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    The Arthropologist

    Dream on: My fantasy arts season includes James Franco, female choreographers &velvet martini lounges

    Nancy Wozny
    Jul 16, 2011 | 2:52 pm
    • No this is not Nancy on a bad day. It's the Doug Varone and Dancers in "Chaptersfrom a Broken Novel." They're a dance company on Nancy's fantasy arts season.
      Photo by Bill Hebert
    • The Bad Plus
      Photo by Cameron Wittig
    • Andrea Miller of Gallim Dance on the cover of Dance magazine
      Photo by Matthew Karas
    • The New York Baroque Dance Company
      Photo by Louis Forget
    • Zoe Scofield in Juniper’s performance of "A Crack in Everything"
      Photo by Juniper Shuey
    • ABT's Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky in "Giselle"
      Photo by Gene Schiavone

    It's summer, I'm on vacation and frankly, I just don't have time to visit all your websites or open all those attachments to see what you are actually doing next season. Plus, I have a whole last season of House on my DVR. If you all can be inventing your own special football teams, why can't I be making up stuff too?

    Welcome to "The Arthropologist's fantasy arts season."

    Due to the aging, diminishing attention span and hunger level of the audience (namely me), all shows start at 6 p.m., last under an hour, come with yummy snacks and free valet parking. All install press velvet martini lounges.

    Snazzy, I know. Fantasy seasons rule.

    Five things in this story are actually true. Name them and win an imaginary prize!

    Houston Ballet plans a mixed rep of all women choreographers, and get this, my favorites, Crystal Pite, Martha Clarke, Aszure Barton, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Julia Adam. James Franco decides he needs a building with his name on it, so welcome to the "James Franco Center for Dance." HB offers a class for cranky old modern dancers (me again), where we do a few plies and tendus, then gossip until margaritas are served. Occasionally, Franco pops in to read us his prose. Oh, groan, I wish it were better.

    The contemporary dance tribe takes over Houston Ballet's old West Gray quarters, putting in a special vaulted ceiling for Vault, Amy Ell's aerial dance company. It's named for Roberta Stokes, an early pioneer in Houston's contemporary dance scene. Her daughter, Karen Stokes, gets to pick the color of the lobby, where you can also find a combo beer/smoothie/raw juice bar.

    Society for the Performing Arts presents my A-list dance companies, such as Keigwin + Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Monica Bill Barnes & Company, Evidence A Dance Company, Doug Varone and Dancers, and a whole week of American Ballet Theatre. SPA felt so badly that I missed The Tiger Lillies last show they are bringing them back. Merce Cunningham Dance Company makes a last minute surprise visit on their final legacy tour.

    After looking at numerous hot New York dance companies to headline The Jewish Community's annual Dance Month, Maxine Silberstein takes one look at Andrea Miller of Gallim Dance on the cover of Dance Magazine, gives her a call, and presto, they're coming.

    DiverseWorks realizes it's way too soon to end the ancient Greek focus, so they are bringing in Zoe/Juniper'sThere's a Crack in Everything, a piece loosely tied to The Oresteia. A fantastic restaurant moves in right next door with a liquor license.

    Cinema Arts Festival capitalizes on the ballet buzz generated from Black Swan with Win Wenders with his 3-D Pina Bausch movie, along with a whole dance film track. I don't spill champagne on any visiting directors.

    Stages Repertory Theatre head Kenn McLaughlin drinks the Will Eno Kool-Aid again, bringing in his latest play, Middletown. In a weird twist of fate, Eno develops an unexplained fondness for speaking with the press. For the holiday's, McLaughlin directs a Panto version of Lord of the Rings with Rutherford Cravens looking smashing in drag as Lady Golum.

    Alley Theatre continues their relationship with rising weirdo playwright Rajiv Joseph with The Bengal Tiger (recently closed on Broadway). The Tracy Letts fixation continues at Main Street Theater, this time with his Superior Donuts. Philip Lehl and Kim Tobin Lehl of Stark Naked Theatre Co. mount a new production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Edward Albee attends and is reported to have smiled.

