Local rock band Birth Rites will play their last show before a semester-long hiatus tonight with Coyote Slingshot and Grand Tetons at the Mill, 120 E. Burlington. The show begins at 9 p.m. and admission is $3.

Birth Rites formed in Iowa City in 2007.

They got their start playing house and basement shows, drummer Gregory Markus said, but they played shows that were atypical of the type.

Keggers and huge house parties were where Birth Rites got its start, Markus said, not more intimate basement gigs. The UI junior described some of Birth Rites’ first audiences as “real bro-ey.”

“We’d play for people that didn’t want to hear us,” he said. Still, “we prefer playing in basements more than we prefer playing on stage.”

The band is going on hiatus because Markus will be studying abroad in Prague, Czech Republic, during the spring 2010 semester.

“I fell in love with it,” Markus said of Prague, after he took a class about the city, adding that the UI’s Czech department “helped propel [his] interest in the country.”

Markus said that his study plans are just one of many changes that Birth Rites has faced recently. Members Jack Hennessy and Jarrett Hothan moved back to Illinois after finishing their studies at the UI, so the band does not get together or play shows as often as they used to.

“This whole semester has been weird for us,” Markus said, adding that it has been refreshing for the band. “When you wait a month to play a show you’re show much more excited.”

The members of Birth Rites view the show not as a parting, but as a celebration of their time together and with other artists in Iowa City.

“Our friend and roommate for the past three years is playing one of his first solo acoustic shows,” Hennessy, Birth Rites’ singer and guitarist, said. He also said that Markus will play some of his own acoustic songs at the concert.

“We want to thank all of the people who have supported us,” Hennessy said.

The band plans to record an EP – a follow-up to their first album, *All Success Stories* – this winter before Markus heads to Europe.

Hennessy also said that Birth Rites may play the 2010 Mission Creek Festival with a different drummer, then will play a small tour over the summer when Markus returns.

“Strung Up From the Sky”

According to the restaurant Kuma’s Corner in Chicago, the “Pelican Burger” consists of a 10-ounce Kobe beef patty, with pan-seared scallops and lardons, in a garlic white wine sauce on top of a parmesan crisp, and it is served with white wine-garlic aioli.’

Oh, and the band recently came out with a new album, *What We All Come to Need*, which 32-year-old Pelican drummer Jerry Herweg said critics are calling the best in the group’s career.

Pelican will perform its instrumental-rock songs at the Picador, 330 E. Washington St., today alongside Black Cobra and Struck By Lightning. The late show will start at 10 p.m., and admission is $10 in advance.

The band’s latest album takes the energy of the 2007 release, *City of Echoes*, and combines it with the longer, winding progressive-rock influences of earlier albums to make for an epic listening experience.

“I don’t know if it was necessarily a conscious thing, like, ‘Oh, we need to make our songs longer,’ but I think it was the next step in writing,” Herweg said. “We’re always up for trying new things and seeing how they go over.”

Trying new things is a motto the band follows closely. One of the biggest surprises on the mostly instrumental album is the last track “Final Breath,” which features a vocal performance by Allen Epley of the Life and Times.

“We didn’t know what to expect because we put it in his hands, but we were stoked on the outcome,” Herweg said.

Herweg said that the members of Pelican never planned on being a strictly instrumental band when they started out playing in Chicago.

“We’ve always wanted to try to have a song with vocals,” he said. “We don’t have anything against singers, we just never found one.”

The drummer said he has played at the Picador about five or six times now, both with Pelican and his other band, Tusk. He said he doesn’t think anyone actually came to his first show at the Picador, which was then called Gabe’s.

“I’m pretty sure my singer Jodi spiked one of the floor wedges, and we ended up having to pay money to Gabe’s to pay for the gear he broke, rather than get any gas money for the show,” Herweg said.

Luckily, he said, his other experiences at the Picador with Pelican have been successful.

“Ever since [that first show], it has been smooth sailing.”

— by Eric Andersen

By Greta Hagen-Richardson
greta-hagen-richardson@uiowa.edu

Film archives keep locked behind their doors images and stories that cannot be preserved and maintained forever, even with the abundance of modern digital media.

Among these dying reels of film, New York City artist Bill Morrison discovered many of the images that later he featured in his films.

At 7 p.m. today, he will discuss and screen his work in 101 Becker Communication Studies Building as part of the Fall 2009 Proseminar in Cinema and Culture, Lost and Found: Archival Film. Admission is free.

