30 Aug 2016

What's Happenin': Thursday, September 1, through Wednesday, September 14

By Mike Schulz

MUSIC

Thursday, September 1 – Savage Master. Louisville-based rockers in concert, with an opening set by Angelust. Rock Island Brewing Company (1815 Second Avenue, Rock Island). 8 p.m. $10. For information, call (309)793-1999 or visit RIBCO.com.

Friday, September 2 – Trippin’ Billies. Concert with the Dave Matthews Band tribute musicians, with an opening set by Jason Carl. Rock Island Brewing Company (1815 Second Avenue, Rock Island). 8 p.m. For information, call (309)793-1999 or visit RIBCO.com.

Friday, September 3, and Sunday, September 4 – Labor Day Benefit Fest. Fundraiser for Center for Worker’s Justice in Eastern Iowa, with sets by Endorsed, Staghorn, Dowsing, and more than a dozen additional bands. Rozz-Tox (2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island). $6-12. For information, call (309)200-0978 or visit RozzTox.com.

Saturday, September 3, and Sunday, September 4 – The Travoltas. Annual outdoor Labor Day-weekend concerts with the disco and pop musicians. Rock Island Brewing Company (1815 Second Avenue, Rock Island). 8 p.m. For information, call (309)793-1999 or visit RIBCO.com.

30 Aug 2016

What's Happenin': Thursday, September 1, through Wednesday, September 14

By Mike Schulz

MUSIC

Thursday, September 1 – Savage Master. Louisville-based rockers in concert, with an opening set by Angelust. Rock Island Brewing Company (1815 Second Avenue, Rock Island). 8 p.m. $10. For information, call (309)793-1999 or visit RIBCO.com.

Friday, September 2 – Trippin’ Billies. Concert with the Dave Matthews Band tribute musicians, with an opening set by Jason Carl. Rock Island Brewing Company (1815 Second Avenue, Rock Island). 8 p.m. For information, call (309)793-1999 or visit RIBCO.com.

Friday, September 3, and Sunday, September 4 – Labor Day Benefit Fest. Fundraiser for Center for Worker’s Justice in Eastern Iowa, with sets by Endorsed, Staghorn, Dowsing, and more than a dozen additional bands. Rozz-Tox (2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island). $6-12. For information, call (309)200-0978 or visit RozzTox.com.

Saturday, September 3, and Sunday, September 4 – The Travoltas. Annual outdoor Labor Day-weekend concerts with the disco and pop musicians. Rock Island Brewing Company (1815 Second Avenue, Rock Island). 8 p.m. For information, call (309)793-1999 or visit RIBCO.com.

29 Aug 2016

Bridges Over Troubled Brothers: “Hell or High Water” and “Southside with You”

By Mike Schulz
Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham in Hell or High Water

HELL OR HIGH WATER

Jeff Bridges has given so many fantastically lived-in, and just plain fantastic, screen performances over nearly a half-century that picking out his best is a true fool’s errand. Yet if pressed for his most entertaining one, I’d be tempted to go with Bridges’ drunken sharpshooter Rooster Cogburn in 2010’s True Grit, which would make his portrayal of Hell or High Water’s Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton – more sober than Rooster but equally funny, marble-mouthed, and moving – a close second.

29 Aug 2016

The Blind Leading the Blond: “Don't Breathe” and “Mechanic: Resurrection”

By Mike Schulz
Dylan Minnette and Jane Levy in Don't Breathe

DON’T BREATHE

A few weeks ago, in the creepy and clever horror film Lights Out, our protagonists were at the mercy of a nightmarish figure they couldn’t see. In writer/director Fede Alvarez’s new horror film Don’t Breathe, our protagonists are at the mercy of a nightmarish figure who can’t see them. You’d presume these particular protagonists would have an easier time of things. But Alvarez, to his credit, doesn’t appear interested in making things easy for anybody – not for the “heroes,” not for the “villain,” and not for audiences accustomed to those tags presented without quotation marks. You may find your stomach in knots during much of this brutally effective shocker. You may also find that part of your discomfort stems from sensing that the traumatized characters here are getting just what they deserve.

