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Outdoors
Salt Creek Falls:
Why wait for summer?
Performance
Plies & Pajamas: Modern dance and modern theater.
Politically Committed Art: Primitive World explores destruction and hope.
Gardening
Seizing Sunlight:
A well-designed greenhouse.
Morsels
Sweets and Bridges: Mini-reviews of area dining spots.
Plies and Pajamas
Modern dance and modern
theater.
By Aria
Seligmann
Wildly energetic Philadanco, one of the hottest contemporary American
dance companies, makes its Eugene debut Monday, Jan. 21, MLK, Jr. Day, at the Hult.
The high-energy, spirited company is composed of dancers who have amazing technical
ability and are able to perform an eclectic variety of dances, including ballet,
modern and jazz.
Philadanco (Philadelphia Dance Company) grew out of the Philadelphia
School of Dance Arts, which was founded in 1960 by Joan Myers Brown. Ten years later,
Brown formed the dance company, meant to give students, many of whom are minorities,
opportunities to perform.
Brown knows the disadvantages of being an African-American dancer,
and how important it is to be given a chance. She began her ballet studies in 1949
with Anthony Tudor at the Ballet Guild, the predecessor of the Pennsylvania Ballet,
and earned a scholarship that allowed her to continue with Karel Shook at the Katherine
Dunham School in New York.
Brown began dancing as a teenager at the prodding of her PE teacher,
who asked her to join the after-school ballet club. "There were no other black
youngsters in the ballet club and I didn't want to do it 'til I got there,"
she says, but then she "fell in love with ballet."
That led to studying with Anthony Tudor, who told her to go to
New York. But she was still young. "My father wasn't hearing that," she
says. "I didn't go to New York 'til I was good and grown." Meanwhile, Tudor
gave her chances she might not have gotten elsewhere. "Anthony Tudor treated
me like I was important, not just the black kid taking up space," she says.
"In the real world, people didn't treat you that way."
After studying and getting her dance career off the ground in New
York, Brown went on tour with Pearl Bailey. But she was dissatisfied, and decided
to return to Philadelphia and start her own school "to make opportunities for
other black youngsters."
Eventually, organizations began asking if she had a group that
could put on a dance performance. That, plus the fact that the Pennsylvania Ballet
had no black dancers and other companies wouldn't hire them, encouraged her to form
the company.
"Early on, I knew black dancers, in order to find work, had
to do everything -- ballet, jazz, tap -- everything. I tried to make certain they
were well versed in all types of dance. I still do."
Most of the work of the school and company is modern dance, and
Brown quickly and humorously points out that she makes sure each show has at least
one number everyone will like.
"Modern dance is still an unknown. I don't want people leaving
wondering what it's all about. Not pretending they're so highly intellectual that
they got it. I just want them to see the joy of dance."
Monday night's show will feature "Labess II," choreographed
by David Brown; "Exotica," choreographed by Ronald K. Brown; two excerpts
from Messages from the Heart: "My Science" choreographed by Bebe
Miller, and "Hand Singing Song," which explores the use of hand gestures
such as the dap, the Black Power greeting. The show begins at 8 pm.
-- Are Not Pajamas by Mario Tucci was first performed up at Dave Koteen's
house back in September. Tucci, a performer who's been in town for a couple of years
but just began producing his own works last summer, says he was expecting about 30
people and 80 showed up. I didn't see it and if you didn't either, a second chance
to see the work is this weekend.
Tucci calls the show "a musical/theatrical experience based
on real life -- an experiment to see how music affects our lives."
Two actors are in five similar situations with five different types
of music, from '60s to jazz, pop, grunge and country. How will their reactions differ
when different music is played? The music is by Rob Kohler and Brian West, with West
and Allison Rickenbaugh (both of whom had never acted before this show) as the two
actors in the various situations. Richard Leebrick performs in the pop segment
and Mario Tucci will end with one of his monologues
The play is billed as "raucous and timely." Tucci says
it's "funny and interesting and completely not politically correct."
Performances are at 10 pm this Friday and Saturday, and also at
4 pm Saturday for those who can't stay up late, at the Lord Leebrick Theatre. Tix
are $6-10, ss.
-- Imagining Peace, a benefit for Afghan women and children, with poetry and play
readings by Dorianne Laux, Sparky Roberts, Linda Burden-Williams, Ed Coleman and
others, is at 5:30 pm this Friday at Tsunami. Readings will emphasize peace, tolerance
and MLK, Jr. Day. A $5-10 donation is requested.