Morrison is the savior of many old types of films. In the 1950s, nitrate film, composed of an unstable and inflammable chemical combination, became illegal and was replaced by other forms of 35-mm film. Many of the relic nitrate prints have been placed in facilities that are temperature-controlled and monitored. As time goes on, these films are subject to erosion, and they eventually decompose. One of his most well-known pieces, *Decasia*, is composed of snippets of black-and-white silent-era films in various stages of decay.

“[These films] were considered dead or sleeping soundly and, in a way, I woke them up to be shown to a new audience,” he said. “It is a type of regeneration and rebirth after a deep hush.”

Morrison began his career as a painter, originally in Chicago. After moving to New York City and working with animator Robert Breer, he moved his focus onto the moving image.

“Painting is something that you work on for a long time meditatively and slowly. And then it is something someone might spend a minute looking at unless it is considered important,” he said. “In film, you can control the audience environment. Breer talked about how film is like 24 paintings a second.”

With his work *The Film of Her*, Morrison constructed film as a collection of images melding into one another. Each of the separate images goes through a pattern of apparition, existence, and eventual dissolve on screen. This visual process seems to involve the idea that film is, in fact, alive.

Paula Amad, an associate professor of cinema and the instructor for the Proseminar who brought Morrison to the UI, believes Morrison expands our vision of living film with degrading film.

“The film is in the process of dying as he reassembles it and that says something about the organic, material dimensions of film itself,” she said. “It is a living entity. This explores and opens the broader aesthetic, poetic, and philosophical parameters of film.”

Something else that sets Morrison apart from his contemporaries is his ability to merge various artistic media. Many of his films are presented as multifaceted productions complete with live musicians. Amad said he is renowned for working with important composers.

“His films are made to be screened in a live context,” she said. “During the Proseminar, we will see them in a different context, but they still apply to theater, film, visual art, poetry and music. They have broad appeal.”

Among the films on tonight’s roster is Morrison’s personal favorite, “Light is Calling.” The original one-minute, 47-second archival footage was a gift. He extended the images four times in length, edited them, and set them to a score by Michael Gordon.

“It is absolutely gorgeous that the film had decayed in that way. I am still amazed by it,” Morrison said. “When a film has decayed that much, you can’t really unroll it anymore. [That project was] an effortless and graceful convergence.”

By Alexis Dorr
alexis-dorr@uiowa.edu

Imagine a sea of glistening masks, adorning the faces of mysterious dancers, all swaying to music provided by a masked DJ.

On the night before Halloween, this cinematic scene will invade the Englert Theatre, 221 E. Washington, to raise funds for the historic Iowa City venue. Proceeds from the event will help fund Englert programs such as its Community Spotlight Series, Children’s Series, and more.

The Masquerade Ball fundraiser will begin at 8 p.m. Friday. A costume contest, live performances, and an auction featuring handmade jewelry from Hands Jewelers, 109 E. Washington, and vacations to locales across the United States will also contribute to the night’s festivities. Costumes are not mandatory for the Masquerade Ball, but they are highly recommended. Admission is $50.

The festive evening will commence with a dance party — participants are invited to get down onstage using all different types of dancing, from grinding to ballroom to theatrical pieces from guest performers. Organizers will also play selected pieces from The Phantom of the Opera to add to the masquerade theme.

“By having the party onstage, everything will look and feel like it’s part of a show,” said Nancy Mayfield, the Englert’s developmental director and volunteer coordinator. “Lighting, silver masks, strings of lights draped — it’s going to be very much an enchanting setting.”

The idea for the Masquerade Ball came from donors and Englert staff. The event took more than eight months to organize, but according to Mayfield, the majority of the work, including hanging decorations, securing performers, and mixing music, has occurred during the last two months.

Despite the extensive preparations, certain details of the show, like its participants, are still masked. Some Englert staff members have been kept in the dark as to the final product.

“It’s a surprise for us — we don’t get to see the decorations until the night of,” said Nicole Villanueva, the customer-service representative at the Englert box office.

Though the final result still lies in secret, Mayfield said she’s confident in the success of the evening.

“It will be an elegant evening for dancing and elegant wine,” she said.

By Hanna Rosman

Jewelry is meant to be more than merely an accessory; it is artwork. Throughout the decades, the concept and creation of jewelry has changed from being one-of-a-kind art to highly commercialized and mass-produced pieces.

M.C Ginsberg, 110 E. Washington St., seeks to remember the earlier concepts of jewelry as art by exhibiting vintage jewelry from the Art Decorative and Retrospective periods during regular business hours through Nov. 30.

