Arts: Page 368

Chick Lit and the Bard

Love, light reading and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Books

Chick-lit light with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and some love advice from the Bard thrown in, that’s Elizabeth the First Wife (Prospect Park, $15.95). Elizabeth Lancaster is a single community college instructor with a sexy, famous ex-husband and a Skype flirtation with a political campaigner. Author Lian Dolan (you might know her name from the Satellite Sisters podcast that’s been on NPR and ABC radio) tosses in a Nobel Laureate father, a need for home redecorating and a dog to pretty much guarantee something that everyone can relate to. Continue reading →

Rumor Has It

Film

For years, Joss Whedon fans have been reading about the writer-director-composer’s Shakespeare brunches — at which cast members from his beloved shows would gather, drink, eat, read the Bard’s plays and generally (we imagine) have about as much fun as nerds can have with their clothes on. With the release of Much Ado About Nothing, we finally get to attend one of these famed brunches, though the mimosas are BYO.  Continue reading →

La Vie En Rose

Music

Franco-American Madeleine Peyroux’s background is worthy of Edith Piaf: Raised in the arts by bohemian parents, Peyroux spent time in Southern California, Brooklyn and Paris. She toured Europe at the tender age of 15; inspired by street musicians in Paris’ Latin Quarter, Peyroux passed a hat through the crowd for spare change.  Continue reading →

Familiar Strangers

Music

For a band that makes some pretty weighty material, Aubrey Zoli and Matt Hart — the two lead parts of the Americana rock band The Local Strangers — sure do have a good sense of humor. “It’s all about space aliens,” Hart says, laughing when asked if their latest release, 2012’s Left for Better, is more autobiographical or fictitious in nature. Zoli takes a slightly different tack when answering this question. Continue reading →

Lipstick Country-Girl

Music

Carrie Rodriguez is a raven-haired wildflower, an alt-country songstress too feisty for Nashville and too down-home for rock ‘n’ roll. Initially hyped as a virtuosic fiddle player, Rodriguez is a hardworking, constantly touring roots songwriter — exemplifying her hometown (Austin, Texas)’s reverence for traditional music while flipping it the bird at the same time.  Continue reading →

Love, Loss and a Little Bit More

Theater

Storm Kennedy and her crew are back with another production of Love, Loss and What I Wore (see “Closet Confession,” EW 2/28). This quirky, insightful play is written by the magical sisters Delia and Nora Ephron and based off the book by Ilene Beckerman. The play looks at the stories of women’s lives through their wardrobes.  Continue reading →

Arts Hound

Visual Arts

Oregon Country Fair fans and dream lovers: Meet Shanna Trumbly, the artist who created this year’s OCF poster, at the closing reception of her WOW Hall show, Daydream, 5 to 7 pm Friday, June 28. Trumbly’s acrylic paintings are the stuff of slightly whimsical fantasy, complete with forest animals, flowers and beautiful abstract backgrounds.   Continue reading →