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History is packed with grey cardinals and coups d’état, yet we often dismiss as fantasy the modern conspiracies of men. “Conspiracies do happen,” says Kris Millegan, owner of local publishing house TrineDay Books, which helps lend credence to suppressed topics. Continue reading
Like finding a lost treasure trove of old Pulp magazines in your grandfather’s attic, 2013’s bounty of graphic novels injected a sense of wonder into the medium, presenting straight-ahead, two-fisted adventure that doesn’t shy away from message or nuance. Continue reading
UO Duck Store Literary Duck Top Ten Here are the books that are hot, many by local and faculty authors, at the UO’s Literary Duck bookstore. 1. ** Counterclockwise: My year of Hypnosis, Hormones, Dark Chocolate, And Other Adventures in the World of Anti-Aging By Lauren Kessler. Rodale Press, $24.99. UO faculty author Lauren Kessler sets off on a personal odyssey, exploring and discovering what it means to get old in our youth-obsessed society. Continue reading
“The four of us are kind of like sisters,” Vicki Silvers tells me over coffee pre-snowstorm at Noisette Pastry Kitchen, with her other “sister” Debbie Martin in tow. She’s speaking of the four women who make up WYMPROV!, a pioneering comedy improv group whose legacy in Eugene dates back more than two decades to its “Debut and Farewell” show at Agate Hall. Martin nods, adding that the foursome is supportive of each other on stage and off, getting together for frequent dinners and continuing “to get together and play.” Continue reading
Tom Blank is on a mission. A Navy veteran and retired director who served his career in television, Blank and his wife moved in 2005 from Hollywood to Eugene, where he immediately took up the cause of advocating for movies as cultural and spiritual artifacts. Continue reading
For a film based on a graphic novel, it’s fitting that Blue Is the Warmest Color opens with the discussion of another novel, La Vie de Marianne by Pierre de Marivaux. The 18th-century author cleared a path for romanticists like Jane Austen to delve into an examined life that balances reason with emotion, a theme director Abdellatif Kechiche also examines in his fervid, coming-of-age love story. Continue reading
If not for Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice, Andy Frasco might have never found his muse. As a kid in Southern California, Frasco dreamed of being a music business behind-the-scenes guy — managing bands or running a label. Dropping out of school at the tender age of 14, Frasco started a booking agency and lied about his age to work at Capitol Records. At 18, he saw Damien Rice perform live and it all changed. “I moved to New York, locked myself in a room for a year with albums like Dr. Continue reading
There are not many muses as evocative as the salty, salty sea. With that Pacific mistress nearby, The Crescendo Show knows this well. “The ocean is always tied into a lot of our music,” says Ricky Carlson, banjo, guitar, drum and back-up vocal Renaissance man for the Corvallis-based indie folk band. “It’s a pretty vast subject to write about it.” Continue reading
After hitting major gigs like the Northwest String Summit and the High Sierra Music Festival this summer, the whiskey-shooting, feet-stomping, heart-pounding Americana group Fruition returns to Eugene to tour its new album Just One of Them Nights. Stomp-worthy tracks like “The Wanter” and “Boil Over” showcase the group’s signature high energy, but where Nights shines is in its more thoughtful, introspective folk moments. “We enjoy the space of a song and the intimacy of a song,” vocalist and guitarist Kellen Asebroek explains. Continue reading
John Oldman is either a “caveman, a liar or a nut.” A tenure-track professor quite suddenly announces his departure from the university where he has comfortably taught for 10 years. His fellow professors insist on the ritual of cheese, crackers and a proper going away, only to have their party ruined when John works up the courage to tell them the truth. He is 14,000 years old. He never ages, never dies and has been adrift in the world since the late Paleolithic age, learning about himself as the world comes to understand its own history. Continue reading