Last week I got so wrapped up in wistful longing for Austin’s SXSW events that I failed to give a good preview to Josh Garrett & the Bottomline. The band’s horn-driven Louisiana music hits the Zoo Bar Wednesday, March 16, 6 p.m.-9 p.m. So if you have this column in your hands in time on […]
Posted inMusic
Red Sky Mining
Speculation is always a dangerous proposition. It can be construed as rumor mongering, which to be honest, I’ve never shied away from (as long as there was some substance to the rumors, of course). But when it comes to Omaha’s first annual Red Sky Music Festival, speculation is all we have, for now. The event, […]
Posted inCulture
Drop Dead Gorgeous
If a viewer enters photographer Vera Mercer’s first U.S. solo show and stays long enough, he or she is likely to experience it in three stages and on a roller coaster of emotions. Still Lifes , on display at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts through April 9, features 11 large format, painterly images from […]
Posted inMovies
Cutting Room for March 16
La Vie En Rose kicked a lot of things off for me. It was the first film I saw at Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater (filmstreams.org) and also marked the beginning of what professionals may call an obsession with Marion Cotillard. To celebrate (the film, not my obsession), Film Streams is buddying up […]
Posted inMovies
What Happens in Iowa…
Just as Glengarry Glen Ross was for real estate agents, director Miguel Arteta’s Cedar Rapids is an ode to the desperate, lonely life of the insurance salesman. Of course, there are a lot more jokes here than in David Mamet’s play, but there’s no avoiding that big melancholic heart beating at the center. And the […]
Posted inMovies
Black Hawk Clowns
Amidst a sea of fallen comrades, facing almost certain death at the hands of an incomprehensible foe, Staff Sgt. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) gets inches from the face of Cpl. Jason Lockett (Cory Hardrict) and begins to bellow a five-minute rant without missing a single military cliché. Seemingly exhausted by covering every base from “good […]
Posted inMusic
And They Are Off
The Reader -sponsored South By Southwest band Satchel Grande played two hour-plus-long sets Monday night to a crowd of about 150 festive supporters as part of TR’s send-off show. Frontman Chris Klemmensen said the band was scheduled to leave for Austin Tuesday at 8 a.m. Their SXSW gig is tonight (March 16) at Karma Lounge […]
Posted inMusic
Kung Foo at the MAC
The Foo Fighters will be back in the metro on May 23 at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs. Tickets will go on sale March 19 at 10 a.m., are $49.50 and available at all Ticketmaster outlets and the MAC box office. Opening acts are Motorhead and Biffy Clyro. (expo.aspe.org)
Posted inMovies
Cutting Room for March 9
Close friends of mine are afraid of birds. Those folks should prepare to be terrified, as Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater is taking your feathered nemeses one terrifying step further. Ghost Bird, a documentary about the discovery of the long-extinct ivory-billed woodpecker, should be intimidating to avian-phobes on title alone. On March 15, […]
Posted inMusic
Wonderland Weds, Austin’s SXSW Approaches
Facebook friends and fans were able to follow the wedding day of Austin’s Carolyn Wonderland long-distance. The locally popular blues and roots artist married A. Whitney Brown of “Saturday Night Live” and more recently “Daily Show” fame on Friday, March 4. The a ceremony was on Doug Sahm Hill in Austin’s Butler Park. They were […]