The Reader July 31 - Aug. 6, 2014

BOTTOMLINE CONCEPTS OF NE Account Representative.

Contact John at john@blcgroup.net or at (402)8940486. Go to OmahaJobs. com for more information.

SAP HCM SR ANALYST for Kiewit Corporation (Omaha, NE). Provide customer facing application support to bus. process owners. Reqmts: Master’s* deg in Bus. Mgmt & Admin., Comp Sci, Info Mgmt or IT. 3 yrs exp as Sr. SAP Consultant, Sr. Analyst or related. Post Bach’s exp is reqd (5 yrs w/ Bach’s or 3 yrs w/ Masters) & must incl: configuration & support of SAP PA, OM, ESS/ MSS, Netweaver, Benefits, OSS notes/Service pack updates & integrations w/ Payroll & Time Mgmt; SAP eRecruiting, SAP Solution Manager & 3rd Party tool EPI-USE Client Sync; debugging ABAP code to identify issue in user exits, function modules, BAPI & z-programs; & cutover activities, go-live activities, reconciliation & validation activities w/ master data, & post go-live support & maintenance. *Employer will accept Bach’s deg & 5 yrs exp in lieu of Master’s deg & 3 yrs exp. Apply online at www.kiewit.com/careers/ & ref Job ID 2982.

NOW HIRING Looking for reliable, hardworking insulation and gutter installers for a growing company. Experience helpful, but will train. Must have a valid driver’s license.

Benefits available including health ins., dental, paid holidays and vacation. Call (402)289-4373 or apply at 2201 River Road Drive, Waterloo, NE.

Contact Mirelle Andre at mirelle@bcs-usa.net or (402)453-4383.

Go to OmahaJobs.com for information.

REASONABLE LAWN CARE Looking for lawn & landscape crew member. Must have experience starting $10.00 per hour. Looking for office receptionist experience a plus starting $10.00 per hour. Contact Chris 402-331-2846 or apply online www.reasonablelawncare.com.

HOTSHOT DELIVIERIES Delivery Specialist. Go to OmahaJobs.com for info.

BRAZILIAN CONSORTIUM OF STONE Showroom Assistant.

MATTRESS FIRM Sales Manager in Training.

Contact Daja Pope at daja. pope@mattressfirm.com or (713)343-3596. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

WESTAR FOODS Shift Leader and Crew Member. Go to OmahaJobs.com for information.

USA PARKING SYSTEM Valet Parking Attendants.

Contact Valleri Hruska at vhruska@usaparkingsystem.com or (402)552-2708.

Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

PURA VIDA VEIN CENTER & WELLNESS SPA Registered Nurse and Surgical Tech. Contact Tina Severson at tinasev4@ aol.com or (402)502-5599.

Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

RAILSERVE, INC. Rail Switchman. Contact hr@railserve.biz. Go to OmahaJobs.com for info.

DOUGLAS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Community Outreach Manager. Contact Kathy Aultz at director@douglascohistory.org.

Go to OmahaJobs.com for info.

PRINTCO GRAPHICS Receptionist. Go to OmahaJobs.com for information.

WEST CORPORATION Now Hiring Multiple Positions. Go to OmahaJobs. com for more information.

JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014

THOMPSON, DREESSEN & DORNER, INC. Survey Technician. Go to OmahaJobs.com for info.

ESU #3 ParaProfessional. Go to OmahaJobs.com for info.

APOLLO RETAIL SPECIALIST Merchandiser.

Contact Tammy Warr at tammy. warr@apolloretail.com or call (813)712-2520. Go to OmahaJobs.com for info.

ENCARTELE, INC. Marketing Assistant. Jon Osborne at jon.osborne@ encartele.net or (402)8813948. Go to OmahaJobs. com for more information.

WESTERN STATES RECLAMATION

Heavy Equipment Operation. Email resume to broe@wsreclamation.com.

Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

Fall quarter begins Sept. 2. Enroll today.

INVISIBLE FENCE OF THE HEARTLAND Customer Service. Shelly Fickler at ifheartland@ gmail.com or (402)3305015. Go to OmahaJobs. com for more information.

TRANS CONTINENTAL CONSULTANTS Physical Therapist. Contact Kristi Weldon at (402)7537230. Go to OmahaJobs. com for more information.

NEBRASKA HUMANE SOCIETY Accounting Manager.

Contact Michele TetreaultMertes at mtetreaultmertes@nehumanesociety. org or (402)444-7800. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

The cost of MCC is probably one of the cheapest in Omaha.

I don’t have to have any debt when I graduate. And it’s a great college.

PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP (P3) ASST. Bid Director/Analyst for Kiewit Corporation (Omaha, NE). Work w/ bid director in mgmt of bid teams, dvlpmt & mgmt of bid budget & bidding sched. Reqmts: Master’s deg in Civil Engg. 6 mos exp as Intern or Asst.

Researcher. 6 mos exp is reqd & must incl: identification, feasibility, strategic analysis, implmtn of infrastructure Public-PrivatePartnership (P3) projects in US; dvlpmt, modification & presentation of fin’l models for P3 projects; P3 project dvlpmt, budget, cost-tracking, sched, teaming evaluations, tech’l & fin’l proposal production; & incl knowl gained in educational setting in civil engg & construction mgmt principals as well as w/ construction contracts & construction risks on complex construction projects. Apply on-line at www.kiewit.com/careers/ & ref Job ID 2941.

2

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| THE READER |

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VISIONS FROM FIVE MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE • JULY 31, 2014 • English is about to undergo a massive shift thanks to increased international trade. In the next 20 years, we will absorb thousands of words from countries with which we do business, and our children will absorb thousands of slang words from other countries

that enter through an increasingly internationalized popular culture.

Within 30 years, English will be unrecognizable to today's speaker.

Within 100 years, it will have changed enough to be considered to be a new language.

| THE READER |

JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014

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7/24/14 11:10 AM

heartlandhealing N E W A G E H E A LT H A N D W E L L N E S S B Y M I C H A E L B R AU N S T E I N

The Scoop on Poop

T

here is an eye-catching scene in Bernardo Bertolucci’s magnum opus and Oscar-winning film, The Last Emperor. The movie details the life arc of the last Chinese emperor, Puyi, told through a series of flashbacks. Puyi took the throne as a two-yearold in 1908. He was raised by eunuchs, handmaidens, Chinese physicians, monks and attendants in the Forbidden City. In one scene from the film, the infant Puyi is sitting on a potty, defecating as dozens of attendants wait expectantly. When Puyi finishes, one assistant grabs the poop pot and rushes off through the halls of the expansive palace to the quarters of the Chief Physician. The saffron-robed doc takes the pan, swirls the turds, sniffs, pokes at them and looks solemnly at the awaiting attendant. “No bean curd,” he declares and the sycophant of shit hastily returns to the royal chamber with the doctor’s orders.

No butts about it. There’s an encyclopedia of knowledge in the wise observation of the body and its functions, pooping included. But modern medicine has done away with the natural interface of physician and patient in favor of lab metrics, computer modeling and test results. I remember a doctor entering the examination room to see my mom during an appointment years ago. He held a clipboard with lab work data and for the entire length of time that he “examined” my mom, he never looked at her; just the papers, the back of his stethoscope and his watch.

No one is expecting to take a stool sample when you go in for a doctor appointment but when things go wrong the poop does hit the fan and goes straight to the lab. What Puyi’s doctor was doing is simple: adjust life before radical illness. It was called preventive medicine.

Some of the subtlety has been lost in modern medicine. Small changes in lifestyle can help us avoid calamities later on. Knowing what our body tells us before major symptoms make it obvious can help us adjust beforehand. Poop is just one of those telltales.

Size matters. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and ayurvedic (traditional Indian medicine) sources agree on many of the arcane indications fecal examination might reveal. Authentic descriptions by either discipline are beyond Western ken, utilizing terms that make sense in TCM and ayurveda but confound the Occidental mind. But even in Western words, gross characteristics usually describe an optimum stool as resembling a ripe, soft banana in size and texture. TCM and ayurvedic sources say stools should float and be a medium brown color, with little or no

sheen. Bowel movements should occur at least once daily. Deviations from that simple standard are notable and could have a variety of metabolic or pathological causes.

While small, hard, dry stools may prompt ayurveda to use descriptors like “hardening shows an imbalance of the vata dosha.” Too soft shows “a pitta abnormality.” In TCM, loose stools indicate “deficiency cold in the spleen or stomach.” Descriptions and causes are specific and remedies precise but they are vested in TCM or ayurvedic sensibilities.

The West on waste. Modern Western medicine is aware of the import of the appearance in the potty but ignores it for the most part, relying more on blood tests, scans and urine samples. Fecal studies are way down the list. But as in many things, the West is learning from the East and its long history in medicine.

TCM and ayurvedic medical theory are often at odds with some conventional medicine but surprisingly indicate identical problems.

Traditional medicine emphasizes that a daily evacuation is normal. Some Western medicine sources say that going three days without a stool is okay. In Western terms, when stools are hard and dry, we are counseled that we need to drink more water. Any discoloration from the normal medium brown can indicate a number of different pathologies. Sometimes stools are tinted by the food we eat.

Beets are a good example.

