The Reader Dec. 18 - 24, 2014

ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS ENGINEER (First Data Technologies, Inc. Omaha, NE): For global transaction processor, use strong understanding of how technology relates to business, market & industry; negotiate w/ external vendors (Business Partners) for most appropriate s/ware solutions & tools used by offshore & onshore teams. Reqts: Bach’s deg or foreign equiv in Comp Sci, CIS, Math, Engg (any), or rel. followed by 5 yrs of progressively responsible exp in job off’d or rel. Must have at least 5 yrs of exp w/: CASCM (Computer Associates Software Configuration Management) to perform versions mgmt, build mgmt & release mgmt; CA IT Client Manager; Secure Shell; Maven; Continuous Integration & Agile Methodologies; & BCP exercises. Must have exp w/ GIT/GERRIT. Apply at www.firstdatajobs.com. Go to “Search Openings” & enter Req. No.41516BR.

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CEO IN OMAHA, NE to run primary care delivery organization. Plan, direct and coordinate operational activities at the highest level of management with the help of subordinate executives and staff managers. Must have a Bachelor degree in a healthcare related field, an MBA and 10 yrs exp in executive role in the medical field. Demonstrated experience working in multidisciplinary primary care, clinical pathway development and continuous improvement process. Must have prior experience as an executive specifically managing and developing a startup company. Send resumes to: THINK Primary Care, LLC, Attn: Sandy Lane, 7101 Mercy Road, Ste #320, Omaha, NE 68106.

NURSING SECRETARY College of Saint Mary is seeking a Nursing Secretary. For additional information and to apply for this position, please go to the College of Saint Mary’s employment website www.csm. edu/employment/ EOE.

DEC. 18 - 24, 2014

NOW HIRING The Quik Spot, Center Mall (42nd & Center). Full-time, Must be 21. Apply In Person.

MIDLAND SCIENTIFIC Customer Service Representative. Contact Andrea Warnock at awarnock@midlandsci.com. Go to OmahaJobs. com for more information MAYHEIM Automotive-vehicles/part/service. Contact Katie.malone@ manheim.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more info.

NEBRASKA FAMILIES COLLABORATIVE Family Permanency Specialist Trainee. Contact Megan Foust at megan.foust@nebraskafc. org. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information SECURITY INDUSTRY SPECIALISTS Security Specialist. Contact Cameron Gibson at cgibson@ sis.us. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

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BANK OF THE WEST Call Center Customer Service Rep I. Contact Ashton Blaha at Ashton.Blaha@bankofthewest.com. Go to OmahaJobs. com for more information.

STILLWATER INSURANCE GROUP Now Hiring Multiple Positions.

Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

WEST CORPORATION Now Hiring Multiple Positions.

Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

LEGACY DESIGN STRATEGIES Administrative Assistant. Contact Jamie Kratky at Jamie@ ldstrategies.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more info.

MID-CONTINENT PROPERTIES Marketing Manager and Office Associate. Contact Doran at jpost@min-continentproperties.com. Go to OmahaJobs. com for more information.

omaha jobs

ALEGENT HEALTH Now Hiring Multiple Positions.

Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

MANAGEMENT REGISTRY Nursing. Contact CJensen@ managementregistry.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for info.

ENVISIONS Life Skill Instructor. Contact Bridgett at bridgett6815@aol. com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

COLD STONE CREAMERY Crew Members. Contact Cynthia Clark at cynthiaclark519@ gmail.com. Go to OmahaJobs.

NEW VICTORIAN INN & SUITES Maintenance. Contact Kristen Kotik at Kristen.nvi@hotmail. com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

AURSTAFF Now Hiring Multiple Positions.

Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

OMAHA STEAKS Now Hiring Multiple Positions.

Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

INFOGROUP Now Hiring Multiple Positions.

Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

VINTAGE FINANCIAL GROUP Client Directives Coordinator.

Contact Heather Burwell at brad@vinatagefinancialgroup. com. Go to OmahaJobs.com.

OMAHA DOWNTOWN IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT Communications Coordinator.

Contact Holly@omahadowntown.org. Go to OmahaJobs. com for more information.

NELNET Now Hiring Multiple Positions.

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BUDGET CAR RENTAL Now Hiring Multiple Positions.

Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

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DEC. 18 - 24, 2014

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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

Resolutions?

Put your mind to it.

T

VISIONS FROM FIVE MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE • DECEMBER 18, 2014 • In the future, the average American will live in a building no larger than 300 square feet. They will share communal showers and kitchens, will be able to reserve party rooms for entertaining, and will spend most of their time away from their living space, which will

mostly be used for the sleeping.

Instead, the cities of the future will act as one enormous living space, providing all the things that we now rely on our homes for. The future city is a public venue, feeding, educating, and entertaining its citizens.

he calendar again creeps toward that time of year. Renewal, resolutions and change always seem to surround the New Year’s holiday.

New beginnings, self-improvement, casting aside old habits keeping us from happiness are on our “to do” list. Well, it’s time to move them to the “done” list.

You’ve tried to change before, tried to break old habits or establish new, healthier ones. What went wrong? Why was improvement short-lived or never realized in the first place? The answer is simpler than you might think and requires little.

To succeed at beneficial change, we have to admit a few things that we already know. First, acknowledge that there are two basic parts of the mind: the conscious, analytical, data-driven part of the mind and the subconscious part that actually runs the whole show. We know there are two parts of the mind because we experience that dichotomy every day. Secondly, we have to admit that the subconscious is the part of the mind that really learns how to do things and keeps us doing things that are complex and amazing. That point isn’t open to discussion. Just try walking, driving a car, typing a word or any number of bodily functions without your subconscious controlling the event.

Habits are based in the subconscious, maintained and ruled by the subconscious. If you want your body to change, your habits to change, your outlook to change, your behavior to change, you have to engage the subconscious mind.

So recognizing that the subconscious is the part of the mind we must use in order to really learn or make substantial change, that’s where we must give our attention.

Goal vs. Means Trying to micromanage change is futile. It’s bigger than the sum of its parts, so working on the small parts isn’t effective. The way we get somewhere in life is too complex, involves too many seemingly random (though actually not random at all) events and occurrences for our puny analytical minds to accomplish. Our best thinking and planning pale in comparison to events apparently beyond our control but nonetheless affecting our desired outcome.

Chance meetings, realizations, opportunities and acquisitions often pave the path once we set our goal.

If you want an airy-fairy, metaphysical description of it, here it is: The Universe hears our commitment to a goal and provides all manner of support that would not ordinarily come our way without our clear, ex-

pressed goal. Set the goal. Leave the means up to God/ Universe. Just make sure you pay attention when solutions emerge. (Goethe, et al.)

Do the work. Recognizing that the Universe is on your side in making change does not mean sitting on your bum, stuck on your thumb and saying, “It’s cool.

The Universe will make it happen.” No, the Universe provides a clear path with all manner of assistants and assistance but you must walk it. Part of that is providing the subconscious with thoughts to use.

The subconscious is a willing worker and readily accepts training. It learns and is accessed in a number of ways: repetition, high impact emotion, imaging, special techniques like hypnosis. You’ve trained your subconscious mind thousands of times since the day you were born. So now do it with intent.

When you first learned to drive a car, for instance, using your conscious, thinking mind you were terrible at it.

