Love is in the air, readers! Intimacy is a major theme of our February issue (remember to grab a copy!), and celebrating love is a great reason to get out of the house this weekend. Do yourself a favor and fully embrace Valentine’s Day weekend, whether it be spending time with your SO or doing something special for yourself.
The LV staff is (mostly) excited about Valentine’s Day, and we’re definitely excited to share our weekend picks with you. Marketing specialist Malcolm MacDougall recommends tuning in Friday night for Small Steps, the next live video in Mirrorbox Theatre’s Out the Box series. Mirrorbox best describes it as an “outrageous and touching comedy about gay dating apps, space travel, and the search for meaning.”
If you’re itching to try something new this weekend, events editor and design assistant Sid Peterson suggests checking out the Head Over Hook climbing competition at the UI Rec & Wellness Center.
From our team of staff writers in the Des Moines, Courtney Guein calls out an opportunity for dog park yoga, while Lily DeTaeye can’t wait for the burlesque show at xBk, rescheduled from a couple of weeks ago. Our picks are a diverse array theater, music, mind expansion and more: There is truly something thrilling for everyone.
Some staff got specific with their enthusiasm!
Art director Jordan Sellergren recommends the Valentine’s Cedar Rapids Healing & Psychic Fair. “Go for some romantic reiki and a quantum healing quickie,” she says, and “stay for the bawdy bio-energetic scanning and a luscious lecture on Personal Experiences & Evidence of the Paranormal!”
Paul Brennan, our news director, blessed all you homebodies with the online event Archived Love: How to Find Love in the Stacks. “There are more ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day than there are saints named Valentine, and there are more than a dozen with some variation of that name,” he says. “Examples of some of the ways will be shared via Zoom during ‘Archived Love.’ Staff members of the UI Libraries Special Collection and Archives have pulled some favorite Valentine-appropriate items from the collections for the online presentation.”
Meanwhile, donor and client services manager Nolan Petersen is getting psyched for TCR’s production of Kinky Boots, which (ahem) kicks off its run this weekend.
“Drag queens, fashion shows and interpersonal conflict, oh my! Getting to see Kinky Boots anywhere would be a treat, but getting to see Theatre Cedar Rapids’ production of this award-winning musical is an opportunity I won’t miss,” he says. “While I enjoy the attentive acting, superb set/lighting/costume design and the perceptive pit musicians that can be part of any local theater production, I have enjoyed TCR’s consistent delivery of high-quality theater experiences for the shows I have attended. I anticipate being transported to a struggling British shoe factory — along with the rest of the audience — so completely and enjoyably that it will be a shock to find myself back in Iowa when I leave the theatre.”
Genevieve Trainor, LV’s publisher and arts editor, thinks you shouldn’t miss the latest opportunity to catch Chicago musician Advance Base.
“Way back when Advance Base (Owen Ashworth) was Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, tracks of his made their way onto mix CDs (remember mix CDs?!) that my beloved would make for me,” they recall. “Is everything he writes aching and melancholic? Sure. Weird pick for V-Day.
“But in their radical humanity, the songs, under both monikers, are love songs to the very notion of love. They memorialize grief through beauty in a way that defends the notion of love, despite (or maybe because of) the hurt it can cause. Which, y’know, is exactly what I always wanted to do through poetry, so I kind of hate him for being such a phenom. But I’ll get over it. (P.S. he’s also playing on Monday in Davenport if you miss Saturday or want more.)”
Check out the links below for full details on all our Valentine’s Weekend staff picks!
