Art by Zee

The Adventures of Prince Achmed with Live Music by Miles and Karina

Mark your calendars now: The folks at SIFF and the Moisture Festival have teamed up to give Seattle movie and music fans a real treat in the form of a presentation of The Adventures of Prince Achmed with live music by mutli-talented musical duo Miles and Karina who will be performing a live score with accordion, guitar, viola, banjo, glockenspiel, percussion, slide whistle, and much more.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed was the first full length animated film, released for the first time back in September of 1926. The film was huge sensation at the time and remains exciting today, eighty-some years later. Director Lotte Reiniger invented a silhouette technique that allows for a full range of motion and complex backgrounds that keep the eye drawn to the screen. An exciting adventure tale taken from “The Arabian Nights”, Prince Achmed is a fun film, interesting not simply because of its age.

The film screens on April 4 at 7:30 at SIFF Cinema; tickets are likely to go fast, so you may want to purchase in advance so that you don’t miss your chance to see this great movie with a great live score.

First Look Reading – Bones: The Tale of Callie Archer

Bones: The Tale of Callie Archer:”Maybe it’s the story of a woman who just flips out, or maybe it’s a mythic tale about one of the Celtic Powers. Told by a Bard and by Callie Archer herself, the tale unfolds in narration, monologue and music”.

Be one of the first to experience this new production in a reading at The Little Red Studio on March 13th at 7:00 pm. A $3 – $5 donation gets you in the door and helps support local theater.

Bones is written and directed by Sherry Narens and features Daniel Brockley and Lee Ann Hittenberger.

Seattle prepares for snow again

From the city:

SEATTLE – The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is gearing up for snow expected to arrive in the Seattle area on Wednesday, February 23. As of 4 a.m., ten snow plows will hit the streets in the north sector of Seattle and eight plows will move into action in the south sector. Starting at 9 a.m., SDOT will go into a full 24-hour response plan to keep roads open, buses moving and critical emergency services accessible.

The response plan calls for deploying 30 trucks with plows, which will be prepositioned throughout the city in key locations such as elevated structures and certain trouble spots on major arterials. The department starting pre-treating major roadways with salt brine this afternoon in preparation for the storm. Additional details concerning SDOT’s response will be forthcoming as more information about the impending storm becomes available.

Motorists are advised to use caution when driving in snow and ice, especially on Seattle’s many hills and bridges. For up-to-date information on the City’s response and roadway conditions, please visit: http://Seattle.gov/transportation/. Motorists can also check on current traffic conditions and roadway images on SDOT’s Traveler’s Map at:

http://web5.seattle.gov/travelers/.

As a reminder, property owners are responsible for clearing sidewalks adjacent to their properties after a snowstorm. SDOT encourages residents and businesses to have snow shovels and materials on-hand to keep walkways clear and safe for pedestrians.

Escape the gloom with the NW Flower & Garden Show

The Northwest Flower and Garden Show is one of the brightest parts of the gloomy Seattle winter. Outside it’s dark and rainy (or snowy), but inside the Washington State Convention Center it’s lush and green.

Once again the show features stunning show gardens created by nurseries and garden designers. Each show garden is a unique creation that represents a vision of garden life – gardens range from elaborate fantasy worlds to simple reflections of nature and are always impressive and illustrative. You might not have room to build an entire labyrinth in your backyard but you’re bound to get ideas that would work for you and the designers and builders are on hand with their expertise to share.

There’s also a lot to learn from the seminars offered every day of the show. Learn how to grow your own healthy food or create container gardens for your patio or learn how to install your own irrigation system. Find out which plants are best for the Northwest’s weather patterns or get great ideas for accessorizing your garden to express your own unique ideas. Learn how you can attract birds, butterflies, and other wildlife to your yard and get tips for the gardener who doesn’t have a whole lot of time.

Besides all of the displays and the seminars, there’s the marketplace where vendors of all types have everything you could want – and some things you’d never even imagined – for your garden.

The show opens Wednesday, February 23, and runs through Sunday, February 27. Tickets range from $5 for kids up to $20 for adults at the door or $29 for a two-day pass or $65 for a full five day pass. Tickets can be purchased at the show or online and one great option for the attendee with limited time is the half-day ticket – $10 gets you in after 3 pm Wednesday through Saturday or after 2 pm on Sunday.

Need a last minute Valentine’s gift? Intrigue offers extra hours

Local chocolatier extraordinaire Intrigue Chocolates has got you covered if you need a last minute Valentine’s gift – they’ve already opened early and will be open until 7 pm. Get that gift you forgot. Get an additional gift just because. Or, heck, go in and get yourself a gift.

