John Longenbaugh

Even contemplating the upcoming annual chaos known as Free Comic Books Day at Danger Room Comics on May 3rd elicits a hearty chuckle from Frank Hussey. “I like to say it’s my favorite holiday where I work all day long.” Hussey is the proprietor, and the garrulous mirror-universe twin of Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. Instead of a sour-faced and patronizing comics geek, he’s a smiling and loquacious shopkeeper who’s equally informative and open-hearted.

If you enjoy a good old-fashioned multi-disciplinary arts party, including more than a dozen zero-budget film productions by local artists, the Ground to Sound Arts Festival in Tacoma might be your lucky festival. Co-sponsored by Foster’s Creative and the City of Tacoma, the Ground to Sound Arts Festival began last year with local artists creating original short films highlighting the problem of untreated water and trash and its journey to the Sound in documentary form. This year there will be a Music Open Mic, film and art, a Literary Reading and Open Mic.

‘No Exit’s’ famous aphorism “L’enfer, c’est les autres” generally translated as “Hell is other people,” has become common parlance for the tiresome behavior of human beings, but it’s worth remembering this was written in occupied France, where the native Parisians referred to the invaders in their midst as “les autres,” or “the others.” When you’re surrounded by Nazis and potential collaborators, it’s no surprise you’d get jaded about humankind — and the alternate version “Hell is the Nazis occupying your beloved city” might have gotten Sartre in big trouble. ‘No Exit’ plays at Olympia Little Theatre Jan. 31 to Feb. 16.

Many of the South Sound’s best theater and visual arts critics write for OLY ARTS. We asked six of them to highlight some of their favorite visual and performance art shows from 2024, and we congratulate and celebrate the Olympia and Tacoma-area artists selected. Due to the limitation we put on the critics of no more than two or three shows, we are aware of and acknowledge that many great shows and artists were not picked. We are lucky to live in such a vibrant creative community.

‘The Oculist’ by the two-person punk band nightmayor (Percy Boyle and Stella R.S.) is an irreverent retelling of the true story of John Taylor, an itinerant eye surgeon who traveled through Europe in the 18th century. See it at Olympia’s Wild Child November 14 through 24.

The operatic scale of “The Phantom of the Paradise,” with that awful scarred hero-villain, his teeth metal and his eyes mad, screaming into the night as he watches the seduction of the woman he loved … if all of this is getting your midnight cult classics motor revving, there might not ever be a better time to see it than on November 8th at the Capitol Theatre, where for its 50th anniversary it will be accompanied with a live band and an actor-adjacent performance on the stage.

You can read the articles that are in OLY ARTS Summer 2024 Print Edition from links on this page, and you can read and download the PDF version linked in the website’s sidebar.

By John Longenbaugh This is on page 8-9 of OLY ARTS Summer 2024 print edition. Ah, summer. The time of year when what you want isn’t just one good thing, but a bunch of them sort of bumping into each other in an exciting fashion. Take the words “Love,” “Oly,” “Summer” and “Festival”— four fine …

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At “LoveOly SummerFest 2024” running June 21-23, there are family-friendly activities like the much-beloved Pet Parade and live performances from Oly Family Theatre. There’s an impressive line-up for the music stage featuring two days of more than a dozen local and regional bands and musicians.

“One of the cool things about zines is that there aren’t really any rules,” says Aggie Burstein, curator of Timberland Regional Library’s Zine Library and chief organizer of the Teeny Tiny Zine Fair, whose own definition doesn’t go further than “an independently created publication that anyone can make, about anything, for any reason.” 

You can read the articles that are in OLY ARTS Spring 2024 Print Edition from links on this page and you can read and download the PDF version linked in the website’s sidebar.

A Talk with The Procession of Species founder and “Director Guy” Eli Sterling about the return of the Procession after a four-year hiatus. If you’ve never attended, you might assume it’s a classic small-town parade with an environmental vibe and plenty of costumes, masks, puppets, music and dancing — and you’d be sort of right.

There’s one group that’s been working to build a professional infrastructure for filmmakers in Olympia: the Olympia Film Collective, which since 2012 has helped create a steady production of short films by local filmmakers, often shot in and around well-known Olympia locations and businesses.

John Longebaugh is a writer/director who’s been writing about the arts for the last three decades, including as the Theatre Critic for Seattle Weekly, the West Coast correspondent for Backstage, and a writer-at-large for Oregon Arts Watch, as well as various regional magazines. Now relocated to Olympia, he’s doubling down on his creative writing, and …

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