Some college students may hear the name “Shakespeare” and start running the opposite way while others will sit and listen to the iambic pentameter with a grin from ear to ear. Those latter students probably enjoy crocheting and dine on grilled liver for dinner, but this isn’t a Dr. Phil tell-a-thon. Shakespeare’s jargon definitely takes some getting used to, especially in this mass marketed world where slang has taken over speech. Nevertheless, students should take off their headphones and visit the University of Miami Ring Theatre’s ensemble rendition of the master’s superb comedy “Twelfth Night.” The play is nothing less than an explosion of the greatest art you can currently see on campus.
The director, Stephen Svoboda, takes the audience on a dramatic roller coaster that enables one to realize just how risquE and ahead of his time Shakespeare was. Set during a 4th of July celebration in the 1950s, a time filled with anti-Communism and pro-American ideology, the world of the play is set even before the play opens as the audience is immersed in a Rat Pack frenzy.
This version of the story makes sure to avoid constructing huge political statements and modernizes it with politically incorrectness. Shakespeare would be pleased to see an interpretation of his play depicting how love can twist and turn every nerve in the brain and cause humans to act and talk in impractical ways. Naturally, “Twelfth Night” connects with a vast majority of the audience via slapstick humor, but its very witty and biting dialogue is tremendously effective as well; a definite triumph for Svoboda and his cast and crew.
Most notable in this great ensemble cast are three upcoming actors. Christina Valo, as Feste the Fool, launches herself into the upper-echelon of talent as she sings, dances, entertains, and amuses the audience for over two hours. Josh Fiedler, as Malvolio, merely has to make an entrance to put every patron in a fit of giggles. Adding a brilliant comedic tone to his speech gives Malvolio a certain air of respectability while he endures the most drama, but also induces contagious laughter. Finally, Brian Cavallaro as the drunken Sir Toby displays a successful, likeable character arc, as Toby steals the audience’s attention and induces anticipation for his next scene immediately after he exits.
When it comes to desiring a theatre experience that surpasses those of professional venues, one must consider this wonderful cast and technical crew, and applaud them for their ever-endearing work. Adriana Hernandez’s set design seems almost as if it could become annoying, but never does, as even a fountain springs up and shuts down on cue. (It must be nice to play God.)
Cheers to the property people and the stunningly well planned and thoroughly researched costume design. Taking on the task of doing any Shakespeare play can be daunting – more so when it’s this very difficult, rarely produced masterwork. There aren’t too many companies that can pull off this gender-bending, sex-crazed, marriage-driven comedy with a huge twist for an ending. (Your attention is peaking…)
UM students should not miss this event, no matter how much cynicism arises from the thought of subjecting oneself to a Shakespeare play. After viewing this play, one can and will walk away knowing and understanding more about the King of Theatre than ever thought possible. All you have to do is take a seat.
“Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare plays at the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre April 16-19 at 8 p.m. and April 19 at 2 p.m. The theatre is located at 1312 Miller Drive; please call 305.284.3355 for more information.

Joshua Caraballo can be reached at email4josh@aol.com.

