Arts
The Dennies
Story by Kaimin Arts | May 1, 2009
Montana Kaimin
It’s time for the third annual Dennies, created in the honor of such illustrious awards as the Oscars and the Dundees. These awards, dedicated to the legacy of University of Montana President George Dennison, honor the best and worst of the past year.
Votes could bring KISS to Missoula
Story by Amanda Eggert | April 24, 2009
Famous rock band KISS is promoting what it calls the “first fan-routed tour ever,” and that just might include a stop in Missoula.
Chris Wolf and Brian Lee, DJs for Missoula classic rock station Z100 heard about the promotional contest two weeks ago and have since been doing their best to secure Missoula’s spot on KISS’ upcoming tour.
Here’s how it works: People from around the country can check out kzoq.com or eventful.com/kiss and click on a link with the words “Demand KISS” and enter the zip code of their cities. The votes are then counted per capita, which means that smaller cities like Missoula have as much of a chance to host KISS in concert as larger metropolitan areas.
Students take on dark love story ‘Medea’
Story by Jeff Osteen | April 24, 2009
Sex, revenge, passion and betrayal are common themes in Greek mythology. And nothing stirs the pot more than a husband leaving his wife for a younger woman.
The tragic love story “Medea,” in its latest translation, will be performed in the Masquer Theatre on the University of Montana campus April 28 through May 2 and May 5 through May 9 at 7:30 p.m.
“It’s a lot less flowery and much more to the point,” said Deb Voss, the University of Montana graduate student directing the production.
In the translation, published in 2008, Medea is abandoned by her husband, Jason. He leaves his wife and children behind to pursue and marry the young daughter of the king, Creon.
Local bands work with jazz legend Buddy DeFranco
Story by Matt McCleod | April 24, 2009
An aging Philadelphia jazz legend and a hipster Rocky Mountain college town make for an unlikely pair, but, as the old saying goes, they make beautiful music together.
For the past decade, famed clarinetist Buddy DeFranco has spent one weekend in Missoula each April, joining jazz veterans and local novices to headline the festival that shares his name. The 10th annual Buddy DeFranco Jazz Festival opens tonight at the University Theatre. The two-day event features performances from DeFranco, tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, drummer Steve Smith, trumpeter Randy Sandke and marimba and vibraphone player Dave Samuels, with an accompaniment from the UM Jazz Band and the university’s Jazz Festival Trio.
DeFranco said the city has been “wonderful” to him and the festival.
Kyi-Yo powwow at Adams Center this weekend
Story by Matt McLeod | April 17, 2009
The 41st annual Kyi-Yo powwow rolls into campus this weekend, as the Native American celebration holds court Friday night and all day Saturday at the Adams Center.
The event is produced by the Kyi-Yo club, a campus group for Native students. This year’s Kyi-Yo motto is “Walking in Two Worlds,” a phrase members chose to describe the line they toe between holding onto their Native identities and beliefs while trying to get an education and immerse themselves in university culture.
UM program aims to set musical chairs record
Story by Amanda Eggert | April 17, 2009
Next Tuesday, a crowd of people should scramble for a seat on one of 200 chairs surrounding the Grizzly Statue as UM attempts to make history.
In musical chairs, that is.
UM’s entertainment management program hopes Tuesday’s upcoming game will set a record for the largest game of musical chairs in Montana’s history.
The thumping funk music of Soulive will bump in over a PA system as people jostle for their seats, vying for the $200 grand prize.
‘Rabbit Hole’ play explores grief
Story by Jeff Osteen | April 17, 2009
When faced with the death of a loved one, people often find themselves looking for someone to blame.
“People want things to make sense,” says Nat, the grandmother of a child who is killed after being hit by a car in the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatic play “Rabbit Hole,” being performed at Missoula’s Crystal Theatre.
“It’s about courage, it’s about love, it’s about loss and it’s about hope,” said the play’s director, Stacy Ohrt-Billingslea.
In the play, grief and honesty stew to the surface when a couple, Becca and Howie, must deal with the death of their four-year-old son who is fatally injured when hit by a car.
University Crafters set up booth at spring art fair
Story by Stacy Gray | April 17, 2009
Last year, the University Crafters became the first student group in the 38-year history of the University Center’s art fair to purchase and run a booth. Surprisingly enough, they aren’t even art majors, but they love creating things with their hands.
Marie Lawson, UC fair student coordinator, said the UC art fair is one of the longest-running craft fairs in Western Montana. Despite being at UM, the sale has never seen a group made up entirely of students come to sell their work.
