Que Sera Sera

La Sera

Katie Goodman looks the part of the cool kid next door, but she’s a bona fide nerd. Her song “Storm’s End” is a Game of Thrones reference, as revealed in a recent “Ask Me Anything” Q&A on Reddit. “When we made that song, I thought it sounded like an evil surf song, which would be perfect for the Ironborn,” Goodman writes. In the Reddit session, Goodman also tells a fan who’s a physicist that she has a physics education masters and “wrote a physics-related love song called ‘Space Time.’”  Continue reading 

Old Friends

Peter Buck and Alejandro Escovedo

I’ve never been to Austin, Texas, or Athens, Georgia. But one day I hope to, and when I do I think the music of Alejandro Escovedo and Peter Buck — two musicians closely associated with these cities — will soundtrack my trip.  Alejandro Escovedo embodies Austin’s reputation as the indie-est of indie music havens. Building a career around a Texan take on punk-edged three-chord bar rock, Escovedo is a rock ‘n’ roll survivor with a loyal following, a songwriter whose work recalls greats like Dave Alvin or Elvis Costello.  Continue reading 

Purveyors of dark folk, O’Death

Chromeo

Purveyors of dark folk, O’Death, were shacking up in Brooklyn and playing frenetic Americana stomp before either made hipsters drool. You may know them from their ethereal 2011 hit “Bugs,” but now you’ll remember them for the band’s haunting and beautiful fourth album, Out of Hands We Go, released in early October. “We wanted to explore a grittier sound but continue on this path of doing melodic music,” lead singer and guitarist Greg Jamie tells EW. Continue reading 

Art at the Watershed

After a long career in psychotherapy and philosophy, Amy Isler Gibson switched gears in April 2012 and opened The Gallery at the Watershed, which features some of the most important contemporary art in Lane County. Gibson’s artist roster is full of seasoned pros like Bill Brewer, Abbas Darabi, Wesley Hurd and sculptor Randy Ortiz. Now, she and a board of directors have started a nonprofit foundation to educate the community about engaging with the arts with classes such as “Composition Through the Eyes of an Artist” and “The Powers of Visual Art. Continue reading 

Party Like it’s 1825

Photo by Brinkley Capriola / brinkleycapriola.us

In the annals of things I’ve made my long-suffering husband Ben do, this latest one might take the cake: “Honey,” I said. “Thursday night we’re going to the Vet’s Club for a night of English country dancing, OK?”  Ben immediately suggested that if we were going to try our hand at the intricate dance forms of the Regency Era, we really ought to be crocked out of our gourds on claret — or at least, he should be.  Continue reading 

Fall Fashion Forward

“The venue, the venue, the venue,” Eugene Fashion Week co-producer Grace McNabb says, laughing. “We christened that venue this weekend.”  Despite the power going out in the hair and makeup room on Saturday, McNabb says EFW, which ran Oct. 6-12, went off without a hitch, and part of that success was the new location at the Ninkasi Administration Building in the Whit. With the runway butted up against a climbing wall, local models sashayed in lingerie, ready-to-wear and avant-garde lines. Continue reading