Whats-Happening: Page 440

ArtsHound

Visual Arts

With the sun shining more often than not these days, it’s primo mural-painting time. The Whiteaker Community Art Team has a mural going up at 4th and Blair. Half a block north, CALC (Community Alliance of Lane County) is celebrating its 50th anniversary by creating a new mural with the theme of “50 years of struggle for social justice.” Prolific local muralist Bayne Gardner will work with youth to paint that mural in CALC’s front yard, to be debuted during the Whiteaker Art Walk Aug. 26. Continue reading →

Testing 1, 2, 3

Eugene gamers get to sample the latest from developers at Indie Game Play Test Night

CultureTechnology
Hot Dog Apocalypse

Indie video game developers from as far away as Seattle will showcase their work as part of Indie Game Play Test Night Friday, May 27, at Shoryuken League in downtown Eugene. Event coordinator Britt Brady says it’s crucial that game developers get their projects in front of a game playing audience as early as possible.  “Game developers are very close to their games,” Brady says. “Before their game is out, this is a way for indie developers to get the public playing it — see what’s fun, see what people like, find bugs and also promote it.” Continue reading →

Mothers Who Smother

Film

From the exact moment I spied Susan Sarandon rubbing lemons on her naked torso through the apartment window in Atlantic City, I was in love. Yep, me and Burt Lancaster, forever united in our voyeurism, but it isn’t quite what you think: Sure, the scene was rawly, almost excruciatingly erotic as Sarandon, utterly unaware of being observed (they don’t call them apartments for nothing), went about slowly disrobing and squeezing citrus on her flesh to slice out the proletariat stink of the oyster bar where she works. Continue reading →

The Cutting Edge of Youth

Music

L.A. hardcore industrial duo Youth Code is touring in support of its second studio record, Commitment to Complications. With this record, Youth Code, featuring Sara Taylor and Ryan George, push deeper into the rough, serrated electronic territory of bands like Skinny Puppy, Godflesh and Ministry.  This is not pleasant music, but it is thrilling, challenging and rewarding. Hardcore vocals accompany a throbbing, pulsating beat that almost inspires you to dance but instead hammers your consciousness into a brutal kind of awareness. Continue reading →

Every Mouse Has Its Day

Music

Nora Murphy Hughes of Portland band Hollow Sidewalks is eight months alcohol-free. She says this transformation in her life is reflected on her band’s new record, Year of the Fieldmouse.  “Last year, when we did our first album, I was pretty fucked up — drinking and drugs,” Hughes explains. “It’s definitely a brighter, happier record than the last one. Overall there’s a more optimistic tone.”  Continue reading →

Regret, Regret, Regret

Theater

Chekov updated for a post-Prozac world in OCT’s uneven production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike As with writers David Mamet or Aaron Sorkin, to properly experience playwright Christopher Durang you first have to commit to the musical rhythms of his language. Durang’s humor, dark and cynical as it is, lies within that rhythm. Continue reading →

Medieval Malarkey

Very Little Theatre’s current production of Spamalot

Theater

The irreverent postmodern humor of Monty Python — a stew of bawdy iconoclasm, parodic schmaltz and geek-boy cheekery — achieved perhaps its finest expression in the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This cult classic contains so many insider touchstones (the Knights Who Say Ni, Frenchmen who fart in your general direction, a homicidal rabbit) that, by now, it requires its own cultural thesaurus. Continue reading →

Forget the Fourth Wall

Magical Moombah brings fun, frolic and the American songbook to kids

Theater
Scotty Perey and Judith Roberts

Now celebrating its 14th season, The Shedd’s Magical Moombah serves up vaudevillian romps for kids as well as kids-at-heart.  I chased down two of Moombah’s illustrious founders, Judith “Sparky” Roberts and Scotty Perey, to see what makes Moombah tick.  “The main idea is to share songs — American standards — from the popular awareness,” Roberts says.  In a Moombah show, those songs are packaged in a way that’s kid-centered and fun.  Continue reading →