10/1 Boston Phoenix - thePhoenix.com

Please add updates@feedmyinbox.com to your address book to make sure you receive these messages in the future. Boston Phoenix - thePhoenix.com - All articles from the Boston Phoenix Reality Check September 30, 2009 at 5:59 pm Hoopleville Can I trust you? Honey, I'm home September 30, 2009 at 5:51 pm Reality Check Drop everything! Looking forward to apple-picking September 30, 2009 at 5:45 pm Failure This weekend I went to like 7 different parties Bad-Ass Baucus: Time Traveling Centrist September 30, 2009 at 5:41 pm Big Fat Whale "Time to compromise the past!" Crossword: ''Chance collisions'' September 30, 2009 at 5:10 pm A random assortment, across and down. A random assortment, across and down. Review: No Impact Man September 30, 2009 at 5:01 pm Green documentary does make its point As an eco-idealist living in New York City, Colin Beavan made a media splash when he declared that he and his family would live 100 percent green for a year. Review: Surrogates September 30, 2009 at 4:56 pm Philip K. Dick-ian premise deserves better Some day in the future — or is it right now? — people will be replaced by surrogate robots, superhuman automatons who live out big-screen fantasies while their hosts, with their greasy hair and bad skin, sit back in wired-up La-Z-Boys. Interview: Colin Beavan September 30, 2009 at 4:44 pm It's not easy going green "In my twenties, I was really concerned with global warming. In my thirties, I was really focused on being a writer." Review: No Impact Man. By Tom Meek. Writer Colin Beavan, currently on tour to promote his eco-minded book, No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process, the accompanying (and similarly titled) documentary film (which opens later this week), and his eco-advocacy group, NoImpactProject.org, sat down with Tom Meek to discuss living green. Both the book and the movie chronicle how Beavan and his family attempt to live one year (2006) in New York City without any impact on the planet: meaning no cars, no non-compostable waste (bottles, wrappers and bags), no electricity (to a degree), cloth diapers for his daughter and eating only locally grown foods. One of the biggest challenges was living on the ninth floor (no elevator) and having a dog that needed to be walked three times a day. Beavan, who affectionately refers to his No Impact year as an 'experiment,' will be at the Boston Public Library on October 6th at 6PM and later that evening, at the Kendall Square Theater to answer questions following a screening of the film. How has the reaction been to your yearlong experiment and the book? There's been a lot of interested people showing up at events. People are aware of these joint crises we have going on with the economy and the environment. Well, there are three really, the environmental crisis, the economic crisis and a quality of life crisis, so I think people are looking to see what they can do to participate in the solutions. Read more Wild, Wild West September 30, 2009 at 4:31 pm Delonte West tries out for the Washington Bullets. Plus, SUNY-Binghamton is at it again. Former Celtic Delonte West has long been known as a clutch shooter, but he's apparently taking that reputation a little too literally. Former Celtic Delonte West has long been known as a clutch shooter, but he's apparently taking that reputation a little too literally. West has been arrested on weapons charges. It seems he was zooming around on a Can-Am Spider motorcycle north of the Capital Beltway near his hometown of Washington, DC, when he cut off a cop. The officer pulled him over and subsequently discovered one handgun in West's pocket, another strapped to his pant leg, and a shotgun in a guitar case he was carrying over his shoulder. This scene raises all sorts of questions, not the least of which being: what the hell is Delonte West doing riding around on a motorcycle with a shotgun? Where could he possibly have been going, and why would he need the shotgun? Is he auditioning for a Rutger Hauer movie or something? West, who last year disappeared for a while amid reports of depression and mood disorder, was carrying a Beretta 9mm handgun, a Ruger .357 magnum handgun, and a Remington 870 shotgun, and was hit with speeding and weapons charges. He's said in the past that his moods fluctuate the most wildly when he's feeling good. We'll see what comes out of this, but the positive spin here is that at least his mood swings should be under control soon! Thirty-seven points for driving around like Mad Max. Read more Buddy's Truck Stop September 30, 2009 at 4:29 pm That increasingly rare bird: the honest-to-goodness old-time diner The modern truck stop typically sits in an interstate-adjacent service area with a parking lot that can accommodate scores of big rigs. The modern truck stop typically sits