BRAINWASH by William J Locker Those of us of a certain age who spent any time on the rave or club scenes during their heyday are familiar with that distinct sensation of coming out the other side of a night of partying, with the sun starting to rise and the DJ lifting the music along […]
Genevieve Trainor
Genevieve Trainor lives in Iowa City, Iowa. Passions include heavy music, hoppy beer, and hidden rooms.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Book Review: ‘Liminal: Shadow Agent’ Parts 1 & 2, by Jon Cone
In the letter that author Jon Cone sent along with the first two volumes of his Liminal: Shadow Agent project (Greying Ghost), he calls the slim books “comic book scripts.” They are, in a sense. They tell a pictureless story of a superhero entering a fight against a great evil. The dialogue is called out […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Video premiere: Hallways of Always, ‘Invisible Light’
Back in the before-times of 2019, Hallways of Always — one of William Elliott Whitmore’s many exploratory side projects, conceived in collaboration with Erase Errata’s Jenny Hoyston — released a new album. Invisible Light, a follow-up to 2010’s Magical Mind (itself an expansion of their original 2006 EP). Now, the album (available on Whitmore’s website) […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Bach and the Blues’ by Gary Kelley
Waterloo Cedar Falls Symphony: Between Bach and the Blues GBPAC Great Hall, Cedar Falls, Thursday, May 26 at 7 p.m., $6.75-55.75 The third week of November, 1936. Thanks to a brief story on National Public Radio, illustrator Gary Kelley learned the odd synchronicity of that moment, and decided to spin it into a graphic novel, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Album Reviews: Bob Bucko Jr. and Samuel Locke Ward — ‘Discount Sacrifice At The Altar Of Bargains’
Discount Sacrifice At The Altar Of Bargains by BBJR + SLW I can’t stop thinking about this album. When it dropped in December of last year, I’d kind of resigned myself to not writing about it, just given the way our coverage schedule usually falls out. Typically, I avoid running reviews of albums that dropped […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘Outside readings felt so right’: Poetry al Fresco returns to Iowa City lawns this spring
As anyone who has attempted it can tell you, organizing poets can be like trying to herd cats. They wander off; they follow their whims; they get distracted by the beauty of that one water droplet on the dented garbage can and the way it contrasts with the empty water bottle balanced aspirationally atop the […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Book Review: ‘Sort of Super’ by Eric Gapstur
He had to have known it was coming. There is no way that a competent publicist didn’t prepare Eric Gapstur for the eventuality that his graphic novel about 11-year-old Wyatt Flynn and his family coming to terms with his newly acquired superpowers in the wake of his mother’s disappearance would draw comparisons to the Netflix […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Video premiere: Anthony Worden and the Illiterati, “That Don’t Make Me Feel Good”
Ahead of what promises to be a slow burn of a show to warm a chilly February night (tonight, Friday, Feb. 25 at Gabe’s), Iowa City’s Anthony Worden and the Illiterati dropped a new video yesterday morning that’s all sludge and precision and genre-bending chewy goodness. This live recording of “That Don’t Make Me Feel […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘I can rock a baritone’: Transitioning helped Lucy Suarez reinvent herself and flout expectations
When Lucy Suarez decided to transition, the metalhead musician made the call to keep her voice as it was. “Obviously I still kept the low voice,” she said. “I can rock a baritone. … I know where [my voice] naturally resonates and I stick to it.” She studied composition at the University of Northern Iowa, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘Trans man, any man — you are man enough’: How Oliver Wenman found gender euphoria through burlesque
“I shaved last Monday, and look, I’ve got stubble already,” Oliver Wenman says, leaning into his laptop camera during our conversation over Google Meet. “Being able to hear my voice and not cringe at it. Being at a public pool just in swim trunks, and being able to just feel the sun on me.” He […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘The Family Chao’ by Lan Samantha Chang
Family can be a tricky balancing act. Lan Samantha Chang, in her newest novel, gives the central family the surname Chao, making them collectively, of course, the Chaos. There are a couple of sections early in the book where she really locks the reader into what seems like an obvious analogy: “‘We Chaos, who are […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
With a call for ‘fresh eyes,’ Chuck Swanson announces retirement from Hancher
In a heart-festooned shirt, with red paper hearts adorning the wall behind him, Hancher Auditorium executive director Chuck Swanson announced his retirement to members of the Hancher Partners program via a Valentine’s-themed video emailed out early Tuesday morning. “I really want the best for Hancher; I really love this place,” he said, discussing the hardships […]
