When Marlene Rosenberg, NIU's jazz bass instructor, left her job at NIU to teach at Western Illinois University in Macomb, there were few people more qualified to fill her shoes than Kelly Sill. The Chicago bassist has performed with the best of the jazz...

The New York based psychedelic, indie-rock quartet known as Animal Collective have been steadily building their fan base since they formed at the beginning of the decade. First playing an arty combination of folk and noise, the group didn't start to turn...

Inside the chilly but cozy doors of the House Café, 263 E. Lincoln Highway, NIU students and DeKalb residents alike gathered to listen to their peers at the venue's weekly Open Mic night. Every Tuesday at 8 p.m., the House Cafe opens up its stage to...

Is the way of drinking, drugs and partying accurate and fairly attributed to celebrities, or is this purely a lifestyle nowadays? Remember a few years ago when Lindsay Lohan was the Hollywood "it" girl? When Britney Spears was once able to net an annual...

Rating: 9.2 / 10 Welcome back, Mr. West. In the much anticipated Kanye West/50-cent battle royale that ensued yesterday, what have we learned? First, don't challenge a man whose lyrical content varies from dissertations on Barry Bonds to Snakes on a Plane....

Rating: 5 / 10 The grand opus of gunplay in 50-cent's "Curtis" begins with the track "My Gun Go Off" which definitely sets the tone, but presents nothing new, of course. After that the project takes no time in delving into a tornado of mostly boring and...

The elegance and glamour of society's women in the past are encapsulated in one exhibit at the NIU Art Museum in Altgeld Hall's Rotunda Gallery. The exhibit, "Some Enchanted Evening: 100 Years of Evening Gowns (1900-1999)," showcases finely crafted and...

The party on stage â€" complete with dancing, head bobbing, and occasional mid-song laughter â€" was only mildly contagious for the small crowd that stayed long enough to hear White Rabbits Sunday night at The House. Maybe the audience could tell...

Rating: 9/10 Kenny Chesney, with the talented contributions of former Eagles band member Joe Walsh and the "King of Country" George Strait, has produced, "Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates," sure to be a big hit among country music fans. Chesney once...

Being primarily a fan of rap, I've never been too familiar with jazz music. And like most hip-hop heads who aren't familiar with jazz music, I can only cite a small number of jazz musicians that I know of - which is really pathetic on my part, seeing...

Rating: 8.5 / 10 No matter what criteria you use to judge a good action movie, "Shoot Em Up" delivers. The plot is almost non-existent, and the characters are not wasting any time with backstory or emotions. I would estimate that 85 percent of this film...

Rating: 10 / 10 Sometimes a man has to be big enough to realize how small he is. This moral quandary is the underlying theme of the masterpiece, and the year's best film, "3:10 To Yuma." Every few years, Hollywood tries to rejuvenate the Western genre....