Critic’s Choice This third in a four-part video series is worth seeing for two of its tapes. Though Gordon Matta-Clark’s Clockshower (originally shot on film) isn’t very well made, it should fascinate those familiar with the filmmaker’s bizarre interest in architecture: in other works he actually took buildings apart. In this video he climbs to […]
Tag: Vol. 25 No. 23
Issue of Mar. 14 – 20, 1996
Posted inArts & Culture
Grismore/Scea/Short/Shultz Project
GRISMORE/SCEA/SHORT/SHULTZ PROJECT That handle won’t win any prizes for creativity, but to those familiar with the individuals named, it tells the story–and whets the appetite. Guitarist Grismore (Steve) and saxophonist Scea (Paul) colead their own quintet, which has released one quite good album–imaginatively textured and full of surprises–and plans another. They also appeared last summer […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg For more than a decade violin wunderkind Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg has wowed audiences with an aggressive playing style that often takes liberties with a composer’s intentions. Her nonpurist approach harks back to the age of flamboyant performers like Liszt who tended to put showmanship above all else. Onstage the Roman-born Salerno-Sonnenberg espouses a pouty […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Fat Tuesday, the Mardi Gras Musical
Fat Tuesday, the Mardi Gras Musical, New Tuners Theatre. At its strongest, this premiere from New Tuners captures the ferocious freedom of a New Orleans carnival peaking into the final blowout. Best when it struts rather than sentimentalizes, Elizabeth Doyle’s pop score ranges from the honky-tonk sparkle of “Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler” to funky […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story Recent passings of note: In Columbus, Ohio, M.S. Tooill; in Arlington, Virginia, W. M. Croker; in Oklahoma City, William Death. In February in Rhode Island a 44-year-old man was killed on the shoulder of I-95 after being hit by a truck while standing between two other trucks–one was hauling granite slabs for tombstones […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Festetics Quartet
FESTETICS QUARTET The notion of playing early music (baroque and before) and classical-era compositions on authentic instruments has held the fascination of many since the 1950s. But for the concept to be more than mere crutch, period instruments must be treated with the same imagination and spirit as their new counterparts. Since forming in 1985 […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Prague Chamber Orchestra
PRAGUE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA One of Europe’s preeminent midsize ensembles, the conductorless Prague Chamber Orchestra has been around for more than four decades, offering itself as a model of versatility and independence. Its players (currently 36 in all) are drawn from top conservatories in eastern Europe, and the sound they produce is noted for its balance, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Heroine…Rescued Voices
Heroine…Rescued Voices, Footsteps Theatre Company. This collection of testimonials from women through the ages leaves one indelible impression: independent women have long been seen as carriers of moral contagion. Just as medieval church elders eradicated the proto-separatist Beguine retreats as headquarters of heresy, contemporary reformers of every political stripe pinpoint the “female-headed household” as the […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Savage Love
Hey, Faggot: Any tips for bondage beginners? My girlfriend and I are ready to give kinkier sex the old college try. But neither of us have tied a knot more complicated than the ones we accidentally put in our shoelaces. Any tips? –New to It Hey, NTI: You’re in luck. A friend of a friend […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Fugees
FUGEES The Fugees have come a long way from the Bob Marley-esque, dancehall-hip-hop fusion that marked their 1994 debut, Blunted on Reality. The trio’s terrific new follow-up, The Score (Ruffhouse/Columbia), allows the raps, toasts, and singing of Prakazrel, Wyclef, and Lauryn Hill a freedom that the often cluttered debut inhibited. The second album also proves […]
Posted inMusic
The Mistake
The Mistake Traveling across the U.S.A. It’s hard sometimes to keep it together… Find someone or you’ll be lost And you’re just the kind who’s liable to never be found. Those words come from Blackie Onassis’s plaintive “The Mistake,” the psychic centerpiece of Urge Overkill’s last album, the erratic but powerful Exit the Dragon. The […]