in an interstate-adjacent service area with a parking lot that can accommodate scores of big rigs. Buddy's Truck Stop, a shoebox-size 19-seat diner that dates to 1930, must have been a trucker's stop-off in the pre-interstate era, when the nearby McGrath Highway was still a critical trucking artery. Despite a new sign (sans "Truck Stop") and spiffy red paint job, Buddy's remains the quintessential old-time diner: a clean, well-run place for a quick, no-frills American breakfast. Most customers appear to be tradesmen and regulars, and the place is so old-fashioned that some actually dine on the cuff, settling tabs on a weekly basis. (It's cash-only.) The menu is written on hand-scribbled paper plates strung over the counter, and features the usual eggs, griddle cakes, meats, and omelets, plus a handful of hot sandwiches. For example, a plate of pancakes or French toast ($5.99/three; $6.99/five) includes breakfast meat (bacon, link or patty sausage, thin-sliced Virginia ham) and a bottomless cup of good filter coffee. The pancakes aren't light and fluffy, but substantial, lumberjack-worthy; syrup is Aunt Jemima Lite. A plate of two eggs ($4.49) includes home fries (chunky, well-seasoned Bliss potatoes) and toast made from above-average bread (white, wheat, Portuguese sweet bread, scali, or English muffin). The same plate with a hefty portion of breakfast meat (like five slices of good crisp bacon) runs $5.99. Omelets ($5.99?$7.99) are built like burritos, a huge thin wrapper of scrambled egg wrapped around a generous filling, plus toast and home fries. House-made corned-beef hash ($6.99) is very tasty: fine-grained and griddled to a good crust, with two eggs, toast, coffee, and optional grilled onions and/or bell pepper; it takes 20 minutes to prepare. Read more North 26 September 30, 2009 at 4:26 pm A Jasper White protégé branches out with great success I never call chefs before writing a review, but if I did speak with Brian Flagg of North 26, I'd ask him if Jasper White has ever paid a visit. MAKING NEW ENGLAND PROUD A Portuguese fisherman's family would be hard-pressed to craft a better stew. North 26 | 26 North Street (Millennium Bostonian Hotel), Boston | 617.557.3640 | Open Monday–Friday, 6:30 am–10:30 pm; Saturday and Sunday, 7 am–10:30 pm | AE, DC, DI, MC, VI | Full bar | Street-level access | Valet parking, $18 I never call chefs before writing a review, but if I did speak with Brian Flagg of North 26, I'd ask him if Jasper White has ever paid a visit. It would be a kind of poetic justice to have White back at the scene of his first real fame, ordering off a menu that draws heavily on a vision he was among the first to articulate: American produce with a French technique. He might even feel mellow enough to forgive the crummy review I gave him for that restaurant where he made his breakthrough, Seasons (which was formerly located in this same hotel, when it was under different management), or the glowing review I am about to give Chef Flagg, a former chef at White's Summer Shack, for doing what amounts to a popularization of White's best notions. Get started with the bread basket, which is terrific: round slices of sourdough, wedges of sweet cornbread with berries, something like a potato roll. Then move over to the wine list, which has a set of bar bites. Do not under any circumstances miss the chickpea fries ($5). They come in a wire basket, and are much lighter and more spiced -- almost like falafel -- than your grandfather's panisses, even without a hotted-up mayonnaise for a dip. Read more Review: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 September 30, 2009 at 4:22 pm Marvel's "Secret War" comes to consoles Comic-book games are all about wish-fulfillment: What comic book fan hasn't dreamed of laying the telekinetic smack down Dark Phoenix-style, or flinging a few of Gambit's explosive cards?   Comic-book games are all about wish-fulfillment: What comic book fan hasn't dreamed of laying the telekinetic smack down Dark Phoenix-style, or flinging a few of Gambit's explosive cards? Now Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 brings something to the table that Marvel fans always wanted: a comprehensive storyline combining two recent comic book arcs. The game starts out with Marvel's "Secret War" storyline: Nick Fury leads Spidey, Wolverine, Captain America, and Iron Man on a secret attack on Latveria to take down Prime Minister Lucia von Bardas, who has been providing anti-American terrorists with super-technology. When the mission gets out of hand and a reanimated cyborg version of Lucia sets up a bomb in Times Square, the American government gets a bit piqued that Fury didn't send them the memo about his plans. This kickstarts the second storyline about required superhero registration: think The Incredibles, but less stringent. A Civil