It has been a month since Avatar’s release and there seems to be no slowing down on controversy surrounding it. No one disputes James Cameron’s 3-D visual genius but the broad storyline has left little to be desired by some. The tale has been called everything from exploitative by military groups, racist by minorities, imperialistic and banned in China for fear of social uprising, anti-feminist by women and even paganistic by the Pope. 

There are few times in my life when I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt, seeing the film: “Swooped” was one of them.

I recently interviewed my friend, the artist: Marc Blackwood. Marc is the bassist for the band, Inner Loop, who plays in the DC area.  The name of the band is a reference to the Beltway (495), a highway that loops around the metropolitan area.  Inner Loop uses primarily acoustic instruments and a technique of live looping to create textures and layers of sound.  The band creates larger compositions by capturing smaller moments of improvisation and then layering new ideas into these improvised loops. Marc explained that they aim to take a “seed of an idea” and create an arrangement from this seed, thus producing a sound that is organic.

There is a little restaurant in Aston, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia known as “Dexter’s on the 5”. The food in Dexter’s is fantastic, but that is the only thing that has any quality to it. Every other element of this establishment is abysmal.