Recent Stories with tag festival

Danyna Hanson's "Gloria's Cause," part of the TBA Festival starting this weekend in Portland. Photo: Ben Kasulke.

If there's one thing Seattle sadly lacks, it's a big festival of contemporary performance, like Austin's Fusebox, New York's Under the Radar, or even Vancouver, B.C.'s PuSH. Yes, On the Boards brings in touring artists like that all year long, as well as serving as an incubator for local talent. And Theatre off Jackson does, too (them being, in their own words, "the working women's On the Boards"). And finally, there's plenty of smaller presenters doing the leg-work to bring high quality art to Seattle (did you know that Paula the Swedish Housewife is bringing in Taylor Mac for an intimate, one-night-only performance at Oddfellows?).

Well, as much as we all may wish that, on top of all that, we could be subjected to a big, two-week festival as well, it ain't happening anytime soon. But a short drive down to Portland this September gets you to the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's 2010 TBA Festival, one of the country's premier showcases of performance (with film, music and visual art thrown in).

Starting Thursday, Sept. 9, Portland plays host to a fantastic line-up of artists from around the world, as well as showcasing some of the Northwest's top talent.

On the theatre front, the first weekend features a pair of amazing solo performers. Mike Daisey is already pretty well known in the Northwest, having began his career as a lectern-based monologuist in Seattle, tackling the New Economy absurdity of Amazon.com. For TBA, he's returning to similar territory with The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, a new work which explores the rather unpleasant process by which Apple's beloved products are made in Chinese factories where workers toil in subpar working conditions. Also appearing is Conor Lovett of the Gare St. Lazare Players, performing two of Samuel Beckett's prose pieces as monologues. If that sounds odd, trust me, it's not to be missed. There's a long tradition of presenting Beckett's prose work theatrically (it's laugh-out-loud funny), and this weekend I did a phoner with Lovett, so expect more soon.... (more)

Of course, not everyone is Bumbershooting this Labor Day weekend. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy a personal music festival. Abbey from The Sound on the Sound emailed me about the Doe Bay Sessions, and I would be greedy indeed to keep the news from you. Every Tuesday, from now through October, they're posting a new live session from bands like The Head and the Heart, Hey Marseilles, Ravenna Woods, Drew Grow and the Pastors' Wives, and Fences.

It's a new project from SOTS, which begins with music videos of The Maldives somewhere in the woods, filmed during this year's Doe Bay Fest. The initial idea was to invite a few bands to the SOTS yurt for a Vincent-Moon-style "takeaway" shoot...but these things have a way of getting away from you, and now:

Over the next 10 weeks we will be releasing videos featuring a candlelit session from Fences, The Head and the Heart (and the Doe Bay All-Stars) singing down the sun, Ravenna Woods using trees for percussion, a mid-trail serenade from Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives, The Maldives on a mossy knoll, picnic table perching with Hey Marseilles and many more.... (more)

The No Depression Festival is kind of a big deal. "A musical education in Americana," says Jonathan Zwickel. It's this Saturday at Marymoor Park (though 520 will be closed, so set your GPS to work on that). Acts range from The Swell Season and Lucinda Williams to the Maldives and Cave Singers.

Tonight there's a pre-festival hootenanny at Ballard's Sunset Tavern ("with guests Mark Pickerel, Jason Dodson of The Maldives, Zoe Muth, Betsy Olson, Kevin Large of Widower, Jack Wilson, Lindsay Fuller and The Cheap Dates, Jeff Fielder, Gregory Paul and more!").

UPDATE: At the hootenanny in question, I was handed a postcard advertising Ear to the Ground, a No Depression compilation you can download for free at Limewire--songs from The Swell Season, The Maldives, Sera Cahoone, Chuck Prophet, and Justin Townes Earle, to name just a few.

Aficionados of roots music are far-flung; last night I met an Englishman at Watertown (No Depression's Kim Ruehl was providing a festival warm-up) who'd flown in specifically for the event. He sounded a little like Ricky Gervais, which I didn't point out to him, since Gervais is now one of the three famous Englishman that Americans think Brits sound like. That is, it's not necessarily uncanny.

