Spike Lee’s new drama 25th Hour is a perfect reflection of the director’s personality – daring, loud and in-your-face. Over his 15-year career, Lee has shocked the public and stirred debate with his race-driven dramas and passionate courtside antics at Knicks games. True to form, the controversial filmmaker holds nothing back in 25th Hour starring Edward Norton – Lee’s second movie featuring a non-African American in the lead role.

25th Hour is the story of Monty Brogan, a likeable drug dealer played by Norton. Monty was recently arrested and starts his seven-year jail term in 25 hours. On his last day of freedom Brogan must consummate with his girlfriend, find out who narked on him (the cops knew exactly where to find his stash), party one last time with friends, say goodbye to his father, and convince his drug dealing higher-ups that he won’t give them up. Needless to say, it’s a fast-paced flick.

The plot is fleshed out through flashbacks and flash-forwards, intensified with blaring techno music, neon lighting and fast editing. Lee’s background as a New Yorker definitely inspired the pacing. The supporting characters are fresh and lively, and they are as essential to the film as Norton is.

Philip Seymour Hoffman (Boogie Nights) plays Jakob, one of Monty’s oldest friends. Jakob is a bashful high school teacher and an intense side plot develops between him and Mary (Anna Paquin), an underage student he yearns for like Lolita.

Another friend of Monty is Frank (Barry Pepper), a Boiler Room-esque Wall Street trader who is the total opposite of Jakob. Frank is rich and fast-talking, often rambling into brilliant, witty monologues. In one scene, he explains to Jakob why an affluent Wall Street guy like himself is in the 99th percentile of available bachelors, while a goofy teacher like Jakob is only slightly above average.

The film is full of scenes like this. Most of the movie takes place in a trendy New York nightclub, but Lee manages to square people off into one-on-one conversations throughout the night: Jakob and Frank argue in a bar, Frank picks a fight with Monty’s girlfriend (Rosario Dawson), Jakob talks with Mary in a bathroom, and Frank and Monty talk about life in a quiet room upstairs.

A particularly memorable scene arrives when Monty stares at himself in a mirror and starts a tirade against everyone and everything in New York. From the Asian grocery store owners, to the “brothers uptown who never pass the ball,” to Osama bin Laden – Monty leaves no one out of his rant, leaving particular space for himself.

Lee references 9/11 quite a few times in the movie, even setting a long conversation between characters in front of a window that overlooks Ground Zero. While some will find Lee’s use of 9/11 imagery unnecessary, it’s embedded deeply into the heart of the film. 25th Hour uses New York as a backdrop, and all of the characters and locations drip with that Big Apple feeling. To ignore the presence of 9/11 would seem unnatural.

Actor Brian Cox (Adaptation) plays Monty’s father in the most significant supporting role. He drives Monty to the prison on the morning of his sentence, explaining along the way via voiceover what Monty’s life would be like if they didn’t take the exit to the prison and opted to flee west. Cox gracefully caps off an incredible year, turning in strong supporting performances in 25th Hour, Adaptation, The Ring, The Bourne Identity and The Rookie.

Much like 9/11, the plot of 25th Hour serves as a looming afterthought. The film’s strength resides in its characters, acting, dialogue and Lee’s competent direction. Given a different director, 25th Hour could have been a heavy-handed attempt at making a drug dealer seem like a good guy. Lee is important because he succeeds in making characters real, complete with unappealing flaws, while ensuring the audience minds for them that much more.

Shawn Wines can be reached at shawnwines@aol.com.

If the words “art festival” conjure up mental images of Popsicle-stick houses and handmade potpourri drawer sachets, you have never stumbled upon the wild diversity of UM’s annual Beaux Arts Festival.
“Beaux” is the French word for “beautiful,” and the 52nd annual fair, held on January 18 and 19, undoubtedly fulfilled its calling. Sprawling across campus, the festival scattered out lavishly from its hub in the Lowe art museum. Snug white tents showcased a wide-ranging display of art, as well as provided refuge from the bitter wind that whisked through the gray skies on Saturday and Sunday.

Inside the booths, compositions ranged from festooned shower curtains and handcrafted spoons to the more traditional sculptures and oil paintings, yet amidst all the landscapes and still lifes, nothing was as striking as the vivid insect paintings of Miami artist Dominique DuBois. A picture of a stunning blue butterfly leapt out from the cavalcade of canvases. Titled simply “Papillon bleu,” the dazzling painting fuses aesthetic appeal with a careful anatomic portrayal of the brightly colored Morpho butterfly.

