Arts

Tanya K grew up an hour from Salt Lake City, where her upbringing definitely influenced her musical palette. She picked up guitar “as a reaction to piano lessons” and moved to California at 17 where she played in the bar where Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath.

That’s the thought that crossed my mind as Poseidon, a mere 15 minutes in, began to take on water—lots of water. One minute I’m sitting there, getting to know the passengers who, like rats, will spend most of the movie trying to escape from a sinking ship. Then, all of a sudden, the first mate (or maybe it’s the chief petty officer), says to someone or other, “Do you feel that? Something’s off.” Something’s off, all right. Director Wolfgang Petersen was given $160 million to rebuild that great slab of cheese, 1972’s The Poseidon Adventure, and he’s already blowing his wad. Heck, the whole thing’s over in 98 minutes. At that point in King Kong, Peter Jackson hadn’t even shown us the monkey.

Thrum is analog ambient music with a pulse. Drums (John Allietta) and bass (Christine Ruotolo) lay down organic grooves. Guitars and effects from Lance Brenner (who, with Ruotolo, is two-thirds of power popsters The Naked Puritans) create hypnotic layers. Sit back, take in your favorite poison, talk with your friends, then ease yourself onto the dance floor. The party’s at R2, in the back of Rapture on the Downtown Mall. Free, 10pm. Tuesday, May 16.

Live Arts: The Teen Theater Team consists of directors Daria Okugawa and John Gibson, producer Geri Schirmer, and 11 local teens who made a long-term commitment to study various aspects of theater craft. The Tale of Pearl and Edmond, a lavish, intricate, unpredictable concoction inspired by the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, and written by the teens themselves, is the culmination of months of hard work. The cast takes turns reading the story, while the others bring the dialogue and details to life.

This week is graduation weekend, a perfect time to find out if American Dumpster can toss its tassel from left to right, and make a name for itself outside of our comfortable university town. The band’s management team, AfterParty Artist Management, is going to make sure the answer is yes, yes, yes! AD has the […]

As high school kids in Staunton, my friends and I always went record shopping at Back Alley Disc on Main Street, and Dave Sherman was the guy who held our attention. Although he grew up in Oregon, he had recently returned from Europe and, as he explained it, “being named Sherman, I didn’t want to settle too far south.” So he settled in Staunton, where he worked at Back Alley for 20 years. Sherman recently had a serious heart attack that left him flatlined. I got to talk to him about music—especially his connection to Delbert McClinton.