Mardi Gras exists all year long at NIU. The New Orleans Room, located in the basement of Stevenson North C, makes this fantasy true. The non-profit lounge is open to all students and is organized by the Residence Hall Association. The room’s theme is...

Room 337 of Founders Memorial Library will be the bustling apex of transcendental culture no more. For the last six years, NIU has been the world’s leading researcher on Henry David Thoreau. The research project, known as the Thoreau Edition or "The...

This Luc Besson film is a vivid portrayal of the life of a professional assassin. Jean Reno plays a skilled hitman who befriends a young, troubled Natalie Portman. Gary Oldman plays a short-tempered crooked cop who kills Portman’s family over a misplaced...

Pop-culture critic David Eggers theorizes we listen to songs to "solve" them. When a track loses its mystery, it loses its purpose. If so, The Cribs’ sophomore LP poses one riddle: "Where have we heard this before?" The English siblings’ mimicry is...

The Midwest now has a second home to prominent independent rock bands on tour: DeKalb’s own The House Café, 263 E. Lincoln Highway. In association with Kickstand Productions, The House is bursting onto the indie rock road map this fall with an impressive...

Something Corporate, the pop-punk, semi-emo band defined its sound with piano leads and vocals dominated by lead singer Andrew McMahon. Alongside heavy guitars and catchy lyrics, SoCo, as they are known to their fanatical band-aids, added its touch to...

Fighting a battle against the Hollywood slump, many studios are relying on the name power of nostalgia instead of actors and actresses. From May to August, Hollywood released nine movies with links from popular television shows and even classic films...

Some musicians are better at playing chords on their guitar than using their own vocal cords. Tristan Prettyman’s debut album "Twentythree" is a calm collective effort which turns opposite. Ten songs clock in at 30 minutes, leaving some questions unanswered....

"Twin Cinema" is what we in the "rock critic" circle like to term a "grower." The New Pornographers’ 2000 debut album "Mass Romantic" exploded right away with unbelievably fun and instantly catchy pop songs, all accentuated by seemingly familiar but...

The Brothers Grimm were the authors of such fairy tales as "Little Red Riding Hood," and "Hansel and Gretel." But these stories weren’t the cute Disney films seen today. Instead, they were bleak, cautionary tales served to warn children about the dangers...

Unlike its watchable forerunner "The Osbournes," "Tommy Lee Goes to College" is so-bad-it-is-actually-bad. The reality television program follows the moronic middle-aged Mötley Crüe drummer as he redeems his educational shortcomings by finally getting...

The letters P, D and A, when used in an acronym of that order have two meanings. The first is Personal Digital Assistant. The second is public display of affection. To restate the obvious, it is when one person is affectionate with their significant other...