The White Stripes
Elephant
****
The new record from the White Stripes is called Elephant and although it’s their fourth album, it’s the Stripes’ first since being introduced to the entire world via the crossover success of their last album (White Blood Cells). That album rang a bell in pop culture with school’s out hits like “Fell In Love With a Girl,” “Hotel Yorba,” and “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.” And while Elephant adheres to the White Stripes’ standard guitar-plus-drums equation, there’s more style detailing and less rehash than on their previous records. In fact, compared to WBC, this is a very different animal.
Elephant is a full-on ROCK N’ ROLL record. As many listeners expected, a few tracks have obvious hit-potential akin to the singles branded on WBC (see the pounding stomp-rock of “Hypnotize” and the raucous screamer “Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine”). What music execs didn’t expect however, is for Elephant to be so dark and heavy, casting devilish shadows over every past LP including their debut, De Stijl. Many of the thunderous highpoints come courtesy of Jack White’s guitar. He seems to understand that technical proficiency does not a great rock ‘n’ roll record make. It simply takes guts and balls. And Jack really lays it all out on this record, snaring a foaming squirrel of sound unlike any guitar recording I have ever heard. For prized trophies, look no further than the abrasive tracks “Little Acorns” and “Black Math.”
But perhaps what really makes Elephant loom over other Stripes’ pervious albums is the way in which it breathes hell-shaking rock ‘n’ roll – as, read, heavy as anything by Led Zeppelin or AC/DC, without a single ounce of macho cocky bullshit. This intentional aversion to misogyny is evidenced in the quieter tracks, ranging from the gentile-rock of “I Want to Be the Boy Who Warms Your Mother’s Heart,” to the emotive acoustic ballad “You’ve Got Her in Your Pocket,” and the smirking closer “Well It’s True That We Love One Another.” Also realize that “The Air Near My Fingers,” by far the best track, somehow breeds the duo’s candy cane fury with emotively clever songwriting. The result is a classic jam on a near classic album.
There are a few duds: the disappointing Meg White fronted “In the Cold Cold Night,” and the lackluster first single “7 Nation Army,” but overall the White Stripes take their sincere, raw-to-the-bone style of music to the nth power. Definitely give it a listen.
For more info, visit www.whitestripes.com.

– Brian Hunker

Ms. Dynamite
A Little Deeper
***
Already a star in the UK, Ms. Dynamite is now crossing the Atlantic with common dreams of making an impact on the American music scene. With her unique brand of r&b, hip hop, reggae and a little bit of UK garage, she is importing quite a stylish war chest. On A Little Deeper, the boards are being controlled by proven producer Salaam Remi, known for his work on the Fugees’ The Score. This immediately invites comparisons of Dynamite to Lauren Hill, but in truth they are two very different, albeit exceptional artists.
Born of Scottish and Jamaican ancestry, Ms. Dynamite grew up in London’s wild North Side and incorporates many tough childhood experiences into her music. She has observed the dark side of drug use, violence and racism and speaks out against the ills plaguing urban societies. Unlike a lot of current American hip hop, there is genuine presence here that’s open to sharing uplifting messages with today’s youth.
Yet, the album is racked by inconsistency. Ms. Dynamite displays a raw, unrefined style on tracks such as “Natural High” and “Watch Over Them” that fully unleash her passion, but then come the other more pop, watered down tracks obviously crafted for commercial outlets. Her lead single for instance, “Dy-Na-Mi-Tee,” is catchy as hell, yet lacks intelligent and innovative content. A few tracks later there is a beautiful song entitled “Brother,” a candid lament on troubled teenage years, the death of her mother, and love for her older brother. The contrast is a little much.
Ms. Dynamite inarguably has charming versatility and an amazing voice – doing a dead-on Alicia Keys impersonation on numerous r&b ballads and drowning most female MCs in a crazy intense flow on tracks like “Danger.” Failing to go a little deeper is the only criticism. Allow her a few months to settle in, and she’ll no doubt be labeled a rare British delicacy.

