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The Grid
The week's releases
Metro staff reviews the latest CDs, DVDs and books for your reading pleasure.
 
Music
Run this town
No living man but Jay-Z could get a sold out Boston arena so excited about New York City. But for two hours last night, the sold out crowd at the Garden was in an Empire State of Mind, as “The Blueprint 3” tour rolled into town.
 
My Television
Back in the trenches
Steven Spielberg makes strikingly vivid, breathtakingly poetic movies about some of the most terrifying conflicts in the history of man. The filmmaking aesthetic he pioneered with “Saving Private Ryan” — and continues to perfect in HBO’s new WWII miniseries, “The Pacific” — was born out of a desire to translate as honestly as possible his conversations with veterans on their combat experience.
 
The Word
Is nothing in her life real anymore?
When we first read that Heidi Pratt was firing husband Spencer Pratt as her manager, we thought, “Yay! Heidi’s new face is finally doing something right!” But then we found out that although she did fire Spencer, it seems like she’s replacing him with psychic Aiden Chase to take the reigns on her “career” — and then we got scared.
 
Movies
Pattinson: A vampire in Brooklyn
Robert Pattinson has been playing Americans so often that he has forgotten how to talk like a Brit. In his latest, “Remember Me,” the “Twilight” heartthrob stars as a soulful young New Yorker attending NYU, but he insists he didn’t need any help sounding like a native. “I’ve never had a dialect coach or anything,” Pattinson says. “Ironically, I’ve only had a dialect coach for this film I’m doing now, which I’m doing in an English accent. I guess I’ve forgotten how to do an English accent.”
 
Published 01:19, January the 29th, 2010
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Statik Selektah: ‘Make it happen’

On his third studio album, “100 Proof (The Hangover),”  Statik Selektah is poised to take his work from the underground to the mainstream. In a world where catchy dance records rule the radio, the DJ/producer’s ’90s-influenced boom bap is taking a foothold beyond the underground. His latest single, “So Close, So Far,” featuring Bun B, Wale and Colin Munroe, is finding a home on some of the most powerful hip-hop radio playlists in the country.

Selektah thinks hip-hop is ready for a rude awakening.

“With all the things going on in the world and in hip-hop, it’s like a wake-up call,” he says.
Selektah is part of a growing movement (along with Jay Electronica) that shows thought-provoking and hardcore hip-hop can be successful beyond the blogosphere and truly become hits. He credits his single-mindedness for getting him this far.

“Hope is for suckers. I didn’t hope to do this. Don’t hope. Make it happen. I never allowed myself to think of anything else.”

Statik Selektah
Saturday, 8 p.m.
Middle East Downstairs
472 Mass. Ave, Cambridge
$14-$18, 617-864-EAST
www.mideastclub.com

G. VALENTINO BALL
letters@metro.us
 
 
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Music
MMMpod
The March MMMpod features conversation and music from Surfer Blood and The Allman Brothers Band (There's a double-bill you're not too likely to see. However, Gregg Allman does mention Hannah Montana!). We also speak with Vampire Weekend and the Dropkick Murphys.
 
 
 
Metro Life Panel
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