Mixed emotions: how we get the music to talk for us
I so make the best mix tapes. Seriously. Give me 60 minutes of your time and I’ll show you where it’s at, and how to get there. That is, if you really like your mix tapes chockfull of Mike Patton noise projects balanced by a smattering of Brownesville Station, with a nod to Charlie Parker,…
A new Arthuriad for our time
Centuries of Arthuriads suggest that every age creates its own version of the great saga, probably the most important single myth for literature in Western Europe, particularly in Great Britain. The many stories of knightly valor and honor, the fellowship of the Round Table, the grand quest for the Holy Grail have inspired countless works,…
Also playing…
Big Lebowski fans, sit up and take notice: The Dryden is screening a little-known template for that film this Thursday, one week before they put the Dude up there himself. While Cutter’s Way (1981) stands on its own just fine, thank you, it’s similarly impossible not to view the earlier film through the lens of…
Get the funk in your face
At the age of two, George Johnson was weaned on the spiritual music of Mahalia Jackson at his grandmother’s Los Angeles home, but it wasn’t long before he got all shook up. “My first major influence was seeing Elvis Presley on television when I was five,” says Johnson, who just turned 51. “During a…
Passion and survival
Somewhere tonight a man straps on a guitar to face the world. Somewhere tonight a man is pouring his all out upon the stage. Somewhere tonight this man sings the blues. His music speaks for those without a voice or for those who simply haven’t found one yet — the unheralded, unsung everyday heroes just…
The war of lies
So: if George Bush had said that he wanted to go to war against Iraq because Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator, would the nation have gone along? That’s the only rationale left for Bush’s war. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein was not planning, and did not have…
Body count 4.14.04
To honor the war dead and fill an information gap in US mass media, City Newspaper will run weekly lists of American soldiers killed during the occupation of Iraq. The totals: 881 American soldiers and 120 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war and occupation to July 12. More…
Anything but static: more changes at WRUR
It’s Thursday night, and DJs Jason Cuthbert and Chris Green are in the new WRUR studio recording an episode of Cuthbert’s show, Wide Awake. A song by Kanye West and the rapper Consequence starts the show. A tune by G-Unit rapper Lloyd Banks, another by A Tribe Called Quest, and another by Jadakiss featuring Anthony…
And then there were five
Since talk of a large performing arts center began nearly 15 years ago, there’s been no shortage of public-private committees organized around the effort. At one time, there seemed to be a firm plan for a three-theater complex located at Midtown Plaza. (See the Erica Curtis article, “Looking for a room of their own,” in…
Looking for a room of their own
It’s a Goldilocks-style dilemma. Of all of the performing arts spaces being proposed — all the various sizes, locations, and configurations — for every arts group there is one that would fit just right. But who gets into which round of discussions, and how much weight those discussions actually carry, are questions some small-…
Reader feedback 4.14.04
Debating a downtown casino
Reader feedback 4.14.04
Debating a downtown casino
Reader feedback 4.14.04
Debating a downtown casino
Dream ride
I suppose the longstanding American love affair with automobiles can be attributed to the freedom and stylistic beauty they represent — or used to represent anyway. With the majority of cars rolling off the assembly line today looking like enameled suppositories, you find yourself looking back to a simpler time (I don’t know, maybe pre-1970)…
Reader feedback 4.14.04
Debating a downtown casino
NWA Upstate Wrestling:
Pro wrestling is one of the great mysteries of our day: Men in showy spandex suits tumble around in a padded ring, groping, lunging, and acting like human missiles. From my angle, it’s a lot like a progressive, homoerotic modern-dance piece. From an adolescent boy’s perspective, it’s the ultimate in testosterone-driven showmanship. Give it a…
Reader feedback 4.14.04
Debating a downtown casino
Forging a Frontier of their own
DC United’s Jaime Moreno stands just outside Frontier Field’s team locker rooms and looks down the tunnel where soccer players enter the stadium, in the foul territory behind home plate. His team just beat the Rhinos 2-0 in a friendly match, and Moreno is describing what it’s like to play soccer on a baseball…
Family valued 4.14.04
Tomato justice in Sterling They say those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Like that’s a bad thing. At the Sterling Renaissance Festival, repeating history is fun. Want to relive a time when scores were settled by men on horseback wearing what looks like twice their body weight in armor? A time…
