Citizen Cope, aka Clarence Greenwood, has just released his second album, "The Clarence Greenwood Recordings." This former keyboardist and DJ for the alternative hip-hop band Basehead has a sound Iike nothing I've ever heard before.
Girlyman's debut disc, "Remember Who I Am," is a gift that should be unwrapped with fragile fingers and devoured by thirsting ears. The band, comprised of Doris Muramatsu, Nate Borofsky and Ty Greenstein, blends delicate harmonies, soothing vocals and sensitive percussion to give listeners the feeling of daydreaming a ride above the clouds. And the trio has apparently caught the wave of wonder audiences have tacked to them - they won the 2004 Independent Music Award in the folk/singer-songwriter category and were voted "Most Wanted to Return" at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. On their eclectic album, Girlyman experiments with overlapping vocals, slide guitar that shimmers through the dimmest moments and folky percussion from the numerous djembes they use to produce their unique, unifying sound. The opening, and emotionally strongest, track on "Remember Who I Am" is "Viola" - a heart-warming tale sang at first by Borofsky, who is later joined during the chorus by Greenstein and Muramatsu. The steel pedal, along with acoustic guitar on this song is reminiscent of a warm summer night where lovers might meet to watch shooting stars and fall asleep under a calming canopy of darkness. They sing, "I drowned myself tonight in sangria/Made with sliced up fruit and cheap marsala/Viola, Viola/... Viola, I swear I miss you." These are the kind of truthful lyrics we all wish we could sing, and "Viola" fuses them with melodies that speak to an unreachable feeling deep inside of us all. Although their sound appears to be categorically folkish, the three-piece group effectively uses their sublime voices and range of guitar skills to change tones and attitudes throughout the album. On "Say Goodbye" Muramatsu, Greenstein and Borofsky tell an all-too familiar tale. "Can't you see how I miss you so?/Can't believe your wanting to go/'Cause I just don't know how to make myself/ Let you go/And I still can't seem to find/A simple way to say goodbye/I'm not the kind for regret/Was there something I wanted to forget?/Either way, you'd already made up your mind." The way the trio flawlessly harmonizes on the last note of "made up your mind" sends chills down my musical backbone. Another song notably impressive for the strength of lyric is "The Shape I Found You In." The opening stanza, sang by Greenstein, climbs into the nook of your heart and builds camp there for the remainder of the song. "You were spoken for/I spent 20 lifetimes at your door/But your heart was busy within/Building bomb shelters under your skin/That's the shape I found you in." Girlyman's CD is brilliant, but they're probably even better live.
Riverwalk Theatre's second production, "A Thousand Clowns," is still expected to humor and entertain audiences with witty jokes and outrageous punch lines - minus big red noses. The play stars Murray, an unemployed TV writer in New York City, who has too much time on his hands.
Sporting Spartan logos, green and white stripes and blaring the MSU fight song, the Cheat to Win (CTWz) van drives into campus, making its way toward tailgate utopia. Customized last summer, the CTWz's nine owners said the van was created to maximize the tailgating experience and embody the Spartan spirit. A labor of love, the van took nearly four months to complete. "We finally found a van in early spring that we could afford," said Brian Dennis, one of the van's co-owners.
Fresh off his success from Saturday Night Live, comedian Jimmy Fallon needs a better vehicle than "Taxi" to prove his leading-man potential. The film poses the former "Weekend Update" anchor as Detective Washburn, a New York City cop who has a penchant for misadventure.
"Get pissed! Dee-stroyyyyy!!!" Johnny Rotten's a hero of mine. He's proof that a scrawny kid with a penchant for confrontation can change the world. He was the singer for the Sex Pistols - the pioneers of punk and arguably the most influential band of all time.
Many people know Shakespearean plays have successfully been set in places such as Britain, Denmark and Italy - but who would've thought in the Caribbean? For the same reasons people loved the creativity of last year's MSU Department of Theatre production "Lysistrata," people will love this year's "Twelfth Night." The production opened at Wharton Center's Pasant Theatre on Thursday with a beautiful purple-hued backdrop against black, cutout palm trees - the unique and eye-catching setting looked as if it were to house any story besides one from the 1600s. The story begins with a shipwreck off the coast of an unknown Caribbean island.
Amplified Heat sounds like it took the blues, made it snort a serious dose of cocaine and turned up the amps.
If you miss the taste of mom's home cooking, check out "Taste of Home Cooking School" at 7 p.m.
Jenifer Ivinskas Strauss will tell urban legends and scary stories throughout Lansing-area libraries.
This year marks the 19th annual Looking Glass Music and Dance Festival, which will be held this weekend at MacDonald Middle School on the corner of Hagadorn and Burcham roads.
A stranger to Odessa, Texas, might think every young man in the small town is a war hero. The 17 year olds there - most with buzz cuts, all of them clean-shaven - are hailed by the local townsfolk wherever they go. Most of the boys respond to their celebrity in that distant, uninterested way, like a returning soldier who refuses to relive his battles by talking about them.
Welcome back to "Rock Your Body," The State News' fitness and nutrition column. Each week, we hit up our local experts with some questions and pass on their wisdom to you. But before we get to the goods, we thought we'd tell you a little bit about who'll be giving you advice. Tom Ostrander: Tom is the owner of Powerhouse Gym, 435 E.
Oscar, a downtrodden fish who works at a whale wash, starts off as a nobody. But when a great white shark with ties to the mafia turns up dead and Oscar (Will Smith) is standing over the body, he becomes an instant celebrity.
Michaela Dermyer is just like any other 3-year-old girl. She likes Disney movies, sing-along songs and hopes to one day visit Disney World. Michaela, who was born with cardiomyopathy, and her family hopes Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan will help her experience the dreamland of Disney World.
"The Mother" is a film dependent on its characters. There's no driving plot and no concrete goals - the film is merely the slow look into the lives of a dysfunctional family living in London. Director Roger Michell takes his time in this 2003 British film that explores the hidden personalities lurking inside our mothers. When we first meet May (Anne Reid), she's a dowdy woman whose gray hair is thinly masked with a sandy brown tint and whose outfits generally are in hues of seafoam green.
Behind a nondescript white garage door on the second level of Spartan Stadium lies a cache of artifacts most students wouldn't fathom while shuffling past on game days.
Whew. Finally a CD that can get some decent air time in my car. Dan Dyer's, "...of what lies beneath," is officially my new jam.
Pete Mowry and Brian Westrin wouldn't make the sweet music they do if it weren't for a lonely open mic night in the basement of Holmes Hall one evening a few years ago.
The MSU Department of Theatre will present its first production of the season, "Twelfth Night," on Thursday.