The upcoming week offers an unusually rich trove of aesthetic encounters for the inhabitants of Iowa City, many of which are intentionally transparent about the nature of the creative process as something nurtured by art itself. Much art — whether music, literature, painting, sculpture, or theater — springs from the artist’s attempt to communicate or […]
Daniel Boscaljon
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Mouths 2: Hiding
“Mouths” is a fiction story presented in installments. Look for a new chapter each Monday morning throughout the summer. Mouths II: Hiding I wake from dark dreams to the nightmarish sound of the mouths moving in an alien uniformity. The teeth scraping together with regular precision sound like gears. Their moans are not human. I […]
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Mouths 1: Awakening
“Mouths” is a fiction story presented in installments. Look for a new chapter each Monday morning throughout the summer. I: Awakening I feel a sudden jolt and groggily realize that I no longer am in the green meadow with the greedy little pig. It was a dream. I stare into the silent darkness, which is […]
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Review: The Milk Carton Kids become adorable as they adore each other
I was first introduced to the Milk Carton Kids when they opened for Over The Rhine at the Englert on Sep. 24, 2013. It was a Tuesday. I had spent the weekend watching my grandfather, whom I loved deeply, die and become deposited in earth next to his wife. Given that context, the Milk Carton […]
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Woods’ Wednesday set at Gabe’s had a sense of gentle coherence
I walked into the upper level of Gabe’s and was disappointed to see that Woods hadn’t gained any popularity since they played the Mill a few years back on tour for Bend Beyond. I had enjoyed that show, and was happy to hear they were playing Iowa City again — especially given the critical praise […]
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Echoes of Mission Creek: A look back on some highlights
Mission Creek Retrospective Unlike the past four years, when Mission Creek has brought in the artist(s) responsible for my favorite albums from prior ten months (see: Exit Music, Warpaint, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Ben Frost), this year’s lineup announcement had left me feeling oddly indifferent. I had enjoyed Waxahatchee’s Ivy Tripp when it […]
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Review: Wild Child bathes Gabe’s in a warm radiance
There’s a massive amount of quality music released each year, and it’s both easy to access and difficult to find in the vast expanses of the Internet. For that reason, I increasingly rely on announcements of touring bands to draw my interest to music I might enjoy. I thus first heard of Wild Child when […]
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The philosopher’s no-fear guide to Witching Hour
Witching Hour Downtown Iowa City — Friday, Nov. 6 & Saturday,Nov. 7 We’re now one week away from Iowa City’s upcoming Witching Hour festival, an event that promises encounters with the capital-U unknown — a tantalizing promise, especially since most festivals engage with the familiar. (That’s the more lucrative option.) Now and then we’ll travel […]
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Glowsticks in the Barn: Built to Spill Plays Codfish Hollow
It was Justin’s late model Prius, so he drove and I took shotgun, leaving the back seat for Ashlee. I turned on the radio as Justin adjusted his phone’s GPS to plot a route to Codfish Hollow. Justin kept us within the legal limit as we traveled east on 80, then north on 61. An […]
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Interview: Jenny Hval on her compulsive study habit and the origins of ‘Apocalypse, Girl’
Jenny Hval The Mill — Wednesday, September 2 at 9 p.m. Norwegian composer Jenny Hval will visit the Mill on September 2 in support of her latest album, Apocalypse, Girl. It will be her first Iowa City show since a stirring 2014 performance at the same venue for Mission Creek Festival. Hval took time to […]
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Hinterland 2015: ‘The Lands Behind’ are far ahead
One does not simply go to the Hinterland. The organizers — or perhaps the gods — made this abundantly clear during the festival’s inaugural year when flooding demanded a last-minute shift away from the original location in the heart of Des Moines, to a space more worthy of the Teutonic title — “Hinterland.” In German, […]
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Folk icon Eric Taylor and Nathan Bell to play The Mill
In a musical landscape dominated by bombast, we too rarely find ourselves invited to pause and reflect to the sounds and stories offered by musicians familiar with the power of language. The double feature of Eric Taylor and Nathan Bell…
