A posthumous release is doomed to mediocracy. Regardless how good or bad, there are too many questions to judge it fairly. Are the songs as complete as the artist wanted? What new material would have been written? Are the songs in the right order, or...

Jimmy Eat World’s “Futures” proves to be its most well-rounded release - fully showcasing its talents. Mixing indie cred with pop sensibility, the fourth venture bridges gaps which had previously alienated old and new JEW fans. Seamlessly blending...

--The Teams-- Team: The Annoying Ones Name: Leslie Baran Year in School: Junior Major: Meteorology What do you bring to the team? “Singing and humor. I am wacky.” Name: Dave Dellaterza Year in School: Senior Major: Communication What do you bring...

For lighting students in the School of Theatre and Dance, this week has been one of the most important of their academic lives. Recently, the department formed an alliance with Upstaging Inc., one of the largest suppliers of digital lighting equipment...

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: A priest, a street cop and a drunken Irish vampire walk into a church … Never mind, I’m just going to stop myself. For this week’s Trading expedition, I decided to join the theater world to hang out with NIU’s...

Oh, you don’t want to rock? Ted Leo doesn’t care. On “Shake the Sheets,” Leo grabs you in a headlock and rarely lets up in the album’s 40 minutes. More stripped-down than his previous releases, Leo gets back to the raw basics with less complex...

Seeing World War II through posters is an educational time line about history. John Wright, owner of Wright’s Jewelry, 124 E. Lincoln Highway, decided to put together a gallery of his WWII posters at the Nehring Center Gallery in DeKalb. “It’s a...

In case you’re one of the many individuals developing a table-size levitation machine in a two-car garage, Shane Caruth has just created the story of your dreams. For the rest of us, this first-time director has just given the movie-going public a ticket...

Last week, Weekender asked students to volunteer teams of two to four students for a race through Jonamac Orchard’s corn maze. The response was overwhelming, with more than 30 groups replying in the first two days. With bragging rights at stake, as...

This 16-year-old heartthrob O’Ryan sets out on his self-titled album to prove his skills. Attracting the ladies is his forte with the ballads and songs like “Anything” saying, “You could be wifey material/Baby I’m not mad at you/Girl you get...

What would you do with a piece of wood? Would you paint it, draw on it, film it or dress it up? Ars Nova, an NIU art group, is posing that same question in an ongoing project this semester. The club is handing out pieces of wood to students and asking...

Weekend box office summary 1. “The Grudge” $39.1M 2. “Shark Tale” $14.3M 3. “Shall We Dance?” $8.59M 4. “Friday Night Lights” $6.95M 5. “Team America: World Police” $6.39M 6. “Ladder 49” $5.32M 7. “Surviving Christmas” $4.44M...