Exhibit

Katja Loher: Videoplanet - Orchestra

Figge Art Museum

Saturday, January 25, through Sunday, May 4

The newest exhibition at the Figge Art Museum is titled Katja Loher: Videoplanet - Orchestra, and according to the exhibit's description at the venue's Web site, one of its more fascinating elements allows museum visitors the chance to see "androgynous, costumed dancers form letters that compose words and sentences to pose simple, thought-provoking questions." In honor of Loher's artistic endeavor, I considered employing exactly the same style for this What's Happenin' article, but my bosses were convinced that I'd never find the thousands of androgynous, costumed dancers necessary to pull it off. I told them they obviously didn't know my friends, but whatever ... .

When telling friends about particularly unusual and impressive stage performances, "You have to see it to believe it" is a commonly employed cliché. In the case of a stage performance by the East Coast talents of Galumpha, the latest guests in Quad City Arts' Visiting Artists series, a more appropriate sentiment might be "You have to see it to understand it." (And, also, to believe it.)

HER

Her, writer/director Spike Jonze's tale of a man who falls in love with his computerized operating system, and "she" with him, casts a weirdly hypnotic spell. Although billed as comedy (as least by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association), you don't really laugh much, and when you do, the laughter generally sticks in an odd, uncomfortable place in your throat; marveling at the unbridled sincerity of the thing, your chuckles are laced with a slight hint of mockery. Yet damned if Jonze, star Joaquin Phoenix, and the film's superb supporting cast and designers don't make this improbable project pay off in spades. Thoughtful, haunting, and perceptive, and at all times wickedly clever, Her is like a sci-fi Lost in Translation with a Scarlett Johansson you never get to see.

Heading toward January 16's announcement of this year's Academy Award nominees, I think it's safe to say that we know a few things.

We know, for instance, that it'll be a big day for 12 Years a Slave and Gravity, and most likely for American Hustle. We know the Best Supporting Actor category (which, last year, was populated entirely with previous Oscar winners) will be top-heavy with relatively new talent, and the Best Actress category (which, last year, was top-heavy with relatively new talent) will be mostly, perhaps entirely, populated with previous Oscar winners. We know members of the Academy's music branch will throw some loopy, out-of-left-field choice into the Best Original Song lineup, because they always do.

And we know, come January 16, that some incredibly worthy titles are going to get royally screwed.