Let’s be Frank
“Why am I doing this?” I kept asking myself last Saturday night, as I lined up outside Disney’s Atlantic Dance to witness Frank Sinatra Jr. in concert. To me, Junior had always been the butt of every good joke about show-business nepotism. I hadn’t heard his new “As I Remember It” CD, but those who…
Early signs of trouble
The state Supreme Court (forced by the U.S. Supremes) ruled that 13,000 inmates (check-forgers and murderers, alike) must be released early because they committed their crimes while lenient good-time provisions were in effect. Dept. Corrections said those provisions had been repealed by the time the 13,000 actually entered prison, but the U. S. Supremes said…
Kinder, gentler, wussier ‘King Kong’
Movie: Mighty Joe Young
Kinder, gentler, wussier ‘King Kong’
Movie: Mighty Joe Young
Double talk
Long before anyone coined the sugar-coated sinker “edutainment,” Walt Disney World was putting children into advanced stages of REM sleep with The Hall of Presidents. Right there in what was supposed to be a hap-hap-happy kid’s paradise was a history lesson, remarkably well-done, but schoolwork nonetheless. Nothing is as likely to inspire a child to…
Sweatshop code wonâ??t do it
Someone should have told Julia Pleites the good news. Better yet, someone should tell the news to her bosses at the El Salvadorian factory where she sews Nike shirts that sell here for $70 each. Pleites works six days a week, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. She is forced to work overtime, but she doesn’t…
Live and learn — like hell
When the 12 chimes of midnight are silenced and the New Year has been successfully toasted in, I’ll be happy, but it will also feel like one of the best cats I ever had just got hit by a car. I loved 1998. I know everything has its time and the new kitten of 1999…
Resolution solutions
It’s that time of year again, surprisingly soon and utterly relentless. Some may have been planning for, even rejoicing in, this impending eve, while others procrastinated, stealing one more day of guiltless debauchery. But the zero hour has arrived; it’s time to decide some definites for the next 365 days. Why not resolve to break…
Exhibit slides into Enzian
If you’ve ever looked at the images flashed on the screen at the Enzian Theater before a movie and said to yourself, “Hey, they oughta display artwork there so I have something more to look at while waiting for my bean quesadilla,” you may have sent psychic sparks of inspiration to the folks who run…
Review – Americana
Artist: The Offspring
Review – Maybe Youâ??ve Been Brainwashed Too
Artist: New Radicals
Review – Funkasm
Artist: Big Shirley
Review – Hoffman Estates
Artist: Loren Mazzacane-Connors and Alan Licht
Review – Americana
Artist: The Offspring
Review – Maybe Youâ??ve Been Brainwashed Too
Artist: New Radicals
Review – Funkasm
Artist: Big Shirley
Review – Hoffman Estates
Artist: Loren Mazzacane-Connors and Alan Licht
Review – Americana
Artist: The Offspring
Review – Maybe Youâ??ve Been Brainwashed Too
Artist: New Radicals
Review – Funkasm
Artist: Big Shirley
Review – Americana
Artist: The Offspring
Review – Hoffman Estates
Artist: Loren Mazzacane-Connors and Alan Licht
Review – Maybe Youâ??ve Been Brainwashed Too
Artist: New Radicals
Review – Funkasm
Artist: Big Shirley
Review – Hoffman Estates
Artist: Loren Mazzacane-Connors and Alan Licht
Passionate rocker reborn to run
Mary Cutrufello hardly matches typical music-industry expectations of the Next Big Thing. The 28-year-old singer and songwriter, after all, is a Yale graduate (in American Studies) who grew up middle class in Connecticut and five years ago relocated to Texas for an informal education in that state’s musical roots. Cutrufello, simply put, is a dreadlocked…
Fans still gobble up simmering Confusion
Hippie rock. Jam band. Deadhead music. Percussionist Steve Kowalchuk doesn’t think any of these descriptions apply to his band, Refried Confusion. “None of the labels fit,” he says. “Sure, there are influences in there, but we mix a lot of things together. I’d call us a live band, because that’s what we do best. We…
It is easy being green
We worry about mucked-up sewage and global warming, cruel sweatshops and child labor. We resent executive salaries that go higher than Zimbabwe’s GNP. Yet when it’s time to invest our hard-earned cash, we buy into the very corporations that outrage us the most. It’s not a deliberate choice, of course. Usually we own shares of…
Shakes for the morning’s aches
This is the season of spirits, alcoholic as well as celestial. And while there’s no quick fix for post-overindulgence syndrome — that is, you had too much to drink and you can’t get up — you can find help at Planet Smoothie. Try a “Hangover Over” shake, a blend of strawberries, bananas and yogurt ($3.29).…
Playing wih a bull deck
The “Zones of Conflict” exhibition of photographs, inkjet prints and sounds opened Jan. 30 at Valencia Community College East Campus, and it’s an inventive DIY adventure — the self-installed debut of two faculty members from Florida State University, Daniel Kariko and Scott Groeniger. After driving down from Tallahassee a day before the opening and taking…