Nobody expects poop to smell good and even healthy poop doesn’t. But if it shows up exceptionally stinky, especially with discoloration, it should be clear that something is out of balance. Chalky, pale stools could mean a gall bladder or liver problem. If the stools smell somewhat of ammonia, then overgrowth of intestinal bacteria or even liver dysfunction is possibly the cause. Yellow stools could mean a bile problem or again a dietary cause. Western sources say poop should sink and if it floats it could mean flatulence problems. Most people have other, more boisterous indications when they’re gassy. Many of the imbalances that can be indicated by the subtleties of stools can be addressed before they become serious diseases.

The Poop Chart. While it’s not really a diagnostic tool but rather a descriptive device, the Bristol Stool Chart was published by Dr. Ken Heaton in 1997. It helps describe stool type. Types 3 and 4 are considered ideal. Types 1 and 2 indicate constipation and 5, 6 and 7 tend toward diarrhea. But the causes? You’ll need Puyi’s doc to tell you that.

Be well. ,

HEARTLAND HEALING is a New Age polemic describing alternatives to conventional methods

of healing the body, mind and planet. It is provided as information and entertainment, certainly not medical advice. It is not an endorsement of any particular therapy, either by the writer or The Reader. Visit HeartlandHealing.com for more information.

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| THE READER |

JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014

5

LOCALMOTIVE

I

f you’re sick of going to the same restaurants all the time, maybe it’s time to mix things up and try out a food truck – if you can catch it.

Diner Food, Twisted “My dad suggested a food truck and I thought, ‘Yeah, that’s it.’ Three generations work on our familyowned truck,” said Scotty Johnson.

Scotty’s Go-Go Grill serves classic diner food with a twist, making it fun and different. Johnson said one of his biggest selling items is his Bacon Dog, a quar-

Theme-less Freedom Deanna Jones and Amy Collins co-own Mosaic Pickle. Jones and Collins decided they love the freedom that comes from not having any theme at all.

“We do any and every kind of food. We cater our food to our audience and are diverse as far as our menu goes. We can make hot dogs or meals with lemongrass and saffron,” Jones said.

Their menu varies from day to day but the duo said there are some definite customer favorites.

“We make a Malaysian curry chicken. There’s also

TRUCKTIME ter pound Nathan’s hot dog wrapped in bacon and topped with sweet pepper relish.

“Another huge seller is my Barnyard Burger which is a third pound handcrafted burger, topped with fried chicken, bacon and cheese,” he said.

For Johnson, the diner theme allows him a lot of flexibility. His family is Danish and they love to make all sorts of Danish pancakes, but Johnson said he didn’t want to limit himself to doing just breakfast or just lunch; he wanted to do it all because he likes to try new things. His latest creation is a brisket, bacon and egg Panini.

When he’s not doing corporate lunches or events, Johnson is parked at 11th and Nicholas Streets.

“I love the instant feedback from people. It’s great when they come back or take pictures of their food to post to their Facebook page. Every day is a different adventure,” said Johnson.

MOSAIC PICKLE

SCOTTY’S GO GO GRILL

an Asian noodle chicken salad made with toasted sesame vinaigrette. And we have chicken street fajitas, flavorful, sautéed chicken breast with peppers in a soft shelled taco,” said Jones.

The two like to take different cultures and create food fusions between them, so they have things like Philly steak quesadillas and Bahn Mi tacos.

Mosaic Pickle caters a lot for local companies, but when they are not booked, they are out at 1st Avenue in Benson.

For Localmotive, the menu revolves around “rounders.” Convenient to eat on the go, these sourdough stuffed dumplings come in several varieties and are all served with a paired dipping sauce.

Co-Owner David Burr said Localmotive will debut its new truck in September. He said with the first truck, they were only able to offer between 3-5 varieties of rounders at a time.

“We will now able to offer all our varieties at all times, including some dessert rounders. That’s thanks to the increased refrigeration and cooking space,” explained Burr.

Localmotive also serves hot made-to-order sandwiches that Burr said are a little bit higher end or

JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014

HOT FOOD WALKING: C ATC H ‘ EM I F YO U C A N BY

CHERIL

LEE

gourmet. There are also the Belgian French Fries which he refers to as “Street Frites.” The frites are hand cut, pre-blanched fries. Burr is proud of the fact that everything is made from scratch.

Localmotive can be found at Ted and Wally’s parking lot, 12th and Jackson Tuesday through Sunday nights.

Hot Rod Food

A Rounded Menu

6

NITRO BURGER

| THE READER |

dish

Nitro Burger owner Cherry Kress had a food truck for three years and then decided to shake things up a bit and do something no one had ever done before.

“We spent last year renovating an old school bus and turning it into a mobile 50s diner where you can actually go inside, listen to a jukebox, sit down, order and eat inside like you would in a traditional diner – except it has wheels,” said Kress.

crumbs

n BIKE AGAINST HUNGER Rotary First Harvest says that over 100 billion pounds of food goes uneaten within the United States every year. Does that appall you? How about the fact that 50 million people within the United States fall into the category of “food insecure?”

Bike Against Hunger aims to shed light upon these startling facts. Plan to attend the Omaha Bike Against Hunger event Aug. 1 at 5 p.m. at Miller’s Landing. firstharvest.org n JOIN THE (BACON) CLUB If you consider yourself a discerning bacon fanatic and have an appreciation for locally-made food, you might want to check out the Omaha Bacon Club. Locally-made bacon that comes from ethically-raised pigs is what members get every second Friday of the month. This is a good option for someone who wants to try a bunch of different bacon varieties while also eating lo-

The outside of the bus looks like a cherry red 50s hot rod. Inside, Kress said they can seat up to 16 people.

Kress said the menu is very gourmet despite the fact it focuses on foods that were popular in the 50s including burgers, shakes and fries.

“We have plantain fries and sweet potato fries.

We are also known for putting different combos into cheeseburgers that are beautiful and taste very good,” explained Kress.

Some of the shake flavors include maple bacon waffle, lime cheesecake and double Dutch fudge.

Kress said their most popular burger is the Gunslinger, which has a whiskey BBQ sauce, fresh jalapenos and julienne cut tender cactus on it.

“You won’t go a lot of places and eat cactus, much less a burger joint and that’s one of our more popular items that we serve,” she said.

The bus predominantly operates in Lincoln but Kress said they do attend many events as well.

“We want to give people an experience they aren’t going to find anywhere else. There aren’t a whole lot of diners around. The fact this is mobile and that we can come to you or you can come in and sit down and have this experience is unique,” Kress said. , All of the food trucks have their daily menus and locations posted on Facebook. cal. Sign up before Aug. 15 to get introductory membership prices. curecooking.com n EMPYREAN’S MANGO RETURNS Nebraska’s Empyrean Brewing recently re-released their popular Carpe Brewem Imperial Mango IPA. The last time they released this particular brew on draft, it sold out in a matter of weeks. So it’s probably a good idea to get your hands on some of this before it’s gone again. www.empyreanbrewingco.com n NEBRASKA BREWING COMPANY’S GOLD MEDAL Speaking of beer, Nebraska Brewing Company won a gold medal at the Los Angeles International Beer Competition for their Ale Storm brew. It won the medal in the Golden/ Blonde category. The brew was originally produced in partnership with the Storm Chasers. nebraskabrewingco.com — Tamsen Butler Crumbs is about indulging in food and celebrating its many forms. Send information about area food and drink to crumbs@thereader.com.

BEER & BACON FESTIVAL

Saturday,August 2 nd Old Mattress Factory Bar & Grill, 13th & Cass

Tasting Begins at 3:00pm

Too Drunk To Fish

kicks off their tunes at 3:00pm

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Tequila Corner

S

ometimes when I sit down with a menu at La Mesa I begin to feel a little discombobulated.

With so many delicious options, it’s no wonder that the seemingly simple task of ordering dinner can make my head spin just a little.

In case you encounter the same problem, I’ve devised a clever plan to help you make quicker decisions when it comes to ordering at La Mesa.

Do what I do; start with the drink you want to have, and then simply choose whatever entrée best complements your drink. I’ve even pulled together a handy list for you to reference.

I can’t take all the credit for this list.

I sat down with La Mesa’s Regional Manager Jose Salazar to pick his brain about what the best combos are, and this is what we came up with.

Watermelon Jalapeno Margarita + Mango Fish: This one is my favorite combination, hands down. You take the fresh, slightly spicy flavors in the Watermelon Jalapeno Margarita and partner that with the sweet and spicy mango flavor of the fish, and lo and behold, you have a perfect combination. It’s a meal that isn’t heavy, yet is quite satisfying.

Top Shelf Margarita + Fajitas: Here’s a fantastic combination for folks who want a traditional Margarita and enjoy a sizzling entrée. You can choose any type of fajita you want, but the flavor really pops when you get the mixed chicken and steak. It’s really the best of both worlds.

Negra Modelo + Carnitas: Maybe you’re more of a beer person than a Margarita person.

This doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, but it does mean that you should maybe order a Negra Modelo alongside some Carnitas. There’s just something about a dark beer accompanied

by a tender pork dish – it’s outstanding.

Pina Colata + Camarones a la Diabla: Pina Colata has a great coconut taste, which goes splendidly with the hotness of the Camarones a la Diabla. Besides, when you drink a Pina Colata and eat a shrimp dish you start to feel a little like you’re relaxing somewhere on the southern coast, and who doesn’t need a little vacation once in a while?

