Star City Blog

"The 39 Steps" is a Runaway Spectacular

By Ladd Wendelin

What is The 39 Steps? Answer: A suspenseful and hilarious 2-hour Hitchcockian pot-boiler turned manic quick-change comedy -- not to mention, the crown jewel of the Nebraska Repertory Theatre’s 2011 season.

Based on Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film, and adapted from the novel by John Buchan, the adventure begins when listless bachelor Richard Hannay (Dan Rodden) meets German expatriate Annabelle Schmidt (Melissa Lewis) while attending a literal question and answer session conducted by the magnificent Mr. Memory (Robie Hayek) in a London theater. Schmidt claims to have a top secret bit of military information, and it’s not long before Hannay has her over to his flat for a spot of...murder.  From there, the action follows Hannay, an innocent fugitive on the run who risks the perils of train travel, is pursued across the Scottish moors, and stumbles over Hitchcock film references all the while. 

And the question remains – What is The 39 Steps? Peril at every corner. Adventure begins and ends in a theater. You get the picture.

The 39 Steps is also one of the funniest of Hitchcock’s early films, and, as such, it has been cleverly adapted into a four person quick-change comedy by Patrick Barlow, who retains the wit, suspense and action of the screenplay. Each member of the cast (excepting Rodden’s Hannay) plays multiple roles along with Hayek and Matt Penn, who play at least at least 20 characters each, if not more.  All of the scene and costumes changes are performed by the cast in full view of the audience against the backdrop of Jeffery Stander’s impeccable set, or rather, within it. His striking design – the backstage of an old theater, winged by two box seats – suggests the wonderful things that are possible in the theater environment. We can go anywhere and be anything.

The other remarkable quality of The 39 Steps at the Rep is its cast, who perform a theatrical magic trick, or several, I should say, by maintaining essential (sometimes elusive) comedic rhythm, good timing, and bringing physicality and voices to the multitude of distinct characters. You don’t have to guess who the actors are portraying, even if you’ve never seen the film. The accents, presentation, and reactions to one another were mostly quite consistent.  So were my gut-busting bursts of laughter.

Much like Hitchcock’s maligned protagonists, we find ourselves plopped into the middle of the action, caught off guard, discovering that everything is not what it seems. The lights come up, the actors come out to play, and we do the best we can to make sense of what we’re seeing to the point of half-believing the transient illusion. Escape is entirely possible within the broad plains and spacious palaces of your imagination, and it’s also the best reason to pay a visit to the theater.

What is The 39 Steps? Answer: A jolly good time! It doesn’t let up, from the start of the play to the final curtain when the actors take their bows.

If you want to find out for yourself what The 39 Steps really is, you’ve still got two more opportunities; this Wednesday, August 3^rd and Friday, Aug. 5^th, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 general admission, $18 for UNL faculty and staff, senior citizens, military, and $10 for UNL students and can be purchased by calling 402-472-4747 or 1-800-432-3231. 

Visit the Nebraska Repertory Theatre online at http://www.unl.edu/rep.

 

 

 

Science Odyssey: Shifts in Disease Boundaries

By Clay Farris Naff

New temperature data show that climate change is well underway in the US. As it takes hold, experts say the boundaries of diseases are shifting as well. That's partly because the carriers of disease, such as mosquitoes and mice, are finding new places to live.

But there's more to it than that. In  Part 1 we hear from Dr. Mary Hayden of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. In Part 2, we talk with epidemiologist Gregory Glass of Johns Hopkins University.

Climate and Disease, Part 1

Climate and Disease, Part 2

Clay Farris Naff is (claynaff.com) is a science author and blogger whose weekly radio program, Science Odyssey, airs Saturday mornings from 8:30 to 9 a.m. CST on KZUM, Lincoln's community radio station. You can hear it over the air at 89.3 FM or on the web live at kzum.org. Clay's science and religion blog on the Huffington Post can be seen here.

