Nikki Glaser—As if we couldn’t adore the delightful stand-up any more than we already do, she opened up to Courtney Ferguson about her love for Taylor Swift. “I can’t stop listening to Taylor Swift’s 1989,” she told Courtney. “I feel like she writes for me. I mean, I’m 30 years old, so it shouldn’t be that way, but she really captures how I feel about relationships and boys. As much as she can be a little bit petty in some of her lyrics, and vindictive, I kind of support that, because I do the same thing [in my stand-up] when I’ve been hurt by a guy. Go Taylor! Fuck John Mayer.”
Do yourself a favor and read their entire, entirely charming interview here.
Shaking the Tree—The theater company went deep Southern Gothic with Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly, Last Summer. It’s an odd, dark play, with halting, repetitive language, and Samantha van der Merwe’s direction is gamely, appropriately out-there. Fair warning—these are the characters you have to commit to 90 minutes with, should you go see it (and you should): “Violet’s obsession with her son reads just a skosh above flat-out incest… Violet’s sister (Luisa Sermol) and her nephew (Steve Vanderzee) also have a weird, way too touchy vibe, and Catherine is accompanied at all times by a nun (Dana Millican) entrusted with her psychiatric ‘care.’ If that doesn’t sound like the worst family reunion ever, consider that one of the play’s more likeable characters is AN ACTUAL LOBOTOMIST. NAMED DR. SUGAR (Matthew Kerrigan).”
First Friday Art Walk—Deviating from her usual First Thursday beat, A.L. Adams checked out this month’s First Friday, but found some key players missing. “Recess Gallery’s tenancy in Brass Works ended in 2014,” she writes. “Nationale moved to Divi—ahem, ‘D Street’—and got on the Thursday circuit. Golden Rule Gallery drowned in a hailstorm of its own hype. Grass Hut Gallery shacked up with Floating World Comics on the Westside before going online-only. ADX, whose doors are still open during First Friday hours in case you wanna use their jigsaw, no longer consistently host participating shows.”
In other art news, here’s the scoop on June’s Poetry Press Week, Disjecta’s new curator in residence, and Meghan Daum’s new anthology about the childfree life.