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    Musiqa, CAMH & Project Row Houses

    New music in a different arena: A violent brawl that radically questionshyper-masculinity

    Joel Luks
    Dec 11, 2012 | 3:30 pm
    • The Arena, a vision of New York-based performance artist Shaun El C. Leonardo,who's also a painter and sculptor, was performed twice in a Musiqa Loft Concertat the Progressive Amateur Boxing Association Saturday.
      Photo by Max Fields
    • Shaun Leonardo has been deconstructing hyper-masculine stereotypes by engagingin red-blooded activities and surveying pop culture hero paradigms.
      Photo by Max Fields
    • The initial 6-foot body slam that pounded floor conveyed that this was atangible, painful grapple.
      Photo by Max Fields
    • There wasn't a winner nor a loser, but two hard-bodied men who tested eachother's physical strength.
      Photo by Max Fields
    • Through Mexican wrestling, bull fighting, boxing and visual arts , Leonardowants to expound a different point of view for what it means to be a patriarchaccording to shifting 21st century ideals.
      Photo by Max Fields
    • Leonardo, aka "El Conquistador," and his opponent "Firebird" Jorge Santidescended the back stairs and greeted 60 spectators, some of whom were dressedin creative black tie.
      Photo by Max Fields

    In my years of training to become a classical musician, I have attended a diverse gamut of performances at venues that range from traditional concert halls to grungy bars to alternative venues to experimental interactive aleatoric sound environments, hearing objects like cacti, carrots and metronomes as instruments and anything under the sun submerged in water for cosmic effect.

    I can now add a Greco-Roman brawl to the list of things I'd never imagined working alongside new music — in the name of art. Seriously.

    Chances are that a concert goer with a penchant for the timbers of western classical music may never set foot inside a boxing ring to spectate wrestling, just as a fan of World Wrestling Entertainment may not seek out chamber music recitals as a weekend leisure activity.

    This was a tangible, painful grapple that exchanged blows one after another.

    The Arena, a vision of New York-based performance artist Shaun El C. Leonardo, who's also a painter and sculptor, was performed twice in a Musiqa Loft Concert at the Progressive Amateur Boxing Association Saturday as part of Contemporary Art Museum Houston's Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, on view through Feb. 15. Inside the athletic facility in Houston's Third Ward, Musiqa partnered with Leonardo, in collaboration with Project Row Houses, to realize a holistic mise-en-scène where archetypal definitions of masculinity were put into question.

    Leonardo has been deconstructing hyper-masculine stereotypes by engaging in red-blooded activities and surveying pop culture hero paradigms. He's approached his subject through Mexican wrestling, bull fighting, boxing and visual arts en route to expound a different point of view for what it means to be a patriarch according to shifting 21st century ideals, whether true or imagined.

    With the thunderous sound of snare drums tolling some type of a march to the death, Leonardo, aka "El Conquistador," and his opponent, "Firebird" Jorge Santi, descended the back stairs and greeted 60 spectators, some of whom were dressed in creative black tie, before negotiating through the ropes and onto the raised platform.

    Though at first viewers may have been fooled into thinking this was a make-believe tournament — for play, for art, but not for real — the initial 6-foot body slam that pounded the not-so-padded floor canvas cleared up that confusion rather quickly. This was a tangible, painful grapple that exchanged blows one after another.

    The stage was set to transport the audience into this milieu. Each guest was given a black handkerchief to twirl and cheer or boo the wrestlers. Before long everyone was fully invested in the action while hollering words of encouragement or disapproval in Spanish and English.

    There was neither a winner nor a loser, but two hard-bodied men who tested each other's physical strength.

    The music, not dissimilar from Wagner's treatment of orchestral scoring where the instruments offer a truth not evident with the naked eye, percussionists Craig Hauschildt, Alec Warren and Blake Wilkins improvised with mallet instruments, Tibetan singing bowls, cymbals and assorted noisemakers that, when heard over the high-decibel ambiance, challenged aggression and violence as means to arrive at male camaraderie and brotherhood.