After repetition and practice, your subconscious mind took over the primary skills of keeping the car straight between the lines, knowing how much pressure to apply to the brake or accelerator, how to turn or observing traffic.

Same goes with any athletic or musical endeavor. While your conscious mind controlled the action, you sucked. With training and practice, your subconscious takes over the heavy lifting and runs the show. Think less. Perform better.

Dawn patrol. We spend all day in our conscious mind.

At night, we let it go and the subconscious mind is up front and center. The minute you wake up — before jumping into the conscious-mind gibberish of the day and its mundane plans — make a brief, positive statement of the day you want for real. Maybe it’s “Today I will breathe clean, fresh air all day” if I want to stop smoking. Carve your own statement to suit your goal.

Just keep it positive in syntax. When you tell the subconscious something like, “I won’t smoke today” all it hears is “smoke today.” Choose positive statements.

Affirmations Writing positive statements works, too.

Maybe something like, “I enjoy the taste of wholesome, nutritious foods,” if I’m trying to cut out sugar.

Writing engages the physical and the subconscious.

How many reps? I was told “seven times seventy.” At least make it a couple hundred a day. Get to where your mind is doing it quietly.

Visualize Used by virtually every successful athlete, visualization is best when the mind is quiet.

Learn more ways at HeartlandHealing.com/change Using some tricks to access the subconscious can help you turn New Year’s resolutions into new realities.

Be well. ,

HEARTLAND HEALING is a metaphysically based polemic describing alternatives to conventional

methods of healing the body, mind and planet. It is provided as information and entertainment, certainly not medical advice. Important to remember and pass on to others: for a weekly dose of Heartland Healing, visit HeartlandHealing.com.

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DEC. 18 - 24, 2014

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heartland healing

Preserving historical traditions of Latino music in Omaha, Nebraska

SouthOmahaArts.com 402.734.3240

L

eticia Mejias, one of the partners , is committed to making the experience of finding insurance as pleasant as possible. Along with co-owner/husband Robert and the other owners Diva and Al Mejias, they pride themselves with the best customer service, high quality and is their first priority.

“Clients come first always,” Mejias says. “We put their needs ahead of everything else. We try to give them the best information to keep them educated.

They don’t have to come with us, but we just want our clients and the general public to be well informed.”

“They come in, we give them a quote and they don’t have to necessarily buy a product from us, but as long as they leave knowing what kind of questions to ask if they do go somewhere else, we’re happy.”

BEST OPTIONS M&M Insurance recognizes it can be hard to compare coverage options, discounts, and insur-

Let M&M Insurance help with your health insurance!

ance policies on your own so every agent does their best to get you the most appropriate insurance rate for your needs. M&M Insurance offers for health Blue Cross/Blue Shield, United Health Care, Coventry, and Coopportunity, for auto/home MetLife, Progressive, Safeco, Travelers, The Hartford, and many others, which cover auto, motorcycle, home, renters, business, workers comp, all property and casualty insurance policies.

“We give you the options,” she says. “We can quote you on all of the available insurance companies. We are able to give you a broad variety. We can find something to better fit your budget.”

Mejias loves her work. “This job is very rewarding. All of the feedback from our clients last year, specially in health insurance was really positive. They were relieved they could go into the doctor and not worry about a massive bill coming in the mail. It’s great to know we are able to help people be healthier and be happy.”

M&M Insurance hours are Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

2734 S 123rd Ct. Omaha, NE 68144 Tel: 402.932.2910 | Fax: 402.884.2079 www.mminsassoc.com | THE READER |

DEC. 18 - 24, 2014

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SI T. S I P. E AT. NOSH R ESTAU R A N T A ND W I NE LO U N G E

M

B Y TA M S E N BU T L E R

y husband’s boss loves Nosh Restaurant and Wine Lounge, and not only because she lives right next to it in a fabulous loft, but because they have such an impressive, extensive wine inventory and really good food. So even though I’m not the biggest fan of wine (yeah, I know, I’m lame) I wanted to check it out for myself since I’m indeed a huge fan of good food.

Can we all just agree to move past the fact that I don’t really drink wine and get to the part where we talk about the food?

Granted, the drink selection at Nosh is quite dazzling.

There are over 100 wines from which to choose and there are also mixed drinks and beers available. I should mention that the beer isn’t on tap and is only available from bottles, but hey – it’s a wine bar, not a brewery.

The ambiance of Nosh just screams, “Here, have a seat.

Stay a while and sip something while you chat.” While there are tables near the entrance and at the bar, comfortable seating is present throughout the dining area along the walls. There’s also a really snazzy seating area a bit away from the bar that is separate from everything else. This is where you would sit if you just want to enjoy a drink and hang out with your friends. My guess is the configuration of this seating area changes frequently, with people moving seats around to accommodate their groups and have conversation without having to shout over the sound of other people.

I like the look of the décor too. I know that décor doesn’t make or break a restaurant, but if the place is already good, the décor can take it to the next level, which I think is what’s happening at Nosh.

I got to try a variety of their food offerings and everything was fresh and good. I hear that Nosh, like many other Omaha area restaurants, strives to offer local-sourced farm-to-table ingredients when possible, and this was apparent in the food I sampled. Simply

put, it sure didn’t taste as though anything had spent any time in a can before it made it to my plate.

My favorites were the Margherita Flatbread, the Nosh Sliders and the Spinach & Artichoke Dip. Oh, that dip. I had about three servings too many of that dip because I just didn’t want the experience to end.

I’d never had spinach and artichoke dip that featured crispy prosciutto before, and up until this point if you had asked me if this particular flavor combination would work I may not have endorsed it. But this worked. It didn’t matter what I ate the dip with — sliced veggies, crispy bread, whatever. It was all good.

I also have to mention that the sliders were a pleasant surprise because they were so substantial despite their petite size. One might look at the slider and think, “There’s no way that wee little slider is going to satisfy my hunger,” but it turns out that Nosh packs a whole bunch of stuff into that slider. Kobe ground beef, prosciutto, Havarti and truffle aioli are all packed into this tiny burger, but it sure doesn’t feel tiny.

You probably noticed that nearly everything I mentioned has prosciutto in it, and looking at their menu it sure seems to be a prevalent ingredient in most of their dishes. Luckily, the prosciutto makes sense in all these dishes and doesn’t overpower anything. Still, I can’t help but wonder if the staff sips on wine and gnaws on prosciutto in between their shifts, because those seem to be the two most available things at Nosh.

Service was great, the ambiance was comfortable, and the food was delicious. The drink selection is impressive. All in all, Nosh is sure worth a visit, especially if you want to eat, drink and hang out with your friends. ,

crumbs

for a couple interns to help out around the farm while learning all about sustainable farming. Room and partial board is provided, but the knowledge you’ll gain about running a sustainable farm makes this internship quite valuable indeed. The internship starts in May but you have to apply before April 15. rhizospherefarm.org ■ DRINK UP! Kona Brewing Company just announced they’re expanding their distribution to include Nebraska, which is great news if you’ve ever lamented that your beer drinking experiences here in the Heartland would be better if you could just get your hands on some Hawaiian beer. In other beverage news, Cantina Laredo is happy to report that their Creighton Bluejay Margarita is back on the menu.

