FRIDAY, MARCH 29
Go visit the new Error Records storefront space, 702 S. Neil St. Champaign, all weekend starting at 10 a.m. Friday, free (or the cost of what you buy there)
This is a pretty awesome thing that is happening this weekend. Error Records is officially opening their storefront this weekend (starting Friday at 10 a.m.), and opening your own business is not an easy thing to do in this day and age. So props for that right away.
Not only is it a business, it’s a business that provides something awesome to the music scene of C-U. Not to take away from another one of my favorite spaces, Exile on Main Street (you’ll always be my favorite), but this is something cool to check out. The stores aren’t rivals by any means — they offer totally different material as far as music releases are concerned. They certainly can exist simultaneously. Either way, make a visit and show some support for some DIY in the area. (PS)
Boneyard Jazz Quintet, The Iron Post, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
There’s nothing like a little live music at the end of the work week. Join The Boneyard Jazz Quintet: Morgan Powell (trombone), Thomas “Shab” Wirtel (flugelhorn), Randy Salman (saxophone), Chip Stephens (piano), Armand Beaudoin (bass), Gary Peyton (drums) at The Iron Post. And no cover, people. Go hear some jazz. (MG)
Wine tasting, Wines at the Pines, 5:00–8:00 p.m.
This wine tasting may happen every week, but the venue has no shortage of interesting wines to try out. Taste a few for free, and stick around for food and a glass of your favorite. This week, stop by and toast owner Jessica Stanis on the completion of her PhD defense. You might learn a little about wine (and neuroscience) in the process. (SK)
5BANDS5BUCKS featuring I am God., Dojo for Crooks, The Howl, The Heavy Machine, The Cheaper Hits, Mike ‘N Molly’s, 8 p.m., $5 (duh)
You can spend some time at one of our favorite watering holes, Mike ‘N Molly’s, this Friday night and check out a handful of bands. Yep, exactly a handful, as in five bands. What’s the cost? Oh, yeah you guessed it, five bucks. It’s not a difficult concept. You can check out a bunch of pretty cool bands for a very low price this weekend, as this series is still in its young stages and picking up steam. Hopefully, it can keep producing pretty great bills like it has and maintain this model. Local glitch/electro crew I am God. headlines with a couple of locals and out of towners to join. You can even particpate in an Easter egg hunt Saturday, brought to you by I am God. Yep, that’s what they’re doing to celebrate. (PS)
The Normal Heart, Krannert Center Studio Theatre, Friday–Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
From the program:
Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart “wrestles with the time period in the early 1980s when the AIDS epidemic had unleashed itself in the United States but governmental agencies and health care leaders had not yet come to grips with the challenge before them. Real-life activist Larry Kramer turned his frustrations into an angry and effective demand that America take action; his efforts led to new approaches to AIDS research and treatment.”
You’ll have the opportunity to participate in a free talkback in the theatre after the Saturday (Mar. 30) performance. And check out Thom Schnarre’s excellent review! (TN)
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Art Theater Co-op, Friday–Saturday, 11:30 p.m.
After seeing The Normal Heart, continue your celebration of all things queer by attending a screening of the best movie about Drag Queens ever made. The Art will be showing Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on 35mm print.
But before the movie, we’ll have our own drag show hosted by Veronica Bleaus, the self-proclaimed “worst drag queen in the Midwest.” Buy your tickets here. (TN)
Friday Night Stand-up at The Iron Post presents Mat Alano-Martin, 10:00 p.m.
Local comedian Andrew Voris always has something good in store for comedy crowds at The Post. This week brings Mat Alano-Martin, musician turned comedian and rising comedy star. Alano-Martin has opened for Ralphie May and has worked with with Jim Breuer, Gilbert Gottfried, Marc Maron, Moshe Kasher, Nikki Glaser, Kurt Braunholer, Erin Foley, Neil Hamburger, Sean Patton, John Roy, Morgan Murphy and John Evans. Be sure to check out his interview with SP’s Katie Baldwin.
Local funnymen Jesse Tuttle and Andrew Voris sweeten the deal, which is $6 at the door. (JS)
SATURDAY, MARCH 30
Monsieur Verdoux, Art Theater, 11:30 a.m. Sat. and Sunday
It’s Charlie Chaplin. Watch a preview. Read about it. Go see it. Admire it. (JS)
2nd Annual April Fool’s 5K, Illinois Arboretum, 9:00 a.m.
