Stories from the February 27, 2003, Print Edition
Backstage with punk rock outfit The Riddlin' Kids, I sense something's missing. No slashed clothes, no spikes, no beer. This is the new face of punk rock: lovelorn bodies packed tightly in T-shirts, legs hidden beneath stonewashed jeans.
Crashed out on the couch, unmoving, inert. The quiet is calming. You smile, noticing your heart pumping blood up and down your arms in short, quick bursts. Your roommate sits quietly flicking his toenails with focused fascination.
Housed in a room with cream-colored walls, the Corcoran's collection of photographs titled "Joseph Mills: Inner City" is a startling remembrance of an era not too distant. An era of events that have scarred many and a social climate that has become even more severe over the years.
Venice is less perfect than people would like to think, particularly in the summer, when the city is overrun by tourists and unbearably hot. In the afternoons, a putrid stench rises from the canals, a mix of sewage and seaweed. Long lines block the pathways into the main square, Piazza San Marco, as people wait to get into one of the city's many landmarks.
As the Strokes, on repeat, begin to splinter the eardrums, you're met with a realization. "There's got to be more to this rock resurgence. There's just got to be." "The bands" might offer a momentary escape from the MTV doldrums, but are they really reinvigorating the rock scene? Nah. Don't be so quick to weep in despair, though. The last few years have meant great things for the world of rock.
Wow, kids, it's a movie in which martial arts meets hip-hop - again. Director Andrzej Bartkowiak (Exit Wounds) gives another go at the action flick only to find himself tangled in a mess of confusing plot lines and consumed by a hopeless, ludicrous ending.
You know when you revisit a childhood memory and learn that it's not what it was at all? Like finding our Mr. Rogers is a pedophile or that Snuffy beat Big Bird. That's how I felt last weekend when I ended my night in Adams Morgan at Angles bar.
Vol. 108
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