On her Web site, DuBois notes that “capturing the motion, impulse, essence, the symbiosis between all things” is an important element in her work. These butterflies aren’t your average wispy white moths.

DuBois’ creatures are more Dali-esque, with their bold coloring, prominent shadows, and thick, inky black lines. Her insect portraits are simple yet powerful, the breathtakingly detailed creatures overshadowing space and leaving merely a fringe of room for a basic, natural background.

Less appealing to this feminine eye were Dubois’ other insect prints, depicting grasshoppers and dragonflies in painstaking detail. However, DuBois’ scope isn’t limited to the creepy and crawly; she also explores portraits, nudes, and interestingly, painting on metal canvases. Check out www.dominiquedubois.com for more info on the artist.

Jessica Misener can be reached at jessm02@yahoo.com.

You loom towards five three-dimensional, towering black figures draped in all black, complete with cowboy hats and masked faces in the dark cloaks, all holding a red flag with a cross in the upper corner. They stand before a mound of sand in the middle of the room where someone has just been buried and five figures have their swords erect in the sand around the grave. Strange, creepy, disturbing, yet you find yourself wanting to know more about what is going on, who these figures are and who they have killed and buried.

Within a saturation of Cuban works in Miami’s Hispanic art scene, JosE Bedia brings the slightly different taste of Mexican culture to the table. In his latest show …You had to be there at the Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Bedia takes the viewer to witness the cultural celebration of Holy Week in Sonaora, Mexico.

Behind the five solemn figures is a simple background painted directly onto the wall of what appears to be a church on the horizon. Peering over is “the spirit of the deer,” which, Bedia explains in his artist statement, “acquires the role of Jesus in the Indian synthesis.” The black figures themselves, he states, “represent evil and they are Roman soldiers.”

All the other pieces are two-dimensional and carry the same color motif of black and blue, while one dominates the entire wall with its long and narrow shape and an ambiguous depiction of a car/UFO with numerous headlights and wheels. In the vehicle are several animals equally spaced out, sitting upright with a human man in the driver seat. “Nunca ofrezcas ‘rides’ a extraOos” is spelled out in the backdrop: “Never offer rides to strangers.”

Moreover, three other works show eccentric battleships, being put forth in motion by a crew of rowers with horns. As one solitary figure smoking a cigarette is contacted by a spirit, in the next painting, he tells the spirit to go, and in the third, the same character is giving the thumbs up to a figure who’s sinking and sabotaging the battleship.

Bedia’s works skulk towards you like ominous rattlesnakes menacing you with trembling rattlers. Beware and walk in with caution…

…You had to be there is at Fredric Snitzer, 3078 SW 38 Court, Miami, through the end of the month. Call 305-448-2976 for more info.

Kira Wisniewski can be reached at kira@punks.net.

Pumpkinhead
Beautiful Mind [EP]
** 1/2

Descending into the obscure and murky dungeon of Brooklyn’s underground across the shadowy figures of the Def Jux family spitting their cryptic philosophies and arcane words of wisdom, you veer another way to find a hip hop logician concocting a special brew of witty, often facetious lyricism and idiosyncratic beats in his very own underground lair. NE Robert Alan Diaz, Pumpkinhead’s got a raucous, forceful delivery, remindful of a Latino Aesop Rock and his rasping voice lays it down severely on the first track, “Blacklisted,” letting listeners hear his scorn for ritzy, fashion show rap: “I rap better than you, duke/I do it for the love/You do it for new shoes.” “Pumpin (Pause!!!),” a straight, no chaser, hip hop theme song, is hewn with gritty lyrics, atop a baleful beat, a dark, driving bass line and grandiose organs in the background. With “Supahstar (The Anti-Bouncers Theme),” he shoots a sardonic bullet-on a sitar-filled melody-at the domineering club gorillas, sputtering his disdain at the bouncers in a satirical, derisive story where the unrelenting bouncer (who won’t let him in) loses his job when Pumpkin realizes he knows the club owner from high school.
On “Mujer Triste,” his love ballad-melodic percussions, harps and gentle piano riffs-the rapper displays his sensibility to love: “I sit in the dark wondering why you take these routes, dealing with these men spewing hate out they mouths […]/They can care less, that’s not what love’s about.” Then, on “Brooklyn Academy,” feat. Immortal Technique, he comes back hard, marking his territory with a hawk-eye: “I’m beast of the underground/I’m hotter than lava rocks,” while always keeping a clever lyrical verve: “8 million stories in this world I’m told/ So on my notebook is where I put ’em/ You just a Junior like Cuba Goodin’.”
The energy and charisma of a ravenous MC is there, paving the way for another underground hip hop emissary, and his vibrant rhyme-style incites a cadenced head nod, though some hackneyed truisms occasionally submerge his nascent astuteness and fresh acumen on life in the urban jungle. Go to www.thirdearthmusic.com for more info.

