Arts & Entertainment

Weekend Guide: 'Pigs & Pipes' fundraiser, memorial for BHS teacher, and get down 'n' dirty in Crown Hill Glen

Guest — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 17:15:27 +0000

Guest (not verified) Fri, 08/24/2012 - 10:15am

File Photo, Michael Harthorne

'Pigs & Pipes' Fundraiser

The Old Pequliar Public House will be hosting the annual Pigs & Pipes fundraiser, which helps to send the Seattle Fire Department Pipes & Drums band to Colorado Springs, Colo. to partake in the IAFF Fallen Firefighter Memorial. Sadly, firefighters will be honoring and putting to the wall three firefighters who passed away from cancer that they contracted on the job, according to the event info.

The event is just as it sounds. There will be pigs. And not only pigs (roasted on site, by the way), but macaroni salad, coleslaw and beans, rounding out what sounds like a fantastic BBQ dinner. Also, $4 micro-brew pints.

Organizers ask that you purchase tickets ($20) in advance.

Saturday, 12-6 p.m., The Old Pequliar Public House, 1722 Market St, 21+ more info

Memorial for Megan Vogel, BHS teacher

Join the community as they honor and remember Golden Apple Award winning BHS teacher Megan Vogel, who passed away on Monday after a two year fight with cancer. She was a well loved teacher and had a profound impact on the hundreds of students who went through her classes.

The memorial will take place 1-3 p.m. in the BHS Performing Arts Center. More info

Crown Hill Glen Work Party

Nothing says "weekend fun" like getting down and dirty outside and making out outdoors more beautiful. And that's exactly what community members plan to do at the Crown Hill Glen, the little park at the end of 19th and 89th -- so give a hand, or a shovel, and help trim overgrown greenery, spread mulch, pull weeds and/or take out blackberries.

Organizers ask that you bring gloves, rakes or shovels if you can. Or just yourself. Kids are welcome, too. Walk if you can because parking is limited.

Saturday, Aug. 25, 10-2 p.m. 8746 19th Ave. N.W., for more info call Amy at 206-225-5531.

Arts & Entertainment

Salmon Bay Playground

Langhorne Slim sounds like nights made of 'bad decisions and dancing'

Guest — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 14:21:37 +0000

Guest (not verified) Tue, 08/07/2012 - 7:21am

Langehorne Slim playing at Pickathon in Boring, OR

Photo by David Owen (cc/Flickr)

Langhorne Slim’s music often sounds like hot, sweaty summer nights made up of bad decisions and dancing -- and last Friday night at The Tractor was an evening just like that.

As Slim rose to the stage, his fedora outlining his recognizable silhouette, he rapid assaulted his guitar with strums as his backing band The Law prompted danceable grooves behind him. Slim may be a folk artist, but he and his band have a Glam Rock attitude with a Southern Rock response.

Many of the songs centered on recklessness, such as his minor hit “Wrong Side of Heaven,” with raucous rhythms and excited guitar lines.
“Most all of these songs are going to be a dance songs in some way,” Slim said part way into the beginning of his set. Jumping up and down Slim hit his head on a hanging speaker, but simply gave it an inquisitive look before going back to zipping back and forth between his band mates -- nothing was going to stop him from riling up the crowd.

Before Slim, the audience was warmed up by two local groups. Starting things off on the mellow end of things was Tiny Messengers, a brooding country outfit fronted by Kimo Muraki (formerly of Seattle indie rock band Fences). Muraki’s striking voice threw call backs to Jeremy Enigk but with a more smooth tone. If Slim is the fun loving teenager, Muraki and the Tiny Messengers were the heart broken college grads. The mix of banjo and steel guitar gave a darker and melancholic atmosphere as people filtered in to the Tractor.

Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground came on stage next with their 11-piece band. For fans of the bands last two albums, including 2011’s Introducing Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, this performance may have been a shock. The group played primarily new material which was less quirky, grandiose indie rock and more grooving soul and funk.

Front man Kirk Huffman wore a sports coat and sunglasses and he took on the persona of a lounge singer. The crowd was impressively responsive and got their dancing warmed up just in time for Slim and his band.

While it was definitely a departure from their previously established sound, it was definitely a successful attempt as far as crowd response was concerned.

Kay Kay set a great bar of energy level, but Slim was able to see their challenge with a ‘check and mate.’ With his cracking vocals and body convulsions, Slim is a remarkable persona in the folk realm.

