Blogcritics Author: Jordan Richardson

Book Review: Simplexity by Jeffrey Kluger

Jordan Richardson — Sun, 6 Jul 2008 19:29:12 EDT

Simplifies and complicates the world simultaneously.
Have you ever wondered why so many bad teams seem to win so many games? Have you ever pondered why a truck driver’s job is harder than an executive position with higher pay? Have you ever marvelled at how traffic can clog up even the simplest of roadways?All of these questions seem to beg a sort of complex argument, although the explanations...

Movie Review: What Would Jesus Buy?

Jordan Richardson — Sat, 5 Jul 2008 19:22:07 EDT

Follow Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping as they head to the Promised Land!
The dizzying throng bursts into Wal-Mart, tramping one another like a stampede of desperate, hungry animals. Their ire is raised at each aisle as the throng bursts forth, pouring through the rows and lanes of the box store with desperation and glazed-over pupils. Focused entirely on Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii, the throng reaches the apex of their...

Music Review: Panic at the Disco - Pretty. Odd.

Jordan Richardson — Thu, 3 Jul 2008 22:45:48 EDT

Oh sure, there's posturing and posing all over this. That's the point.
By ditching the exclamatory blotch, it seems that Panic at the Disco have returned to the musical scene with The Beatles and the Beach Boys firmly couched in their perception, legendary producer Rob Mathes in the booth, and strings and mixing done at Abbey Road.The results are captivating, as this young band has produced an intoxicating and often...

Music Review: G-Unit - T.O.S.: Terminate On Sight

Jordan Richardson — Thu, 3 Jul 2008 18:39:30 EDT

A conked-out group of mediocre rappers stringing together a chain of suburban soft-core rap.
Ideal ammunition for middle class suburban kids in their dad’s Escalade and perfect cannon fodder for anyone with an active interest in hip hop, G-Unit is back with a pseudo-vengeance on their first album in five years. T.O.S.: Terminate On Sight is the follow-up to 2003’s Beg for Mercy and it is an antagonistic shred through the...

Music Review: Immortal Technique - The 3rd World

Jordan Richardson — Thu, 3 Jul 2008 08:17:18 EDT

Tech brings the content and brings it hard.
One of the sickest MCs in hip hop is bridging the gap between Revolutionary Vol. 2 and the upcoming and much awaited The Middle Passage with the mixtape/street album The 3rd World. After a five year absence, Immortal Technique has surfaced with some new rhymes and a new spin on the issues that matter to him.Released on his own Viper Records, The...

Music Review: Calabria Foti - A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening

Jordan Richardson — Wed, 2 Jul 2008 21:07:30 EDT

With ten elegant songs, Calabria Foti's second album is a sultry and silky album certain to steam up the windows.
Born into a family of musicians in upstate New York, Calabria Foti grew up wholly absorbed in music. With both of her parents being highly trained and enormously talented individuals, they passed many a nugget of musical prominence down to young Calabria and she soaked up the talent like a sponge.By 12, Calabria was kicking butt in jazz clubs and...

Book Review - Stories of a Recovering Fundamentalist: Understanding and Responding to Christian Absolutism By James C. Alexander

Jordan Richardson — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:39:08 EDT

A compelling memoir and an intelligent, respectful discussion about Christian absolutism.
An old question sits as the basis of James C. Alexander’s Stories of a Recovering Fundamentalist: Understanding and Responding to Christian Absolutism. That question is: “Can human beings know absolute truth?” Some have answered that question to the affirmative and Alexander’s book seeks to observe the claims of that answer...

Music Review: Withered - Folie Circulaire

Jordan Richardson — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 04:02:22 EDT

You may wind up missing a limb after listening to this one.
Amidst cascading walls of noise and remorseless choruses of sound, a sort of ailing splendour lurks below the black metal of Withered. Formed in 2003, the Atlanta four-piece is an incorporation of sludge, grindcore, death metal, and every other flaming thing between. Their latest, Folie Circulaire, is on the aptly-named Prosthetic Records. You may...

Music Review: Be Your Own Pet - Get Awkward

Jordan Richardson — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:32:34 EDT

A frenzied punk salvo from the dubious Nashville four-piece.
Schoolyard fights, cafeteria brawls complete with requisite tossing of food, and bad boyfriends temper Be Your Own Pet’s Get Awkward, a frenzied punk salvo from the dubious Nashville four-piece. Led by young rapscallion Jemina Pearl and her new tattoo – the chick from Friday the 13th with a hatchet in her forehead – Be Your Own...

Music Review: Nat King Cole - Sings for Two In Love/Sings Ballads of the Day

Jordan Richardson — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:24:58 EDT

More splendid traditional balladry from the baritone crooner.
Continuing with my assessment of Collectors’ Choice’s reissues of Nat King Cole’s great Capitol albums, this twofer contains a pair of albums perfectly suited for a romantic evening. 1955’s Nat King Cole Sings for Two In Love and 1956’s Nat King Cole Sings Ballads of the Day carry heavy thematic similarities, of...