— Tamsen Butler

■ OMAHA RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION The Omaha Restaurant Association announced the date for their annual meeting: Monday, Jan. 12 ,at Anthony’s Steakhouse. Of course it’s a dinner meeting, and includes cocktails, food and awards. New members will also be inducted. A portion of the ticket purchase price is tax-deductible. www. dineoutomaha.com ■ NEW YEAR’S EVE SHINDIG If you haven’t yet solidified plans for your New Year’s Eve celebration, check out the night’s offering from Spencer’s for Steak and Chops. A $75 Prix Fix menu offered that evening includes champagne and an impressive variety of gourmet food from which to choose. Make reservations early before they fill up. www.spencersomahaforsteaksandchops.com ■ GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY Rhizosphere Farm is looking

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DEC. 18 - 24, 2014

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dish

Nosh Restaurant and Wine Lounge, 1006 Dodge St. www.

NoshWine.com. Open daily at 11 a.m.

Crumbs is about indulging in food and celebrating its many forms. Send information about area food and drink businesses to crumbs@thereader.com.

9406VGAHLFReaderIceRinkNYEAd2.3x6.6_fnl.pdf

AN EVENING WITH

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A

n obvious problem when booking a show that includes two bands that haven’t played in years — whose heyday was nearly two decades ago — is there’s a very good chance no one will remember who they are. At least no one who still goes to rock shows.

Let me set the stage, because this isn’t just a story about two rock bands putting together a reunion show. It’s the story about the making of a scene.

Fade in: Oct. 8, 1989, The Lifticket Lounge in Benson. Two kids are hustling a relatively unknown band onto the club’s riff-raff stage. The trio consists of a geeky tall guy on bass named Krist Novoselic, a drummer named Chad Channing, and a blondehaired surfer-looking dude named Kurt Cobain.

Hundreds of people will say they were at the lounge that night, but only 40 or 50 of them aren’t liars.

The two kids who put on the show were Tim Moss and John Wolf. Their production company: Main Vein Productions.

“You hear about so many people being at that Nirvana show,” Wolf said from his midtown basement, sitting next to Moss and Moss’s massive pug, Henry BadAss Kissinger. “We had 40 or 50 people there, just enough to cover the $150 guarantee.”

To understand what pioneers Moss and Wolf were, you have to understand what the music scene was like in Omaha circa 1989. It was a craptacular collection of meat-market singles bars hosting cover bands. The only “original” rock concerts were held at the Civic Auditorium and featured national acts like Journey and Van Halen. Oh, there were a few punk shows going on at social halls, and Lincoln

had The Drumstrick, but for the most part, nothing.

“The shows we booked involved the music we wanted to see,” Wolf said. “No one else was doing anything like it at the time.”

Their first booking was in 1988 for folkpop bands Downy Mildew and Hetch Hetchy, an act that featured Michael Stipe’s sister, Linda. It didn’t take long until word got out about Main Vein and the duo was booking the best indie bands that labels like SST, Sub Pop and Matador had to offer at places like The Lifticket, Sokol Hall, Eagles Hall, Diamond Hall and the Howard Street Tavern.

“We spent a lot of time calling places,” Moss said. “When they found out we wanted to put on a rock show, they hung up.”

Among the more than 100 Main Vein-produced shows were Soundgarden (a mere $500 guarantee at The Lifticket), Bad Brains (nearly a disaster at Radial Hall when the stage and lighting rigs almost collapsed), and Ministry at Peony Park Ballroom (a $5,000 guarantee show that tanked).

Main Vein not only was the first production company to bring quality national indie rock bands to Omaha, but it opened the eyes of music fans for local acts by putting them on as openers. By the early ‘90s Omaha and Lincoln were experiencing their first indie Golden Age. Years before Saddle Creek Records made its mark, bands like Frontier Trust, Mousetrap, Sideshow and Simon Joyner were getting national attention.

Among those bands were Cellophane Ceiling and Ritual Device.

a producer of early Goo Goo Dolls records and an A&R guy from Hollywood Records, but nothing ever came of it. “It required a certain level of commitment that no one wanted to make at the time,” Wolf said.

Instead, the band played constantly throughout the Midwest, all the way to Chicago and did a West Coast tour with Buck Naked and the Bare Bottom Boys. Their last album, Breaker Breaker Love Maker, released on Main Vein in 1993, would become the band’s swan song. Sometime in ‘95, Cellophane Ceiling ended. “We never did a last gig,” Wolf said, “It was one of those things where we got to the point that no one wanted to tour. Our time had passed.”

Go online and you’ll find very little evidence of Cellophane Ceiling’s existence. A Google search will turn up a couple incomplete write-ups, a Discogs listing and a YouTube video directed by Dickson Le Bron for the single “Don’t Play God.” The blackand-white clip is a surrealist’s dream that features the band as futuristic marionettes on a chessboard sound stage controlled by a pair of gloved hands working a Star Trek-styled control board. At the center of the action is Wolf, sporting a mop of dark curly hair, white T-shirt and a classic post-punk sneer.

Ritual Device

Among those influenced

by Cellophane Ceiling was a young Tim Moss.

He’d met Wolf via mutual friend Jim Homan, and the three formed the trio Big Muff Pie just before Wolf and Moss launched Main Vein Productions.

A year later, a new band came on the scene that featured Mike Saklar on guitar, Jerry Hug on bass and Eric Ebers on drums. The frontman was Moss — a long-haired madman with a mumble-scream vocal style both rhythmic and creepy, like a homicidal drunk with a microphone.

One writer put it this way: “Ritual Device is a tortured, monolithic punk rock band whose sound has been aptly described as ‘gutter groove’ — perfect background music for your typical serial killing or high-speed car chase through a bombed-out Beirut neighborhood. The closest comparison? Maybe the Jesus Lizard meets Ministry with a little Nine Inch Nails thrown in (without the synths, of course). It is violent music, scary.”

Their first single, “Ritual Lips” — an ode to notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy — came out on Aural Rape Records (Moss’s insignia) continued on page 10y

Cellophane Ceiling

Wolf said he formed Cellophane Ceiling sometime around ‘84 or ‘85. He’d been in other bands while in high school at Millard North, but “Cellophane was the first time I was allowed to write my own songs.”

Featuring Wolf on guitar and vocals, Chris Sterba on bass and Steve Coleman on drums, Cellophane Ceiling’s style combined jangling college rock with grinding punk. Jim Healy of the The Omaha World-Herald called the band’s 1986 vinyl debut, The Beauty of it All, “a triumph of garage-band intensity and studio precision” and coined their sound “thrashabilly.”

“Before that we’d done a cassette-only release called Nothing Means Nothing that I don’t think I even have a copy of,” Wolf said. “And then we did the Fry EP.” The 7-inch, released on Wolf ’s Main Vein label in 1990, featured a cover photo by Mike Malone of an American flag behind the lenses of a gas mask (worn by Tim Moss).

“A lot of people locked into that EP, and music people began courting us,” Wolf said. Among them

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y continued from page 9

in 1991 and set the stage for the kind of twisted-yetgroovy punk that was the centerpiece for their 1993 full-length debut, Henge (Redemption / Dutch East India). Produced by The Jesus Lizard’s David Wm Sims and recorded in Steve Albini’s home studio, Henge was the band’s hallmark, which you can hear in its entirety on YouTube.

