Reading Rob Kirkpatrick's "1969: The Year Everything Changed" (Skyhorse Publishing, 320 pages, $14.95) brought back a wave of memories to this reviewer, who at the time was a reporter/editor at The Milwaukee Sentinel, eight years out of college.Read more
HUNTINGTON, WV (HNN) – Thor’s hammet has already bounded the boxoffice. Hampered by multiple mystic locations of the “gods” and banishment on Earth, Kenneth Branagh (known for Shakespearean dramas , “Hamlet,” “As You Like It,” “Henry V” and “Sleuth”) directs an origin myth that evokes intensity particularly the monster battles and the inner-family disputes.On the other hand, the mystic versus real Earth switching has awkward incongruity. The 3D works particularly on the "journey" from Asgard to Earth and the twinkling universe. Read more
Something old, Something new, Something borrowed and something blue represent ‘good luck’ for a bride. The bridal custom began in the Victorian era , and, obviously, the borrowed object represented an item loaned from a happily married friend or family member. It certainly did not foretell a loan that set off serial cheating by a bridesmaid and the groom. Read more
Award-winning fine art photographer Laura Mohl will conduct a photography marketing course on Monday, May 16, 2011 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Cabell Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau located at Heritage Station in Huntington, West Virginia (course # WV20).Read more
What would happen if the United States became ground zero for a mysterious global pandemic, caused by an extraterrestrial dust mite brought back by an international team of astronauts? Brought back to a country run by a maniacal, Darth Vader-like vice president, who treats President Montgomery like a frat boy figurehead.Read more
Jeff Mann, son of Huntingtonnews.net columnist Perry Mann and a teacher of creative writing at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, has just published a book of poetry, "Ash: Poems from Norse Mythology" (Rebel Satori Press, 136 pages, $13.95, available from Amazon.com).Read more
In his book, lawyer and former prosecutor Kendall Coffey reviews scores of high-profile trials and analyzes how the media and public opinion impacted the guilty or not guilty verdict.Read more
ASHLAND , Ky. (HNN) – Van Johnson, Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball stars in the Paramount Performing Arts Center’s Second Sunday (Retro) Film Series.
“Yours Mine and Ours,” in which a widower with ten children hitches a widow with eight children rolls at 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon, May 8. The two meet at a naval base in San Francisco, where there’s an instant attraction, but the sheer size of the potential combined family leads them to call it quits.Read more
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (HNN) – Huntington is one of 100 cities across the United States participating Thursday, May 12, in “100 Cities, One Night for Autism,” a unique theatrical screening of the critically acclaimed documentary, “Wretches & Jabberers,” sponsored nationally by the John P. Hussman Foundation and the Autism Society.Read more
HUNTINGTON, WV (HNN) -May the Gods be smiling. The Marvel Universe expands this weekend as the legendary Thor comes to the big, 3D movie screen. Read more
RICHMOND, VA (HNN) - Summer blockbuster season finally kicks into gear with the release of “Thor,” based on the popular Marvel comic superhero. “Thor” is merely the first in a long line of superhero films that are coming out in the next year or two that includes “Captain America,” “X-Men: First Class,” and “The Avengers,” and I’m glad to say that this trend has started off with a bang as “Thor” delivers pretty much what you’d want from an exciting-looking superhero film. Read more
If you've long suspected that the nation's 1,400 or so four-year institutions of higher learning are like runaway trains with the engineer slumped over the controls, Andrew Ferguson's "Crazy U: One Dad's Crash Course in Getting His Kid Into College" (Simon & Schuster, 240 pages, $25.00) will confirm your suspicions.Read more
Gary Shteyngart's 2010 novel, "Super Sad True Love Story," now in paperback (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 352 pages, $15.00) was a best-seller and was often compared to George Orwell's "1984" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World." I think it has elements of Terry Gilliam's cult movie "Brazil," too. It's a thoroughly enjoyable dystopian look at today's America, if enjoyable and dystopian can be used together.Read more
Learn from the mistakes of others, because you can't live long enough to make them all yourself --Ralph Waldo Emerson, quoted in "Better by Mistake"Read more
I had to put 185 miles on my car to watch two new films I wanted to see, "Atlas Shrugged, Part 1" and "The Conspirator," the Robert Redford-helmed story of Mary Surratt, the only woman arrested and charged in the trial of the alleged conspirators in the April 14, 1865 assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Both were playing at a multiplex in Lake Jackson, TX, the hometown of my congressman, Ron Paul.Read more
HUNTINGTON, WV (HNN) – Here come four more flicks, but “Fast Five,” which resembles an updated motorcycle /action/exploitation thriller starring Van Diesel , likely will win the weekend.Read more
Thank you for reading with us throughout April. For our final day, here's a preview of poems by two writers whose books will be published this summer: Jane Hirshfield (from the forthcoming Come, Thief) and Simon Armitage (Seeing Stars).