But he did offer to stand me a drink, and when I begged off, explaining that I had to drive (here I mimed the steering wheel) home, his eyes widened a little.

"Oh, very good," he said. "You really drove that home there, with your mime. I wouldn't have got it, probably, with just the English, but I could see you meant driving, too. The point really sailed home." He broke off to mime driving as well. "That's quite good, that. It becomes unmissable."

You guys. Festival lineups are coming fast and furious now that everyone has switched to their post-Memorial Day gleaming white boat shoes. There are so many that it's hardly worth counting, because your eyes will glaze over and more will likely show up before you're finished inventorying them all. Today's announcement of a preliminary lineup for the Capitol Hill Block Party confirmed a few rumors, brought a few surprises, and made a play for keeping you close to home on a precious summer weekend. 

First, that the third-day festisprawl was meant to accommodate the widely expected headline performance from (one of) Jack White's supergroups, the Dead Weather, who will headline on Sunday. It also confirmed a barely-heard comment from Yeasayer during their spring show at Neumo's: the much-loved protofuturists will be back in Seattle on the big stage on Friday night. Other big names include MGMT (back after a sleepy Sasquatch mainstage show), Shabazz Palaces, Holy Fuck (Friday); Atmosphere, Blonde Redhead, !!! (Saturday); and Blue Scholars, Harlem (Sunday). They're joined by plenty of local talents and a whole lot of hip hop, with more announcements likely in the run-up to the festival. In general, these are some really good bands, but it's almost a relief that the organizers seem not to have reached for the stratosphere this time around. As neat as it was to see Sonic Youth, the Gossip, the Jesus Lizard, et al last year, foot traffic got a whole lot of soulcrushing at times.

Sure, it's long outgrown its roots as a cozy neighborhood block party and the crowds of people swarming the neighborhood for the festival can be a bit jarring, but if you're up for a bit of chaos and the occasional hot mess, it can be a fun way to spend a summer weekend. You're bound to run into tons of friends and the overdose of music can be quite satisfying at a good price. A three-day pass to the fenced-in Pike/Pine corridor of multistage music costs $60 in advance or $23 per day. Prices go up a bit at the gates, provided it doesn't sell out. Peruse the whole lineup, via the Seattle Times, after the jump. ... (more)

SIFF scores yet another week of weather-to-see-movies-to! With the festival almost at its midway point, I don't think there's been a single day I've had to decide between sun and movie theater. Below are some films of note showing over the next two days. For all film screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $11/$9 (and matinees $8/$7), except for special presentations which cost more.

Tuesday brings previously recommended Some Days Are Better Than Others and local high-school effort Senior Prom.

Bilal's Stand  Based on a true story, 25-year-old Sultan Sharrief’s first feature-length film introduces you to Bilal, a Detroit kid heading to the University of Michigan if he can win an ice-sculpting competition and convince his Muslim family he's not selling them out. Be warned: It's either "bursting with heart" or "incredibly hamfisted." (May 31, 6:30 p.m. & June 2, 4 p.m. @ Pacific Place)

Waste Land  It's already won best documentary at both the Sundance and Berlin International Film Festivals, so there you go. New York artist Vik Muniz visits Jardim Gramacho, the world’s largest landfill, outside of Rio de Janeiro, and enlists garbage pickers to help him create a new artwork. (June 1, 7 p.m. & June 2, 9:30 p.m. @ Pacific Place)

Henri Georges Clouzot's Inferno  In this documentary, Serge Bromberg investigates the 13 hours of 1964 footage shot by The Wages of Fear and Diabolique director Henri-Georges Clouzot before his heart attack shut down what was already a troubled production. It's like a sketchbook for a new cinema. (June 1, 7 p.m. @ the Harvard Exit)