Fresh Margarita + Fruit Salad: Watching your calories? I didn’t forget about you. Pair the Fresh Margarita with the Fruit Salad, and you’re going to enjoy a refreshing meal that’s lower in calories, yet still packed with flavor.

If you haven’t tried a Fresh Margarita because you heard it’s lower in calories so you’re afraid it won’t have all the taste, then let me assure you that this combination of fresh lime, organic agave nectar, sweetener and Milagro Silver will really hit the spot.

Allow me to answer some of the other questions you may have about ordering at La Mesa. Will you love the chips and salsa they bring to your table before you order? Yes. Should you get an appetizer? Yes. Should you get dessert? Yes. Should you stop reading this so you can go enjoy one of the perfect combinations I’ve suggested above? Yes, yes, yes.

—Tamsen Butler

*Limited number of tickets!

FIRST 1,000 TO PURCHASE TICKETS WILL RECEIVE A FREE MUG! | THE READER |

JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014

7

BROADWAYBOUND PROGRAM ALLOWS YOUNG ADULTS TO EXPLORE DREAMS

A

unique arts program recently celebrated its fifth year in Omaha. Omaha Performing Arts has partnered with The Broadway Dreams Foundation, a national nonprofit performing arts training program that teaches aspiring actors, singers and dancers how to kick start their careers. BDF provides local performers the opportunity to work with and learn from Broadway professionals and to better understand the musical theatre industry from the audition, through the rehearsal and to the opening night performance. The foundation currently operates in Omaha and six other cities, including Los Angeles, Cooperstown and Philadelphia.

“Studies have shown that kids are better with life skills when they have arts programs,” says Annette Tanner, executive director. “They are better with communication skills, testing and job skills.”

The program is a one week intensive immersion for kids who think that stage is the right place for them.

Students involved can chose between performing arts intensives, extreme workshops and master classes. They can choose the best classes for themselves like classes that focus on vocal and dance. The program also helps young people network with Broadway professionals, top casting directors, work on their resumes, get new headshots and have the chance to work in a fully produced Broadway show, often with professional actors who have starred in successful shows. Once the program is completed, the students perform in a stage production.

The “Triple Threats” program is an extreme education training exercise that focuses on acting, singing

8

JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014

and dancing. Each area is taught by professionals with backgrounds on Broadway.

“It’s so inspiring and rewarding,” Tanner says. “Just last year we had 23 kids go on to Broadway and West End (London) careers. The show is so exceptional.”

One of her favorite aspects of the show is that the program allows students from all economic backgrounds to participate. In 2013, 42 percent of all students participating were either on a full or partial scholarship. To get kids involved they visit high schools and the Omaha Performing Arts Center sends out emails about auditions. Potential participants can send in audition videos which are judged on their presentation and passion.

The actual show is amazing, Tanner says. “Any audience member will leave thinking that it was one of the best nights of theater they’ve ever seen,” she says.

Former student and intern Kaila Cassling considers herself lucky being a part of the program. She and her sister were initially dancers when they were asked to perform with Broadway Dreams when they made a stop here in Omaha. Afterwards she auditioned and fell in love with all aspects of performing, including singing and writing. “It opened my eyes to the Broadway world,” she says. “It pushed me to become a singer and an actor.” Following her week long intensive, she has spent three years as an intern for the program. She now works closer with faculty, learning what goes into the day to day of putting on an event and how preproduction works.

“The people they bring in are so different and all of them care so much,” Cassling says about the Broad-

| THE READER |

culture

way Drems faculty. Many of her teachers offered her letters of recommendation, which ultimately helped her get into college. She also points out that the program does an exceptional job simulating actual Broadway auditions.

This year’s show, Take it the Limit, was Saturday, July 26, at the Orpheum. Joan H. Squires with the Omaha Performing Arts and Tanner introduced the show dedicating it to Bob Cassling who helped bring the program to Omaha and create the Cassling Center. They spoke about the importance of arts education and how special the Broadway Dreams program is for the Omaha area.

Take it to the Limit featured students performing acts from 15 different Broadway shows. Stomp was the first show to have scenes featured and it was a wonderful beginning. Everywhere the audience looked there was something to see and there was an infectious energy that took hold of the audience. What becomes apparent almost immediately is a feeling that these students are both excited and dedicated to perfecting their craft. Directed by Stafford Arima, Stomp was clearly designed to showcase the exceptional talent of the young students.

The set was sparse with only a few subway signs, three staircases and a background screen that signaled when the performances where changing to new shows and in many cases the performers would bring out their own props, like chairs, buckets and cell phones.

As Stomp came to an end, actors dressed as train conductors came onstage to signal a switch to the production of Aladdin. The minimal set design allowed the audience to focus on the performers.

BY TRESSA ECKERMANN

The show’s real standout performance came from its version of Dreamgirls. Directed by Stafford Arima and Broadway actor Tituss Burgess, who would perform later in the show, and choreographed by Skye Mattox a Tony Award nominee, Dreamgirls got the biggest reaction from the audience. All three girls, Rayquila Durham, Carina Louchley and Kayla McCrary had big strong voices but it never felt like they were competing with each other. Young actor Keem Avraham as James Thunder Early gave an energetic performance. But it was McCrary who ended up with a standing ovation for her performance of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.”

Another highlight of the evening was student Quentin Earl Darrington’s cover of the John Legend hit “All of Me.” Performed while seven other students did an interpretative dance, it was a surprisingly powerful moment. As was the performance of the Broadway classic The Me Nobody Knows. The compassionate performance of “If I had a Million Dollars” was beautiful and tender.

As the show came to a close, Tanner proudly announced that The Me Nobody Knows is heading back to Broadway directed by Stafford Arima and that the kids who were a part of Broadway Dreams will be allowed to audition.

The show’s biggest asset was the feeling of love. The audience could sense how much the faculty cared for their students and the fact that they were in awe of them. Tanner and artistic director Nicholas Rodriguez pointed out several times in their final speech that the actors only had a week to learn and rehearse for this show. When you consider those facts, it was a remarkably polished show full of admirable performances. ,

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402-930-3000 • mentor@p4k.org | THE READER |

JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014

9

O

n the first Friday in October, Cass County Attorney Nathan Cox calmly walked into the district courtroom across the hallway to dismiss both counts of first-degree murder against Nick Sampson. Before taking questions from pesky and inquisitive news reporters, Cox read from a prepared statement. He began by complimenting the Cass County Sheriff ’s Office and Nebraska State Patrol for working tirelessly and doing a tremendous job in the investigation. “Recently, Judge Rehmeier ruled that law enforcement had properly arrested Nick Sampson,” Cox said. “However, the standard that the prosecution must meet at trial is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. After considering the evidence discovered to date in the Stock murder cases, I have come to the conclusion that the Nicholas Sampson case, at this point, does not meet that standard. This decision was not made lightly. Significant evidence used to establish probable cause is not available currently for trial as the rules of evidence and the Constitutional rights of the accused do not allow us to present certain evidence against Nick Sampson at trial.”

Of course, Cox was referring to Matt Livers’s incriminating confession implicating Nick as his lone accomplice. By law, prosecutors could not force Livers to testify against his codefendant, since Livers had not gone to trial himself. “I have decided that the only prudent choice at this time is to dismiss the charges against Nicholas Sampson without prejudice,” Cox continued.

Cox reassured the victims’ family that his office and law enforcement would continue to exert every effort to hold the perpetrators of the senseless murders responsible. “In conclusion, the cases against the three other defendants currently in custody for these homicides are proceeding to trial. I am confident in the state’s cases and their successful prosecution.”

Livers’ jury trial remained on schedule for January 2007. Later that morning, Nick Sampson emerged as a free man for the first time in six months. He walked out of the adjoining Cass County Law Enforcement Center in blue jeans and a gray hooded sweatshirt. The carefree Murdock native jumped into the arms of his crying fiancée, Lori Muskat. Others present for the emotional

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The remote farming community of Murdock, Nebraska, seemed to be the least likely setting for one of the heartland’s most ruthless and bloody double murders in decades. In fact, the little town had gone more than a century without a single homicide. But on the night of Easter 2006, Wayne and Sharmon Stock were brutally murdered in their home. The murders garnered sensational frontpage headlines and drew immediate statewide attention. Practically everybody around Murdock was filled with fear, panic and outrage.

Who killed Wayne and Sharmon Stock? What was the motive? The Stocks were the essence of Nebraska’s all-American farm family, selfmade, God-fearing, and of high moral character. Barely a week into this double murder investigation, two arrests brought a sense of relief to the victims’ family and to local residents.

The case appeared to fall neatly into place when a tiny speck of murder victim Wayne Stock’s blood appeared in the alleged getaway car.

Then, an obscure clue left at the crime scene took the investigation down a totally different path, stretching into Iowa, Louisiana, New York, Texas and Wisconsin. By the time this investigation was over, the charges against the original suspects were dismissed and two new individuals emerged from the shadows.

Author John Ferak covered the Stock murders from the very beginning, including all of the trial proceedings. When the criminal prosecution finally ended in 2007, he remained puzzled by one nagging question: Why was the blood of victim Wayne Stock in a car that was ultimately proven to have no connection to the murders?

