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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.
Standing in Jud Turner’s kitchen, a gaggle of cats gobbling snacks at our feet, we hear a faint ting-a-ling coming from the basement. “I think he just rang his bell,” Turner says, straining to hear. “He has a bell that he rings when he wants to go outside or wants to know what’s up.” Turner disappears down the stairs. “What’s up, piggy?” I hear him say. He’s answered with some contented snorting. Continue reading
Looking at lineups for some of the major local venues this summer, it appears that audiences and/or bookers want one prolonged and mostly vanilla sausage fest. For Cuthbert’s 2014 season, of the nearly 40 acts scheduled to grace the amphitheater stage, seven include women (counting the Eugene Symphony’s free concert July 19). The Lane County Fair does not fare better: Of the eight acts to hit the main stage, there will be one musician who’s a woman — Pat Benatar (July 26 with Neil Giraldo). Continue reading
The Hult Center is reviving its former Wildly Wicked Women of Comedy series, kicking off July 19 with comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer, an LGBT pioneer who starting doing standup in New York City in the early ’90s. Raised in Pennsylvania Amish country, Westenhoefer is definitely a trailblazer: She was the first openly gay comedian to land an HBO special and the first to appear on Late Night with David Letterman. Continue reading
Shanna Trumbly was sitting in a cave roasting hotdogs when she saw the hummingbird. The Eugene artist was visiting Yachats with her family and, while on a hike, they had taken shelter from the rain. “Out of the corner of my eye, I see this little bzzz,” she says, fluttering her hands. “There are no flowers around or anything. It was just like rock walls and the ocean … It was so bizarre because it wasn’t even a place where a hummingbird would be hanging out.” She adds, “Right when it flew off, the rain stopped.” Continue reading
Nothing says ’Merica like star-spangled hot pants. Allison Ditson flips through a stack of her handmade garter shorts and swimwear while Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U” fills her warm attic studio. Fabric is draped over every nook and cranny — in stars and stripes, neons and florals, glittering golds and black mesh — making the cozy space look like the shared dressing room of Wonder Woman, Betty Grable and Katy Perry. Continue reading
Zimbabwe’s “afrocoustic” Bongo Love returns to Eugene June 27 at Cozmic. Since the last time the band brought the “Zim sound” to town, Bongo Love released a self-titled album and added a trap set drummer and a female vocalist to the sonic smorgasbord of djembe, mbira, marimba and “southern African guitar licks.” Continue reading
The godfather of glass pipes works in a bus down by the Willamette River — make that a 1940s bus and a semi trailer outfitted with several workstations. Inside the bus, torch blazing, Bob Snodgrass focuses on a golden glass mushroom inside a pendant. Continue reading
The sixth annual Degenerate Flame Off, a festival for “functional art glass from the underground,” runs June 27-29 at the Cornerstone Glass campus in the Whit. Sixteen glass artists from across the country will compete in a 10-hour “flame-off” to make the most gnarly art pipe in the categories of Most Creative, People’s Choice and Most Technical. Continue reading
Esteban Camacho weaves through the skateboard jungle that is the new WJ Skatepark + Urban Plaza, finding some smooth invisible path while I stumble after him, jumping out of the way of teens on wheels. It’s clear the artist is a seasoned veteran of the site. We sit on a bench carved into a ramp, skateboarders whirring around us. Hands leathery with green paint, Camacho points up at the murals developing on two pillars buttressing I-105. Continue reading
Emily Saliers was only 12 when Joan Baez’s Diamonds & Rust was released in 1975. And Saliers, half of the Indigo Girls folk-rock duo, listened to it nonstop. “I listened to the record over and over again until I could learn it,” Saliers tells EW over the phone from Canada. But her interest in Baez wasn’t just song-deep. “I was very admiring of her politics and her journeys and the peace that she stood for,” she says. Continue reading