MOVIE REVIEW: “13 Assassins” Stylishly Follows the Samurai Code

By Justin Senkbile

If you haven't had the guts to see any of the by-now legendary forays into ultra violence from Japanese director Takashi Miike (“Ichi the Killer”, “Audition”), you have two reasons not to worry. First, you're not alone: due to his reputation, “13 Assassins” is actually the first Miike film I've had the nerve (or the obligation) to sit through. And secondly, though this insanely entertaining samurai epic has its fair share of spurting blood and absurd violence, its not likely to leave any grotesque images burned onto your psyche.

As it turns out, the horror schlock-fests he's famous for aren't really representative of the over seventy works Miike has churned out since the early nineties. He's made a bunch of them, sure, but he's made a bunch of everything: Yakuza gangster pictures, romantic dramas, even a children's movie.

The setting for “13 Assassins”, a remake of Eichi Kudo's 1963 film of the same name, is Japan, in the early 19th century. Although the frighteningly sadistic Lord Naritsugu (Gorô Inagaki) is little more than a murderer with a title, he's the Shoguns' brother so his rise within the government seems inevitable. Realizing the kind of disaster a more powerful Naritsugu could cause in the region, a senior Shogun advisor (Sir Doi, played by Mikijiro Hira) enlists aging samurai Shinzaemon (Kōji Yakusho) to assemble a team of warriors and plan an assassination.

Plenty of samurai are still hanging around, escorting government bigwigs if not gambling, but they rarely see battle these days, so it takes a bit of searching. And the team Shinzaemon eventually hires is as rag-tag as you'd expect from that sort of plot setup, but all of the swordsmen share a rare discipline and devotion to the samurai code.

In rooms lit stunningly, as if by candlelight, by cinematographer Nobuyasu Kita, plenty of time is spent setting up the politics and introducing our samurai. Naritsugu's deeds reveal him to be a real chilling figure, the kind of purely evil villain not seen much in movies these days. Tension builds considerably as the warriors and their target (who is protected by his own, much larger, army of samurai) bide their time and anticipate each other's move in preparation for the inevitable crossing of paths. And when they do cross, it's pretty big, with explosions, theatrics, hidden traps (“Seven Samurai” with a dash of “Home Alone”) and, of course, plenty of blood.

Like any good samurai picture, there's a deep, dark moral current running under “13 Assassins”. Its enough to keep the atmosphere gritty and desperate, and to lend an unexpected sting of consequence to many of the bodies that fall to the ground in the final fight. But ultimately, and rightfully, what we remember is the style, scale and sheer excitement of it all.

“13 Assassins” is playing at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, 13th and R streets, through August 4.

North Lincoln Art Crawl Features Five Galleries on August the 5th

On Friday, August 5, 9 Muses Studio, Community Crops, Against the Wall Gallery, International Quilt Study Center & Museum, LUX Center for the Arts, and Mo Java Café will participate in the North Lincoln Art Crawl.

Gallery maps will be provided at each of the galleries.

9 Muses Studio, located at 2713 N 48th Street, will be open from 6 p.m to 9 p.m.  9 Muses Studio presents the work of a local artist.

Community Crops, located at Fremont and Touzalin, will be open from 6 p.m to 9 p.m.  Come see the “Art of the Garden” and learn more about Community Crops.

Against the Wall Gallery, located at 6220 Havelock Avenue, will be open from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.   Against the Wall Gallery presents “9natura” the work of local nature photographer, Michael E. French.

International Quilt Study Center & Museum, located at the Intersection of 33rd & Holdrege Streets, will be open from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.  International Quilt Study Center & Museum continues the showing of  "Elegant Geometry: American & British Patchwork" and "Nebraska Quilts and Quiltmakers".

