Mitchell Gaddis’ passion is jazz, “hands down.” He began playing trumpet his junior year of high school and hasn’t stopped since. He started a jazz program at NIU that informs students about the history of jazz and how it relates to American history....

Warning: This is one of those ludicrously socially irresponsible columns you are probably better off not reading; much like the column I wrote advocating smoking because of the revenue it brings and how it stems overpopulation. Or that column I wrote...

Michael Stipe sang,”It’s the end of the world as we know it” in 1987. It wasn’t, but the 1992 masterpiece “Automatic For The People” should have been called “It’s the end of R.E.M. as we know it.” What happened to the favorite sons of...

Recently, I had a discussion with one of my favorite Chicago-area film critics. He was telling me how he had just arrived from the Toronto Film Festival and about all the fantastic films he saw there. He was able to sit and talk with filmmakers like “Sideways”...

“Friday Night Lights” may seem like another dramatic football movie made all too often, but in actuality, it was adapted from a true story written in 1988. The story of “Lights” is anything but a “Varsity Blues”-style romp, which frames the...

You never know what to expect with the new Q and Not U album. Its first album, “No Kill No Beep Beep,” successfully utilized Fugazi-influenced guitar antics. Their second album, “Different Damage,” reflected the loss of its bass player by incorporating...

For my first - and most likely only - jacking of a trade, I felt humanitarian and hit up the Committee for the Preservation of Wildlife. What better way for a guy who avoids the outdoors at all costs and used to sleep in the car during family camping...

Behind every good movie, there is a good screenwriter. However, oftentimes, the writers of a film fall to the wayside when big-name directors and flashy stars dominate the credits. Gerald DiPego, an NIU and Northern Star alumnus with more than 30 years...

R. Kelly and Jay-Z considered performing in DeKalb, but fellow rap artists Lloyd Banks and Shawnna have made it a done deal. On Saturday, the duo will perform at the Convocation Center as part of the Homecoming Jam. Students can purchase tickets for the...

Tickets go on sale Friday for Howie Day and Nickel Creek, set to play at 7 p.m. on Oct. 29 in the Holmes Student Center’s Duke Ellington Ballroom. The Campus Activities Board is funding the show, which will open with special guest David Bekley. Tickets...

With the presidential election less than a month away, Weekender wanted to find out which celebrities you would like to see not endorse candidates, but take up a campaign of their own. , Former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic with aspirations of joining...

Welcome back to another fresh edition of Playback, yo! This week’s compilation comes from Sumiko Keay, receptionist for University Programming and Activities. DeKalb resident Keay’s most recent concert experience was Saturday at The Lord of the Rings...