– Kevin Jaeger

Jay Dee and Madlib
Jaylib (mega bootleg copy)
****
If any of you were wondering what Jay Dee, the BPM conductor originally from Slum Village, has been up to since leaving the group and dropping his solo album Welcome to Detroit in 2001 (on the hard-to-disappoint label BBE), this is it. JayLib, the other half of which is the chronically eccentric Madlib, is the kind of collaboration that seems almost too good to be true, like peanut butter, celery and raisins: rich and tasty (but definitely cooler when I was a child).
The tracks feature very little of Jay Dee’s voice and a lot more of Madlib’s soothing mumbles. The beats will take you back and forth between their styles (Jay Dee: the simplistic but entrancing ominous drum pattern progression; Madlib: the jazz record hoarder who needs to inform you about it on each track) but there’s enough blending to avoid a grossly two-brained freak.
The vocal snippets (typical of Madlib) range from a Scooby-Doo adventure to some ridiculous “Marijuana Helper” sketch and give the subject matter (bedding girls and money hungry snitches) a smoky mattress so light it softens the misogyny. Yeah, obscure samples are a little done, but Madlib has the keen mind to plant them in the right spots like an Easter egg hunt.
Without getting too stupidly philosophical let me just say: this album bangs, period. Lord Quas shows up for a couple Madlib duets that give the music some extra pimpin’ moonshoes. Jay Dee’s drums are never flat and he manages to conduct a slight electrical shock to the disc’s finer musical specimens. As Fantastic Vol. 1 and The Unseen have shown in the past, super complicated rhymes (even samples that have been used before) aren’t required to make songs into bangers or albums into classics. All that’s needed is a sharp enough ear not to rely on someone else’s formula (at least all the time). So, Jay Dee, now is a good time to put Minnie Ripperton’s “Inside my Love” to rest.
For more info, visit www.stonesthrow.com.

– Sven Barth

Little Brother
The Listening
***1/2

The North Carolina trio of Phonte, Big Pooh and producer 9th Wonder may just be the most promising rap group to come around in years. Their debut album, The Listening, is a masterfully composed piece of hip hop art. It is one slow, smooth jam session that leaves the listener not only relaxed and chilled, but also enlightened thanks to insightful, lyrical poetry.
Little Brother’s sound harks back to the early 1990s of rap, when the focus was more on content and form, and less on making product for Right Guard ads and rich white people. They pay homage to rap icons such as Pete Rock throughout the disc, particularly on the cut “So Fabulous.” Much of Little Brother’s album revolves around relationships and universal love troubles, and their reflective and heart felt rhymes echo beautifully against 9th Wonder’s simple and light, bass-infused beats. The soulful vocal samples do not seem overdone like so much doodoo rap, but add to the overall mood of the album (without grinding hip hop’s roots). They can go from “Nobody But You,” a beautifully constructed love song that pays respect to women to “Away From Me,” which laments on harsh love with a seamless transition and flow.
Little Brother speak on levels that rappers like 50 Cent never come close to. They speak on the difficult life of artists who never quite make it and about the groupies and other fake people who immediately attach themselves like well-dressed leaches to success. This is a type of hip hop that isn’t heard, nevertheless seen, today. The Listening melds a constantly mellow yet thought provoking vibe that carries throughout the entire album. If you don’t care to hear their album, basically you’re not fan of true hip hop. That’s a blunt accusation, but The Listening warrants it.
For more info, visit www.littlebrothermusic.com.

– Kevin Jaeger

The Life & Art staff can be reached at HurricaneAccent@hotmail.com.

Rather than eating McD’s and watching TV, some Miamians let out their pre/post/mid-war aggression at the Factory last Sat. The UK’s the Subhumans (center), local favs AAA (bottom), and Oakland’s the Enemies (top) did the body good.

The Rainbow Building is host to new work by UM graduate art students –art is masturbation unless people see it (and for a shameless plug here), go see it, damn it!

These five artists present various ideas ranging from political and social critique to unabashed psychological reactions and utterances. Defining the postmodern is not an easy task since it has become chic to be one of the masses of rebels. No one is a true pioneer at this point in the 21st Century because everyone keeps talking about how it has all been done before, which can never really be true.

Today’s art necessitates an active audience because hopefully we all have evolved with some notion of a higher intellect. All the work of Show Title Here is intellectual and encompasses craft of the hand, mind or eye. None of it sucks, though all of it could be better, yet nothing can ever be inherently bad about art (except for propaganda that encourages hate – unless it is a “comment” on hate). The irony of critique lies in our pride and insecurity in creating meaningful objects and therefore judging them.

