HubArts.com

Globe story on web comics

Let me interrupt my mini-vacation to send you to my Living/Arts story this morning about the web comic "Questionable Content" by Jeph Jacques of Easthampton.

Time off for bad behavior

Summer is rushing to a close. There are bicycles to ride, fish to cook, beers to drink, breezes to savor. HubArts will be in hibernation until Sept. 2.

Lose a Leger, lose your job?

You have to wonder if heads will roll at Wellesley College's Davis Museum and Cultural Center after the staff lost track of a 1921 painting by cubist Fernand Leger, apparently for good. Traveler's Insurance paid out its largest fine-art settlement ever to the museum, an amount the Globe places in the low seven figures. No one at the Davis is talking, but the Globe says the painting disappeared after spending about a year on loan to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art along with some other works belonging to the Davis. It was packed and shipped, but after that...? Some speculate it might have been stolen en route in April 2007, but that begs the question of why the disappearance wasn't noticed before last fall. It seems quite  possible instead that, amid renovation confusion at the museum, the work was never taken out of its crate before the crate was destroyed. And that one lands squarely on the plate of museum officials charged with its safe-keeping.

Watching the Olympics, feeling a little sick

I get hives whenever I agree with Jeff Jacoby's op-eds in the Globe. But I agree with pretty much everything he wrote today about China's Olympics - the pretty pictures, rhapsodized over by Bob Costas and the rest of NBC's gold-medal-in-the-ratings team, can't obscure the ugly reality of life there for anyone who would cast a blemish on the repressive superpower's phony image. The fakey-fake-McFake aspects of the Olympic coverage are just the frosting on the cake. I feel guilty every time I tune in. I feel angry every time I see, as I did tonight, a gee-isn't it-awesome-and-wonderful NBC feature package, complete with the pedigreed scuzz buckets of the IOC assuring us that, hey, it ain't perfect, but China really is better because we're here.

I really don't care that Kobe and the rest of his pampered troupe of gazillionaires will have gold medals with which to adorn their Escalades. I know Michael Phelps is amazing, and the Jamaican dude sure can run. There are thousands of athletes for whom the games are a lifetime highlight, and I'm not saying they shouldn't go. But the fulsome gush on NBC coverage is more than I can stomach, and the half-hearted attention to the reality on the ground, well, I suppose it's just good business.

Mostly what I think about when I see the NBC coverage is stuff like this from Jacoby: "In America, you can fight an eminent-domain taking all the way to the Supreme Court. In China, you suck it up and keep your mouth shut. Otherwise you end up like Wu Dianyuan and Wang Xiuying, two former neighbors who were unhappy with the compensation they received when their homes were demolished (to make room for Olympic venues -JB). Rather than suffer in silence, they sought permission to demonstrate during the Olympics in one of Beijing's three official 'protest zones.' Permission was denied. Instead they were charged with disturbing the public order and could face a year of 're-education through labor.' Wang, who is nearly blind and walks with a cane, is 77. Her friend is 79."

But the fireworks displays were awesome, right?

What next for New Rep?

Rick Lombardo's departure after 12 years as the artistic director of the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown should be seen as a tremendous opportunity for the troupe to set its course for the next 12. It also highlights the ferment in the local theater scene, with transitions also underway at the Huntington and the ART, as well as New Rep. Lombardo will stay through the season and direct several shows will beginning his takeover at the larger San Jose Repertory Theatre in California.

The Beehive goes country? Well, sorta. But not really.

UPDATE: DJ Easy Ed emails this: I will be the DJ, and I wanted to clarify that the music program will be one of classic country and honky tonk, mostly from the 50s and early 60s. I don't play any modern/current country music whatsoever--can't stand the stuff.

My email this morning brought a press release for a country night at the South End hotspot the Beehive, underneath the BCA. "The Beehive’s Honky-Tonk Hoedown on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 beginning at 5:30pm! The evening is a collaborative effort by both The Beehive, and the Boston-based country music label Cow Island Music (Yes, we have a country label in Boston!) The Beehive will get a themed makeover of music and fare including performances by Cow Island Music artists Preacher Jack kicking off the evening’s festivities at 8:00pm, followed by the Massachusetts-based country sensation Girl Howdy at 9:30PM. Rounding out the evening between sets and until the cows come home will be DJ Easy Ed spinning country hits so y’all can line dance your achy-breaky hearts out."

