by
Brian Slattery
|
May 2, 2024 9:53 am
|
Comments
(0)
Orpheus is smitten with Eurydice before they even speak. Hermes, Orpheus’s wingman, helps him work up his courage to ask her out.“Orpheus,” he warns,“don’t come on too strong.”
Orpheus extends his hand to Eurydice, offers flowers.“Come home with me,” he says, to audience laughter.“Who are you?” Eurydice responds.“The man who’s gonna marry you. I’m Orpheus,” he says.
So begins the drama in Hadestown, the celebrated musical running now at the Shubert Theatre through May 5. With music, book and lyrics by Anaïs Mitchell, it’s a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Hip hop heads will grant Takuya Kuroda street cred from his time in NYC playing with one half of legendary duo Gang Starr and one of the greatest producers of all time, DJ Premiere, in Premiere’s BADDER band. Jazz aficionados will appreciate that in 2014 he was signed to Blue Note Records for his album Rising Son, the same record label to which John Coltrane and Miles Davis contributed. And so, prior to showtime at The New Parish on Thursday night, the anticipation amongst the crowd was tangible.
by
Nora Grace-Flood
|
May 1, 2024 10:30 am
|
Comments
(0)
Yoga instructor Deb Cohen leads a lesson back by dark ambient band Monks Pond.
Savage Sisters Metal Meditation with Monks Pond PhilaMOCA 531 N. 12th St. Philadelphia April 28, 2024
*Extra credit: Test your focus (or flexibility) by reading this review while listening to the heavy metal meditation recorded above.*
People packed like sardines on 2‑foot-wide yoga mats were practicing their box breathing when a force of harmonium, gong and electric guitar smacked me square in the face.
by
Emily VanKoughnett
|
May 1, 2024 10:28 am
|
Comments
(0)
MANNEQUINPUSSY: I GOTHEAVENTOUR with SOULGLO The Fonda Theater Los Angeles April 26, 2024
My millennial algorithm keeps pushing TikToks about the power of listening to nostalgic music, claiming, essentially, that dancing to System of a Down beats finding a new therapist. An internet psychologist in my feed says it’s harder to form the same relationship to music as an adult than it is as a teen — something to do with dopamine receptors and reaching an age past which art can’t biohack the chemically ingrained bitterness in our brains. But fuck all that, because the band Mannequin Pussy has pushed me to levels of fandom apparently unbefitting people in their thirties.
by
Breezy Bratton
|
May 1, 2024 10:17 am
|
Comments
(0)
Ben Krantz Studio Photos
Romeo Channer as RED
REDREDRED by Amelio García Oakland Theater Project 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way Oakland Through May 19
REDREDRED, “the alternate telling of a story no one really knows,” was chaotic and brilliant when I saw it on April 26, its world premiere. Written by Amelio García, a transmasculine actor, playwright, and Fulbright Scholar from El Salvador, the story was inspired by Anne Carson’s novel Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse.
by
Jamil Ragland
|
May 1, 2024 10:11 am
|
Comments
(0)
Sea Shore Restaurant & Marina City Island, The Bronx New York April 29, 2024
I am a proud Nutmegger, and an annoyingly outspoken proponent for Hartford and its development. But if I was ever going to move away from my home, then without a doubt I would go to City Island to live.
by
Jamil Ragland
|
May 1, 2024 9:35 am
|
Comments
(0)
Jamil Ragland Photo
Melissa White and Sophie Shao perform together
Strings of Inspiration! Artists Collective Hartford April 30, 2024
Not to toot my own horn, but I’m not just a band geek — I was band president in high school. I transcribed videogame music for fun. I was about that life.
Going to the Artists Collective on Tuesday night to watch Strings of Inspiration, a performance featuring Grammy-winning violinist Melissa White, let me relive those memories of high school band practice and the joy I used to feel when I played the clarinet (and by “played,” I mean “honked aggressively”).
Woodworker Jesse Rinyu and Poet LindoYes attempt to fix their shared sculpture's nutty brain.
LindoYes performs his poem, "Irregular Heartbeat."
The Poetry Gumball Machine Project Museum for Art in Wood 141 N. 3rd St. Philadelphia April 27, 2024
“Tough love is being punched until you don’t cry — and crying is the only thing that stops the punching from hurting as much,” Philly Poet and local organizer LindoYes recited softly. His words were resonant enough to reach his audience without relying on a mic as he stood next to a wooden robot designed to dispense his poems — and social service supports — to the city at large.
Ceschi perfomring on WNHH FM's "Acoustic Thursday @ Studio 51."
Like the rest of us, Ceschi, a.k.a. Julio Ramos, had long since emerged from the darkest days of the Covid-19 pandemic. But he hadn’t forgotten.
Nor had he lost hope.
Fuck your neighbor to survive Eat your neighbor to survive We were hiding our faces long before pandemics arrived …
Ceschi (he performs under a familial nickname) was live on WNHHFM’s“Acoustic Thursday @ Studio 51” program (watch the full episode in the above video) performing“2020 BC,” a powerful song he wrote in the early lockdown pandemic days.
by
Emily Ann Zisko
|
Apr 28, 2024 11:52 am
|
Comments
(0)
Anya Gta Photo
IKEARESIDENCYRECEPTION Surely Work Studios Los Angeles April 20, 2024
Like the markers in the 22-acre IKEA in Burbank — second in size only to the flagship store in Stockholm — arrows made of masking tape led me to the entrance of a hullabaloo in shades of yellow and blue. Välkommen to At Home, the inaugural exhibition of the IKEA residency in Downtown Los Angeles.
by
Breezy Bratton
|
Apr 28, 2024 11:51 am
|
Comments
(0)
Breezy Bratton Photo
Castlemont High School Ensemble performs Kirk Franklin's "Revolution."