War breaks out between the super-powered who are willing to fall in line with the government's demands and those who oppose. Iron Man heads the former group and Captain America leads the latter, and some characters are only available depending upon which side you choose. Most of the best ones will go either way, though, and the game has multiple endings according to your decisions. MUA2 is a four-person co-op game, and it's a lot more fun if you invite over friends to play, especially if those friends are Marvel geeks who will appreciate the hilarity of, say, Deadpool's deadpan snarking. Unfortunately, it's not that much fun to play by yourself, since so much of the game relies on teamwork and the computer characters' AI isn't winning any medals. Read more Final four? September 30, 2009 at 3:12 pm The City Council preliminary is seldom a preview of the finish. But this time, it just might be. Some of Boston's savviest political insiders were confident of one thing going into last week's preliminary election: the top four finishers in the at-large City Council race would not be the same quartet to actually win those four seats in November. FEARSOME Can top preliminary City Council finishers (from left) John Connolly, Stephen Murphy, Felix G. Arroyo, and Ayanna Pressley buck recent trends and win in November? Some of Boston's savviest political insiders were confident of one thing going into last week's preliminary election: the top four finishers in the at-large City Council race would not be the same quartet to actually win those four seats in November. After seeing the results, however, they changed their tune. Most of those same people now fully expect incumbents John Connolly and Stephen Murphy, along with first-time candidates Felix G. Arroyo and Ayanna Pressley, to repeat their preliminary successes, and be sworn in for the next two-year Council session in January. Of course, these wise guys (this writer included) have been wrong before. And certainly the other hopefuls who survived the winnowing of the field to eight — Andrew Kenneally, Tito Jackson, Doug Bennett, and Tomas Gonzalez — cannot yet be counted out. History is on the latter group's side. Precedent points to one of them being successful — a lower-four finisher has turned around and won a seat each of the last three times an at-large preliminary run-off was held. John Connolly is well aware of that: he finished third in the 2005 preliminary, but fell to fifth in the general election as Sam Yoon came from fifth place to third. In 2003, Felix D. Arroyo (Felix G. Arroyo's father) catapulted from fifth to knock out Patricia White, who had cracked the top four in the preliminary. And in 1999, current mayoral candidate Michael Flaherty came from below the top tier to take the long-held seat of Albert "Dapper" O'Neil, who had finished third in the preliminary. (There were no preliminaries in 2007 or 2001, due to the small fields of candidates.) Read more Graffiti gone good September 30, 2009 at 3:03 pm Healing Art Dept. One after another, young patients approach Caleb Neelon as he paints in the lobby of Children's Hospital Boston. One after another, young patients approach Caleb Neelon as he paints in the lobby of Children's Hospital Boston. They marvel at his folksy, cartoony, Technicolor mural, and offer suggestions. The sea that his patchwork ship floats upon, a boy advises, could use some sharks with pickles. The piece is called "Imagination Wall," and Neelon is specifically seeking ideas from and interaction with the youth currently at Children's for treatment. The 33-year-old Cambridge street artist has painted walls from Brazil to India to Iceland — with and without permission. "Graffiti is one of those funny scarlet-letter things," Neelon says. "Once you're in it, you're in it forever. Which is fine with me." Increasingly, though, he is becoming a gallery artist, the sort of respectable fellow who wins grants and commissions ? including previously painting decorations at the hospital's Yawkey Family Inn on Kent Street, which provides housing for families while their children receive treatment. It's an acknowledgement of both his art's charm and the ever-greater official embrace of graffiti. "I've wanted to do more hospital projects for a long time," says Neelon. "Boston is a good art town, not necessarily a great art town. Boston is absolutely a great hospital city." Hospitals tend to favor prints of pretty flowers or pastoral landscapes seemingly designed to put you to sleep. What sets apart the some 3000 pieces on view at Children's Hospital's main campus on Longwood Avenue and its four satellite facilities is the emphasis on original artwork — and how bright and boisterous they are. Read more Philadelphia Story September 30, 2009 at 3:01 pm What Steve Taylor needs to know if he succeeds in buying the