LUX Center for the Arts, located at 2601 N 48th Street, will be open from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. LUX Center for the Arts presents “New Work” by local potter Susan Dewsnap.  She invites people to pick up her pottery and explore the relationships between interior, exterior, and surface.  She will be on hand at the opening to give a brief talk and answer questions.

Also opening is “Continuance” by the apprentices of the 16 Hands Pottery Tour group from Floyd, Virginia.  The show opens August 5 and runs August 27.   The opening reception will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, August 5.  This show highlights the work of seventeen ceramic artists from across the country, including former LUX Artist in Resident, Dandee Pattee.

Mo Java Café, located at 2649 N 48th Street, will have an art opening from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and live music from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.  Mo Java Café presents the artwork of a local artist.

Brews & Blues at the Zoo July 30th

The Lincoln Children's Zoo will be hosting the first annual Brews & Blues at the Zoo fundraiser on Saturday, July 30 from 6-9pm.  This adult-only evening will feature beer tasting from premier local brewers and live music from the Kris Lager Band.  Enjoy delicious BBQ and take in the sights and sounds of the Zoo.  

All proceeds from the event will go toward supporting animal care and environmental education programs at the Lincoln Children's Zoo.

Tickets can be purchased at the Zoo gift shop or over the phone (402.475.6741).  All tickets purchased by phone will be available at will call on the day of the event.   Tickets purchased in advance are $25 each.  They will also be for sale at the gate on the day of the event for $30.    

Each ticket includes admission, 3 drinks, a souvenir cup and a quick view of the Zoo.   

Food from BBQ4U and additional beverages are available for purchase.  

Featured Brewers and BBQ

• Modern Monks Brewery 
• Empyrean Brewing Company 
• Thunderhead Brewing 
• Lucky Bucket Brewing Co. 
• BBQ4U 

 

Retreat to the Prairie | The Scoop | Hear Nebraska

by Andrew Norman

Sitting in bath-warm water rubbing clay, mud and sand on our skin while tiny minnows nip softly at our calloused feet, the Niobrara River feels like a high-end spa treatment. But whatever physical healing powers the river offers are drowned by its spiritual charms. The shallow stream that cuts through the spine of the Sandhills ― the country's largest and most intricate wetland ecosystem ―  is surrounded by a bank of tall grasses and shrubs and giant cottonwoods, which cast cool shadows and provide a resting spot for bald eagles, Great Crested Flycatchers, Yellow-Breasted Chats, Warbling and Red-Eyed Vireos. Bank and Cliff Swallows hover by and a Green Heron flies over and lands near us on a dead tree along the bank.

Past the trees, an expansive floodplain looks like a soft, never-ending football field of all hues of green and yellow prairie grass that turns to hills and bluffs and finally, more prairie. A single, wooden windmill, slowly turning in the distance, and some knotted, wooden fence posts are the only manmade structures we can see. 

We're resting today, preparing for another day of rest tomorrow on inter-tubes from Berry Bridge to Brewer's Bridge, with a stop at Smith Falls, the state's largest waterfall that drops jolting, ice-cold water onto you from 70 feet. Last night, we loaded a washtub bass, a musical saw, a couple guitars and ourselves into the back of an old red Ford truck and took a bumpy trip to the nearby bluffs at sunset. We held a sort of prairieoke before more stars than I've ever seen dropped brightly toward us from the pristine, absolute-dark sky that's free from light pollution of any kind. We even saw a 
, a rare occurrence. Continue reading...

via hearnebraska.org

MOVIE REVIEW: “Incendies” Charts the Complexities of War, History and Family

By Justin Senkbile

“Incendies” is the third film from Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, and the first of those to be released in America. Based on the play “Scorched” by Wajdi Mouawad, its a strange hybrid of family melodrama drama and subdued political thriller, and features a fictionalized war and country that closely mirrors middle-eastern struggles in of the last few decades.

We begin in Quebec, where twins Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) have just learned from their recently deceased mother's unusual will that they have a living father and brother. To find these mysterious family members, the twins set off to their mother's homeland, a war-scarred country in the middle east.

