I can’t speak for everyone, but if teenage me found out that there was a secret Playstation clubhouse in my local mall, with an access panel hidden over a toilet, I would have gone through the looking glass in a heartbeat. This is a proposition that 2024 documentary Secret Mall Apartment presents, with Providence, Rhode […]
Arts & Entertainment
Posted inArts & Entertainment
This weekend in Iowa: rap, rock n’ roll, a Ren fest and more.
Established 2001 | Always free! There’s almost too much to do this weekend in our reader regions, but that just means you can have your pick to kick off the summer. JPEGMAFIA comes to Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines on Friday, and Shining Realm celebrates their album release at Gabe’s on Saturday. Rebel Queens […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Wolfskill & the Wild — ‘Feral Heart’
Take Me As I Am by Wolfskill & The Wild It may seem counterintuitive to first notice and bask in the silence of an album, when music is quite literally about the sound created. But something genius unfurls from the quiet as Wolfskill & the Wild’s Feral Heart comes into view. A good 10-second fade-in […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Optional Saint’ by Kelsi Vanada
Kelsi Vanada’s Optional Saint (Bench Editions) is a delicate collage of poetic styles that maintain a signature sparseness of language — the poems ask the reader to connect the dots. What’s interesting and exciting about Vanada’s poetry is that she trusts the reader and invites the reader to become part of the narrative. With brevity, […]
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Review: Orchestra Iowa conjures an anti-fascist classic in masterful Coralville concert
Orchestra Iowa (previously the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra) presented their next-to-last concert of the season on Sunday, May 18 at the Coralville Center For the Performing Arts. I don’t think it was designed as a symphonic venue; the stage looks a little snug for a full orchestra. But as a venue, it has a lot going […]
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A sister state relationship — forged after the 1960 ‘hog lift’ — brings a rare Japanese art form to Iowa this week
Steam wafts from the big bowl of noodles before me while Yoko Tanaka, the executive director of the Japan America Society of Iowa, shares her plan to bring the Japanese art of bunraku to Iowa. It is a traditional form of puppet theater that dates back to the 17th century. It was particularly common in […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Mojave Ghost’ by Forrest Gander
I read about one book of poetry a year. I enjoy poetry now, despite an adolescence spent being intimidated by it. I am thrilled that Mojave Ghost by Forrest Gander (New Directions) became my poetry book of the year. Structured with page breaks and asterisks but no formal titles, he creates something that flows effortlessly […]
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Plain Spoken: The accidental poetry of Chuck Grassley’s Twitter
You could make a decent argument that the most experimental poetry coming out of Iowa for the past 15 years had nothing to do with the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and everything to do with Chuck Grassley’s thumbs. His Twitter/X account is nearing 15,000 tweets. His signature, unorthodox approach to punctuation, abbreviation and spelling makes clear […]
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This weekend in Iowa: 69 love songs, a land, water and wildlife benefit, and more.
Established 2001 | Always free! Finals got you down? Never fear, the Weekender is here. Catch a free community film screening in Iowa City or Brother Trucker’s album release at Noce in Des Moines. See the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art’s exhibition on clothes before it closes, or enjoy a night of live music at […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Andrew Hoyt — ‘Kind of Paradise’
Sun-drenched hooks and sunscreen-slathered horn sections are not very Iowa. But for Andrew Hoyt and his latest EP, Kind of Paradise, bottling sunshine is the point, whether charting heartbreak or relationship blissdom. A born and raised Iowan, Hoyt blends his Midwest sensibility with the polish of his Nashville collaborators and a Hawaiian influence to make […]
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The new About Time Theatre Company hopes Des Moines isn’t too squeamish
If you have an adventurous palate when it comes to theatrical experiences, it’s about time this seven-player troupe came into your life. About Time Theatre Company is made up of stage and creative arts veterans from across the country who converged on Des Moines. “[We] moved here from the Chicago market where I’d done a […]
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Review: Davenport horror fans cheered for iconic kills, scored live by legendary composer Fabio Frizzi
The gang at Void Church added something new to their repertoire by co-hosting Italian composer Fabio Frizzi at The Capitol Theater in Davenport on Thursday, May 8. Void Church typically aims for an audio-visual experience of goth and shoegaze based concerts complete with custom lighting, visuals, and the occasional fog machine as well as DJ-driven […]
