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Eric Doctor

NEWS 3/18/10 7:00pm

Dean misrepresents mission of humanities

By Eric Doctor

Three weeks ago, the Thresher reported that the School of Humanities would be cutting two courses "not directly relevant to majors," HUMA 250: Writing for Print Media and HUMA 251: Typography and Design ("Non-major Humanities courses cut," Feb. 26). As an alumnus of HUMA 251 and an aspiring graphic designer, I find this news very distressing.However, what is more distressing is the fact that Interim Humanities Dean Allen Matusow asserted in a letter to the editor last week that these two courses are "peripheral to the core mission of the humanities" ("Courses cut due to limited budget," March 12). This statement demonstrates a grotesque misunderstanding by Matusow about the mission of his own school.

NEWS 10/22/09 7:00pm

New Moon album brings surprisingly unique flavor

By Eric Doctor

Last month, a news item popped up in my Pitchfork RSS feed that made me do a double-take. The headline read, "Grizzly Bear to appear on The Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack."For those who haven't gone outside in the last year, lest the sun reveal their sparkly-diamond vampire skin, Twilight is the popular and poorly-written book series that became an even-more-popular book series after the movie adaptation came out last November. Millions of pubescent girls - and some of my college-aged female friends - fawned over Robert Pattinson, wrote terrible fanfiction and made their own playlists for each book.

NEWS 9/24/09 7:00pm

Houston Symphony's classical dilemma

By Eric Doctor

Up through seventh grade, when someone asked me what my favorite kind of music was, I would answer, simply, "classical." I don't think classical music was actually what I enjoyed listening to the most - I think I just had some desire to be different and appear more intellectual than my fellow pre-pubescents. Over the years, however, it has become apparent to me how absurd that answer truly was. "Classical" music, as it is referred to in today's vernacular, encompasses roughly half a millennium's worth of music.

NEWS 9/3/09 7:00pm

IKEA changes font, image

By Eric Doctor

With more than 175 million copies printed every year, the IKEA catalog is the world's most-published non-fiction work, outpacing the Bible by more than three times. It showcases clean, modernist design at affordable prices, and for five decades not very much about the catalog has changed.Until now.

NEWS 2/19/09 6:00pm

Dark Was the Night sets goal for a bright future

By Eric Doctor

I had the pleasure of meeting Bryce and Aaron Dessner when The National came to play here for the All Rice Picnic during homecoming week. They are both rather subdued and unassuming - almost awkward, perhaps. They both sport unshaven faces and unibrows - not the look that one would expect out of indie rock's unofficial curators.The Dessners have assembled a veritable who's-who list of indie darlings - Sufjan Stevens! Bon Iver! Yeasayer! Feist! That guy from TV on the Radio! - into Dark Was the Night, a charity compilation album whose profits go towards the Red Hot Organization, a group committed to fighting HIV/AIDS through pop culture. Since 1989, Red Hot has released 20 compilation albums to raise both funds and awareness. It's kind of like Product (RED), except without the sweatshop controversies and expensive corporate branding.

NEWS 1/15/09 6:00pm

Animal Collective's newest album makes even cloudy days Merriweather

By Eric Doctor

When Animal Collective released Feels in 2005, reviewers deemed it their most accessible album to date. When they released Strawberry Jam in 2007, reviewers once again slapped the "accessible" label on its cover.Merriweather Post Pavilion will inevitably receive the same treatement, and while the assertion is not entirely incorrect, to say that anything Animal Collective produces is more "accessible" than anything they have previously released is to miss the point entirely.

NEWS 11/6/08 6:00pm

Campaign messages marked by typography

By Eric Doctor

Eight months ago, I stood on the floor of the Toyota Center, less than 50 feet away from the man who in 10 short weeks will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. The aura that then-Senator, now-President-elect Barack Obama exuded was astounding, not unlike the famed "reality distortion field" that surrounds Apple Inc.'s charismatic Steve Jobs, except instead of making you believe that the AppleTV is a worthwhile product, Obama makes you believe that he is capable of bringing about real change.The stands were filled with people from all walks of life, from all races, from all religions, and they were all chanting "Yes, We Can" and occasionally "Sí, Se Puede" and cheering at his speech. That night, I sent an e-mail to my family that said, "This man needs to be our next president. Don't you think we could use a little bit of idealism, a little bit of hope, in the White House?"

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