As they visit small villages and empty prisons, we move back and forth in time to see the story of their mother (Lubna Azabal as Nawal Marwan) play out parallel to their search. There's no way to put it lightly: Nawal's story is one of endless suffering. Every action she takes (or is forced to take) can be traced to the vaguely identified political events shaking her country. But her story is ultimately the direct result of the search for her long-lost firstborn son, the brother the twins are also looking for.

So much of what's amazing about “Incendies” lies in the way it slowly, precisely unravels itself; in what we're allowed to see, and when we're allowed to see it. It twists and turns like the best kind of melodrama, the kind that captures us so tightly that any heightening or exaggeration of feeling comes off as being totally authentic. Azabal's remarkably open performance does much in this department, as she depicts a woman perhaps doomed by fate while never losing sense of her inherent strength.

Full of desert violence and ideologically fueled anger (even though the country and the war are invented), the film immediately brings to mind international cinema's current obsession with unearthing armed struggles of the recent past, whether of the purely political variety, like “Carlos” or “The Baader-Meinhof Complex” or the simply anarchic, like France's “Mesrine”. But with its intense interest in family and a kind of transcendent love, “Incendies” has a more likely counterpart in “The Time that Remains”, a film about a Palestinian family during the formation of  the Israeli state (which played at The Ross earlier this year). History and politics are unavoidable parts of the fabric in both of these films, but it's the human relationships that are important and resonant.

Both its running time (130 minutes) and its persistent darkness might make it seem like an unapproachable movie. It's no feel-good summer flick, that's for sure. But “Incendies” is a challenging movie in the best possible sense; it's powerful, mysterious and endlessly rewarding.

“Incendies” is playing at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, 13th and R streets, through July 28.

The Bottle Chronicles: Monks, Vines & Wines

By Alexis Abel

In early July, in the cool, subterranean cellar of his Priorat winery, Spanish winemaker Jordi Vidal, discussed the complexities of wine production as he used a syringe to extract samples of wine straight from the barrel. Vidal poured the wine from the syringe into his own glass, took a small sip and smiled. Pleased with the results, he poured a small sample into each of our glasses and eagerly awaited our feedback.

Vidal’s winery, La Conreria D’Scala Dei, is one of 50 wineries in the Spanish Priorat region. My husband, Marco and I, along with two fellow foodies, Andy and John, were visiting La Conreria on a wine-tasting excursion, part of our three-day Catacurian culinary vacation. The mountain landscape in southern Catalonia, in which La Conreria is situated, overlooks the breathtaking Mediterranean Sea. But this rugged terroir, with soil comprised of black slate and quartz, creates robust red wines from the Garnacha Tinta, Carinena, Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes planted here. Since the 1990s, Priorats have been renowned worldwide for their complexity and powerful flavor.

Earlier that day, we’d spent two hours stumbling through the ruins of the 12^th century Cartoixa d'Escaladei, a Carthusian Monastery, for which the winery is named. It was the contemplative and solitary Carthusians who originally brought viniculture to Priorat. The monks controlled the region until 1835, when the land was seized by the Catalonian government and sold off piecemeal to small landowners. Wine continued to be produced in the region until phloxyerra insects devastated the grape vines in the late 19^th century. Nearly 12,000 acres of vineyards were destroyed, causing financial ruin that led to the emigration of entire families out of the region.

In 1979, Spanish winemaker Rene Barbier, who had been producing wine in the Rioja region, purchased land that would lead to the eventual resurgence of the Priorat as an important Spanish wine region. Barbier, along with other enterprising winemakers, planted new vineyards and began producing wines that would change the Spanish wine industry.

Earlier that week, we had visited one of Priorat’s first wineries, Costers del Siurana, headed by  charismatic owner and winemaker Carles Pastrana. It was Costers del Siurana that produced one of Priorat’s first and most famous wines, Clos de l’Obac, the first vintage of which appeared in 1989.

