Madeline Reidy

Leisure

Your guide to getting busy on the lawn

The weather is warm and finals season is ripe for slacking off. Even if you’re sick of getting hit in the face with a passing Frisbee, or not pretentious enough to know the difference between a stick of wood and a croquet mallet, there’s still room on the lawn for some creative tomfoolery. So sit back, unlace your Converse and behold the wonders of freshly mowed grass.

By May 3, 2007

Leisure

Critical Voices: Feist

Known for her sultry, lounge-style music and soft vocals, Leslie Feist has successfully expanded her palate beyond the Starbucks-friendly Let it Die in her latest album, The Reminder. It still contains many of the slow jam, coffee-guzzling tracks that worked well in the previous album, but with a few welcome surprises.

By April 26, 2007

Leisure

Artomatic: where bizarre meets genius

When I first walked into the Artomatic, I was greeted by a large shoebox of a movie still from Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend. The characters, donning barbie-sized silk fabric and tiny pearls, were marshmallow peeps. I obeyed the sign, “Do Not Eat,” and wandered into the exhibit, only to encounter a collection of equally eye-popping and unpredictable art.

By April 26, 2007

Leisure

I wanna be a cowboy, baby

An average, white-bread upbringing wouldn’t be complete without the cowboy dream. It may be as simple as that pair of boots with the spurs you saw at K-Mart, or those horseback riding lessons you took after you watched an old John Wayne film. Or maybe it is, as the exhibit “Jolly Cowboy” suggests, a complex mix of intangible fantasy and commercial delusion that has attracted hearts of all ages across the globe.

By March 29, 2007

Leisure

Maya Roth’s Big Love is a lot to love

Big Love just isn’t big enough to conquer all the staples of a social drama—free will, “love thy neighbor” and unrelenting feminism are just a few issues tackled in this revival of an ancient classic. Nevertheless, the performances are captivating, and the script is tinged with enough humor and cynicism to redeem the occasional dragging monologue.

By March 22, 2007

Leisure

Maya Roth’s Big Love is a lot to love

Big Love just isn’t big enough to conquer all the staples of a social drama—free will, “love thy neighbor” and unrelenting feminism are just a few issues tackled in this revival of an ancient classic. Nevertheless, the performances are captivating, and the script is tinged with enough humor and cynicism to redeem the occasional dragging monologue.

By March 15, 2007

Leisure

The best German film since Run Lola Run

The opening scene of The Lives of Others is austere and deadpan, an appropriate introduction to a film set in communist East Berlin. In a sterile classroom, secret police lieutenant Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) instructs students in the merciless process of interrogation, emphasizing that only the guilty shed tears.

By March 15, 2007

Leisure

Indie film: “Love in the Wrong Places”

Besides the frightening presence of Joan Rivers on every entertainment channel, there may be only one thing you can predict about Oscar season. Every actress on the red carpet is thinner than you. You can avoid this strange and recurring phenomenon by exploring the assortment of films offered by the DC Independent Film Fest.

By March 1, 2007

Leisure

Warming up to art

The snow was pretty for about an hour and now your ass is bruised from sledding on a cafeteria tray. You could retreat to your 80-degree dorm room and binge on all that fruit you sacked from Leo’s, or you could fight the winter blues with some hot cocoa and visual stimulation at one of D.C.’s warm spots.

By February 15, 2007

Leisure

A local artist’s guide to suburbia

As I entered Flashpoint, a modest downtown gallery, I sensed I had unwittingly stumbled into someone’s home.

By January 25, 2007