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Politically
Committed Art
Primitive World
explores destruction and hope.
By Aria
Seligmann
So let's change our lives
For a change let's make our world
Beautiful. So let's change our world
For a change let's make our lives
beautiful!
-- Woman, Primitive World
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Iran Parker in Primitive
World.
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Lord Leebrick Artistic Director Corey Pearlstein had only been in
town for about two weeks when he sidelined me at a theater event and handed me a
well-worn copy of avant-garde plays and poems that had been produced at New York
City's Nuyorican Poetry Café. Spoken-word poetry, one-person shows and new
music-theatrical collaborations were the buzz the summer of 2000, and as we talked
about the country-sweeping movement, Pearlstein rapidly drummed his finger on the
cover of the book and said, "This is it. This is what I want to bring to Eugene."
Since then, Pearlstein has produced a few late-night performances
of experimental theater, but what happens this weekend and next is what he came here
to do. Combining jazz, blues, funk, poetic verse and dance, Primitive World: An
Anti-Nuclear Jazz Opera by Amiri Baraka, exemplifies the cutting-edge art that
marks the more progressive direction the Lord Leebrick is taking with its first-ever
second season.
Amiri Baraka is the Obie-award-winning playwright (Dutchman,
1964) who spearheaded the Black Arts movement of the '60s, has produced volumes of
poetry, plays and anthologies and has formed his own theater companies in Harlem
and in Newark, NJ. He hung out with the beat poets in the late '50s and formed Totem
Press, which published Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. A blues musician as well
as gifted writer, his words are infused with musicality, the rhythms of Black English
and the gritty, direct, often confrontational attitude associated with fighting one's
way out of oppression (for more on Baraka, see story, page 12).
His 1982 play, Primitive World, which has only been staged
twice before (the second time was at the Nuyorican), merges music with poetry in
an apocalyptic vision of nuclear war. Baraka says the play confronts the way "the
money gods extort, contort and abort our lives."
Baraka calls the play one of his "Boperas," -- that would
be bebop and opera -- and uses African-American music "because that music and
expression speaks to me and through me at a more penetrating level," he says.
Pearlstein chose the play before Sept. 11, and that is only one
of many serendipitous events surrounding the realization of this production.
Director Sherman Johnson, a New York City director and dramaturg,
whom Pearlstein met when both lived and worked in New York, had come across Baraka's
writings when he was in college at the University of Michigan. Johnson met Baraka
when he lectured in Ann Arbor, and looked him up when he moved to New York. The two
became friends.
Johnson finds Baraka appealing because he's outside the "usual
canon of the black literary experience." He's not Langston Hughes or Baldwin,
but uses Black English in an "elegant and flexible way, and looks like me and
sounds like me," he says. As a student at Michigan, Johnson found that imminently
appealing.
"As I learned more, I got intrigued by his struggle as a fish
out of water who acclimated and also evolved into someone and something ultimately
himself," says Johnson.
For Johnson, Baraka was a gateway into a broad range of literature.
Through him, he discovered the beat poets, the whole world of pan-African writers,
the use of art as a political tool.
Johnson had long wanted to mount a production of Primitive World,
and was looking to do so when Pearlstein called him last spring. Pearlstein told
Johnson he was planning this year's season and asked if he wanted to direct PW.
The timing was perfect.
A few years earlier, the script was sitting on Johnson's coffee
table in his New York apartment when good friend and musician Will Calhoun of the
Grammy-winning band Living Colour noticed it. Calhoun, who'd composed many musical
numbers (and had also dated one of Baraka's daughters), wrote a score to accompany
it, and that is what Eugene audiences will hear. Peter Mulvey, national touring musician
and another Pearlstein friend, will perform the music.
"As it happens," says Pearlstein, "Baraka is an
influential figure for Peter, too, and by that time it was clear that this project
was destined. Everyone involved in this show is passionate about it."
In addition, Pearlstein contacted the UO Multicultural Center,
which agreed to collaborate and bring Baraka here to speak during the Martin Luther
King, Jr. Celebration week.
Pearlstein says that as an arts presenter he feels a responsibility
to bring diverse voices and views to the stage and that he's interested in the political
and social ideas the play puts forward. "They are direct, radical and beautiful."
