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Fall – or jump
forward STEP INTO OUR office. A guide to the upcoming season's movie, music, art, theater, and dance highlights can't help but become a kind of cultural X ray. As the previews, premieres, and parties pile up, telltale patterns emerge. Activism or escapism? The months ahead offer a multitude of answers, from mall-punk protests to multiplex fantasies. In turn that dominant question leads to another: does it really have to be an either-or option? Our cover stars, Double Dutchess, prove you'd best get a jump on pleasure if you're going to have the energy to turn the future into a history worth celebrating. Certain dates can't be ignored. Nov. 2 promises an election, though if Tom Ridge has his way, that won't be the case. Our visual art critic, Glen Helfand, notes a current dearth of polemics in galleries and museums – at least in comparison to the '80s, when battles between National Endowment for the Arts grant winners and the religious right turned the very topics Ronald Reagan refused to discuss into front-page news. Our stages, clubs, and movie theaters, however, are giving voice to loud dissent. Bands Against Bush, Rock Against Bush, and Punk Voter are sounding off – loudly. Ever dependable firebrand Krissy Keefer weaves a spell for regime change (Oct. 14-Nov. 2 at SomArts Cultural Center), while Killing My Lobster goes to the polls (Oct. 14-30 at ODC Theater). Bush-bashing documentaries continue to arrive on a near-hourly basis – anything to battle the nonstop Fox News feeds. Yet perhaps it's time to take a cue from the radical pranksters profiled in Chris Smith's new doc, The Yes Men, and move beyond electoral tunnel vision to attack institutions. Remember a time when the left was aiming for something more than a Bush defeat? Keefer and Killing My Lobster do, and like the Yes Men, they're funny and imaginative – three reasons why their shows are must-sees. An urge to transcend is also in the air, and whether it's overtly sexual (in Cannes-furor films such as The Brown Bunny and Tropical Malady) or spiritual (revivalism in hip-hop and R&B – or to borrow a term from Snoop Dogg, R&G), it's often epic in scope and usually male. The barrage of biopics about icons ranging from Che to Ray suggests we need a hero. One thing's for sure: transcendence won't arrive in the form of President John Kerry. What does it all mean? Your guess is as good as mine, but change – and more than a little – will do us good. |
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