Whats-Happening: Page 502

Cheers, Bitches!

The exponential growth of the Whiteaker Block Party

Culture
Whiteaker Block Party stalwarts

The Whiteaker Block Party will not be televised. As an annual expression of the contested soul of the Whit, the block party is a shot in the arm for the communal side of neighborhood living, in all its sloppy, carnal, artistic glory. It’s at the Whiteaker Block Party that seething, sweaty mobs — gawkers and gackers, locals and carpetbaggers, heps and asshats — coalesce in celebration of the creativity that springs up when a once-and-former slum becomes home to a ragtag coalition of beautiful losers. Continue reading →

Prisoners and Guards

Film

In 1971, Stanford professor Philip Zimbardo planned a two-week project that had such incredible results we’re still talking about it more than 40 years later. On the surface, Zimbardo’s idea was simple: Put college students into a simulated prison environment — some serving as prisoners, some as guards — and observe the psychological effects. Continue reading →

Sick as Fuck

Twisted Insane

Music

It wasn’t many years ago that San Diego rapper Twisted Insane was homeless, struggling to get by, hustling CDs for food in mall parking lots and on busy sidewalks. Bouncing from one metropolitan area to another, the horror-core hip hopper would build a following and relocate, honing his craft while building a small but viciously loyal fan base.  Continue reading →

Welcome to the Dollhouse

Hello Dollface

Music
Hello Dollface

Colorado musicians Hello Dollface have deep roots in Eugene. Besides frequently playing the Oregon Country Fair, two members studied music at the UO.  In collaboration with its non-profit music education program, iAM MUSIC, the band has even founded a festival in Colorado, which Hello Dollface vocalist Ashley Edwards says is patterned somewhat after OCF.  Continue reading →

Makin’ Whoopee!

Music

Roll Jimmy Kimmel, Elvis Presley and Jim Carrey into a single explosive entity and you might come close to Eddie Cantor’s impact on American entertainment. Rising from an impoverished Russian Jewish immigrant New York family, the little, bug-eyed and singing waiter parlayed his broad talents and irrepressible personality to Vaudeville before doing a decade on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Follies, eventually becoming one of the dominant figures on American radio in the 1930s and ’40s. Continue reading →

A Life in Song

Jackson Browne

Music
Jackson Browne

You love Jackson Browne. I guarantee it. Forget about his most recognizable soft-rock radio staples (though, like any self-respecting listener, I’d always prefer Browne’s “Take It Easy” over that “More Than Words” song). Forget even Browne’s tries at activism. Lives in the Balance, his 1986 album condemning U.S. policy in South America, is a strikingly admirable use of his talent, but this consciousness of the greater good is only a symptom of an even more powerful quality. Continue reading →

Pretty in Pink

Saying goodbye to G.L.A.M.

Performing Arts
Anthony Barber, aka Diva-Simone Slaughter. Photo by Trask Bedortha

After four years and three venues, G.L.A.M. arrives at its grand finale and celebration, a pink party at Luckey’s Club Saturday, Aug. 1, to send off the whole G.L.A.M. family in style. The drag show Eugene has grown to love began as Gays, Lesbians And More, offering a positive venue to queer folks and their allies. “It was about people who didn’t have a space,” says producer/emcee Anthony Barber, aka Diva-Simone Slaughter, who has performed in Eugene since “Baby Got Back” was the flavor of the week. Continue reading →

Time to Play

NW Adventure Dogs provides more than your average dog-walking

Culture
Briana Kemp

Billy the Jack Russell terrier mix bounds fearlessly over a stream bank and into the water, plunging after a stick and bringing it back to the feet of Briana Kemp, who tosses the stick back into the water. Elsewhere, Norwich terrier mix Penny has her nose to the ground, sniffing out all there is to sniff.  Terrier mixes Mouser, Frankie and Buffy fill out this pack of five, four of them rescue dogs, as they roam the landscape of Buford Park. They’re all out adventuring instead of sitting at home with nothing to do.  Continue reading →