In Primitive World, three individuals are bent on destroying
the world. "Compare that to what's going on today. It's a group of individuals
really dictating the way in which the rest of the body of people go," says Johnson.
"It's just as absurd. Our administration is dictating the direction of the country.
It dictates where the money is being put. For a war."
The play's theme of the desire to destroy the world struck Johnson
as space age, but it also explores the primitive quality of humanity. "Primitiveness
is not something you go back to," says Johnson. "It's always an element
of everyone's lives. By nature, you're primitive when you're going into the unknown.
When the bomb drops, you're not suddenly primitive and naked -- you always were."
Baraka adds, "We are always in search of Truth and Beauty,
to paraphrase Keats and W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois said, 'The seeker of Beauty must,
of course, become the seeker of Truth.'"
The show opens Thursday, Jan. 10 and runs two weekends only at
the Lord Leebrick Theatre. See calendar for details.
The following weekend, Jan. 18 and 19, Those Guys Productions will
present a late-night performance of Are Not Pajamas, an experimental music
and theater piece by Mario Tucci, after PW.
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Salt Creek Falls
Why wait for summer?
By James
Johnston
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Salt Creek in winter
can be stunning in its beauty and solitude.
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Just because the Cascades are covered in snow doesn't mean hikers
have to be shut out of their favorite spots. The increasing popularity of snowshoeing
has made available lots of easy-to-use designs that will have you tromping through
deep snow with little trouble. One of the best places to get used to wearing tennis
rackets on your boots is the easy four-mile loop through the scenic Salt Creek Falls
area east of Oakridge.
Directions: Take I-5 south from Eugene for approximately
three miles. Take the Oakridge/Klamath Falls exit (Exit 188A). Stay to the left onto
Hwy. 58. Take 58 for approximately 36 miles through Oakridge. Approximately 20 miles
east of Oakridge (about a mile east of a tunnel) take a right at the sign for Salt
Creek Falls and follow the icy paved road to a large parking lot and information
kiosk.
Spectacular Salt Creek Falls -- at 280 feet it's the second tallest
waterfall in Oregon -- is a short walk from the parking lot. The falls were created
when giant lava flows from Mt. Yoran four miles to the south poured through the valley.
When the lava cooled a combination of glaciation and erosion caused the softer rock
layer below the lava to collapse, leaving a sheer cliff face.
You can reach the beginning of the loop trail by following the
guardrail that overlooks the falls upstream. The trail crosses Salt Creek on a rustic
footbridge. Just past the creek, the trail splits. Stay to the right; you'll be returning
along the left-hand fork.
In a quarter of a mile, a short use trail to the left takes you
to frozen Too Much Bear Lake (there's got to be a story behind that name). In the
next mile several short trails on your right will take you to view points that afford
awesome views of rugged and beautiful Salt Creek Canyon.
Two miles from Salt Creek Falls take a right at a junction for
a side trip to 100-foot tall Lower Diamond Falls. You'll descend along icy switchbacks
through a narrow canyon covered with dagger-like icicles. The many braids of Diamond
Creek have carved wild sculptures out of snowdrifts.
In a quarter of a mile past the turn for Lower Diamond Falls, the
trail splits again. Stay to the left to complete the loop and return to your car,
a mile and a half away. The right hand turn climbs fairly steeply for almost three
miles through the Diamond Peak Wilderness to Vivian Lake. This trail to Vivian Lake
is hard to find in the winter and should not be attempted unless you have a map and
a compass and are ready for a little adventure. About 100 yards from the trail junction,
the trail crosses a road and then railroad tracks before entering the wilderness
area. The trail follows the west bank of Fall Creek all the way to the lake, so make
sure that the creek is on your left when you enter the wilderness and head east to
the creek if you lose the trail.
Snowshoeing is not exactly fun like cross-country skiing (always
take care when snowshoeing not to disturb ski tracks). In fact, snowshoeing is just
like walking, only a little bit more awkward. But a long snowshoe trip through deep
snow is still the best way to beat the crowds and get away from it all. All your
favorite trails will look and feel totally different under a blanket of shiny new
snow. Just remember that there won't be a well-worn path to follow, so bring a map
of the area and extra supplies.
Pretty soon you'll wish that the Cascades were under snow year
round.
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Seizing Sunlight
A well-designed greenhouse.