Globe The local-media story line of the moment is the push by Stephen Taylor — Milton resident, Yale media lecturer, and former Boston Globe executive VP — to recapture the paper his family ran for more than a century, a goal he's pursuing with the backing of (among others) his cousin Benjamin Taylor, the former Globe publisher. The local-media story line of the moment is the push by Stephen Taylor — Milton resident, Yale media lecturer, and former BostonGlobe executive VP — to recapture the paper his family ran for more than a century, a goal he's pursuing with the backing of (among others) his cousin Benjamin Taylor, the former Globe publisher. If Taylor succeeds, there'll be plenty of rejoicing, in Boston and in national media circles, about the restoration of local ownership at New England's dominant newspaper. The grim situation currently playing out in Philadelphia, though, is a potent reminder that localism only goes so far. The parallel isn't exact. Philly public-relations bigwig Brian Tierney — who spearheaded the purchase by Philadelphia Media Holdings (PMH), LLC, of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and philly.com (the Web site shared by the Inquirer and Daily News) back in 2006 — had a reputation for fighting dirty against the Philly media, including its dailies, which gave some journalists pause. (In one infamous case, an ex-Inquirer reporter blamed Tierney for successfully campaigning to suppress a story critical of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.) What's more, he was a Republican activist and lacked newspaper experience. Still, Tierney was a local guy. He talked a good game, extolling the importance of newspapers in general and the Inquirer and the Daily News in particular. Andhe was rescuing those dailies from the McClatchy Company, the California-based publishing group that had purchased the Philadelphia dailies' parent company, Knight Ridder, in March 2006, and then announced plans to flip a dozen of its new papers. Read more It's hip to be icosahedral September 30, 2009 at 2:47 pm In a new book, Ethan Gilsdorf  tracks his global quest to visit the holiest nerd-world sites Be they beer geeks, comic-book geeks, or music geeks, nowadays people flout their geekdom proudly, even wearing it like a badge. CHAIN GANG: Über-nerd Ethan Gilsdorf has authored a new book in which he gets in touch with his inner geek. Be they beer geeks, comic-book geeks, or music geeks, nowadays people flout their geekdom proudly, even wearing it like a badge. "We're definitely stretching the boundaries of what a geek is," says Somerville's Ethan Gilsdorf, author of the new Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms (the Lyons Press). "Now people like to say they're geeks." But it wasn't long ago that being a "geek" meant being, well, a geek. It was not cool. At all. As recently as the late '70s, say, when Gilsdorf, now 43, was growing up a gawky outcast in small-town New Hampshire and got hooked on Dungeons & Dragons. It started for Gilsdorf around 1979, when his mother suffered a severe and debilitating aneurysm. Suddenly, "the old Sara Gilsdorf — beautiful, vivacious, and fun — was gone," writes Gilsdorf. In her place was a difficult woman the 12-year-old Ethan called the "Momster" — prone to throwing dinner rolls at the TV, suffering from seizures, immobility, and slurred speech. "Shifty, sickly, needy, deformed, antisocial, frustrated, volatile, closed to the world." At school, life wasn't much happier. "I was not going to be an athlete," he says. "I was a shy, introverted kid. The locker room was a dungeon for me." When a friend clued him into Dungeons & Dragons, he found his escape hatch into a musty, moss-walled castle keep. After all, he writes: "In the adult world, fate was chaotic and uncertain. . . . In the world of D&D, at least there was a rule book." Read more Camelot: The Next Generation September 30, 2009 at 2:46 pm Patrick Kennedy is a square peg in his family's historic round table Senator Ted Kennedy's months-long battle with brain cancer inspired endless commentary about the demise of Camelot. Senator Ted Kennedy's months-long battle with brain cancer inspired endless commentary about the demise of Camelot. "As for the Kennedys," wrote David S. Broder of the Washington Post in January, "where there once seemed to be a limitless supply of them — handsome, energetic, and ambitious — they can now count only one federal office holder in the younger generation, Sen. Kennedy's son Patrick, a congressman from Rhode Island." A congressman, he wrote, better known for "his personal problems than his political accomplishments." The not-so-subtle implication — that Patrick is ill-equipped to carry the family mantle — surely rankles. But for Kennedy, who has no illusions about filling his predecessors' outsized shoes, the