Their current featured flavors are R. Valentino – rose petals; Pear-Lavender – pear brandy, honey, WA-grown lavender; Sweet Raspberry – raspberry liqueur (eau-de-vie brandy, raspberries); Pomegranate – pomegranate juice; Damiana – damiana; Date Sugar – ground dried dates; and Ginger Juice -fresh ginger juice, but all their other flavors (and there are many) are just as wonderful.

Seattle Japanese Garden open for 2011 on 2/13

photo by Mary Nagan, courtesy Seattle Parks Department

The Seattle Japanese Garden, located in the Washington Park Arboretum, is a 3.5 acre garden formal garden designed and constructed under the supervision of world-renowned Japanese garden designer Juki Iida back in 1960. Over the years it has been a popular destination for Seattle visitors and residents alike, drawn to its lovely and peaceful environment featuring trees, bushes, flowers, grasses and a pond filled with lively koi. The Seattle Japanese Garden has been closed for the winter and is now ready to re-open on Sunday, February 13.

The opening takes place from 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. with a traditional Shinto blessing of the Garden and a calligraphy demonstration/workshop.

The blessing takes place at noon and the calligraphy workshop is from 1-3 p.m. in the Tateuchi Community Room. Admission to this event is $10.

Regular Garden admission is $6 per adult and $3 per youth, student, or senior; regular Garden hours for the 2011 season are:

February 15 – May 1 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
May 3 – September 18 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
September 20 – October 31 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
November 1 – November 13 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

The 50-year-old garden is a quiet sanctuary in the city designed by world-renowned Japanese Garden designer Juki Iida in 1960.

Travel the ancient world with The Odyssey at Taproot

Mark Chamberlin as Odysseus and April Wolfe as Calypso, in Taproot Theatre’s production of The Odyssey; photo by Erik Stuhaug

How do you do justice to a story that’s over 3,000 years old, one of the most important works in all of Western literature, that takes place over the course of many years involving a cast of hundreds, maybe thousands, when all you’ve got is an ordinary theater space? Taproot Theatre’s production of Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of the ancient story solves this problem by cutting out the excesses of the tale to focus on its heart – its characters.

Soldier, husband, and father Odysseus has had enough of war and just wants to get home to his wife and son but his path is blocked at every step both by circumstance and by the plotting of the gods as well the ordinary and extraordinary people and creatures he encounters. The pawn in an epic battle between Pallas Athena who loves him and does all she can to support his cause and Poseidon who loathes him and does all he can to defeat him, Odysseus must struggle against scheming tricksters and scary creatures. Meanwhile at home his wife is besieged by a legion of suitors disrespectful of his home while they each plot to become the new husband of Odysseus’s wife Penelope. She is determined to remain true to her conviction that her husband is alive and well but she has little protection; her young son Telemachus is unable to exile the suitors on his own and flees in search of his father, leaving her alone with only her wits to keep her safe.

The world in which this huge cast of characters reside is a complex one with locations that span the globe and go up to the heavens. The production wisely avoids trying to conjure all of this into physical detail, instead utilizing a minimalist set and simple, but effective, costuming to allow the audience to see all this with their mind’s eye. Whether it is Calypso’s lonely island or the frightening ocean where the crew of Odysseus’s ship are caught between monsters, it’s all there.

The cast of The Odyssey does a fine job of creating this vision. Mark Chamberlin bears the heaviest weight in the play as Odysseus, weary and weakened at time, but ever determined. Chamberlin gives Odysseus gravity and charisma as well as credibility that makes his stories ring true no matter how fantastic they get. Odysseus’s adventures sometimes come to life simply through his telling and sometimes by being acted out; it is a credit to Chamberlin’s talent that either method is equally vivid. His Odysseus is clever, charismatic, and equally deft with drama or the light bits of comedy which enliven the tale. When the royal court of Phraecia, the island where Odysseus takes temporary refuge, listens intently to his saga, you believe they’re just as fascinated as you are. Nic Beach, Ryan Childers, Solomon Davis, Stephen Grenley, Pam Nolte, Jesse Notehelfer, Nolan Palmer,Sarah Roquemore, Randy Scholz, Josh Smyth, Nikki Visel and April Wolfe round out the cast, each playing several different characters.

The Odyssey is filled with action, excitement, drama and a light dusting of laughs. It’s a very old tale, but this production keeps it fresh.

The Odyssey continues at Taproot through March 5.

Noir City brings the dark side to Seattle

Madness stalks the street of Noir City – and it isn’t any safer inside! Noir City, the annual festival of classic noir films that pays equally loving attention to the well known classics and the seldom seen obscurities, is back at SIFF Cinema for another round of murder and mayhem. Kicking off Friday, February 11 and running through Thursday, February 17, Noir City is a hot collection of cool movies featuring some of the darkest, most disturbing film characters you’ll ever meet. Be glad you’re only meeting them on screen, not in person.

