Tikia “Fame” Hudson’s production of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls is a rare theater-going experience. Audiences can see the show on March 8 at Warehouse 21.

The incongruities in the music world are often what make it so fascinating to follow. The common complaint that “everything has been done before” rings increasingly less true as smaller boutique labels and bands capable of easy self-distribution harbor a broad field of forward-thinking bands and the strange outliers of countless mutated genres. This is why a thrash metal release can still excite and challenge in 2014. Oozing Wound’s new album Earth Suck is not simply a retread of sounds by a bunch of guys who never threw out their Master of Puppets tees. With the debut of its sophomore album it is clear that the band has reached a new level of confidence. While Oozing Wound’s debut album Retrash had a driving pulse and a furious center, there were just as many ideas that felt as disposable as the plastic cups its party vibe seemed to evoke. Even simply judging from the surreal, destructive and muscular album art of Earth Suck—sans any identifying text—the suggestion is that the band is taking a more powerful stance. The results are as crushing as the several-fisted force suggested on the cover. There is a leanness to the sound of these songs, heavily owing to the high treble frequencies throughout. While drummer Kyle Reynolds’ drums bring a palpable rumble throughout, bassist Kevin Cribbin’s playing remains in a similarly high register as Zack Weil’s buzzing guitar. This is not the often fatter heavy sound of most modern metal bands and the feeling of hearing a power-trio awash in the tinny echo of garage-like acoustics brings a weird charm to what could otherwise threaten to fall into the hammy sound of a more tribute-minded act. With tracks like “Genuine Creeper,” however, the formula of traditional thrash tropes is subverted...

This semester, Jackalope staff member Sandra Schoenenstein will regularly profile interesting and accessible off-campus spots for students. This week’s pick is Iconik Coffee Roasters.

The real joy in Our Lady of 121st Street is taking a peek into these awful people and their regret-filled lives. Even the successful characters are melancholic and searching for hope.

In telling the horror show of slavery, 12 Years doesn’t flinch. Families torn apart, slaves whipped and women raped; the scenes are there, but the brutality of what you witness remains hours, days after you leave the theater.

Middletown, the latest SFUAD Performing Arts Department production, opens with Curtis Williams’ Public Speaker waxing philosophic about the nature of small towns. It’s a fun digression that captures the high energy and inherent sadness of the mostly plot-less but emotionally poignant show that follows. The play has an ensemble cast, but there are a few characters given the most time to shine, including: Mathew Eldridge’s John Dodge; Porscha Shaw’s Mary Swanson; Michael Phillip Thomas’s Cop; and Jade Lewis’s Mechanic. Eldridge and Shaw did a phenomenal job carrying the emotional weight for much of the play. Due to the structure of the play, many of the actors had the difficult job of taking what could easily be one-note characters and adding pathos. It seems lazy to make such a blanket statement, but the whole cast was really up to the challenge. Not every joke landed, and not every character left the same impression, but the batting average is so high, it is easy to brush off the shortcomings. Maia Rychlik’s Librarian and Yusef Seevers’s Doctor, in particular, breathed such life into simple characters that leave one combing through all of their dialogue for hidden meaning long after you leave Greer Garson Theatre. The two scenes that stood out most were the scene in space and Lewis’s scene with Tallis Geohegan-Freifeld’s Doctor. The scene in space, featuring Matt McMillan and Robert Henkel Jr. is nestled towards the end of Act One. The scene is by far the most removed from the plot, but is the first point where the themes are front and center. McMillan and Henkel Jr.’s subtle performance prevents the message from being overbearing. Chelsea Kuehnel’s sets are also a delight in their simplicity, giving the space scene a magical feel and the dusty...