Skatelandia
Revamped WJ Skatepark puts Eugene on the thrasher map
‘I’ve been here every day. It’s like a dream. I still can’t believe this is in eugene.’ Caleb Grant, rides for Tactics Boardshop. Photo by Trask Bedortha. Continue reading
Whats-Happening: Page 569
Punk Isn’t Dead
Fifteen years ago, Lukas Moodysson’s feature debut, Show Me Love (limply retitled from the evocative Fucking Åmål), gave us a beautifully honest, complicated and lovely tale about small-town teenage life and love. Moodysson’s latest, We Are the Best!, is another gloriously told tale about Swedish teens — though they can barely claim the word. Continue reading
Debutantes & Dealers
Sometimes opposites attract, and sometimes they create havoc. This could be considered the theme for 2014’s Debutantes & Dealers, the debut full-length album from Seattle folk-rockers Vaudeville Etiquette. Continue reading
Power of Three
Emily Saliers was only 12 when Joan Baez’s Diamonds & Rust was released in 1975. And Saliers, half of the Indigo Girls folk-rock duo, listened to it nonstop. “I listened to the record over and over again until I could learn it,” Saliers tells EW over the phone from Canada. But her interest in Baez wasn’t just song-deep. “I was very admiring of her politics and her journeys and the peace that she stood for,” she says. Continue reading
Eugene saxophonist and origami artist Tomo Tsurumi is slowly recovering
The road to recovery — and prom: Eugene saxophonist and origami artist Tomo Tsurumi is slowly recovering after a bicycle accident in early May that caused severe injuries to his face, mouth and hands. Continue reading
The Gershwins are A-OK
From The Shedd’s musical revival to the sounds of Brazil
People consuming illegal substances produced by locals in the boonies, cops storming in to bust it up, tempestuous affairs … Breaking Bad? Weeds? No, it’s the Gershwins’ bubbly 1926 musical comedy Oh, Kay!, which those indefatigable musical revivalists at The Shedd are staging June 20-29. Continue reading
The Freak-Folk Space Cowboy
Canadian songwriter and visual artist Chad VanGaalen has built a comprehensive little universe with his work, over which he rules supreme, whether through his spacey indie-folk songs or his R. Crumb-esque surrealist comic book-style illustrations. Continue reading
Neighborhoods Go Wild
My travel experience has convinced me that the best plan is to make no plans — or at least to keep plans as flexible as possible — and my experience of watching Brazil’s first match in this hubristically hopeful host nation has confirmed my conclusion that spontaneity and flexibility bear the sweetest of fruits. Continue reading
Waiting for Capra
According to Aristotle, comedy is harder to pull off than tragedy, and farce is the most challenging genre of all. How to get the audience to emotionally engage with all of the goofy plot twists, the ridiculous sight gags and the improbable situations? How to, in the immortal words of film star Donald O’Connor, “Make ’em laugh?” Well, if the lofty goal is a good old-fashioned giggle, then Cottage Theatre’s Moon Over Buffalo doesn’t disappoint. Continue reading
Middle School Musical
Actors Cabaret of Eugene premieres 13with a youthful cast
“A lot of people around age 13 are trying to find themselves,” says Jenny Bryant, performing this weekend in 13 at Actor’s Cabaret of Eugene. Castmate Angel McNabb adds, “The play relates to middle school, because kids are always trying to find a group where they fit in.” With music and lyrics by the Tony award-winning American playwright Jason Robert Brown, book by Dan Elish and Robert Horn and direction and choreography by Lanny Mitchell, 13 features a cast of young people from around the region, ranging in age from 10 to 16. Continue reading