Pretty much from the start, I was disqualified from ever interviewing the Shanks for The Reader. When the Shanks released their first single, 2007’s Cut Me, Boom Chick Records asked me to write up a little blurb to be sent out with the record. Thankfully, the internet has saved that short paragraph. Here it is […]
Posted inMovies
Movieha – Omaha’s Movie Podcast (June 24)
Once more, you have slogged through a thankless workweek filled with soul-crushing tasks and gut-wrenching obligations. Your reward? A new episode of Movieha, the greatest podcast in the history of podcasts run by guys named Matt and Ryan (NOTE: This fact has not been verified as accurate.) This week’s episode features ANOTHER new segment, a […]
Posted inSpecials
Cosmic Forecast June 23-29
Welcome to the summer season, initiated by the sign of the universal mother, Cancer the Crab. Cancers are of the most sensitive of signs. The key phrase for the sign is “I hold onto.” That’s what the BIG CLAWS are for. Grudges, money, (in)security, a love that’s already met its quota and should’a been gone […]
Posted inMusic
Darker Days: The Return of The Shanks
Here’s one way to sum up the rise and fall of The Shanks, Omaha’s original shock-rock punk band: Throughout our interview a couple weeks ago on the screened-in porch of guitarist Todd VonStup’s midtown house, band members got up and relieved themselves into spent beer cans and liquor bottles that lined the window ledge. Moments […]
Posted inCulture, Visual Arts
Bemis turns 30…UNL cuts arts education…
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts turns thirty and celebrates with open studios June 25, noon to 5 p.m. There will be a dedication of a Building Bemis capital expansion project, intended to address a need for space, and to increase direct support of artists-in-residence by 50 percent. The goal includes five studios, 8,000 square-feet of […]
Posted inCulture
Jacobshagen’s Gold
After 40 years of painting prairie landscapes in which nuanced skies get top billing, one might wonder if Keith Jacobshagen has tired of his subject. One might as well ask whether the tall grass of the prairie has grown bored with the song of the meadowlark. “I’ll paint until I can’t paint anymore,” Jacobshagen said […]
Posted inMusic
Feel the Burn
The concept album, when done well (The Who’s “Tommy,” for example), can raise a band’s artistry to a new level, attracting new listeners and garnering the respect of critics. When done poorly (KISS’ “The Elder”), it can serve as a permanent source of embarrassment for not only the band, but fans as well. After two […]
Posted inMovies
Cutting Room for June 22
You down with O-P-E? That’s right, I’m dropping a 90s-era hip-hop euphemism for promiscuous carnal relations to remind you about the Omaha Performing Arts and Cox Communications joint presentation of Music and Movies (or M&M as the cool kids are calling it). For the grand price of FREE, you can show up at the Holland […]
Posted inMusic
Playing With Fire moves, Stir Cove continues on
* The Playing with Fire concert series is moving its Saturday, July 16 show, headlined by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, to higher ground. The new location is at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village. Organizers decided to move to the public park, which sits on the southwest corner of the development near West Center Road […]
Posted inMovies
Out of the Past
The rosy-hued vision we often have of that always-intangible past is a fitting subject for Woody Allen, a director with a large segment of fans who pine for the kind of movies he made during his own vaguely defined “golden age.” His new picture, Midnight in Paris , is about a man with a similarly […]