The SNAP! parody of Valley of the Dolls made me want to laugh all the way to a video store and rent the 1967 movie. Performances by Michal Simpson and Adam Nathan were so outrageously entertaining you knew the original must have set new lows for overwrought soapiness. Credit a crazy gender-switching cast and at […]
Posted inTheater
Snows Hits Openings
*The burst of new theater openings was confronted last Friday with the first bad weather after an October and early November stretch that gave no excuse for missing even a minute of good stage artistry. Which is a prelude to confession: Chanticleer was holding two tickets for To Kill a Mockingbird, with talented Ron Hines […]
Posted inSpecials
School Ties
The longest play Kansas managed came with about six minutes remaining in the third quarter of its 20-3 loss against Nebraska, when running back James Sims gained 23 yards over left end. The gain was nullified by a holding penalty on the Jayhawks. Nebraska defensive coordinator Carl Pelini referred to the play afterward. Kansas had […]
Posted inSpecials
Win Some, Lose Some
* You win some, you lose some and let’s just say Omaha’s had better weekends than the one just past. First there was the Creighton women’s soccer team, rallying Friday from a goal down to take a 2-1 lead on Minnesota in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Golden Gophers out-shot the Bluejays […]
Posted inMusic
Games People Play
Will we ever know the real story behind the songs that make up Tim Kasher’s debut solo album, The Game of Monogamy ? Probably not. “Some friends and family — people who really know me well — try to guess which songs are accounts of my life, and they’re always wrong,” Kasher says, on the […]
Posted inMusic
Mac Attack
Mac Lethal (real name David McCleary Sheldon) has repped the Midwest for the past 12 years, since the second he started entering rap battles in high school. Quickly acquiring a reputation as a fearless competitor, he earned a spot at the 2001 Scribble Jam and took second place, which sent his career in a new […]
Posted inMusic
Black Friday at Homer’s, Mad Ave Needs Your Help and Pink Floyd Goes Electronic at UNO
* The folks behind Record Store Day have put together exclusive releases for indie shops such as Homer’s for Black Friday, Nov. 26. Artists include The Black Keys, Iron & Wine, Dr. Dog, MGMT, U2, Drive By Truckers, Gaslight Anthem, Tom Petty, and several more. Most have pressings under 3,000 and, according to Homer’s GM/Buyer, […]
Posted inMusic
Playing God
Pandora founder Tim Westergren stood alone on the empty oak stage floor of the packed Durham Western Heritage Museum auditorium, holding a microphone, looking like Peter Krause from “Six Feet Under,” and calmly told the audience of music fans, musicians, business people and tech-geeks what the future of the music industry looks like. If he’s […]
Posted inMusic
Music Brings Hope
Despite the holidays heading our way, there are still lots of live music events. Many of them let you give back to your community during this holiday season. Slowdown hosts Omaha Rocks: a Benefit for the Homeless, Thursday, Nov. 18, featuring Platte River Rain, The Bishops, The Jacuzzi Brothers and The Todd Campbell Project. Your […]
Posted inSpecials
Biophobia
It may be unfair to call biophobia a pandemic. Like the trumped-up charade known as the 2009 swine flu “pandemic,” it’s not true that most of the world is affected by biophobia, though it impacts far more people than swine flu ever did or will. You haven’t seen biophobia in the headlines and don’t know […]