Arts: Page 390

Everything Old is New Again

Brooklyn Rider, Taarka, Evynne Hollens and company are keeping music fresh

Music

Musical institutions too often destroy the very music they prize by refusing to look forward, relying instead on constant rehashing of the greatest hits of earlier decades and centuries. This month brings to town some progressive musicians who are keeping their traditions alive and growing. For example, Brothers Colin and Eric Jacobsen are proving that classical music is no musty museum but rather a living tradition. Continue reading →

Familiar Frontiers

Explorer-photographer Jason Rydquist captures what the bygone becomes

Visual Arts

Abandoned homesteads on plains of matted golden grains. A door’s once glorious enframement, now peeling like an onion, pieces of its papery skin withering at its feet. A pristine cerulean bedroom, empty save for squares of sunlight from a four-pane window. Forgotten houses collapsing under the weight of moss, mold and time. These are the images that photographer Jason Rydquist seeks in his visual exploration, from Michigan to the forsaken corners of Oregon, and they will be on display in his show Retrospect starting March 29 at Sam Bond’s. Continue reading →

Jell-O, More Than A Snack

Maude Kernes celebrates 25 years of edible art

Visual Arts

Eating Jell-O is so passé. At Maude Kerns Art Center, it is art. In its 25th year, the Jell-O Art Show captivates audiences with its jiggling creativity. This time around, the theme for the benefit — hosted by Maude Kerns and Eugene’s Radar Angels — is “iJell-O.”  “The iPhone or the iPad is the iJell-O,” says Michael Fisher, the exhibit coordinator at Maude Kerns. “But the artwork doesn’t necessarily have to do with the theme. It can be anything.”  Continue reading →

Oz the Dull and Terrible

Film

Once upon a time, I was an Oz purist. Not for the 1939 movie, though I liked it well enough, but for L. Frank Baum’s books, which I read until they were ragged. The first time I saw the cover of Wicked, Gregory Maguire’s novel about the Wicked Witch of the West, I stopped dead, thinking: One does not do that to Oz. Continue reading →

Crazy Like A Foxygen

Music

LA-based Foxygen takes your dad’s classic rock LP collection, consumes it and filters it through their ADHD brains, regurgitating 2012’s Take the Kids Off Broadway or 2013’s We are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic — big, sloppy, messy records referencing everything from the Rolling Stones to the Kinks to the Mysterions, but with a certain post-vinyl-revival sense of irony; like Brooklyn’s MGMT, they don’t limit their frame of reference to punchy classic rock. Continue reading →

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Music

There’s a sweetness inherent in the name Bent Knee … a marriage proposal on bent knee, an apology on bent knee, Prince Charming holding the glass slipper on bent knee. But all that sweetness goes out the window when Courtney Swain starts singing “I Don’t Love You Anymore.” Continue reading →

The Push of Men

Music

If you want to get creative, sometimes you have to isolate yourself. At least that’s what the Seattle-based indie rock band Ivan & Alyosha did when creating their full-length debut, All the Times We Had.  “We demoed these songs in a cabin an hour north of Seattle where we could get away and have really bad phone service,” bassist Pete Wilson says with a laugh. “Once it stops being annoying that you can’t check Facebook, the isolation becomes nice. We need to detox every once in a while from all that.” Continue reading →

Cirque Du Eugene!

Performing Arts

If you didn’t catch Cirque Du Soleil when they came through town last year, there’s no need to fret. Local promoter Fusion Friendly is presenting the next best thing at Cozmic on Saturday: Cirque Du Eugene! For the third year running, this amalgamated variety show — which features various carnival-esque gymnastic acts performed by Bounce Gymnastics — will take the stage and boggle some minds. Continue reading →