The James Logan Courier

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

In the thin strip of land separating challenge and undying aggravation, the checkpoint is king. As it goes, so often goes a game's fate, especially when it's a horror game crawling with elements seemingly designed to purposefully work against you.

The Amy in "Amy" is a young girl who, for reasons not really clarified, cannot speak and wants zero to do with a place known casually as The Center. When things go awry, she's in the care of Lana (that's you), who shares her sentiments.

By Jack Bragg, Courier Editor-in-Chief

The sixth studio album from alternative metal band Chevelle, is a step in a new direction for the band. The Follow up to 2009’s Si-Fi Crimes strikes an entirely different chord from their previous works. Rather than the hard rough sound of previous albums, Hats Off to the Bull is an album with a more ethereal and somewhat mysterious sound. The album is definitely a departure from their previous works with a few notable exceptions.

Guitarist and vocalist Pete Loeffler said of the album,“We really worked hard on it. A lot of people don’t really think its as heavy as some of our other ones though, but I think it’s a little more vibe-y and I think its just plain good and so hopefully they will think the same too.”

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

Every post-holiday afterglow, when the gaming industry briefly but emphatically hibernates in advance of livelier spring release schedules, there inevitably emerges a game that demands another look after getting unjustly buried in the sea of sequels and blockbusters that released all around it in November.

In a year as stacked as 2011, there is no shortage of candidates. But even on those grounds, "Rayman Origins" belongs at the top of the list, and it really isn't even close.

Though not framed as an origins story — or concerned with storytelling in general, really — "Origins" earns its name by taking Rayman back to his two-dimensional roots. Like the 1995 original, "Origins" eschews three dimensions in favor of 2D platforming in the classic "Super Mario Bros." vein.

By Yari Nieves-Rivera,Courier Staff Reporter

The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins, is a far more gripping novel than the title may suggest. The first in the Hunger Games trilogy, this book is bound to keep you entertained and hooked.

From the moment I started reading, I just couldn't put it back down. It leaves you hanging on every sentence and every word. What's most shocking is the realization once you finish reading the series; this could be the future, and its really possible for it to all happen.

In the country of Panem (a post-apocalyptic version of North America), there are thirteen districts, and the Capitol. After a global Nuclear War destroyed most of the Earth, Panem was created. Seventy five years before the novel began, a rebellion sparked up against the Capitol and District Thirteen was completely obliterated, an example to those who attempted to rebel against their leaders. Because of the Dark Days, as the rebellion is called in the book, the Hunger Games were created as a reminder that rebellions are futile.

By Mike Fischer
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MCT)

Read any good North Korean fiction lately?

I didn't think so.

In Adam Johnson's "The Orphan Master's Son," a terrific new novel about life under North Korea's recently deceased Kim Jong Il, we're told why:

"Real stories," "human ones," "could get you sent to prison, and it didn't matter what they were about." If a story "diverted emotion from the Dear Leader, it was dangerous."

Pak Jun Do, titular hero of Johnson's novel, therefore spends his formative years sticking to the script written for him. As an early mentor instructs him, "if a man and his story are in conflict" in North Korea, "it is the man who must change."

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

That hissing sound you hear? That's your resolution to get in shape slowly seeping out of the room as the new year starts feeling familiar and the excitement of 2012's first week gets pushed out of the way by life as usual. Gym memberships are expensive, finding time to go to the gym is a hassle, making a plan is hard, sticking to it harder. Seeing progress requires saintly patience, and on top of all that, exercise for exercise's sake is often really boring.

Thank goodness for, of all things, video games — and particularly this one. After a year of good-but-not-great fitness games releasing for Microsoft's Kinect, "Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012" gets pretty much everything right en route to knocking every aforementioned excuse off the table.

By Jack Bragg, Courier Editor-in-Chief
5. The Hundred Days- Really?
With their fresh San Francisco sound infused with dance-like beats, local band The Hundred Days struck gold with their debut. Songs like Tattoo Girl and Sex-U get the album going in a very strong direction. With an approachable, yet entirely unique sound, The Hundred Days easily secure the number 5 spot.

4. Young the Giant- Young the Giant
Another California native band, Young the Giant made huge strides in 2011. Their debut self-titled record was such a critically acclaimed piece, that the bad shot to stardom, and for good reason. Songs like “My Body” and “Cough Syrup” are excellently written songs with lyrics that are both catchy and meaningful. The album as a whole feels like an indie rock journey and each song holds its own significance in the context of the album. At number 4, Young the Giant easily solidifies a spot on the list.

By Todd Martens
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

LOS ANGELES — Rapper Dr. Dre will close the 2012 edition of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, to be held for the first time over two consecutive weeks in mid-April. Headliners for the multi-weekend, six-day affair include rock acts the Black Keys, Radiohead and the Shins, as well hip-hop and dance acts Snoop Dogg, the Swedish House Mafia and Kaskade, among others.
The festival will host a number of artists on the reunion circuit. Brit-pop band Pulp, hard-core Swedish punk band Refused, Mike Watt's post-Minutemen band fIREHOSE and experimental Texas rockers At the Drive-In are among those on the comeback trail.

By Tish Wells
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

A Chinese treasure, the "Qingming Shan He Tu" or "Scenes along the River during the Qingming Festival" scroll, can now be seen by all.

The Better Link Press' book reproduction gives those with an interest in Chinese history a chance to enjoy this work of art now kept safely in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

The scroll looks back almost a thousand years ago to the then-capital of China, the sophisticated city of Bianjing (now Kaifeng in central China). The occasion is the Qingming Festival, a spring holiday when the Chinese visit to tend their ancestors' graves.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

Your appreciation of Sony's PlayStation 3D display will be at least partially dependent on how far on board you are with the entertainment industry's umpteenth attempt to make 3D technology stick past the fad stage.

But while the display's embrace of 3D, and Sony's subsequent positioning of it as the rare 3D television with a three-figure asking price, are significant factors, they aren't the only ones in play.

By Jonatan Garibay, Courier Correspondent

Well overall the album , in my opinion, is the worst of Coldplay’s 5 full length albums. I’m not necessarily saying that it’s bad, but it definitely didn’t live up to it’s predecessors nor to the hype it generated.

For further explanation into my reasoning for this opinion, the songs need to be broken down into their individual components.

1. “Mylo Xyloto”
What can I say about this song? It’s just a cute little introduction to the album and to the next song.

By Yari Nieves-Rivera, Courier Staff Writer

Historical fiction has never seen a book like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith. It is about the life of our sixteenth president,with a view of the history that we don't know. Mostly, it says one of two things: the United States was not torn between ending slavery, but to end the vampire's trying to turn humans into slaves and that Abraham Lincoln sets out to get them out of the country, with his axe.

The book revolves around the life of the famous man, from when he was young to when he was good and gone. Every point in the book is fixed so that it fits perfectly into the events we know of, and the events that we find out about in the book.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)
"Pushmo"

Though it took its sweet time, a stream of exciting original games is trickling onto Nintendo's new handheld. Elsewhere, and following an even longer wait, Nintendo's downloadable portable games channel is finally finding a groove.

No game embodies the light at the end of both tunnels quite so perfectly as "Pushmo," a $7 gem that also ranks among the best puzzle games to appear on any platform this past year.

In "Pushmo," the goal of each level is to rescue a kid who's stuck atop a structure and has no safe way to get down. You play as Mallo, and you have complete control of his running and jumping prowess.