Summer Strut

Celebrate your body and America with made-in-USA Allihalla swimwear and lingerie

Allison Ditson

Nothing says ’Merica like star-spangled hot pants.  Allison Ditson flips through a stack of her handmade garter shorts and swimwear while Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U” fills her warm attic studio. Fabric is draped over every nook and cranny — in stars and stripes, neons and florals, glittering golds and black mesh — making the cozy space look like the shared dressing room of Wonder Woman, Betty Grable and Katy Perry. Continue reading 

Reality Bites

We’re starting to live in a Jenny Slate world, and I’m perfectly OK with that. She’s brilliantly annoying on Kroll Show, as one of the Lizzes of PubLIZity; she’s the creator, with her husband Dean Fleischer-Camp, of the video and bestselling book Marcel the Shell With Shoes On; she’s been guest-starring on more TV shows than I can remember. She makes fart jokes in interviews and tweets videos of her dog. And Slate stars in Obvious Child, the rare film that can genuinely be called a feminist romantic comedy. Continue reading 

Bach Beat

More highlights from the Oregon Bach Festival

Tamara Wilson

This time each year, Eugene respectfully steps back and offers the stage to the Oregon Bach Festival. And no wonder: The 44-year-old classical music institution abounds with so many attractive performances, workshops, lectures and other events that we couldn’t even begin to cover them all in last week’s issue. Here’s a rundown of some remaining top recommendations.   Jonathan Manson, Cello Continue reading 

The New Jurassic Period

Jurassic 5

It takes the right combination of craziness and courage to walk away from the fame game at its peak. But in 2007, Jurassic 5 did exactly that. Feedback (2006) reached No. 6 in Billboard’s U.S. rap record sales, securing Jurassic 5’s status as pioneers of alternative hip hop. Seven years later, the same cats known for jazz sampling, scatting, multiple live MCs and even the occasional kazoo solo are once again ready to take you “back to the concrete streets,” as they rap in their 1999 self-titled LP. Continue reading 

Hit the Sauce

The last bro standing from the ’90s jam band/groove-rock scene (Sublime, Dave Matthews, Blues Traveler et al.), Garrett Dutton, better known as G. Love of G. Love & Special Sauce, is way too chill to care much about superstardom. Instead, G. Love & Special Sauce continues to bring danceable, reggae- and hip-hop-inflected blues rock to the masses. G. Love’s latest, 2014’s Sugar, is more of the same.  Continue reading 

Mapping Music

Geographer

On record, San Francisco’s Geographer is somewhat blunted by an ambition to sound thoroughly “now,” to fit into whatever mold successful modern rock bands are expected to fit into in these wild and wooly days of making music.  Live, Geographer is as raw as twiddling knobs on computer equipment can be, but vocalist Michael Deni adds interest by switching between guitar and loops, while Nathan Blaz supplies keyboards and electric cello and drummer Brian Ostreicher provides a needed punch and danceable energy. Continue reading 

Relative Pursuits

Meet the Beyers — sibling artists featured at Art and the Vineyard

‘Lotus, closed’ by Ian Beyer

Sculptor Ian Beyer tells me with a wry smile that his sister, painter Erika Beyer, is the smart one, what with her dual college degrees in scientific illustration and architecture. This is the sort of affectionate ribbing that commonly passes between siblings; what’s not so common is the level of talent that unifies the Beyers in their separate creative endeavors. Continue reading 

When the Levee Breaks

In Kelly Reichardt’s new film, Night Moves, a ragged trio of would-be eco-saboteurs plot to blow up a hydroelectric dam in western Oregon. There is Josh (Jesse Eisenberg), a steely young man full of sidelong glances and inarticulate rage; Dena (Dakota Fanning), a doe-eyed rich girl levitating on hippie zen; and Harmon (Peter Sarsgaard), the elder, who emanates the cool, malevolent calm of nihilism. Continue reading 

The Next Generation

Anton Armstrong with the SFYCA.

What would you do with a room full of 80 teenagers? Turn on the television? Order pizza? Lock the door and run for cover? At the Oregon Bach Festival, the standard approach to the younger set is treat them like musicians, and allow them to soar. OBF offers a number of kid-friendly events, but none is more moving than the renowned Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy.  Continue reading