Current Events

Has there ever been a longer-lasting musical collaboration than the one between guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady? The two played their first gig together in 1958 six years before forming Jefferson Airplane, the band in which they earned their biggest fame, and 11 years before creating the spin-off Hot Tuna, the group to which they have devoted the most time, and which they bring to Belly Up on Thursday, May 21 for an acoustic show (singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III opens). And is there any musical partnership that feels warmer and more inspired? Hot Tunas appearance last year at Belly Up which had the 65-year-old Casady literally running around in circles onstage, so excited was he by the music argues that there is not.

Rain Perry seems to have had the perfect counter-culture upbringing: a metal trailer rather than a proper house; a hippie father and roommates whom she knew only as Bear and Superman; dubious advice (from her father: Dont smoke pot. Except with him.). And of course, there is the name. Perry picked up the typical counter-culture career of singer-songwriter, but she turns playwright/actor in Cinderblock Bookshelves, an account of her not-so-normal childhood. Perry brings her musical, theatrical creation to Steves Guitars in Carbondale on Friday, May 22.

When the final reviews are written, it looks as if Arnold Schwarzeneggers film career will be treated more kindly than his governorship. Which is saying something, given such junk as Batman & Robin and Last Action Hero (not to mention the comedies: Junior, Jingle All the Way). Fortunately, just as California is drowning in debt and the Gov. faces a recall effort, comes old glory: Terminator Salvation, the latest in the sci-fi/adventure series that marked Schwarzeneggers high point in cinema. Its 2018, modern civilization is all but wiped out, and John Connor (Christian Bale) is among the last human holdouts trying to survive Schwarzenegger and the rest of the Terminators. The film opens Thursday, May 21 in Aspen.