Secrets of the Tribe  The Yanomami Indians have launched many an anthropologist's career; now director José Padilha's (Bus 174, Elite Squad) documentary studies the "tribe" of intellectuals and academics who are experts on the Yanomami, contrasting their findings with what the Yanomami actually think. (June 1, 7 p.m. & June 2, 4 p.m. @ SIFF Cinema, June 7, 9:15 p.m. @ the Harvard Exit)

Stigmata  First-time Spanish director Adan Aliaga has "hauntingly" translated a graphic novel in which gentle giant Bruno wakes up with stigmata, and it's not exactly the blessing you'd hope. Filmed in black-and-white, so you know it's serious and moody and symbolic. (June 1, 9:30 p.m. @ SIFF Cinema; June 3, 4:15 p.m. @ Pacific Place)

I Killed My Mother  French-Canadian prodigy Xavier Dolan directed this uneven but wickedly funny gay-son-vs.-mom movie when he was just 21. It's as much about him learning to direct as it is a comic coming of age story, so it should be fun for filmsters who like their moms, too. (June 2 & 6, 7 p.m. @ the Egyptian)

Mother Joan of the Angels  On the classics front, this 1961 Polish masterpiece about the 17th-century exorcism of a Mother Superior has no pea-soup vomit to offer, but instead delves into what repression does to people. Which is actually scarier, if you think about it. (June 2, 7 p.m. @ SIFF Cinema)... (more)

The various contributors to "Break a Heart" at On the Boards. Photo by Tim Summers.

Not that plenty of interesting plays aren't opening this month (Glengarry Glen Ross at the Rep, Not a Genuine Black Man at Theatre off Jackson, and The Woman in Black at Open Circle, to name a few), but February is shaping up to be a particularly incredible month for dance in Seattle. With offerings ranging from a noted staging of a ballet classic at PNB to a world premiere by one of Seattle's up-and-coming performance groups, and a couple festival line-ups thrown in, this month presents a veritable cross-section of the best of what Seattle and the region has to offer.

Sleeping Beauty at Pacific Northwest Ballet (Feb. 4-14; tickets $25-$160). A masterpiece of Romantic ballet, with a score by Tchaikovsky, PNB's production of Sleeping Beauty is based on British choreographer Ronald Hynd's painstaking 1993 reconstruction of Marius Petipa's 1890 original. I sat in on the dress rehearsal last night, and was wowed (along with a dozen or so starry-eyed little girls) by the sumptuous production and Princess Aurora's glorious movement.

Break a Heart at On the Boards (Feb. 11-14; tickets $18). A host of Seattle choreographic talent joins forces to present an evening of movement exploring love, which is of course set opposite Valentine's Day. Break a Heart features work by Wade Madsen, Crispin Spaeth, Diana Cardiff, Kristina Dillard, ilvs strauss/Jody Kuehner, Sara Jinks and Juliet Waller Pruzan/Stephen Hando.... (more)

For one day only, the HDFest is in town at The SunBreak sponsor Central Cinema. (Round of applause!) Screenings will run all day tomorrow, December 6, from 1:30 to 10:30 p.m.

Tickets are just $10, but if you're among the first ten people to tell the box office, "The SunBreak sent me!" you get in free. How wonderful is that. That way you can spend that $10 you saved on pizza and beer, which will be delivered right to your table.

At the festival you'll see a variety of shorts and features shot in--wait for it--the high definition format all the kids are talking about. I am told the program includes the documentary film Down Days (shot in Haines, Alaska, it takes you inside the life of the big mountain extreme skier) and the U.S. premiere of the Scottish eco-thriller Dark Nature, along with animated shorts and music videos.

In theory there is more information at the HDFest website, but it's down as of my typing this. it's up again. Animated shorts come first (1:30-2:30), then music videos (2:45-4:15), then short films (4:30-6:00). Each of these showcases is $10, I think. At 6:15, it's a documentary on how to colonize the stars, and Down Days screens, followed by Dark Nature.

• HDFest runs Sunday, December 6, at Central Cinema, from 1:30 to 10:30 p.m. The first ten people to tell the box office, "The SunBreak sent me!" get in free. Otherwise, it's just $10.