As to not offend anyone (god forbid), here is a list of the individual artists and what they are doing in no particular order:
Marianne Levy brings femininity and sexuality to life in pattern and color. Her ceramics has a painterly quality that is dark, yet safe and comforting. She examines fear and mystical disillusionment through questions like, “What/who are we?” Her work on display is portraiture incorporating personal symbols, yet she asks the audience in her artist statement to consciously bring their own subjectivities to the work and interpret it as they see fit. This work has the effect of eating day-old pizza; it is cold and kind of chewy, but tasty and very nourishing.

Joey Golinsky presents mahogany tree trunks, stripped of their bark, that subtly echo the human form. Entitled “Searching for the Human Form,” these naturalistic ready-mades harp to a process that is grander than one single artist’s process – the process of the universe itself. It is too easy to place him into the clichE of a New Age (W)eastern Yanni Mystic who eats tofu and makes art about nature because his materials and ideas are genuine: a rare quality within an egoistic task-oriented culture.

Shannon Calhoun makes dark art that questions the “internal and external essence of the human body” through ceramics and collage. Her “mysterious and dreamlike environments” evoke feminine strength and insecurities. It is gross and shocking sometimes, but saturates any interpretation to the question, “What darkness lies within?”

Jennifer Wood’s work reacts to the “barrage of information” we live with in the postmodern by simplifying the material to understand a greater complexity. The shortest distance between two points always seems to be a line. Her work creates new symbols for an ongoing narrative of storytelling itself. In the end, her question is, “What is our modern world?”

Kim Young is a ceramicist who likes to blur the high art/ low art lines and float into conceptual art that references “crafty” materials and universal symbols. The ironies of contrast (hard/soft, in/out, old/new) infect her work to draw the audience into questioning humor and seriousness. She questions what material and symbol can be as well.

Mark Koven uses photography to reference motion with pictures that move as the eye moves past them in space, like baseball cards depicting the batter’s swing. His work resides between photography and video to force the viewer to become a material within the piece. He uses equations of force and gravity from physics to intellectualize the idea of motion. As with many modern photographers, he feels no need to accompany his work with an artist statement because it speaks for itself. The message appears contrived at times, yet it is significant within the arena of conceptual art.

Nothing can ever be non-conceptual again. All of this work is representative of a landscape in which we all must de-individualize ourselves without losing sight of why we started it all to begin with. Ultimately, the work inspires and therefore succeeds…then again, you be the judge.

Show Title Here is on view at the Rainbow Building on campus on the corner of Sagua and Lavante, a block north of Ponce, through April 18.

Alex Saleeby can be reached at claysaleeby@hotmail.com

Galvanized by sundry comic books, pop culture elements (including superheroes and toys), video games and oddball, B-grade Japanese horror flicks, artist Brian Reedy has been producing his inventive woodcuts and drawings for quite a while now, showing at spaces in the Miami area in the past few years, such as at the Dorsch and the Centre gallery.
Mostly praised for his deftness with the traditional medieval woodcut, Reedy also exudes an impressive imagination in his cartoonish, yet visionary drawings infused with several tints and shades of gray hues. His new show, Grey Planet, at the Dorsch in the Design District, purveys well his talents, offering a view of his latest creations.
Reedy has always been a proponent of the primal quality of techniques used by Middle Ages craftsmen, who engraved malevolent images on woodblocks of saints being thrashed and tortured for some spiritual sacrifice. Often, Reedy employs this technique, yet refines it by incising an illustration into the wood, then painting the surface with acrylics, rendering the final product more enduring and potent.
His woodcuts here, especially his series “Salad Days Redux,” make use of a similar medieval style, depicting sadistic scenes of violence to comment on certain psychological quandaries met by humans. In his artist statement, he notes that the series is “primarily influenced by the over-the-top violence in Asian cult films such as Battle Royale, Tetsuo: The Iron Man and The Story of Ricki.”
Moreover, he notes that the title comes from the Monty Python skit “Salad Days,” thus it satirizes director Sam Peckinpaw’s work. The scenes in these woodcuts are indeed ferocious and do help to convey the artist’s message – i.e., consistent exposure to absurd amounts of violence (such as in cartoons, movies, video games or comic books) numbs the viewer’s senses, almost making this serious issue seem trifling.
Although some of his subject matter edges on been-done-before platitudes (such as progress in science leading to the downfall of humanity, or the dichotomy of organic beings vs. robots, or our desensitization to violence), Reedy displays his own particular vision and does so distinctively. He even explains that when he was a kid, he believed that “everyone would soon be zooming around in electric cars and Martin Landau would be living on the moon in 1999.” This chilhood naivet

