John Cusack and Samuel Jackson star in the Mikael Hafstrom film “1408.” Originally a short story by Stephen King found in the collection “Everything’s Eventual,” the film got lost amidst the torrent of the summer movie season. Thankfully, it is now out on DVD for about five dollars for your own home enjoyment.

If you haven’t read the short story, there’s no need to worry about it. Even though the movie shares the same plot, it often strays from the path King laid down. If you have read the book, just don’t think about the story when you watch the movie. If you do, it may make the experience feel a bit strained. That being said the movie was entertaining.

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“I am an American,” Marc Tasman proudly tells me. “It’s not that I hate America. The problem is I love America.”

It is Friday morning and we are sitting in this University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee journalism lecturer’s cramped office surrounded by various pieces of his upcoming art exhibit, “Proposal for The New American Flag: Representing a New Constellation.”

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The final tally of pledges raised for the AIDS Walk Wisconsin 2007 is $387, 682. Six large white posters showing each number were held up by volunteers at the finish line of the event that took place Saturday, Sept. 29 on the scenic Milwaukee lakefront.

The 5K AIDS Walk raises money for AIDS prevention and treatment. The main benefiting agency of the event is AIDS Resource of Wisconsin, which provides a vast array of health and social services to over 3,000 Wisconsin residents living with HIV. They also make 150,000 prevention contacts every year with people who are at risk for contracting HIV.

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In his black and white film “Control,” director Anton Corbjin offers the viewers a portrait of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis (played by Sam Riley) that goes beyond the stereotype of the narcissistic, drug-abusing womanizer presented in other rock biographies.

The film, based on the 1995 book “Touching From A Distance” by Ian Curtis’s widow Deborah, begins in Curtis’s hometown of Macclesfield, England in 1973. An introspective teenager who idolizes David Bowie, Curtis spends much of his time in his room writing song lyrics, listening to records, and imitating Bowie in front of the mirror.

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Dear Chad Blaine,

Your last column was right on. Dig your stuff. My friend Craig has this smokin’ girlfriend and I’m having trouble stealing her away from him.

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Maharaja gives Milwaukee a little bit more oomph when it comes to restaurants. What do you do when you are sick of going out to Walker’s Point to get some sloppy Mexican or when you feel like if you see another gyro you might just…well, I don’t really know what you would do.

The point is, Milwaukee is overflowing with amazingly traditional ethnic restaurants, yet this one, who is most known among the vegetarian crowds, goes unnoticed.

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Although, games never physically hurt anyone by convincing children to run away from home, they were still getting a bad wrap because of “the Wizard.” There wasn’t much more mentally that video games could do in order to hurt children’s’ psyche. So they had no choice but to move on to the physical attacks.

In the mid 90s two companies really did a lot to bring the pain to gaming. Those two companies were Nintendo and Aura.

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Iceland is pioneering the hydrogen fuel cell car: a car that is powered by a fuel cell, which generates electricity by converting hydrogen and oxygen into water. The fuel cell is filled like any traditional car via a pump from a fueling station.

Hydrogen is the best possible energy source, because it is the most common element in our atmosphere. Also, almost anything can be used to produce hydrogen for energy use: from trees to landfill waste.

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Just finished class. Finally have a chance to eat. All of the restaurants in the Union have ridiculously long lines. Well, except for the pizza place. But, if you have pizza again, you’ll need both hands to count how many times you’ve had it this week.

You’re starving. You weren’t hungry in the morning, but you spent the entire time in your last class wishing you would have eaten something. Sound familiar?

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“Oh my goodness, I feel like such a bad role model right now!” cried out Mandy Moore at the PABST Theatre this past Sunday night. “I am not condoning anyone to get a tattoo, but the band and I are getting one because we wrote this new song together.”

Moore, the 23-year-old folk/pop singer, performed for a crowd of 200 fans at the Pabst Theater Sept. 30, playing songs off her new album, “Wild Hope.”

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Here we go folks, an epic clash of the two titans of comics. Because both of these universes are so large, we will use examples of the two most arguably popular franchises from both sides. For Marvel we will have the X-Men and Spiderman. For DC we’ll use Superman and Batman.

First up are Marvel and the X-Men. Starting in 1963, X-Men have a cast of colorful characters, each with a unique power to keep things feeling fresh. It is safe to say that Wolverine is the most popular X-Man, if not one of the most popular comic book characters of all time.

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When you think of notes, you usually think of long boring classes and future carpal tunnel syndrome. You don’t usually think of removing your gall bladder or your appendix.

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In a move that will be known as either a monumental success or a reckless failure, Radiohead shocked fans by announcing via website that their new album was set to be released in less than two weeks.

However, before any of you rush to line up outside your favorite record store, there’s something that you should know. The album is initially only being released digitally through the band’s Web site. What’s even stranger is the fact that because the band is no longer signed to any record label, they have full say over what the price of the album is.

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Epic Records A&R director dubbed them "the only band that matters,” their most famous record comes in at number eight on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list and they experimented with more styles of music than Outkast.

The Sex Pistols, by default, were the most influential punk group in history. The Clash, however, were certainly the most diverse and almost without question, the greatest punk group. At the heart of The Clash was guitarist, singer and songwriter Joe Strummer, who, along with Mick Jones, created one of music’s most beloved songbooks.

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The ‘80s are a decade known for the birth of three things: crack-cocaine, Nintendo and greed. This week, we’re going to focus on the final two items in that list.

In “Wall Street,” Gordon Gekko told audiences that, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” Oliver Stone is a director who loves to deal with the theme of greed and how it can create and destroy and identity.

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They Might Be Giants new album “The Else,” their 12th studio album so far, has a fresh breath of geek rock that hasn’t been heard for some time. First time listeners to TMBG should know that they are an acquired taste; the listener cannot listen to the album once and immediately pick up on all the subtle details that make the harmonics sound different from the flood of other alternative music.

Producers Pat Dillett and The Dust Brothers helped TMBG in producing the album. The Dust Brothers influence of electronic style of loops is nicely utilized in an alternative stylized setting.

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Following the path of the disturbingly subtle “Dead Man's Shoes” (2004), British director Shane Meadows once again proves that he's most at home exploring the most terrible and despicable things that ordinary people can bring themselves to, as well as the long road they walk on the way.

Perhaps Meadows' most autobiographical work to date, “This is England” (2007) follows 12-year-old Shaun, in a mind-blowing first performance by newcomer Thomas Turgoose, through a deteriorating coastal city in, you guessed it, England.

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It’s been a busy two years for Black Eyed Peas front man Will.i.am, who has been lending his production talents to numerous artists since the 2005 Black Eyed Peas release, “Monkey Business.” He has been helping bang out hits for fellow artists including Justin Timberlake, Common, Nas and countless others.

Somehow, in the midst of all these projects, he has found time to focus on his own creative talents and has produced his third solo album entitled “Songs About Girls.”

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