theater
Friday, Saturday, 8 p.m. Ferndale Repertory Theatre, 447 Main Street. John Osborne’s sharply funny, fiercely honest exploration of political disillusionment and basic human yearning. Directed by John Heckel. $15/$13 students and seniors. ferndale-rep.org. 800-838-3006.
STAFF PICK / music
Thursday, 9 p.m. Arcata Theatre Lounge, 1036 G St. Cosmic auditory scientist blows your mind. R/D and Noah D open. $15. arcatatheater.com. 822-1220.
STAFF PICK / events, theater, music, dance, art, Comedy, sports, spoken word, lecture, etc.
Thursday, 9 p.m. Arcata Playhouse, 1251 Ninth St. Presenting a vaudevillian showcase of the county’s finest dancers, musicians, circus performers. Night ends with a dance party led by Arcata’s Small Axe Ensemble. Benefit for Six Rivers Planned Parenthood’s Spare Change. $7. E-mail humboldtvarietyville@yahoo.com. 408-515-2801.
STAFF PICK / events
Saturday, 7 p.m. Arcata Theatre Lounge, 1036 G St. Annual shindig features Pom Pom Queens of Bat N’ Rouge fame, Rutabaga Queens, The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Dell’Arte, Shea Freelove, the Eye Rockestra, live and silent auction and is hosted by Bob Ornelas. Bring a donation for Food for People. $15/$25 a pair. www.arcatatheater.com. 822-1220.
What:
On Monday, November 23, College of the Redwoods will host a free lecture by Bay Area artist Packard Jennings at the Accident Gallery, 210 C Street in Eureka. Jennings is an internationally recognized artist and activist who uses tactics like billboard alteration and “shopdropping”, which is the practice of covertly placing art objects in retail environments.
A 2007 New York Times Article profiled Jennings as he placed his “Anarchist Action Figures” in local Target stores.
“When better than Christmas to make a point about hyper-consumerism?” asked Mr. Jennings, 37, whose action figure comes with tiny accessories including a gas mask, bolt cutter, and two Molotov cocktails, and looks convincingly like any other doll on most toy-store shelves. Putting it in stores and filming people as they try to buy it as they interact with store clerks, Mr. Jennings said he hoped to show that even radical ideology gets commercialized. He said for safety reasons he retrieves the figures before customers take them home.
Jennings also received national attention for his “Business Reply Pamphlet” project, which stuffed junk mail business-reply envelopes with a sixteen-page comic that shows office workers how to turn their office into a peaceful stone-age commune.
He also participated in last year’s project in which fellow activist pranksters The Yes Men distributed 1.2 million copies of a 14-page spoof edition of the New York Times that declared the Iraq War to be over, universal health care to have passed, as well as other bogus stories.
His most recent project, “Afghanistan 1985”, uses the movie “Rambo: True Blood III” as a point of departure. Jennings combined footage from the movie with assorted clips from Ronald Reagan’s movies, effectively recasting Sylvester Stallone’s character as Reagan.
Jennings Website at www.centennialsociety.org chronicles many of his other projects, which range from conceptual projects like an infomercial for “art in a can” to an actual proposal that he submitted to PEZ in which he proposed “Fallen Rapper Pez Dispensers” in the likenesses of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G.
Monday’s lecture at the Accident Gallery, which is a part of the College of the Redwoods visiting artist series, will feature projects, videos and anecdotes from Jennings’ prolific output during the last decade. The lecture will be free and open to the public.
For more information, contact Garth Johnson at 714-642-1681 or by email at garth-johnson@redwoods.edu
Packard Jennings is represented by the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco.
More information on Jennings can be found at the following sources:
http://cclarkgallery.blogspot.com/search/label/Packard%20Jennings
http://www.centennialsociety.org
When/where:
| Dates | |
| Time | 7 p.m. |
| Phone | 714-642-1681 |
| Venue | Accident Gallery |
| Cost | Free |
| Web site |
STAFF PICK / events, theater, music, dance, art, Comedy, sports, spoken word, lecture, etc. / 9 p.m. Arcata Playhouse, 1251 Ninth St. Presenting a vaudevillian showcase of the county’s finest dancers, musicians, circus performers. Night ends with a dance party led by Arcata’s Small Axe Ensemble. Benefit for Six Rivers Planned Parenthood’s Spare Change. $7. E-mail humboldtvarietyville@yahoo.com. 408-515-2801.
