ICE CREAM Public Space One — Saturday, April 8 at 11 a.m. No, it doesn’t stand for “cash rules everything around me“. Over 50 independent vendors will congregate for the day-long, bazaar-like Iowa City Expo for Comics and Real Eclectic Alternative Media (ICE CREAM) on Saturday, April 8, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m, at […]
Mission Creek Festival
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: Hexa pair with David Lynch to reexamine factories in a post-industrial age
Enter the soundscape of Hexa, an industrial and bodily-minded collaboration between musicians Lawrence English and Jamie Stewart (of Xiu Xiu). Hexa was first brought together to create an audial response to David Lynch’s “Factory Photographs,” as a part of the larger Lynch retrospect Between Two Worlds held at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art in 2015. Last night, April 4, 2017, was their first U.S. performance outside of California.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Photos: Mission Creek Festival day one
Mission Creek Festival 2017 is off to a great start with Andrew Bird, Hexa, Preoccupations and more.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: Mission Creek opening day events at Hancher
At 6 p.m. on April 4, Joe Tiefenthaler opened Mission Creek 2017’s Hancher component with a short statement about the enduring importance of the arts in terms of building what is essential within human communities. In addition to thanking sponsors, it was a necessary statement (given the current political backdrop in which the arts risk no longer being funded by the government), and a welcome invocation of the need to remind ourselves of the essential ingredient that the arts play in our experience of being human.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Interview: Kelly Link offers a quiet but ferocious start to the Mission Creek Festival
Kelly Link Prairie Lights — Tuesday, April 4 at 4 p.m. Hancher — Tuesday, April 4 at 6 p.m. The Mission Creek Festival this year starts not with a bang, but with an insistent whisper — the sort you can’t possibly ignore. The kind that lures you close, that forces you to listen. At 4 […]
Posted inFeatures, Food & Drink
Jim Beam and Mission Creek team up with Iowa City restaurants for festival cocktail offerings
Those enjoying the musical performances, literary readings and film screenings during the Mission Creek Festival can also wet their whistles with signature cocktails crafted by local mixologists. In partnership with Jim Beam and Mission Creek, participating venues — Forbidden Planet, The Mill, Motley Cow, Pullman, Trumpet Blossom, and the Blue Moose — will serve specially […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Features, Prairie Pop
Prairie Pop: Iowa City rockstars Younger bring new material to Mission Creek
For a band that was originally conceived as a goof, Younger has rapidly transformed into one of Iowa City’s best rock bands — exploding with energy, intricate arrangements, barbed lyrics and catchy hooks.
“We had talked about playing together for a long time,” drummer Sarah Mannix recalled. “I don’t think that we honestly believed it was going to be an actual band. I think we just got together more as a joke.”
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Features
Interview: Margaret Cho opens minds through comedy
“Optimist” might not be the first word that comes to mind when you think of comedian and provocateur Margaret Cho. But her work, spanning three decades of dives into familial ties, racism and sexual assault, has always had resilience as its core. Little Village caught up with Cho to talk about aggression, sheet masks and performing during “difficult presidencies” before her Thursday, April 6 appearance at the Englert Theatre as part of the upcoming Mission Creek Festival.
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Features
A-List: The undefinable Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird’s discography is a compelling set of intricately arranged songs that have no obvious cognates in the contemporary musical scene. Having studied violin, Bird also plays guitar, sings and whistles his way through a set of songs that make excellent use of loops due to his intricate and impeccable timing. His songs are worth studying in advance of a performance, as each provides a dizzying set of dense, clever lyrics that are occasionally lost in the rapturous soaring of the violin.
Posted inAlbum Reviews, Arts & Entertainment
Album Review: Anthony Worden — Ideal Conceptions of the Beautiful and Good
Once labeled freaks, David Bowie and Lou Reed broke down the confines of masculinity found in the prototypical rock star persona of their time, while reimagining the vivacity and delicacy of rock and roll when others were preoccupied with LSD-laden fantasias (though that didn’t keep them away from their respective addled phases). Their legacies are undoubted; they carved a path of self-indulgence, spanning influences between Americana, krautrock, electronic and more.
Posted inFood & Drink
Mission Creek Festival 2017 presents: Sci-Fi CoLab
For Mission Creek Festival 2017, Motley Cow presents a one-of-a-kind dining experience. The dinner will incorporate music, dance and a sci-fi storyline to explore philosophical questions about class struggle, the value of art and pain and the nature of humanity. The short story is being written for the event by poet Richard Siken, and is expected to evolve along with the menu until the moment it’s performed.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Mission Creek announces Mykki Blanco as newest lineup addition
Mykki Blanco Blue Moose Tap House — Thursday, April 6 at 11 p.m. Michael Quattlebaum Jr., the rapper, poet and performance artist from Orange County, California better known as Mykki Blanco, is the latest addition to the lineup for the Mission Creek Festival, which runs April 4-9 in various locations across Iowa City. Quattlebam’s Mykki […]
