This year’s MusicIC festival, which runs June 26-29, constitutes a gesture of gratitude from the Solera Quartet, which has become the annual festival’s primary performer.
Daniel Boscaljon
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Q&A: Tristen talks Poe, poetry and parenting ahead of the ICDD Block Party
Beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 22, the Iowa City Downtown District will present the third annual Downtown Block Party. As has been true in years past, the Englert Theatre Live Music Stage, programmed by the Englert, will present a line up of no-cost musicians. Following performances by Elly h. and the Mystery Lights, audiences will be treated to the return of local favorites the Diplomats of Solid Sound and then Nashville artist Tristen.
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Gilliam’s ‘Don Quixote’ delivers wonder and magic, despite burden of 25 years of content
A character during the film comments that artists must be naïve, crazy and cruel: While Gilliam knows this, and even thought he wisely departs from the cruelty of Tidelands, this movie is obviously a “passion project” (a phrase from the film) that engages in indulgence rather than refusal.
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Five questions with: Samir Gangwani of performance collective P O S T • V I V O
On May 27 at Public Space One, P O S T • V I V Owill offer the Iowa City area an opportunity to experience their collaborative performance work. The event is free and open to the public.
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Humanism on screen: FilmScene screens ‘Hesburgh’ and ‘Hail Satan’
Last Friday, FilmScene opened two movies focused on the space of humanism in American politics, prismed through questions of religion. Hesburgh runs through Thursday, May 23; Hail Satan? is extended through next week.
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Five questions with: Author Austin Kleon
Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work, released his new book, Keep Going: Ten Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad, on April 2 through Workman Publishing. As one may expect from the titles of his first two books, the present effort is a bricolage of found artifacts and quotes that Kleon stitches together with insight into his personal process as an artist.
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Mission Creek 2019: A look back (VIDEO)
Each Mission Creek Festival has its own flavor that weaves through the nights, the venues, the conversations, the drinks and cigarettes to create an identity more than the sum of its parts. One major shaping influence is the nature of the Mission Creek Festival ethos, which makes it an event that would be impossible to imagine elsewhere — it is one part experimental, one part traditional, one part Iowa City, one part books, one part music, one part conversations. It is a celebration of the Iowa City community as much as it is a celebration of art.
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‘A more deliberate pace’: Q&A with Fred Rogers biographer Maxwell King
Fred Rogers biographer Maxwell King will be hosted in conversation with Saleem Ghubril at 6:30 p.m. on April 27 at the new St. Andrew Presbyterian Church building (140 Gathering Place Lane). The event is the culmination of a weekend-long series by St. Andrew, “A Neighbor Just Like You”: The Music and Message of Fred Rogers.
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Five questions with: Choreographer and dancer Kuldeep Singh
Like many artists, Singh understands that traditional forms are not static — traditions reinvent themselves as choreographers and performers become a site relating present to future. o Many Journeys: Choreographies in Odissi on April 26 at 7 p.m., part of the Englert Wavelength Series (sponsored by Little Village. Tickets are $10-18; youth 17 and under are free.
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‘Corteo’ offers a high-flying homecoming for Cedar Rapids’ Erin Cervantes
The U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids will host Cirque du Soleil May 1-5, offering seven performances (including two matinees) to Eastern Iowans eager to experience the way that the world might be distinct from its everyday-ness. Tickets are $48-118.
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Neko Case discusses her ‘bad luck,’ blue-collar ethic and musical superpowers ahead of Englert performance
For the first time in over a decade, Neko Case will perform at the Englert on April 29, in support of her new album ‘Hell-On,’ with Shannon Shaw (of Shannon and the Clams) opening at 8 p.m. ‘Hell-On’ provides an insightful, beautiful understanding of how to remain humane despite the almost continual wave of tragedies
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‘Everybody Knows’ masks disconnect between plot and theme with beautiful performances, cinematography
‘Everybody Knows’ is worth watching, especially in the theater, if only to delight in the masterful performances of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. The film is shot well, and I remained engaged throughout the movie, although never was completely transported into or wholly absorbed by the story.