The band leveraged Dutch East India’s broad distribution power with national tours and quickly became notorious for their live sets that included Moss throwing raw pig ears and pig feet into the crowd. “I would get bored and wanted something to do,” Moss explained, “and dancing around is not my forte.” When he wasn’t throwing pig ears, Moss stalked the edge of the stage like a caged panther, staring down members of the crowd, grasping a microphone whose cord was tightly wound between his fist and elbow.

The band hit its high point in ‘93 when they were asked to play Lollapalooza in Des Moines alongside Tool, Babes in Toyland and Alice in Chains, among others. E! Entertainment news would name Ritual Device the ugliest band on Lollapalooza. The festival would be Jerry Hug’s last show with the band before he left to pursue a law degree. He was replaced with Randy Cotton, who played on the band’s 3-song live EP recorded at The Capitol Bar & Grill and released at the end of 1994 by Mafia Money Records “I kind of had an issue with major labels back then, I was against the whole thing,” Moss said. “We were courted by Atlantic Records. (Then A&R chief ) Wen-

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dy Berry wanted to sign us. She followed us around to shows and took us to really nice restaurants. But I pushed it off. The idea was to do more recording, but I had a hard time writing music after Jerry left right after Henge came out.”

The Aftermath

While all this was happening, Main Vein Productions slowly dried up. The Ranch Bowl had entered the concert-booking business and had cornered the market on touring indie bands. “We kind of petered out because we couldn’t compete with (Ranch Bowl owner) Matt Markel, who had sound, lights and security, and made money off the bar,” Moss said. “He could outbid us easily. It became less fun for me and John, and by then, we were more focused on our bands.”

Moss said the last Main Vein show was around 1993, except, of course, for what’s going on the night after Christmas. But I’ll get to that in a minute.

By the summer of 1995 Ritual Device also had come to a close. The previous year the band had released another 7-inch on Lincoln’s Caulfield and Ism labels, a split 7-inch (under the name Gacy Landscaping) with fellow local punkers Mousetrap on Dave Sink’s One Hour Records, and a split 10-inch with Madison band Killdozer on Frank Kozik’s Man’s Ruin Records.

Kozik would eventually coax Moss to move to San Francisco in ’96 and form a new band featuring Jerry Hug, Jeff Heater and John Wolf (among others). They would become known as The Men of Porn, a band whose sound had that same pounding groove that

pulsed through the best Ritual Device stuff. Where Porn differed was in its unrelenting love of distortion -- big, thick slabs of gloppy, primitive fuzz guitar. The band’s one-sheet for its debut album, American Style, warned potential listeners: “If distortion, dissonance and porn offend you, do not listen to this record.” And sure enough, you got plenty of all three.

The Men of Porn did some national touring, including a gig at the fledgling South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin. Eventually Porn would evolve into a band that featured Moss and whoever he could get to play with him. A 2013 Porn performance in England featured Bill Gould of Faith No More, Balázs Pándi of the band Merzbow and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore.

A tour road manager since 2002, Moss has worked with The Melvins (Dale Crover is a former member of Porn), Mastodon, High on Fire and Tomahawk, and is now managing Faith No More. Moss’ wife, Clementine, is member of Led Zeppelin tribute band Zepparella.

After Cellophane Ceiling ended, Wolf joined Bad Luck Charm with Mark Blackman, Lee Meyerpeter and Tom Barrett, carrying on the “thrashabilly” tradition until the band ended in 2011. Through it all, Wolf has made a living working for Cox Communications. He and his wife, Jenny, have raised two sons, Griffin, 12 and Nathan, 14.

So why do a reunion show?

“We always said we’d never do a reunion,” Wolf said about Cellophane Ceiling. But then over beers with Moss and Jerry Hug, the idea began to make sense. Cellophane bassist Chris Sterba also was in, but drummer

Coleman was unavailable, so taking over the kit for the Dec. 26 reunion show will be Filter Kings’ drummer Chris Siebken.

“It’s been fun relearning songs I’ve forgotten about,” Wolf said. “Chris and I have been going back and listening to things recorded twenty-something years ago, trying to figure out how we did it.”

Moss also is on the record as saying there would never be a Ritual Device reunion. “I like looking forward and not behind,” he said. “I’m not looking for memories on stage, but I always said if Cellophane Ceiling played again, then I’d play.”

The Ritual Device line-up for the Dec. 26 show at The Waiting Room will include all the original members: Moss, Saklar, Hug and Ebers. “It’s been a weird couple of drunken nights transcribing lyrics,” Moss said. “It’s taken me back to those songs and has me wondering what I was thinking when I wrote them, remembering things that were either good or bad.”

It’s only fitting that the reunion concert will be held in the same building where Moss and Wolf booked Nirvana 25 years ago. That’s right, The Waiting Room is located in the building that used to house The Lifticket Lounge.

And if you haven’t guessed already, the Dec. 26 reunion show is a Main Vein Production. , Ritual Device and Cellophane Ceiling play with Nightbird Friday, Dec. 26, at The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple St, Omaha. Showtime is 9 p.m. Tickets are $10. For more information, go to onepercentproductions.com.

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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 ONGOINGCULTURE The Highgrove Florilegium - All Day | Included with Garden Admission Lauritzen Gardens Plants from the garden of Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall.

The exhibit is published in a two volume fine art facsimile of original watercolors by many of the leading botanical artists from around the world. A selection of forty pieces from the publication will be on display through December 31.

Cut, Formed, Folded, Pressed: Paper - All Day | Museum of Nebraska Art Through Jan. 18.

At its simplest, paper is an ordinary, everyday item that is a part of most of our lives. Yet when it is found in the hands of an artist and is purposefully manipulated in some fashion, it can become a complex, three-dimensional artwork.

12 Below - All Day | Free Artists Cooperative Gallery Runs through Dec. 28. The only theme for this show is the dimension of the works 12x12x12’ which offers affordable gift giving sizes for holiday shopping. Watercolor, acrylic and oil paintings; bronze, wood and glass sculptures; photos, jewelry and ornaments will be on exhibit.

Small Art Show - Opening Reception - 2:00 pm | Free Howlin Hounds Coffee Local Artists are showcasing only their small pieces in this show.

Reminding us again that great things come in little packages - even in the art world. Featuring 17 local artists, live music and of course Hot Coffee. The show will run through Jan. 7.

Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) - 7:30 pm | $25-$30 The Blue Barn Theatre They’re Back! Theresa Sindelar, Ben Beck, and Bill Grennan reprise their hilarious characters in this fast, fond, and furious look at the holiday traditions we all remember, and a few we’d like to forget! From Tiny Tim to the Grinch, from Frosty to It’s a Wonderful Life, nothing is spared in this rollicking tour de farce!

A Christmas Story - The Rose Performing Arts Center Holiday Musical Join Ralphie Parker on his quest for the Holy Grail of Christmas gifts a Red Ryder air rifle. This musical adaptation of the beloved movie brings all the classic laughs of Flick getting his tongue stock to a flagpole, Dad receiving his special award, a disastrous visit to Santa, and many more to life onstage. Bring your family together this winter to experience the universal triumphs of childhood as seen through the eyes of a very special 9-year-old.