21 Aug 2016

Chariots Affair: “Ben-Hur,” “War Dogs,” and “Kubo & the Two Strings”

By Mike Schulz
Morgan Freeman and Jack Huston in Ben-Hur

BEN-HUR

The first words heard in the new remake of Ben-Hur are delivered in voice-over by – wouldn’t ya know it? – Morgan Freeman, meaning that the quality of director Timur Bekmambetov’s biblically themed epic is up in the air from the start. Will this be another Shawshank Redemption? A Million Dollar Baby? A March of the Penguins? A War of the Worlds? A Love Guru? A Hillary Clinton DNC bio-video?

So it shouldn’t be surprising that the movie, like Freeman’s vocal-track record, is similarly all over the place – sometimes lugubrious and laughable, sometimes powerful and exhilarating, sometimes merely blah. It’s hardly a threat to the legacy of 1959’s Ben-Hur and its record-setting 11 Oscar wins. But on the rare occasions that Bekmambetov’s unnecessary outing works, it works thunderously well, and either way we’re spared the monolithic orating of Charlton Heston, which is a plus right there.

16 Aug 2016

What's Happenin': Thursday, August 18, through Wednesday, August 31

By Mike Schulz

Music

Kurt Vile & the Violators

Codfish Hollow Barn

Sunday, August 21, 7 p.m.

 

Just like superheroes, professional musicians have their own origin stories. And given the strength of his reviews, and the powerful appreciation he engenders in fans, it makes perfect sense that indie-rock and -folk singer/songwriter Kurt Vile’s own musical origin story would start with Superman.

14 Aug 2016

Streep Throat: "Florence Foster Jenkins," "Pete's Dragon," "Anthropoid," and "Sausage Party"

By Mike Schulz
Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant in Florence Foster Jenkins

FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS

For more than 30 years, Meryl Streep has been singing on-screen in movies ranging from 1983’s Silkwood to last year’s Ricki & the Flash, with musical pitstops in a half-dozen outings in between. But not until the new bio-comedy Florence Foster Jenkins has the star ever sung quite this badly. Streep being Streep, of course, she sings badly brilliantly.

07 Aug 2016

Sympathy for the Devils: "Suicide Squad" and "Nine Lives"

By Mike Schulz
Will Smith and Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad

SUICIDE SQUAD

Everything you’ve likely heard about Suicide Squad is true – unless, for some reason, you’ve heard it’s great.

06 Aug 2016

Hope Is a Thing with Feathers: "The Birds," at Lincoln Park through August 7

By Mike Schulz
Ensemble members in The Birds

What this says about the state of America I don’t know ... or maybe don’t want to know. But for the first time since I started attending Genesius Guild’s season-closing comedies more than a decade ago, director/adapter Don Wooten’s political jabs and jokes – here in service of Aristophanes’ The Birds – were less ridiculous, much less ridiculous, than current, real-world politics. I may have left Friday’s opening-night performance wishing it were more biting, but in retrospect, in this particular year, playing it safe may have been the smartest way to go.

04 Aug 2016

Oz-Struck: Historian John Fricke Takes "Wizard of Oz" Fans Over the Rainbow at the Figge and Adler

By Mike Schulz
Image from the Figge exhibit The Wonderful World of Oz: Selections from the Willard Carroll/Tom Wilhite Collection

When I phone Wizard of Oz historian John Fricke for our scheduled July 21 interview, he doesn’t answer the call with a “Hello?”, or even a more formal “Yes, this is John Fricke.” Instead, the first three words he utters, or rather exclaims, are an exuberant “I love Iowa!”

He asks if I like that intro, and I admit that I do, primarily because it’s no doubt sincere. Fricke, after all, enjoyed eight consecutive years (from 1979 to 1986) as emcee and chief entertainer for Davenport’s Miss Iowa pageants and even, during that period, co-headlined a two-person Col Ballroom concert alongside an 11-piece orchestra and former Miss Iowa Darla Blocker. So “I love Iowa!” makes total sense.

Given the subject of our conversation, however, “I love Kansas!” might’ve been more fitting.

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