ARTS COVERAGE TO END ALL ARTS COVERAGE >>>
At this point it goes without saying. If you're looking for coverage of local arts in Tacoma, Olympia, and all points in between, the Weekly Volcano is THE place to find it. Our goal is to consistently provide the best local arts coverage possible to our fantastic readers -- always be on the lookout for ways to shine a light on all the awesome creativity we see around us.
Here's a look at the Volcano arts coverage waiting for you this week in print and online.
(Preparation for this year’s zombie trash fashion show. Courtesy Ruby Re-Usable)
The What You Got Fest offers films, bands, skateboard ramps, free workshops, a chance to watch a mural being painted outside the Capital Theater - and zombies.
The ghoulish creatures are a pop-culture trend with staying power, and they'll be modeling in the Olympia youth art festival's trash fashion show.
"In the trash world, zombies represent stuff that doesn't really go away," said Ruby Re-Usable, who helped youth organizers with a workshop on and materials for creating trash fashion. "Plastic bags get ratty, and they might break up into little pieces, but regular plastic bags do not decompose. They're like the undead." ... - Molly Gilmore
MOVIE BIZ BUZZ: Better late than never
("Rose Colored Shades": Lydia Anderson [Eleanor Ross] seeks advice from Father Marks [William Kane] regarding her relationship with Joe Ware [Rod Long]. Photo credit: Gerry Collen.)
I dialed Randy Sparks' number late Thursday night, and his voice, tiny amidst a mob of shouts, greeted my ears.
"Chris, hold on a second!" he cried, sounding faraway. "I'm at Hell's Kitchen!"
It figures. If you know only two indispensable truths about Sparks, they are a) his fondness for local music, and b) a tireless drive to make movies.
Sparks took his phone to a quieter spot across the street and began to tell me about his newest venture. Rose Colored Shades marks Sparks' first foray into both producing and directing a full-length film, coming on the heels of his short works It Don't Rain on Sunny Days (2009) and A Glitch in the System (2010). Seattle-based comedian Rod Long, who played a fast-talking boss from hell in It Don't Rain, lends his talent for language to the feature script alongside Sparks, and also steps into the shoes of lead character Joe Ware. ... -- Christopher Wood
VISUAL EDGE: Allison Hyde's Out of the Embers
(Allison Hyde's "Out of the Embers" at The Telephone Room.)
Allison Hyde's art speaks eloquently of time and place and memory, and sadly of deterioration and destruction over time. Her site-specific installation, Out of the Embers, in The Telephone Room consists of serigraphs with ash and charcoal on mylar, burned furniture, burned jewelry boxes and sound. ... -- Alec Clayton
THEATER: OLT's Bell, Book and Candle
To some devout Christians, witches aren't just innocent Halloween scares: they're eternally damned brides of Hell. It may seem nutty to hear folks railing against Harry Potter, but in pre-scientific America, supposed Devil worshipers served as convenient scapegoats for any misunderstood mishap. Ostensibly rational Americans were once terrified of witches and warlocks.
Of course, none of that dread was reserved for the 1960s show Bewitched, a sitcom clearly based on the 1950 John Van Druten play Bell, Book and Candle. If you're my age or older, you grew up with Bewitched or its reruns; the show is memorable for plenty of reasons, including star Elizabeth Montgomery's adorable nose twitch, Samantha Stephens' bizarre relatives, and that unexplained Darrin swap in season six. But when you place Bell, Book and Candle in chronological context, it's remarkable how intense it truly was-much darker, to be sure, than the sitcom it inspired 14 years later.
For one thing, its protagonist's familiar spirit, the cat Pyewacket (played in Olympia Little Theatre's production by a short, docile actor named Dexter), pays homage to a freakin' demon. English "witch-finder general" Matthew Hopkins claimed in 1644 that he'd witnessed a coven of witches; in the aftermath of his wild accusation, a young woman confessed to colluding with numerous demons including an imp she called Pyewacket. That's no cute, cuddly kitty on OLT's stage-it's a cute, cuddly agent of Satan! ... -- Christian Carvajal
PLUS: More local theater coverage than you can shake a stick at
PLUS: Comprehensive Arts & Entertainment Calendar
PLUS: Stuff this guy frowns on