Actual news*
KU wins! KU loses. Economy loses even worse. India, Batman, Planned Parenthood gift cards, Barack Hussein Obama ... all reviewed from the week that was.
A Perfect Hell
Art show ponders whether we’re on the cusp of utopia or Armageddon
A leaf blower doesn’t leap to mind as the likeliest harbinger of hell-on-earth, but that’s a matter of perspective. It was that unassuming power tool, being used to manicure a lawn behind Hobbs Taylor Lofts in a futile attempt to fend off natural decay, which inspired Dave Loewenstein and Heidi Zeller to curate a modern convenience vs. inevitable destruction art show.
Townie guide to… seasonal athletic disorder
With Sarah Fertig, senior lawrence.com Seasonal Sports Hysteria Correspondent who is currently running on the treadmill while watching ESPN and ESPN2 simultaneously
Townie guide to... Thanks, but no Thanksgiving
Despot, nudie model, arbiter of awesome, enjoys subterfuge, spray paint, and livin' like a sybarite
Actual news*
Wherein we peruse the news that was new last week.
Inside the Abstractor’s Studio
Artist Jen Unekis maps the landscape of the abstract
Although she was born in the lap of sultry Southern California, Jen Unekis spent her formative years living on a dilapidated farm in Kansas. The decade she and her family spent constantly renovating the rustic heap would inform her art, the environment of churning rebirth and hands-on earthiness reflected in her tactile multi-media works.
The LAN of Oz
Rock Chalk LAN brings computers and carnage to the KU campus
A primer: LAN stands for "Local Area Network." BYOC means "Bring Your Own Computer." DotA is "Defense of the Ancients." And BBAMFIC:well, you probably don't want to know what BBAMFIC stands for.
Townie guide to... transplantation
Former Lawrence barista and KJHKer, current marketing associate in Chicago, enjoys free-styling, losing things, watching The Sopranos.
Torch Song
The legacy of Jana Mackey burns bright in the 1,100 Torches Campaign
A mother in Oregon is compelled for the first time to donate her services to homeless outreach. Halfway across the country in Nebraska, a woman with no particular background in community organizing spearheads a statewide clothing drive for a shelter in Kansas. In New Mexico, yet another woman is driven from complacency and begins volunteering at a rape crisis center. The only tie connecting these seemingly disparate people is they are first time activists-and they were all inspired to this newfound activism by Jana Mackey.
Save & Splurge: Audrey Bellinder
I don't have a bank and I don't have any government IDs or anything like that. I just keep it in a box I made. I don't really trust banks...
Townie guide to... townie pride
With Annie Harrigan-Visual Arts Education student, KJHK DJ, Big Sister, collects star bits, stops, smells roses, high fives and smiles, smacks down at trivia when she has $5 to spare
World of Warlock
The magic, trash and trannies of artist Aaron Storck
Between his penchant for wearing rotting produce and his predilection for displaying spread eagle she-males, one might expect to find Aaron Storck rooting through a dumpster or yelling at cats in a back alley. While Storck does indeed revel in filth and fantasy, it's not because he's off his meds-it's in service of his art. The Bronx born Storck came to KU to study art and has split his time between New York and Lawrence, developing this unique vision of magical debauchery.
Undead Like Me
Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zombie
In these ominous times-as we grapple with war, ecological collapse, and economic Armageddon-the jaded amongst us aren't even going to bat an eye at a mob of reanimated corpses trundling through downtown Lawrence. To the attentive, it's just another portentous hour of the last days. Expect brimstone flurries with a 70% chance of zombies. Be sure to grab your umbrella and machete. Those who don't heed the call to preparation, however, do so at the risk of their soon to be violated brains.
Hot, Throbbing Talk
"Kansas in Heat" talk show helps you get your freaky deaky on
If you've got a premature ejaculation problem and/or a shoe fetish you're afraid to bring up with your partner, then "Kansas in Heat" wants to hear from you. This KJHK call-in show has been fielding questions about everything from chronic masturbation to kinky pillow talk for over a year now, and they've yet to drain the well when it comes to issues of sex and relationships.
The New Weirdness
"Bring Back Comedy" showcases cabal of local alternative comics
Hey, did you hear the one about stuffing children into a suitcase? How about the one about the fire and brimstone preacher evangelizing for Norse trickster god Loki? The abortion/rape/hand-job/Jew joke? If so, then you've obviously been to "Bring Back Comedy."
War Monger
"Get Your War On" cartoonist David Rees releases collection, despairs
Who knew that taking benign clip art of office toadies and filling their word balloons with blisteringly profane political commentary would propel you to the upper echelons of contemporary American satire? David Rees, apparently. His comic strip, "Get Your War On," is carried by Rolling Stone and alternative newspapers across the country (including, FYI, lawrence.com at one point) and has recently been adapted into an animated series appearing online at The Huffington Post and 23/6 News.
Valley of the Dolls
Army of DIY designer toys invade Lawrence!
It's sort of a Pokemon, tarted up a like Salvador Dali Easter egg, and simultaneously on display at both your local comic book shop and at The MoMa. Such is the typical fumbling for words in trying to answer the question: WTF is a Munny? Lawrence artist Joel "Jouvelt" Feldt takes a whack at it.
Still Righteous After All These Years
The fierce independence of Ani DiFranco's music and politics
After releasing dozens of albums and touring virtually non-stop for 20+ years, one could be forgiven for slipping it into cruise control for a while. But that's not what won Ani DiFranco an army of devotees and feminist icon status. The outspoken folk-funk-rock pioneer shows no sign of slowing her crusade to achieve independence both artistically and politically. "Red Letter Year," her 18th studio LP-not counting her numerous live albums-is out via her own label, Righteous Babe Records the day after she plays Lawrence.
New Kid on the Voting Bloc
Political neophyte John Wilson hopes to shake up the Kansas legislature
John Wilson is literally a fresh face on the Kansas political scene. This 24-year-old KU alum looks more like a clean-shaven grad student than the usual stuffed suits and liver spots you'd find moldering in the halls of Topeka. Given his youth and relative inexperience, few expected Wilson to make much of a dent when he threw his hat in the ring as the Democratic candidate against Tom Sloan, who's represented Lawrence and the 45th district in the state House for 14 years.
Townie guide to... Wieners and Boobs
"'Sex, a.k.a. Wieners and Boobs' is a play written by Joe Lo Truglio, Micheal Showalter, and David Wain-the guys who did 'The State,' 'Wet Hot American Summer' and 'The Ten.' It's basically a kids show, but for an adult audience. It's centered loosely around Jack Greenburg-played by Tim Vickers-the new sheriff of Teaneck, NJ, and his campaign to rid the town of hookers and gigolos, controlled by the evil Tad Theaterman, played by Aarron Ross."
Dead Time
Native Lawrence filmmakers return to screen their time-bending chiller, "Suspension"
"It's a sci-fi stalker thriller, if you had to put it in a genre," says Alec Joler of the feature-length film he and Ethan Shaftel filmed in and around Lawrence. That pretty effectively sums up "Suspension," a moody little exercise in psychological dysfunction about a man who discovers he has the ability to stop time and the woman he comes to obsess over.
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