From lawnmower man to musician, a Ballardite picks up his guitar once more

Guest — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 02:06:43 +0000

Guest (not verified) Fri, 07/13/2012 - 7:06pm

Photo courtesy of Tony Grant

By Karen Law

If you saw Tony Grant mowing lawns around Ballard in the early 80s, you might have given him a wide berth. Back then, he had a face that showed the ravages of drink and disappointment – a face grizzled before its time, looking out with the eyes of a man who knew he was missing part of himself.

You would never have guessed that underneath his hard-bitten exterior was the soul of a first-rate music-making artist. Today he sports a cleaned-up image and three CDs in his name,. He performs gigs from Seattle to Monroe wherever the doors are open.

For the time being, he still mows lawns for a fair price, minus the lost expression and tough-as-nails appearance. If you’re lucky, you have already hired him and got the chance to hear one of his CDs, a collection of blues, folk rock, funk and soul that is spare and clean in arrangement and stirringly reflective in lyrics. Tony Grant today is a songwriter/composer reborn, a prodigy of several instruments who is in the process of leaving the grass and lawnmower behind and returning full time to the roots of his musical past.

Music has always been the saving grace of Grant’s life. He was born to talented but troubled parents who worked as theater actors (his father made it to Broadway playing Falstaff). Grant's early years were marked by his father's alcoholism and his mother's schizophrenia. He was shuffled from Lake Forest Park to Chicago to Green Lake, Rochester (NY), Skykomish and Vashon. Raised mostly by a schoolteacher aunt in Vashon, he took a few piano lessons and learned chords. Then a band teacher taught him to play the mellophone before putting him on the bass drum because he had good rhythm. Elvis was king, Beatlemania had just arrived, and Grant, naturally gifted, began finding a wholeness in music that was missing from his fragmented life. When he got a guitar in the ninth grade, he started writing songs right away and playing gigs around town.

“There's no underestimating the influence of the Beatles on me,” he said of his beginnings. “Then I listened to Bob Dylan and his influence was exponential compared to that.”

He hit the road with his music when he turned 17, hitchhiking and playing his way to Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and back to Seattle.

“I played at soup and salad restaurants at Pike Place and got my bread and butter playing at taverns,” Grant said. He played with the likes of Jim Page and other folk artists of the 1970s folk music scene in Seattle. By then he was renting a cabin in Burien for only $25 a month and getting “ridiculously cheap beer” for performing.

“Getting five gigs for five nights, I could drink all day. I got drunk and stayed drunk for 7 to 8 years,” Grant said. “I got too big for my britches. Went to Europe in 1975 and took a trip to Amsterdam, the one place you can't play on the street. The customs guy wouldn't let me in so I tried getting in on my own and got busted. They took away my guitar and put me in jail.”

Today, Grant has 30 years of sobriety under his belt and credits the birth of his daughter in 1979 for helping him achieve part of that journey. The other part involved putting away his performing life for family life and making fewer of the wrong kinds of friends. For years, he was just a lawnmower man.

“Then the Gulf War broke out and it was so wrong [to me],” Grant said. He dusted off his guitar, built a studio in his garage, got a set of drums, met up again with fellow musicians and began writing. Now his fire was fueled by maturity and the drive to make real meaning and impact with his music – a motivation that is just as strong today.

“What's happening right now with where this country is at, this is really bad,” he said. “It's time to start playing and start fighting. I'm a revolutionary.”

Grant and his band will be playing from 4-6 p.m. on Sundays through July at the Couth Buzzard (8310 Greenwood Ave. N.) and at West Seattle's Pogie Tavern (4717 SW California Avenue) on July 20. His CDs, “Thought About It,” “The War Years” and “Plain and Simple,” along with booking information, can be obtained by contacting the artist directly at grantsband@hotmail.com.

If you saw Tony Grant mowing lawns around Ballard in the early 80s

you might have given him a wide berth. Back then

he had a face that showed the ravages of drink and disappointment – a face grizzled before its time

. He performs gigs from Seattle to Monroe wherever the doors are open. For the time being

he still mows lawns for a fair price

minus the lost expression and tough-as-nails appearance. If you’re lucky

you have already hired him and got the chance to hear one of his CDs

a collection of blues

folk rock

funk and soul that is spare and clean in arrangement and stirringly reflective in lyrics. Tony Grant today is a songwriter/composer reborn

a prodigy of several instruments who is in the process of leaving the grass and lawnmower behind

looking out with the eyes of a man who knew he was missing part of himself. You would never have guessed that underneath his hard-bitten exterior was the soul of a first-rate music-making artist. Today he sports a cleaned-up image and three CDs in his

Ballard News Tribune

REMINDER: Aliens are Invading West Seattle Halloween Week

cronin.anna — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:41:27 +0000

cronin.anna Tue, 10/04/2011 - 2:41pm

Photo courtesy of Twelfth Night Productions

Are you looking for a spooky, suspense filled activity for the whole family this Halloween? Look no further than Twelfth Night Productions’ presentation of War of the Worlds, A Live Radio Play.

