Since the Telluride Mountain Film Festival launched in 1979, the definition of “environmentalist” has both broadened and become much more diverse. Likewise, the collection of films for this annual festival—and its subsequent tour of short films around the country—has become more complicated and more nuanced about the definition it provides for modern-day environmentalism. Duke & […]
Tower Theatre
Posted inCulture
Picks 2/25-3/4
thursday 26 Back from the Dead BLUEBRASS—No one plays by the rules anymore. But that’s fine. As a result, we come across a new musical portmanteau at least once a week. This week’s winner: blue-brass, a fusion of bluegrass and brass band. Think Tom Waits meets Louis Armstrong, with the lyrical sensibilities of Johnny Cash. […]
Posted inCulture
Our Picks 2/18-2/25
thursday 19 The Pillowman THEATER—When The Pillowman was released a decade ago, it stormed the theater world like a dark thundercloud rolling over a happy-go-lucky musical. Winner of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, the dark, yet morosely comic story follows a writer whose stories are a bit too much like a series of […]
Posted inCulture
Film Events 2/18-2/25
ArchaeologyFest Film Series: Best of 2014 This festival is a collection of the best films from the 2014 edition of the Archeology Channel International Film and Video Festival. The series is a benefit for the entire festival, which takes place in the spring in downtown Eugene. Some of the films include: Davis Bottom: Rare History, […]
Posted inNews
Ralphie May talks about the man behind the comedy routine
I chatted with stand-up comic Ralphie May—former runner-up on “Last Comic Standing”—in advance of his show in Bend. Here is the complete transcript of that conversation. May performs tonight at the Tower Theatre. Source Weekly: You’re 17 and you win a contest to open for Sam Kinison- super exciting or pants-shitting nervousness? Ralphie May: Uh, […]
Posted inMusic
Rock the Tower
New partnership will bring edgier shows to the downtown venue
The Tower is a gem of a theatre with vaulted ceilings, balconies that appear to float at the back of the venue, a beautiful (albeit not enormous) stage, and plush seats, each embossed with the name of a sponsor who helped fund the 2004 rebuild. Since its refurbishment, the venue has been a magnet for […]
Posted inMusic
Abiding
An interview with Jeff Bridges on acting vs. music and his (un)defining role
Before he was an Oscar-winning actor—before he was even nominated, before he was known as one of the nicest guys in Hollywood, before Lebowski, before that magnificent, flowing grey hair and crackling baritone voice that ends sentences with the incomprehensible address, “man…” were pop culture tropes—there was Jeff Bridges the musician, a reality most fans […]
Posted inCulture
Broadway, Baby!
Beautiful music for an important cause
No matter how well done a recording of a Broadway musical is, it can never really capture the magic or power of seeing it live, with a full bedazzling cast and in the swoon of the excitement. I can sing every word of The Book of Mormon, but without actually seeing it live, I still […]
Posted inNews
PICK: Les Misérables
friday 12 Les Misérables THEATER—Quite possibly the biggest theatre production Central Oregon will see this year, Les Misérables rehearsals started way back in January to bring the loudest, longest and most depressing musical about 18th century French social hierarchy to the stage at the Tower Theatre. 7:30 pm. Tower Theatre, 835 NW Wall St. $30-$45. […]
Posted inCulture
Hear the People Sing
Les Mis is finally here
Les Misérables is a strange beast. When the musical opened in London in 1985, the reviews were less than kind, with the Sunday Telegraph calling it “A lurid Victorian melodrama produced with Victorian lavishness.” Yet tickets for the production were selling in record numbers and public opinion was stellar enough to open the show on […]