Six months ago, nobody knew who Lana Del Rey was. Last October she released a grainy self-made music video for her single, “Video Games,” and the Internet exploded into a Lana Del Rey shrine. But, like a dysfunctional relationship, the adulation rapidly descended into suspicion, and Del Rey’s shrine crumbled into a mean heap of ridicule and backlash all before her debut album, Born To Die, was even released.

Now the album is out and Lana Del Rey, whose real name is Elizabeth “Lizzy” Grant, remains the most talked about artist on the Internet.

Born To Die, a strange musical concoction, begins with the title track, “Born To Die.” The introduction eases in with a triumphant arrangement of strings before sliding right into Del Rey’s signature deep, breathy croon. The song reveals a raw honesty as Del Rey introduces the plea, “Don’t make me sad / Don’t make me cry / Sometimes love is not enough / And the road gets tough / I don’t know why.” Unfortunately, that honesty loses its way as the album progresses.

Instead, we quickly shift into a Lolita tribute with the subsequent, “Off to the Races.” Although the track starts off intriguingly dark, it falls limp and turns obnoxious as Del Rey whimpers about being a misbehaving harlot.

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As the 84th Annual Academy Awards draw nearer (airing Sunday, Feb. 26 on ABC), more and more people are rushing to theaters to see the nominated films.

However, the films of one category in particular are rarely shown at local cinemas. Foreign-Language films are an important part of the Oscar ceremony, and each year many films are nominated but few people actually see them.

This year, students and residents of Santa Barbara are in luck. UCSB’s own Carsey-Wolf Center, a research collaboration located between the Communication and Film & Media Studies departments, will be holding screenings of the 2012 Foreign-Language Oscar Nominees.

The films will be screened in the brand new, state-of-the-art Pollock Theater, which is reason enough to attend. Furthermore, each film screening will be preceded by an Oscar-nominated live action or animated short film.

The films begin on Tuesday, Feb. 14 with Canada’s “Monsieur Lazhar,” which follows an Algerian teacher who attempts to help a class of elementary school children recover after their teacher dies. The next day, Pollock will screen the much-anticipated Iranian film, “A Separation.” Belgium’s “Bullhead” a.k.a. “Rundskop” will play on Thursday, and Poland’s “In Darkness” will play Friday. The last film to screen will be Israel’s “FOOTNOTE” a.k.a. “Hearat Shulayim,” which tells the story of a father-and-son power struggle at the University of Jerusalem. Each film begins at 7:30 p.m. in Pollock Theater.

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On Monday, NBC premiered its much-anticipated musical television show, “Smash.” As both a television and theater fanatic, I had high expectations for the show — which were unquestioningly fulfilled by the new musical dramedy.

“Smash” is set in the cutthroat world of New York City Broadway Theater — acting as a love letter of sorts to the harsh profession and unique city. The show follows two successful musical writers Julia and Tom, played by Debra Messing and Broadway actor Christian Borle, as they create a musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe.

Former “American Idol” contestant Katharine McPhee and Broadway actress Megan Hilty play Karen and Ivy, two hungry young actresses, singers and dancers who will do anything to get the part of Marilyn. Anjelica Huston stars as Eileen, a Broadway producer trying to prove she can still be a success by backing the Marilyn show. Finally, Jack Devenport plays Derek Willis, a brilliant Broadway director (and arch-nemesis to Tom) who reluctantly decides to take the Marilyn directing job.

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One could argue that artistic integrity no longer exists once you sell out. Those who agree could say mainstream is the antithesis to true art and creative expression. However, the opposition could argue that the creative process has a financial component that cannot be resolved through talent and ideas alone. Fortunately, social media has enabled creative individuals to connect and be funded by people interested in the final product. Kickstarter is the most successful program that funds creative projects.

In 2002, Kickstarter Founder Perry Chen wanted to hold a jazz concert. He thought people were interested, but he did not have the $15,000 to take the risk. While the concert failed, the idea for Kickstarter was born as a place for friends to help fund small projects.

“[Kickstarter] brings ideas to life for creative projects,” Kickstarter Director of Communication Justin Kazmark said. “Creativity is diverse and needs its own space.”

Projects fall into 13 different categories such as music, art, fashion and technology. Kickstarter staff individually review every project to ensure they meet their guidelines. Only creative projects qualify, so you won’t find projects to save the whales or feed starving kids.

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Short films have been marginalized for many years, considered easy to make and ‘‘primitive.’’ However, short films were the start of cinema and were respected during the early 20th century when visionaries such as Méliès were making short masterpieces. Over time, films have grown in length (but not always in quality), and these short forms were left aside. Lucky for us, the technique has been ‘‘rediscovered,’’ and many festivals are including them in their programs.

The Santa Barbara Independent Film Festival divided the Short Films program into subcategories, just as they do with the full-length features, emphasizing the range of diversity amongst films. Audience members could choose to see short live-action, short animation, short documentaries and locally made short films by UCSB students and Santa Barbarians.

