There’s something familiar and gratifying for a Gen Xer about holing up in a narrow basement space with atmospheric lighting, ruining your vision while simultaneously improving your hand-eye coordination, plugging in quarters like you’re king of the world. It’s fun for kids, too, I hear.
Genevieve Trainor
Genevieve Trainor lives in Iowa City, Iowa. Passions include heavy music, hoppy beer, and hidden rooms.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with: Dolores Sparkles, burlesque comedian
Dolores Sparkles debuted her solo show in New York City and has played in Chicago and throughout the Midwest. You can laugh with and relate to her this Saturday, Jan. 18, at The Mill. Several years before being “born” onto the “Wall of Babes” at Studio Vitality dance school in Cedar Rapids, the nouveau-vaudevillian was a New Jersey medievalist who
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: Michael Zapata — ‘The Lost Book of Adana Moreau’
A Model Earth, the tale within a tale central to The Lost Book of Adana Moreau, is a science fiction story that involves travel between multiple dimensions. It is the manuscript that Saul Drower finds in his grandfather Benjamin’s possessions after his death, and sets out to deliver to Maxwell Moreau, son of its author, Adana. The debut novel
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with: Singer-songwriter Hannah Frey
There’s nothing like discovering new-to-me music to keep the dead of winter from burying me. So when I saw the artist behind one of my favorite albums of 2018 (Young Charles) on a bill supporting a debut release from Hannah Frey, I knew I needed to get to know her. Her first single, “Ghost,” came out in late October, and it has me incredibly
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Mission Creek Festival announces Kim Gordon, Black Belt Eagle Scout and more for 15th fest
The Englert Theatre is once again bringing the freshest names in music and literature to downtown Iowa City with the 15th annual Mission Creek Festival. They’ve curated a jam-packed lineup for the festival’s truncated four-day schedule, kicking of Wednesday, April 1 (no foolin’).
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Local publisher spotlight: Ice Cube Press
Steve Semken founded Ice Cube Press in 1991, when he was living in Lawrence, Kansas. “I’d been working a series of jobs I hadn’t anticipated, like most of us need to do,” Semken said in an email, “and it was during a break at work that I wandered into the nearby Indie bookstore, picked up a copy of a Wendell Berry book
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Nonprofit choir Family Folk Machine unites singers aged 5 to 75 to perform original and classic songs
In April of 2018, right near its fifth anniversary, Family Folk Machine (FFM), which had by then already become an institution in the Iowa City community, achieved another milestone: it became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The intergenerational choir’s goals had always been focused on fostering and serving the community — “We seek to
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: ‘No Obedience for this Dog’ — A Benefit for Jeff Nehring
There’s a classic axiom about judging a man by the company he keeps. Despite my years in this job, I am not IC-scene enough to have met Jeff Nehring (known for Los Marauders, the Rough Housers and the Day Glow Bomber Boys). But I feel like I know him, judging by the amazing array of people who have rallied around him. His support
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with: Director Anne Bogart
Director Anne Bogart has influenced decades of actors and directors as one of the most formidable minds in American theater. She trained at Bard College and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Bogart currently serves as one of three co-artistic directors of SITI Company, which she founded in 1992 with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki. SITI Company is currently
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with: Kev Marcus, of Black Violin
Kev Marcus (Kevin Sylvester) and Wil B (Wilner Baptiste) were just kids when they met in the orchestra room at Dillard High School of the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (the majority-black magnet school also counts Nonpoint’s Elias Soriano and upcoming Rum Tum Tugger Jason Derulo among its alumni). But what began as a
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with: Singer-songwriter Rochelle Riser
Iowa native Rochelle Feldkamp, who performs now as Rochelle Riser, didn’t exactly head to Nashville to chase her dreams, as so many have before her. She went right after high school to attend college, but ended up finding her voice. Now, with one EP under her belt (recorded under her given name), she’s touring, writing and stretching
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Five questions with: playwright Rob Merritt
In 2011, at the first ever Theatre Cedar Rapids Underground New Play Festival, the community was surprised by a new play from local playwright Rob Merritt, The Summerland Project. A fascinating and philosophical piece of rare science fiction theater, The Summerland Project explored the implications, both ethical and emotional,