Fourteen chilling thrillers make up this year’s program. Think Marilyn Monroe was just a giggly sex kitten? You’ve never seen the eerie Don’t Bother to Knock where she’s haunting as a babysitter who just isn’t quite the person you want caring for your child. Peter Lorre is thrilling as the Stranger on the Third Floor. There are many compelling performances in this collection of gripping stories. As an added attraction, all films are double features – buy a ticket for the early show and use it to come back to the second half of the bill. Czar of Noir Eddie Mueller is on hand to introduce the evening screenings. And tickets are a mere $12. Don’t miss your chance to take a walk on the dark side.

Noir City at SIFF Cinema:

Friday, February 11, 2011
Double Feature!
High Wall
d. Curtis Bernhardt, 1947, 99 min.
Brain-damaged vet Robert Taylor confesses to murdering his unfaithful wife and is sentenced to a sanitarium. His doctor (sexy Audrey Totter) gradually realizes he might not be guilty. Double Feature with Stranger on the 3rd Floor. 7:30 PM

Stranger On The Third Floor
d. Boris Ingster, 1940, 64 min.
Peter Lorre is The Stranger, haunting a reporter whose testimony sentenced a possibly innocent man to death. Double Feature with High Wall. 9:30 PM

Saturday, February 12, 2011
Double Feature!

They Won’t Believe Me
d. Irving Pichel, 1947, 95 min.
Robert Young is brilliantly cast against type as a married man whose sex addiction leads to murder. Double Feature with Don’t Bother To Knock. 2:00 PM; 7:30 PM

Don’t Bother To Knock
d. Roy Baker, 1952, 76 min.
Marilyn Monroe gives the finest performance of her fledgling career as a mentally unbalanced babysitter (in sheer negligee!) hired by a couple visiting Manhattan. Double Feature with They Won’t Believe Me. 4:00 PM; 9:30 PM

Sunday, February 13, 2011
Double Feature!

Angel Face
d. Otto Preminger, 1952, 91 min.
Jean Simmons is simultaneously sexy and creepy as a Los Angeles heiress who will do anything to get the man she wants. In this case, it’s ultimate noir hero-chump Robert Mitchum. Double Feature with The Hunted. 2:00 PM; 6:00 PM

The Hunted
d. Jack Bernhard, 1948, 88 min.
Laura Mead has served her time for robbery and still claims her innocence. She returns to the city where her former cop lover sent her up. Double Feature with Angel Face. 4:00 PM, 8:00 PM

Monday, February 14, 2011
Double Feature!

A Double Life
d. George Cukor, 1947, 104 min.
In this extraordinary film, Ronald Coleman delivers an Oscar-winning performance as Anthony John, a Broadway actor who discovers madness in his Method. Double Feature with Among The Living. 7:00 PM

Among The Living
d. Stuart Heisler, 1941, 67 min.
Albert Dekker stars as identical twins, one a brain-damaged psychopath who stirs up a Gothic whirlwind of insanity, family skeletons and murder in a small town paralyzed by fear. Double Feature with A Double Life. 9:00 PM

Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Double Feature!

The Dark Mirror
d. Robert Siodmak, 1946, 85 min.
Olivia de Havilland stars as a pair of identical twins, one loving and nice and the other severely disturbed. Double Feature with Crack-Up. 7:00 PM

Crack-Up
d. Irving Reis, 1946, 93 min.
A museum curator survives a massive train wreck, but wakes up an amnesiac. It gets worse… seems the accident never happened, and now everyone is convinced he’s losing his mind. Double Feature with The Dark Mirror. 9:00 PM

Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Double Feature!

The Woman On The Beach
d. Jean Renoir, 1947, 71 min.
Legendary French director Jean Renoir elicits deeply compelling performances from the triangle of Robert Ryan, Joan Bennett, and Charles Bickford, the latter as a famous painter blinded by his beautiful wife. Double Feature with Beware, My Lovely. 7:00 PM

Beware, My Lovely
d. Harry Horner, 1952, 77 min.
The great Ida Lupino plays a lonely war widow who employs a drifter (Robert Ryan) as a household handyman, only to learn—too late—precisely why he has no references on his résumé. Double Feature with The Woman on the Beach. 9:00 PM

Thursday, February 17, 2011
Double Feature!

Loophole
d. Harold D. Schuster, 1954, 80 min.
An innocent bank clerk (Barry Sullivan), made the fall guy in an embezzlement scheme, is pursued to the brink of insanity by a scarily righteous lawman. Double Feature with Crashout. 7:00 PM

Crashout
d. Lewis R. Foster, 1955, 93 min.
Killers on a Furlough from Hell! The rarest of jailbreak films, and one of the best! Double Feature with Loophole. 9:00 PM

Raise your lighters for Rock of Ages

Constantine Maroulis, in a photo by Joan Marcus

She’s a small town girl, he’s a city boy and, well…you get the idea. Boy meets girl and they fall in love, fall apart, and find each other again on the seedy 1980s Sunset Strip while a corrupt mayor sells out to a greedy developer whose attempts to convert the Strip into a supermall is only going to succeed over the dead body of a former flower child who is intent on keeping its sex, drugs, and rock’n'roll outlandishness solidly intact.

