Look/Listen

Review: Terri

By Patricia Brooke

Singles Club: The Union Electric Officially Releases Another 7-Inch This Weekend

By Thomas Crone

Review: "Little Shop of Horrors" at The Muny

Little Shop of Horrors is a fine, fun piece of musical comedy, but I especially enjoyed this production. It's clear, funny, briskly paced, and exceedingly well performed. Focus hard and you might not even notice the melty Chipwich dripping on your knee from the seat next door.

by Devin C. Baker

Arts Events for the Week of July 27

The Chuck Berry statue dedication; a free screening of "Rebel Without a Cause," on Art Hill; a class on how to become a Civil War reenactor, and more.

Stefene Russell

"Brick by Chance and Fortune: A St. Louis Story," Screens August 14

Though he's getting attention from national press, documentarian Bill Streeter’s looking forward, first and foremost, to finally debuting his new film for a St. Louis audience.

By Thomas Crone

Kristeen Young Playing Two Dates in August

Young swings through St. Louis for two August dates - one at Sci Fi Lounge, one at Cicero's - and may even be shooting her next video here!

by Stefene Russell

Samizdat ‘Zine Library is a Treasure Trove

The Samizdat Zine Library, a collection of more than 2,500 ‘zines dating from the early ‘90s through today, will be on display this Saturday from noon to 6 p.m., in an annex next to the Archive book shop on Cherokee Street, and again next Saturday, July 30. They cover subjects ranging over two dozen categories, including politics, anarchism, history, comics, personal reflection, DIY culture, poetry and literature, art, sex and gender, feminism, health, the environment, animals, food, travel, media, activism, race, prison, anti-capitalism, comics, foreign language, religion, 'zines themselves, and “LBOE” (little bit of everything). So truly, there will be a LBOE for everyone.

by Byron Kerman

Review: Viva Riva!

That Djo Munga’s film is the first to hail from the Democratic Republic of Congo is strictly a gratifying ornament to the primary pleasures of a dark, sexy thriller.

by Andrew Wyatt

Back in Time With the Backstreet Boys

I went to the NKOTBSB concert last night. It was my fourth. In July of 1998, my mom (bless her heart) took me to what was then the Kiel Center for my first ever concert to see the Backstreet’s Back tour. We were in the nosebleeds, but I didn’t care. I was in the same building as the Backstreet Boys. We were breathing the same air. Nearly every available seat was filled with screaming girls in Backstreet Boys T-shirts.

By Christina Stiehl

Interview with Rasputina

Rasputina will play the Old Rock House July 21.

By Rosalind Early

Review: “Singin’ in the Rain” at the Muny

This musical needs no introduction; the rain-drenched lamppost and bright yellow raincoats are as unforgettable as Yorick’s skull or Dorothy’s red-sequined shoes.

By Darren Orf

Review: St. Louis Shakespeare's "Merry Wives of Windsor"

The storyline of Merry Wives of Windsor is pretty standard light Shakespeare comedy fare, with the requisite wooing, match-making, deception, scheming, come-uppance and, of course, drag.

by Devin C. Baker

Drum Headquarters is Closing

Since news of the store’s closure, many customers have driven up to the shop, looked at the sign in the window and driven away, disconsolately. Others have shared their stories with Uding, who says he’s gotten “a hundred e-mails and phone calls from people, sharing their memories.”

by Thomas Crone

Wish You Were Here: Kodner Gallery "Our Great Waterways" Opening Reception

Text and photos by Rosalind Early

Review: "The Little Mermaid," at The Muny

This beautifully visual show, packed full of classic songs made famous by the original animated film, is a crowd-pleaser...even in 112 degree heat.

by Zakea Boeger

Review: OnSite Theatre's "Savage in Limbo"

OnSite, who has staged plays in youth hostels and bowling alleys, brings John Patrick Shaney's ("Doubt") existential bar tale to Cusumano's in Maplewood. And it is a ringer.

by Devin C. Baker

Review: The Crumple Zone by Citilites Theater

In this play the laughs come at the cost of the rest of the story.

By Rosalind Early

Review: Songs From an Unmade Bed by Citilites

Fun song cycle celebrates the gay life in New York City.

By, Rosalind Early

First Look: Turandot at Union Avenue Opera

Union Avenue Opera kicks of a promising season with the showstopping "Turandot."

Text and photos by Rosalind Early

Wash U Professor Gerald Early Appears Tomorrow Night on "History Detectives"

The case concerns a rare comic book in Early's extensive collection of pop culture ephemera.

by Byron Kerman

Review: City of Life and Death

In Western cinema, depictions of World War II have focused overwhelmingly on the atrocities perpetrated by the Third Reich, perhaps for understandable reasons: an ethnic affinity for the European theater of war; the Nazis’ startling blend of venomous racism and cold-blooded organization; and the sheer, staggering scale of the Reich’s crimes. In the cultural memory of China, however, it is the crimes of Imperial Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War that loom the largest, and the restless ghosts of that conflict overwhelmingly congregate around one word: Nanjing.

by Andrew Wyatt

Reflecting on the Sacred Roots of Classical Music

In St. Louis and most urban centers, music and spirituality interact abundantly. Churches, synagogues, New Thought centers and even some Buddhist institutions often sponsor choirs and instrumental groups; it is not uncommon to see and hear instrumentation as diverse as flutes, strings, handbells, electric keyboards, brass instruments and percussion in addition to the ubiquitous organs and (since the '70s) guitars of mainline churches.

by Gary Scott

White Flag Issues Call for Pet-Hair Based Artworks

"Companion animals and guardians of all ages," are invited to submit artworks made of no less than "90 percent collected fur brushings," for White Flag's summer show, "Für Elise."

by Byron Kerman

Review: Sleepy Kitty, "Infinity City"

Sleepy Kitty’s new CD Infinity City has just been released on Euclid, and their sound roughly fits label proprietor Joe Schwab’s vision of what constitutes pop and what pop can be.

by Jordan Oakes

Interview with Sarah Jaffe

Don't mess with Denton, Texas. Sarah Jaffe talks about her hometown, pet peeve and next project while waiting to get her flat tire changed.

By Rosalind Early

Redemption Beneath a Dirty Hood: "Two-Lane Blacktop" at the Webster Film Series

In the current cinematic era, the Car Film is most often a glossy, vacuous entertainment that wallows in fast and furious absurdity and juvenile conceptions of masculinity. It was not always so. The New Hollywood upheaval of the 1960s and 70s—and in particular the galvanizing effect of "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Easy Rider" on the road movie form—paved the way for a brief but vital zenith for the Car Film. The apogee of this moment, and arguably the finest film ever made about the act of driving, is Monte Hellman’s 1971 road picture "Two-Lane Blacktop."

by Andrew Wyatt