commentary strays farthest afield in its flawed reading of his political inheritance. Yes, his Uncle Jack gave him Camelot and his Uncle Bobby a sense of what might have been. But his father gave him something else. Something more relevant, perhaps more concrete. The late senator, labeled an unworthy standard-bearer in his own day, rose above expectations not with a glittering restoration of the throne, but with something far more yeoman-like. "My dad's legacy was his work, one day at a time, day in and day out, over the course of 50 years," says Patrick Kennedy, who has now represented Rhode Island's First Congressional District for 15 years. That, of course, is a legacy Kennedy can more easily wrap his arms around. And in a way, he has. It is the congressman's persistent politicking on the House Appropriations Committee that has helped bring more than $500 million to Rhode Island and New England over the last seven years — and cemented his place in Washington. Read more Hans Rickheit versus the novel September 30, 2009 at 1:57 pm Exploding Cow Dept. In high-school English class, we're taught that literature features three basic types of conflict: man versus man, man versus environment, and man versus himself. In high-school English class, we're taught that literature features three basic types of conflict: man versus man, man versus environment, and man versus himself. "Well, I think there's a fourth type of conflict, which I'm working with," says cartoonist Hans Rickheit. "I call that fourth type of conflict 'exploding cow.' " Pressed to elaborate on this notion, Rickheit — who was born in Ashburnham, lived in the Boston area for a decade and a half (including five years dwelling in the basement of Cambridge's Zeitgeist gallery), and now calls Philadelphia home — replies with cryptic finality: "I think it's rather self-explanatory." Er, fair enough. For more obtuse readers, hints are offered by flipping through the gorgeous, enigmatic, disquieting pages of Rickheit's new graphic novel, The Squirrel Machine (Fantagraphics) — a book that could and should be his breakout work. Set in some leaf-strewn 19th-century New England town, its story line, such as it is, concerns two eccentric, reclusive brothers, and the inventive uses they come up with for animals' taxidermied remains. As Rickheit tells their story, he conjures an aberrant world of shadowy Victorian attics, whispering woodlands, and strange, Steampunk-esque retro-futurist gewgaws, reveling in the collision of the organic and the mechanical. Plot is hinted at, but, like a phantasm, never quite materializes. Page after entrancing page, the book is an exercise, he says, in challenging "presumptive barriers of conventional narrative." It's a remarkable piece of art ? one that percolated in Rickheit's gray matter for more than a decade, and took more than five years of working in earnest to complete. Even so, the story shaped itself organically. "I like leaving it vague," says Rickheit. "I like to surprise myself with each new page." Read more Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz steps down September 30, 2009 at 1:25 pm Pricked by a Rose? Fallout from Bernie Madoff's titanic scheme is still unfolding, as was made clear on this week's 60 Minutes report about the search for billions bilked by the New York Ponzi king. Fallout from Bernie Madoff's titanic scheme is still unfolding, as was made clear on this week's 60 Minutes report about the search for billions bilked by the New York Ponzi king. Now, it appears that scandal has claimed its highest-profile New England academic casualty with long-time Brandeis University President Jehuda Reinharz unexpectedly announcing his resignation this past week. Reinharz, who was just one year into his current half-decade contract, does not appear to have been forced to step down after having served 15 years at the prominent Jewish university. His formal correspondence with Brandeis trustees — whom the president informed of his possible retirement this past August, and who are publicly disappointed by the development — makes no specific mentions of financial woes. Nor is there reference to the school's Rose Art Museum, which garnered national attention in late January when trustees unanimously voted to liquidate its treasures to offset a five-year projected deficit of $80 million. Still, Reinharz's decision to step down was almost certainly spurred on by the economic earthquake, which saw Brandeis's endowment reportedly hemorrhage $162 million since last year, and his at times faltering attempts to right the school's grim financial situation. The shocking announcement to close the Rose, for example, generated widespread criticism and put at risk more than 6000 works, including modern marvels from the likes of Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol. Though