By Adam McKinney In music, there are few pleasures so simple and satisfying as hearing two simpatico voices becoming sweetly intertwined in duet. For the singers, thought and care surely go into planning harmonies and other intricacies, but the effect comes across as effortless – the audience is free to be swept away by those …
By MELINDA MINTON This year’s Oly Old Time Festival brings food, music, workshops and new musical talents. Among its featured performers are Allison de Groot and Nic Gareiss. Making use of the South Bay Grange’s beautiful dance floor, they’ll hold a workshop called “Play a Tune/Dance a Tune.” It’s intended to, as Gareiss described it, “reveal …
By CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL In 1993, bankruptcy threatened Northamptonshire, England’s nearly century-old shoe factory, WJ Brookes. Steve Pateman ran the firm for his still-living father, Richard, but only 21 employees remained. Pateman received a call from the owner of Laces in Folkestone, a shoe store catering to cross-dressers and drag queens. Pateman was asked whether WJ …
By NED HAYES Sady Sparks, a current undergraduate at The Evergreen State College, has been named Olympia’s poet laureate for 2019-2020. Sparks is the second writer to serve in this position after inaugural poet laureate Amy Solomon-Minarchi. At 24 years old, Sparks is at the perfect age to rise as a poet. Audre Lorde started …
By LUCY VOLKER and BILLY THOMAS February’s performance by the Olympia Symphony Orchestra, Lovers Lane, has a fun and romantic tone. “As this concert is just before Valentine’s Day,” says conductor and musical director Huw Edwards, “Lovers Lane was a catchy title that fits the concert and our overall theme, with roads and journeys.” For its 66th …
By Noah Shachar Kicking 2019 off with live music, cult-classic cinema, and a black-tie gala, Olympia Film Society, is lighting up downtown Olympia’s Capitol Theater in style. Starting in February with“Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” on Feb. 3, OFS continues the screenings into Feb. 10 and 22, said OFS Marketing Director Jonah Barrett. Thusly, viewers …
By MELINDA MINTON This year brings Lacey Cultural Celebration, previously called Lacey Ethnic Celebration, offering foods, culture and entertainment from around the world. Lacey isn’t the relatively new suburb it might seem to be. Long before Europeans traveled there, the area was home to Native American Nisqually and Squaxin tribes. Non-indigenous settlement began in the 1840s. …
By JONAH BARRETT Visual-art shows needn’t just be entertaining, they can also engage audiences and create change in their communities. That’s what local artist Carter Wilson hopes to achieve with Live Installation at Le Voyeur. It’s a collaboration between Wilson, the homeless-youth nonprofit Stand Up For Kids and five local hip-hop artists: Blk Sknn, BrySone!, …
By ADAM McKINNEY If a man made his career by setting the mood for the happiest moment in a couple’s life, how could he continue after having his heart shattered by a cruel ex-lover? That’s the idea examined, however lightly, by The Wedding Singer, the 1998 Adam Sandler film considered by many to be his …
By NED HAYES At the age of 19, Ira Glass began his career in public radio. Over the 39 years since, he’s held nearly every production job at National Public Radio including desk assistant, editor, newscast writer, producer, reporter and tape cutter. He’s hosted multiple shows including Talk of the Nation and Weekend All Things …