Sesame Street Grows Up in ‘Avenue Q’
Racism, closeted homosexuality, porn and broken dreams — it’s all grounds for some seriously hard-hitting commentary. But it’s surprisingly lighthearted. And there are puppets. That’s the context for AdHoc Productions’ Avenue Q, which opened on Thursday, April 11, and runs through April 21 at the Black Box Theater in the Burlington Road Building. Once called a “combination of ‘The Real World’ and ‘Sesame Street’” by The New Yorker, Avenue Q tells the tale of the residents of the fictitious Avenue Q, a rundown New York City neighborhood where everyone’s looking for their purpose in life but having trouble facing reality…
Blake Grows With Overgrown
British electronic music wunderkind James Blake first drew deserved praise on both sides of the Atlantic with the release of his self-titled debut album in the spring of 2011. Having already drawn significant accolades in the U.K. for his work as a producer, Blake’s ethereal and evocative vocals finally gained more praise than his beats upon the release of James Blake’s first single, a cover of the track “Limit to Your Love” from the 2007 Feist album The Reminder. Blake was hailed as a genius for the feat of taking a piano-driven, pop-influenced dirge and transforming it into a sparse…
Jazz on the Green Adds Color
Last Thursday at 6 p.m. on the Dobbs University Center (DUC) terraces, April showers gave way to the melodic powers of the Emory Jazz Combos. Originally planned as an outdoor jazz event for the Patterson Pavilion between the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts and the Goizueta Business School, the so-called “Jazz on the Green” had to relocate due to wetter weather conditions. Fortunately, the change in locale did nothing to diminish the resolve of the musicians whose superior performances proved that improvisation is more than just a musical skill. The concert was divided into two parts, the first part featuring…
Concert Strikes A Capella Gold Mine
Every seat was filled in the majestic Emerson Concert Hall at the Schwartz Performing Arts Center last Friday night, and no, it wasn’t for Kendrick Lamar. The 10th annual Barenaked Voices concert, featuring all of the a cappella groups at Emory, took place Friday, April 5 at 7 p.m. The groups sang three phenomenal songs. It was a “first Friday” on steroids, and it was awesome. The first group to perform was No Strings Attached, and let’s be honest, isn’t that everyone’s favorite (for at least all of the girls)? College junior Benito Thompson was a fan favorite, singing “Dancing…
Cherry Orchard Blends Drama and Comedy
Theater Emory’s current production of The Cherry Orchard presents an aesthetically-striking and emotionally-volatile vision for Russian dramatist and author Anton Chekhov’s final play. The first thing that strikes viewers upon entering the Mary Gray Monroe Theater (MGMT) is the careful innovation with which the physical space itself has been treated; the audience is seated so that they are not wholly separate from the play’s action but simply on its periphery. The set blends aristocratic interiors with expanses of turf littered with ruins, giving concrete presence to the psychological and social state of many of the play’s characters. Each character contains…
AHANA Features Several Standouts
AHANA’s semiannual dance performance always comes with a massive range of possibilities. Where else could you see caricatures of every type of performer, video-game mockeries and evocative, elegant works, all in the span of one hour? The diversity of AHANA Dance’s performances is undoubtedly owed to its role as a vehicle for student artistry. Every single element of the performance is student-created, from the pieces’ choreography to the technical choices. The show offers opportunities for independent student choreographers as well as specialized dance groups. And with that much of a range in choreographers, you never quite know what you’re going…
Alvarez Shocks Audience With Gore
If you’re one of those people who rates horror films by the amount of blood on screen at any given time, then Fede Alvarez’s “Evil Dead” is probably going to be your favorite film of all time. Taking cues from its source material, the cult 1981 film “The Evil Dead,” Alvarez quickly makes it clear that he has no qualms about turning the gore up to 11 in every scene. Besides this penchant for ultra-violence, however, “Evil Dead” is a surprisingly by-the-book affair that rips its best moments directly from superior films while showing none of the satirical qualities that…
The Vortex Bar and Grill: An Atlanta Alpha Dog
For those who venture through the skull’s mouth and into the Vortex, an alternate universe awaits. On the other side of the skull’s jaws, it’s as if the dimly-lit den was swept up by a tornado, landing in a surreal other world. Knickknacks and rusty beer cans are haphazardly strewn about, hanging from every square inch of brick wall. A skeleton mounted on a motorcycle dangles from the ceiling. A spinning barbershop pole twirls hypnotically next to a giant boar’s head. Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” pervades eerily through the hum and bumble of conversation. With 360 degrees of hodgepodge décor,…
Strokes Come Back With ‘Comedown’
Whether you believe The Strokes are the 21st century saviors of rock and roll or consider them nothing more than an over-hyped garage band, there’s no denying their force in the trajectory of rock music in the last decade. Last week, The Strokes released their fifth studio album, Comedown Machine, a monumental moment in the band’s history. A quick glance at the album’s cover indicates just one image: a logo of record label RCA Records. Though it may seem like lazy design, the image instead holds special significance. After the Strokes’ 2001 EP The Modern Age generated hype across the…
Wavves Remains Angsty in New Album
For better or worse, Southern California punk band Wavves soundtracked my adolescence. By senior year of high school, I felt stifled by life in suburban Los Angeles and found refuge in grimy, underground rock venues that hosted the kind of scuzzy noise-rock that Wavves was once known for. A sweat-encrusted Wavves setlist — nabbed during my first-ever stage dive — is still taped to my childhood bedroom wall, and whenever I see it, I laugh at my angsty, teenage self. Today, I am a (slightly) more mature person, but after a few spins of the new Wavves album Afraid of…