HUNTINGTON, WV (HNN) – The Huntington Symphony Orchestra has climbed to nearly two-thirds of its $100,000 fund raising goal, according to a Friday news release.Read more
Here we have the fifth (!) entry in the “Fast and the Furious” franchise. Can you believe it’s already been allowed to get this far? Though I suppose writing a movie about cars going fast is not particularly hard. Throw in a race, a chase, and a shoestring plot and you have yourself another one of these films. Read more
A love poem from the very center of life—from that mid-stage that is so often rushed and undefined, but is memorably chronicled in the poems of Sharon Olds.
Two bands that never hit WV play Friday. Born of Osiris and After The Burial perform Friday at The Big Sandy Grand Ballroom. This is right next to (and connected to) The Civic Center in downtown Huntington, WV.Read more
Take off with Theatre West Virginia as we launch the premiere of the beloved West Virginia story with Rocket Boys the Musical this coming summer.
Experience the story of a boy, Homer “Sonny” Hickam, Jr., living in Coalwood, WV who had the dream of becoming a rocket scientist. You may also recognize the name of movie based on this book – October Sky. The show will run Friday August 26th – Sunday, September 4th, 2011.Read more
In the foreword to his final collection, Breathing Room, Peter Davison (1928-2004) wrote about his desire to write poems that could "evoke a mood, a scene, an enimga, the unfolding of a metaphor, the entrapment of an idea, in a space or shape that will contain it without killing it." "The Level Path," the penultimate poem in the book, presents us with a vivid instance of such unfolding and entrapment—in this case, the inability to turn back from beauty and where it may lead us.
CHARLESTON, WV (HNN) - The WV International Film Festival has announced the lineup for its Spring Film Festival to be held April 28 through May 1 at the WVSU Capitol Center Theater, 123 Summers Street, Charleston. Read more
Let's modify the ancient Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times" into "May You Live Next Door to the Templetons" -- the family featured in Monica McInerney's novel "At Home with the Templetons" (Ballantine Books Trade Paperback, 496 pages, $15.00). Read more
I’ll start at the end, after the credits begin to scroll down the screen. When the lights in the theater are coming back on, and we know that the movie is over. I looked at my friends. They looked at me. We all had tears in our eyes. I felt as if I were in a quiet room where a shotgun had just gone off. Read more
From the newly published Irish Poems, a love song by Yeats, based on an old ballad. (Don't miss the video link today: Irish author Maeve Binchy picked one of her favorites in the collection, Seamus Heaney's "Mid-term Break," to read aloud.)
HUNTINGTON, WV (HNN) – Four flicks open wide on Friday, April 29, including “Fast Five,” “Hoodwinked Too Hood v Evil 3D,” “Prom” and “Dylan Dog Dead of Night.”
Huntington’s Downtown Cinema will have “Repo” and “Rocky Horror Picture Show” (prom theme) this weekend too.
When the trailers for “Water for Elephants” first started showing, it looked like the film had a fifty-fifty chance of turning out decent. This was figured from the casting of two of the leads. There’s Robert Pattinson, who’s not exactly known for being a great actor, and then there’s the great Oscar-winning Christoph Waltz, who, while still being relatively new to American films, raises the anticipation level of any film he’s in.Read more
.jpeg "POETRY MONTH: Final Day: Poems by Jane Hirshfield and Simon Armitrage")
.jpeg "BOOK REVIEW: 'At Home with the Templetons': Interesting Neighbors Can Drive You Crazy")