– Omar Sommereyns

Donnie
The Colored Section
** 1/2

Today’s Neo-Soul scene borrows from the sounds of such luminaries as Stevie Wonder and Sly Stone. However, most of the artists in this scene falter from the absence of urgency that seeps through the speakers when one listens to classic soul records from the late ’60s and ’70s.
Donnie’s The Colored Section is a perfect example of this problem. On “Cloud 9” and “Wildlife,” he cranks out what might as well be lost outtakes from Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions sessions. On “Big Black Buck” he lifts several lines from Sly while he grooves along to some New Orleans flavored reeds. The blatant borrowing continues throughout the disc’s 14 tracks.
Musically, most of the tunes are on point with fluid choruses and perfect, lush production, and credit is due to producer/engineer/arranger Steve “The Scotsman” Harvey. It is obvious who is the mastermind behind this album. The background provided for Donnie is so well orchestrated that it’s a shame the man fronting these songs sounds so generic. Lyrically, it might as well be 1972. When he’s not verbally caressing his woman, Donnie is putting his “message” out to the people. If he wants to address the still stagnant stench of intolerance and trouble in America’s cities, he needs to up the ante and bring some new sounds to the table. Nobody would have listened to the message of the soul legends Donnie tips his hat to if they hadn’t concocted fresh formulas unheard to the average ear.

– Michael John Hancock

Badly Drawn Boy
Have You Fed the Fish?
*** 1/2

After winning the Mercury Music Prize for his 2000 debut The Hour Of Bewilderbeast and scoring the film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s About A Boy, Damon Gough (Badly Drawn Boy) has turned out a happy little album, sure to accompany your ride to the beach with modest simplicity.
The record opens with two semi-decent numbers before one of the better examples of Gough’s ability, “40 Days. 40 Fights” hits the listener like a dodge ball on the blacktop. Even the more serious numbers are overflowing with optimism, but never to the extent that Badly Drawn Boy is beating you over the head with his half-full bottle of beer. The playing on the tunes is superb, with a predictable cast of characters for a hipster singer/songwriter. Drummer Joey Waronker, studio wizard Jon Brion, and other pros add just the right amount of punch to tracks like the schmaltzy “Tickets To What You Need.”
The best characteristic of this music is the ability to sound relaxed and loose while remaining tight and precisely produced. With Gough’s wife and kids counting off the ethereal closer “Bedside Story,” the Boy and company have fed not only the fish, but a whole zoo of head-held-high notions.

– Michael John Hancock

Omar Sommereyns can be reached at SOASIS@aol.com

Hundreds of people trekked to North Florida this weekend to lose themselves in the 10-keg, four-band 10th anniversary bash for the world-renowned Skate Park of Tampa (SpoT) at the Masquerade in Ybor City.

As skaters and partiers faced sub-zero temperatures waiting in line outside, inside the four bands, Andrew WK, the Bouncing Souls, One Man Army, and Icon, were ready and accounted for. The employees of SpoT, decked out in cheap suits, were as roused as the freezing revelers outside as they stumbled across the stage in anticipation.

Little known opener Icon began their set as people trickled through the doors and headed immediately for the 10 kegs of free beer. By the end of their set, the venue was filled to capacity and only people who had purchased advance tickets were being admitted.

To a sold out crowd, the park unveiled the premiere of its skate video, 10 Years Of SPoT Video, on three massive screens. The footage featured skateboarders competing in the park’s famous annual Tampa AM contest, a naked boy skating on the vert ramp, boxing, and kids putting their lives in in the hands of a loop ramp. After its premiere, the video ran continuously throughout the night. SPoT was founded in 1993, and the video manages to compile moments from the park’s meager origins to its flourishing existence as a leading park on the East Coast.

Punk revivalists One Man Army (three members?) pulled out a performance that left slightly more impact on the crowd than Icon. A couple eager partiers jumped up on stage and danced around. It wasn’t until Andrew WK was about to take the stage that the crowd really flipped into party mode. From the first chord of the longhaired headbanger’s set there were literally dozens of kids onstage with him.

