The day John Waters calls me, he has just finished writing the first draft of his next show, Let’s Take Over the World, which he will present at the Englert Theatre on Oct. 9. The writer and director of films including Pink Flamingos, Hairspray and Cry-Baby and books such as Shock Value and Role Models […]
Englert Theatre
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Matt Walsh (the good one) talks ‘Veep,’ Upright Citizens Brigade and Chicago-style improv ahead of two Iowa shows
Comedian Matt Walsh is a natural calming agent; he has a voice of chamomile and the eyes of a tired hound. These are the features of a man who has made a career out of playing fuddy-duddies, cops and deadpan dads. He’s that guy. You’ve seen him do it on Veep, or a random episode […]
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‘All Fours’ author Miranda July reflects on fantasies, fears and being the boss of her body ahead of Infinite Dream
She places her phone on the tripod, presses record and steps back. Standing between the camera and a large mirror, she enjoys watching the doubling effect it creates. She starts to spin, her arms lifted, improvising the movement as she goes. For Miranda July, what matters is discovering what she doesn’t know. She moves back […]
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Maria Bamford offers a brief Bible study ahead of her two Iowa shows
Maria Bamford is a bit of a lightning bug. Not that she’s small in any way. She has flown through decades of the dark, between her own struggles with mental illness, the rigors of Hollywood and whatever perils modern life throws her way. How she flies is hilarious, but how she lands is divine. As […]
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In the age of Live Nation, Iowa’s indie venues hang on by putting people over ticket fees
The last time you paid to see live music, you probably didn’t think much about the venue itself. You thought about the band, the traffic you would endure, whether you could get a drink before the opener finished. But the venue was thinking about you — whether the parking garage was running at capacity, about […]
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Margaret Cho discusses performing in red states, conservative comedians and the benefits of bombing onstage
It’s been said that you should never meet your heroes. However, as a workaholic Asian-American trying to make her way in the comedy world from the heart of Iowa, I’ve never been one for listening to the word “should.” So, when I had an opportunity to have a conversation with comedy icon Margaret Cho, I had to go for it.
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Tom Arnold on Trump tapes, his favorite Iowa stuff and the time he challenged his father to a fight
Tom Arnold is among the rarest of Iowans, having survived both the Razzie Awards and the kill floor at Hormel. There’s a generation of us who may have first met him via Roseanne, but the man has spent decades showing up in wonderful places: Austin Powers, True Lies, The Simpsons, The Best Damn Sports Show […]
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Hancher announces a new multi-venue spring music fest in Iowa City, Stop/Time Festival
Hancher Auditorium, lead by executive director Andre Perry, announced that they are producing a new music and arts festival scheduled for this coming Spring. The Stop/Time Festival is billed as a “two-day, multi-venue, multi-artist spring festival devoted to innovation and independence in contemporary music and the arts.”
The first edition of Stop/Time Festival launches Friday, April 3 through Saturday, April 4 in Iowa City.
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An early Velvet Underground ‘protégé,’ Jonathan Richman wrote his way into punk history while trying to troll the hippies
Jonathan Richman can still pinpoint how the Velvet Underground transformed his life with their collar-grabbing sound back in 1967. “It was on record and it was that drone! Oh my God! They changed everything!” As a teenager, he saw the band over 80 times and was a regular presence before and after gigs. “If the […]
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Review: Sharon Van Etten confirms she’s a witch leaning towards the light at Iowa City’s Infinite Dream fest
Sharon Van Etten wants to look into your eyes.
I know because she looked in mine when she came to Iowa City to play the first show of her US tour earlier this month. Before she took the stage at the Infinite Dream Festival with her band The Attachment Theory, she joined Nightbitch author Rachel Yoder in conversation at the Old Capitol.
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Lizzie No knows folk, drawing inspiration from ‘the Lilith Fair girls’ and social justice movements
Lizzie No’s discography is an eclectic mix of everything from country ballads to folksy foot-tappers to alt-rock imbued with righteous anger — the kind of music that perfectly soundtracks a summer drive down a country highway. The expressive voice of No (the stage name of the band’s lead singer, Lizzie Quinlan, but also the band […]
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Shall we dance? The Magnetic Fields will perform all ‘69 Love Songs’ (including their accidental wedding standard) over two nights at the Englert
Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs (1999) contains two of Stephin Merritt’s most beloved numbers, “The Book of Love” and “Papa Was a Rodeo.” Both have become standards a quarter century after their release, though they represent but a tiny fraction of equally brilliant earworms that appear in that industrial-sized collection of music. When Merritt started […]
