In a way, Alexander Calder is a movement of one—his mobiles, those feats of balance and grace, pretty much own the category. But Calder owes his inspiration to the surrealist movement, and this exhibit places him firmly within that larger context, demonstrating how his work grew out of influences from contemporaries such as Marcel Duchamp, … Read more
Paul of Maple Grove (the one in the middle) writes: While on an Hawaiian cruise, we visited Fanning Island, Republic of Kiribati located 1000 miles south Hawaii. Here’s hoping the natives enjoyed your mag as much as I did. (This may be our most remote Red Handed submission yet!) Author(s) and Location: Paul Cardinal
If the current U.S. government funded art that reflected its ideals, we might see Thomas Kinkade’s cottage scenes take over museums as well as shopping malls. (Then again, Kinkade’s apparently acquired a rep for groping women and urinating in elevators, so perhaps he’s more bad-boy art star than the Bush administration might wish to sanction.) … Read more
June 2004 — Jane Kempf, Chaska teacher find time to coax a young reader and neighbor, Santiago Rodriguez near Usquil, Peru. Second photo: The Rake translated by Julia Antonsen, Mound, MN in Charat, Peru pronounced (shar ot). Listening from left to right are father-in-law Santos Rodriguez, Chimbote, Peru, neighbor, Jane Kempf, Mound, and a Peruvian … Read more
It remains to be seen whether Brazilian singer Seu Jorge will perform his own sexy, samba-driven songs, or the set of the David Bowie covers that he played in the film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. We’ll hope for more of the former, since the Bowie songs, sung in Portuguese to spare and jangly … Read more
KBEM continues to surprise us—and not just by staying on the air. Amid continued funding threats, this tiny, low-budget, low-profile radio station keeps its programming fresh and relevant. Thursday nights, for instance, there’s “Riverwalk Jazz,” a Texas-produced show that explores the history of jazz through archival recordings, interviews, and performances of classics by the Jim … Read more
The Jayhawks seem to split up and get back together about as frequently as Eminem and his wife/ex-wife/wife/ex-wife Kim Mathers. Meanwhile, the individual members of the band have been working on some very cool side projects. There’s a new Golden Smog album, Gary Louris plays on both the new Rhett Miller and the Dixie Chicks’ … Read more
Now that the reanimated Pixies have proved to be an arena-sized success, Black is back to focusing on his solo career, and this double album shows he hasn’t been just counting his cash. He called back several Nashville session players from his last album, Honeycomb, and brought in other guests as disparate as The Band’s … Read more
Aimee Mann has a knack for imbuing her songs with emotional intelligence as well as pop hooks, but her idea of what constitutes a hook continues to move further away from the radio-friendly songs she sang with her old band, ’Til Tuesday. Her recent music is a new animal entirely. She seems to be writing … Read more
The article about handguns by Tom Bartel is an interesting piece to find in a magazine that claims on its website to favor “contrarian” viewpoints. Bartel acts as a marketing mouthpiece for the nine-billion-dollar firearms and ammunition industry—hardly a contrarian thing to do. I might have found it more contrarian if Bartel had investigated whether … Read more