Bleed Like Me. The tour,
which began yesterday in San Francisco, is
set to hit most major cities in the U.S. In
Q: Do you ever look at price
tags?
A: I do. I'll be silly with
watches, jewelry and cars, but
I'm not going to spend some
absurd amount on a garment.
Q: What do you consider
absurd?
A: I don't understand $1,600
jeweled T-shirts from Dolce &
Gabbana. That's ridiculous.
Q: So did you have paparazzi
trailing you from store to store?
A: I'm pretty low key. I don't
roll with an entourage. No
bodyguard.
Q: What about when you're
with Paris?
A: It gets a little out of hand.
Paris, with the blond hair and
the dog... she can't go unno
ticed. It's annoying when
you're trying to shop.
Q: Is it frustrating, living in
your big sister's shadow?
A: I don't care.
Q: Seriously, why are you
Hiltons so famous?
A: I think maybe it's because
there are a lot of wealthy
heiresses running around,
doing their thing, but people
are shocked that we actually
work for a living. I mean, Paris
has built an empire, fragrances,
modeling, TV. She has an
office.
Q: Why do you bother to
work?
A: It's much more fulfilling
than just sitting there. That gets
old after a while.
Q: So does that mean you
really are involved with
designing this collection?
Seems like every celebrity
wants her name on a clothing
line these days.
A: A lot of celebrities don't
really care. I went to school for
this. (She attended but didn't
graduate from Fashion Institute
of Technology.) I always want
ed to be a designer. I started
with handbags when I was 17.
Q: Feeling a little defensive?
A: It's annoying to explain to
people. But I don't really care.
Everyone seems to be buying
it. They like it. All of it comes
from my heart.
Q: But here's the real test. Is
it “hot?”
A: I used "That's hot" before
Paris. She just used it on TV.
TUDENT LIFE
Garbage local concert dates
May 9 - Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall
May 10 - Cleveland, OH - Agora Ballroom
A dark-chocolate force
Believe it or not, some of us aren't counting the days until the
premiere of the new "Star Wars" film. But if it took a new
installment in the sci-fi series to get dark chocolate M&Ms on
the shelves of my local supermarket, you can count me as the
world's newest "Star Wars" fan.
It seems crazy that in their 64-year history, M&Ms have never
gotten the dark chocolate treatment. But in a new promotion
tied to "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," the candies have
gone to the dark side.
And all I can say is, what took them so long? True dark
chocolate fans may find that the candies don't have quite the
bitter bite of pricier dark chocolates, but for less than a dollar
for a king-size package, it's a trade-off worth making.
Look for M&Ms Darth Mix wherever you normally get your
chocolate fix. (Warning: The candies come in "dark side" colors
like maroon and silver. Don't buy them if you have a problem
with black candy - remember it's only a color; the chocolate
tastes the same on the inside.)
Dark chocolate M&Ms aren't around forever; they'll be avail
able just a few weeks past the film's release.
June, the band will head off to Europe,
playing a few shows (a majority of which
are still being worked out) and riding the
festival circuit.
Weird War: New Album + European
Tour = Not Weird
Psychedelic-funksters Weird War are
preparing to release their fourth album for
Drag City, “Illuminated by the Light,” on
April 19. Previously known as Scene
Creamers on their last album, Weird War
features former Make-Up members
Michelle Mae and lan Svenonius and ex-
Six Finger Satellite guitarist Alex Minoff.
Recently, the group became a four-piece
with the addition of drummer Sebastian
Thomson (ex-Trans AM). Weird War’s last
record, “If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Bite ‘Em,”
included a steamy, sexually-fraught batch
of songs, accompanied by song titles such
as “Music for Masturbation” and “Licking
Stick.” “Illuminated” features eleven tracks
chock-full of irresistible guitar riffs and
funked-up grooves, undeniably akin to the
soul-tinged Make-Up records of the late
90s. Drag City has posted “Illuminated,”
the title track from the forthcoming
“Illuminated by the Light,” on their website
to satisfy our bootlegging needs. After a
European tour that will run through the
majority of April and May, the band will
head back to the states and launch a summer
tour in support of “Illuminate” in July.
By Becky Sher
Knight Ridder/Tribune
(KRT)
Ask ASCII: Why are so
many programmers?
By Logan Stack
staff writer
Dear ASCII,
Every year, thousands of peo
ple graduate with computer sci
ence degrees. Why do we need
so many programmers? I don't
need any new programs. The
only programs I use are Word
and Internet Explorer. What are
all these people doing?
- Not a CS Major
Dear Not a CS Major,
Computer Science isn't just
programing, and programing
isn't just for Computer
Scientists. One of the more
common non-programing things
which CS majors end up doing
is system administration; they
work at Yahoo! to make sure
that their web site works. They
work for the Pittsburgh Post-
Gazette to make sure all the
reporters can access their e
mail, and they work at AOL to
make sure everyone can chat on
AIM.
Those who program may
work for some big company like
IBM or Microsoft, but there are
a lot of smaller companies pro
viding software for a smaller
market. A friend of mine spent
last summer working for a com
pany of 5 people helping to
write software to model proteins
at the atomic level to help doc
. | tors.
Besides that, you use more
programs than you think.
Besides Internet Explorer and
Word, you probably use AIM, e
mail, and Winamp. Many pro
grams you use don't run on your
computer. When you visit a web
site, you're using your web
browser, and a web server at the
site you're visiting. Whoever
provides your e-mail has an e
mail Server which your e-mail
program connects to. Before
you visit the web site, your com
puter uses another program to
connect to another server to find
out where google.com is located
at. Windows itself is a program,
and every piece of hardware
(your modem, your network
card, your sound card, etc) has
to have a special program called
a "driver" to communicate with
Windows.
Programing isn't just for CS
majors though. There are hun
dreds of different programing
languages, none of which do
quite the same thing. Assembly
is extremely fast, but extremely
The Behrend Beacon I
difficult to write - it can take up
to five instructions just to add
two small numbers together. But
other languages are designed to
be easy to program. Scripting
languages like Perl allow you to
write powerful statements. For
instance I can write a single line
of Perl which sorts a file in
reverse-alphabetical order, and
e-mails you with a list of mis
spelled words in that file.
Scripting languages like Perl
let you have the computer do
your work for you. Do you have
a summer job where you're
given boring assignments like,
"Find the top 25 companies we
contract with that are giving us
erroneous information about our
transactions from this list of
12,000 errors." Perl can do that
for you in 3 seconds, with a pro
gram that would only take an
hour to write. With the script
you can just run it every month
for three seconds, and everyone
at the office will think highly of
you.
There are a lot of books out
there on "How to Program in
Some-programing-language."
Most of them start off slowly
enough that you can learn from
it, even if you're never pro
gramed before. If you want to
learn and can't fit a class into
your schedule, a book can teach
you how to avoid the tedious
tasks. Just check the book's
beginning. They usually have a
half-page section named some
thing like "who should read this
book," which explains the level
of experience you're expected to
have to understand the book.
So if anyone can program,
what do CS majors do? They
write more complex programs.
Just like everyone knows how to
do basic math, math majors do
more complex math. Think of
Google's magic searching algo
rithm and Windows XP being
analogous to your third year of
calculus. Writing a Perl script to
read your book report to deter
mine if your erroneously altered
verb tenses in the middle is anal
ogous to doing multiplication.
Computer Science majors
design protocols, like HTTP and
DNS, which your computer uses
every time you visit a web site.
Do you have a computer
question? Then ask ASCII! Send
an e-mail to lwsllB@psu.edu
with "Ask ASCII" in the subject
line, and you may see it
answered in next week’s col-