Whats-Happening: Page 546

If It Bleeds, It Leads

Film

Nightcrawler begins as a sleek, beautifully filmed portrait of desperation in uncertain times. Under Los Angeles’ flickering lights, people are desperate to keep their jobs, or to find jobs, and a degree of dubiousness is par for the course. Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a small-time thief, stealing scrap metal for cash, when he stumbles onto a new career: At a crime scene, there’s a man with a camera, gathering footage for local news. Inspired, Bloom buys his own gear and hires an “intern,” Rick (Riz Ahmed). Continue reading →

Gettin’ weird with Baby Gramps

Music
Baby Gramps

Seattle in the ’90s was the kingdom of super fuzz and big muff, as greasy-haired white boys in skinny jeans crunched out Neanderthalic riffs like The Kinks on horse ludes. It was a glorious time, full of sound and fury, signifying Sub Pop Records. Iggy was god. Everyone was touching each other and getting sick. And through all that nevermind noise, this beardy old dude with a froggy voice and clangy guitar continued to ply his strange old-timey stylings, laying down this wonky-doodle groove that was like a surreal vaudeville patter horned through the swordfish trombone. Continue reading →

Catching up with legendary Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr

Music

SHOW CANCELED. What would legendary Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr — now in his fifties — say to his 19-year-old self, just about to embark on a career that would lead him to become one of the most widely acclaimed and respected rock musicians of his generation?  “Don’t give up.”  And what would 19-year-old Marr say to older Marr?  “Keep a good haircut.” Continue reading →

Sallie Ford returns to Eugene with new band

Music
Sallie Ford

Much has changed since we last caught up with Portland darling Sallie Ford a year ago. Most notably, she’s no longer with The Sound Outside, her all-dude backing band (they broke up amicably). Ford simplified her band moniker to just Sallie Ford and pulled in a team of PNW musicians — Cristina Cano on drums, Anita Lee Elliott on bass and Amanda Spring on drums. Continue reading →

The Kryptonite Factor

Sports

Sports are funny. If folks in this country cared half as much about the political process as they do about football, we’d all be living in some elegant utopia right now. Even casual sports fans can hold a civil, intelligent discussion about the pros and cons of the nickel defense, but bring up Obamacare and most of us degenerate into retrograde morons, hurling incoherent epithets at each other. Politics these days have become a nightmare, but football — it’s our religion. And that’s sad. Continue reading →

Arts Hound

Visual Arts

KLCC’s arts and culture reporter Eric Alan hosts the Dec. 5 First Friday ArtWalk starting at 5:30 pm at Eugene Piano Academy and hitting stops MECCA, MODERN, Oh So Jo and The Gallery at the Watershed. Keep an eye out for the beautiful modern and almost Fauve-like painting of Shelley Roenspie at Oh So Jo as well as new works by Adam Grosowsky — stunning gestural large-format oil portraits  — at Karin Clarke Gallery (off the guided walk). Continue reading →

The Queer Conundrum

Culture
John O'Malley

Post-punk. Post-war. Postmodern. Post-gender. Post-queer? With the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the recent state victories for marriage equality and a rising generation of people whose fluid identities don’t fit neatly into the he-she binary, we could be on the cusp of a post-queer moment, but that depends on whom you ask.  Continue reading →

Birds of Prey

Film

Mockingjay, on first read, wasn’t my favorite book in the Hunger Games series — not by a long shot. A long trudge to a deadly battle, it was initially memorable for all the time Katniss seemed to spend crying in a closet, worrying about Peeta Mellark, who was captured at the end of Catching Fire’s Quarter Quell. I didn’t want crying Katniss; I wanted victorious Katniss, angry Katniss, a Katniss who would lead the rebellion against the Capital. Continue reading →