Whats-Happening: Page 544

Gender Diversity Awareness Week starts now!

Culture

With International Transgender Day of Remembrance coming up Thursday, Nov. 20, several local orgs and businesses (ASUO Women's Center, LCC Gender and Sexuality Alliance, Eugene Office of Equity and Human Rights, UO LGBTESSP, The Redoux Parlour, Community Alliance of Lane County, and Lane Independent Living Alliance) have teamed up to celebrate with Gender Diversity Awareness Week. Continue reading →

Spirit of Aloha

Chow
Kapu Hut’s bar runneth over with more than 60 rums. Photo by Kathleen Nyberg.

Some things come standard with a McMenamins dining experience — craft brews, tater tots, exposed wood beams — but Dan McMenamin, a second generation co-owner of the business, says individualism is key to the success of his family’s empire. “We try to let each location have its own story, its own identity,” McMenamin says. The 50-plus restaurants themselves, he says, “can lead you down the path to what they want to be.” Evidently, what McMenamins North Bank wants to be is something exotic and a bit tongue-in-cheek: a tiki bar. Continue reading →

Save the last dance for Emery Blackwell

Dance
Emery Blackwell

Emery Blackwell, 55, dancer, choreographer, musician, composer and teacher, retires from 25 years with DanceAbility International this fall. A giant figure in the local dance scene and a representative of disability rights around the globe, Blackwell will perform onstage one last time with his longtime dance partner Alito Alessi, as part of Vanessa Martin’s Xcape Dance Company’s premiere piece, Love! Continue reading →

Love! Is All You Need

Dance
Vanessa Martin (front) with Xcape Dance company

Lots of little kids take a dance class or two, but most won’t make a career of it. Sometimes, however, a special child comes along who has the talent and drive, along with the family support needed, to keep investing in dance for a lifetime. Choreographer Vanessa Martin was one of those lucky kids, who had big aspirations and a parent to back her up.  Continue reading →

Learn to Love ’Em!

Gardening

London’s many squares, parks and gardens are planted with a good deal of ingenuity and flair, always with an eye to ease of maintenance and year-round visual value. I have spent quite a bit of time there in recent years, mostly in the colder months, so I have had a chance to observe how much use is made of woody plants that are especially striking in winter. They include winter flowering viburnums and trees and shrubs with distinctive or colorful bark and, of course, evergreens such as Garrya elliptica (an Oregon native) with its long, silvery winter catkins.  Continue reading →