It all sounds good, until that ancient reference to Billy Ray Cyrus' annoying 1992 hit - c'mon, dudes, that was 16 years ago. Cyrus is now a Disney Channel star, and there must be lots more current country jokes you could make. The catfish nuggets, ribs and wings sound good, too, although I don't think many downhome folks make "Pan-fried Rocky Mountain Trout with Hazelnut brown butter." It's the hazelnuts that screw that up.

The real problem here though is with the drink specials that pour peach liquor and Mumm's into Basil Hayden Bourbon, and defile Baker's Bourbon with Godiva Chocolate Liquor. No one I ever want to know would do such a thing, and a bartender making either of those drinks in an actual honky tonk would find himself airborne out the door, and good riddance.

If you want to go to this thing anyway, call 617-423-0069. But don't tell anyone I sent you.

Madonna! Death Cab! The Hold Steady!

Today's Live Nation concert info dump:

Zucchero
At the Somerville Theatre
Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $39.50
Tickets go on-sale Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 10:00 am

Common/N.E.R.D.
At the Orpheum Theatre
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $35.00 and $39.50
Tickets go on-sale Friday, August 22, 2008 at NOON

Death Cab For Cutie
At the Agganis Arena at Boston University
Friday, October 3, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $35.00
Tickets go on-sale Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 10:00 am

Maxwell
At the Boston Opera House
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $59.50, $79.50 and $150.00
Tickets go on-sale Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 10:00 am

Madonna: 2008 Sticky & Sweet Tour
At the TD Banknorth Garden
Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Tickets are $57.50, $97.50, $167.50 and $352.50
Tickets go on-sale Monday, August 25, 2008 at 10:00 am

The Hold Steady and Drive-By Truckers
At the Orpheum Theatre
Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $25.00 and $27.50
Tickets go on-sale Friday, August 22, 2008 at 10:00 am

Kings Of Leon With We Are Scientists and The Whigs
At the Orpheum Theatre
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Tickets are $36.00
Tickets go on-sale Friday, August 22, 2008 at 10:00 am

SuperManny to the rescue!

I flipped when I saw this headline:

Unfortunately the story wasn't as interesting as I thought: "ABC is moving forward with its plans for a male-based 'Supernanny' spinoff. The network will air a pilot episode of 'Supermanny'" in the fall. The spinoff's format will remain similar to the original, with a child-development expert lending a family in crisis some tough-love guidance."

I like the idea of Manny-as-superhero better. You know, Gotham City would need saving from some ultra-villain and he'd be in the can. Or instead of chasing after the bad guy at top speed, he'd just kind of jog after him, and stop halfway.

Obama might get this. McCain never will.

From 8 to midnight on Sept. 26 at the ICA, the art collective Sosolimited will perform "ReConstitution," a live, non-partisan remix of the first presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. Uh huh, that's right. The Cambridge-based Sosolimited Cambridge, Mass., has designed software to samples a TV broadcast in real time - video, audio and closed captioned text - for remixing. Did I mention that the members of Sosolimited are MIT grads?

ReConstitution 2008 - Live Presidential Debates Remix by Sosolimited from Sosolimited on Vimeo.

"Each argument and rebuttal is analyzed for emotional content, word choice, speech pattern and body language, and the results are projected on to a large screen for the audience," says the ICA. The point: dig out what's really going on under the surface of the debate. The group did the same thing in 2004. Additional performances are planned for New York and Washington during subsequent debates this year.

And there will be drinks, as well as regular DJs. And a voter registration table. And the whole thing will be projected out to the Harbor Walk. This sounds like an almost painfully cutting edge evening of fun. Tickets are $25 general admission; $20 members, students, and seniors. Must be 21 years of age. Tickets can be purchased at www.icaboston.org or by calling (617) 478-3103.

Deborah Henson-Conant's new show? Not so much

Unfortunately, the old adage, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all" doesn't apply to critics. Deborah Henson-Conant is a terrific musician and entertainer, but her new one-woman show is a disorganized mess. That's what I wrote in Saturday's Globe, anyway. The upside of the experience was checking out the new Central Square Theater, a nice black box venue that should do well by the Nora and Underground theater companies that got it built, as well as other performers like Henson-Conant.