Over the next few years, the astonishing bloody lies were revealed, culminating in a law enforcement scandal that turned the case on its head and destroyed the career of Nebraska’s celebrated CSI director, David Kofoed. Ferek’s true crime novel, Bloody Lies: A CSI Scandal in the Heartland, is now available and the author shared the following excerpt with The Reader. reunion included his mother, Debra, his sister, Crystal, his brother Will, and about a dozen friends who had faithfully stood in his corner from the beginning. On the lawn of the historic Cass County Courthouse, Nick’s outspoken public defender Jerry Soucie addressed the news media for what seemed like a historic occasion in its own right. “On April 26, 2006, state and local law enforcement officials stood outside the Cass County Courthouse and announced that the murders of Wayne and Sharmon Stock had been solved with the arrest of Nick Sampson and Matt Livers,” Soucie barked in his familiar forceful tone.

“Five months and ten days later the charges against Nick Sampson have now been dismissed.

The truth is law enforcement was wrong. The real investigation had only begun. I know I speak for Nick, his family, friends and supporters in expressing our gratitude that the county attorney has done the right thing.”

Soucie emphasized his client was totally innocent of murdering the Stocks. Nick was arrested before investigators performed any forensics testing upon Nick’s shotgun, clothes, the engraved ring, bloody flashlight, marijuana pipe,

shoeprints and tire impressions found at the farmhouse. All of the subsequent forensic testing excluded Nick, included someone else or could not identify anyone, Soucie explained. Nick also had an alibi and those two witnesses were interviewed by law enforcement. “I want to emphasize that these charges were not dismissed based on some legal technicality or evidentiary ruling by the court that made further prosecution impossible,” Soucie clarified. “No evidence in this case has been suppressed. The charges have been dismissed because there is simply no evidence upon which this case could be tried. Nick Sampson did not commit this crime. He did not aid or assist anyone else to commit this crime, and he has absolutely no direct or indirect knowledge regarding who killed Wayne and Sharmon Stock or why.”

Soucie credited the recovery of the engraved gold ring on Sharmon Stock’s kitchen floor with cracking the case. “Nick’s nightmare began on April 25 when local law enforcement officers made the decision to arrest him without any evidence except for the statement of Matt Livers,” Soucie declared. “This arrest was made without any attempt to first verify any of the things said

by Mr. Livers. This represented a bad case of tunnel vision and the investigators failed the basic requirements of Homicide Investigation 101.”

Soucie unleashed more vitriol toward the Nebraska State Patrol and Cass County. “It was obvious from the beginning that Nick Sampson had absolutely no motive or reason to harm Wayne or Sharmon Stock,” Soucie said.

In fact, only one interaction surfaced during the murder investigation, an incident from 2004 when Nick and Matt borrowed the four-wheelers out of Wayne Stock’s machine shed on a winter day and rode through the barren hay fields. Wayne Stock got mad and yelled at Matt for borrowing the ATVs without his permission. Nick, on the other hand, was only a shirt-tail cousin of the Stocks. “That such an incident could form the basis for Nick holding a grudge for years and then serving as the motion for committing these two murders as revenge is simply absurd,” Soucie contended.

In fact, the police theory that Matt and Nick plotted the murders during a phone call prior to Easter should have been easily debunked by law enforcement. Phone records revealed the two cousins had not even spoken to one another on the phone during the previous four months prior to the murders, Soucie noted. During the double murder investigation, police obtained phone records for more than fifty separate numbers from more than two dozen users and subscribers in Nebraska, Wisconsin and Texas. Email wasn’t practical since Nick and his roommates didn’t have computers at their house in Palmyra, and neither did the Wisconsin teens. “The time line and phone records do not show any connection between Nick Sampson or Matt Livers for that matter and anyone from Wisconsin including Jessica Reid, Gregory Fester or anyone remotely connected to either Reid or Fester,” Soucie boasted.

He excoriated the Nebraska police for leaving his client to languish in a jail cell for four full months even after the real killers from Wisconsin were identified and had confessed. “The developments in Wisconsin during the first week of June with the arrests of Reid and Fester should have made it painfully clear that what Matt Livers said was not credible and demonstrably false,” Soucie determined. “This will become even more apparent as the prosecutions of Reid and Fester continue and hearings are held in Livers’ case.”

After Soucie finished bashing the local cops, he switched gears and singled out one Wisconsin detective for special praise. After all, it was the Wisconsin police who doggedly determined the murder weapons brought to the Murdock farmhouse had come from two other prior burglaries, first in Wisconsin, then a second in Iowa. This

fact obliterated the Nebraska investigators’ theory that Matt, Nick or someone within their tight circle of friends had furnished the weapons as part of a well-planned conspiracy. “I want to especially thank Det. Jim Rohr of the Dodge County Wisconsin Sheriff ’s Office for his work following through in investigating the involvement of Reid and Fester after the local investigators left Wisconsin,” Soucie said. “I am not at all sure that the Cass County and State Patrol investigators would have discovered important evidence exculpating Nick Sampson without Detective Rohr’s persistence and patience.”

So, on a beautiful Friday afternoon with blue skies and puffy white clouds lazily drifting across the southeastern Nebraska skyline, Nick Sampson realized his nightmare had ended.

No more orange jail jumpsuits. No more perp walks through the Cass County Courthouse in front of television camera crews and newsprint photographers. No more law enforcementmonitored phone calls and visitations at the humbling jail facility. No more lonely days and depressing nights in an isolation cell. “I had nothing to do with this crime. No involvement in this case whatsoever. I was in my home in Palmyra the entire night,” Nick Sampson eagerly told Nebraska reporters, marking his first public comments since his April arrest. “Jail will break you in a heartbeat. On my second day in there, I was bawling like a 3-year-old.

Isolation, it takes getting used to.”

After he faced murder charges, Nick’s fiancée Lori moved into Nick’s mother’s house in Murdock. With Nick in jail, JOHN FERAK BOOK SIGNINGS she could no longer afford to pay the rent. “We were a twoSUNDAY, AUG. 3, 1 P.M. income family, now it’s bad,” The Bookworm 8702 Pacific St. Nick commented as he sipped MONDAY, AUG. 4, 7 P.M. a can of Pepsi. “Luckily, I have Barnes & Noble Booksellers one job left -- at the Bulldogs.”

Oakview Mall, 3333 Oak View Drive His friends from the BullWednesday, Aug. 6, 6 p.m. dogs smiled and cheered.

Omaha Public Library They planned to host a Abrahams Branch, 5111 N. 90th St. welcome-home party at the THURSDAY, AUG. 7 @2 p.m. small-town bar to cheer up his Ralston’s Baright Public Library spirits. When reporters asked 5555 S. 77th., Ralston Nick to comment about the @6:30 p.m.

Cass County Sheriff ’s Office, Plattsmouth Public Library 401 Avenue A, Plattsmouth Sampson rolled his eyes.

Special guest, Jerry Soucie, public defender for “I don’t think they know wrongly accused defendant Nick Sampson.) how to investigate a murder,” he snapped. , The Kent State University Press granted permission to The Reader to republish this

| THE READER |

JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014

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T H E R E A D E R ’ S E N T E RTA I N M E N T P I C K S J U LY 3 1 - A U G . 6 , 2 014 through. This year welcomes the arrival of their album Big Black Dog. Adding drummer Alan Rosser to the mix, it seems this band is committed to making 2014 their year. — Paul Heft

Sunday, Aug. 3

#RICHKIDS OF BEVERLY HILLS 9 p.m. (E!)

In the reality series “#RichKids of Beverly Hills,” the rich kids aren’t icky in that Kardashian way. They’re smart and self-aware, even self-mocking at times. As a result, you don’t laugh at them, but with them. It’s fun to hang out with Dorothy, Morgan, EJ and the gang as they make snarky conversation, take ironic selfies and, in the second-season premiere, plan a fabulous trip to China.

DAYS

#RICHKIDS

TOPTV

THE HONOURABLE WOMAN

Thursday, 9 p.m. (Sundance Channel)

“We all have secrets. We all tell lies,” coos the narrator in the languid opening sequence of this new miniseries. As if in a dream, we watch a man assasFOSTER THE PEOPLE sinated by a waiter in a luxurious dining room with his two young children by his side. Fast forward 29 years. The children have grown up and taken over their father’s business in London: supplying arms Friday-Saturday to Israel. It’s the kind of work that can get a Jewish AKINS’ ASK AN EXPERT zealot killed, but the kids have changed the focus to IN NATURAL HEALTH reconciling Israelis and Palestinians. Nessa (MagAkin’s Natural Foods gie Gyllenhaal) is the brains of the operation, a 8409 West Center Road smart, driven, articulate woman who has just been 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; free appointed to the House of Lords. She has many enDR, CASS INGRAM emies, though, from Israelis to Palestinians to With nearly 80 years of history English protesters. A sense of menace as a leader in the field of natural foods, vihangs in the air. Dreaminess and tamins, supplements and nutritional menace are the keynotes of this knowledge, Akin’s knows an expert eight-part spy thriller — an inwhen they see one. Four such experts triguing combination. Direcwill be available to answer health tor Hugo Blick is an esthete questions one-on-one. Dr. Cass Inwith a taste for fluttering gram, an internationally known exwhite curtains and mournful THE HONORABLE WOMAN pert in nutrition will be joined by nuviolin music, but he also hooks tritionists Roslyn Rogers, Judy Kay Gray you with potboiler elements like and natural food expert Walter Chambers. kidnappings and suicides. Most In addition, Dr. Ingram presents a free semiof the characters have secrets, as the nar Saturday at 7 p.m. addressing common ailments narrator suggests, and by the end of the first such as irritable bowel syndrome, cancer, digestive episode we haven’t quite figured out what they’re problems and more and how they can be improved by hiding. I can’t wait for “The Honourable Woman” to natural means. — Michael Braunstein reveal more of its own secrets. — Dean Robbins

Season two also delves into real emotions as Dorothy tries to make sense of her relationship with reluctant boyfriend Cooper. Meanwhile, the screen fills with social-media-style graphics and sound effects as the friends obsessively text each other, finding the perfect hashtag for every occasion. I’d call #RichKids of Beverly Hills a guilty pleasure, but the series is so fun that I feel no guilt whatsoever. #WelcomeToAugust — Dean Robbins

FRIDAY1

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| THE READER |

picks

TUESDAY5 DEAD FINGERS

SUNDAY3 Sunday, Aug. 3

DEAD FINGERS

Vega, 350 Canopy St. No. 220, Lincoln (402) 805-4785, vegalincoln.com Dead Fingers have crafted their own sound carefully.

