But The Ant King is more often notable for its sparkly humor, deft allusions, and immediate language. And for its shadowy darkness. “Other Cities,” a series of mini-portraits of imagined places, includes this description of a person who might want to move to a place called Stin: “You recall that you are going to die, your heart pounds, and you are desperate to cling to your flesh, but more desperate still not to forget the fear, not to lapse back into the placid dullness of taking existence for granted. . . . ” Just one more way that these stories are odd, irreal, and as familiar and human as they are alien and otherworldly.
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Ladies might, Somebody to shove, Making history, More 
- Ladies might
On Swallows and Sparrows, an all-girl trio spinoff from the four-year-old quintet packs its estrogen-charged members into one compact, softer-edged unit.
- Somebody to shove
We Push Buttons have become the crack dealers of the local electronic music scene.
- Making history
Lost on Liftoff have plans to release their debut album on Labor Day Records later this month. When they do, I’ll make sure to remind you that frontman Walt Craven is now on his third wildly popular Portland band.
- It parade
There is a moment, at the end of a beauty pageant, when the previous year’s winner is forced to place the sparkling crown on a new champion’s head.
- White hunters, black hearts
There are hundreds of faces in the “Trophy Room” of 419Eater.com , and most of them are black.
- Sound bites
In space, so the tag line for Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi thriller Alien goes, nobody can hear you scream.
- Woody speaks - sidebar
- Progressive party
The five members of Fluttr Effect are seated with me on folding chairs in a circle, so anybody walking into the warehouse-like back room of the Berklee College of Music practice space in Allston might assume there’s some kind of rock-and-roll therapy session or AA meeting in progress. Flttr Effect, "Awake" (mp3)
- Movies from outer space
Our new-found DVD-ness and cable-TV luxury notwithstanding, movies have always been a public medium, a spatial experience we share in the theater and a topical experience we share in the culture at large.
- Fight the man with digicams
It depends on your perspective.
- Boston music news: April 27, 2007
For its 10th-anniversary finale, Boston Modern Orchestra Project is pulling out all the stops.
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