Previews Opening Wednesday, July 2, is the latest big summer film Hancock, starring the normally reliable box office star Will Smith, who plays a superhero of sorts. Hancock may be the genuine goods, but an alcohol and attitude problem means he is soundly disliked by the public he seeks to help. By chance he saves […]
Arts + Scene
Reviews, interviews and upcoming highlights from the week in visual and performing arts around Humboldt County.
Posted inArts + Scene
More Than Driftwood, Rocks
You know you’re getting close to Philip Burgess’s place when you start to see bicycles hanging from the trees. Old rusty ones. A road sign informs you that you are approaching the “brain check area.” You slow down to take in all of these unusual road signs and see more and more sculpture, rocks that […]
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A Welcome Visitor
Previews Opening Friday, June 27, is the action/thriller Wanted, from director Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch; Day Watch). Based on a comic book series by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, Wanted features James McAvoy as an executive who discovers that his father used to belong to a group of assassins called the Fraternity, who got a […]
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The Fest Begins!
This year’s Mad River Festival starts this Saturday with an appearance by Hollywood’s Tim Robbins and several other members of his L.A.-based theatre group, The Actors’ Gang, who are coming to receive the international Prize of Hope. Denmark’s Institute of Popular Theatre has been giving this award since 1987 mostly to European ensembles, but in […]
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The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch
A graphic novel. Story by Neil Gaiman. Illustrated by Michael Zulli. Darkhorse Books. Neil Gaiman’s work in comics has helped transform the medium from one capable only of dealing with grown men and women running around in tights to one that is as flexible in scope and subject matter as the prose novel. Gaiman has […]
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‘Hulk’ of Crap
Previews Opening Friday, June 20, is a new version of Get Smart directed by Peter Segal (50 First Dates). Maxwell Smart, played here by Steve Carell, began life in a TV series created by Mel Brooks that ran from 1965 to 1970 with Don Adams as Agent Smart. Chipping in as Agent 99 is Anne […]
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Marshlands: Another Interpretation
I hadn’t planned it this way, but I find myself writing once again about an artist whose work interprets our local marshes. This artist, Ellen Land-Weber, has focused on a specific place — the Arcata Marsh. It’s fascinating to see how different two artists’ approaches are when the inspiration is the same. The work that […]
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Ages of Man
Previews Apparently fans of movies made from comics like their fare solidly in the mainstream. As a result, the somewhat brooding, arty take of Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk sank faster than a blueblood at a bar brawl. So, a mere five years later from director Louis Leterrier (the Transporter films) comes The Incredible Hulk, opening […]
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Aspects of Tragedy
By William S. Kowinski Between Two Winters returned to the Carlo Theatre stage last weekend, not as an encore so much as an iteration — a tryout of changes before its upcoming weekend at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. Tasked with creating and performing an Aristotelian tragedy by adapting a story from the news, […]