all board members acted to shutter the museum, Reinharz shouldered much of the burden. On February 5, the president issued a half-apology, claiming that the Rose would not be subjected to an immediate fire sale, and part of the $20,000 paid to Boston public-relations firm Rasky Baerlein to tame the ensuing media circus came out of Reinharz's salary. Read more Disclosure: not a dirty word September 30, 2009 at 1:22 pm Menino's shame and Kerry's blunder. Plus, Olympic follies. The City Hall e-mail scandal that has scored headlines in recent weeks exemplifies Mayor Thomas Menino's antagonistic — almost contemptuous — attitude toward public accountability. The City Hall e-mail scandal that has scored headlines in recent weeks exemplifies Mayor Thomas Menino's antagonistic — almost contemptuous — attitude toward public accountability. All too often, the Menino administration has treated public scrutiny as a nuisance, something to be discouraged whenever possible — a policy that has landed it in hot water before for disregarding e-mails that legally must be kept. As the Phoenix reported last year, a judge previously chastised the city for allowing (and in fact encouraging) the deletion of years' worth of e-mails at the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). Those mass deletions came to light as a result of a persistent, and very expensive, civil lawsuit brought by residents trying to uncover the truth behind the BRA's involvement in the questionable sale of public land for the building of a Roxbury mosque. Now, the Menino administration has again found itself mired in e-mail trouble. The most recent controversy came to light when the Boston Globe requested copies of e-mails, including those of policy and planning chief Michael Kineavy. Following that request, the city should have discovered within days that copies of those e-mails had not been saved, either on Kineavy's computer or the backup servers. Instead of admitting to a gross — even if perhaps inadvertent — violation of public-records laws, however, city officials dithered and delayed, nearly forcing the Globe to take the matter to court. In the course of this charade, the city supplied the Globe with incorrect materials, charged exorbitant costs for retrieval, and placed ridiculous restrictions on access, before ultimately revealing that the requested e-mails didn't exist. Read more Review: Pandorum September 30, 2009 at 11:56 am When did space travel become so unpleasant? I miss the days when you could cross the galaxy in comfort on the bridge of the Enterprise . Review: Fame September 30, 2009 at 11:52 am A PG-rated, post- High School Musical remake: why, exactly? Oh, MGM: I realize you're staving off bankruptcy, but is remaking past hits the answer? Review: Coco Before Chanel September 30, 2009 at 11:24 am Bio-pic doesn't quite wear well enough Based on the book by Edmonde Charles-Roux, Anne Fontaine's soaper of a bio-pic traces the fashion icon's life before the perfume and the bouclé suits. Review: The Boys Are Back September 30, 2009 at 11:16 am We're supposed to root for this guy? Director Scott Hicks ( Shine ) returns to warm hearts with the saga of Joe Warr, a journalist (based on real-life columnist Simon Carr, and played by Clive Owen) whose second wife (Laura Fraser) dies of cancer, leaving him a single father with a hands-off parenting style. Loss leader September 30, 2009 at 10:34 am Jill McCorkle's joyful sorrow The stories in Jill McCorkle's new collection are about the battle to stay conscious and be truthful with yourself — to live beyond illusion. GRIEF COUNSELOR: McCorkle's characters, though lost, eventually find their way. Going Away Shoes | By Jill MCCorkle | Algonquin Books | 272 pages | $19.95 The stories in Jill McCorkle's new collection are about the battle to stay conscious and be truthful with yourself — to live beyond illusion. The protagonists, all women, are survivors of divorces, break-ups, serviceable but uninspired marriages, or should-have-been-but-never-happened love. Loss — of a parent or child, through death or simply emotional alienation — is recurrent. These women have managed their disillusionment and grief as best they know how. They've ignored their troubles and soldiered on in sad marriages; they've repeated themselves again and again in sorry relationships, found other lives in front of the television, or relief in other people's confessions. One has become devoted to TV artist Bob Ross's paint-by-number lessons. It's grief suppressed — which only doubles its strength and multiplies the consequences. If McCorkle had left us there, there'd be nothing to talk about. But what's exciting about these stories, and enlivening, finally, is the feeling that you're watching these characters as they're just now opening up to their lives — mistakes, disappointments, and