The first short that deserves a mention is “L Train” (directed by Anna Musso, 2011, USA). This obviously caught the jury’s attention, as it was rewarded with the Bruce Corwin Award for Best Live Action Short Film Under 30 Minutes. In 10 minutes, we follow Sunny in her daily routine. Each morning and evening, she has to go through thick snow to get to the subway station. But on this particular morning, she encounters a handicapped girl who struggles to make it to the platform. Without a word, Sunny will help the young girl, thus creating a short but intense relationship with this stranger. The whole film is wordless, and the sounds of trains are used as an echoing leitmotiv. Filmed with poesy, this short definitely deserved the award.

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Many people compare visiting a museum to visiting a church. A place that houses art becomes sacred somehow. It becomes a destination for people to observe carefully constructed historical and personal expressions in quiet reverence.

To an extent, the group of Master of Fine Arts students who took over Gallery 479 at UCSB these past few weeks sought to subvert this common notion. Starting last quarter, the artists discussed doing a show together that would be interactive, allowing not only each other to participate in the creation of the work, but also allowing anyone who entered the space to transform and create as they saw fit. Enter: “Groupwork.”

The show started as several blank walls and empty space. Gradually, pink and black balloons, bricks, lamps and other odds and ends made their way into the space. However, the individual items that the artists brought in at the start of the show were not as important as the initial ideas.

“Our goal was to present an exhibition that was concerned with the dialogue in and around the exhibition itself — to present something that transcends itself as well as the group involved,” contributing artist Chris Silva said in an interview via email.

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When people think about foreign films, there seems to be a lot of derision towards them: “I don’t like subtitles,” “Dubbing sounds weird,” “Only pretentious hipsters would watch them,” etc. While there is some truth to some of that, it shouldn’t stop you from enjoying a foreign film. Everyone should give foreign films a chance.

Now, people who regularly read this column (all two of you) know that I mainly have a populist view on media, especially concerning film. I have championed the likes of action movies and gross-out comedies as forms of art — whether low or pulp — but as art nonetheless. I’ve also given rave reviews to films that are known more for their bloodshed and explosions then their coherent plots or treatises on the human condition. However, that doesn’t mean that’s all I enjoy as a film viewer, and I think that people should be open to all kinds of media from different times and places. If you only watch movies that have come out since the 90s, and only from major studios in Hollywood, you’re missing out on a lot of great films that have come out since films’ inception.

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Each winter, downtown’s historic movie theaters play host to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. This year, SBIFF’s highlighted themes include Cinesonic (films about iconic musicians), Cinema Nouveau (films from emerging French directors) and Screen Cuisine (films featuring the culinary process). Another SBIFF sidebar, Santa Barbara Filmmakers, features entries from local filmmakers. Each year, a number of UCSB student films are included in the festival — this year’s shorts “Elixer” and “Over & Out,” among others.

One notable short film came not from a student in the UCSB Film and Media Department, but a staff member. This year, the department’s Academic Advisor Joe Palladino — known simply as Joe to film majors — has his film featured at SBIFF.

Palladino wrote and recently produced a short family film, titled “The Secret Ingredient.” According to the film’s director Rashi Bahri Chitnis, “The Secret Ingredient” tells the story of “two generations coming together over food.”

The short was filmed last fall in just two days, with the help of many local Santa Barbara filmmakers and UCSB film students. As “The Secret Ingredient” was an independent production, Palladino and Chitnis relied heavily on local friends and eager film students to help with the production. Their success in being accepted by SBIFF shows what great talent the Santa Barbara community has and how vital film festivals are to independent filmmakers.

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Stand-up comedy is not easy. It’s one of those art forms which seems readily accessible to anyone not already embedded in that world. “I can just go up on stage and say stuff? What’s so hard about that?” However, anyone who has ever tried remaining confident on stage while reciting jokes you wrote yourself — sometimes amidst audience derision or a legitimately unfunny routine — knows how much of a challenge stand-up really is. You’re a writer, a performer and a psychologist all in one.

But if you feel like you have what it takes, where can you go to test out your comedy chops? Look no further than UCSB’s own “Laughology.” Going on five years now, Laughology is a weekly event on campus — every Saturday at 8 p.m. — where stand-ups from all over the country come down to do time at Embarcadero Hall. All the headlining comedians performing at Laughology are professionals who have performed on HBO, Comedy Central, Showtime, late night talk shows, etc. Last year Adam DeVine from “Workaholics” was a headliner. Best of all, it’s always free! It’s a good way to spend a Saturday night without wasting money on booze.

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‘Nothing Like Chocolate’ Teaser from Kum-Kum Bhavnani on Vimeo.

Last Saturday night, two phenomenal bands graced the Lobero Theatre’s stage as part of Lobero’s current “Sings Like Hell” series. Austin-based folk-rock band Wheeler Brothers opened for the up-and-coming bluegrass quintet Joy Kills Sorrow. It is safe to say that both bands blew away the Lobero’s sizable audience.

