“Great Gatsby” at Eugene Ballet Company, April 10, 2016
Eugene audiences were treated to two world premieres yesterday, as the Eugene Ballet Company presented Suzanne Haag’s Look and Toni Pimble’s The Great Gatsby. Continue reading
Arts: Page 234
Shadow & Light at Beall Hall, April 8
The capacity crowd at Beall Hall Friday night was only satisfied after not one, but two standing ovations for Joan Szymko’s new work “Shadow & Light”, performed beautifully by the Eugene Vocal Arts Ensemble, the Eugene Concert Orchestra and soloists Marietta Simpson, Sarah Joanne Davis and Brendan Tuohy, under the direction of artistic director and conductor Diane Retallack. Continue reading
The Midas Touch
Jonathan Gold is the first and only food critic to win a Pulitzer Prize. Let that marinate for a moment. Then disabuse yourself of any notions of what a food critic of that caliber might be like — perhaps an uptight gourmand enamored with his own palette or some self-important foodie. Gold is none of that, so it’s no wonder filmmaker Laura Gabbert chose to wrap a film around the writer and the myriad flavors of his beloved hometown Los Angeles. He has a penchant for suspenders, wrinkled shirts and his green pickup. Continue reading
Alt-Rock Double Bill
The sensual rock tunes of Cape Cod’s Highly Suspect and Luz Elena Mendoza
Get ready to feel some serious butterflies from the sensual rock tunes of Cape Cod’s Highly Suspect and Luz Elena Mendoza (of Y La Bamba) coming to WOW Hall April 9. Mendoza has a wispy, sultry voice that will woo you into a trance. She’s also very Portland alt-rock. Her songs are stories that build by layering vocals with sometimes whimsical, sometimes dark, melodies. Now on her third album with Y La Bamba, Ojos Del Sol, Mendoza has a sound that is easy to swallow but at any given moment could send chills down your neck. Continue reading
Coldest White Rapper
G-Eazy talks to EW about being poor, being rich and being white in the rap game
G-Eazy is such a big deal that iconic rapper Lil Wayne remixed a song from his new album last week and NBA superstar Kobe Bryant greeted him at a recent Lakers game. On Billboard’s website, Nielsen Music charts hip-hop and R&B songs using a metric that calculates radio airplay, streaming and music sales. Each week since Feb. 20, G-Eazy’s “Me, Myself & I” ranked higher than any other rap song save Drake’s “Summer 16” and Rihanna’s “Work” (which also features Drake). Continue reading
Back Beat
On April 9, Old Nick’s celebrates its one-year anniversary. Over the past 12 months, the Whiteaker rock club across from Washington Jefferson Skatepark has upped Eugene’s punk, metal and hardcore game. “We would like to thank all of the local bands, DJs, comics and burlesque performers in the Eugene scene for supporting Old Nick’s with your amazing talent,” says Tim Kinney, Old Nick’s booker and co-owner. “We will continue to bring in great music and keep Eugene rocking.” Continue reading
UO Musicking
Early music conference and more in Eugene this week
From April 12-16, the UO is hosting its first free and open to the public early music conference, Musicking, which includes lecture series, master classes and other coaching opportunities, along with stars from the admittedly geeky early music world, scholarly sessions and, of course, concerts, not to mention a “period-instrument petting zoo.” Continue reading
Arts Hound
The world lost a beautiful, warm, generous, mischievous, wickedly smart and delightfully cantankerous soul the night of Saturday, April 2, when Oregon artist Rick Bartow passed away after battling congenital heart failure. He was 69. At EW, our hearts are full of sorrow. Bartow will be remembered for his mastery of color and gesture, and his spirited and unflinching work — paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture, found in museums and collections around the globe. Continue reading
Farewell Rick Bartow
Kidd Pivot/Electric Company Theatre
Betroffenheit, the collaboration between Kidd Pivot/Electric Company Theatre, presented by Whitebird Dance at the Newmark Theatre in Portland Saturday night, pushed at odd angles through territory that at times felt dank, or prickly, hot and then cold. The audience was at times arrested, cajoled, invigorated and perhaps browbeaten. This was not namby-pamby dance for its own sake, nor was it theater alone, but a hybridization that, though not consistently successful, whatever that means, was at least doing something new. Continue reading