Wednesday, March 13,2013

Who wants to be art?

Broad Art Museum needs your face for its first masterpiece

by Lawrence Cosentino

Friday, Oct. 26 — When the crew of a Hollywood blockbuster comes to town, locals clamor to get into the picture. Who wouldn’t want to be Scorched Bystander 43 in a firefight between aliens and superheroes? Michigan State University’s Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, set to open Nov. 10, is offering a more thoughtful way for ordinary people to get their faces into a colossal picture.

Broad Museum impact

Study sees $5.75 million a year in new spending; higher-end shopping needed

by Lawrence Cosentino

Monday, Nov. 5 — An economic impact study to be released this week by Michigan State University projects $5.75 million annually in new spending from 150,000 visitors a year to the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum.

Healing and bad blood

LCC's 'Laramie Project: 10 Years Later' re-opens an old wound

by Lawrence Cosentino

It's been 10 years since we've checked in on Laramie, Wyo. Strip malls are spreading. The Wal-Mart is now a Super Wal-Mart. There’s a Chili's now. They're drilling new oil and gas wells. It's classic Everytown, USA stuff — right down to the untapped domestic reserves of bigotry and denial.

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Wednesday, March 13,2013

'It wasn't just a big party'

'Garden of Joy' brings words and music of the Harlem Renaissance to Wharton Center

by Lawrence Cosentino

The poets and musicians of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance bottled enough of New York’s fabled "Negro Metropolis" to keep you high on Harlem for the rest of your life.

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Wednesday, March 6,2013

Cristo Rey merger on hold

Diocese meets with citizens' group; spokesman says 'all options are on table’'

by Lawrence Cosentino

After meeting with a group of citizens worried about the fate of North Lansing's Cristo Rey Community Center, the Catholic Diocese of Lansing has backed off its plan to merge the center with St. Vincent Catholic Charities.

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Wednesday, March 6,2013

Delicate infiltration

Jazz trio joins Lansing Symphony for powerful night of music

by Lawrence Cosentino

It felt like a security breach at a gated community when a man in the audience at the Wharton Center alerted his wife to an unfamiliar glint on the stage before a Lansing Symphony concert Saturday night.

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Wednesday, March 6,2013

GLONNGG!!

by Lawrence Cosentino

"Ahhh-TEN-shun, LAYYY-deez and gentlemen! For the first time ever, this year's City Pulse/WLNS Top of the Town Contest has TWO rounds. WELL-caaaahhhmm to the second and final round — the FINAL FIVE!!"

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Wednesday, February 27,2013

Night of confluence

Lansing Symphony chaperones a heavy classical-jazz date

by Lawrence Cosentino

After a while, you can tell when musicians are "excited to be doing X" because it's their default mode and when they really are a little bit on fire. Composer Brian Gaber, a professor at Florida State University, is the creator of "Ancestral Waters," a hybrid classical-jazz-African piece that weaves a soprano soloist, a jazz trio and a symphony orchestra into a multi-layered reverie on the African-American experience.

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Wednesday, February 27,2013

Comics: The Thing With Three Brows!

Low, middle and high culture converge at the MSU Comics Forum

by Lawrence Cosentino

There are questions you both love and hate to hear. Ryan Claytor gets one often: "Where do I start reading comics?" You can't blame people for asking him. Claytor, 33 writes and draws comics, teaches comic art at Michigan State University and organizes the MSU Comics Forum, an annual gathering of creators, scholars and fans coming this weekend on campus, now in its sixth year and growing.

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Wednesday, February 27,2013

From 'The Salon' to the big sky

Nick Bertozzi unpacks a bottomless bag of comic tricks

by Lawrence Cosentino

From French-ified sound effects like "knoque" to carefully beaded Lakota Sioux word balloons, comic artist Nick Bertozzi carries a loose bag of storytelling tricks — some stolen, some adapted, some invented.

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