“I am intrigued by the period,” said Mark Ginsberg, the president of M.C. Ginsberg. “The industrial modern period and post-World War I seemed to be not only a great period for fashion, for cars, but for jewelry,”

The Art Decorative period boasted jewelry that is angular and sleek in design, aimed for an elite crowd. The color palette used for the design included white metals such as platinum. Pieces on display at Ginsberg’s store, including a heart structured with metal and encrusted with blood-red jewels, demonstrate the period’s trend of geometrical symmetry.

A majority of people in that era could not afford such jewelry because it was custom-made. Those wealthy enough visited jewelry stores such as Tiffany’s or Harry Winston and sat face-to-face with designers to make something specific, Ginsberg said. The lustrous and sophisticated themes matched the tastes of the upper-class people who purchased the jewelry.

The Retrospective period in jewelry reflected the people by being bold and confident. The jewelry ultimately mirrored the rebirth of society to celebrate the ending of the repercussions of World War I, such as rationing and the American public’s nerves being strained and exhausted from violent conflict. The pieces used flowing design and bold sizes to show unrestraint and the desire to scream and be noticed, much like society.

The transition between the two periods was blunt, rather than being lost in shades of gray, Ginsberg said.

“[Art Deco] ended with a dot, dot, dot and [the Retrospective period] picked up with an exclamation point,” Ginsberg said.

The draw one has to a piece of jewelry is rooted in an emotional connection. An initial appeal may be a piece’s aesthetics or gleam, but it leads to a desire that it sparks within a viewer. In custom-made pieces, it is through the minute details made from a burnishing tool or the type of polish that magnetizes this attraction, Ginsberg said.

“There is something intimate, something sexy and sensual about” the subtleties of a piece, he said.

In mass-produced, commercialized pieces, these subtleties in detail can be missed. If a piece of jewelry is one-of-a-kind and handcrafted, it is a piece of fine art, said Ann Au, the owner of 2AU in West Des Moines.

“There is something dramatic and theatrical about a piece of art,” Ginsberg said. “If you are going to acquire them, acquire them for the right reason. If it doesn’t have an emotional connection, then it is all worthless.”

Otis Redding: The Best See & Hear
****1/2 out of *****

Otis Redding is a posthumous one-hit wonder, but his promise of soul remains forever imprinted in the genre’s music history. Otis Redding: The Best See & Hear is a CD/DVD set that celebrates the short four-year career the singer enjoyed before a tragic plane crash cut future access to Redding’s rich well of musical potential.

Inducted into the Rock ‘n‘ Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, he is honored for his commanding vocals and downright soul that often brought even himself to his knees. The master of soul is another instance of an artist ahead of his time. Despite his aptitude for singing and songwriting, Redding never saw a single of his recordings ascend higher than No. 21 on the pop top-40 Billboard charts.

Just three days before his death, on Dec. 10, 1967, Redding recorded “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay,” which proved to be his breakthrough hit and spent four weeks at No. 1 in early 1968. Watching the DVD of his live performances, it is both heartbreaking and moving to watch this soul man stir his audience into an awe-inspired stupor.

Although Redding was not a flashy performer with the moves of Michael Jackson to dazzle his fans, his conviction in his lyrics is nevertheless a spellbinding source of entertainment.
The Best See & Hear DVD is a perfect accompaniment to a CD full of classic tunes including, “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay,” “Try A Little Tenderness,” and “Respect,” a song later transformed into Aretha Franklin’s soul anthem. The DVD puts a face to the familiar soul standards with a flavorful dose of live musical theatrics.

The first section of the DVD exhibits selections from the Stax/Volt Tour of 1967, which not only features Redding but also Booker T. & the MGs and the soul act Sam & Dave. The second section showcases Redding’s inspired performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 shortly preceding his untimely death.

Listening to and watching this CD/DVD set makes one wonder the stardom Redding could have reached. Still, the musical gifts Redding left behind indicate that this man was a force of love and vocal power that will continue to resonate for generations to come.

— by Caroline Berg

By Tommy Morgan
Every time This Providence has trekked to Iowa City, it has always been a performer, never a headliner. Until now.

This Providence will play the Picador, 330 E. Washington St., at 6 p.m. today with Inept and Danger is my Middle Name. Admission is $12.

Though tonight’s show will be a different for the band, This Providence is no stranger to playing Iowa City. The members have performed here numerous times — most recently with Copeland earlier this year.

“It’s always been a fun [place] for us,” drummer Andy Horst said. “We’ve had a lot of good memories [in Iowa City].”

Horst’s first performance at the Picador was in 2007, when he and the other members of This Providence toured with June. Horst recalled the show — the last of that tour — as one of his fondest memories of Iowa City.

