Leisure

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

Leisure

Death and Dismemberment overtake 9:30 Club

Despite the dismal imagery that accompanies death and dismemberment, when both hit the 9:30 Club, as they did Tuesday night, there’s nothing of the sort. Add some Cex to the mixture, and you’ve got the makings of the next Evil Dead movie?or, maybe just a relucant indie band and some hometown pop-rockers trying to fool their unsuspecting admirers.

By the March 14, 2002

Leisure

True West a true riot

by Jennifer Ernst True West, Arena Stage’s latest production, takes place in suburban L.A., near the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains, where the coyotes howl at the moon, and the men howl at their typewriters. Unwinding in two acts, the tale of brothers divided, reunited and divided again crackles with the tension between Ted Koch and Todd Cerveris, who as Lee and Austin bring Sam Shepard’s 1980 script to bruisingly physical and gut-wrenchingly funny life.

By the March 14, 2002

Leisure

M&B’s One Acts fest a pleasure

In this year’s Donn B. Murphy One Acts Festival, Mask & Bauble presents an entertaining, yet highly unbalanced evening of student artistry and creativity. First, three college juniors meet one afternoon in Invading Bessarabia, by Colin Relihan (CAS ‘02), for friendly competition at a board game, which looks suspiciously like “Risk,” in the living room of an apartment that is unmistakably redolent of Village A.

By the March 14, 2002

Leisure

Pass the eucalyptus

Those of you lucky enough to experience one of Radiohead’s fantastic U.S. shows this summer will hopefully remember the short Chinese guy who opened for the band, promising to “play some records incorrectly.” That short Chinese guy, DJ Kid Koala, proceeded to do just that, dropping a remarkable set on his trio of decks and giving thousands of rock fans a tantalizing glimpse into the world of turntablism.

By the March 14, 2002

Leisure

Masterpieces hit Phillips

Picasso was a genius. Monet revolutionized art. Rodin reinvented emotion. Perhaps these revelations aren’t new or quite newsworthy, but they should be. Regardless of how well-known the great artists of the 18th and 19th centuries are, you can never know them well enough.

By the February 28, 2002

Leisure

Gorillaz rock out behind screen

The Gorillaz project is a game?a musical aside or musical footnote, an excuse for serious musicians to make less-than-serious music. Its members?2-D, Murdoc, Russel and Noodle?are cartoon characters with real-life rock star egos. Few people recognize these two important facts, but seriousness and cockiness aside, nothing can detract from their quirkiness and fun, not to mention their phat beats.

By the February 28, 2002

Leisure

Despite efforts, avant-jazz album still boring

Jazz has fallen a long way from its ‘60s-era, hell-raising fury. With his new album Nu Bopp, pianist Matthew Shipp is apparently trying to reclaim some of the fire, but he only manages to hold a lighter in the air as a cheap reminder. Shipp probably thought that he could garner some innovation points by adding electronic weirdo FLAM to the rhythm section.

By the February 28, 2002

Leisure

A ‘Bitch and’ good time

It’s easy to get angry about how women, especially lesbians, are often degraded by pop culture. But it takes a special sensibility to turn that fury into something as silly-yet-serious as Brooklyn-based duo Bitch and Animal make their live shows. Those of you who were privileged enough to attended their concert in Bulldog Alley last year know exactly what’s in store for show-goers.

By the February 28, 2002

Leisure

Voice DIY part II: It’s not art?it’s how I pay the rent

In the world of the avant-weird, playing off the established boundaries of art is critical if one wishes to find success. Granted, those boundaries are arguably in tatters after several decades of increasingly outlandish and often infamous exhibits.

By the February 28, 2002

Leisure

Faux-naif entertains at 9:30

For the past 30 years, Jonathan Richman has made a career out of singing songs dealing with topics ranging from ice cream men to puppy love. With longtime percussionist Tommy Larkin accompanying him on the cocktail kit, Richman brought this act to the 9:30 Club Wedensday, Feb.

By the February 28, 2002

Leisure

Denzel’s latest tackles health policy

Hopefully, your local hospital gives out free health care. Hope Memorial Hospital does not, and one dying little boy doesn’t have time to wait for the medical system to change, and neither does his determined father. John Q. looks at John Quincy Archibald (Denzel Washington), a hard-working factory employee and even harder-working family man, who is having trouble doing either effectively after having his hours trimmed back at work.

By the February 21, 2002

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Emo sideman hits the country with solo album

Rock ‘n’ roll has taken a turn for the generic, with emo ascending the Top 40 faster than you can say “smells like another Dookie,” but Cub Country has resisted this trend by taking a sharp dive into the South. Not that anyone can blame the band, as Southern influence has expanded outside its borders with the sleeper success of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, which compiled a variety of bluegrass-twinged country tunes.

By the February 21, 2002

Leisure

New Indian film colorful

With the world’s eyes fixed rigidly on the Asian subcontinent, it is quite fascinating to note the powerful contrasts that exist in the region. In India, the world’s largest democracy, there still exists a semblance of the age-old stratified caste system. In the streets of its larger cities, Hindi is heard spoken beside English?that leftover remnant of British colonialism.

By the February 21, 2002

Leisure

The dialectic of rock

Friedrich Nietzsche claimed that all great art emerged from the clash within man between the Apollonian impulse of order and Dionysian impulse of lust. Rock is certainly no exception, but from case to case, one impulse seems to trump the other. After all, rock spans a great range of sounds, from the gentlest folk ballad to the loudest misanthropic metal freakout.

By the February 21, 2002

Leisure

A tale of two Johns

This week has seen some exciting developments in the lives of two distinguished members of the Georgetown community, both named John. The new film John Q. may at first glance be a stirring tale of a man determined to save his son at all costs, but this morality play has a Georgetown connection.

By the February 21, 2002

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Cherry Tree benefits from ringers

For a campus that otherwise shows little interest in student-led artistic activities, the Georgetown community has a peculiar fascination with a cappella music in all of its doo-wopping glory. One can find spontaneous outbursts of coordinated vocal seranades in many forms, from small-scale performances by the Saxatones to Sellinger sing-alongs with the Phantoms and Superfood.

By the February 14, 2002

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Korean film features big action, little message

A team of crouching police, weapons drawn, herds a wounded woman into a back alley. As they circle around her, guns aimed at her temples, her look changes from panic to a calm intensity. She spends a moment silently facing her captors and then makes her move.

By the February 14, 2002

Leisure

Wrapping it up at NGA

We can criticize and kvetch all we want, but in the end, we must face the truth: We absolutely delight in the fruits of the packaging, in the billions of dollars that make sure things look just right. Sure it’s wasteful, but who can deny the allure of a glistening pile of, say, empty presents in a Macy’s window display? This mystery of packaging?its textures and vibrance, its ability to seduce the eye?is perhaps what compels Christo and Jeanne-Claude to wrap, artistically speaking.

By the February 14, 2002

Leisure

Eye of the tiger

Radical feminist and anarchist Emma Goldman once said, “I don’t want to be part of your revolution if I can’t dance.” Like other musicians with good politics who came before them, Le Tigre provides anthems for its target demographic. This threesome will be visiting with their multimedia slide show Wednesday at the Black Cat.

By the February 14, 2002

Leisure

Women behind the lens

Every child has done it. Scanning through the tightly-packed shelves of yellow, bound magazines that your parents so religiously collected, hoping to pick out a volume of National Geographic filled with pictures of wild animals, exotic places and even bizarrely dressed, but usually undressed, people.

By the February 7, 2002