Pragda's annual Festival of New Spanish Cinema brings eight films to SIFF's McCaw Hall theater, tonight through October 21 (full series pass: $50, $40 for SIFF members--that's a big savings because each film is $10). That "new" is supposed to tip you off that it isn't all Almodovar. In fact, there isn't any Almodovar. Let's get that straight right now. But there are Almodovar actresses (see photo).

Tonight's opening night fiesta kicks off with Desperate Women (Enloquecidas), directed by Juan Luis Iborra. It's a "hilarious and outrageous thriller" in which a young woman meets the man of her dreams, only to discover that he's supposed to be dead. Ha! Spanish women don't let a little thing like death stop them.

After the film, there's a see-and-schmooze event at the Alki Room at Seattle Center, in celebration of the festival. Irene Cardona, director of A Fiance for Yasmina, is supposed to show, and there'll be Spanish music, complimentary Freixenet Spanish Cava, and paella from Taberna del Alabardero. (Tickets<... (more)

Here are my pics from the weekend.  You can view more pics in the Decibel Festival 2009 Flickr Pool.

From a weekend so filled with wonderful moments it's hard to pick any particular set of highlights, but if I had to pick a top three, I'd have to call out the following:

On September 25, 2009, the Amtrak Empire Builder will make a new stop on its way east to Chicago. It'll stop at Leavenworth's new Icicle Station (code: LWA) at about 8:10 p.m., three hours after leaving Seattle. Round trip fares start at $36. The return trip is a bit of a forced eye-opener, departing Leavenworth at 6:15 in the morning and pulling into Seattle around 10:30.

This is terrific news because Leavenworth should only be traveled to by train. The Bavarian-style village has a charm that the clickety-clack of rail can only add to. This weekend is the Autumn Leaf Festival, but the canny little town's marketers are working hard to arrange it so a festival experience can be had ever six hours or so in Leavenworth. Their Oktoberfest is October 2 and 3.

Amtrak is all over the news lately--rising ridership has people taking a second look at new and discontinued routes. One revival under discussion is the Pioneer Route, cut in 1997. That route used to run from Denver to Portland, stopping in Salt Lake City,... (more)

Ólöf Arnalds

To mark Icelandair's new direct flights to Iceland from SeaTac, Iceland Naturally is putting on a mini-Icelandic cultural festival, and that marks the most times I've typed "Iceland" in a sentence, ever.

 

For the foodies hungering for innovative tastes, you've got chefs Thorarinn Eggertsson (from Reykjavik's Orange) and Peter Birk at Ray's Boathouse. Their Icelandic menu is available today through the 13th.

Probably that menu will not include whale because of the potential controversy, disappointing fans of tremendously musky, salty, oily food. But if you want to talk about Iceland and sustainable fisheries, for free, then tonight you can weep salty tears of joy. Don't miss "The Icelandic Project on Documenting and Communicating Responsible Fisheries" (6-8 p.m., UW Health Sciences, Hogness Auditorium Room A420).

There's also a free Icelandic film fest at the Varsity in the U-District: White Night Wedding (6:30 p.m.) and Rafskinna (8:20 p.m.). For White Night Wedding, writer/director Baltasar Kormákur has updated and tweaked Chekhov's Ivanov, and the results are a distinctly Icelandic bittersweet sensation. A middle-aged professor is about to marry a former student on the island of Flatey, during the time of year when Icelanders all get a little crazy from the unending daylight.

The third episode of Rafskinna, a DVD magazine, is about music and features: "Animal Collective, Antony and the Johnsons, Olaf Arnalds, Dalek, Emiliana Torrini, FM Belfast, Retro Stefson, Ragnar Kjartansson, Michael Madsen, Finboggi Petursson, Nico Muhly, Psychic TV, and Curver Thoroddsen." That's a nice segué to our next item!

Friday night, September 11, singer Ólöf Arnalds appears at the Crocodile ($10, 21+, 8 p.m.). Expect "emotionally rich" folk music of the kind you can preview right here. It's her first West coast show. People Eating People open.