Holiday Lights Spectacular - 7:00 pm | Turner Park at Midtown Crossing Through Jan. 1 Midtown A sight and sound experience, the likes of which Omaha has never seen before and this event promises an enthusiastic, choreographed blend of light and seasonal music projected onto the Turner Park side of Midtown Crossing’s condominium buildings.

Steampunk Christmas - 7:30 pm | $30 Apollon Leather corsets and top hats. Wooden robots and spring-loaded garter belts. Zephyrs and rocket packs. Nothing says Christmas like magical Victorian-era machinery and twisted debauchery.

In our ongoing effort to produce something other than A Christmas Carol during the holidays, our artists are embracing Steampunk’s alternate history to imagine what Christmas would look like in a steam-powered world full of anachronistic technologies and retro-futuristic inventions.

A Christmas Carol - 7:30 pm | $18-$40 See Website Omaha Community Playhouse It just isn’t Christmas without A Christmas Carol. Experience Omaha’s favorite holiday tradition as Ebenezer Scrooge takes us on a life-changing journey filled with beautiful costumes, exquisite music, perfectly crafted sets and special effects second to none. Perfect for the whole family.

Amahl and the Night Visitors - 1:30 pm | University of Nebraska-Lincoln The tradition continues. A young crippled boy and his poor mother find their lives changed forever after a visit from three kings. Bring the entire family to this timeless holiday favorite, produced by UNL Opera.

Yesterday and Today - 7:30 pm | $32-$38 Omaha Community Playhouse An Interactive Beatles Experience Featuring Billy McGuigan 2007 By Rave On Productions. This all-request Beatles

tribute show will have you dancing in the aisles and singing along to every song. Share your stories and relive your memories with your favorite Beatles songs. No two shows are the same.

Nutcracker Delights - 7:00 pm | $12-$22 Bellevue Little Theater/KROC Center Ever After Productions Kicks Off the Holiday Season Production of ‘Nutcracker Delights’ Ever After Productions, Inc. will open its eighth annual season with a community production of ‘Nutcracker Delights’ at the Bellevue Little Theatre and the Omaha Kroc Center. This enchanting and charming ballet story with original script by local artist Julian Adair is set to the traditional glorious score

by Tchaikovsky and told through a wonderful cast of dancers and actors of all ages, uniting to represent more than 10 studios across the Omaha Metro Area. The production was nominated for two Theatre Arts Guild Awards in 2009.

Omaha Holiday Lights Festival – Times vary | Free - $5 Enjoy the gorgeous lights of downtown Omaha or head over to the Conagra Foods Ice Skating Rink through Jan. 4 and it benefits Food Bank for the Heartland.

Mannheim Steamroller Christmas – 7:30 pm | $38.25-$78.25 Slosburg Hall Orpheum Theater Experience the magic in town for two nights only December 22 and 23. This event by Chip Davis has been America’s favorite holiday tradition and this year marks the 30th Anniversary of the group’s annual tour. The spirit of the season comes alive with the signature sound of Mannheim Steamroller music.

Beauty and the Beast - 8:00 pm | $35 Orpheum Theater-Omaha Disney’s classic story of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a young prince trapped in a spell placed by an enchantress. The show has become an international sensation playing to more than 35 million people worldwide.

THURSDAY DEC 18

Live Jazz Pianist Mark Misfeldt - 7:30 pm | Free Battle Shots Tournament – 6:00 pm | The Down Under Lounge Get sunk down under!

The Bel Airs – 6:00 pm | The 21st Saloon Verbal GuMBo - 7:15 pm | $7 House of Loom Come get your hot, home-cooked pot of poetry, spoken word, music and love. Help us send 2014 on its way and begin to usher in the bright horizon that is 2015. Gumbo will be served too.

Metro Area Youth Jazz Orchestra - 7:00 pm | Free Ozone Lounge Mark Ellis – 7:30 pm | $16 Omaha Funny Bone Ellis has been seen in multiple films, shows, national television commercials, late-night television comedy showcases, numerous short films, and web projects.

Reggae Night - 8:00 pm | Free The Hive Lounge PechaKucha - 8:20 pm | Free The Slowdown Omaha Devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. They are informal and fun gatherings where creative people get together and share their ideas, works, thoughts, holiday snaps just about anything, really in the PechaKucha 2020 format, a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds.

Live Bandaoke with Sh*thook - 9:00 pm | Free Duffy’s Tavern Lincoln G Jones - 9:00 pm | $10 ADV/$15 DOS The Waiting Room Lounge With MedusA, HODJ, & Frank and Stan

FRIDAY DEC 19

Acoustic Happy Hour – 6:00 pm | Free The Down Under Lounge With Little Joe McCarthy from 6:00 – 8:00 pm and DJ Rhoe 9:00 pm – close.

Lights of Aksarben – 6:00 pm | Free Stinson Park Frostival 2014 - 6:30 pm | $10-$20 The Slowdown Omaha Seventh annual charity event benefiting Wounded Warriors Family Support & Open Door Mission. Donation prices require donation of unwrapped toy or 5 cans of food at the door.

John Caparulo - 7:30 or 9:45 pm | $22 Omaha Funny Bone From Chelsea Lately and Blue Collar Comedy: The NEXT Generation.

Live Jazz Pianist Kevin Lloyd - 7:30 pm | Free The Omaha Lounge Creighton Men’s Basketball - 8:00 pm | $15$50 CenturyLink Center Omaha Live Music - 9:00 pm | Free Horseshoe Council Bluffs Casino Suite 13 - 9:00 pm | Free Arena Sports Bar & Grill 3D In Your Face - 9:00 pm | $5 The 21st Saloon You wanna Rock? I wanna Rock? The big haired bad boys in 3D In Your Face will show you the Rock that never stops at The 21st Saloon. Bigger, louder, and nastier than anybody else and proud of it. 1989 called and they want their party back.

TKO GENEius Album Release Party - 9:00 pm | $10 The Waiting Room Lounge Blu Boi Muusic presents a great hip hop show headlined by TKO as he releases his 2nd album GENEius.

Bazile Mills - 9:00 pm | $7 Reverb Lounge Indie/ Country Blues band, Bazile Mills, is a tribute to a time almost forgotten and the ghost town. Bazille Mills was founded in 1882 after the first woolen mill in Nebraska was erected just north of town.

The group is based around songwriter David Mainelli and features some of the finest players in Omaha. 2014 Omaha Entertainment Award nominee for Best Nominee Artist, BZM is working on a new LP that they hope to release in spring of 2015 with an EP out first after New Year’s.

Joey Zimmermans Graduation Music & Comedy Show - 9:00 pm | $3-$7 The Bourbon Theatre Hosted by D-Wayne Beatbox w/Joey Zimmerman, John Thome, Theodrick Nelson, Grant Parsons Charm School Dropouts - 9:00 pm | Ozone Lounge Ugly Christmas Sweater Party - 9:00 pm | Free California Bar Prizes for best/worst Sweater!

Karaoke with Dynamic Air DJs featuring DJ Sean Skit Nevius and tons of great specials on drinks!

