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The Selfish Gene grabs Isthmus Band to Band Combat 2009 title
on 11/20/09 at 12:04 pm | Sleek, solemn rock trio The Selfish Gene prevailed last night at the Frequency in the final round of Isthmus Band to Band Combat, the local-music contest staged by your favorite Madison alternative newsweekly. The runner-up was The Midwest Beat, the quartet whose brisk pop songs are drenched in Mersey Sound jangle. The winner was chosen by club patrons, who cast votes. |
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Rich white folks adopt a black football player in The Blind Side
on 11/20/09 at 9:00 am | A great swath of American men might fall in love with Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, the generously entertaining movie about, among other things, the sweeping cultural phenomenon that is football in the South. She is beautiful. She is rich. She loves football. And she carries a gun. |
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Soul Power: Spotlight on James Brown
on 10/30/09 at 9:00 am | There are a lot of mind-blowing moments in Soul Power, the documentary about a 1974 music festival that brought James Brown, B.B. King and other greats to Zaire. |
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American Players Theatre announces 2010 season
on 10/23/09 at 12:05 pm | In the wake of American Players Theatre's 2009 season, which saw the triumphant debut of the indoor Touchstone Theatre, the Spring Green company has released its eight-play lineup for next year. |
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Where the Wild Things Are not
on 10/16/09 at 9:00 am | Like any good myth, Where the Wild Things Are has lessons to teach, but also ambiguities. To his credit, director Spike Jonze retains ambiguities in his film version, which he wrote with Gen-X literary icon Dave Eggers. But given the book's austerity, the film has quite a few gaps to fill, even at a brief hour and 34 minutes. |
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Bright Star chronicles a poetic romance
on 10/09/09 at 9:00 am | Bright Star is romantic. It is comic. And it is very sad. If you know anything about the tubercular John Keats, you can guess how this story ends. |
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Under Our Skin: Epidemic proportions
on 10/09/09 at 9:00 am | My favorite documentaries are by filmmakers like Frederick Wiseman and Barbara Kopple, who let the cameras roll as interesting people go about their interesting lives. The resulting films feel emotionally true and, often, satisfyingly ambiguous. |
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Althouse commenters: Gays are perverted fudge packers
on 10/08/09 at 10:29 am | Hat tip to Atlantic blogger Andrew Sullivan, who quotes vile anti-gay comments on the blog of Ann Althouse, the Robert W. & Irma M. Arthur-Bascom Professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. |
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The September Issue exposes the weird Vogue staff
on 09/25/09 at 9:00 am | When Vogue editor Anna Wintour made an uncomfortable appearance on Letterman a few weeks ago, an ominously telling moment came when the host held up a copy of the September issue. |
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I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell: Disaster movie
on 09/25/09 at 9:00 am | I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell is the movie of the book by the blogger Tucker Max, who has attracted young readers with his stories of alcohol-soaked sex romps. This unfunny comedy is chiefly memorable, if that's the right word, for its contempt of disabled people and, especially, women. |
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Third Eye Blind leads retro lineup for Freakfest 2009 Halloween party in Madison
on 09/18/09 at 1:32 pm | The City of Madison and Frank Productions have announced acts in the entertainment lineup for the fourth annual Freakfest, including Third Eye Blind, Push Play and Locksley. |
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Laboratory Theatre postpones inaugural production
on 09/18/09 at 10:02 am | Laboratory Theatre, the new resident company at downtown Madison's Bartell Theatre, has postponed its inaugural production, an African American-themed staging of Willy Russell's 1980 play Educating Rita. |
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Tucker Max gets them gasping at Sundance
on 09/18/09 at 10:00 am | Tucker Max knows what he's doing. The blogger, author and, now, screenwriter and film producer doesn't sidestep critics who say he promotes rape culture. He embraces them. |
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Anvil! is a touching documentary about a flailing band
on 09/18/09 at 9:00 am | Anvil! is strongly reminiscent of Spinal Tap, between the absurd stage theatrics, the heavy-metal hair, the bickering. Anvil! even has Stonehenge -- the real Stonehenge, though, not Spinal Tap's scale model. |
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Dr. Ralph Stanley leads impressive bluegrass lineup at Stoughton Opera House
on 09/11/09 at 10:50 am | I smiled when, looking over the schedule, I saw who is kicking off the 2009-2010 season on Saturday at the Stoughton Opera House: Dr. Ralph Stanley, 82, whose banjo picking and raspy singing have made him a titan of classic bluegrass. |