The Sings Like Hell concert series strives to present “The Greatest Music You’ve Never Heard!” to Santa Barbara audiences every year. Luckily for me, I had actually heard of Joy Kills Sorrow or I would not have gotten to experience the group’s fantastic opener.

I was so pleasantly surprised by Wheeler Brothers, who used their refreshing mixture of indie Austin sound with more traditional Texan folk-inspired harmonies to bring incredible energy to the stage. Drummer Patrick Wheeler rocked a Native American headdress for the entire show; need I say more?

My only regret is that I did not see them at an outdoor venue with a nice, young, folk-loving crowd. The group was almost too much for the Lobero’s small stage — I would have loved to see them at a venue that allowed people to get up and dance as much as they made me want to. The group is playing during South by Southwest this year; maybe I will make it down to Austin and have my chance.

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Overtime football playoffs be damned; there is poetry going on.

On Sunday, approximately 150 people gathered in the Hub at UCSB for Associated Students Program Board’s first poetry slam showcase. The showcase featured nationally recognized poets Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye of Project V.O.I.C.E. who performed poems about love, friendship, and politics.

Afterward, Sarah and Phil hosted the UCSB student slam competition. Eight carefully selected poets competed for the grand prize of cheers from their peers, a sweet A.S. t-shirt, and a custom poetry video made by fourth-year Communications major Brandon James.

The hosts, Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye, met in college and began a friendship over their love of performance poetry. They started the night with joint and solo pieces that delighted the crowd.

“I just love poetry,” third-year art and English major Danielle Zeisset said. “I liked how Phil and Sarah coordinated with each other.”

One poem that resonated with the crowd was dedicated to Sarah’s younger brother, who is the polar opposite of her. Phil transformed into “the Geico gecko” for one of his poems, which began with a humorous take of the fictional pitchman and ended with an examination of the meaning of existing as a performer.

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Last weekend, the UCSB Film and Media Studies Department held its annual weekend-long screenwriting workshop: Word Farm. Each winter, professional writers in the film and television industries travel to Santa Barbara to lead individual seminars with film students and aspiring screenwriters. This year, the line-up included many UCSB faculty and alumni who are now successful writers and industry professionals.

Film and Media’s own Michael Miner, known for writing Hollywood films like “Robocop,” led a workshop on writing the first ten pages of a screenplay. Another current faculty member, Cherie Steinkellner, talked to students about “writing for laughs” in comedy films and television shows. This quarter, Steinkellner teaches a television writing class in the Film and Media Studies Department, with her past experience as a staff writer and showrunner on “Cheers.” Tara Miele, one of the most successful alums of the UCSB Film Department, also took part in the weekend. Miele is a now a screenwriter and film director in Los Angeles, and is celebrating the distribution of her first feature film, “The Lake Effect.”

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This week I was privileged to attend the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah — but what made this such a privilege? Well, film festivals are perhaps the most important tools of the independent film industry. To make a long story short, they are essentially places to exhibit, to sell and to party.

As you can imagine, it takes a lot of money to market a film. A studio will literally spend millions of dollars to make sure you know about their upcoming films. Indie films generally do not have the budget to do this, and they definitely do not have the budget to compete with the big studio advertising system. Film festivals provide a recognizable outlet to exhibit indie films as well as a pretty good credential (depending on the festival) for the film and filmmaker.

The Sundance Film Festival is the United States’ largest film festival and the second largest in North America behind the Toronto International Film Festival. Because of this and other reasons, Sundance is generally considered the most prestigious festival in the United States and one of the most prestigious in the world. Sundance is also located in Park City, which is nestled on the other side of the mountains from Salt Lake City. Now, if the idea of Utah plus indie films doesn’t get your boats floating, here are a few more key reasons to go to a film festival.

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On what may have been the coldest Tuesday night yet of this winter season (quite atypical for Santa Barbara at a crisp 44 degrees), UCSB Arts and Lectures held National Theatre Live’s rebroadcast performance of the play “Collaborators” at the Lobero Theatre.

Made possible through the generous support of an anonymous donor, this screening of “Collaborators” forms one in the three part series of National Theatre Live dramas that will be held through Arts and Lectures during the Winter/Spring 2012 season at its new location in Lobero Theatre.

If National Theatre Live’s global efforts to showcase their productions should be called into question, “Collaborators” sets the standard for why this action on their behalf is particularly relevant at all.

The play is the most recent work of acclaimed screenwriter John Hodge, known for films such as “Trainspotting” (1996) and “Shallow Grave” (1994). Interestingly, “Collaborators” is Hodge’s first play, a tragicomedy based on real events which detail the fictionalized partnership between Soviet playwright Mikhail Bulgakov (played by Alex Jennings) and Joseph Stalin (played by Simon Russell Beale). As an artist struggling to stage his subtly anti-communist works throughout a 1930s Soviet Union, Bulgakov must choose: he may either acquiesce to write a propagandist play about Stalin — and in so doing defy all his principles — or he may refuse to yield and thus have all his works, including his most recent masterpiece, forever banned.

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