    Matthew Dirst of Ars Lyrica wins a Grammy. Dirst also gives in to my dance history fanaticism and brings in The New York Baroque Dance Company. Da Camera brings Grammy-winning Esperanza Spalding in again, and even Rosie O'Donnell knows who she is now, and the killer good jazz trio The Bad Plus too.

    All arts organizations who are presently missing leaders get them. Houston Symphony hires that hot conductor. Oddly, every new chief already owns a pair of cowboy boots. The MFAH hires a woman. The Guerrilla Girls come to her welcome party finally revealing their identities.

    Small theaters unite, forming a coalition offering all kinds of two heads are better than one perks, even a website and a "theater card." Houston outpaces Dallas in simply everything, including hats. H & M, Trader Joe's and In-N-Out Burger come to their senses opening stores here. From now on, it's considered bad form to snub Houston. We are offered a shuttle and turn it down, just because.

    Oh, and UT gets their mojo back with an undefeated season. Last season was just a bad dream, like when Bobby on Dallas wasn't really shot. All is well with the world.

    Author's confession: Bless you for still reading faithful fans. I adore you for indulging me. Five things in this story are actually true. Name them and win an imaginary prize!

    Wouldn't it be amazing if Gallim Dance stopped in Houston?

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    Movie Review

    28 Years Later revives zombie franchise for new generation

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 20, 2025 | 5:00 pm
    Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later
    Photo by Miya Mizuno
    Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later.

    The 2000s brought two of the best zombie movies ever made in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. Both films, despite being made by different filmmakers, featured intense action with fast-moving zombies, harrowing sequences, and real emotional connections with their main characters. Now the original director and writer — Danny Boyle and Alex Garland — have returned with the first of a possible three sequels, 28 Years Later.

    The rage virus from the first two films that turns humans into insatiable monsters has successfully been contained to the United Kingdom, and one group of survivors has managed to band together on a small island off the coast of England. We’re introduced to the group through Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), his wife, Isla (Jodie Comer), and his son, Spike (Alfie Williams).

    Isla is sick with an unknown illness, while Jamie is set to take the 12-year-old Spike on his first trip to the mainland to hunt zombies. That trip not only gives Spike an education as to the different types of feral zombies that now populate England, but also a clue that other people have survived there. When he discovers that one of them may be a doctor, he makes plans to take his mother there in hopes of finding a cure for whatever ails her.

    While the first two films were notable for their brisk pace that kept the potency of the stories high, Boyle and Garland almost go in the opposite direction for much of this film. The first 90 minutes are relatively slow, with only a couple of sequences that raise the blood pressure. The final half hour or so go a long way toward filling that void, so it’s clear that the filmmakers were biding their time for the story to come in the sequel. A bit more balance in this film would have served them well, though.

    What they do show involves some weird, wild stuff that is objectively upsetting, even for fans of the genre. The zombies have evolved in strange ways, giving them a variety of body shapes and abilities to suit the environment in which they live. These storytelling choices may thrill some and have others scratching their heads. Another human character living on his own (played by Ralph Fiennes), appears to have gone the way of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, with a revelation that is bone-chilling.

    Boyle, who’s directed everything from Trainspotting to Slumdog Millionaire, doesn’t have a signature style, and he makes some choices in this film that test your patience. He occasionally employs an odd technique in which the film stutters, for a lack of better term. It’s a bit jarring, especially since it doesn’t seem to improve the storytelling. He also inserts scenes from older films involving medieval warfare that emulate the bow-and-arrow weaponry used by characters in this film, but the exact connection he’s trying to make is unclear.

    The young Williams has a lot put on his shoulders in the film, and he proves to be up to the task of carrying the story. He isn’t precocious or annoying, instead reacting almost exactly like you’d expect a boy of his age to do when faced with extreme situations. Taylor-Johnson and Comer are good complements for him, drawing him out with their polar opposite characters. Fiennes makes a huge impression in the final act of the film, while Jack O’Connell makes a very brief appearance, teasing a bigger role to come.

    It’s difficult to fully judge 28 Years Later because it’s designed to only give you part of the story; part 2, The Bone Temple, is due in 2026, while a third film will follow if the first two do well. This film has its moments and winds up on the positive side of the ledger, but it’s also a frustrating experience that could have used a more stand-alone story.

    ---

    28 Years Later is now playing in theaters.

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