On a bleak autumn night in 1938, aliens from Mars invaded Earth, or rather that was the tale brought to life by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre over the airwaves. The radio broadcast was an unprecedented mix of dramatic "news reports" and science fiction inspired by the H.G. Wells novel which caused widespread panic and made Orson Welles a celebrity.

Twelfth Night Productions is resurrecting the Martian panic of 1938 in War of the Worlds, A Live Radio Play, in a shared bill with Sorry, Wrong Number. Travel back in time with this twist on modern reader's theater for Halloween week as Twelfth Night delivers a double bill of terror and suspense!

War of the Worlds, A Live Radio Play runs in a special limited engagement at Kenyon Hall, October 28, 29 and 31 at 7:30 PM and October 29 and 30 at 4:00 PM. Tickets are available online at Brown Paper Tickets (http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/199850), and at Kenyon Hall, 7904 35th Ave SW, Seattle WA, on performance days. Prices are $15 for adults and $12 for students & seniors.

Twelfth Night Productions

Oliver! And Treehouse

cronin.anna — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:37:26 +0000

cronin.anna Fri, 08/12/2011 - 1:37pm

How a few workhouse orphans can make a difference for local foster kids

Photo by Ron Dugdale

Twelfth Night Productions’ is in the second weekend of its summer production Oliver! at West Seattle High School. A beloved musical, Oliver! tells Charles Dickens’ story of the little orphan boy who would not be overlooked. The colorful characters he meets on his journey teach him about life and love as he struggles to make it on the streets. A few of the memorable songs include “Food Glorious Food,” “Consider Yourself,” “You've Got to Pick a Pocket, or Two,” and “As Long As He Needs Me.” This year’s cast and crew of more than 80 include children from over 17 local schools and adults from all over the Seattle area.

It is often said that life imitates art. In a world crafted by Charles Dickens, we see the timeless story of despair and hope, and a deep desire for belonging. Oliver Twist’s world is one of poverty and desperation; a world that we see mirrored in many neighborhoods around our city. Times have changed since the days of the workhouse, but our understanding of the life of those living in poverty still remains a challenge. We no longer force those who are poor and homeless into the poor conditions of a workhouse, but the images of those struggling to survive each day rings true non-the-less. Oliver Twist’s message is as important today as it was when Dickens first wrote it. The story is a clear reminder that life cannot exist without hope, and that we all need to find the light for ourselves and others.

Each summer TNP partners with a local organization and donates a portion of their proceeds from the summer production. This year, they are partnering with Treehouse, a particularly ideal partnership for this production as the Treehouse mission is “to give foster kids a childhood and a future by working with children, families, and systems to help youth learn, connect to experiences every child deserves, and provide key material needs.” “There are many children today who find themselves placed in foster care and we are excited to help bring light into their lives,” explains TNP Artistic Director, Mary Springer.

Treehouse has been around since 1988 and helps fill the gaps for kids in foster care by providing services overlooked by other agencies. Among other services, they provide money for extra-curricular activities and summer camps, professional educational support services, and clothing and supplies to help kids fit in at school. In addition to donating proceeds from Oliver!, TNP will also help facilitate a back-to-school drive for Treehouse, collecting school supplies, backpacks and new or gently used clothing items for kids in foster care. Please bring these items with you to the high school on the day of performances. There will be a collection area for them at that time.

Oliver! runs in a special limited engagement at West Seattle High School, August 12, 13, 19 and 20 at 7:30 PM and August 14, and 21 at 3:00 PM. Tickets are available online at Brown Paper Tickets and at West Seattle High School, 3000 California Ave SW Seattle WA, on performance days. Prices are $18 for adults and $15 for students & seniors.

Twelfth Night Productions

Ghost Light Theatricals to finish its season with a comedy

amrook — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:03:07 +0000

amrook Tue, 03/22/2011 - 4:03pm

Ghost Light Theatricals will finish its "Ch-Ch-Changes" season next month with The Clouds, A Reality Play, the second co-winner of last year's Battle of the Bards.

Inspired by The Clouds by Aristophanes and adapted by Alexis Holzer, The Clouds, A Reality Play is a fresh, comedic look at upper class society and our unwillingness to take responsibility for our extravagant lifestyles.

