Blue Valentine, Rabbit Hole
BLUE VALENTINE *** Ingmar Bergman’s superb 1974 release Scenes from a Marriage went beyond allowing the viewer to feel like a fly on the wall: It made the viewer feel like a fly pinned to the wall, privy to everything going on in the room but unable to flee from the scene when things got…
Exhibits & openings this week
Alchemy of the Soul – John Anderson uses experimental techniques to transform photos into abstract paintings focusing color, tone and texture rather than subject. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 34th St and Abercorn St, http://www.stpaulsavannah.org/ Birds in Flight – An installation by Matt Hebermehl of his signature, patterned bird forms hanging in the Jepson’s atrium. Opening…
Way more than you wanted to know about bed sweat
On the radio, a spruiker from a mattress company claimed it was “common knowledge” that a human sweats a liter of water every night, and for health reasons you should buy a new mattress every couple of years. Can this be true? -H.M.G. Wonderful word, spruiker (rhymes with “spook ‘er”)-slang in Australia and New Zealand…
Ike’s vision, 50 years later
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. – President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jan. 17, 1961 DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER is probably my favorite president. A patient, effective and…
Unhappy New Year edition
The first robbery of 2011 was reported at 9:29 a.m. on January 1. An officer on patrol was flagged down by a man on the street who said that he’d been robbed by an unknown male and female. The man told the officer that he and the man who robbed him had been drinking beer…
Metallurgy
Voting ends Jan. 31 in Spin magazine’s online Readers Poll. There are seven nominees listed under Best Metal Band – mostly well–known international veterans of the headbanging wars. And then there’s Kylesa. “Being among Danzig, Ozzy and Iron Maiden is pretty wild,” says the Savannah–based band’s Laura Pleasants, “considering I’ve been listening to all those…
Mark your calendar: New theatrical shows
The Savannah Children’s Theatre’s new, starting–right–now mainstage production is the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Cinderella (dates are Jan. 14–30), with Caitlin Scott as the rags-to-riches heroine, and Richie Cook (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) as the charming Prince. SCT mainstage shows are the big ones, with mixed casts of adults and young people. Production…
EP3, Word of Mouth
EP3 At 10 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 13 Live Wire Music Hall, 307 W. River St. The name, if you need prodding, is an abbreviation for “Eight Planets Past Pluto.” This is a jam band from Atlanta that makes heavy use of electronic instruments – some folks call it livetronica – and they’re big on “inter–galactic…
The high priest of found sound
You’d be hard pressed to find a more versatile musician than Joe Craven. He spent 17 years as the fiddler, percussionist and second mandolin player in the David Grisman Quintet, and is an ace guitarist, banjo and ukulele picker, and a high lonesome vocalist right out of the top drawer. There’s so much more to…
Letters home
When Steve Bradshaw started cleaning out the basement in his house, he had no idea it would lead to publishing a book. He stumbled across a box of letters written while he was deployed to Iraq during Desert Storm. The letters uniquely highlighted the struggles of deployed service men and women to maintain relationships with…
A not so deadly Zin
Pity Zinfandel, woefully Dangerfield–esque: “I don’t get no respect.” Part of that critical disdain lies in Zin’s roots — or definitive lack of rock–solid lineage. It certainly has no genetic link to the great grapes of France, hence its shunning by the world’s most prominent oenology. There is speculation that it derives from a Croatian…
Saigon Bistro
There I go, sneaking into a place barely open two weeks. But I had to: My “field researchers” had good things to say about the chow at Saigon Bistro. And, I’m a sucker for good Vietnamese food. The former location of Juarez was a ticky–tacky hangout of mine. The endless salsa and cheap margaritas were…
‘Take the stage, skinny man’
Savannah has a habit of losing its most talented sons and daughters to the magnetism of bigger cities with bigger opportunities. That wasn’t the case with Clinton Powell. Rather than chase the personal glory his talents would have assured him elsewhere, he made the decision to stay and help others, particularly young people, to learn…
Keeping it Real
Ina Williams is one of those people who sets her mind to something, goes after it, and inevitably gets what she’s looking for. She was a film and video major at SCAD a couple of years ago, while at the same time serving as artistic director at the Overcoming By Faith Ministries’ school of the…
A Prophet in art as well as letters
Kahlil Gibran is of course best–known as the author ofThe Prophet, one of the best-selling books of all time and one of the few never to be out of print since it was first published. What’s less well known is that Gibran was an accomplished visual artist as well. What’s even less well–known is that…
