Ashley Clark is a multiplatform journalist and the audience engagement editor at Center for Public Integrity. She believes journalism is a powerful tool to connect people from all walks of life.
Ashley Clark is a former member of Sons of Sylvia, a group that won the FOX music competition series The Next Great American Band and toured as Carrie Underwood’s opening act. Clark is also a film critic and moderator of panels and Q&As.
Sons of Sylvia
A swaggering revival of the witty, high-voltage musical that puts a modern spin on the story of British feminist firebrand Sylvia Pankhurst. Directed by Kate Prince and starring Hamilton alumni, this is an ensemble that knows how to tell its story with style.
The Clark brothers (Adam, Ashley and Austin) were once the eponymous family band of the late ’90s and later won the full-band version of American Idol before landing a record deal as the Next Great American Band under their new name, Sons of Sylvia. Their country pop sounds a little too mainstream for my taste but their backing musicians are impressively adept at handling funk, hip hop and garage with ease. Beverley Knight is a cold-mothering powerhouse as Emmeline Pankhurst and Sharon Rose is a joy as Sylvia, balancing a sense of duty with a pure determination to help women. The production also brings out rivalries and ideological differences between the sisters and that’s a valuable reminder that feminism has always had its own internal schisms.
The Next Great American Band
After the producers of “American Idol” proved that any band can make it big, Fox has jumped on the reality-band wagon with “The Next Great American Band,” a series where bands battle each other for a record deal. The premiere episode airs Friday night, and the band that impresses the most gets to play for a live audience and win a $100,000 cash prize.
While some of the bands on the show look like they should be in the local polka hall, others are actually pretty talented. One example is Tres Bien, a LA girl group who sounds a bit like the Go-Go’s and has a good backstory.
The judges, which include Goo Goo Dolls frontman Johnny Rzeznik, percussionist Sheila E and tart-tongued Australian TV personality Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson, are very discerning, and their job is not easy. They’ve had to weed out Lithuanian polka bands and a band that plays old-time swing jazz that sounds more like a Stomp performance piece than the kind of music you hear on country radio.
Revelations
Revelation can seem bizarre and incomprehensible, but it makes sense if you know the apocalyptic genre, the context of John’s writing, and his intended audience. Many of the evil symbols in Revelation – like the scarlet beast and its seven heads and crowns – are likely to have been familiar to John’s original audience, the first century Christians living in Asia Minor.
The Book of Revelation, like Daniel and other apocalypses, was composed as resistance literature in response to a crisis – here it is the ruthless persecution of early Christianity by the Roman authorities. Throughout the book, the author of Revelation urges Christians to stay firm in their faith despite suffering and martyrdom and to trust in Christ’s promise that He will defeat all the forces of evil.
FRESH AIR’s Nancy Kaplan is speaking with Elaine Pagels, who has written about books that were discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945 that didn’t make the New Testament canon, known as the Gnostic Gospels.
Greyhound
Greyhounds have long been prized for their grace, speed and athleticism. Renaissance artists — including Veronese, Uccello and Pisanello — favored them as subjects for religious and secular paintings.
Today, thousands of dogs are retired from racing and are in need of loving homes. Greyhounds need early socialization, exposure to many people and experiences when they are young. This helps them adapt to new schedules and environments later in life.
These dogs have a innate instinct to chase and must be given the opportunity to run full out, in a safe, fenced area on a regular basis. They do best with other dogs but should not be left alone for extended periods of time, as they can become bored and may view smaller pets (such as indoor or outdoor cats) as prey. They are not suitable for families with small children. They can also be aloof with some or all strangers.Ashley Clarke