Powered by a K-Tel style collection of 80s rock hits, Rock of Ages isn’t exactly a heavy-duty drama. Even without the meta-humor of the wall-breaking narration, you know where this story is going from the moment it starts. It’s Mickey and Judy and the gang, only this time they’re in tight leather and spandex with big, big hair and tons of make-up. And that’s just the GUYS!

And THAT’S the type of humor you can expect from Rock of Ages, a goofy, good-hearted show that mocks with love. There’s nothing in the story too sacred to satire, but there’s affection in the spoofing, not malice. While the show manages to touch on several serious themes (the characters fret over an imagined future that is today’s reality), it wisely avoids taking itself seriously. Rock of Ages doesn’t want to educate or enlighten you, it just wants to have a good time.

The cast certainly appear to be having a good time. Patrick Lewallen does double duty as Lonny, soundman at “the legendary Bourbon Room”, the sleazy club where most of the action takes place, and the narrator – his scruffy charm and perfectly-timed physical humor are a perfect fit for the show. So too are its lead characters. Rebecca Faulkenberry is well cast as Sherrie, taking her with constant credibility from wide-eyed naif whose just sure she’s going to be a big, big star someday to hard-edged “exotic dancer” whose tough exterior doesn’t quite hide her broken heart. As for Constantine Maroulis, well, it’s easy to see why he was Tony nominated for his performance as Drew, the wannabe rock star. Maroulis brings an unaffected boyishness to his role – no matter what happens, Drew never stops being the sweet kid you can’t help but root for even when you know he doesn’t have a shot. He keeps Drew balanced; sweet enough to be the hero of a light romantic tale but not so slight as to be insubstantial. Plus, he got the pipes; if Maroulis was a couple decades older, he might’ve been one of the guys being teased in Rock of Ages.

Other cast highlights include MiG Ayesha as rock star Stacee Jaxx whose bloated ego is even bigger than his hair, Teresa Stanley as strip club manager Justice, and Nick Cordero, whose burn out bar owner Dennis comes close to stealing the show every time he steps on stage. The whole cast is strong, though – if there were any wrong notes, they certainly weren’t noticeable.

Director Kristin Hanggi keeps the show moving at a crisp pace appropriate for such a party-minded show – the audience has time to laugh at the jokes and rock out to the musical numbers without having to sit through any of the awkward dead space you find at a party when the CD’s run out and no one knows what to say to each other. Ethan Popp did a great job with the musical arrangements – funny how well 80s pop and hair metal lends itself to the show tune treatment – and choreographer Kelly Devine expertly parodies the excesses of all those old rock videos in a way that fits naturally into the production. Beowulf Boritt’s set design, Gregory Gale’s costume design, Tom Watson’s hair/wig design, and Angelina Avellone’s make-up design deserve special recognition – they’ve captured the time so perfectly that it really felt like being there.

Although Rock of Ages might make you feel like a kid again, leave the kids at home – there’s quite a bit of raunchy humor probably best left for an adult audience.

Rock of Ages continues its run at Seattle’s Paramount Theater through February 13.

Free song Friday

Enjoy the following:

Fujiya & Miyagi “YoYo”:

http://www.tellallyourfriendspr.com/singles/FujiyaAndMiyagi-Yoyo.mp3.zip

Oberhofer “Away Frm U”:

http://www.tellallyourfriendspr.com/singles/Oberhofer_AwayFRMU.mp3.zip

Oberhofer “Petz”: http://www.tellallyourfriendspr.com/singles/Oberhofer-Petz.mp3.zip

Warm Ghost “Open the Wormhole in Your Heart”: http://www.tellallyourfriendspr.com/singles/WarmGhost-OpenTheWormholeInYourHeart.mp3.zip

Colin Stetson “Stars In His Head (Dark Lights Remix)”
:http://alteredzones.com/posts/796/colin-stetson-stars-his-head-dark-lights-remix/

The Dodos “Black Night”:

http://www.tellallyourfriendspr.com/singles/Dodos.BlackNight.mp3.zip

Andy D “Hey Tina!”:

http://www.tellallyourfriendspr.com/singles/AndyD-HeyTina.zip

MAKE OUT “What U Doing Later”:

http://www.tellallyourfriendspr.com/single/MAKEOUT.WhatUDoingLater.mp3.zip