2nd Annual East Oakland Vocal Festival Phillip Reeder Auditorium at Castlemont High School 8601 MacArthur Blvd Bldg. 300 Oakland April 24, 2024
The energy was frenetic in the spacious Phillip Reeder Auditorium as students from six schools wearing black “Town Business Vocal Program” T‑shirts shrieked, did vocal warmups, and sprinted between purple seats the shade of grape jelly.
Host and MC Keenan Foster stood center stage both literally and figuratively as he introduced the event at the 2nd East Annual Vocal Festival within Castlemont High School. He aimed to bring his interests as music teacher and producer/songwriter at Town Business Inc. together in partnership with the nonprofit Elevate Oakland founded by Sheila E., Yoshie Akiba (of Oakland’s own Yoshi’s jazz club), among others, to “reignite the legacy of choral music and vocal performance for our youth in East Oakland.”
by
Jamil Ragland
|
Apr 28, 2024 11:50 am
|
Comments
(0)
Jamil Ragland Photo
Cirque du Soleil BAZZAR Hartford April 25, 2024
Seeing BAZZAR in Hartford on an unseasonably chilly evening was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. The commercials for Cirque du Soleil, the exotic spelling of the name, and the mystery surrounding exactly what kind of performance it would be made me feel like I was joining a special, exclusive club by finally experiencing the show live.
by
Alicia Chesser
|
Apr 28, 2024 11:45 am
|
Comments
(0)
ALICIA CHESSER PHOTO
An Okie food party for the books
Big Bite Food Festival Gateway Event Center April 20, 2024
I’m only a little bit embarrassed about the noise I made in public when I put Antoinette Bakery’s creme fraiche macaron topped with caviar and lemon zest into my mouth on Saturday night at Big Bite. And here’s why I don’t feel that bad about it: I wasn’t the only one. Other folks at other tables were making the same ecstatic noises I’d just been making, eating other things. “That’s the sound we like to hear,” said the baker behind the table, adorably pumping her fist.
by
Nora Grace-Flood
|
Apr 26, 2024 11:51 am
|
Comments
(0)
Stellar sound from KulfiGirls Wednesday night.
KulfiGirls The Dolphin Tavern 1539 S Broad St. Philadelphia April 24, 2024
Amid the fuzz rock, punk and noise music bouncing off the walls of the Dolphin Tavern Wednesday night, I found myself transported out of South Philly and into a Lisa Frank-like wonderland — as Carnatic rock crew KulfiGirls cut through an acidic night with an experimental mixture of sweet, sometimes gritty pop, colorful multi-instrumentalism, and neon joy.
by
Dereen Shirnekhi
|
Apr 26, 2024 11:43 am
|
Comments
(0)
Dereen Shirnekhi photo
Wacahatchee Toad’s Place New Haven April 25, 2024
“I’ve been yours for so long / We come right back to it.”
It was a refrain I’d heard maybe hundreds of times at that point, the croon of Katie Crutchfield’s voice and the banjo backing her committed to memory. But Thursday night, as I heard it live and sang along with a crowd filling up Waxahatchee’s sold-out show at Toad’s Place, the song felt new.
by
Alicia Chesser
|
Apr 26, 2024 11:40 am
|
Comments
(0)
ALICIA CHESSER PHOTO
Water Is The Sun at Noise Town
ONEAUX: A Night Of Ambience Noise Town April 17, 2024
If you’ve never spent a Wednesday night sitting on a floor in West Tulsa listening to experimental ambient soundscapes with trippy projections in a music venue the size of a New York City railroad apartment across from the Tulsa Stove Hospital (est. 1921), have you even Tulsa’d?
by
Jamil Ragland
|
Apr 26, 2024 11:39 am
|
Comments
(1)
Jamil Ragland Photo
Erika Slocumb recalls her time as a teacher
Salons at Stowe: Literary Criticism Locked Up Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Hartford April 24, 2014
I went to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center for a discussion titled “Literary Criticism Locked Up.” The discussion was supposed to focus on the restrictions on literacy for incarcerated people, and the limits placed on telling their stories. As both a writer and former educator, I was greatly anticipating the program.
I had been to OMCA’s Friday night events a handful of times in past years (all pre-pandemic). While it had always felt worth the pop-by. I had never found myself drawn to really, really take in the scene. Luckily, the mix of dance, music and food at the outdoor gathering this balmy and still very sunny Friday evening was an excellent reentry into the possibilities for both me and the community, as the weekly event just restarted for the season this month.
The museum’s terraced sculpture garden has never, in my experience, looked better, than when olden hour rained down on a lawn of families picnicking and dancing, a small stage of activity, and beds and beds of lush plant life. Across the street on one side the lake sparkled. To another side, on the shadowed courthouse steps skaters took up nightly residency, shredding away the day’s public duties. (BBQing too, this night. Right on.)
by
Kate Sadoff
|
Apr 25, 2024 4:18 pm
|
Comments
(0)
WILLCOCKRELL’S LAUNCHOFEVEREST, INC., DIESEL A Bookstore Los Angeles April 16, 2024
I avoid the Brentwood Country Mart at most costs; it’s a danger zone for running into people from my high school. Last Tuesday night, however, I sucked it up and went on a whim to hear Will Cockrell launch his new book, Everest, Inc.: The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World, with climbing legend John Long at DIESEL, A Bookstore.
Hungry Pot Korean BBQ and Hot Pot The Shoppes at Buckland Hills Manchester April 23, 2024
After experiencing the earth-shattering crunch of Korean fried chicken a few weeks ago, I continued my exploration of food from the Hanguk peninsula continued with a visit to Hungry Pot Korean BBQ and Hot Pot at the Shoppes at Buckland Hills.
