Winter Reading

To steal a name from that vast bookstore in Portland, Eugene is a city of books — and of readers. Our small local bookstores and excellent city library, not to mention free and inexpensive book sources such as Gertie the Bookbus and St. Vincent dePaul, ensure that Lane County’s literary lovers can have a book with their coffee or kombucha to curl up with this winter.  Continue reading 

Winter Reading Top Ten

Top 10 Books at Tsunami Books Lila by Marilynne Robinson. Farrar Straus Giroux, $26. The Co-Creation Handbook by Alida Birch. Luminaire Press, $12.95. Falling From Horses by Molly Gloss. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25. (See review this issue) Roadside Geology of Oregon, Second Edition by Marli B. Miller. Mountain Press, $26. (See review this issue) The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. Random House, $30. The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Plume, $16. Continue reading 

A Too Brief History of Everything

You might think while watching James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything that the people who made this movie have never been in a bar. There are several pub scenes, each lit in a filmy sort of blue probably meant to evoke the smoky drinking establishments of a previous era. Instead, it suggests the faux-night of a B movie.  It’s indicative of much of the film: excellent actors, ever-so-English settings and something just not quite right. Continue reading 

Get Hooked

Hook & Anchor

Band names don’t usually refer to the art of songwriting itself, but that’s exactly what Hook & Anchor does. “It kind of refers to the things a good song needs,” says Kati Claborn, singer and guitarist for the band (she also plays banjo and uke). Continue reading 

Going Pogue

KMRIA

“KMRIA stands for: Kiss My Royal Irish Ass,” says Casey Neill of Portland-based Pogues tribute band KMRIA. “The reference is from James Joyce’s Ulysses,” Neill says, explaining KMRIA is also referenced in Pogues’ song “Transmetropolitan.”  Continue reading