    Covered in sweat, the fighters concluded with a firm, tired, amicable handshake paired with determined eye contact. There was neither a winner nor a loser, but two hard-bodied men who tested each other's physical strength.

    "We took it easy knowing there was another performance," Leonardo laughed.

    I rolled my eyes.

    While in retrospect I became curious about why I, an otherwise peace-loving Canadian, would be so caught up in a performance that I would encourage representations of fierce brutality, the answer, I speculated, was firmly imparted in the coupling of a biological impulse for Darwinian survival and a desire to witness good triumph over evil, notwithstanding that neither wrestler represented one or the other.

    I suppose we all have something to learn about our dispositions. And I'm certain that's what Leonardo wanted for the audience to consider.

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    Movie Review

    Heartfelt movie The Life of Chuck adapts optimistic Stephen King story

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 13, 2025 | 5:30 pm
    Tom Hiddleston in The Life of Chuck
    Photo courtesy of NEON
    Tom Hiddleston in The Life of Chuck.

    Just like actors, once a filmmaker becomes known for a certain genre, it can be difficult to escape that pigeonholing. Writer/director Mike Flanagan has worked for 20 years in both film and television, and literally every project he’s done has been related to horror. He’s finally breaking out with The Life of Chuck, which is ironically based on a short story of the same name by Stephen King.



    Told in three chapters in reverse order, the film is almost impossible to describe without giving away its magic. The first section centers on Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a teacher grappling, like everyone around him, with what seems to be the world falling apart. He’s comforted to a degree by reuniting with his ex-wife, Felicia (Karen Gillan), but is also baffled by multiple ads touting the retirement of Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) after “39 great years.”

    The second section consists of little more than a slightly younger Chuck happening upon Taylor (The Pocket Queen), a drummer busking on a street corner, giving Chuck and a younger woman, Janice (Annalise Basso), the inspiration to start dancing. The final section goes back to the childhood of Chuck (Benjamin Pajak), where he’s raised by his grandparents (Mark Hamill and Mia Sara), discovers dance as an outlet, and wonders about various small mysteries.

    Flanagan finds a way to deliver a lot of story with relatively little effort. Using a wry narrator (Nick Offerman), a limited number of locations, and a series of great small performances, he creates an intriguing premise with few straightforward answers. The structure of the film is designed to confuse the viewer until just the right moment, and the revelation forces you to reexamine everything that came before.

    The biggest accomplishment by Flanagan is making what are essentially three short films and having each of them resonate equally. The film contains elements of science fiction, although the first section may hit a bit too close to home for some of those watching. All three sections, though, have a heartwarming bent to them that sells their central idea without becoming overly saccharine.

    To do so, each of the characters have to connect in a short amount of time. The casting of the film is crucial, and not only does that department succeed with the main roles, but a series of small roles are filled expertly as well. Carl Lumbly as a funeral home owner, David Dastmalchian and Harvey Guillen as parents of students, Matthew Lillard as Marty’s neighbor, Q’orianka Kilcher as Chuck’s wife, and Jacob Tremblay as a teenage Chuck are just a few of the recognizable actors that do yeoman’s work in their brief time on screen.

    Hiddleston is only prominently featured in the second chapter, but his performance there and in small glimpses throughout makes a big impression. Ejiofor is given the star turn in the first chapter and he absolutely kills, both in moments by himself and in scenes with Gillan, with whom he has great chemistry. Hamill, making a rare non-voiceover appearance outside of the Star Wars universe, and Sara, in her first notable role in 11 years, are also very memorable in the final chapter.

    The Life of Chuck is a film that’s filled with emotion, but the full impact of the story is not felt until the final moments. It has a mysterious journey that is initially frustrating, but the performances keep the film going until it gets to its satisfying payoff.

    ---

    The Life of Chuck is now playing in theaters.

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