West Michigan's Arts & Entertainment Guide
Now this is perfectly adorable: an entire multi-day, multi-event festival centered around the simple beauty of a puckering tulip. Our uber-religious West Michigan Dutch ancestors may have the same reputation for partying hardy as Principal Rooney, but don’t let those visions of stuffy, starched Puritan-wear fool you – the Dutch are, in fact, rather good at creating celebrations around almost anything, particularly plants.
We don't think the world really ever have enough eccentric, folksy mellow dudes. Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan, better known as the indie guitar duo Milk Carton Kids, were astute enough to perceive of the never-ending demand for a gentle guitar lick over an introspective lyric.
While we haven’t seen or heard too much from the great late ‘90s/early millennial rapper Cam’ron, please rest assured, dear fan of the streets, that everything continues to go swimmingly for the multi-media mogul rhyme master dude bro. (Honestly, is there any hat these badass dudes like Mr. C here don’t wear? Caterer? Florist?)
Gotta love it when a classically trained musical prodigy shucks tradition to become a totally badass DJ. OK, well, Will Wiesenfeld, known to the glow stick crowd as Baths, is perhaps the only example I can come up with to demonstrate such a phenomenon, but hopefully other electronically minded folks will follow his stunning example.
You know what grandma always used to say: “Never trust a Canadian in Japanese clothing.” Or wait, was it “always trust them…. To rock your friggin' little socks off”? It was probably the latter, especially if granny made a regular habit of grooving to Tokyo Police Club instead of Lawrence Welk.
The National is a band that, like our nation itself, embrace diversity alongside a wicked rebelliousness streak. But wait, diversity? We mean of sound, silly. Yeah, OK, it’s seven white dudes jamming together on an indie rock label, but don’t let what’s on top fool you: The National’s cred actually stretches well beyond the length of the Mississippi.
While soaking up the beats and rhymes of Quincy Matthew Hanley – better known as ScHoolboy Q – it’s not hard to draw the conclusion that Hanley may have been born a decade too late. With rapid West Coast-rapper sensibilities and a maximum dose of dynamite delivery, the Q man (he can’t be a boy forever, can he?) could have fit quite snuggly among West Side elites like Snoop, Tupac and Dre.
It’s entirely possible that Howie Day is an egotistical jerk (further reading: Day, Howie, history of arrests), but it’s hard to deny the role he’s played in putting power pop back on the musical culture map. A frequent presence on the early 2000s indie rock scene, Day has recorded and released three full-length studio albums and nearly a dozen EPs.
OK, we already know exactly what you’re thinking: “Wow. A whole festival devoted to keyboards!” That’s it, right? Only thing about the heading that gripped you? Or was it the fact that BEN FREAKIN’ FOLDS is going to be in KALA-MA-FREAKIN-ZOO, and oh hey, that’s kind of right next door, no matter where you are in West Michigan.
Fitness Best Bet: Jillian Michaels
Written by Emma Kat Richardson | Friday, 21 February 2014 16:14 |In case you haven't heard of her, Jillian Michaels is a lot like the real life version of Brooke Windham, Ali Larter's character from the original Legally Blonde. The difference is, Michaels didn't get to where she is by bending and snapping; rather, she's a genuine self-help, self-styled fitness guru with a sense of integrity that stretches beyond the length of a dollar sign.
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