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Posted by MeaganKate and Nathalie Weinstein

Biosphere Built for Two

Our first thought upon awakening Sunday morning was, “You have got to be kidding me.” Rain poured down the windows and the wind whipped the trees around. It was grey, people. Very grey. But being the hardcore journalists that we are, we stuffed ourselves with a BLT and chicken fingers from CJ's Eatery and headed out to brave the elements and bring the news.

Our first stop was Cold War Kids, who rocked the Samsung arena, despite it being a drizzly, grey mess outside. Luckily, we had a sweet lime green XBOX poncho to wear while we took in the bluesy, piano rock and Nathan Willet's growling vocals.

After that, we decided we had had enough of the elements, and hurried inside to check out some of Bumbershoot's unique art exhibits. One of the most engaging exhibits had to be Kerfuffle: The Uneasy Relationship Between Humanity and the Environment. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Jeff Guay

Helen Hunt vs The Tornado

There are a few commonly held, although egregiously false, notions regarding the chasing of twisters that this film can straighten out for us. One must first understand that tornadoes, while powerful enough to suck cows, tractors, Ford F-250s or Helen Hunt's dad into their deadly vortices, are not capable of lifting Helen Hunt off the ground, as long as she is holding onto something really, really tightly. Another important clarification made by this film is that Bill Paxton and Bill Pullman are not the same person. The latter Bill P, while having the prudence and strength of character to defend the country against aliens or champion other space-related adventures, doesn't have the Texas-grit and intuition characteristic of Paxton, the man who, in Twister, "knows what storms are thinking."

It's easy to appreciate this 90's disaster classic (co-written by Michael Crichton) for it's surface plot — a revenge epic in which Helen Hunt seeks to destroy the tornado that killed her father, provided with endless one-liners by Philip Seymour Hoffman ("fashionably late again, Jonas, fashionably late again") — but the subtext and, dare I say depth, lies in an unlikely romance between Hunt, Paxton, and weather patterns.

"You can't predict it," Paxton roars, remarking about both his unfettered love for Hunt and, I guess, the tornado that just took out a two-story barn. Other things that are not predictable but equally profound in this film: the resonance of Hoffman's depiction of a gen-x hipster-dufus who's really into classic rock, and the epic guitar solo that runs through the closing credits.

Twister (1996)
@ The Tin Shed
Monday, September 7th 8PM
Full Movie List here: Tin Shed to host "Disaster Movie Mondays

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