Month: May 2002

From TV ads with roving cursor arrows to horror films about chat-room predators, our so-called entertainment elite is deeply fixated on the culture and symbolism of the Internet. One hundred years ago, it was the burgeoning vogue of vaudeville theater and moving pictures that blew the American zeitgeist wide open, and painters of the day…

This is your last chance, actually, to catch a highly popular series at the Jungle pairing the theater’s talented players and artists with great children’s stories. Well, your last chance for now. Linden Hills’ cornerstone Wild Rumpus has established itself as the Ruminator of children’s books, so it’s appropriate that they’re co-sponsoring and curating this…

What’s the attraction of panda bears to the children of the world? Like koalas, they’re real-life teddies that combine the fascination of wild animals with the cuddliness of the stuffed variety. Pandas are especially exotic in the western world, and herein lies a story of considerable intrigue. Even by the late 30s, China’s unique giant…

When Manet’s Mother Superior dryly asks, “God, when will this nightmare end?” we wonder right along with him. The Nuns has all the essential elements of a nightmare—from absurdly morbid sequences with a circus flavor, to the audience’s voyeuristic pleasure. This dark comedy, set during the Haitian slave revolt of 1804, cloisters the three sisters…

Arthur Miller is arguably the most important thing ever to have happened to American theater. It’s a question for the historians to figure out why it took us until the 20th century to find a voice fit for the stage, while the novelists were already worshipping the yellowing memory of great granddad Mark Twain. At…

If, like most people over 15, you’re put off by her status as an MTV flavor of the month, you’re really missing something. M!ssundaztood is a teen pop record worthy of the spirit of Phil Spector (we said spirit, though the songcraft and production are very good in their own right). Pink’s a tough, but…