Pastrana was an impressive showman as he described his complex wines with a smile and faint smirk. Wine tasting, he said, should be like making love, something the Spanish find particularly enticing since it was nearly banned under the fascist regime of Francisco Franco. Pastrana disdains the overly intellectual oenophiles that come to Costers del Siurana armed with their textbook-style approach to wine tasting.

Made from a blend of Garnacha, Cabernet Savignon, Syrah, Merlot and Carinena, Clos de L’Obac is matured in new French oak casks and then bottled without filtering to retain its complexity.

Another Costers del Siurana standout is Kyrie, a white wine that Pastrana spent years developing. Made of four white grape varietals grown on only 2 ½ acres of slate and sedimentary earth, Kyrie has a big structure and complexity that make it more akin to a red wine than a white.

Compared to Pastrana, Vidal seemed less the showman and more the businessman. He was quick to tell us that marketing is as much a part of Priorat’s success as its excellent soil, creative winemakers and complex, fully rendered wines. Vidal himself knew this when he decided to move his winery from a small, medieval village house to a grand and modern mountain tasting room three years ago. The new La Conreria D’Scala Dei is all glass and metal, adorned with modern art and breathtaking views of both Vidal’s vineyards and the nearby Montsant mountains.

Priorat wines have enjoyed international success since the 1990s. As suspected, they are hard to come by in Lincoln. Trader Joe's, 3120 Pine Lake Road, offers an introductory option for those new to Priorat wines. Rêves Priorat Spanish Red Wine, $9.99, is a blend of Carinena, Garnacha Tinta and Syrah and has notes of black cherry and tobacco. On first taste, the oak is overwhelming, so I recommend decanting for an hour before drinking.

Two other local stores I spoke with, The Still, 6820 South 70th Street, and Meier’s Cork and Bottle, 1244 South Street, had large selections of Spanish wine, but nothing in stock from Priorat. Both stores indicated that they would be able to special order.

For online sources of Priorat wines, try klwines.com, where you can find La Conreria D’Scala Dei’s Les Brugueres, a spicy white made from 100% Garnacha Blanca, for $29.99. Wine.com also offers a variety of Priorat wines.

Star City Blog's Second Annual Short Story Contest Deadline Extended

Submit a short story following the theme “perseverance” and have the chance to win $150. Runners up will win $75 and $50. All winners will be published on our website. The contest will end August 7th October 7th, with the winners being announced at a later date.

The Rules

• Judging criteria are inventiveness, creativity and the ability to effortlessly incorporate elements of the theme into the story.
• One entry per person. (Star City Media, LLC employees and their family members are not eligible).
• Stories must be original and must be 850 words or less. Lines should be typed, double-spaced.
• Star City Blog retains the right to publish all stories. Full credit will be given to the authors.
• The decisions of the editors are final.

Entries must be the exclusive work of the author. They should be written in English and should not have been previously published or entered in any other competition. Each entry must have a title. Entries that exceed the stated length will be disqualified.

Lincoln Municipal Band to present "March Madness" July 31

The Lincoln Municipal Band will continue its 2011 Summer Concert Series on Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 7:00 p.m., with a concert entitled "March Madness." This concert, conducted by Bob Krueger, will feature marches by Henry Fillmore, Karl King and John Philip Sousa.

In addition the band will perform Percy Grainger's "Children's March" and Victor Herbert's "Naughty Marietta Overture." Bring a picnic dinner and enjoy a beautiful evening of music, family, and friends! The Lincoln Municipal Band will also be joined by trumpet soloist Dean Haist, trumpet professor at Nebraska Wesleyan University. He will be performing "Trumpeter's Lullaby" and "At the Beach." 

All Lincoln Municipal Band concerts are held at the John Shildneck Memorial Bandshell in Antelope Park and are FREE and open to the public.