By Rachel
Foster
Most gardeners I know have fantasized about owning a greenhouse,
but only a handful ever acquire one. Springfield artist Nancy Karp not only has a
greenhouse, she designed it herself, and her husband, Gary, built it. It is tucked
into the southwest corner of their roomy but intensively cultivated garden, and you
can't tell it's a greenhouse as you approach it. With a colorful door and siding
of natural cedar shakes, it might be a small studio, or an exceptionally nice-looking
shed. But step through that door and you find yourself in a bright, cozy space filled
with flourishing plants and the scent of soil.
The south-facing wall, largely unseen from the garden, is made
of glass. This is a solar greenhouse: it relies on the sun's energy not just for
light but for heat as well. Technically, it is "passive solar." No additional
energy or energy-requiring heat transfer device is involved in its operation. On
the north side of the space are five large, black plastic pickle barrels filled with
water that store heat when the temperature rises and release it as the temperature
falls. More heat storage is provided by brick paving that forms a path between the
heat-storing barrels and an in-ground planting bed next to the glass wall.
The pickle barrels are cast-offs from Emerald Valley Kitchen, and
they are far from being the only recycled material in this project which, it seems,
began with a used door. "We went to Bring one day and saw this dilapidated door,
and I told Gary I had to have it," Nancy says. Its panel of colored glass is
a simple but striking decorative element that defines the character of this artful
little building. Outside the door, a sturdy iron grille, once part of a city tree
grate, prevents moisture accumulating and keeps the floor free from mud. It shares
the threshold with a jubilant mosaic Nancy made from brightly-colored pieces of broken
dish ware and other found objects.
Inside, above the barrels, an exceptionally solid metal mesh bench
provides space for propagation. Originally store shelving, this too came from Bring
Recycling, as did the tree grate and the windows that make up the south side. Two
windows form a vertical wall, three feet high. Above them are four tall ones, set
side by side and angled to meet the sun. "I consulted books to find the right
angle for the windows so they get maximum sun in winter," Nancy told me. "In
December, afternoon sun reaches the back of the bench. In summer it stops short of
the front of the bench, so the bench is shaded."
It is possible to buy greenhouses locally, including one-of-a-kind
affairs made with recycled materials, but those I've seen are not built as solidly
as this one. The 10 x 12 structure (the largest you can put up in Springfield without
a permit!) has a properly constructed foundation of concrete block set on gravel
in a trench. The walls that have no windows are built of exterior grade plywood with
fiberglass insulation and a Visquene vapor barrier. The interior walls are painted
white to reflect light. A small double-vent window (probably from a camper) in the
west wall provides some ventilation.
Since the greenhouse was built in 1997, winters have been mostly
mild. But thermometers dipped to 10 degrees during one week-long cold spell, and
the greenhouse never went below 40. Even more remarkably, thanks to the design and
the insulation, it stays cool in summer. On the mild November afternoon of my visit,
when it was a pleasant, even seductive temperature, Nancy claimed "It never
gets warmer than it is now." The moderate temperature and strong indirect light
makes it easy to root cuttings on the bench.
Nancy has ripe tomatoes by the end of May, and they keep coming
until late fall, when the humidity rises too high for tomato health because of limited
ventilation. This is Nancy's only complaint: aside from the little camper window,
the only ventilation comes from opening the door. One day, she says, she would like
to install a self-opening vent and temperature-controlled fan powered by a solar
panel in the roof.
When Nancy was designing her greenhouse, she consulted The Solar
Greenhouse Book edited by James C. McCullagh (Rodale Press). It is available
from Eugene and Springfield public libraries. Another useful reference is A Solar
Greenhouse for the Pacific Northwest by Tim Magee (Ecotope Group), in the Eugene
Public Library.
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Sweets and Bridges
Mini-reviews of area
dining spots.
$=under $7
$$=$7 to under $12
$$$=$12-17
$$$$=more than $17
Sweet Life
Patisserie
755 Monroe St., 683-5676
7 am-6 pm M-W, 7 am-11 pm, TH-SA, 8 am-6 pm SU. $. -- MT
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Sweet Life
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What about resolving to find sweetness in life this year? Surely that,
in moderation of course (wink, nudge), would make up for all those harsh promises
already made and broken in 2002. Sweetness is best found in loved ones of course,
blah, blah, blah, but I also recommend this little bakery on Monroe.
