posts that will be on the front page
By CHRISTIAN CARVAJAL Each year, Olympia belly-dance troupe Mas Uda donates proceeds from a weekend of workshops and a public performance to a worthy cause. After years benefitting cancer research, Mas Uda made Girl Scouts of Western Washington its focus of generosity beginning in 2015. “That money that we raise,” says Cindy Connolly, troupe member …
By KAREN LUNDE Each year, Ballet Northwest celebrates dance in all its forms by bringing local dance groups and guest artists together for its annual Olympia Dance Festival. The group pulled out all the stops for its 10th anniversary this year. The festival always invites a high-profile, guest artist to complement an exciting collection of …
By Billy Thomas On Valentine’s Day, while many couples were doting over chocolates and flowers, and local businesses were declaring their love for their customers in email campaigns and on social media, Broadway Olympia Productions shared an unexpected and alarming Facebook post. “This is a call for help from the community. If you enjoy and …
By ADAM McKINNEY In 1974, Mel Brooks directed two of film’s all-time-great comedies, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. If the latter shines brighter in hindsight, it’s due to a giddily silly riff on Mary Shelley’s timeless story and a sense of humor much smarter than Brooks lets on. When he found massive, Broadway success with …
By Adam McKinney You may be forgiven for, after hearing that a band calls themselves the Tallboys, envisioning a field of littered cheap beer empties after an ill-advised rager. In actuality, the Tallboys aren’t quite that rowdy. Oh, sure, the Tallboys want you to have a good time, and I’d hazard a guess that they’ve …
By Adam McKinney Roots music has never really been far away from the contemporary, American-music landscape, but the past couple decades have seen it enjoy a resurgence in popularity and visibility. Some of this has to do with the indie folk-rock boom we experienced about 10 years ago, which undoubtedly served to shed a light …
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 …