There are two types of bands in the music industry: those that experiment and those who stick to a familiar formula. Story of the Year, now in their 13th year, is the latter type. In their newly released album, The Black Swan, there is no shortness of sounds, but originality is a concept entirely unexplored.

The spring concert, ska-syndicate Reel Big Fish and moody alt-artists Brand New, hit the Kuhl Gymnasium hard with vitalized highs and torturous lows. The result was a night of rivalry between silly and somber entertainment ending with a raspy, tired voice held over an acoustic guitar.

Horror is a genre for the audience. Desperation, mutilation, fornication: All of the best vices of life rolled into 90 minutes of hack heaven cinema. Plots are sacrificed to draw onto the audience's emotional engagement (excitement, terror, etc.). With that said, Scott Smith's self-adapted film, The Ruins, takes whatever accomplishment he had as a best-selling novelist and replaces them with failure to convey horror onto film.

This year's Relay for Life, to be held this Saturday in Kuhl Gymnasium, will be home for a day to the kindred advocates for the fight against cancer, including a multi-geared rock band with a unique name and mission.

Large shows with contortionists and circus antics. Adding an exclamation point in between the band's name and then removing it two years later. Oh, and the guy-liner. Yeah, it's all pretty odd indeed; but what about Panic at the Disco's sophomore album, the satirically titled (you guessed it) Pretty. Odd.? Highly anticipated, the album revolves around the band's love for The Beatles and their interpretation of the mop-tops' musical theatrics.

One thing alt-rock cry-or-say-die boys Brand New are not is tame. Loitering in the empty space where their red hearts should be is a darkened disquiet; a kind of naturalness that belongs only to the dramatically disheveled, the darlings of heart-break and self-inflicted evolution.

Taken for what it is (a slipshod synthesis brought about by melding Talladega Nights with Juwanna Mann), Semi-Pro is digestible at best. Will Ferrell's newest filmic entry into the sporting world takes him into the American Basketball Association during the 1970s, but away from any surgically accurate comedic script or genuine originality.

In a year of memorable momentum, with the 50th Grammy Awards and now with the 80th Academy Awards ceremonies this past Sunday, 2008 is proving to be a major year for the titans of American entertainment. Eight decades deep of awards and accreditation to the talented and newly tormented minds behind the world's greatest films, and the Academy Awards are as healthy as ever.

The Bourne Identity, under the directorial vision of Doug Liman, was a crash course in the action genre. He made a habitual clinic on how to shoot car chases, shaken-camera fight scenes and visual maps of European cities. His latest film, Jumper, includes these "Limanesque" elements, but cracks his own filmic mold in the wrong way.

This year, the 50th Annual Grammy Awards pulled every stop as they celebrated their half-centennial with big fashion and bright lights.

The Super Bowl is as much about the in-game antics as the Big Game style commercials in between. This year proved to be no different, as 30 seconds of ad space ran for an average of $2.7 million. How were the commercials? As always, they varied from instant hits to awful misses.

A shroud of secrecy by producer J.J. Abrams (Lost) and crew has kept spoiler leaks and plot points out of the filmic pre-release formula of creature feature Cloverfield. Now in its second week of distribution, Cloverfield has been hailed for takes of originality in a dying genre and impressive hybridization between computer-generated imagery and live-action footage.

Sunday afternoon was a fine day to take part in the spectacle of sound, and Wadsworth Auditorium provided the outlet. The Friends of Music Piano Series and Geneseo's music department provided a classical piano concert for a small but cordial gathering of music lovers.

The air outside Kuhl Gym on Saturday, Nov. 17 was crisp as autumn exerted herself and winter rolled in with the biting wind, but the line of fans that stretched from the gymnasium entrance to the edge of the parking lot breathed heat and exhilaration as they awaited admission into this year's Fall Concert, headlined by '90s never-say-die rockers Third Eye Blind.

The Union Ballroom was in high spirits last Thursday as The Urban Sophisticates performed a free concert for Geneseo students. The seven-member ensemble, who blend big-band antics with hip-hop attitude, were energetic and nearly flawless despite having driven six hours from Washington, D.C., for the performance.

Somewhere between heaven and hell, Jimmy Eat World has found a sound to rest upon in their newest Interscope album, Chase This Light.

When Grindhouse, the double feature excess extravaganza by directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, was released in theaters, it opened to overwhelmingly positive reviews but absent profits.

Under the direction of writer/director James Gray, the new thriller We Own The Night spews and sputters from opening to close. Every great crime drama established in the last few years appears melted together in Gray's film to illuminate a dry storyline that sizzles with unoriginality and a cinematic blackened lung.

Eight seconds into Motion City Soundtrack's third studio album, Even If It Kills Me, flashes from the band's previous albums come surging back to life. In the wake of their sophomore success, the Minneapolis quintet strikes ardently and often in what can be considered their most expressive album to date. Led by frontman Justin Pierre's hummingbird vocals and crash-collision lyrics, the album strives to prove that pop-punk rock is far from a finale.

In the third installment of the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil: Extinction, Paul W.S. Anderson tries to reanimate the original film's sense of purpose and worth.