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Alex V. Cipolle, aka Alexandra Cipolle, was Eugene Weekly's arts editor from 2012 until 2017. She formerly wrote as Alex Notman.
José Cruz grew up dancing in his home country of El Salvador before moving to L.A. 20 years ago, traveling up the coast and settling in Eugene. Locally, Cruz has been teaching dance — mostly salsa — for 16 years with his school Salsersos Dance Company, now housed in the Vet’s Club Building. “Coming here,” Cruz says, it’s “a great thing to teach the dance that I grew up with.” Continue reading
Oh, to see what James Gillray might do with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump would be delicious. Considering the British illustrator’s searing and scatological observations of blowhards, we’d expect some orange, bloated mass punctuated with what the internet has succinctly deemed “butthole lips.” But alas, Gillray, considered the father of the political cartoon, passed in 1815. Continue reading
Student debt? Nah. Rising cost of tuition? Nope. Who can think about that when you’ve got yellow O’s in your eyes? Now, you can put your student loan dollars toward Dooney & Bourke’s (ironically named) $218 NCAA Oregon Hobo bag or the $128 NCAA Oregon Continental Clutch. In fact, when those student loan bills come due, you can store them chicly in the $248 NCAA Oregon Zip Zip Satchel. Continue reading
Last weekend was a tale of two cities creating art under a blazing hot sun. On Saturday, Aug. 15, the Eugene-Springfield Art Project and the city of Springfield hosted the second annual Art & ChalkFest. More than 50 artists signed up, including first-place winner Brandi York, a Washington artist who chalked up re-creations of Art Nouveau master Alphonse Mucha and went home with $600 (and likely a sunburn). In Eugene, Watershed Arts closed out the weekend Sunday, Aug. Continue reading
Hot damn, Eugene! Prepare your peepers for overstimulation by all the art (both dead and alive) happening this week, beginning with the Mayor’s Art Show opening reception 5:30 pm Friday, Aug. 14, at the Hult Center’s Jacobs Gallery. While this annual juried show tends to lean heavy on artists of the safe, expected and over-50 variety (i.e. expect pastel landscapes and Ansel Adams wannabes), it’s worth going down to ferret out the innovators and old masters — look for works from Lynda Lanker and Rogene Manas, to name a few. Continue reading
New releases: Hot off playing the mainstage at Oregon Country Fair, local blues-rock band Blue Lotus is gearing up for a six-state tour to promote its new album, Across the Canyon, recorded at Ninkasi Studios. The band’s fifth album is “a collaborative experiment that weaves elements of progressive rock, jazz and improvisational rock ‘n’ roll with hints of ’60s psychadelia,” the band says via press release. Catch them before they hit the road for a Grateful Dead set Saturday, Aug. 15, at Blairally Vintage Arcade, 245 Blair Blvd. Continue reading
In the early ’90s, when Eugene’s Pride celebrations were first taking shape, David McCallum remembers telling a local news station, “Yes, some day gays and lesbians will be able to marry.” Back then, a prediction like that amounted to radical speculation. (Story continues below.) Continue reading
Beth Pinkerton’s first time performing standup comedy was in March. As of June 28, she was opening for a national act — comedian Jen Kirkman — at Cozmic, where Pinkerton brought down the house with her outsider views of Eugene. It takes some serious chutzpah to tell a Chaco-wearing, CSA-subscribing crowd of the hippie noblesse that you buy your produce at Walmart, you eat at Taco Bell and that you, Eugene, can go fuck yourself already. Continue reading
Standing beneath the oculus of the church dome with lazy afternoon sunlight filtering through its circular opening, artist Daniel Balter points to a 6-foot-tall figure he sketched in charcoal on the walls the night before. It’s archangel Michael, complete with flowing robes, wings and halo. Balter motions to the room and the iconostasis — a red-and-gold wall adorned with saints that traditionally separates a church’s nave from its sanctuary. It was in this room, he tells me, that he used to see punk bands play. Continue reading
Cats are winning. As I write this, my cat, Elsie, slinks around my legs, looking up at me, knowingly. Cats have always known they were winners; it just took society, with a helpful boop from the internet, some time to catch up. Dogs, however, in all their earnest, loyal, slopping glory, have long ruled the hearts of the majority, from “man’s best friend” to Old Yeller. For millennia, dogs have stood by as our companions, our families, our heroes. Continue reading