“There were plenty of times where the outlook was grim,” said Erin Engelke, Sunbeam Family Services chief external relations officer. “But then someone would step in and help Sunbeam keep the doors open.”
biography
Posted inArts & Culture
Captain Phillips
The British-born director always had a penchant for going against the mostly jingoistic American style of docudrama filmmaking — where we absolutely at all times need a bad guy who goes against our collective nationalist ideals to root against — with films such as the 9/11-based United 93, which presented the hijackers in a very […]
Posted inMusic
Son also rises
Music just isn’t as political as it used to be, but don’t tell Jay Farrar. The Son Volt front man is a revivalist in many senses, writing songs from a different time and place than most other acts operating at the moment. There’s one figure, in particular, who has had a profound effect on Farrar’s […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Renoir
It’s not often we get a biopic about one of the master painters, perhaps because the only thing more boring than watching paint dry may be watching someone apply it. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, however, had a rather bawdy explanation of his brush-stroke method, according to the film Renoir. It’s one we can’t print. Hear for yourself […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Hopper: A Journey into the American Dream — Tom Folsom
Folsom traces the life of Dennis Hopper through its four distinct phrases: Kansas farm boy, Method actor/James Dean worshipper, pharmaceutical madman, comeback kid. That he had a fourth at all continues to amaze me, especially after reading all the details. The kinder, gentler Hopper was hardly one to shy away from admitting his battles with […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The reading dead
The actor, best-known for playing the now-deceased T-Dog in TV’s smash-hit series The Walking Dead and Alton in the Oscar-winning drama The Blind Side, was all smiles as he walked into the Barnes & Noble at 13800 N. May this afternoon to promote his book, Blindsided by the Walking Dead. A line of waiting fans […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Lincoln
As if the subject alone isn’t worthy of adulation, it comes with a towering pedigree: Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan), Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) and a script by Pulitzer-winning playwright Tony Kushner. To its credit, Lincoln has lengthy stretches in which it’s as absorbing as it wants to be. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Man Who Created Halloween — Irwin Yablans
This self-published paperback is his story — emphasis on The Man, not Halloween. The making of that 1978 now-classic movie is only a small part of the autobiography, which covers his entire life. Luckily, Yablans is an engaging storyteller who’s full of amusing anecdotes — some of which are intentional (John Wayne declaring his wish […]