SPECTRE

Watching the opening credits to the new James Bond thriller Spectre, I leaned back in my seat, smiled, and thought, "Man, I love these things." Not Bond movies, per se, but their opening credits. The lushly rendered colors. The serenely gliding camera pans. The artful poses and undulating torsos. The charming, deferential formality of the star's name followed by " ... as Ian Fleming's James Bond 007 in ... ." The mystery of the accompanying pop song, which is as likely to be atrocious as marvelous. (Spectre's "Writing's on the Wall," sung by Sam Smith, leans more toward the former. And call it gender bias or even blatant sexism, but I do think that unless you're Paul McCartney or maybe Simon Le Bon, these duties should really be handled by women.)

Music

Luke Redfield

Rozz-Tox

Wednesday, November 4, 8 p.m.

If you're reading this article hot off the (electronic) presses, folk singer/songwriter Luke Redfield's new EP Uncover the Magic - described by GoodMoMusic.net as "haunting and alluring" - will have been released less than a week ago. You also have roughly a week to commit the EP to memory before November 4 lands, when Minnesota native Redfield makes one of his early tour stops at Rock Island's Rozz-Tox. I urge you, though, to resist singing along even if you know every lyric of Uncover the Magic by heart. I made a similar mistake at a recent Wiggles concert and got such strange looks ... .

BRIDGE OF SPIES

I caught Steven Spielberg's Cold War thriller Bridge of Spies at a Friday-matinée screening alongside roughly 75 others. You could tell it was a predominantly, shall we say, mature crowd because of the volume and frequency of coughing fits, the food items being unwrapped with aching slowness, and the stage-whispered narration following louder queries of "What'd he say?!" You could also tell that, on numerous occasions, the movie was really working for this group, because for long stretches the crowd opted to remain collectively, blessedly silent.

Theatre

Machinal

Augustana College

Friday, October 16, through Sunday, October 25

Last month, playwright Sophie Treadwell's expressionistic drama Machinal - a work inspired by a real-life 1927 murder - celebrated the 87th anniversary of its Broadway debut. But when Augustana College stages this little-known classic October 16 through 25, it won't exactly be the same show New York audiences saw in 1928. For one thing, it won't feature Clark Gable in his Broadway debut. For another, I'm reasonably sure the original didn't incorporate the talents of a beatboxer.