Look-Listen February 2011
Review: Carl Phillips' "Double Shadow"
If you’re at all familiar with Carl Phillips’ poems, you know that his austere lines, and stark, spare stanzas are incredibly intimidating and imposing. Every word, every simple punctuation mark, holds such weight that you’re done in by the end of one poem. In Double Shadow, Phillips’ allows his lines to achieve paragraph-fullness, and for that, it is easily his most accessible, inviting book to date. Read more
Hiromi Photo by Muga Muyahara, courtesy of Telarc
Jazz Piano Wizards
American artists wrote the book on jazz piano wizardry. But the best new artists of the 21st century are players like Hiromi, a young Japnese pianist whose work is marked by daredevil tempo changes and wide contrasts in dynamics. Read more
Arts Datebook: Weekend of February 25
This weekend: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band at the Sheldon, the Dog Parade in Soulard, a birthday brunch for Dr. Seuss and Tchaikovsky’s final symphony at the Sheldon. Read more
Courtesy of Ladue Yacht Club
Deep in the Heart of Ladue
Let’s be honest—from tiny rural towns to the biggest city, provincialism can be found in every province, and it probably lives to some degree within us all. That’s a philosophy you might consider adopting when reading the “Ladue Yacht Club” page on Facebook. Read more
Screen Ravers: Five Great Rock 'n' Roll Movies
Notice I didn't say, "five great movies about rock 'n' roll." Read more
"Possum Promenade," from The Bloody Bucket series
Opening Tonight: Tom Huck's "Brutal Truths"
SLUMA is the first local museum to show a large-scale career retrospective of his work. And like one of Huck's prints, that's not a small thing. Read more
Review: Oil + Water
Inspired by the BP oil spill, this little book is meant not only to be read but, like the spill itself, to spread consciousness. Read more
Asylum Street Spankers photo by Tiffany Snyder-Hofeldt
Arts Datebook: Week of February 14
Humorous poetry at White Flag Projects, apocalyptic poetry at River Styx, a new suite of shows at the Sheldon Galleries, the Asylum Street Spankers' last show at Off Broadway, and a little bit of Mardi Gras in Forest Park. Read more
Review: Biutiful
Though Biutiful's bleak vision will be challenging for some viewers, it also holds moments of beauty and poignancy. Read more
Beatle Bob is now "Grammy Award-nominated Beatle Bob"
He contributed to a kids' album, Healthy Food for Thought, that lost out to Julie Andrews' poetry recording. But hey, getting nominated is no small thing! Read more
Composing a Life: Songwriter Charles Fox
A chat with the songwriter behind the catchiest TV themes of the 70s (not to mention hits like "I've Got a Name") about his new memoir, "Killing Me Softly." Read more
Photograph by Joe Henson
A Conversation with Isabel Wilkerson
Wilkerson will be at the St. Louis County Library Headquarters tomorrow, February 9, to read from “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” which the Boston Globe called “one of the most lyrical and important books of the season.” Read more
Review: The Illusionist
The newest animated feature from Sylvain Chomet ("The Triplets of Belleville"),is gorgeously rendered, bittersweet, and downright magical. Read more
Lisztomania and Mahlerism
In 1811, a giant of music, Franz Liszt, was born in Hungary; in 1911 the life of another giant, Gustav Mahler, ended. The lives of both profoundly impacted music in ways that we are still learning to fathom. As we reflect on their legacies in 2011, some fascinating parallels emerge. Read more
Rocco Landesman on Supply and Demand in the Arts
NEA chair and St. Louis expat Rocco Landesman sets off a blogosphere firestorm by suggestion there's "too much theater"—or at least too many arts administrators, anyway. Read more
Arts Datebook
This week: a lecture on St. Louis’ lost cast-iron riverfront buildings, Thelonius Kryptonite at Gya, Pokey LaFarge at the Tap Room, and an after-hours spelling bee. Read more
