Beer Beat

Drink some tasty brews

The Falling Sky Pizzeria & Public House officially opened its doors June 20 at the newly renovated Erb Memorial Union on the University of Oregon campus. Falling Sky’s newest location sells “falling pies,” which includes The Firebird, with roasted chicken, pickled peppers, fried garlic, mozzarella, spicy marinara and hot sauce. Subs, soups, salads and pasta are also on the menu, along with Falling Sky’s tasty brews. Among the current beers on tap: Daywalker Irish Red, Hard Rain American Stout and Make American Wheat Again. Head over to fallingskybrewing.com for the full menu. Continue reading 

All About That Barrel

A lesson in barrel-aged beers from the new Alesong Brewing & Blending

Doug and Brian Coombs with Matt Van Wyk

One of Eugene’s newest breweries features some familiar faces: Matt Van Wyk and Brian Coombs, formerly of acclaimed local brewery Oakshire. In 2015, Van Wyk and Coombs, along with Coomb’s brother Doug, struck out on their own, launching Alesong Brewing & Blending, a company with a unique emphasis on barrel-aged beer. Van Wyk tells EW that Alesong, located in west Eugene, is an artisan brewery “that’s going to mainly focus on barrel-aged beer and Belgian-inspired beers.”  Continue reading 

Taste of the Euro-Northwest

ColdFire Brewing brings European flair to Eugene’s brewing community

Coldfire

Brothers Stephen and Dan Hughes want their brewery to honor community members who sacrifice a lot and don’t get much recognition — namely, teachers and medical workers. “Healthcare workers and teachers are probably two of the most unrecognized professions I can think of,” says Dan Hughes, who opened ColdFire Brewing Company with his brother in January.  “There are a lot of unsung heroes out there, and we definitely wanted to recognize that those people are an important part of our community,” Stephen Hughes adds. Continue reading 

The Label Makers

Oakshire and Ninkasi celebrate 10 years in brewing with rejuvenated design

Oakshire Designer Eric Keskeys with new designs

In his office at Oakshire Brewing, Eric Keskeys flips through a weathered paperback revealing hundreds of ancient shapes and patterns. The room is dark, save for the glow from his dual computer screens, where working templates of beer labels have been put on pause.  He stops on a page to point out some trefoils in what he calls a design bible — the Handbook of Designs and Devices: 1836 Basic Designs and Their Variations, originally printed in 1946. Continue reading 

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

Set and shot in Eugene, Tracktown tells the story of a young runner as she faces the Olympic Trials

Alexi Pappas (second from right) in Tracktown

Few things are as staid and predictable as the lone-athlete sports film. Since the sleeper success of Rocky in 1976, such movies have become increasingly formulaic potboilers in which we dutifully witness, as though through a fisheye lens, the algorithmic progress of an underdog as he confronts endless obstacles on the way to inevitable triumph. Cue ovation. Continue reading 

American Scandal

A combination of thrift-store hats, old-timey folk and Southern blues

Hot Damn Scandal

If toe-tapping and swingin’ beats with eerie, Romanian undertones are your thing, check out Hot Damn Scandal.  The band is a combination of thrift-store hats, old-timey folk and Southern blues — washboard and saw included. In 2008, the founders loosely came together in an alternative drum circle at the Rainbow Gathering. After a few members came and went, six ramblin’ folks officially became Hot Damn Scandal. Now, whiskey and heartbreak seem to fuel Hot Damn’s good ol’ drunk-in-love Southern sound.  Continue reading 

Ghosting

A brand new Eugene band

Ghost Tour

A brand new Eugene band, Ghost Tour, debuts Saturday, July 2, at Hi-Fi Music Hall’s Lounge. Ghost Tour features several familiar faces for Eugene music fans, such as Olive DelSol (Bohemian Dub Orchestra) on keyboards and vocals, and Michael Steinkirchner (Caitlin Jemma & The Goodness) on lead guitar.  Continue reading 

Bach In the Thick of It

James MacMillan’s big choral orchestral work premiere

Monica Huggett

When the Oregon Bach Festival commissioned what turned out to be his European Requiem back in 2012, James MacMillan couldn’t have known how prophetic that title might have turned out to be. The 57-year-old Scottish composer’s big choral orchestral work premieres July 2 at the Hult Center — just more than a week after his compatriots voted to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union, a move that might in turn provoke MacMillan’s homeland to seek independence from the U.K. Continue reading 

Heed the Siren’s Call

In which a grumpy reviewer falls in love with The Little Mermaid at Actors Cabaret of Eugene

Jenny Parks and Anthony Krall in ACE's The Little Mermaid

I have two sisters, much younger than me, the offspring of my father’s second marriage. I love them both dearly, but when they were little girls and I was in my 20s, they drove me batshit crazy — especially with their fanatical devotion to all things Disney. Both of them possess gorgeous singing voices, always have, and traipsing around the house they would suddenly stop, raise their arms with operatic urgency and begin belting out some saccharine ballad from The Lion King or The Little Mermaid. If I hear about Ariel one more time, so help me … Continue reading