It can be heard in the song “Ring Around Saturn.” It’s a mix of folk and blues that creates a gentle rhythm you might hear on a road trip across the West. Kate Taylor and Taylor Hollingsworth, the married members of the band, are first-time parents, and it has added a new angle for the band’s music to shine

Tuesday, Aug. 5

FOSTER THE PEOPLE

Harrah’s Stir Concert Cove, Harrah’s Casino, Council Bluffs, www.stircove.com Formed by Mark Foster, this indie rock trio melded psychedelic, dancy pop into reality. A solo project at first, Foster soon added Cubbie Fink on bass and drummer Mark Pontius. The song “Pumped up Kicks” gained much attention for the band and displays classical marks of the band such as a bouncy bassline and upbeat feel. The song reached No.1 on Billboard’s Alternative hits. Their second album, Supermodel was just released this year. It features the single “Coming of Age,” which begins with ambient tones followed by guitars. Don’t miss this revolutionary band at Stir Concert Cove. — Paul Heft

eventcalendar For more information about these events and more, go online to:

www.thereader.com/events

Upload your events online at thereader.com/events Questions: listings@thereader.com

ONGOINGART Richard Charter: PLAY! - 1:00 pm | Free Smiling Turtle Art Spot August 1-31, Enter the bright, colorful and whimsical world of Richard Charter whose use of vibrant colors is complimented by his skill in the process of batik.

Hanibal - All Day | Free Lied Art Gallery A helmet scaled to the size of a giant begins to tell the story of the historical Carthaginian military commander Hannibal Barca, who is the inspiration for an exhibit of artworks by Creighton sculpture professor Littleton Alston.

Aim for the Stars - 7:00 am | University of Nebraska at Omaha Visions of Lewis and Clark - All Day | Free The Kaneko Visions of Lewis and Clark is a unique historical art exhibit consisting of thirty kites commemorating Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery expedition.

Julie Schram - All Day | Connect Gallery Graphite Drawings - Portraits Reception - Fri. July, 18, 5:30-9 pm.

Truck-A-Tecture - All Day | Free The Kaneko Truck-A-Tecture examines architecture as redefined by mobility and technical expansion.

Around the World and Home Again All Day | University of Nebraska at Omaha Display of paintings and sculptures by Katy Haberman.

Flock House Project - All Day | Free Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts What if migratory homes with autonomous systems for rainwater collection and food production were the building blocks of the city of the future?

A Theft in the Garden - All Day | $3-$7 Lauritzen Gardens Buck Christensen’s minimalist compositions.

Yard/Zone - All Day | Free University of Nebraska-Lincoln An exhibition of stitched sculptural forms by Sarah Wagner of Detroit.

Studio Poche - All Day | The Kaneko An exhibition presented by the University of Nebraska Lincoln College of Architecture.

Mixed Media & Musical Instruments - All Day | Fred Simon Gallery The art of Michael Giron and Riccardo Marchio in the Mixed Media & Musical Instruments exhibit.

Visions of Lewis and Clark Kite Expo - All Day | $3-$7 Lauritzen Gardens Visions of Lewis and Clark is a unique historical art exhibit consisting of thirty kites commemorating Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery expedition.

Throughout the summer, these kites will be on view at ten participating locations throughout the metro area.

Urban Design Lab - All Day | Free Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts Chlo Bass and Teal Gardner, two of the Bemis Center’s Artists-in-Residence, are collaborating with 20 local researchers to shed new light on the nature of our urban landscape. Each of the researchers was recruited from a local high school. Participants in the Lab are conducting field research in various parts of the city and synthesizing that data here in this space.

New Orleans-style jazz will want to come out for Big Sam’s Funky Nationconcert on July 31. Big Sam Williams leads the band, playing a blend of funk, rock, hiphop, jazz and R&B punctuated by brass harmonies of the trombone and trumpet.

Big Sam got his start playing with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, before becoming a band leader.

Third Thursdays with Thornburg 8:00 pm | Free The Side Door Lounge Jazz Group formed in 2014 consisting of alto saxophonist Steve Thornburg, bassist Mark Luebbe and drummer Mary O’Keefe.

Reggae Night - 8:00 pm | Free The Hive Lounge Join us every Thursday night for some great live reggae.

Flight Metaphor - 8:00 pm | $7 The Slowdown Omaha Flight Metaphor of Omaha, Nebraska blends midwestflavored rock and roll with powerful melodies and solid musicianship. Rather than relying on a calculated persona or gimmick, the band chooses to let their music speak for itself - and people are listening. Having appeared on stage with a variety of local and national acts, Flight Metaphor has earned a reputation for a live performance that rivals their studio recordings.

Rude Punch Show - 9:00 pm | Venue 51 Come join Rude Punch on July 31 along with special guest The Bishops at Venue 51 for a Reggae/Rock party.

Nick Hoff - 9:00 pm | $10 The Bourbon Theatre Lincoln Born and raised on the rough Nebraska streets (gravel roads), Nick Hoff is an actor/comedian living in Los Angeles. Most recently Nick was named Best of the Fest at the 2014 San Luis Obispo Comedy Festival.

›››MISC››› Under the Influence - 7:30 pm | $7 402 Arts Collective No rabbits. No hats. No saws. This show is aimed at displaying how the human mind can be influenced and deceived through psychological tricks and misdirection. Joe Brogie is a magician, mentalist and hypnotist out of Omaha. He combines the styles of magic, mind reading and hypnosis into an unforgettable experience that will stimulate and entertain your brain. www.JoeBrogieLive.com $7 // 13+ // Benson, NE Omaha Storm Chasers vs. Memphis Redbirds - 7:00 pm | Werner Park Michael Dowd Lecture - 7:00 pm | $10 Countryside Community Church Michael Dowd, author of Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion will Tranform Yoru ife and Our World, will speak as part of the Center for Faith Studies lecture series at Countryside. Given our impact on Earth’s climate, the seas and other species, a worldwide movement has been emerging for decades, largely unnoticed, at the nexus of science, inspiration, and sustainability. Beliefs are secondary. This presentation will focus on six points of agreement held in common by tens of millions of religious and non-religious people across the globe. $10 tickets at the door

THURSDAYJULY 31

FRIDAYAUGUST 1

›››MUSIC›››

›››MUSIC›››

Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang 6:00 pm | The 21st Saloon Besides constantly touring for over two decades, Shaw has continued to record prolifically.

Acoustic Music Thursdays - 7:00 pm | Two Fine Irishmen Join us every Thursday night for some great live acoustic music. Actual time may vary.

Jazz on the Green - 7:30 pm | Free Turner Park at Midtown Crossing Fans of

Benson First Firday - 5:00 pm | The Pizza Shoppe Collective Join us for a night of live entertainment!

First Friday - 6:00 pm | Free Omaha Clay Works Featured potters in the gallery for August are Bob Jones and Linda Dabbs.

Friday Night Concerts - 7:00 pm | Free Rockbrook Village USAF Heartland of America Band, Vortex.

Shur Thing - 8:00 pm | Free Ameristar Casino Join us in the Amerisports Bar for some of the best live entertainment.

Actual time may vary.

Sailing in Soup - 8:00 pm | Free McKenna’s Blues Booze and BBQ We showcase great national, regional and local blues entertainment for your enjoyment.

Josh Hoyer and the ShadowBoxers - 8 pm | The Hive Lounge Join us as we welcome to the stage some of the best live music around. Actual start time may vary.

402 - 9:00 pm | Free Ozone Lounge 7220 Live music.

Michelle - 9:00 pm | $25 The Slowdown Omaha Michelle Toussant is an R&B recording artist and songwriter who will forever hold a place in music history as one of the most important female voices of the West Coast Hip Hop Movement.

›››MISC››› Omaha Storm Chasers vs. Memphis Redbirds - 7:00 pm | Werner Park

SATURDAYAUGUST 2 ›››MISC››› 2014 JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes - 8:00 am | Donation Lewis and Clark Landing The JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes, Omaha-Council Bluffs. The goal is to raise more than $614,000 for research to find a cure for type 1 diabetes (T1D) and its complications. The family fun event will include food, games, clowns, face painting and much more. Twin Fiddle Workshop - 10:00 am | $20 The Old Avoca Schoolhouse Avoca This workshop, led by championship fiddler and author, Deborah Greenblatt, is perfect for fiddlers who want to learn to play duets with other fiddlers. Students of all ages will learn how to construct their own harmony parts by ear, and by writing the notes down in standard notation. E-mail debby@greenblattandseay. com Beer and Bacon Festival - 3:00 pm | $30 Old Mattress Factory Beer and Bacon, what more could you ask for! The Beer and Bacon Festival will tempt your taste buds for a good cause on August 2, 2014 at the Old Mattress Factory in downtown Omaha. The festival, organized by the Omaha Jaycees in cooperation with the Old Mattress Factory, will be comprised of a bacon competition with participants providing samplings of delicious bacon-themed dishes.