Warren Fischer of Fischerspooner dishes on Madonna and Miami’s “high culture concentration camp”

Let’s face it. Most pop music is ridiculously bubblegum and fake – the lip-synching, the lack of live instrumentation, the cheesy choreography, all of those backup singers. But the world wants, arguably needs, pop stars who are bigger than life, who live to schmooze with celebrities at New York parties for Paper magazine, and offer their product to the month’s choice club DJs. Enter modern pop artists Fischerspooner, and their stellar musical contribution to pop art, #1.
Staging an experimental bout of shattered electro theatre five years ago at a Starbucks in Astor Place, New York, former art students Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner (alongside a loose ensemble of 20 dancers, stylists, vocalists and sex kittens) have since lived to see-and-be-seen. Quickly impressing and networking with distinguished players in the New York art world, most notably Gavin Brown and Jeffrey Deitch, Fischerspooner’s live performances continue to grow thematically and theatrically, utilizing freaky costumes, kilos of glitter and confetti, sexuality, crowd interaction, and yes, the “press play” button. The duo makes no qualms about their thirst for success and entertainment – just see their tongue-in-cheek album title. It’s this charismatic gusto, alongside the peak of electroclash, and #1’s dance floor vocoder jams like “L.A. Song,” “Emerge” and “Natural Disaster,” that have escorted FS from three-day stints at Deitch Projects to the BBC’s “Top of the Pops” twice (including Casey’s shimmy with Kylie Minogue) to this month’s Coachella festival in Cali.
See, pop stars can be mega and avant-garde. Warren Fischer, responsible for FS’ beats and songwriting, took a brief break from pondering ways to spend a much-publicized million-dollar advance to chat with Life & Art about dreams, Madonna and the quest for world domination.

Q: You and Casey live pretty lavish and publicized lives. When you find time to sleep, do your dreams differ at all from reality?
FS: (laughs) That’s one of the better questions I’ve ever been asked. Yeah, the dream-fantasy day-life just sort of melds perfectly with our dream-fantasy sleep-life. It’s just a constant state of ecstasy.

Q: Have any of the ideas or concepts for your live shows been inspired by dreams, where you wake up and write something down?
FS: I feel like there are themes Casey and I have discussed that have triggered things, but nothing’s ever been lifted entirely from a dream.

Q: Most electro coming out now basks in the moment, and your live performances are known for their spontaneity. During the conception and recording process for #1, were you concerned with how the music might sound five years from now?
FS: Not really. When you’re writing music you tend to think that it’s going to be played the week after it’s done, and then you slowly realize that you have to release it first, and then you put out the single and suddenly it’s half-a-year later. As long as people are interested you keep riding it. So, I make a track and expect the whole thing to blow over in a month, but it actually lasts for five years.

Q: Would you agree that Fischerspooner is an art piece constantly changing with and reflecting the times?
FS: Yeah. I think that Casey and I are coming at this from a different direction than, let’s say the people who put together *NSYNC. So we approach it differently and make our own decisions, so it ends up being weirder, even though *NSYNC is pretty fucking weird if you sit back and think about them. (laughs) We’re not really tailored to the now, but many people seem to think it’s a poignant and timely commentary. It’s not like we said, “Let’s wait until the year 2000, go,” but people seem to think it’s relevant.

Q: Has Casey’s tongue (on the cover of #1) reveled in its own celebrity since the release of #1?
FS: Well…(laughs) another good question. Let’s just say Casey’s tongue has had its fair share of exchanges with the public.

