Arts: Page 233

Medieval Malarkey

Very Little Theatre’s current production of Spamalot

Theater

The irreverent postmodern humor of Monty Python — a stew of bawdy iconoclasm, parodic schmaltz and geek-boy cheekery — achieved perhaps its finest expression in the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This cult classic contains so many insider touchstones (the Knights Who Say Ni, Frenchmen who fart in your general direction, a homicidal rabbit) that, by now, it requires its own cultural thesaurus. Continue reading →

Forget the Fourth Wall

Magical Moombah brings fun, frolic and the American songbook to kids

Theater
Scotty Perey and Judith Roberts

Now celebrating its 14th season, The Shedd’s Magical Moombah serves up vaudevillian romps for kids as well as kids-at-heart.  I chased down two of Moombah’s illustrious founders, Judith “Sparky” Roberts and Scotty Perey, to see what makes Moombah tick.  “The main idea is to share songs — American standards — from the popular awareness,” Roberts says.  In a Moombah show, those songs are packaged in a way that’s kid-centered and fun.  Continue reading →

Potty Mouth Punks

Music

Do you think the band’s founders went through other options before settling on the name Dayglo Abortions back in 1979? Given the Canadian punk trio’s penchant for offensive juvenilia, it would probably be an incredible list. Continue reading →

Play Anything

Film

In order to understand my response to Sing Street, director John Carney’s love letter to Irish teens starting a garage band in mid-’80s Dublin, I’m going to have to tell you a bit about myself. I came of age in a small Northwest town at the ass end of the Cold War, when the threat of nuclear annihilation was about to be replaced by the plague of AIDS as the greatest goad to adolescent nihilism. Things weren’t good at home, and as it went at home, so it seemed to go with the world. Continue reading →

World Tour Weekend

From Brazil to Delhi 2 Dublin

Music
Delhi 2 Dublin

Why wait for summer to take your international vacation when you can take a musical world tour this month right here in Eugene? First stop: Brazil, via the great Oregon saxophonist Tom Bergeron’s Brasil Band concert May 21 at The Jazz Station. World-renowned Rio de Janeiro pianist and composer Marvio Ciribelli has appeared at jazz festivals around the world, and Bergeron has worked with everyone from Anthony Braxton to Ella Fitzgerald and Robert Cray.  Continue reading →

Just Dance

Music

Just before the bass drops into the thumping drumbeat on an electronica track, it’s easy to rush towards preconceived (and often negative) notions about popular “dance” music.  But lend brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence enough time and you’ll start dancing without even noticing. The Lawrences, better known as the English electronic duo Disclosure, have received Grammy nominations in the dance album category for their two studio releases, Settle (2014) and Caracal (2015).  Continue reading →

Get Heavy

Music

Heaviness is a fickle descriptive when it comes to music. Is it gauged by the power riffs of a Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin? The hyper-speed assault of a Slayer or Napalm Death? Maybe the slow, brutal chug of a Swans or Neurosis? Some even look to the dark undercurrent of early bluesmen like Blind Willie Johnson or Leadbelly (the name certainly checks out) as the true masters of heaviness. Continue reading →

Moon Pop

Music

The music of Canadian indie-rock group Supermoon is built from elements so delicately stacked it seems a cool breeze might knock them over. You want to catch the sound in a butterfly net, put it in a glass jar and keep it safely tucked on a shelf.  “It’s pretty poppy with a dark undertone,” says Supermoon multi-instrumentalist Adrienne LaBelle, describing the band’s new release Playland. The album is out this month on Mint Records. Continue reading →

Loud and Proud

OUT/LOUD Queer and Trans Women’s Music Festival celebrates its 16th year

Music
Taína Asili (center) with La Banda Rebelde

The battle for gender-inclusive spaces is in the white-hot spotlight recently, notably from backlash pertaining to the passage of transgender exclusionary bills such as North Carolina’s restriction on public restroom use in accordance with the sex assigned on a person’s birth certificate.  The need for gender-inclusivity in spaces like public restrooms and locker rooms is obvious to many, though the importance of inclusive creative and social spaces, like festivals and concert venues, is often overlooked.  Continue reading →

Channeling Chekov

The upper classes get poked in OCT’s production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Theater
Storm Kennedy and Josh Francis in OCT’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Premiering this weekend at Oregon Contemporary Theatre, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, winner of the 2013 Tony Award for best play, represents a kind of second act for playwright Christopher Durang. “Durang is known for his outrageous comedy, and rightfully so,” OCT director Tara Wibrew says. “But I particularly appreciate that his characters are lovable. In many of Durang’s pieces, there isn’t a villain against a hero — just good people taking opposing routes in an attempt to make life better.”  Continue reading →