Omaha Storm Chasers vs Iowa Cubs - 7:00 pm | Werner Park Victory Fighting Championship 43 7 pm | $25-$70 Ralston Arena Featuring Josh ‘The Dentist’ Neer fighting Travis Coyle for the VFC Welterweight Title. Local favorites such as Brian ‘B-Hue’ Houston, Alonzo Martinez, Kassius Kayne, and many more, will provide a main card with plenty of sizzle to accompany an amateur undercard filled with fresh new talent. It all gets served up with the red hot production value and non-stop action Victory fans have come to know. $25 to $70 range China Circus - 7:30 pm | $36 Orpheum Theater-Omaha The internationally acclaimed acrobatic troupe FenMo from Jinan in Shandong province, China, brings their rich, nationalistic performing style to Omaha in their tour of the United States with The China Circus. Blending amazing athleticism with traditional Beijing Opera costumes and style, this performance is as exciting as it is splendid. Founded in 1958, the touring company has won more than 100 awards at competitions in France, Spain, Monaco, Russia, Korea, and at home in China for

their thrilling feats of acrobatic skill. They were featured performers at 2012 Olympic Games in Beijing.

›››MUSIC››› Destination Plattsmouth Concert 7 pm | Free Entertainment Plaza USAF Heartland of America Band, Vortex.

Vibes at Village Pointe - 6:30 pm | Free Village Pointe Shopping Center Join us for hot live music and enjoy a glass of wine or a cold beer. Kids, have your face painted and dance down by the stage. Bring chairs or a blanket and be entertained by Avaricious!

Shur Thing - 8:00 pm | Free Ameristar Casino Blu Simon - 8:00 pm | The Hive Lounge Red Delicious - 9:00 pm | Free Ozone Lounge Live music.

SUNDAYAUGUST 3 ›››MISC››› Omaha Storm Chasers vs Iowa Cubs - 5:00 pm | Werner Park Benson Branch Common Soil Programs - 6:30 pm | Omaha Public Library Benson Branch Starting your seeds indoors: Learn how to germinate and grow seeds inside your home for springtime garden planting. Organic farmer Rebecca Bloom, of Blooms Organic, has many years of experience, and will instruct about the potting mix, trays, lighting, and scheduling for growing successful baby plants. A seed planting and transplanting activity will follow the talk so that you may practice your new skills.

›››MUSIC››› Mark Irvin - 2:00 pm | Free Soaring Wings Vineyard, Springfield Acoustic Music Music in the Park - 6:30 pm | Free Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park Powerman 5000 - 8:00 pm | $10-$15 Sokol Auditorium Powerman 5000 (sometimes abbreviated to PM5K) is an

American rock band formed in 1991. The group has released seven albums over the course of their career and gained their highest commercial success with 1999 s Tonight the Stars Revolt!, which reached No. 29 on the Billboard 200 album chart while spawning the top 40 hits ‘When Worlds Collide’ and ‘Nobody’s Real’. Frontman and only original member Spider Oneis the younger brother of fellow metal musician Rob Zombie.

The Luke Polipnick Trio - 8:00 pm | The Side Door Lounge Every Sunday night, three of Omaha’s premier jazz musicians take residency at the Side Door Lounge. The Luke Polipnick Trio, featuring Max Stehr on bass and Dana Murray on drums, develop a unique repertoire highlighting the work of such jazz greats as Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman.

American Idol Live! - 8:00 pm | $44 Stir Concert Cove-Harrah’s Council Bluffs Casino & Hotel No other show in TV history has proven to be a force like AMERICAN IDOL . Fans of the hit series can see this season’s talented Top Ten Finalists live.

Luigi, Inc. - 9:00 pm | Free Mr. Toad’s Pub

Jenny Lewis - 9:00 pm | $20 The Slowdown Omaha Jenny Lewis is one of the most celebrated and well-respected performers of her generation. Beginning her career in 1998 as the frontwoman of Rilo Kiley, the band rose from the burgeoning independent music community in Los Angeles to become one of the most dynamic and influential bands of the early 2000s.

MONDAYAUGUST 4

WEDNESDAYAUGUST 6

›››MISC›››

›››MUSIC›››

Omaha Storm Chasers vs Iowa Cubs - 7:00 pm | Werner Park

Ray’s Piano Party - 7:00 pm | Free Mr. Toad’s Pub Omaha Led by local legendary pianist Ray Williams Goo Goo Dolls & Daughtry - 7:00 pm | $49-$64.85 Pershing Center 226 Centennial Mall South Lincoln, Nostalgia Wednesdays - 9:00 pm | Free Ozone Lounge Live music.

St. Paul & The Broken Bones - 9:00 pm | $12 The Slowdown Seven-piece soul band based out of Birmingham, Alabama. The band is composed of Paul Janeway, Browan Lollar, Jesse Phillips, Andrew Lee, Al Gamble, Ben Griner, and Allen Branstetter.among others.

›››MUSIC››› Billy Troy - 7:00 pm | Cover Charge Ozone Lounge Head out for a night of live music!

Mike Gurciullo and His Las Vegas Big Band - 8:00 pm | Free Ozone Lounge 17 Piece big band extravaganza!

Monday Night at the Movies - 8:30 pm | Free Turner Park at Midtown Crossing This eight-week movie series features movies chosen by the audience.

Crowds gathered at dusk with blankets, chairs, and popcorn each week.

Buy Tickets: Ralston Arena Box Office

listings

TUESDAYAUGUST 5 ›››MISC››› Omaha Storm Chasers vs Iowa Cubs - 12:00 pm | Werner Park

›››MUSIC››› Foster the People - 8:00 pm | Stir Concert Cove-Harrah’s Council Bluffs Casino & Hotel.

10 Years - 8:00 pm | $20-$25 The Bourbon Theatre Lincoln Run River North - 9:00 pm | $10 The Slowdown Omaha In the course of several months, Run River North went from playing a handful of hometown shows in Los Angeles to performing to an audience of millions on late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live!

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JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014

13

CIGARETTES

BY B.J. HUCHTEMANN

Star-studded Week

© SFNTC 3 2014

L

ocal audience favorite Curtis Salgado heats up Lincoln’s Zoo Bar next Wednesday, Aug. 6, 6-9 p.m. Based in Portland, Ore., Salgado is one of the toughest soul-blues singers on the planet. His wide-ranging influences and passion for the music coupled with his great band always deliver remarkable, soulful, hands-down badass shows. Salgado is a 12-time Blues Music Award (BMA) nominee. He has been recognized by the BMAs with honors including 2013’s Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year, Soul Blues Album of the Year (for Soul Shot on Alligator Records), and the prestigious B.B. King Entertainer of the Year award. See curtissalgado.com.

Eddie Shaw The 21st Saloon presents Chicago sax great Eddie Shaw & The Wolf Gang Thursday, July 31, 6-9 p.m. Shaw was the sax player for Howlin’ Wolf, including recording with him at Chess Records. See eddieshawsax.com. Shaw is a 2014 Blues Foundation Hall of Fame inductee.

Candye & Laura Fabulous vocalist Candye Kane and her powerful, versatile guitarist Laura Chavez hit The 21st Saloon Thursday, August 7, 6-9 p.m. with their band. They mix swing, rockabilly and blues to create their unique, high-energy sound. Their latest

hoodoo

disc is Coming Out Swingin’ (Sister Cynic/VizzTone).

Kane continues treatments for pancreatic cancer but is working as much as possible. See candyekane.com.

Kane has twice received the B.B. King Entertainer of the Year Award, the Blues Music Awards’ highest honor. She has received the Contemporary Blues Female Artist Award multiple times.

Hot Notes Jazz on the Green at Midtown Crossing presents Big Sam’s Funky Nation from New Orleans Thursday, July 31, 7:30. Josh Hoyer & The Shadowboxers bring their soulful show to The Hive Friday, Aug. 1, 8 p.m. and gig at Lincoln’s Zoo Bar with Oketo Saturday, Aug. 2, 9 p.m. Hoyer also plays solo Sunday, Aug. 3, 2-5 p.m. for a free show at the River City Star’s Kon-Tiki-O Party Barge.

Omaha Girls Rock has a showcase of this year’s bands Saturday, Aug. 2, 5:30 p.m., at The Waiting Room, free admission. BluesEd youth performance bands play a free showcase Sunday, Aug. 3, 5 p.m. at Sumtur Amphitheater. Mark your calendar now for a couple of big shows. Royal Southern Brotherhood rocks Lincoln’s Zoo Bar Wednesday, Aug. 13, 6-9 p.m. Hoodoo favorite Jon Dee Graham & The Fighting Cocks are at the Zoo Bar Monday, Aug. 18, 7-10 p.m. Graham is a three-time inductee into the Austin Music Hall of Fame. When he plugs in with his electric Austin trio the result is fierce. ,

HOODOO is a weekly column focusing on blues, roots, Americana and occasional other music styles with an emphasis on live music performances. Hoodoo columnist B.J. Huchtemann is a Reader senior contributing writer and veteran music journalist who has covered the local music scene for nearly 20 years. Follow her blog at hoodoorootsblues.blogspot.com.

