Who will keep you warm when the moon is high and the nights are long and cold? Pam Houston would recommend a good dog. He might drool, smell a little gamey after a romp in the rain, and eat the occasional flattened squirrel, but he’ll adore you unconditionally and enjoy nothing in the world so … Read more
Who doesn’t have a bit of a thing for Conor Oberst, the doe-eyed Nebraskan whose angst-ridden, poetic ballads draw comparisons to Bob Dylan and Paul Simon? With fame and success firmly planted on his doorstep (which is now in Manhattan), Oberst, who has made some nine recordings as Bright Eyes, is becoming a more relaxed, … Read more
Once upon a time, the Sierra Club was merely a loose group of happy hikers who didn’t think much further than the next hill. But when David Brower took over in 1952, he brought a sense of urgency and environmental awareness to the organization, which went on to save national treasures like Utah’s Dinosaur National … Read more
Sean Penn quietly turns in one stunning performance after another, in complex and riveting films, and still, real popularity eludes him. Or at least his fans refrain from pecking him apart with the so-called love that dogs the Leos and Toms of Hollywood, which is probably just as well. His latest role, as Sam Bicke, … Read more
Since this is quite possibly one of the most excruciatingly painful movies ever made, would we be able to watch it again, now that it’s out on DVD? Uncertain. Stunningly beautiful, it inspires a host of machinations in the mind of the viewer. If you had the chance to completely erase your most painful memories, … Read more
A young, flirty Bette Davis lucks out when Leslie Howard, a wandering intellectual in search of meaning in life, walks into her particular cafe. Greasy food is served, googly-eyed glances are exchanged, and all is oh-so-good and as sexy as 1936 ever got—and then Humphrey Bogart shows up. Playing a gun-toting con on the run, … Read more
They don’t make shoot-’em-up gangster films like they used to. James Cagney gives a landmark performance as Tom Powers, a Prohibition-era bootlegger based on real-life gangsters Charles Dion “Deanie” O’Banion (Al Capone’s archrival) and Earl “Hymie” Weiss, who gets credit for the infamous grapefruit-to-the-face scene. Beyond that citrus-scented notoriety, The Public Enemy has been praised … Read more
German playwright Bertolt Brecht famously said that a theater without beer is just a museum. So he must be looking down upon America’s theater houses with great distress, because most have become Tennessean “dry states.” Just try to bring some Merlot to your seat and watch the ushers tsk-tsk you. To counteract the damper that … Read more
Lee Blessing is best known for the Tony Award-winning “A Walk in the Woods” and, recently, “Thief River” at the Guthrie Lab. He calls his Two Rooms “a play about devotion.” Written circa 1988, the story centers on a woman whose husband has been taken hostage in Beirut. Flanked by reporters and government officials, this … Read more
Piggybacking on the success of “Carmen,” Jeune Lune serves up a second spicy, Spanish-flavored opera—one that also stars the now-famous Baldwin sisters (who played the title role and Micaela in “Carmen”) as desirous but unattainable divas. This time, Dominique Serrand and company have chosen a little-known piece, perhaps a preemptive move to disable opera traditionalists … Read more