They have a sweet to match every sorrow: Too much melodrama in
your life? Try something chocolate-creamy, like the parfaits. They often have a selection
of plastic cups full of pastry kitchen sink: truffle filling, cake, cream, caramel,
nuts. Worried about international strife, professional frustrations, loud neighbors?
Perhaps you should grab a friend and try a fruit tart. Sweet and tangy, too intense
for one, little personal pies are nice to have on the table as you complain and process
your frustrations. They've got tea, coffee, and healthy vegan stuff too.
Not that it's gonna make anything any better, but take that sweetness
on the tongue as a physical reminder of the sweetness of life.
Lighthouse
Deli & Fish Co.
3640 SW Highway 101, South Beach, (541) 867-6800
8 am-8 pm every day. $-$$. -- OI
Just on the south side of the Yaquina Bay Bridge from Newport,
Lighthouse Deli has won awards for offering the best fish and chips in Oregon. There's
a reason: It's the best. The portions are difficult to finish. The battered fish
(halibut, albacore, salmon and sometimes even swordfish) is crispy outside and succulent
inside. But it doesn't end at the fryer in this sit-down-at-a-picnic-table kind of
place, with dining inside and out. Crab or shrimp burgers rival the fare of fancy
restaurants. The deli also offers fresh, canned and smoked fish or steaming Dungeness
crab to stay or go. It's not cheap fast food, but the cost -- up to $9 -- is justified
by the portions as well as the quality.
Stacy's
Covered Bridge
401 E. Main St., Cottage Grove. 767-0320.
Lunch 11 am-2:30 pm M-SA. Dinner 4-8 pm M, 4 pm-9 pm TU-SA. $-$$$. -- LS
It's not so far down the highway, mere 20 miles, but it's 50 years
back in time. Just driving down Main Street, you'll think you passed through a wormhole
or time portal: The stores bear family names, there are no parking meters, the silence
is deafening. Stop at quaint one-story City Hall; just across the street is the restaurant.
Interior feels solidly respectable, with high-backed chairs, even some wing-backs,
tables set in white cloths with red napkins, walls bearing pen-and-ink drawings of
covered bridges. Mostly older clientele. The menu also from another era: no Asian
Fusion with high heat and flavor; instead, prime rib and baked potatoes, rack of
lamb, steaks, moderate prices. Moderate wine list, too, lots of misspellings but
some zingers. Stacy wanders from table to table, dispensing homespun charm. Bring
Gramps and Gram here, to a blast from the past. Full bar, music on weekend nights.
Sweetwaters
1000 Valley River Way, at Valley River Center, 687-0123
Breakfast 6:30 am-11 am, lunch 11:30 am-2 pm, dinner 5:30 pm-9:30 pm M-SA. Brunch
7:30 am-2 pm, dinner 5:30 pm-9:30 pm SU. $$$-$$$$. -- LS
The view pays the bill, is never disappointing; through the wall
of windows, in every season, the Willamette River rushes north to join the Columbia's
roll to the sea. There's nothing like watching a great river, and this is a great
place to sit and see and think. Sweetwaters is quiet, competent, professional and
expensive, but the food is good, even if it doesn't quite reach into the same stratosphere
as the prices charged for it. But breakfast, lunch and Sunday brunch are served in
generous portions and are certainly affordable as special treats; dinners have a
real chef's touch and can be very good. With a full bar, strong wine list (priced
high), music on weekends, this is the place we take visiting Aunt Zooey when she
moans about our weather and whines "Why do you live here?" There it is,
magical river, truly sweet waters.
Leftovers:
News moves slow as molasses this January. Big's Hi-Yu-He-He closed more than
a month ago, and all that remains of the great and greasy tradition is a Cash Connection
store. Big has moved on to Christmas tree farming and for the rest of us life must
go on, too.
The neighborhood that got Tasty Thai Kitchen last week gets another
eatery this week. Mike West has moved up the opening date for Three Square,
his newest project. It should be open Jan. 19th in the Southtowne Shoppes.
Correction: Last week we wrote that Sy's Pizza does
delivery, but we meant to say that Sy's does yummy take-out.
Morsels tries to capture the atmosphere as well as the cuisine
of some of our favorite places to eat in and around Eugene, all in 100 or so words.
Suggestions? Call Ben or Marina at 484-0519 or e-mail cal@eugeneweekly.com
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