2014 Oscar Predictions

 Bold = who we think will win * = who we think should win   Best Film * American Hustle  Captain Phillips Dallas Buyers Club Gravity Her  Nebraska Philomena 12 Years a Slave The Wolf of Wall Street   Best Actor Christian Bale Bruce Dern * Leonardo DiCaprio Chiwetel Ejiofor Matthew McConaughey   Continue reading 

Oregon at the oscars

Director James Ivory (Howards End, The Remains of the Day) grew up in Klamath Falls and graduated from the UO. Ivory is half of film company Merchant Ivory Productions, whose movies have received six Oscars. Director and screenplay writer Brad Bird, who graduated from Corvallis High School, nabbed Best Animated Feature Academy Awards for his films The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Continue reading 

Folk Is Not A Dirty Word

The Royal Oui

Songwriter Ari Shine met his wife, Adrienne Pierce, in L.A.; the two immediately connected over shared interests like Canadian folk-rock band The Grapes of Wrath. Shine says the two worked in the music business together for years as an “undercover duo.” “We co-wrote Adrienne’s records,” he explains. “We were doing a lot of music together [for soundtracks] but we weren’t a band.” Eventually Shine and Pierce struck out on their own, forming The Royal Oui. Continue reading 

Leimert Park, What’s Cool

Dom Kennedy

Despite never writing lines over three beats long, Dom Kennedy works a pretty contagious game. In interviews, the California-born rapper sounds like Muhammad Ali, toting himself as the hardest-working, most prolific, sensational, fresh, badass artist in hip hop today. While most of these claims can be taken with a gargantuan grain of salt, “hard-working” lands with great accuracy. Continue reading 

Straight-A students: The A3 Group

The Coup

Straight-A students: The A3 Group, an advanced nine-piece instrumental music ensemble from the Springfield Academy of Arts and Academics, will fill the Wildish Theater with the sounds of “Bass Folk Song,” “Django’s Castle” and other music by A3 student composers 7:30 pm Friday, Feb. 28; $5 students and seniors, $7 general. Local favorite Mood Area 52 takes the stage next, performing its signature blend of jazz, American folk, Brechtian cabaret and classical music. The groups will cap off the night with a joint performance of “St. Continue reading 

Rock ‘n’ Roll Mermaids

Amanda Lawrence in Daughter of Triton

The Phoinix Players have made it their ongoing — and often lonely — mission to single-handedly revive musical theater in Eugene, and they do an admirable job at conjuring the sort of song-and-dance productions that sent Broadway hellzapoppin’ from the era of Tin Pan Alley to the Great Depression. The troupe, a clutch of talented 20-somethings, is adept at mounting small-scale floorshows that oftentimes achieve a kind of retro grandeur. When they’re on, they hit the mark beautifully. Continue reading 

Arts Hound

Golden Girl: With Eugene Opera’s The Girl of the Golden West performances fast approaching (March 14 and 16), several complementary exhibits are throwing the saloon doors open. The White Lotus Gallery is hosting an artists’ reception with Lynda Lanker and Gary Tepher 2 to 5 pm Saturday, March 1, for the show Women of the Gold Rush West, with works on display (and for sale) by Lanker, Tepher, David Butler, Rich Bergeman and Charles Search. Continue reading