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Three forces drive How I Live Now: Meg Rosoff, on whose award-winning young adult novel the film is based; Saoirse Ronan, who has managed to make watchable everything she’s been in, even Hanna; and Kevin Macdonald, whose track record as a director is spotty at best. Continue reading
Walls can do amazing things for a garden. Here in Eugene we rarely see free-standing walls enclosing spaces, but retaining walls abound. I’ve visited many hillside gardens in Eugene that would be just about impossible to cultivate or enjoy without the transformative power of terracing and retaining walls. Materials vary. Poured concrete is practical and can also look great in certain settings. Railroad ties and treated lumber are relatively cheap. Concrete blocks of various kinds are popular, but to me they always look like an opportunity missed. Continue reading
It’s unfortunate that, for a good percentage of Gen Y, first interactions with the Phoenix-born rock group Meat Puppets come via Kurt Cobain and not, as would be proper, the band members themselves. Nirvana’s 1993 MTV Unplugged performance featured a handful of covers, and some of the most memorable were Meat Puppets tunes (“Lake of Fire,” “Oh, Me,” “Plateau”). Now, before things get a bit too sassy, let’s pump the brakes and slam it into reverse. Continue reading
When I spoke to alt-country singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier (pronounced “go-shay”), she was in Los Angeles on the first day of a nearly month-long cross-country tour. I joked that because she was just getting started, she wouldn’t be burned out by the time she got to Eugene 10 days later. Gauthier responded quickly and insistently: “I don’t get burned out. This is my job and I love it. This is a privilege. I may get tired but I would never call it burned out.” Continue reading
The Decline of Western Civilization: Tease your hair and squeeze into skintight leather because glam metal band Faster Pussycat plays with Red Light Saints on Diablo’s last night open to the public 10:30 pm Friday, Nov. 15; $10. Goodbye Diablo’s — it’s been quite the 13 years. Don’t miss: Grrrlz Rock at Oak Street Speakeasy with world funk band Maca Rey playing Ween tunes 10:30 pm Nov. 15, and the grrrlz continue for the Cozmic Pizza Music Extravaganza 4 to 11 pm Nov 16. Continue reading
New York City-based experimental duo Blues Control is made up of Russ Waterhouse and Lea Cho. Cho is a classically trained pianist. Waterhouse, a self-taught musician, started playing guitar and keyboards, and he began experimenting with home recording in high school. As a teen, he was a fan of Miles Davis’ electric era and free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman. After attending college in New York City, Waterhouse says, “I had access to a lot of different kinds of music.” He played in indie rock bands, dabbled in the city’s noise-art scene and got into hip hop. Continue reading
At the North Crawford Mask & Wig Club, Central Connecticut’s finest community theater, Tom Newton is waxing philosophical on love, pure and complicated. “The way I see it,” he notes, “love and theater have a lot in common. They’re both seductive. They both make promises they can’t always keep. And they’re both chock-full of attractive people who are maybe just a little too addicted to drama.” Continue reading
Czech-born playwright Tom Stoppard was knighted as a British subject in 1997, a gesture of literary pomp that, while entirely deserved, nonetheless must have struck Sir Tom as a delicious twist of irony. Continue reading
See new work by Jud Turner like “Navadurga,” a skeleton mandala, at the New Zone Gallery’s “One Night Extravaganza” 7 pm Saturday, Nov. 16, — part of the Life in the Age of Steampunk exhibit; $10 adv., $12 door. Steampunk costumes encouraged. Also on display is the 500-pound steel “mech walker” by Archive Designs. This will be a good warm-up for Turner, who joins the Steampunk Exhibition at the Seoul Arts Center in South Korea March 2014. Continue reading
This fall there is a new flock of nine turkeys that circulate through our neighborhood, snooping down our street every other day. Their core must come from the ones that nested on the butte above our home this past spring. The turkey chicks that left the nest in April are now the size of their parents. We are not sure what they find to eat in their foraging; hope their menu includes slugs and snails. Continue reading