WHAT’S
happening
This weekend sees the return of the wildly popular Oregon Asian Celebration at the Lane County
Fairgrounds. Consisting of cooking, craft and martial arts demos, fine art exhibits, taiko troupes
(including Portland Taiko, pictured above, at 5 pm Saturday), Korean fan dances, Indonesian
gamelan ensembles and, of course, the jam-packed Asian Marketplace and Food Court, this two-
day event will immerse you in the rich cultures of East and Southeast Asia. Admission is a paltry
$3 (free for children under 13), so a quick stop or a day’s entertainment can easily be had. See
www.asiancelebration.org and Saturday Calendar.
If you like California modern rock music (e.g. Buckcherry, Stroke 9, Angels and Airwaves) then
statistically you’re going to enjoy Friday’s Switchfoot show at the McDonald. They’re hot right
now (which means they scored a Billboard Top 20 album with their latest release Oh! Gravity
last December) and Mandy Moore once sang their song “Only Hope” in the film A Walk to
Remember. But lead singer Jon Foreman is modest on their worldwide appeal. “We’ve never fit
in any of the genre boxes,” he said in an interview with VH1. “It’s a dream come true to be able
to have songs that are outside of the box.” OK, the dude fears boxes, we can relate to that.
Rock journalists are using poetic language to describe Switchfoot (“Rarely does a rock band
combine explosive guitars with an intense longing for meaning”), perhaps in an effort to
explain their self-styled “music for thinking people,” described as such because many of
Switchfoot’s songs make allusions to philosophers (“Sooner or Later (Søren’s Song)” pays trib-
ute to Kierkegaard) or poets (“Meant to Live” was inspired by T.S. Eliot). But perhaps more
telling was the uproar from their Christian rock fanbase when they covered a Bad Religion
song. As Switchfoot straddles so many fences at once, trying to please everyone, everywhere,
they are learning it pays to have modern rock balls. See Friday Calendar..
Whoa, talk about cultural transmission! Parisian masquarade balls — most notably Mardi Gras, or “Fat
Tuesday” — were co-opted by the Brazilians for their own lascivious music and merry making. Since the
1830s, Rio de Janeiro’s annual samba-fest full of parading music-makers and dancers has captured the
imaginations of marching bands the world over. Eugene has its fair share of Brazilian-inspired bands, thanks
in no small part to Brazilian expat Heliane Ferreira Pinto’s efforts in the bands Macaco Velho and Calango
(pictured right). Now in its fifth year, Carnaval Brasil celebrates the Brazilian appropriation of the European
tradition with a lineup that includes Pinto’s bands as well as Sun Bossa and Samba Ja. All the more mean-
ingful, the festival is a benefit for School Kids Helping Street Kids International, so money spent Saturday
night may actually end up helping kids in Brazil. It is a small, small world, indeed. See Saturday Calendar
FEBRUARY 15, 2007
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