Previews I suppose the major opening on Friday, July 20, is Hairspray , a film musical based on the successful Broadway musical that was, in turn, based on John Waters’ 1988 campy film comedy of the same name. There is no John Waters in sight here, as the film version is directed by sometime choreographer […]
Arts + Scene
Reviews, interviews and upcoming highlights from the week in visual and performing arts around Humboldt County.
Posted inArts + Scene
‘Ratatouille’ charms, ‘Transformers’ disappoints
Previews Opening Wednesday, July 11, is one of the major films of the summer: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix . The fifth in the Boy Wizard series features the usual all-star cast of British actors and new director David Yates who will also helm the sixth Harry Potter ( Half-Blood Prince ). […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Full Stoppard: A cuckoo clock goes mad in Ashland
In the OSF production of Tom Stoppard’s On the Razzle, Weinberl (Rex Young, right) appears in the nick of time, as an astonished Zangler (Tony DeBruno, center) reacts and Christopher (Tasso Feldman) looks on. Photo by David Cooper. Playwright Tom Stoppard, who turned 70 on July 3, is having quite a year. After a triumphant […]
Posted inArts + Scene
First Street Gallery abides
If you’re like me and you enjoy watching artists develop from the earliest stages of their careers, you’ll be interested in the exhibition at the First Street Gallery this month. The Young Alumni 2007 show features works by 17 recent graduates: paintings, photographs, prints and clay sculptures by artists with lots of energy and talent.Gallery […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Write more righter: Hone skillz with the masters on the banks of the Mattole
I’ve been taking a painting class for several years now. I didn’t think I’d like oil painting, but the process is surprisingly similar to writing and I’m drawn to it for that reason. A writer has to put boundaries around a story, to figure out where it begins and ends. The painter has to do […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Charlie’s vacation, staffers preview
Charlie is off on a classical music binge in Portland this week so we’ve brought in Jay Herzog (who wrote "Battle for Boomer Jack" for us a few weeks back) as a guest reviewer — but diehard movie buff that Charlie is, he went to the opening of the latest Bruce Willis Die Hard flick […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Another festival, another show — Collective joy at Dell’Arte’s Mad River Fest
They ride beneath a diamond blue evening sky, with the silhouetted solitude of gold-green hills surrounding, and passing of course the wide phantom waters of the Blue Lake. They walk from quiet streets through the unassuming fence into the big backyard called the Rooney Amphitheatre. They seem mostly of the current theatre-going age: early to […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Mighty, Almighty
Previews The Christian-themed Evan Almighty may not have lived up to box office expectations last weekend, but I’ll bet that old reliable Bruce Willis will. Opening Wednesday, June 27, is Live Free or Die Hard, a.k.a. Die Hard 4, which brings back Willis’ John McClane. This time, McClane is after an Internet terrorist group which, […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Castles in the Sand
I had no idea how far sand sculpture had come until Carol Vander Meer contacted me about the Friends of the Dunes annual Sand Sculpture Festival. She suggested googling "sand sculpture" to see what kinds of things people are creating with this earthy medium. Warning: These are not the plastic bucket sandcastles you made when […]
Posted inArts + Scene
‘Nancy Drew’ bland, but ‘Valet’ delicious
Previews Opening Friday, June 22, is the next film that is no doubt destined to top the weekend box office: Evan Almighty . A sort of sequel to 2003’s Bruce Almighty , Morgan Freeman is back as God, but Jim Carrey has been replaced by Steve Carell as God’s lackey — uh, Earthly representative, or […]
Posted inArts + Scene
A sunbeam in the studio
Janie Walsh’s life work on sale this weekend Janie Walsh didn’t want me to wait for her. She said to head on back to the studio; she’d get there eventually. "Getting old’s not for sissies," she called out with a laugh from the hallway, plodding slowly outside with a walker she painted in bright colors. […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Charlie surivives Ocean’s Thirteen
PREVIEWS Based on my experience with Fantastic Four, I found nothing particularly fantastic about the four. Nonetheless, opening Friday, June 15, is Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer , which brings back director Tim Story and the same quartet of actors as Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), Sue Storm (Jessica Alba — so beautiful, such […]