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The concept behind 2013’s The Clear Blue Pearl from Portland band Morning Ritual sounds more like a sci-fi-fantasy movie than a pop record, complete with a devastating drought, an epic journey and a mysterious “blue pearl.” Continue reading
New Year’s Eve has always been my least favorite holiday, with the commercially contrived Valentine’s Day a close second. Instead of celebrating gratitude or sacrifice or renewal or even zombies, it’s become pretty much an excuse to go out and get hammered and maybe ruin someone else’s life by driving intoxicated for a nightcap. Continue reading
There are a lot of captivating things about Kathryn Claire. She’s a classically trained violinist (picking it up at age 7), a self-taught guitarist, and she teaches songwriting to kids. But most captivating and surprising is when she opens her mouth to share her deep, emotive voice. A trained vocalist since age 14, Claire (pictured) is no stranger to the emotional range a female voice can hold — she lists Ani DiFranco, Indigo Girls and Joni Mitchell as influences. Continue reading
It always begins this way — with a moment of mystical clarity and ease, eyes closing of their own accord. The head starts to sway side to side with the steady pizzicato of the upright bass. A sound so open and full, you could stand in it. Then comes the circular sound of brushes on a snare drum — fluid, guitar and piano key flavors, and finally, floating on top, a voice: Oh, I hate to see the evening sun go down, ’cause my lovin’ baby done left this town… Continue reading
Since leaving the Navajo Nation at 18 to join the U.S. Army as a young man, Eugene visual artist Lemuel Charley has both nurtured his native roots and honored his brothers in arms, fueling unique insights and ambitions. Continue reading
Sallie Ford at Cozmic Dec. 9. All photo illustrations by Athena Delene. The last time Sallie Ford played in Eugene was October 2013 at Sam Bond's. She was with her old band, The Sound Outside, and had recently released Untamed Beast. That show was packed — if memory serves me right, there was a line around the block. Continue reading
To steal a name from that vast bookstore in Portland, Eugene is a city of books — and of readers. Our small local bookstores and excellent city library, not to mention free and inexpensive book sources such as Gertie the Bookbus and St. Vincent dePaul, ensure that Lane County’s literary lovers can have a book with their coffee or kombucha to curl up with this winter. Continue reading
fiction The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss. DAW Books, Inc., $18.95. Continue reading
Top 10 Books at Tsunami Books Lila by Marilynne Robinson. Farrar Straus Giroux, $26. The Co-Creation Handbook by Alida Birch. Luminaire Press, $12.95. Falling From Horses by Molly Gloss. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25. (See review this issue) Roadside Geology of Oregon, Second Edition by Marli B. Miller. Mountain Press, $26. (See review this issue) The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. Random House, $30. The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Plume, $16. Continue reading
The title of her new book is Falling from Horses, Oregon author Molly Gloss clarifies, not Falling off Horses. The preposition might seem to be a fine distinction, but Gloss says the title is meant as a metaphor — when you say falling off a horse, it is just about falling off a horse, she says. Continue reading