“Interrogated” - 10:00 pm | Free Backline Improv Theatre The Arena - 11:00 pm | Backline Improv Theatre

SATURDAY DEC 20

Creighton Women’s Volleyball - 12:00 pm | $5$15 D.J. Sokol Arena Holiday Ice Spectacular - 12:00 pm | Free Ralston Arena Holiday Ice Show and Open Skate! Celebrate the season with the Ralston Skating Academy. Their ‘Holiday Ice Spectacular’ featuring Omaha’s top competitive skaters is sure to become a new holiday tradition as RSA skaters jump and spin to your favorite holiday tunes. You are invited to let them entertain you, then stay after for a Free Holiday open skate. Holiday Ice Show: 12-1pm. Open House/Public: 1-2:30pm.

Skate rental is free during the Open House.

Paint, Drink & Be Merry with Vino Van Gogh - 1:00 pm | $38 Nosh Wine Lounge Reader users only save $12 off when registering online at www.VinoGogh.com. Use code ‘Holiday12’ University of Nebraska Women’s Basketball - 3:00 pm | Free University of NebraskaLincoln Frostival 2014 - 6:30 pm | $10-$20 The Slowdown Omaha Night two!

UNO Hockey - 7:07 pm | $17-$25 CenturyLink Center Omaha John Caparulo - 7:30 or 9:30 pm | $22 Omaha Funny Bone 7:30 show Sold Out. Live Jazz and Blues Guitarist George Walker - 7:30 pm | Free The Omaha Lounge Nevermind: Unplugged - 8:00 pm | $8 The Waiting Room Lounge This special event has been created with the sole purpose of re-creating in a live atmosphere, the look and feel and sound of two of the most iconic unplugged albums in rock music history. Nevermind will be performing Nirvana Unplugged front to back, and Alice Unchained will be performing Alice In Chains Unplugged from front to back as well. One special night of legendary music brought to you 1% Productions and Midwest Elite Concerts.

Taxi Driver - 9:00 pm | Ozone Lounge Doc Throttle - 9:00 pm | Free Arena Sports Bar & Grill Sower Records Presents: The Bottle Tops – 9:00 pm | $5 Reverb Lounge With Bud Heavy and the High Lifes, Matt Cox, Jack Hotel, Little Marais and Evan Bartels & the Stoney Lonesomes

Live Music - 9:00 pm | Free Horseshoe Council Bluffs Casino The SuperBytes, Thirst Things First and Sputnik Kaputnik – 9:00 pm | $5 The Down Under Lounge Saturday Night Dance Party - 9:00 pm | The Hive Lounge Powerslop LP Release - 9:00 pm | $5 The Bourbon Theatre An evening of live music with Powerslop and special guests Plack Blague, Astral Menace, Feeder/Gainer.

Skretta Ect & Commander Kilroy - 9:00 pm | $5 Barley Street Tavern 21+ event with special guests for the evening is the band Commander Kilroy. The Skretta Ect guys will bring their brand of rock to the stage, with everything from the Beatles to AC/DC and several of their radio played originals. The Commander Kilroy guys are known for their style of rock which has been termed: ‘Superhero Rock.’ This is a NOT-Miss show when these two musical forces come together.

SUNDAY DEC 21

Healing Tender Hearts - 11:30 am | Free Stinson Park, Aksarben Village Eat Healthy- Stay Fit Zumba Fitness Takeover.

Paint, Drink & Be Merry with Vino Van Gogh - 4:00 pm | $38 Spezia Hector Anchondo CD Release Party- 4:00 pm | $8 The Slowdown Omaha Born just right of the Great Plains in Omaha, Nebraska and raised in the hills of the Ozark Mountains near Salem, Missouri, Hector is well on his way to being up there with the best of them and his dedication, love of writing, and performing will surely lead the way.

UNO Hockey - 5:07 pm | $17-$25 CenturyLink Center Omaha Funny Bone Omaha’s Clash of the Comics - 7:00 pm | $5 Omaha Funny Bone Local and regional comedians give the best 5 they have - winner at the end of the evening gets a one night paid spot in front of a nationally touring headliner at the Funny Bone.

Salsa Sundays - 7:00 pm | $5 House of Loom Clarence Tilton, Matt Cox and The Electroliners - 7:00 pm | $7 The Waiting Room Lounge Coat drive for Omaha’s Heart Ministry Center.

Admission is free with a coat donation.

Live Jazz and Blues Pianist Ray Williams 7:30 pm | Free The Omaha Lounge Luigi, Inc. - 9:00 pm | Free Mr. Toad’s Pub Omaha Routine Escorts - 9:00 pm | $7 Reverb Lounge A night of Electronic music from T. Flaherty and J. Tverdik.

MONDAY DEC 22

Creighton Women’s Volleyball - 6:00 pm | $5$15 D.J. Sokol Arena Live Blues and Jazz Saxaphone with Ed Archibald - 7:30 pm | Free The Omaha Lounge Open Mic - 9:00 pm | Free Barley Street Tavern Monday Night Comedy - 9:00 pm | Free Duffy’s Tavern Lincoln Mike Gurciullo And His Las Vegas Band 9:00 pm | Ozone Lounge

TUESDAY DEC 23

Pub Quiz - 9:00 pm | Free The Slowdown Omaha Pretty much weekly since 2007. Gather up a team of friends (or brains) and get ready for a challenge from the Quiz Masters.

Live Blues Guitarist and Vocalist “Hector Anchondo” - 7:30 pm | Free The Omaha Lounge Neva Dinova - 8:00 pm | $10 The Slowdown Omaha Reunion show. It’s been a long 6 years, fellas.

We cannot wait for one of our all-time faves to take the stage again.

Josh Hoyer - 9:00 pm | Ozone Lounge REModeled - 9:00 pm | $7 Reverb Lounge A tribute band by and for old-school R.E.M. fans, on a mission to perform every album in chronological order.

A Very Max Chill Christmas - 9:00 pm | Free O’Leaver’s Pub Come celebrate the holidays with laughter, joy, and booze. The Max Chill Show is back for a very special free holiday comedy show and we’ve brought some friends! Featuring: Zach Peterson (Chicago) Preston Tompkins (Denver) Patrick James (Denver) And More! This comedy cavalcade will feature standup comedy, sketch comedy, and maybe a drunk Santa or two. All hosted by the chillest to the max dudes, Bob Gurnett and Brandon Cordes.

Karaoke – 10:00 pm | The Down Under Lounge

WEDNESDAY DEC 24

Live Jazz Pianist Ben Tweedt - 7:30 am | Free The Omaha Lounge Ray’s Piano Party - 7:00 pm | Free Mr. Toad’s Pub Omaha Comedy Open Mic - 10:00 pm | Free Barley Street Tavern

listings

| THE READER |

DEC. 18 - 24, 2014

13

Everyone loves gif ts from JAKE’S Cigars Spirits Wines Craf t-Beers Accessories and More...

62nd & Maple - jakescigars.com

14

DEC. 18 - 24, 2014

| THE READER |

hoodoo

BY B.J. HUCHTEMANN

Changes, Bel Airs & More

I

f you missed the letter from editor/publisher John Heaston in the Thanksgiving issue or the weekly updates that have appeared since then, The Reader is going monthly beginning in January 2015. Hoodoo’s event-oriented content will move to online only. There will continue to be a Hoodoo presence in the new monthly Reader. Each issue will be organized around thematic content while offering more in-depth looks at news, community and cultural issues. So follow the Hoodoo tab at thereader.com and bookmark it to get the weekly Hoodoo content you are used to reading here.

