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Iron Man Does Animal Butt Stuff

For Dolittle to appear as it does on screen, at some point, somewhere, someone had to write some variation of the words “and then Robert Downey Jr shoves his hand into the dragon’s anus.” It couldn’t have been “the dragon’s booty,” because wordplay about horded treasure would be offensively clever compared with the rest of […]

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Sick Buildings

Sick Buildings Take two aspirin and build me in the morning by Michael Braunstein My house was built in 1907. The Titanic had not yet sailed in 1907. In 1907, Thomas Edison was just getting into the swing of things as an inventor and the primary source of lighting was sunlight or gas fixtures. To […]

Iron Man Does Animal Butt Stuff

A Revolutionary Epic Masterpiece, Les Miz Is the Heart and Soul of Broadway’s Best Musicals

As a child, I was drawn to the image of the wide-eyed waif on the cover of a Broadway music book and hearing the haunting minor melody of “Castle on A Cloud,” for the first time changed my young life. I sang it for a voice recital when I was ten, eventually graduating to “On […]

Going Solo

Artist Thalia Rodgers has come a long way in a short time to her solo show of new mixed media paintings and drawings at the Union for Contemporary Art, opening Jan. 18. Originally a graphic arts major at UNL, Rodgers only began to explore painting in her sophomore year. Since then, she has received a […]

Dirty Little Secret:

Dirty Little Secret: Clay heals by Michael Braunstein Legend tells of a convicted prisoner in the 16th Century who was condemned to be hanged. In a burst of inspired self-preservation, he struck a deal with the court. “Kill me if you must,” he told them. “But let me drink poison instead of hanging; as long […]

Military Action That Is Actually Justified

The only thing more common than art that argues we should really stop doing war to each other is the fact that we seem to be constantly doing war to each other. 1917 is a visual protest poem that arrives in the United States amid substantial angst about yet-another impending Middle East conflict. Asking director […]

2020 Food Trend Predictions

Hindsight is always 20/20, but we’re hoping that our predictions for 2020’s food trends are at least close to accurate. Taking a look at last year’s predictions, I feel like we did pretty well. Filipino food has been tightly embraced, and sugar is still public enemy No. 1. The final nail may not be in […]

Summer Well-Seasoned at The Reader

Before her resume included titles such as award-winning author, senior editor for Simply Recipes and contributor for Rachael Ray Every Day, Summer Miller was a columnist at The Reader. “It was the mid-90s, and I was writing classified ad sales for The Reader,” Miller said. “Eventually, I found my way into working on some of […]

Cold War Kids Hit Reset

Chances are you won’t think of Kanye West the first time you hear New Age Norms 1, the new record from Cold War Kids. However, according to frontman Nathan Willett, it was West’s string of albums in the spring of 2018 that inspired the Long Beach, California, band to go in a slightly different direction […]

Skin In the Game

Skin In the Game by Michael Braunstein Okay, I had some weird thoughts as a kid. I admit it. One that has stuck in my mind is waking in that gauzy light of early morning, opening my eyes and seeing my hand resting on the bedsheet in front of my face. Barely conscious, I just […]

Adam Sandler Has a Stupid Face

Perhaps the most enjoyable film to be this relentlessly unpleasant to watch, Uncut Gems has the sound and feel of a hurried fork stabbing at and missing food while on a blind date your mom set up. It’s Panic Attack: The Movie, featuring an actor with a stupid face that is genetically designed to make […]

Cutting Room for January 2020

We complain a lot about remakes, but science says that no matter can be created or destroyed, and some religions say even you will get rebooted. I’m trying to make you feel better about Shrunk, which is an updated version of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Technically, it’s just a distant sequel, as Josh Gad […]