People are looking (and listening) for something new, agrees Ira Glass, the nerd-sexy host of National Public Radio’s quirky-intellectual program This American Life. Why radio? “I didn’t have any other prospects,” admits the lovably nerdy Glass. Photo ©2006 Nancy Updike “Whether they’re looking for us is the real question,” he muses dryly. For anyone who’s […]

Of all the horrific apocalyptic outcomes predicted for the Cold War, the Soviets becoming our comic buffoons probably didn’t seem likely to observers on either side of the Iron Curtain. But—all forecasts be damned—popular culture has lately anointed the Eastern European nudnik as the go-to guy for giggles. What a novel! Gary Shteyngart’s Absurdistan made […]

“The real is not only what can be reproduced, but that which is always already reproduced.” So wrote noted semiologist Jean Baudrillard to describe his theory of hyperreality, a pillar of late-20th-century post-structuralism. Lost in found sound: The Books Baudrillard passed away in March, but his description could just as easily serve as a publicity […]

The soundtrack on Golden Gate Gallery’s MySpace page is from Dead Can Dance and sounds for all the world like Jim Morrison. Dead. Tour art is for everybody: Jay Blakesberg doesn’t just photograph jam bands, but has also captured the likes of Ani DiFranco and Emmylou Harris. Scroll down. Jerry Garcia, deadx2. Neil Young, pending […]

Becca Molaro prances in a circle at the Family Dance, holding hands with an adult on each side and gazing way up to their approving faces. A few moves later, as the live band strikes an up-tempo Celtic frenzy, she surges onward to explore the next people. At Family Dances, partners swing as equals. photo […]

Buried Pictures Digs Up Another Film In spite of what local filmmakers want you to think, the history of locally created cinema is haphazard at best. We’re a town that likes to support the artist’s dream, even if said artists seem to lack a little on the follow-through. For instance, all three of Xpress’ 2006 […]

Her jingly waltz about her decaying hometown spins hollow, like a smashed-out barber-shop pole: “Thrice All American,” an ode to Tacoma, Wash., was probably the least-felt song on What It Sounds Like, the first of No Depression‘s compilation CDs. The case for Neko: In an era of newly theatrical indie rock (Arcade Fire, of Montreal, […]

Spring makes people do crazy things—cut off all their hair, buy a convertible, spend a week’s pay on perennials. It’s spring fever: Our primal urge to get out of the house after four months of King of Queens reruns and (excuse the New Age-ism) reconnect with the larger world. And the best way to do […]