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Adam dramatizes the struggles of Asperger's syndrome
on 09/11/09 at 9:00 am | The Asperger's syndrome-themed romantic comedy Adam reminds me of the ABC Afterschool Special films of my 1980s youth. I mostly mean that as a compliment. |
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Praise for APT in The Wall Street Journal
on 09/04/09 at 3:25 pm | As he has in the past, today Wall Street Journal theater critic Terry Teachout reviews productions at American Players Theatre, the Spring Green company that for arts lovers is one of the best things about summer in this part of Wisconsin. |
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In the Loop depicts government at its worst
on 09/04/09 at 9:00 am | Ah, for the days when we invaded countries based on fabricated information. The British political comedy In the Loop finds laughs in spoofing the colossal failures, American and British, that preceded the war in Iraq -- a country that's never named, but it's clear what this is about. |
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Meet me in the Cinematheque: A Fall 2009 preview
on 09/04/09 at 9:00 am | I'm sad summer is ending, but crisp weather also portends the fall's entertainment options. Among them is the new calendar of free films at UW's Cinematheque. It starts Friday and offers weekend screenings at Vilas Hall through December. Did I mention it's free? |
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Summer Hours: Estate planning
on 08/28/09 at 9:00 am | I know exactly what Adrienne, Frédéric and Jérémie are going through. They're the siblings at the heart of Summer Hours, a moving, understated French film, directed by Oliver Assayas of Irma Vep fame, about the thorny problems of death and inheritance. |
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2009 Madison's Favorites: Shopping
on 08/20/09 at 9:00 am | A recession that's 20 months old, and counting, means not everyone feels like rushing out to buy, buy, buy. But as always, we didn't just poll you about optional purchases. We asked about stuff you need, recession be damned. As in food. And clothes. And tattoos. |
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Talking Wisconsin State Fair on The Joy Cardin Show
on 08/14/09 at 3:38 pm | Early this morning I slipped on headphones and talked with Wisconsin Public Radio's Joy Cardin about the Wisconsin State Fair. We discussed many of the food-related impressions I reported a few days ago (cream puffs yes, chocolate-covered bacon not so much). |
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The eating is fine at the Wisconsin State Fair, beyond the chocolate-covered bacon
on 08/10/09 at 7:20 am | These cream puffs are rightfully famous. They are sandwiches of sweet cream filling between pieces of light, flaky choux pastry. Superb, succulent and worth a visit every year. |
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Departures laughs at death
on 08/07/09 at 9:00 am | There's something discomfiting about the American funeral business. Smooth funeral directors, their careful euphemisms, their graveside AstroTurf -- they can make the already difficult process of mourning downright surreal. |
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A big gay thanks but no thanks
on 08/06/09 at 9:00 am | In Wisconsin, same-sex couples began registering as domestic partners on Aug. 3. I wish them all happiness. But my boyfriend of nine years and I won't be joining them. |
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Food, Inc. takes an alarmist look at what we eat
on 07/31/09 at 9:00 am | Food, Inc. reminds me of someone I knew in college. At the dining hall, just as I'd be cutting into a piece of poultry, she'd ask, "Do you want to learn how that chicken died?" I'd answer: Yes, but maybe not while I'm eating it. |
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Cheap Trick brings histrionics, good humor to Barrymore Theatre performance
on 07/28/09 at 11:20 am | The concert was a benefit for Kirk "Wheel" Dyer, a longtime Cheap Trick associate who is being treated for cancer. |
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Public Enemies: Not quite money in the bank
on 07/03/09 at 9:00 am | Man, you should have seen that party. Tuesday evening at the downtown Hilton, revelers celebrating the premiere of Public Enemies wore 1930s clothes and laughed and clinked cocktail glasses. Outside the fete, which benefited Film Wisconsin and Arts Wisconsin, passersby ogled beautiful vintage cars, on one of which a guy wearing spats leaned cinematically. |
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Johnny Depp doesn't rescue Public Enemies
on 07/01/09 at 12:57 pm | A better -- and shorter, and more vividly dramatic -- film would focus more on searing Dillinger moments. But Public Enemies is rambling and, dare I say, a little dull. |
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Bryan Burrough brings the Dirty Thirties to life in Public Enemies
on 06/30/09 at 1:00 pm | Don't let anyone tell you criminality means sloppy dressing. According to Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 by Bryan Burrough, legendary gangster John Dillinger was the nattiest of bank robbers. |
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