Leisure

Reviews and think pieces on music, movies, art, and theater.

Leisure

Holy musical, Bat Boy!

You walk in to a large warehouse-ish room. It’s all splintery wooden beams and black paint, huge red-and-black bat faces and unfinished walls. Smoke floats overhead. The slight beat of a drum echoes in the background, and bare risers surround a small stage.

By the November 21, 2002

Leisure

Northerners deliver two snoozers

The dashing hero of a Russian romantic novel poses a question to his traveling companion: “It was the French, I suppose, who made boredom fashionable?” “No, the English,” the companion replies. Surprisingly, both were wrong. Neither the Francos or the Anglos live in a locale quite northerly enough to facilitate truly mind-numbing boredom.

By the November 21, 2002

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Heaven takes earnest look at post-war ennui

Ten bucks says that Ricky battered Lucy and Ward Cleaver had a crush on Rock Hudson. It is almost a game now among pop culture nuts to decode the subtexts of those unbelievably pure television shows of the 1950s. A war had just ended and audiences wanted something that reflected their desires for an existence that was simple, happy and clean.

By the November 14, 2002

Leisure

Rangila expands its focus

The silhouettes of two women on linen screens are all that is visible on the darkened stage. The dancers shift to a lively drum beat until they emerge from behind the screens, their bodies speckled with glow-in-the-dark paint. The traditional percussion and sitar change to techno, and the dancers seize burning sticks of incense and fuse traditional South Asian dance with the more abandoned moves of a raver.

By the November 14, 2002

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Versatile acting shines in Studio play

Has American society has reached a stage where superficial appearances are valued above all else? We are constantly bombarded with images of “beautiful” people and find ourselves trying to conform to these stereotypes. Are we motivated to change to improve ourselves, or simply to impress others? The Studio Theatre’s production of Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things raises pointed moral questions about the nature of change and the extremes one is willing to go to for art and love.

By the November 14, 2002

Leisure

Liquid Lunchables

If the D.C. bar scene was a collection of packable lunch items, The Tombs would be the peanut butter sandwich?reliable and tasty. But the same lunch everyday gets boring. Sometimes you need to throw in a Lunchable or a Snack Pak. If the Tombs has been the center of your diet, it’s time to mix in some new ingredients.

By the November 14, 2002

Leisure

Falsettos delivers false promises

Just where did the lesbians next door come from and why should we care about them? It’s a question you will end up pondering towards the end of the ponderous Mask & Bauble production of Falsettos, an overlong musical whose size couldn’t be overcome, even with some good performances.

By the November 14, 2002

Leisure

With New Day, Gray’s soul tires out

The year 2000 was replete with heartwarming success stories of musical perseverance: Eminem, the Faint and Radiohead all broke big after long paying their dues outside of the top 40. The real winners of that year, however, were Moby and David Gray. Both stories had a touch of romance, desperation and American (er, Irish) spirit to them, as each artist broke through, neither relying on the strength of an edgy new sound nor the wake of industry buzz and beginners luck.

By the November 7, 2002

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‘Cope’-ing with success

Whether or not you’ve heard of Clarence Greenwood, a.k.a. Citizen Cope, it’s likely that you will hear a lot of him in the coming months. The D.C. native’s new self-titled album has been acclaimed by the Washington Post, Rolling Stone and many others. Cope’s video for the song “If There’s Love” off his album has been in heavy rotation on M2 and is featured on the network’s new compilation.

By the November 7, 2002

Leisure

Comic relief

Calvin & Hobbes is lost in comic rerun without any chance of revival. Peanuts died with creator Charles Schultz. It’s doubtful that anyone really even reads Family Circus anymore, or if anyone ever did. The state of current comic syndication is pretty stagnant, save for a few Mutts ‘toons every now and then.

By the November 7, 2002

Leisure

Frida keeps its plot in the gutter

Frida Kahlo was a lover, not an artist. On occasion, between bisexual liaisons and frequent battles with her unfaithful husband, she painted. This is what Julie Taymor leads audiences to believe in her new film Frida. The long-awaited biopic is a kitchen sink of non-discrimination, focusing on everything except that which is most important—the paintings.

By the November 7, 2002

Leisure

This Del’s for you

The best thing about West Coast underground hip-hop acts is that they aren’t trying to sell you an image. They just try to write engaging or, at the very least, amusing rhymes. Often, a self-aware sense of humor lies behind the lyrics, allowing these artists to avoid the trap of boasting and marketing one’s own ego at the expense of the music.

By the October 31, 2002

Leisure

Nomadic stands tall with Laramie …

All societies would like to believe that theirs is perfect, immune from instances of intolerance, prejudice and senseless violence. Nomadic Theatre’s new production of The Laramie Project is an intense look at one community’s crisis following a hate-driven murder that shattered this illusion.

By the October 31, 2002

Leisure

Politics, biology collide at Corcoran

Molecular Invasion, a new exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery, is possibly one of the more bizarre art attractions currently showing in the D.C. area. Presented by the Critical Art Ensemble, the project is a loud, brazen criticism of the environmental effects of advances in biotechnology.

By the October 31, 2002

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I (heart) D.C.

Every year at this time in New York City, thousands of musicians and indie rock fans gather together for the College Music Journal Music Marathon. The event’s bands all play in separate venues and it’s a great way to check out all the different clubs in New York, while hearing everything from Chemical Brothers to Ugly Casanova, to anything put out by Saddle Creek.

By the October 31, 2002

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… but Theatrical Shorts falls short

Nomadic Theater’s Theatrical Shorts present six plays written by a variety of playwrights?August Strindberg, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter?and is directed by Professor Baker-White, a professor in the Department of Art, Music and Theater. The actors make an admirable effort, but they frequently demonstrate an inability to subsist on the mere scraps and bare bones with which they are provided.

By the October 31, 2002

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Ring around the remake

This is what you see before you die: The ocean surf lapping against the waterlogged carcass of a horse. A chair spinning upside down. A woman in black jumping off a windswept cliff. A glowing ring. These images, couched in the blue-gray hues of the video age, feature on a tape that kills its viewers in Gore Verbinski’s The Ring.

By the October 24, 2002

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Eggers, Giants bring quirks to GW

Like many smart, original shows before it, McSweeney’s vs. They Might Be Giants opted to skip Georgetown University on its national tour, and instead head straight to The George Washington University. Yet this might be the only way it has followed in the footsteps of others.

By the October 24, 2002

Leisure

‘Ultimate aphrodisiac’ has a price

“War criminal,” says writer Christopher Hitchens in a brief shot in the opening minutes of The Trials of Henry Kissinger, “isn’t a piece of rhetoric, it isn’t a metaphor, it’s a job description.” For several years now, this mercurial, chain-smoking Englishman has been trying to attach that “job description” to larger-than-life diplomat Kissinger.

By the October 24, 2002

Leisure

Faith for evermore

Former Faith No More frontman Mike Patton started his own record label, Ipecac Recordings, intending to purge the music industry of its banal artistic talent and provide an antidote. Take a quick look, and you’ll find out there isn’t a better man to do it.

By the October 24, 2002