Author: PETER QUINTON

Book history scholar John B. Hench delivered a lecture entitled “Never Far From Books,” for students and faculty in Wilson Hall last Wednesday to educate on the growing and changing field of book studies.

Where does “indie rock” end and “freakin’ huge rock band” begin? For Arcade Fire, the biggest little band in the world right now, you could argue multiple points. Some might say it’s selling out Madison Square Garden (twice), and others would argue winning Album of the Year at the Grammy’s is the point of no return. Which one is it?

“Ladies and gentleman, it’s the ERIC ANDRE SHOW!” Consider these first urgent lines more of a warning for you to brace yourself than an introduction, as this latest Adult Swim (a section of Cartoon Network) oddity is one of the most chaotic, surreal, and captivatingly bizarre shows on television today.

Miley Cyrus: America’s first living, breathing hashtag, and her disjointed Twitter feed of an album, “Bangerz,” make me fear that the impatient excesses of the smart phone age have finally caught up to us. I fear that people, especially celebrities, can now trade their humanity for cheap, hyper-modern personas tailored to fill social media pages.

Maybe it’s just me, but after two smash hit singles, a massive hit of a comeback album, frequently appearing in commercials, guest-appearing in a mediocre Jay Z song and a VMA performance/tribute that made the man appear as a god amongst mere mortals, I began to think that maybe we’ve had enough Justin Timberlake for one year.

In an age where video games are becoming more gritty and realistic, hardly anyone would have guessed that what may be one of the year’s best games would be absolutely nothing like that.

R&B isn’t an easy genre to stand out in these days, but for a singer as hard working and charismatic as Janelle Monáe, it’s kind of impossible not to. With a powerful voice, wild imagination, and restless creative spirit, Monáe has made some very exciting and inventive pop music since bursting onto the scene, with her debut album, 2010’s “The ArchAndroid,” being quite an artistic achievement.

With a rather puny library of games and disappointing quarterly sales, it would be a vast understatement to call the Wii U’s first year a rocky start. While the Nintendo consoles lineup will prove to pick up steam later this year, the console’s “killer app” might already be here in the form of “Pikmin 3.”