“We did all of these insane pranks to June,” Horst said. “On its first song, we duct-taped the bassist to a chair.” He later said the band members also cracked eggs over people’s heads and stole and trashed June’s van.

Horst said This Providence’s current tour is in support of its latest album, Who Are You Now? which dropped last March.

“The whole record was based off this story than Dan was going to write [but never did],” Horst said, referring to lead singer Dan Young. “Most of the songs lyrically have to do with these characters in his head.”

The band has had an ever-changing members in its lifetime. Along with the departure of four since This Providence’s genesis in 2003, the group also switches between having a four- or five-piece lineup. The band has four members now, but five who play together.

“We have a guitarist who tours with us full-time,” Horst said, though he isn’t considered a full member of the band.

Don’t be fooled by This Providence’s moniker — Horst said the group isn’t a Christian band. In fact, he said the band wants to appear more in line with Bruce Springsteen.

“I think our goal is to be a respected rock band,” Horst said. “That has longevity that can actually make this a career.”

Former DI staffers Soheil Rezeyazdi, Andrew Swift, and John Schlotfet created the Biden Birther Movement in downtown Iowa City. What Rezeyazdi said was just a “dumb idea” has since flourished with a Facebook following of 306 members and national recognition by one of the most familiar faces on cable television. 

The “Biden-Birther Movement”  is a parody of the Birther Movement, a conspiracy theory in the political world questioning the nationality of President Barack Obama. The theory was put forth after Obama hesitated to produce a birth certificate for public viewing. Biden Birther founders ask in their manifesto, “Who is Joe Biden?” and “Why does he know so much about foreign policy?”  

Bill O’Reilly praised the Biden Birther Manifesto on his show. The movement has also received attention from writers in the blogisphere.

— by Coutney Spears

I have been infected by poetry. 

Poetry is the brightest celestial body ripping holes in the established cobwebs of your mind. 

Late at night, just as I am closing my eyes and as I slip away into my dreams, I can hear those words of men, while I recline, sedentary, and think about the desert, I still only see the visage of windows, while I fade into dreams of lotus soap: immovable.      

I can’t remember exactly when, but it must have been a horribly tragic day, when I proclaimed myself a poet.
Since that day, however, I have searched the shelves for anything I found appealing, and in this week’s Geek Out!, I went down to the Ped Mall and read some of my favorite poems aloud amongst the passers-by of a concluded Saturday.     

Poetry offers something to everyone, and in reading, analyzing, and writing poetry, one can begin to understand the infinitesimal nuances of language: Illuminating life, emotion, and thought. 

With a listen, you can take something, a single phrase, away from a single poem — and when a consonant catches your ear, let it linger and draw you into the nearest bookstore to its little poetry corner.

— by Colin Doherty

Like an undefeated heavy-weight prize-fighter who recites 15^th century French poetry between brawls, Georgia-based sludge band Baroness’s latest release, Blue Record, is charged with colossal power and finesse.

Blue Record is a fitting conceptual follow-up to the group’s 2007 Red Album, though it’s undeniably more subdued record than its earlier counterpart. Instead of Baroness using sheer demolition on every track, Blue Record’s destructiveness is broken up by extensive recordings of virtuosic acoustic and clean guitar, and deep, sweeping sonic oscillations. This approach softens the overall intensity of the record, giving it a cooler, darker feel than Red Album, but it also provides a nice veil of mystical comfort from behind which utterly hellacious fuzzed-out guitar riffs wait to strike.

And strike they do. The guitaring in Blue Record is powerful. The heavy distortion on the chugging, undulating verse riffs is impeccably complimented by a frequent lead fuzz tone that brings to mind images of a Velcro factory just set ablaze. The teamwork heard between guitarists John Baizley and Peter Adams creates a dense harmonic landscape that frequently explodes from in an inferno of relentless rhythmic smashes by drummer Allen Blickle.

Blue Record requires repetition. Though it exhibits a straight-forward stoner/sludge metal style, the copious amounts of unfamiliar sounds that reside within it cascade upon each other in such a dense, unpredictable way that everything cannot be caught during the first listen. While there is always a standout tune waiting to grab the attention, Baroness has a way of incorporating equally exciting melodies in the backgrounds of its songs.

And it’s almost too much. By the end of the album, it’s tiring to try and grasp all the intricacies floating around behind those volatile guitars. And sometimes that volatility is just as overwhelming. The sounds range from straight-up acoustic strumming, to chorus-sounding clean finger-picking, to the-guitar-must-be-on-fire fuzzes. Just trying to follow the tone shifts can get tiresome, but whether that is a complaint or an endorsement is a judgment call.

— by Ryan Fosmark