For more information on our organic growing programs, visit www.sfntc.com

Reader 07-31-14.indd JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014 1 14 Omaha Weekly

| THE READER |

7/1/14 hoodoo

1:15 PM

overtheedge LIFESTYLE COLUMN BY TIM MCMAHAN

Playing Favorites: 2Q 2014 Album Reviews Roundup

T

hese days I’m introduced to most new music via streaming services. Yes, I still receive the occasional download from an artist’s label and/or promotion company (or from the artist him/ herself ), but when something new breaks on a given Tuesday, it’s first heard online via NPR First Listen or that destroyer of the music industry, Spotify. If after a few spins I can’t live without it, a purchase is made. As a result, here’s my new album reviews rating system.

Vinyl — A classic albums that deserves to be purchased in an expensive, collectable format.

CD — A good to great recordings worth keeping in a semi-permanent format.

MP3 - A collection that contains at least a few good songs worth owning, but not in a physical format.

Spotify — The most immaterial format of all.

Here’s how I applied those ratings to what I listened to last quarter: Strand of Oaks, Heal (Dead Oceans) — It’s a throwback record, the kind of album they used to make in the days before the internet — huge songs, anthems, heroic in scale (though not in subject matter). Tim Showalter has been compared to Springsteen and U2, but I hear Neil Young in the darkness of his stories and his recognition of simple melodies that build into feedbackdrenched monsters. Centerpiece track “JM” — a tribute to the late, great Jason Molina — is startling and essential, but every song is memorable and necessary. And, yes, it rocks. Rating: Vinyl Courtney Barnett, The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas (Mom + Pop) — This young Aussie is a cross between Liz Phair and Foxygen, an intrepid slacker/stoner 20-something loaded with clever lines. Imagine Hope Sandoval (of Mazzy Star) with a sense of humor. Simple, personal songs tossed with twangy guitar and an amusing, self-deprecating honesty. Rating: Vinyl Alvvays, self titled (Polyvinyl / Transgressive) — Reminds me a little of Camera Obscura but the songs are better; the overall sunset shimmer of the recording and Molly Rankin’s soaring pop vocals recall ‘90s indie, or maybe it’s just how the album conjures all my favorite musical moments of the ’90s, heart-tugs and all. Rating: Vinyl Mark Kozelek, Live at Biko (Caldo Verde) — You might remember him from Red House Painters, he reinvented himself as Sun Kil Moon, which just released Benji, which is, in my opinion, his finest work and at the core of this live recording. The reason I list this rather than Benji is that it reminds me of the night I saw him at South By Southwest — just him and his guitar in an echoing old church. Perfect. These songs aren’t confessions so much as documents of Kozelek’s life passed and passing. Honest, sometimes funny there’s a sadness to every one. Rating: Vinyl (though it’s only available on CD/MP3).

The Hussy / Digital Leather (Southpaw) — The Digital Leather side of this split LP is downright… romantic,

a sort of collection of twisted love songs that shines a light on Shawn Foree the Balladeer. Maybe the most serene DL recording yet, but it still rocks. The Hussy side is a riot, and includes a cover of Digital Leather’s “Studs in Love” that’s playful compared to DL’s own original, quirky version. Rating: Vinyl Gold-Bears, Dalliance (Slumberland) — Same energy as the finest Superchunk moments sung in a nasal yawl reminiscent of Jeremy Enigk. Trust me, you’ll like it.

Rating: CD Protomartyr, Under Color of Official Right (Hardly Art) — Detroit-based punk fronted by a guy who looks like an insurance salesman but sings like Husker-era Mould or The Fall’s Mark E. Smith or Pere Ubu’s David Thomas. Deadpan anger, straight-faced disgust, like an upset father with a controlled rage and a back-up band that is pure Gang of Four post punk. Rating: CD The Both, self titled (Superego) — This is indie veterans Ted Leo and Aimee Mann, together. It ratchets down Leo’s usual hyper-pop while ratcheting up Mann’s usual serene heartbreak (Thanks to Leo’s roaring guitar). Vocally, they’re perfectly matched. Fans of each will be satisfied. Rating: CD Mitch Gettman, Stop Living Like it’s the End of the World (self released) — A craftsman creating a style of indie/ alt singer-songwriter acoustic rock that we all remember from the ’90s (or ‘70s). As a whole, Gettman does little more than turn already well-toiled soil, but he does it with an exquisite plow. A real surprise. Rating: CD Bob Mould, Beauty & Ruin (Merge)— The return of heavy, fast Bob, and despite the grim subject matter it’s the funnest, fastest record he’s released since his Sugar days. Rating: CD Orenda Fink, Blue Dream (Saddle Creek) — Another serene take from one of Omaha’s best songwriters. That said, I miss the edge she brought to O+S and Art in Manilla. Time to rock again, fair lady. Rating CD Conor Oberst, Upside Down Mountain (Nonesuch) — The most straight-forward of his catalog, the songwriting while more tuneful is the most obvious and least surprising, as if he’s growing tired of taking risks. Rating: MP3 PUJOL, KLUDGE (Saddle Creek) — Too mannered to be considered true garage, it’s frenetic rock sung by the loudest guy at your last party. Rating: MP3 Guided By Voices, Cool Planet (Fire) — How many more of these collections do they need to make?

Rating: Spotify Morrissey, World Peace is None of Your Business (Capitol / Harvest) — His suffering has become whining.

There’s a couple keepers here, but overall it’s a rather droll listen. Rating: Spotify Lana Del Rey, Ultraviolence (Interscope) — Beautiful and dark and long and boring. Rating: Spotify While you’re in Spotify, check out Amen Dunes, Love (Sacred Bones); Parquet Courts, Sunbathing Animal (Mom + Pop); Rookie, The Trouble with Templeton (Bella Union); and OBN IIIs, Third Time to Harm (Tic Tac Totally) and tUnE-yArDs, Nikki Nack (4AD). ,

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OVER THE EDGE is a weekly column by Reader senior contributing writer Tim McMahan focused on culture, society, music, the media and the arts. Email Tim at tim.mcmahan@gmail.com. And be sure to check out his blog at Lazy-i.com

over the edge

| THE READER |

JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014

15

newsoftheweird

T H E WO R L D G O N E F R E A K Y B Y C H U C K S H E P H E R D W I T H I L LU S T R AT I O N S B Y T O M B R I S C O E

Modern Warfare

T

he leader of the devout Sunni jihadist group Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, making a rare, solemn appearance in July, wore a flashy silver wristwatch that various video analysts described as either a Rolex or an Omega Seafarer or a feature-laden Saudi Arabian-made timepiece that sells for only about $560. A week earlier, a Syrian anti-government rebel leader was shown in a video exhorting his troops from notes he had made in his “Hello Kitty” notebook. And a week after that, a shopkeeper in North Waziristan, lamenting the loss of business when local Taliban fighters abruptly left the area, told a BBC reporter that the jihadists obsessively bought Dove soap, Head & Shoulders shampoo, white underwear (“briefs or Y-fronts”), and “Secret Love” and “Blue Lady” perfumes.

The Continuing Crisis Clinton Tucker, who is black, sued Benjamin Moore paints in Essex County, New Jersey, in June for wrongful firing -- after, he said, he had tolerated years of workplace racial insults. In fact, Tucker said the company had introduced two new paint shades shortly after he was hired in 2011 -- “Tucker Chocolate” and “Clinton Brown,” provoking on-the-job ridicule.

-- The African hippopotamus is not found in South America -- except for the estimated 50-some that, confusingly to natives, roam the Colombian countryside between Bogota and Medellin. The animals are the progeny of the four smuggled in 30 years ago by cocaine king Pablo Escobar, who generously established a grand, exotic zoo for his neighbors’ enjoyment after his drug business took off (and before he was gunned down in 1993). However, as BBC News reported in June, hippo meat is inedible, and without their African natural enemies, they

16

JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014

| THE READER |

weird news

breed with astonishing prolificness -- thus creating a “time bomb” for Colombia.

-- Awesome Thievery: (1) A former city official in Ridgewood, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in July to stealing nearly 2 million quarters collected from parking meters with no one noticing for two years. Under a plea deal, Thomas Rica will likely be spared jail provided he repays half of what he stole. (2) In July, New York City prosecutors accused a former pharmacist at Mount Sinai Beth Israel hospital of stealing nearly 200,000 oxycodone-strength pain pills over five years, despite his increasingly far-fetched explanations. Anthony D’Alessandro even boldly swiped 1,500 pills the day after investigators first challenged him.

Wait -- What?

Kimberly Williams, 46, was convicted in April in Will County, Illinois, of beating dominatrix Theresa Washington with a baseball bat. Williams conceded to the judge that she had hired Washington, but only because she wanted a “slave” to take pictures of her naked while she did housework. Instead, she said, Washington became aggressive, declared herself a “master” and dragged Williams around by the hair. Furthermore, according to Williams, Washington’s transformation happened abruptly after a phone call Washington made to “someone she met on the dating site Christian Mingle.”

