Go to New York City and wonder at the sight of the Statue of Liberty rising out of New York Harbor. On a tablet within the pedestal on which the statue stands is an engraved poem by Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus”, containing the often quoted lines “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled […]
Posted inSpecials
Would You Eat Insecticide?
On August 24, 2003, seven year-old Kayla Yvonne Allen died face down in her own vomit. She had been poisoned with Atroban, an insecticide used on farms. In 1957, Nikolai Khokhlov, a former KGB assassin, was poisoned with insecticide. Saddam Hussein was inclined to use the slower-acting insecticide Thallium to secretly dispatch dissidents. A macabre […]
Posted inSpecials
Cosmic Forecast, Dec. 13-19
Welcome to/through the last Cazimi New Moon of 2012. “Cazimi” means “Heart of the Sun,” and refers to that part of a conjunction of/between the Sun and Moon where there is less than a 17 minute arc between the centers of the 2 planets. There have been 7 Cazimi New Moons in 2012. I’ve never […]
Posted inTheater
Belle, Beast Score Big Numbers
Publicists like to list all sorts of numbers when touting big Broadway shows, but they’re usually resistable. Not this time. Somehow, the “facts and figures” on Disney’s Beauty and the Beast grabbed me, despite the usual resistance compounded by the added irritation of having to include the Disney name in the official title. Fans of […]
Posted inCulture
Witches Meet Santa, Elves
Doug and Laura Marr have so much fun doing Witch Way to the North Pole at their Circle Theatre that it doesn’t matter if you’re a grade-schooler fascinated by its young witches and elves or adults entertained by all the pop culture tidbits. His writing and her directing are aided by a high-energy performance from […]
Posted inMovies
Cutting Room for December 7
Ty Burrell of the stunningly overrated TV show “Modern Family” has officially signed on to the sequel to The Muppets, presumably not as Miss Piggy’s new love interest. On the one hand, any time one of the people helping to make “Modern Family” the ongoing unfunny abomination that it is gets more work, I’m sad. […]
Posted inMovies
Par for the Corset
A quick preface before I eviscerate gifted director Joe Wright’s self-indulgent adaptation of genius playwright Tom Stoppard’s artifice-laden take on Leo Tolstoy’s classic Anna Karenina. I wrote a Master’s thesis on the influence 17th and 18th century female conduct books designed to codify feminine behavior had on the writing of Daniel Defoe’s satirical novel “Moll […]
Posted inMovies
Movieha! – Omaha’s Favorite Movie Podcast
On Your Radar: Upstream Color Netflix Roulette: Klown Please sign up for our RSS feed HERE, download our podcasts and rave about us in the comments section of iTunes HERE, follow us on Twitter HERE, and become a fan of us on Facebook HERE! You can also listen to our bit we do for KVNO […]
Posted inNews
Free Radical Ernie Chambers
It’s fitting a new book taking the measure of Nebraska politico legend Ernie Chambers is out just as this old social justice warhorse has proven he still owns the people’s will. In the Nov. 6 general election the 75-year-old Chambers demonstrated the pull he still maintains by decisively beating incumbent Brenda Council to regain his […]
Posted inMusic
The Reader Next 15
Pay attention to these names. These are the band’s that the Reader’s music writing team think have the best chance of making some noise in 2013. Hector Anchondo Universe Contest Travelling Mercies Lil’ Slim Blues Band Levi William Domestica Eli Mardock Darren Keen Snake Island InDreama UUVVWWZ Yuppies Solid Goldberg Dim Light Peace of Shit