We've got issues.
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
When Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, he probably did not foresee it being told via acrobats, stilt dancers and jugglers. But that’s exactly what Portland’s Wanderlust Circus is doing, accompanied by bohemian chamber orchestra 3 Leg Torso, with “A Circus Carol” 8 pm Friday, Dec. 13, at McDonald Theatre. In what other context are you going to see Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future (as well as Hanukkah Past) doing aerial stunts? Humbug? More like hum diddly! Continue reading
UPDATE: The Boreal surpassed its goal $3,500 with time to spare! A much needed new venue has been proposed for Eugene: The Boreal will be an all-ages, DIY, collectively-run music and art space at 450 W. 3rd St. near Crux Rock Climbing Gym and REI. The venue will have a capacity for about 80 people, expects to host upwards of 10 shows a month and plans to open in January 2014. As The Boreal Kickstarter page stages: Continue reading
“Why Star Trek?” asks Christina Allaback, an adjunct theater professor at the University of Oregon. “Why not Star Trek?” Continue reading
Director Steve McQueen’s new film is leaps and bounds above his last. The artfully tiresome, cramped and cold Shame gave little clue that McQueen would follow it with a film as grand and intimate as 12 Years a Slave, which tells the ugly, astonishing true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free man who was kidnapped and sold as a slave in 1841. Continue reading