Live music to help raise awareness for disabled
Story by Jeff Osteen | April 10, 2009
Shine up those dancing shoes and get ready to rock and roll.
The Alliance for Disability and Students at the University of Montana will host a live music event on Saturday at 6 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom.
“It should represent a majority of Missoula’s music,” said Megan Bailey, a member of the student group who helped organize the event.
UM percussionists to perform with tropical fever
Story by Matt McLeod | April 10, 2009
The UM percussion ensemble has practiced hard to master its complicated material. But when the group takes the stage for tonight’s Spring Concert, their toughest task could be hauling their truckload of gear with them.
Music professor Robert LedBetter’s student drum group, Islanders Steel Drum Band, will utilize dozens of instruments to accompany senior soloist Sam McKenzie with a rendition of the Concerto for Marimba and a sprawling mishmash revue encompassing the spectrum of world percussion during the Music Department production.
Fiction authors offer writing seminar today
Story by Amanda Eggert | April 10, 2009
Contemporary fiction writers Joy Williams and Brad Watson will take a lighthearted approach to a slippery subject matter – mastering the craft of writing – at a talk Friday sponsored by UM’s creative writing department.
Their public craft talk, entitled “The How and the Why (Approximately),” will take place in room 131 of the Charles H. Clapp Building at 1 p.m. as part of the 2009 President’s Writers-in-Residence series.
Watson received the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction in 1997 for his collection of short stories entitled “Last Days of the Dog-Men.”
Baez belts old and new ballads with ageless bravado
Story by Jeff Osteen | March 27
After all these years, folk icon Joan Baez still has the same smile. Her hair is short, she dresses hip and she unmistakably revels in the microphone.
Baez took the stage Tuesday evening for a packed University Theatre during her international tour in support of her 24th studio album, “Day After Tomorrow.”
The album, recorded in Nashville and released in 2008, is her first to chart on the Billboard 200 in 29 years and was also nominated for a Grammy Award. Themes of hope and homecoming pepper “Day After Tomorrow,” a title based on the Tom Waits song, which Baez performs on the album.
The lights dimmed.
Baez casually sauntered out to a late applause, as if the audience didn’t immediately recognize her.
Singer enjoys straddling anonymity and stardom
Story by Matt McLeod | March 27
It’s been a long, dusty road to success, but Martin Sexton has ridden it with something to sing about.
The man John Mayer called the greatest live performer he’d ever seen is set to hit Missoula April 8 at the Wilma Theatre. Sexton’s bumpy musical ride has taken him from singing on the gray streets of Cambridge, Mass., to becoming a successful touring musician with his own record label.
After failing a real estate exam in 1986, Sexton picked up his guitar and started a career as a sidewalk performer in Boston’s Harvard Square, where the only things that kept him afloat were the donations dropped in his guitar case and the knowledge that he had a gift.
“When I started, I’d been fired from my last job and I really just needed to make some money to eat and pay my rent,” Sexton said in an interview Wednesday. “I saw other people doing it, and I just thought to myself ‘I know I can do that.’”
Students and faculty ‘Pick’ art for display on campus
Story by Amanda Eggert | March 20, 2009
“Campus Picks,” a Montana Museum of Art and Culture art exhibit that opened last night, creates a window into the aesthetic minds of UM professors, students, faculty and administrators by showcasing art that strikes a chord with them.
Barbara Koostra, director of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture, said the museum attempted to represent the “whole campus ecology” when selecting people to participate in the “Campus Picks” exhibit.
The pieces for “Campus Picks” belong to the museum’s collection of more than 10,000 original works. The collection started in 1894, Koostra said.
The Badlander celebrates its terrible twos
Story by Matt McLeod | March 20, 2009
The Badlander nightclub celebrates its second birthday today, and co-owners Chris Henry, Aaron Bolton, Mark McElroy and Scott McIntyre handle the adult responsibilities that come with the business.
But they and their four-bar spread on the corner of Ryman and Broadway also have a lot in common with a precocious 2-year-old. Not only does their property continue to grow, but the group is also subject to changing its mind at the drop of a hat.
“We’ve all got ideas about where we want them to go,” a grinning Bolton said of the properties the owners call “the complex.”
“But of course, it’s probably all going to change.”
ACROtainment brings professional acrobats to perform with local youth
Story by Jeff Osteen | March 20, 2009
Seldom is there such a strong bridge that connects children with their dreams.
ACROtainment, an acrobatics showcase that combines professional performers with young local gymnastics students, will do just that in a wild performance at the University Theatre on Saturday.
The second-annual performance is a fundraising event for Bitterroot Gymnastics Club, and more than 50 students from the Missoula-based program will take the stage.
