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Among the several pleasures of writer-director Paul Weitz’s new film Grandma is watching Lily Tomlin drop a petulant teenage slacker to the floor with a hockey stick to the nuts. The aggression is not unfounded: Elle (Tomlin) is simply avenging her newly pregnant granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner), who is trying to collect enough money for her abortion appointment, and her baby daddy (Nat Wolff) won’t cough up his share. Continue reading
Los Angeles band Period Bomb is an anarcho-feminist project recalling protest punk like Bikini Kill and straightforward, curled-upper-lip rock ‘n’ roll like The Runaways. Period Bomb’s “Get Out Of My Life Creep” is a simple kiss-off to a boorish, controlling lover. The song features vocalist Cami Miami’s supple, Siouxsie Sioux voice moving over tightly wound power chords. Continue reading
California-based progressive bluegrass group Front Country has a new connection to Eugene. “Our fiddle player [Leif Karlstrom] just moved up here,” guitarist Jacob Groopman tells EW. “I always like coming to Eugene. It’s a nice town.” Front Country is touring in support of 2014’s Sake of the Sound. The record features mandolin, fiddle and the hymnal quality of vocalist Melody Walker. The resulting sound recalls the chamber folk and bluegrass of Chris Thile and Punch Brothers. Continue reading
Blackalicious needed two decades to establish themselves as one of underground hip hop’s most progressive, impressive and beloved groups. But it took Harry Potter to make them famous. Continue reading
We’ve all played this game: If you could share a drink with one person from history, living or dead, who would you choose? For music fans in general and jazz fans in particular, the answer is often Billie Holiday. Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, running now at Actors Cabaret of Eugene, gives audiences that chance. The play debuted in Atlanta in the mid-1980s, with a recent off-Broadway run starring Audra McDonald in the titular role. Continue reading
Having lived here going on eight years now, Eugene has become like family for me: I love it, but sometimes I don’t like it very much. For all the ballyhooed benefits of its artsy liberal veneer and outdoorsy appeal, Eugene remains, at its core, a small town steeped in vice, fractured by disarray and floundering in untapped potential — sorta dirty, kinda unpretty and altogether a tad menacing and drug-addled, like a white utopia revved up on the downslide. Continue reading
Jellyfish-like 'Drapery' form the walls of oregon caves Continue reading
Jennifer Heuett gazes out at Crater Lake Continue reading
Illustration by Ben Ricker Miami Mike’s head swung slowly back and forth as he eyed the pretty girls sauntering past his hotel on their way to work. In Mike’s defense, little else goes on in the sun-bleached corner of Panama where he opened up shop. Continue reading
Eugene and Springfield have a lot to offer in terms of activities — one look at our weekly events calendar will tell you that. But since this is the travel issue, we’re encouraging you to take a step outside Lane County and check out what the rest of Oregon has going on this fall. From storytelling festivals to boat parades, hop on a bus or carpool to these autumn escapades. Oregon’s Alpenfest Joseph, Oregon Sept. 24-27 Continue reading