Hector Anchondo CD Release Hector Anchondo Band has a CD release party for their new disc, Young Guns, at Slowdown Sunday, Dec. 21, 3 p.m. Note this is a special matinee show. Cleveland Blue and Kait Berreckman also perform. Hector Anchondo Band is the Blues Society of Omaha’s 2014-15 Nebraska Blues Challenge winner and represents the BSO at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis Jan. 20-24.

See blues.org/international-blues-challenge.

Rock Photo Show Drips Coffee at 1010 S. Main in Council Bluffs features “A View From the Pit” through Jan. 16, showcasing concert photography from local shooters Chip Duden, Chris Fletcher and Josh Smisek. In addition to the display, the photographers

hoodoo

will host a couple of concert photography workshops in January. Work is available for purchase too. See dripscoffee.com for details.

Sower Records Showcase Lincoln-based Americanaroots label Sower Records hosts a showcase at Reverb Lounge Saturday, Dec. 20, 9 p.m. Performers include The Bottle Tops, Matt Cox, Bud Heavy & The High Lifes, Jack Hotel, Little Marais and Evan Bartels & The Stoney Lonesomes. See facebook. com/sowerrecords.

Coat Drive Clarence Tilton, Matt Cox and The Electroliners play the Waiting Room Sunday, Dec. 21, 7 p.m. The country-roots show is a coat drive for Omaha’s Heart Ministry Center that serves poor families in our city. See heartministrycenter.org.

Admission is free with a coat donation. Gently used coats for parents and children are needed.

Hot Notes The popular blues, R&B and roots-rock of The Bel Airs boogies into The 21st Saloon Thursday, Dec. 18, 6-9 p.m. Josh Hoyer’s Sons of 76 has a reunion show Friday, Dec. 19, 9 p.m., at Lincoln’s Zoo Bar with The Wondermonds and SAS. Kris Lager Band plays their only Omaha show for the next few months at Waiting Room Tuesday, Dec. 23, 9 p.m.

Shawn Holt’s Lil’ Slim Blues Band plays Christmas night, Dec. 25, 9 p.m. at Lincoln’s Zoo Bar, carrying on the tradition started by the late Magic Slim. ,

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.

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| THE READER |

DEC. 18 - 24, 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

Dying to Get a Date

L

ike many in society’s subgroups, people who work in “death” industries or professions in the U.K. may believe it difficult to reach “like-minded” suitors. Hence, Carla Valentine established Dead Meet earlier this year and told Vice.com in October that she has drawn 5,000 sign-ups among morticians, coroners, embalmers, cemetery workers, taxidermists, etc., who share her chagrin that “normal” people are often grossed out or too indiscreet to respect the dignity of her industry’s “clients.”

We might, said Valentine, need a sensitive companion at the end of the day to discuss a particularly difficult decomposition. Or, she added, perhaps embalmers make better boyfriends because their work with cosmetics helps them understand why “many women take so long to get ready.”

Can’t Possibly Be True A passerby shooting video in November outside the Lucky River Chinese restaurant in San Francisco caught an employee banging large slabs of frozen meat on the sidewalk -- which was an attempt, said the manager, to defrost them. A KPIX-TV reporter, visiting the precise sidewalk area on the video, found it covered in “blackened gum, cigarette butts and foot-tracked bacteria,” but the manager said the worker had been fired and the meat discarded. (The restaurant’s previous health department rating was 88, which qualifies as “adequate.”)

-- India’s Orissa state has established “health camps” to facilitate mass sterilizations to help control the booming population, but procedures were halted in November when Dr. Mahesh Chandra Rout matter-of-factly told BBC News that camps routinely used ordinary bicycle pumps to inflate women’s abdo-

16

DEC. 18 - 24, 2014

| THE READER |

weird news

mens. Orissa’s senior health official immediately ended the practice and ordered sterilizations only in hospitals.

(Enlarging the abdomen helps the surgeon to operate, but the proper agent is carbon dioxide.)

-- The Food and Veterinary Administration of Denmark shut down the food supplier Nordic Ingredients in November after learning that it used an ordinary cement mixer to prepare gelatin products for nursing home and hospital patients unable to swallow whole food. An FVA official told a reporter: “It was an orange cement mixer just like bricklayers use. There were layers (of crusty remains) from previous uses.” As many as 12 facilities, including three hospitals, had food on hand from Nordic Ingredients.

Government in Action Questionable Judgment: Assistant Attorney General Karen Straughn of Maryland issued an official warning recently for consumers to watch out for what might be called “the $100 bill on the windshield” scam. (That is, if you notice a $100 bill tucked under your wiper, do not try to retrieve it; it is likely there to trick you into opening your door to a carjacker.) When questioned by WJLA-TV of Washington, D.C., Straughn admitted there were no actual reports of such attempts -- and that the story is a well-known urban legend -- but nonetheless defended the warning.

-- Lesson in Civics: North Hempstead, New York, enforces its dog-littering ordinance with steep $250 fines and street-sign warnings displaying the amount.

However, insiders have long known that the signs are wrong -- that the written regulation calls for fines of only $25 -- and officials have been discussing how to correct their error while still discouraging littering. According to a November WCBS-TV report, now that residents know the actual amount, the debate is whether to replace the erroneous signs (expensive) or just raise the fine 1,000 percent (to $250) and save money.

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).

-- As revealed in a spirited public meeting of the Huron Valley (Michigan) Board of Education in November, gun-carriers’ freedoms in the state appear complicated, in that a person with training and who submits to state licensing to carry a concealed weapon may carry it even on school grounds (despite the federal Gun-Free Zones Act of 1990).

Michigan’s lawful exception to the act requires concealed permit-holders to carry the gun unconcealed, which many parents contend frightens younger children. Also, though it is illegal for anyone alcohol-impaired to carry a gun anywhere, the legal threshold for presumed impairment in Michigan is only .02 percent for a licensed permit holder, but probably .08 percent for unlicensed “open”-carriers (who are not covered by the “concealed” law).

The Continuing Crisis As young professionals have embraced urban neighborhoods, locally grown produce has proliferated in community (and even backyard) gardens and is thought to be healthier than pesticide-laden commercial produce. However, the New York Post revealed in November (based on state Health Department data) that such gardens in constructiondense New York City are vulnerable to astonishingly high levels of lead and other toxic metals. One community garden in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant, for example, showed levels of lead nearly 20 times the safe level.

Wait, What?

In November, a clothing store on Yabao Road in Beijing came under criticism for posting a sign, “Chinese Not Admitted,” on its door. An employee told the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper that no one should believe that “we Chinese look down upon ourselves. But some Chinese customers are too an-

noying.” (A legal scholar told the newspaper that China, except for Hong Kong, has no law against racial or ethnic discrimination.)

Least Competent Criminals (1) Unclear on the Concept: A 34-year-old man was arrested at a Tesco supermarket in Bar Hill, England, on Nov. 12 when he entered the store and threatened employees -- by showing them a photograph of a gun. (2) Recurring Theme: Two men were arrested easily in Silver City, New Mexico, in December. Thieves had broken into Javalina Coffee House downtown and dragged away the ATM behind their truck. With the help of a witness -- and especially the gouge marks in the street running from the Javalina directly to the nearby residence of the men -- police nabbed the two and were still searching for a third.