all. Many of them are in midlife, and that makes their awakenings particularly poignant. This is McCorkle's eighth book, her first since the 2001 collection Creatures of Habit, and it was well worth the wait. Read more Review: Zombieland September 30, 2009 at 10:32 am Young actors need to make a living too. Does it mean anything that Jesse Eisenberg's follow-up to Adventureland is Zombieland and that it also includes a theme park? Review: Whip It September 30, 2009 at 10:28 am Drew Barrymore's directorial debut falls flat Add a dash of the sad beauty contests and kooky, dysfunctional family of Little Miss Sunshine to a helping of the bogus hipness and overexposed star of Juno and whip it good and you get an idea of why Drew Barrymore's directorial debut falls flat as a sappy soufflé. Requiem detexted September 30, 2009 at 10:26 am Nicole Pierce at the Armory Mozart's Requiem is one of the most controversial works in the classical repertory. Mozart had completed only parts of it and sketched other parts when he died, unexpectedly at age 35, in 1791. His death ignited immediate speculation and myth. "WINTER" In the course of Pierce's Requiem, the dancers changed into black, and the trees of the backdrop stood ankle-deep in snow. Mozart's Requiem is one of the most controversial works in the classical repertory. Mozart had completed only parts of it and sketched other parts when he died, unexpectedly at age 35, in 1791. His death ignited immediate speculation and myth -- in recent times, Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus and the film based on it by Milos Forman give the best-known fictionalized account -- and the Requiem too was enveloped in mystique. It's not known exactly which of Mozart's followers and associates were enlisted by his widow, Constanze, to finish the Mass, or the degree to which Mozart's intentions were fulfilled. Adjustments were made by later editors and arrangers; performances over the years have put forth differing interpretations. There's still no definitive version. Nicole Pierce, who's a musician as well as a dancer/choreographer, has plunged into the fray with her Requiem, for eight women of EgoArt, a piece that had its premiere last weekend at the Armory Center for the Arts in Somerville. In a program preamble, Pierce explains why she set her work to Herbert von Karajan's 1975 recording with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and why even that performance doesn't quite suit her own idea of the Requiem. I left the Armory a bit puzzled about how her choreography relates to this problematic masterpiece. The Catholic Church's Requiem Mass intersperses sections of the ordinary Mass with predictions of the doom that awaits the unfaithful and their prayers for salvation. A lot of it is quite scary. The singers envision the flames of Hell, the terror of Judgment, the miraculous appearance of a kind intercessor. Mozart's final image is of eternal light ("Lux æterna") and mercy. Read more Play by Play: October 2, 2009 September 30, 2009 at 10:21 am Plays from A to Z Boston's weekly theater schedule OPENING BASH | Theatre on Fire opens its fifth-anniversary season at the Charlestown Working Theater with Neil LaBute's triptych of one-acts in which characters reveal their most horrendous acts to unseen interlocutors. In A Gaggle of Saints, two Boston College students in evening dress recount a trip to New York for a "bash" at the Plaza Hotel that ends in a different kind of bash, the beating-to-death of a gay man. Iphigenia in Orem finds a Utah businessman cornering a strangely inert stranger in a hotel lobby at a convention for the purpose of talking his ear off. And in Medea Redux, a woman who's been convicted of murder tells how at 13 she was seduced by her high-school English teacher. Darren Evans directs. | Charlestown Working Theater, 442 Bunker Hill St, Charlestown | 866.811.4111 | October 2-17 | Curtain 7:30 pm Thurs-Sat | $20; $15 Thurs THE CARETAKER | Nora Theatre Company opens its 2009–2010 season with Harold Pinter's 1960 enigma, in which Aston, who's had electroshock treatment, brings the homeless and difficult Davies back to his ramshackle apartment and the two fence with each other, Aston trying to please Davies while the audience wonders why. It gets still more complicated when Aston's younger brother, Mick, enters the picture. With John Kuntz as Aston, Michael Balcanoff as Davies, and Joe Lanza as Mick; Daniel Gidron directs. | Central Square Theater, 450 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 866.811.4111 | October 1–November 1 | Curtain 7:30 pm Thurs | 8 pm Fri | 2 + 8 pm Sat | 2 + 7 pm [evening October 4] Sun | $35; $25 seniors; $20 students Read more   This email was sent to phoenixnews09@gmail.com.  Manage Your Account Don't want to receive this feed any longer? Unsubscribe here.