pulp.aadl.orgPulp | Arts Around Ann Arbor

MUSIC VISUAL ART FILM & VIDEO THEATER & DANCE WRITTEN WORD PULP LIFE Friday Five: Ian Stirton, Bekka Madeleine, Geranium Red, John Beltran, Kirsten Carey & Aaron Edgcomb by Christopher Porter Fri, 05/10/2024 - 1:50pm MUSIC FRIDAY FIVE Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels. This week features pop by Ian Stirton, goth-tinged balladry by Bekka Madeleine, emo excellence by Geranium Red, downtempo grooves via John Beltran, and avant-garde duets by Kirsten Carey & Aaron Edgcomb. READ MORE PTD Productions takes the challenge With David Mamet’s language-rich Glengarry Glen Ross” by Hugh Gallagher Fri, 05/10/2024 - 11:00am THEATER & DANCE REVIEW Jacob Williams-Justin and Rick Sperling perform as John Williamson and Shelley Levene in PTD Productions’ Glengarry Glen Ross at Ypsilanti’s Riverside Arts Center. Photo taken from PTD Productions’ Facebook page. David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Glengarry Glen Ross is about double-dealing, backstabbing, power plays, American striving, and the rage of real estate salesmen in a heartless Chicago, circa 1980s. It’s also about language—Mamet’s sharp, snappy, multi-layered, and riveting symphony of words. They call it Mamet-speak,” a mastery of street language, the language of the locker room, the real estate office, the street, and a perfect voice for the raging anger and dashed hopes of his characters. It’s not an easy language to master. PTD Productions has taken the challenge in a lively production of Glengarry Glen Ross under the direction of Liz Greaves-Hoxsie. The first act is set in a Chinese restaurant near the real estate office. It’s a set of three one-sided dialogues each fueled by alcohol and grievance. READ MORE Feral Songs: Kat Steih switches gears for a new rock record, "I Am Not My Self" by Lori Stratton Thu, 05/09/2024 - 9:30am MUSIC PREVIEW INTERVIEW Kat Steih features honest lyrics and emotive new-wave, hard-rock, and pop-punk instrumentation on I Am Not My Self . Photo by Hilary Nichols. Kat Steih takes a bold look beneath the surface on I Am Not My Self . That deep examination reveals the challenges people often face with presenting one persona externally while wrestling with another self internally. Each person has an outer persona and an inner world. Even if my persona is funny and easygoing, what’s really holding the strings is what’s on the inside,” said Steih about her new album out May 17. The puppet master can be in pain while still conducting a pretty, whimsical dance—something nice or fun to amuse herself or to self-soothe. I use music to acknowledge things that I feel. Some may call it bold, and it empowers everybody.” The Ann Arbor singer-songwriter especially shares that courageous and empowering message on the title track , which features fearless electric guitar, bass, and drums. Steih sings, I am the candle, and you are the flame / Fingertip to fingertip, your voice animates me / Tremors I detect in the seismic quake / The look on your face rearranges me.” The title track also reflects the honest lyrics and emotive new-wave, hard-rock, and pop-punk instrumentation that flows throughout I Am Not My Self’s six tracks. READ MORE Friday Five: kayaks collective, Henri Bardot, John Bunkley, Akinsa + Ikiryō, X-Altera by Christopher Porter Fri, 05/03/2024 - 12:20pm MUSIC FRIDAY FIVE Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels. This week features ambient by kayaks collective, piano miniatures by Henri Bardot, soulful ska by John Bunkley, tribal techno by Akinsa + Ikiryō, and drum ’n’ bass by X-Altera. READ MORE Pure Michigan: Sophia Orensteen Pays Homage to U-M and Offers Coming-of-Age Tales on AmericanGirl” Album by Lori Stratton Fri, 05/03/2024 - 9:30am MUSIC INTERVIEW Sophia Orensteen examines past relationships on AmericanGirl . Photo courtesy of Sophia Orensteen. Sophia Orensteen’s heart belongs in Ann Arbor. While the pop-rock singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist hails from New York City, she’s ecstatic about attending the University of Michigan this fall as a freshman to study music. So much in fact that Orensteen has written a song calledMichigan ,” which pays homage to the school and serves as the aspirational opener from her debut album, AmericanGirl . This song turned into a way that I could express my love for Michigan even though I had never been there [before] or had never seen it,” she said. I got in contact with the University of Michigan ing my song for their social media. I also sent in the song with my application, and I didn’t even tell my parents I was applying. And then I got in, and they said, ‘What?’” Despite that surprise, Orensteen learned of her acceptance to U-M in February and has started planning for the fall. She shares that sentiment inMichigan ” alongside hopeful acoustic guitar and electric guitar while singing: I’ve never been to Michigan, but I’ve heard it’s nice / You’re going away, going to college, gonna start a new life / You’ll remember me / When you see my name in lights / And you’ll say, ‘Wow, she was right.’” I’ve always loved the University of Michigan, and I wrote this in one of my supplemental essays when I applied there,” said Orensteen, who will graduate from New York City’s Professional Children’s School in June. I never told my parents or anybody that I loved the University of Michigan, but I’ve always followed the school and their football team. I never thought I’d go there or get into the school.” READ MORE Puddle Jumpers: A visit to the Debuck’s Family Farm Tulip Festival by Sherlonya Zobel Wed, 05/01/2024 - 1:30pm PULP LIFE REVIEW Combine slide at Debuck’s Family Farm. Photo by Sherlonya Zobel. Our trip to Debuck’s Family Farm Tulip Festival started online. I had seen a gorgeous photo of vibrantly colored tulips as I mindlessly scrolled on my phone in what I like to think of as bedtime vacation. I wondered where these tulips were, and found that they were in Belleville. Our Belleville?” I thought. After checking the family calendar and the weather forecast, we landed on Sunday at 11 am and purchased our timed ticket. At the point of sale, the forecast for Sunday was a warm and sunny day, closer to 80 than 70 degrees. When we loaded into the car, it was 63 degrees outside and the sky was decidedly gray. I had prepped our four-year-old son for an adventure the day before, asking him if he wanted to see some colorful flowers. When I asked him whether he wanted me to tell him what kind of flowers we were going to see, or if he wanted to be surprised, he replied, I want to go to an aquarium of flowers.” Maybe he willed the rain upon us. READ MORE Fundamental Defiance: Clements Library’s The Art of Resistance in Early America” exhibit by Bob Needham Wed, 05/01/2024 - 10:00am VISUAL ART REVIEW Lewis W. Eaton, stencils, mid-19th century, Auburn, New York: Lewis W. Eaton Collection. The concept of resistance to power has always been part of the American story, and an online exhibit at the University of Michigan Clements Library demonstrates some of the many ways that truth has played out. The Art of Resistance in Early America effectively illustrates the many ways that early Americans used creativity to resist things like British colonial rule, slavery, and efforts to silence their voices. The exhibit grew out of the fall 2023 Arts and Resistance -themed semester at U-M’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and it highlights priceless works from the nation’s past that helped forge its future. (An in-person version of the exhibit has closed.) READ MORE U-M professor Petra Kuppers’ new poetry collection reaches into the soil to see murders, organisms, pollution, recycling, and fairy tales by Martha Stuit Tue, 04/30/2024 - 8:30am WRITTEN WORD PREVIEW INTERVIEW Author photo by Tamara Wade. Petra Kuppers ’ new poetry collection, Diver Beneath the Street , invites you to Slide into the dive” and become the lioness” in the time river” where the Acorn...