Armed and Clumsy (all-new!)

Won’t Make That Mistake Again: (1) Ralik Hansen, 28, suspected in a dramatic New York City jewelry robbery, heard a knock at the door of a Brooklyn home in October, squeezed down under a couch and accidentally shot himself to death. (He thought he was hiding from police; it was a delivery man.) (2) Dennis Emery, 57, according to neighbors a frequent gunbrandisher at home in Pinellas Park, Florida, accidentally mishandled one during a November domestic argument and fatally shot himself in the face. (3) A 26-year-old woman in St. Louis, who had recently purchased a handgun to protect against potential violence in Ferguson, was waving it around while riding in a car with a friend, causing him to grab for it, and a shot fatally struck her.

(However, police still have not closed that case.) ,

Upcoming Events men’s Basketball Friday, Dec. 19th, 8:01 PM vs.

Women’s Basketball Saturday, Dec. 20th, 12:05 PM vs.

Monday, Dec. 22nd, 6:05PM vs.

For more information call or visit:

Preserving historical traditions of Latino music in Omaha, Nebraska

SouthOmahaArts.com 402.734.3240

weird news

| THE READER |

DEC. 18 - 24, 2014

17

cuttingroom

THE

BABADOOK

MADE

T

he horror genre is not my least favorite genre solely because white people keep making period costume dramas. At their worst, horror flicks revel in sadism and do so shoddily, with weak acting, sparse storytelling, frequent misogyny and amateurish cinematography. Writer/director Jennifer Kent ain’t about that life. Filled with layers of rich meaning, two spectacular performances and whizz-inducing frights, Kent’s The Babadook isn’t a good horror movie; it’s a great film.

Amelia (Essie Davis) is a widow trying to raise an incredibly difficult child, Samuel (Noah Wiseman). The boy is ensorcelled by monsters, prone to spastic behavior and obsessed with his dead father. Amelia is hanging on by a thread, working herself to the bone at a nursing home while up all hours of the night with a son she’s beginning to resent. Samuel is convinced that he will have to protect his mother against a supernatural attacker, so he continues to build weapons, which gets him kicked out of school and sends Amelia into a panic.

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

DEC. 18 - 24, 2014

ME

PEE

A

LITTLE

BY

Then they find the book.

“Mr. Babadook” is a pop-up children’s book that would be at home in Hell’s pediatric waiting room. A trench-coated beastie with knives for fingers, the promise Mr. Babadook makes is that once you’ve seen or heard of him, you can’t get rid of him. At first, Amelia is quick to reprimand Samuel for believing the ominous tale; that is, until she hears the clawing at the door.

Let’s check this box first: The Babadook is scary. It’s very scary. It achieves that scary with restraint and skill, largely forgoing “jump scares” in favor of methodical terror. Kent conceals and reveals with masterful timing; some of the most terrifying moments occur with nary a Baba or Dook present. Were it simply frightening, The Babadook would have to be considered a success, as the horror genre uses “pant-wetting terror” as its barometer of success. But this is so, so much more than that.

This is a film about grief and what the inability to eventually welcome that emotion into the basement

RYA N

SYREK

of one’s heart does to a person. It is also a movie about how incredibly difficult being a parent to a troubled child can be. The frustration, the absolute agony of Amelia pleading with Samuel to behave, to “just be normal,” is raw and palpable. She knows it’s not her son’s fault that he’s “like this,” but that doesn’t make her sleepless nights and public shaming any easier.

Ultimately, The Babadook is a story about the ability of love and compassion, of bravery and family bonds, to overcome the most unthinkable of tragedies and the most immeasurable pain. And it’s a friggin’ horror movie.

Whatever Kent does for her second film, be it a documentary on navel lint or a four-hour Victorian-era romance, I’m there. The Babadook is a reminder that what makes a film truly great transcends genre. Good storytelling is good storytelling, even if that story features a pop-up demon who scares the pee out of me. , GRADE = A

First-Run Films The Theory of Everything First-Run (PG-13)

Dir. James Marsh.

Through Thursday, January 8 In a matter of years, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking met the love of his life, was diagnosed with the neurological disorder that paralyzed him, and made the initial breakthroughs that founded his revolutionary scientific work. This is an uplifting recounting of this extraordinary time.

| THE READER |

film

n I’m growing increasingly okay with this whole Ghostbusters 3 thing. The decision to hire director Paul Feig and cast the team as all women feels inspired, as the current number of movies anchored by a team of women this year stands at…hold on a tic, lemme check…zero. It stands at zero. News broke this week that Rebel Wilson and Jennifer Lawrence have both spoken to Feig about the film. The former is expected, but the latter is super promising. Lawrence is flat-out hilarious yet continues to choose roles where humor isn’t permitted. Seriously, has anyone even smiled in The Hunger Games? I can’t say I’m fully excited yet, but I have moved from “meh” to “maybe.” n If you haven’t heard, there’s a significant chance that North Korea hacked the Sony Pictures website in retaliation for the upcoming Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy The Interview. That’s a real thing; a movie by guys who make fart jokes may have prompted cyber terrorism from a corrupt regime. Less awesome than that is the fallout for Sony, who has had to endure private and insensitive emails becoming very, very public. From execs calling Angelina Jolie a spoiled brat to others suggesting Kevin Hart is a whore, it’s basically like the Internet got their hands on Sony’s “Burn Book.” As intrusive and bad as that all is, let’s take just a second to put mansplainer Judd Apatow on blast. He took to twitter to state this: “Releasing private Sony e mails to hurt people is the same as releasing nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence.” No, Judd, having private correspondence leak is not the same as having your body violated by the eyes of every horny wanker with an internet connection. I look forward to Apatow’s next movie You’re Worse Than Hitler. n One bit of actual interesting movie news that came from the Sony leak has gotten a lot of deserving press.

There’s a chance that the next Jump Street movie will also be a reboot of Men in Black. Yes, for real. Basically, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) would join the secret government agency that handles aliens in the next sequel. Considering how colossally bland and inert the Men in Black series has gotten and how inspired and fun the Jump Street series is, color me gleeful about this bizarre approach. Hell, let’s do this with more stuff! Like, they can reboot the valuable Driving Miss Daisy franchise with the 50 Shades of Grey sequel!

—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).

Forever Young The Babadook First-Run

Dir. Jennifer Kent.

Starts Friday, December 19

When a disturbing storybook called “The Babadook” turns up, a little boy is convinced that the Babadook is a creature that’s been threatening he and his mother in his dreams.

When mom begins to see glimpses of a sinister presence all around her, it slowly dawns on her that the thing her son has been warning her about may be real.

It’s a Wonderful Life 1946 Dir. Frank Capra.

December 20, 21 & 25

In this holiday staple, a man learns about the power of kindness, integrity, and generosity.

Coming Soon Happy Valley First-Run A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night First-Run Inherent Vice First-Run (R) National Gallery First-Run Mr. Turner First-Run

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| THE READER |

DEC. 18 - 24, 2014

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S D N U RO K N U P OF

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A I , s f f u L B L I COUNC

Total Chaos