Q: How do you plan on maintaining the levels of unpredictability and interaction you’re famous for at Deitch Projects as the tour venues grow larger?
FS: The staging is different and the audience is different. One thing I like to tell people is that there’s no ideal show. For example, at Deitch Projects we designed the show there for a few nights and it’ll never happen again exactly like that. We’ve done down ‘n’ dirty European tours with four people and ones where Casey ran around on stage with Spanish crowds throwing their shoes and socks, which are just as incredible.

Q: Have you guys ever considered stopping in the South and playing a coffee shop there?
FS: Oh what, and get our asses kicked? (laughs) We’ll play places like Atlanta though. It’s not “the South” south, but we did a show in Miami at this art collector’s house (see inside album cover), and we built a stage over his pool with these towers that reflected light spots onto the crowd. It became this sort of weird high culture concentration camp – the audience was 40-and-up and drinking cocktails. All of the performers jumped in the pool and did “Emerge” soaking wet…legendary.

Q: Who are your predictions for the best designers and bands of the summer?
FS: I’d put my money on, if not summer the fall, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ next record is going to be huge. The new Rapture record is really hot. It’s amazing the shit going on in New York right now. For a minute, it was just the Strokes and us, but now you can’t even fucking count. It’s amazing. For fashion, my money’s on Rachel Comey. She’s doing some wardrobe for us this summer, makes really great clothes.

Q: What do you make of Fischerspooner’s oft-comparisons to Andy Warhol and Devo?
FS: Andy Warhol yes. Devo, yeah a little bit, sure. We try to be a little bit more global the way Warhol was. The distinction I make between us and Andy Warhol is that he founded his career on the idea of taking pop culture and putting it in the gallery, and we try to take gallery and experimental ideas and put them into pop culture. It’s a similar impulse in the opposite direction.

Q: Have you guys talked with Madonna about doing a track together?
FS: Her management was trying to sign us up and there was talk of collaboration at one point, but we decided to go with someone else. So since then, her management company has dissed us out of sheer jealousy and rage. There’s been a communication breakdown with Madonna. Some people can’t separate business and personal life. I’m sure Madonna doesn’t have a problem. Here’s the real story: Madonna wanted us to do a remix and her manager killed it out of spite.

Q: What does the future hold for Fischerspooner?
FS: We plan on making a few videos for bands through our holding company, FS Studios. We basically aspire for world domination every chance we get.

For more info, visit www.fischerspooner.com.

Hunter Stephenson can be reached at HurricaneAccent@hotmail.com.

In music news, ill rocker Beck is going on tour with wack-music mongers Dashboard Confessional (wha?). We weren’t too sure what to think of this, but it turns out that both artists are affiliated with Interscope Records (Beck is on the label and DC are distributed by them). Anyway, Beck’s also making an appearance on coarse-voiced crooner Macy Gray’s new album, The Trouble with Being Myself. Check www.beck.com for tour dates.

Anger Management, a new blockbuster comedy starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson, ripped apart the charts by selling a record $44.5 million worth of tickets in the first three days since it opened, which equals more than the revenue of the rest of the top 10 new flicks combined. Pairing these two irreverent star actors definitely contributed to the movie’s success.

In more film news, Andy Garcia wants to make Godfather 4. Despite that author Mario Puzo and director Francis Coppola discussed a fourth film that would focus on Sonny Corleone in his 20s, Paramount Pictures refused to give the green light. It’ll never top the first anyway. Moreover, although the last two sequels failed at the box office, Exorcist: The Beginning is presently in production, starring Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgaard in Max von Sydow’s former role as Father Merrin and it’s directed by Paul Shrader of Taxi Driver fame, who’s looking to put his own twist on the story: it will take place 3 years after WWII when Merrin first encounters the devil in North Africa. A release date is set for July 18.

DJ Funkmaster Flex (NYC’s Hot 97) pleaded guilty to harassment and escaped assault charges against radio personality Steph Lova. Supposedly, Lova let rapper Nas accuse Flex of accepting payola on her show and Flex caught her outside studio offices and smacked her up.