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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2006)
WHAT’S happening DENNIS WIANCKO Do we really need to tell you that the joyful extravaganza of music, fairy wings and general happiness that is the Oregon Country Fair comes along this weekend? Anyway, uptight wonksters like us rejoice at the highlights including Amy Goodman, Winona LaDuke and Rob Brezsny on the politi- cal spoken word front, while some of our compadres are pumped about the kids-only music wall and others are looking forward to the food, hemp lip balm and other manifestations of the divine cosmic spirit available at the vendors and on the stages. We have a whooooooooole section about the fair, starting on page 12, so pop over & read that! After you see the Calendar, of course. And if the fair is too far away, hot or crowded for you — or you just don’t want it to end — you can zip into the WOW Hall for the intricate tricks, songs, celebrations and marvels of The New Old Time Chautauqua. What’s a chautauqua, you ask, having grown up a hun- dred years too late for those rousing events in the town square? Well, it’s a gallimaufrey, a hodgepodge, an assortment, a conglomeration … hicc! Excuse us, we were imbibing the thesaurus a bit too freely. In this case, a chatauqua is a vaudeville miscellany, and if you like the pic (right), go check out the enthralling show. See Tuesday Calendar. You’ve heard about the Bach Festival, and you’ve seen the poster everywhere. But this month’s Lane Arts Council First Friday ARTWalk gives you the chance to see work by poster boy Jeff White up close and personal at first stop Opus6ix, where you can also see work by Jerry Dame. Moving on, the ever-popular and fabulous Betsy Wolfston’s sculptures spark up second stop Broadway Plaza, providing a welcoming space for Peter Helzer’s The Storyteller, more often known as Ken Kesey. Thirdly, sculptured bods are on display at the DAC, but the stop concerns the architectural beauties of the Ax Billy building. Across the street and down a bit, fourth stop the McDonald Theatre shows off its architecture as well. But hoo boy, the last stop is perhaps the, er, funnest, as DIVA shows off art from the Pawsitively Pets fundraiser, not to mention the Valley Calligraphy Guild’s “Journeys Begin with a Single Word” exhibit, along with work by Amy Beller (pictured left), Peggy Spiess, Renee Manford and Keith Legg. As always, many galleries and shops downtown are open late but not part of the walk. See Friday Calendar. PAR-TAY! Er, we mean PARK-tay! Yes, grab yer kids (or rent some if you don’t have your own), slather on the sunscreen and bike or roll or walk to the rivah path ’cause the RiverPlay Discovery Village Playground is about to open. Yeah, there’s the hoopla of ribbon cutting and free barbeque (we’re hoping for some of those Tofurkey brats! Mmmm!), but there’s also … get this … an ancient history sand dig with fossils & arrowheads waiting to be found, a miniature (cleaner, we assume) Willamette River, and both Kalapuya and invader pioneer vil- lages. What with the super slide, the wheelchair accessible bridge, the 25-foot replica of Skinner Butte with 8-foot climbing columns and the kid-powered ferry, there’s all kinds o’ fun stuff going on. You go, city of Eugene! See Saturday Calendar. JULY 6, 2006 21
