There’s a line in the song “So Lonely” by The Police that seems relevant when discussing the Academy Awards: “No surprise, no mystery.” Was anyone surprised that Chiwetel Ejiofor, who gave the best performance in the most important movie of 2013 (that’s 12 Years a Slave), lost out to Matthew McConaughey, who gave a nearly-as-good […]
There’s a line in the song “So Lonely” by The Police that seems relevant when discussing the Academy Awards: “No surprise, no mystery.” Was anyone surprised that Chiwetel Ejiofor, who gave the best performance in the most important movie of 2013 (that’s 12 Years a Slave), lost out to Matthew McConaughey, who gave a nearly-as-good […]
Throw the word “post” before the name of a music genre, and it can pretty much mean whatever you want it to. The members of Future Islands, an act caught somewhere in the limbo between indie rock and electronic dance music, once called themselves a “post-post” band. Fortunately, the three-piece outfit is willing to get […]
When Andy Friedman enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design, he devoted himself to Venetian oil painting, a skill so intricate that each work takes an average of three years to finish. “I knew that after college I would have to get a job, and I wanted to know the feeling of complete and […]
By now we’re all familiar with Luc Besson’s oeuvre, right? You may remember him as the writer responsible for resurrecting Liam Neeson’s career with Taken, a movie in which young women can do nothing for themselves while older men beat the shit out of other men who would do the women harm. With Taken, Besson sort […]
Wye Oak’s 2011 long player, Civilian, was the band’s breakout record. It was the third release from the duo of Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, and their first for the vaunted North Carolina indie label Merge. It was a profile-raising album, and one of the most highly lauded recordings of that year, allowing Wasner and […]
Sunny California meets the Aloha spirit in the alt-reggae troupe Iration, comprised of childhood friends Joseph Dickens, Adam Taylor, Cayson Peterson, Micah Pueschel, and Joseph King. The five-piece is currently gigging on its third release, Automatic, which features a collaboration with Cage the Elephant guitarist Lincoln Parish. The album skyrocketed up the Billboard and iTunes […]
For Americans seeking a good introduction to the appeal of martial arts films in general, and the talents of Bruce Lee in particular, the obvious starting point is usually Enter the Dragon. By 1973, action movies had already dominated the Hong Kong film industry for decades, but Dragon – an international production by Golden Harvest […]
Now in his eighties, America’s greatest living artist, Jasper Johns, is still recognized as the vanguard who ignored convention to create a new, galvanizing style that brilliantly reflected the spirit and mores of its time. Johns’ far-reaching influence can be discerned in Pop Art, minimalism, and conceptual art movements and it continues to resound in […]
Mention hand drums to most metal heads and you’re likely to get virulent responses, or worse. But the members of local band Blooddrunk Troll prove that hippie drums can be hardcore. John Jones, the dark master of the hand drum, bangs out serious beats on his djembe, laying the foundation for Luke “Beer Troll” Smith’s […]
The American Shakespeare Center in Staunton reached two milestones this season: the quarter-century mark and the completion of Shakespeare’s canon. All but two of the 38 plays we attribute to Shakespeare were published in the First Folio in 1623, and with its current production of Timon of Athens, ASC can claim performances of all of […]