Arts: Page 397
A Revolutionary Art Exhibit
The Schnitzer’s West of Center will flip the museum establishment in more ways than one
The UO Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art is trying to capture an era, an art movement, a revolution. When artists use drugs, publications, shelter and lifestyle as tools for expression just as artists preceding them employed cameras, paint and clay; when artworks don’t fit neatly into a gilded frame or beneath a sparkling glass case, museums must adapt and turn the establishment on its head. Continue reading
A Reluctant Connection
Nearly every brief summary of Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone borders on the absurd, or at least sounds mawkishly sentimental: A young man, mostly unemployed and recently in charge of his five-year-old son, strikes up a relationship with a killer-whale trainer who is terribly injured in a freak accident. It sounds like a story that will veer into sentimental territory early, overflowing with reminders about the fragility and beauty of life. Continue reading
Award-winning Boogie Woogie Blues
Colorado’s Lionel Young Band is rolling into town after a blues festival-filled year, and they are bringing along quite the pedigree. The band won the International Blues Challenge (IBC) in Memphis in 2011, and Young won the IBC as a solo-duo act in 2008, making Young the only two-time winner of the IBC in its 28-year history. In addition to critical acclaim, Young and/or his bandmates have played alongside Muddy Waters, B.B. Continue reading
Happy Homecoming
A handful of UO music alumni return to perform in Eugene
Eugene has incubated more than its share of strong performers who either studied at the UO (the band Oregon, jazz singer Nancy King, Portland Cello Project founder Douglas Jenkins) or won early acclaim here (Robert Cray, Curtis Salgado) and moved on to greener pastures. This month brings a few once familiar faces back. Continue reading
Leroy Bell has the X-Factor
When watching competitive music shows like X-Factor or American Idol, you expect the contestants are upstart performers. Often this is the case. However, when Seattle-based pop soul-singer Leroy Bell participated in the X-Factor in 2011, the other hopefuls likely didn’t realize what they were up against. The 61-year-old Bell (you read that right — 61, and he could take Lenny Kravitz in a hottie competition any day) has been in the music business since the ’70s. Continue reading
Crushed Out Can’t Stay Away
Eureka, Calif., was a bit toastier than Eugene when I spoke to Frank Hoier, the guitar force behind the band Crushed Out, along with drummer Moselle Spiller. Even though 42 degrees isn’t exactly summery, I could hear the sunshine in Hoier’s voice. Continue reading
Black Prairie at the Shedd
If we’re going to be honest, the Decemberists hit their peak a while ago. This said, the macabre, folksy offshoot Black Prairie is on the up and up, and the group hits town on Friday. A completely separate project from the Decemberists, Black Prairie features some of the same members, but a sound all of its own: Blending strings, accordions and often virtuosic, swampy classical licks, it’s the sort of band that will make you want to lie down in the grass and watch the sunset. And when it’s dark, the romp and stomp can begin. Continue reading
More than Normal
Oregon Contemporary Theatre’s Next to Normal wows at Lord/Leebrick Playhouse
“That was the best play I’ve seen in Eugene,” I hear one audience member say. “It’s like something you’d see in Ashland,” another woman comments. Oregon Contemporary Theatre (OCT) opens a new theater and a new era with Next To Normal. Continue reading
Local Author on WWII
History buff Jack Radey never intended to write a book about WWII, but that’s exactly what he ended up doing. On Jan. 27, Radey and coauthor Charles Sharp will present their book The Defense of Moscow 1941 at Tsunami Books, where they will discuss their new historical discoveries regarding a pivotal battle between the Germans and the Soviets. Continue reading