Culture

Nature Reperceived

Eek! It moves! The fifteen-foot-tall white paper snake in the front window descends into a pancake-stack of tidy origami folds as its companion snake, connected to the right by rope and pulleys, ascends to the ceiling, startling...

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The Hummingbirds

"Buddy and Julie Miller, Loretta Lynn, Waylon Jennings, Steve Earle, Hank Williams, Bob Dylan, and lots more!" reads the favorites list of vocalist Rachel Lynn of the Hummingbirds, sent to me in an e-mail. Lynn and...

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Gergiev and the Kirov

Having heard Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra play the First, Second, Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Symphonies of Dmitry Shostakovich last season and lived to tell the tale, the only question I have left is this: How many more...

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Lars Hollmer

In the popular culture that dominates our times, accordionists have to fight for their dignity, countering dull stereotypes. And perhaps because they get no respect, a small number of them have been making an unusually striking...

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Martha Graham Dance Company

Martha Graham is synonymous with American modern dance, her shadow on the field as strong and deep as the signature contractions her dancers execute. Known for her expressive and angular technique, female protagonists, and...

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Randy Newman

The time: a warm evening this past July. The setting: a Gallo-Roman amphitheater in France during the Nice Jazz Festival. My buddy and I were fortunate to be backstage, but we soon realized it was not the best vantage point from...

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Getting drunk with the RSC

Even if you know nothing about theater, you might guess that the Royal Shakespeare Company, based in London and Stratford-upon-Avon, is to Shakespeare what the Vatican is to the Catholic Church. When it comes to town October...

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Abigail Washburn

Abigail Washburn is one of the G'Earls — a member of the all-girl string band Uncle Earl (which has its roots here in Ann Arbor but now tours the country and wins all manner of tasty awards). One of the strengths of...

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Amilia K Spicer

Amilia K Spicer (the K is silent and has no period, she is quick to note on her website) is a songwriter, pianist, occasional essayist, and sports fan who likes to wear baseball caps. Her 2003 album Seamless found its way to me...

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Joe Reilly

One crisp fall night in 1989, some friends and I wandered into a cramped, stinky bar and stood three feet away from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a band that none of us, until that very moment, had ever heard of. We sat right on...

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Magnolia Electric Co.

Jason Molina has lived in so many cities, toured with so many backing musicians, and put out so many albums that it's hard to get your head around him. So here are two places to start. The first is Trials & Errors, the...

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Prachi Dance Theater

With a deliriously gorgeous performance by world-renowned artists the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble in April and news of a professional company devoted to Indian classicism to call our own, it's been a great year for Indian...

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Susan Stewart

When you read the poetry of Susan Stewart, you are going to learn things. Interesting things. Things you never knew you wanted to know. Yes, she is indeed an award-winning critic and Princeton professor, but those occupations...

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NOMO at the Ark

Vampires don’t dance to the music of NOMO — the warm blood of the living courses not through their veins — but pretty much everyone else within, say, 100 feet of this A2-born-and-bred post-Afrobeat horn-heavy band will be...

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Blood Simple

When it was shown at the still fledgling Sundance Film Festival in 1985, Blood Simple astounded audiences around the world with its playfully professional yet grisly homage to the noir and horror film genres. Brothers Joel and...

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Del Castillo

They call this music flamenco rock, and Del Castillo is not the only band in Austin that plays it. Perhaps it got started with El Mariachi, Austin filmmaker Robert Rodriguez's delightful low-budget romp in which a...

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Honus & Me

Hey, kids — if Superman's stunts had your heart in your throat, try watching an actor swinging a real baseball bat at a real pitch on the small Purple Rose stage. He's supposed to miss, but what if he hits the ball...

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