Checking in with Boomie Pederson

Tell us about your day job. The Hamner Theater is my job. My paycheck comes from the Rockfish Valley Community Center, because at this point the Hamner Theater is a project of the Center. So my co-artistic director [Peter Coy] and I are on staff there. Unfortunately, my salary doesn’t reflect the hours I put […]

“Covert Affairs,” “The Glades,” “RuPaul’s Drag U”

“Covert Affairs” Tuesday 10pm, USA This unimaginatively titled new drama addition to USA’s summer procedural slate has been dismissed as “Alias Lite.” As a huge fan of the spy series that made J.J. Abrams, Jennifer Garner and Bradley Cooper household names, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. “Covert” stars the very pretty Piper Perabo […]

Movies playing in town this week

  The A-Team (PG-13, 117 minutes) From Smokin’ Aces director Joe Carnahan, it’s the inevitable big-screen update of the ‘80s TV action-comedy, starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper and some other guys, plus Jessica Biel. Regal Downtown Mall 6 Get Him to the Greek (R, 109 minutes) Russell Brand stars as Aldous Snow in this spinoff […]

Despicable Me; PG, 95 minutes; Opening Friday

You worry going into these cartoon flicks. With their bright computerized colors and loud noises and urgent insistence on 3D, you worry that you’ll come out more or less empty-handed, entertainment-wise. That the movie simply will be lame. With low standards in mind, Despicable Me doesn’t disappoint. That is, it’s not really lame at all, […]

Checking in with Cynthia Burke

What are you working on right now? I’m working on a large oil painting of foxes in an early Flemish style. And I’m working on small copper paintings of small birds. The big one’s probably going to take all summer. The little ones only take me a couple of hours.   Locally, who would you […]

Movies playing in town this week

The A-Team (PG-13, 117 minutes) From Smokin’ Aces director Joe Carnahan, it’s the inevitable big-screen update of the ‘80s TV action-comedy, starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper and some other guys, plus Jessica Biel. Regal Downtown Mall 6 Despicable Me (PG, 95 minutes) Steve Carrell voices an evil genius whose plot to steal the moon is threatened by […]

Checking in with Russ Warren

 What are you working on right now? Russ Warren, whose painting can be seen on the cover of this week’s paper, works at the farm he shares with wife Lyn Bolen Warren. Right now I’m working like mad on a series of paintings that started about a year or so ago. I kind of picked […]

Please Give; R, 90 minutes; Vinegar Hill Theatre

Writer-director Nicole Holofcener seems to get better with every film, and now she’s cruising along the well-trodden path of neurotic New Yorker comedy-drama with grace and comely confidence.  Catherine Keener and a cast of excellent women star in Nicole Holofcener’s newest low-key emotional rollercoaster, where a family awaits the death of an elderly woman whose […]