Michael Miner on the Colbert flap [Hot Type, May 12]: “Celebrities rule, authority sucks” seems to be part of the issue–but that barely scratches the surface. Miner’s analysis digs deeper and is perhaps the best I’ve seen to date about a chasm that should worry us all. Jerry Ackerman Gloucester, MA
Tag: Vol. 35 No. 34
Issue of May. 18 – 24, 2006
Posted inArts & Culture
Sharkiface, Bran(…)Pos
Angie Edwards, aka SHARKIFACE, has that evil-cute look that lets you know right away she’s all about domination. A member of the Bay Area noise royalty who’s played in Caroliner, Tarantism, and the transplanted Ohio group 16 Bitch Pile-Up, she coaxes oceans of broken glass from tiny metal boxes. At high tide she’ll shred you […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
According to urban legend, while garlic oil is harmless when consumed, it’s lethal if it gets into your bloodstream. Supposedly, this is why mafiosi used to coat their bullets in garlic oil–so if the shot was off center and hit your shoulder or something it would kill you anyway. I was wondering if you could […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Thank God for DJ iPod
Harbor Country is still learning to harness the power of low-power radio.
Posted inNews & Politics
Not Deep Enough
I’ve never voted for any Bush. As for today’s mainstream media, well, don’t get me started (no really, my family begs you–don’t get me started). From that frame of mind I watched Stephen Colbert’s now famous appearance at the big dinner in D.C. . . . eh [Hot Type, May 12]. He had two or […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Show Choir
Corn Productions is at its best with parodies. And sure enough the highlight of Jenni and Nick Caruso’s new musical, about the reuniting of a 1986 Catholic high school choir, is its recapitulation of Jesus’ life using jazz hands and 80s music revamped with funny, surprisingly reverential lyrics. There are hints of greatness here, especially […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Inheritance
This multimedia work by CAMP (Creative Arts Melting Pot) is often visually beautiful but intellectually confusing, combining dance, monologues, short scenes, video, and music to tell a story that doesn’t hold together. Alice (played simultaneously at different ages by Colleen Murray, Heather Kroski, and Laura Chiaramonte) is a naive, lonely 30-year-old, long ago abandoned by […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Summer Fairs and Festivals: Are You Ready for the Country?
Our guide to the pleasures of summer in the midwest, including but not limited to cheese curds, rib fests, rare sheep, live bluegrass, hot rods, and Cheap Trick.
Posted inNews & Politics
An Alderman’s Late-Breaking Rebuttal
I read your article about the development at Polk and Clark streets in my ward [The Works, May 5] with great interest. Peter Ziv provided your publication with one side of the issue. In the interest of providing your readers with both sides of this issue, I will give you, as Paul Harvey puts it, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
How He Sees the City
Gabert Farrar’s seven densely layered, labyrinthine paintings at Monique Meloche are inspired by his feelings about cities. “Anybody walking down the city street sees a jumble of cars and buildings and street lamps,” he says. “The spatial relationships in this jumble can become unclear, and you don’t know if you’re looking at backgrounds or foregrounds.” […]
Posted inFilm
Lost in Translation
The “Cuban James Joyce” worked on Andy Garcia’s tribute to pre-Castro Cuba, but you’d hardly guess it from watching the movie.
Posted inArts & Culture
Michigan Fiber Festival
The Michigan Fiber Festival ain’t about Metamucil. Instead, think sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, rabbits, and a bit of silk, cotton, and flax. More than 100 vendors, most based on small farms in Michigan, will be selling fibers in all forms, from raw fleece to finished yarn. (A common sight at the fair is women walking […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Racist Homophobic Foie Gras Lovers
“The Final Days of Foie Gras” [Restaurants, May 5] might just as well been entitled “The Final Days of American Empire.” Developing a taste for and eating foie gras will not bring the pillars of our society tumbling down. But the decadence that such unconscionable indulgence represents will ultimately do just that. That the Reader […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Sleeping Ugly–The Musical
Griffin Theatre Company’s first musical takes its cue from the “Once Upon a Mattress” school of fairy-tale deconstruction, adapting Jane Yolen’s kids’ book about a miserable princess, a good-hearted plain Jane, and a grumpy fairy godmother. Librettist William Massolia and lyricist-composer George Howe offer a sprightly reworking, and though the message–inner beauty is what counts–isn’t […]
Posted inMusic
Strike Up the Band
After a self-imposed hiatus and Tim Rutili’s move to LA, Califone gears up for the release of a new album.