All proceeds from this 5K run, sponsored by the Kola Foundation, will be used to help promote education among less fortunate children. Last year $1,200 was raised, and this year’s proceeds will be used to provide scholarships to students interested in coming to the University of Illinois. The college of ACES hosts a Research Apprenticeship Summer Program that is all expenses paid. Kola will cover any additional travel/food expenses students may incur that would prevent them from being able to participate.
The Kola Foundation is a not-for-profit organization focused on improving lives on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. With an emphatic focus on the young people of the reservation, Kola develops partnerships with Native American people and organizations to support initiatives that promote pride and self-sufficiency for the youth, bringing hope of a more prosperous future through the future leaders of the tribe themselves. (MG)
Spurlock Museum WorldFest, Spurlock Museum, 12:30–4:00 p.m., $5
WorldFest “celebrates the wonderful variety of performance arts practiced around the world and offers hands-on activities for everyone.” This year, the five performances include:
- Three Little Pigs
- Costas
- The Melikin Puppets
- Hathaways Peruvian Trio
- Mike Anderson
There will also be a crafts area in the main floor gallery, and all ages can participate and make a souvenir to take home. Go here for detailed information regarding the performers (pdf). Contact Kim Sheahan at (217) 244-3355 or email for more information. (TN)
Sinfonia da Camera: St. Matthew Passion, Foellinger Great Hall, 1:00 p.m.
This Saturday, enjoy Bach’s masterpiece of classical sacred music. In his final collaboration with Sinfonia da Camera, Fred Stoltzfus will conduct St. Matthew Passion. During the extended intermission, enjoy a free student performance at Stage 5. (TN)
Eat fiddlehead ferns (your first bite of spring), bacaro, 5:00–11:00 p.m.
The fiddlehead ferns have arrived. Usually, that means spring, but there’s a six-inch snow drift outside my window that has still failed to melt, so I’m just going to pretend it’s spring and hit up bacaro for my favorite seasonal green. Find these bright, earthy-flavored twirls of vegetal goodness, along with blue foot mushrooms and fresh fava beans (pictured) on the menu while supplies. (SK)
Cardenio, Armory Free Theatre, 8:00 p.m.
The Armory’s production is directed by Austin Regan, and features:
- Christopher Terrell Brown
- Kathleen F. Conlin
- Cassandra Cushman
- Ellen Fred
- Sally Hamer
- David Kaplinsky
- Kristina Loy
- Naomi Mark
- J. W. Morrissette
- Robert Ramirez
- Austin Regan
Charles Mee and Stephen Greenblatt’s Cardenio is a modern romance that “engages with love, seeming, reality, Shakespeare, and the magic of the theater.” (TN)
SUNDAY, MARCH 31
Blind Field, Krannert Art Museum, 2:00–5:00 p.m.
Brazil has long been called “the country of the future.” From the dramatic construction of the ultramodern capital of Brasília in the late 1950s to the country’s status as an emerging economic powerhouse in the 21st century, Brazilian national identity is inextricably intertwined with the idea of its potentiality. Yet the Brazilian saying from which this idea derives is more complex, for it suggests that the notion of potentiality is itself something of a mirage, an illusion that blinds its citizens to the reality of the present day. In 1970, the French sociologist and philosopher Henri Lefebvre described the “blind field” as a transitional zone that lies between socio-economic modes of production and escapes comprehension within existing ideological paradigms.
This exhibition takes up blindness as a critical category, a metaphor for the way in which the obstruction of perception can illuminate alternate modes of knowledge and experience. It focuses on a young generation of artists working in Brazil who offer a critical perspective on processes of transition within contemporary society, be it from the public space of the street to the virtual zone of the computer screen, or the scale of local communities to the structure of large-scale political action. These works speak to the complexity and heterogeneity of an art milieu that is both tied to the local and manifestly global in reach. (MG)
Johannes Brahms’ Instrumental Music with Piano, Smith Memorial Hall, 7:30 p.m., $5–$10
Ian Hobson, piano
Andrés Cárdenes, violin
Csaba Erdélya, viola
Ko Iwasaki, cello
Ian Hobson is a professor in the Center for Advanced Study and the music director and conductor of Sinfonia da Camera. Music for this concert will include:
- Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano, Op. 100
- Piano Quartet No. 2 in A Major for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 26
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