First-World Problems Update: U.S. obesity continues to grow -- for pets as well as people -- and exercise innovations for humans seem to trickle down to dogs. A July Associated Press report noted that fat Labradors and poodles now have Pilates (“pawlates”) and yoga (“doga”) and even play “Barko Polo” in the pool, while Morris Animal Inn offers five-day fitness camps for dogs ($249) in Morristown, New Jersey.

(More cats than dogs are overweight, but getting cats to the gym is perhaps beyond human capability.)

COPYRIGHT 2014 CHUCK SHEPHERD. Visit Chuck Shepherd daily at NewsoftheWeird. blogspot.com or NewsoftheWeird.com. Send Weird News to WeirdNewsTips@yahoo.com or P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, FL 33679. Illustrations by Tom Briscoe (smallworldcomics.com).

The New Normal Since high-rise residents value their privacy, Lisa Pleiss of Seattle said she was frightened on June 22 when she saw a drone hovering outside her 26th-floor window: “You don’t expect to be walking around indecent in your apartment and then have this thing potentially recording you.” According to police, the drone was legal -- helping a developer photograph downtown Seattle -- but would not have been if the camera had been pointed at Pleiss’ window. (Drones are becoming so widespread that, for instance, the University of South Florida library owns several, for student check-out on certain research projects.)

-- In June, as Elizabeth Neufeld, 85, was backing her car out of her driveway in Bel Air, California, it tipped on a curve and rolled onto its side. Elizabeth was not hurt, but was trapped inside while her husband, Benjamin, 87, got out on his own. As they awaited firefighters, she reportedly handed a cellphone to a passerby so that the Neufelds would have a “selfie” (which made the Internet, with Elizabeth having righted herself in the driver’s seat and Benjamin standing sheepishly alongside).

(Dr. Elizabeth Neufeld, retired, is one of the world’s most prominent genetics researchers, having won numerous awards during stints at the National Institutes of Health, University of California, Berkeley and UCLA.) Least Competent Criminals Failed to Keep a Low Profile: Jacob Close, 25, wanted after jumping bail in New York on a drug charge, but recently on Bloomsburg (Pennsylvania) University police’s radar screen after he was rumored to be in the area, was arrested by the campus cops in June.

Close’s name and photograph had appeared in the Bloomsburg Press Enterprise’s “Your Opinion” feature. He apparently could not resist when a street

reporter asked him the newspaper’s “question of the week” -- whether the Washington Redskins football team should choose another nickname. (His vitally important opinion? No.)

Recurring Themes -By now, many in the United Kingdom have such exaggerated concern for “health and safety” that they are sensitive to even the tiniest, most far-fetched risks. In June, organizers of a dog show in Keswick drew up a list of 25 tests for dogs to perform in competition, but two had to be scrapped (supposedly for fear of lawsuits): biscuit-catching by the dog (canceled unless sponsors can be assured that dogs will try to catch biscuits only while seated) and Frisbee-catching (canceled outright for fear that dogs could injure their backs). (Indeed, in a previous U.K. dog show, an out-of-shape dog did hurt its back leaping for a Frisbee.)

Readers’ Choice (1) Bill Hillmann, 32, expert on Spain’s bull-running events and author of a chapter in “How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona” (the most famous festival), was hospitalized in July after being gored during the run, with the horn passing through one thigh, missing his femoral artery by a centimeter.

He told the Chicago Tribune from his hospital bed that he would be back for the next one.

(2) In June, an unnamed American exchange student visiting Tubingen University in Germany, exploring a large marble sculpture outside the school’s institute for microbiology and virology, was trapped inside and had to be rescued by firefighters. The sculpture was a giant vulva, and 22 responders arrived in five fire trucks to pull the man out of the “vagina.” ,

weird news

| THE READER |

JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014

17

cuttingroom

W R I T E R / D I R E C T O R L U C B E S S O N C A R E S N O T F O R FA C T S

I

t doesn’t work this way with people, but there’s a level of confident stupidity a movie can display that makes it endearing. Lucy is that kind of stupid. Cocksure and confidently, it swaggers around, daring you to question any of the unimaginable number of scientific inaccuracies it hurls. You can practically hear writer/director Luc Besson just off screen whispering, “What are you gonna do, doubt our scientific mumbo jumbo when we’ve got Morgan friggin’ Freeman delivering exposition? He’s the voice of God. You must respect.”

The special kind of stupid that Lucy displays requires a simplistic framework upon which unrealistic and overreaching themes are placed. Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is an American college student in China studying something or other. Her loser boyfriend of one week handcuffs a briefcase to her wrist and makes her deliver it to Mr. Jang (Minsik Choi). Mr. Jang is an unpleasant fellow. He orders Lucy to be cut open and stuffed with a new illegal drug. When the container ruptures, the contents flood Lucy’s system.

Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater 14th & Mike Fahey Street (formerly Webster Street) More info & showtimes 402.933.0259 · filmstreams.org Facebook | Twitter | Instagram: @filmstreams

18

JULY 31 - AUG. 6, 2014

But here’s the thing: it’s the most awesome drug ever.

If you take enough of it, you become God. Or, as the pseudoscience in the movie incorrectly explains “you use 100 percent of your brain’s cerebral capacity.” For some reason, this allows you to move stuff with your mind and sometimes dissolve into a weird human cloud thing. Oh, and as far as overreaching on themes, Lucy tries to explain the origins of all known reality. How is that for bravado?

Again, it must be restated, none of this gobbledygook makes even the softest lick of sense. Lucy’s powers, evolution and motivations are abject nonsense by even the lowest standard. But Besson is so confident at the helm that he’s like a grand symphony conductor commanding musicians who are playing arm farts. He uses weird nonsensical flashes to metaphorical symbols, action that blatantly rips off The Matrix and a performance by Morgan Freeman that can only be described as “partly conscious.”

Science-fiction is supposed to be ambitious. So Besson can be legitimately forgiven for hubris when it

First-Run Films A Most Wanted Man First-Run (R) Dir. Anton Corbijn.

Through Thursday, August 7

Featuring one of the last performances by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.

When a half-Chechen, half-Russian, brutally tortured immigrant turns up in Hamburg’s Islamic community, laying claim to his father’s ill-gotten fortune, both German and US security agencies take a close interest.

| THE READER |

film

B Y RYA N S Y R E K

comes to the more fantastic elements. Johansson helps matters by delivering a surprisingly controlled and genuine performance. Besson has always encouraged great delivery from his female leads. Once again the “tortured but eventually strengthened” woman motif emerges in his work, as it did with Natalie Portman in The Professional and Anne Parillaud in Le Femme Nikita. But as far as themes go, women moving from passive players in cruel male dominate worlds to unstoppable badasses isn’t exactly an overused theme in the patriarchal realm of cinema.

Look, Lucy is fun. Try to say it isn’t when Johansson is sending mercenaries flying through the air with a flick of her wrist. It’s not “good,” which is to say it isn’t an exemplary film, but it’s fun. It is confidently dumb, defiantly moronic and a fine way to spend 90 minutes of time before doing something of value. , GRADE = C+

Closed Curtain First-Run Dir. Jafar Panahi.

Starts Friday, August 1

Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi bravely defies his 20-year ban on filmmaking with this tense offering.

“An allegory, dark but not despairing, of the creative spirit under political pressure” — A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Coming Soon Boyhood First-Run (R) Rich Hill First-Run

n I am not in any way advocating that you find it, because I abhor movie piracy, but news broke this week that The Expendables 3 began appearing on torrent sites. Unlike previous incidents, like the infamous one where a work print of The Wolverine was uploaded, reports say this cut is the final product. I mention this because it will be worth watching if the third film fizzles opening weekend. Because if it does underperform, it would be because of the leak and only the leak and not because they added the recently released from prison Wesley Snipes and everyone’s favorite Jew-hating, wife-taunting nutball, Mel Gibson, to the cast. n Robert Downey Jr. intimated that he is open to appearing in Iron Man 4. He’s currently under contract only for Avengers 2 and 3, but as it turns out, making insane piles of money is tempting. While he didn’t say outright it was even in talks, he just wants it known that if someone is going to pay him millions upon millions of dollars to do a thing, he will do that thing. n Don’t worry, America: Roberto Orci confirmed that the upcoming big screen Mighty Morphin Power Rangers WILL hold true to the established show continuity. Thank God, am I right? I mean, if they didn’t respect that artistically crafted and complex web of storytelling the Rangers are known for, all we’d have is spandex and ridiculous rubber monsters. n There’s a new rap song called “Shell Shocked” that is about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It is performed by beings called Juicy J, Wiz Khalifa and Ty Dolla $ign. I’m not saying it’s a good thing or a bad thing, just that life takes another swipe at Vanilla Ice, who now isn’t even the only rapper to have a mutant ninja turtle track.

—Ryan Syrek Cutting Room provides breaking local and national movie news … complete with added sarcasm. Send any relevant information to film@thereader.com. Check out Ryan on Movieha!, a weekly half-hour movie podcast (movieha.libsyn.com/rss), catch him on the radio on CD 105.9 (cd1059.com) on Fridays at around 7:30 a.m. and on KVNO 90.7 (KVNO.org) at 8:30 a.m. on Fridays and follow him on Twitter (twitter.com/thereaderfilm).

Repertory Godzilla: The Japanese Original 1954 Dir. Ishirô Honda.

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HEALTHY KIDS

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