Thanks to the boom in reality TV we have witnessed the outrageous, extravagant and dramatic lives of housewives from Malibu to Massachusetts. In this new comedy, aging reality star Stephanie Stophanes is deep in debt, in the midst of a messy divorce, and facing cancellation. Stephanie seeks the help of the screwball Socrates and his School for Life Skills in hopes of once again being relevant. With backstabbing agents, rude crew members, and TV show parodies, The Clouds, A Reality Play shines a comedic light on the underbelly of reality TV shows, and the "stars" that make them.  

The play premiers on April 15th and will run for two weeks with a final performance on May 1st.
Tickets are $15, $12 for students and seniors, and are available at the door or at Brown Paper Tickets.
The play will be performed at The Ballard Underground at 2220 NW Market.

Arts & Entertainment

Ballard

Robinson Papers

One night Snow Special at Taproot Theatre

amrook — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:46:50 +0000

amrook Wed, 02/23/2011 - 12:46pm

(video)

Bundle up and take shelter at Taproot Theatre with a Snow Special for tonight’s performance of The Odyssey.
Take advantage of the Taproot Snow Special and get $20 tickets for the February 23, 7:30 p.m., performance. Tickets are available in person at the box office at 204 North 85th St.

In The Odyssey, adapted by Mary Zimmerman, is the first show of Taproot Theatre’s 35th Anniversary Season, and takes audiences across land and sea, through the underworld to the top of Mt. Olympus. Muses and monsters introduce this epic myth of the brave and courageous Odysseus as he valiantly seeks his homeland and the arms of his wife and child. Audiences are sure to recognize themselves in this sometimes comic, sometimes harrowing but always thrilling adventure.

Tonight’s Snow Special is not valid for previously purchased tickets or with any other offer, is based on availability, and is valid for the February 23, 2011, show only.

Read BNT's review of the play, here.

Arts & Entertainment

Greenwood

Robinson Papers

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol debuts one year after the Taproot arson.

amrook — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 07:43:00 +0000

amrook Wed, 11/24/2010 - 11:43pm

Playwright John Longenbaugh

Photo by Erik Stuhaug/Taproot Theater

For Seattle playwright John Longenbaugh the wait is finally over - his play debuts Friday night, one year after its supposed premiere.

Last year, the cast and crew were in the rehearsal stage when an arson damaged Taproot theatre. Without a stage, the play was cancelled.

“I started on the play in 2007,” said Longenbaugh. “So in reality, I have been waiting for three years.”

It’s been a long time waiting but Longenbaugh said that at this point, he’s not nervous but keeps his fingers crossed all the same.

“After the arson, I’m really hoping for no snowfall, no meteor showers or anything like that’” he said.

Longenbaugh’s play combines two classic stories: Arthur Doyle’s ‘Sherlock Holmes” and Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”.

It takes place on Christmas Eve of the year 1894 on 221B Baker Street. After being presumed dead for three years, a hardened Sherlock Holmes resurfaces, turning his back on the people who need him most. Three unexpected callers arrive on Christmas Eve uncovering clues from the detective’s past, present and future.

The concept of combining Sherlock Holmes with other literary characters is nothing new, Longenbaugh said.

“In the world of Sherlockians there are many stories in which Holmes meets other fictional or real-life characters like Nicholas Meyer’s “Seven Percent Solutions” in which Holmes meets Freud,” he said.

“There’s Holmes meets Jack the Ripper, Holmes meets Houdini, Holmes meets Teddy Roosevelt, etc. When I came up with the idea for this play I had no idea.”

After thorough research, Longenbaugh concluded that no one had yet thought about combining Sherlock Holmes and Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”.

“Everyone has been trying to find alternative ways to have an annual Christmas play,” Longenbaugh said.
“As Holmes says, ‘There’s nothing new under the sun’, but I think this play might give folks something different.”

Longenbaugh said that while he uses the 1890s characters of Sherlock Holmes, the story, in many ways, stays true to Dickens’ original Christmas Carol.

“It’s Dickens but with an unexpected, inevitable twist’” he said.

Dickens is one of Longenbaugh’s favorite authors and he grew up reading “A Christmas Carol” every year, he said.

“I remember reading it in college and thinking, ‘this novel is prefect’,” he said. “Most Victorian novels are imperfect in many interesting ways but “A Christmas Carol” isn’t. I swear you couldn’t add or take one word without changing the story.”

Prior to writing this play Longenbaugh wasn’t a particularly big Sherlock Holmes fan. But after re-reading all of Doyle’s books and doing research, Longenbaugh found a local chapter of Sherlokians called The Sound of the Baskervilles to read his play.

“They were such a lovable, eccentric group, I joined them so now I’m an official Sound of the Baskervilles member,” he said. “It’s all kind of silly at some level but I find it fascinating.”

