Death + Taxes Magazine

April 18th - Bowery Ballroom.
Eco-friendly orchestra-pop group Cloud Cult maximized every inch of the Bowery Ballroom’s compact stage, including an on-stage artist, painting as they performed. Frontman Craig Minowa & Co. breezed through a setlist of songs from their last two installments, The Meaning of 8 and Feel Good Ghosts (Tea Partying Through Tornadoes). Moments of an Arcade Fire-esque grandiose popped out when Minowa donned a megaphone on "Please Remain Calm," reminding us that it was "only a test." Yet, the best advice I received all night came from "Take Your Medicine," where Minowa instructed the audience to "suck up and take your medicine." I thought it best to listen to the Minnesota native and proceeded straight to the bar. Not to worry Craig, I recycled the bottle. – Michael J. Sorisi

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In case you had any lingering doubts left about it, you definitely can't go in the ocean. It's just not do-able. Going in the ocean has just bumped up on the list of "things I can't do" above skydiving and jumping a motorcycle over a school bus Evil Knievel style. Over the last few months there have been increasing reports of violent animal attacks on humans. Today's fatal Great White shark attack in San Diego is only the latest in a litany of increasingly strange animal behavior. A few months ago GQ published a controversial article suggesting that animals were intentionally turning against humans as an act of revenge for taking up so much space on the planet. The incidents it detailed were real, but much of the article's thesis was fictional, which made a lot of people pretty pissed. And then that stingray killed the woman in Florida last month. For the second time in history. While it certainly seems highly unlikely that animals could be consciously starting to target us out of revenge, it does seem ironic that the one swimmer picked from a group of 9 by the Great White today was a veterinarian. Either way, I'm sticking out of the water.

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