Andrew WK, clad in his signature dirty white T-shirt, acid wash ’80s jeans, and Nikes – could hardly be seen on stage from the floor. People were going ape shit over him. With three tracks from his current album, I Get Wet, with the word ‘party’ in the title, he was the perfect mascot for SpoT’s birthday party. When people crowd surfed on stage, Andrew WK was alongside them, hoisted proudly upon hundreds of shoulders.

Headliners, The Bouncing Souls, a classic punk band on Epitaph Records hailing from New Jersey, took a day off from recording their new album to show SPoT respect. They started out with a vacant stage, and once they went into “True Believers” it-was-over.

The crowd swarmed the stage to sing along with the Souls before being cleared off and stampeding again in larger numbers. Front man Greg Attonito weathered the youth storm by keeping the beat with his classic handclaps and finger snapping. The set was high energy as half the crowd was on stage while the other half continued moshing in a gigantic circle pit on the floor. Members of the band couldn’t see each other as they improvised the set list. Before packing up their van, they encored with four more songs, including an extended version of Johnny Cash’s “Born to Lose.”

The party was a huge success and an apt kickoff for the much-publicized Tampa Am competition that took place over the weekend. Ten years for a skate park is a milestone; props to everyone at SPoT from Life & Art.

For more info visit www.skateparkoftampa.com.

Kira Wisniewski can be reached at kira@punks.net.

It seems like eBay can come up with anything to auction to potential buyers, going as far as putting up Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo’s alleged Harvard ID card. Lustful groupies can purchase the card for $3000 and go on to fondle it as they wish in their private time. The rock group’s latest effort, Maladroit, was Number Six on Spin magazine’s top 50 albums of 2002.

What’s the deal with some good ol’ comedy about getting high? Remember Cheech and Chong? Well, Variety reports that Tommy Chong’s daughter Rae Dawn Chong’s currently searching for potential distributors for the new film in the franchise, Cheech and Chong Get Blunt. Word to all the weed-heads…

Things are looking a bit queasy for the publishing industry: Americans are apparently reading less and less. According to USA Today’s Best-Selling Book list, sales were down 20% for the 2002 holidays compared to the same period last year. These sales peaked in 1999 due to J.K. Rowling’s mass-market Harry Potter series, but that’s even worrisome in itself. If ya’ll really read Life & Art, go out and get your read on damnit.

Times are iffy at The Source: thousands of petitioners in the hip hop community (including Hot 97’s Starr and Buckwild) have asked for the resignation of the magazine’s owner/rapper Benzino, who they claim has been using the publication to further his own interests-boosting his career, articles attacking Eminem, and honoring his group, Made Men, with a 1999 Source Magazine Video of the Year Award even though the video was seldom seen. What can we say, dude’s a slick businessman.

The Gen Art session that was held at Oxygen Lounge in the Grove on Friday seemed, at first, to be everything it should have been – a hip venue for new artists of different mediums to showcase their talent.

The mood of the lounge was expectedly relaxed and colorful, with blue teardrop lights and slide shows setting the background for the young socialite scene.

Jacques, the bartender, seemed to have no problem dishing out free Stoli mixed drinks and Heinekens to the eagerly accepting crowd. Perhaps this fountain of free drinks was an effort to distract people from noticing something funny about their surroundings – there was not more than an ounce of art in sight.

Three videos were looped continuously throughout the evening and a few attendees stood or sat around observing and discussing them, but most of the crowd seemed oblivious and more involved with their “crazy night last night in South Beach.” One of the short films was entitled What to Believe by Mario Escobar, and depicted a commentator, a lot of military propaganda, and repeated shots of large, bloodshot eyeballs. The word ‘capitalism’ flashed repeatedly throughout the film.

One fellow UM student noted that the film resembled the recent horror flick The Ring. “I feel like if I watch it to the end I’ll die,” she commented. The film seemed to deliver the message of a long lost anti-war film from the 1970s, aside from the spliced images of President Bush.

After the free drinks had worked their magic, a new video, Gang Girls 2000 by Katrina del Mar, livened up the screen as a preamble to the night’s fashion show. This video, loaded with petite, retro biker babes, street fighting and lesbians kissing on a beach, distracted people from studying the bottle menus. A man standing nearby commented that “this video, to men, is beautiful.” Finally the night was becoming more than just another well-lit gala as the art took front-and-center.

Fashion designer Jennifer Block noted that Gang Girls 2000 was the core inspiration for her collection. An alumni of the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, Block has designed clothing for Lil’ Kim, Sofia Bergara, and

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