Longenbaugh said that he thinks Holmes fans are “like the original Trekkies”.

“They’ve been going at it for over a hundred years. They’re like the beginning of fandom,” he said.

With his play, Longenbaugh hopes to show his respect and admiration for both authors.

The play is directed by Scott Nolte and features the original cast apart from Stephen Grenley, who joins the company as Watson.

“I’m tremendously happy with the show,” Longenbaugh said. “Taproot is a great company to work with.”

Arts & Entertainment

Greenwood

Robinson Papers

Arts West presents "Plaid Tidings"

patr — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:19:27 +0000

patr Thu, 11/19/2009 - 4:19pm

Holiday Edition of Forever Plaid musical

John Bartley, Aaron Finley, Ryan McCabe and Daniel Stoltenberg appearing in Forever Plaid - Holiday Edition at Arts West Dec 2nd through Dec. 27th.
http://www.mattdurhamphotography.com/

Matt Durham Photography

In PLAID TIDINGS, The Plaids (Frankie, Sparky, Jinx, and Smudge) from Forever Plaid are transported back from the ethereal cosmos to croon their tight harmonic renditions of musical hits from the ’50s and ’60s. Suddenly, as ordered by a heavenly phone call from Rosemary Clooney, they stage a nostalgic holiday extravaganza for world-weary mortals on Earth. . .including a new episode of “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Returning for PLAID TIDINGS: John Bartley, Aaron Finley, Ryan McCabe and Daniel Stoltenberg

Directed by Jeff Church (from the Las Vegas cast of Forever Plaid) and Jeannette LeGault, with Music Direction by R.J. Tancioco (Bat Boy).

Food Collection during the run of the show

ArtsWest will be collecting food for The West Seattle Food Bank during the run of PLAID TIDINGS, from December 2-27.

The West Seattle Food Bank works to eliminate hunger in West Seattle, not only providing nutritious food to clients, but also working to eliminate the root causes of hunger by educating clients on nutrition, generating public awareness of hunger in our community and coordinating a range of community services for clients.

There will be a container in the ArtsWest lobby to accept food donations during daytime business hours as well as during performances. Food items that are especially useful are: canned protein items (tuna, peanut butter), baby food and formula, and nutritional supplements, such as Ensure.

What: PLAID TIDINGS: THE HOLIDAY EDITION OF FOREVER PLAID by Stuart Ross

When: December 2-27

Price: $32 (Under 25? Only $10!)

Where: ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery
4711 California Avenue SW
Seattle, WA 98116
www.artswest.org

Box Office: (206) 938-0339

PLAID TIDINGS is made possible in part by Union Bank and Season Sponsor Personal Safety Nets.
Photography by Matt Durham http://www.mattdurhamphotography.com/

Arts & Entertainment

West Seattle

Robinson Papers

Diversions

patr — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:56:06 +0000

patr Mon, 11/09/2009 - 10:56am

The Diviners
Youngstown Cultural Arts Center Auditorium
4408 Delridge Way S.W.
206-937-1394
www.twelfthnightproductions.org
Fridays and Saturdays, Nov. 13, 14, 20, 21 at 7:30 p.m. With matinees on Sunday Nov. 15 at 3 p.m. "The Diviners" is the story of a disturbed young man named Buddy who holds the ability to divine water in a town where water and faith are in short supply. When a charismatic preacher who has lost his faith comes to town, the two outcasts find a common bond and help each other divine for truth, faith and hope. The townspeoples’ demands for the preacher to return to a way of life he no longer believes in drives both men to a crisis of trust. $15 for adults, $12 for students and seniors.

"Measure For Pleasure" 
ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery 
4711 California Ave. S.W. 
206-938-0339
 Oct. 21 - Nov. 14. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.
Sundays, Oct. 25, Nov. 1, and 8, 3 p.m.
A deliciously naughty Restoration-romp-meets-modern-sex-farce, Measure for Pleasure chases rakes, romantics, and transvestite tarts through mistaken identities, duels, and double-dealings galore on their way to learning that, whatever else it may be, love is rarely pure and never simple. Tickets $32 (under 25, $10).

November ArtWalk

 The West Seattle art walk
A monthly art event that is held the second Thursday of each month 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. year-round.
 Bank America 4323 SW Admiral Way
Toshi Ensumi, Contemporary Oils on Canvas
Chez Dominique 77 Spring
Stephen Rock Contemporary mixed medium
Charlestown Cafe 3800 California AV SW
Paul & Judy Miller, water colors of world

Arts & Entertainment

West Seattle

Robinson Papers