Arts: Page 248

Walk Like A Man

Jersey Boys tells the Frankie Valli and Four Seasons story

Performing Arts
Jersey Boys opens March 1 at the Hult Center

The earworm train is coming to Eugene: “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You”— the list goes on. Song after song, hook after hook, all from Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons from their glory days in the ’60s and ’70s. Yep, Jersey Boys, the Broadway smash hit, makes its way to the Hult Center March 1-6 with a fairytale about four friends from Newark and their meteoric rise to fame.  Continue reading →

Dicking Around

Film

The long-awaited Deadpool movie is a lot of excellent things: Lively! Violent! Cleverish! Ribald! (If you don’t enjoy the occasional — OK, frequent — dick joke, this is probably not the movie for you.) As the title character, Ryan Reynolds is in his element, and he embraces the challenge of being a likable, violent smartass whose face we often can’t even see (it’s a physical role on more than one level). Continue reading →

Coping Skills

Film

The old adage that “laughter is the best medicine” has been put to the test by a pair of Eugene filmmakers. Produced and directed by James Blame and Ryan Shoop of Magbas Entertainment, Coping with Comedy is a 30-minute documentary that takes a look at the way local comedians use stand-up as a way of dealing with the trauma of various mental health issues. Continue reading →

Thread the Kneedelus

Instrumental jazz-rock outfit Kneebody and electronic producer and muttonchops enthusiast Daedelus

Music
Daedalus

L.A.-based instrumental jazz-rock outfit Kneebody and electronic producer and muttonchops enthusiast Daedelus are the kind of musicians who blow apart any form of genre classification.  “For better or worse, we refuse to be pigeonholed in one sound,” explains Kneebody bassist Kaveh Rastegar of his band’s eclectic tendencies. “You’ll hear music that pulls from elements of EDM, jazz, indie rock and re-contextualizes everything with improvisation.”  Continue reading →

Back Beat

Music

Mark your calendars: Legendary hardcore punk band DRI returns to Eugene April 21 at The Boreal; tickets on sale now (theboreal.com). Also, Seattle indie-rockers Chastity Belt’s Feb. 28 show looks like it will sell out. Get on those tickets if you haven’t already. You don’t want to sleep on that show, Eugene. This week, FREE is a beautiful number, and that’s exactly how much it costs to see Seattle indie-folk rockers The Cave Singers 9 pm Thursday, Feb. 25, in Hi-Fi Music Hall’s “Lo-Fi Lounge.”  Continue reading →

Arts Hound

Visual Arts

More than a year has passed since Eugene’s beloved storyteller Mark Lewis passed away. The Emmy-winning local performer, author, teacher and voice actor was nationally known for his show Word Pictures and voicing part of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland.  His spirit and influence lives on in the people he mentored, such as Angela Dunham and Lindsey Shields of Flex Studios, a local dance school. Continue reading →

Caesar Salad

Film

First impressions can be deceptive. Take, for instance, Joel and Ethan Coen, whose movies seem distinctly built to not be watched but re-watched. Usually, for me, the initial pass through a Coen brothers film proves a strangely tepid affair — The Big Lebowski and Brother, Where Art Thou? felt flat and disjointed the first time around — and it’s not until I return for a second and third look that things start to resonate and deepen. Continue reading →