Jamie Foxx must realize that much of his libidinous lover-man shtick comes across as burlesque-at least that's how it seemed at points during his Milwaukee Theatre performance last Thursday. Foxx couldn't help but smirk at the ridiculousness of posing like a model in his $2,000 leather jacket. As the Jumbotron behind him displayed...

What a difference a decade makes. In 1994, Jamie Foxx, then a little-known “In Living Color” cast member, released his first album to widespread indifference. After Foxx moved away from comedy to focus on dramatic acting, a career shift that culminated in an Oscar win for Best Actor in Ray, he found that audiences were more willing to take him seriously as a musician, and in 2005 his sophomore album, a collection of sultry R&B called...

Thursday, July 30, Vans Warped Tour @ Marcus Amphitheater, 11 a.m. Political punk curmudgeons Bad Religion and Anti-Flag sharing tour dates with electro-quirk bands like 3OH!3 and InnerPartySystem? It must be time for another Vans Warped Tour. As usual, the tour’s...

Before he left the New York Times for the New Yorker, the great Kelefa Sanneh wrote a 2007 eulogy for the Song of the Summer, contending that media fragmentation has made it all but impossible for one single to reign over the season the way hits had done in eras past. "As entertainment options multiply, even mainstream pop is starting to look like a niche market," he wrote. Harsh words, coming fro...

The opening scene, when Robert Downey, Jr. hurls from his bike onto the unyielding asphalt in an accident giving rise to stitches and a swollen-shut eye, is a clue: The Soloist will be harder edged than most Hollywood social problem pictures about helpers and victims. For one thing, as a helper, Downey is neither sap nor superman. He comes across as a savvy, skeptical journalist, a hipster in hi...

Based on a true story, the Soloist stars Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr., the movie will premiere in Milwaukee's Jazz Estate on Friday, April 17. The movie is about a Los Angeles Journalist (Robert Downey Jr.), who befriends a schizophrenic homless ...