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Lane County Commissioner and Republican Senate Candidate Faye Stewart repeated racist stereotypes about refugees at a March 10 Republican candidate forum at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. He accused Vietnamese refugeees "years ago" of eating dogs and starting fires in their apartment complex in Portland. You can see the video here. Continue reading
Local actor Kasey Brown plays a skinhead drummer for a band called Cowcatcher in the upcoming grisly feature film Green Room, which pits a punk rock band against white supremacists in the wake of a murder. The horror flick was filmed in Portland in 2014 with actors Patrick Stewart, Alia Shawkat (best known as Maeby Fünke in Arrested Development) and Anton Yelchin (who starred in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek). Continue reading
If you strolled downtown last weekend you may have caught a glimpse of new lights on Broadway: The Jazz Station revealed its new double-sided neon sign pairing the venue’s name with a saxophone. The sign helps highlight the West Broadway block as the arts and nightlife anchor its becoming with neighbors Oregon Contemporary Theatre (which also has some great neon signage), The New Zone Gallery, The Wayward Lamb and Nephos Vape Werks. Continue reading
• The Jazz Station at 124 W. Broadway has a jazzy new neon marquee that makes the all-ages music venue easier to find downtown. The sign was built by Neal Conner of Neon Latitudes with funding by a Lane County Cultural Coalition grant with matching funds from the nonprofit Willamette Jazz Society. Rich and Marilyn Linton, the current WJS president and his spouse, contributed financially to the project as well as providing oversight. The Jazz Station, a project of WJS, promotes touring musicians and bands, local talent and youth performers and provides rehearsal space. Continue reading
Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail in 2008 at South Eugene High School. Photo by Todd Cooper. Continue reading
OK, enough about Oregon’s February legislative session. Nothing happened except the minimum wage increased and Oregon banned coal as an energy source. Democrats bragged about those issues and about fixing Portland’s affordable housing crisis. In their press releases, Republicans described February as “the most destructive month in Oregon legislative history,” and predictably bragged about their obstruction and attacked the “one-party” Democrats. Whatever. I’m still pissed that the Democrats used a Trojan Horse bill to make Canis lupus a sacrificial lamb. Bad biology, governor. Continue reading
A BETTER INVESTMENT I work with an organization that delivers food to Eugeneans experiencing homelessness, including those who sleep in Washington Jefferson Park. The city of Eugene just spent $67,000 to build fences that push these individuals out of the park. The reasons cited by the city have to do with safety and health hazards. To respond: Continue reading
Shot in lavish black-and-white, Embrace of the Serpent drops you immediately into the humid nightmare of colonial devastation. A lone shaman, Karamakate (Nilbio Torres), squats silently on the banks of the Amazon River in the Colombian jungle. A canoe approaches, carrying a Colombian guide, Manduca (Yauenkü Miguee), and Theo (Jan Bijvoet), a German anthropologist dying of an unspecified disease. Continue reading
Young Florida rapper Denzel Curry — he turned 21 in February — is returning to WOW Hall as a headliner after his last stop in 2015 opening for Joey Bada$$ and Mick Jenkins. The evolution to headliner in one year makes sense: Before releasing his debut album Nostalgic 64 in 2013, Curry appeared on BBC Radio and performed at Coachella. His hard-hitting track “Threatz” has a phenomenal, psychedelic music video that has racked up 6.5 million views. Continue reading
On the night of March 30, Sam Bond’s Garage is going to be painted with some funkadelic jams, man. Lucy Arnell and Holly Bowling are bringing tunes laced with Phish-y influences and classic experimental sounds. Arnell, a self-described former New York City “concert bum,” moved to the West Coast in 2013. She then met and collaborated with guitarist Jason Abraham Roberts (Norah Jones, HYMNS) to produce her first EP, Side by Side, which later unfolded into a full-length album with a track featuring Jon Fishman (Phish) on drums. Continue reading