Spotlight: Touring Da Vinci exhibit will land at MAC in June
A traveling Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit is coming to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture next June.
“Leonardo Da Vinci: Man-Inventor-Genius” will fill every single gallery of the museum with handcrafted reproductions of Da Vinci’s inventions as well as full-size reproductions of his artwork.
This exhibit was developed about five years ago and has since traveled all over the world, including Seoul and Prague.
Its American debut was at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry in 2006. A portion of it was displayed at Seattle’s Museum of Flight in 2006-’07.
The MAC plans a formal announcement in a few weeks, but in the meantime, you can mark it on your calendars for June 3-Sept. 5, 2011.
A third SPR channel
Spokane Public Radio has launched its long-awaited third channel: KPBZ-FM at 90.3 FM.
It’s called REMIX Radio, and it’s an all-storytelling channel.
General Manager Dick Kunkel called it a 24-hour-a-day cross between “This American Life” and “All Things Considered.” Tune in and you’ll hear stories from radio producers all over the country – actually, all over the globe.
It’s a new, experimental format, dreamed up by the people at PRX, a nationwide public radio distributor.
It’s so new that KPBZ is the first and only “terrestrial” radio station to carry it. Previously, it has been available as an Internet stream and on XM Satellite radio.
Kunkel called it a “hip” new format “driven by honest audio that takes you to the scene – and brings you the world close up.”
KPBZ had a quiet launch last week. Tune in and see what you think.
Reviews of ‘The Ward’
“The Ward,” the John Carpenter horror movie filmed last summer in Spokane and Medical Lake, premiered this month at the Toronto International Film Festival, and the reviews are starting to roll in.
Let’s be positive and start with the good one. Ben Kenigsberg of Time Out Chicago called it “a small pleasure to be in the hands a director who still knows how to build atmosphere and fill a frame.”
Star Amber Heard has received mostly good notices.
Other than that, it’s hard to find much that’s positive. Michael Giltz of the Huffington Post said its “ambitions are modest and ultimately unmet, thanks to a howler of an ending that spoils any slight pleasures offered earlier.”
Fangoria, a horror fan magazine, said “the clichés just keep on coming.” JoBlo.com, a movie site, called it “an absolutely miserable film to sit through.”
The Los Angeles Times didn’t review the film, but it did an interview with Carpenter.
“The film was shot last year in Spokane, Wash., on a relatively modest budget of around $9.5 million,” the Times’ Mark Olsen wrote.
“Working on that smaller scale didn’t restrict Carpenter’s signature artistic choices, however – nobody shoots a young woman running down a hallway quite the way he does.”
No word yet on when, or if, it will be released theatrically. A Sept. 24 date has proven to be erroneous.
‘Evita’ at Lake City
The newly energized Lake City Playhouse opened its ambitious 2010-’11 season this weekend with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Evita,” directed by Abbey Crawford. It continues through Oct. 10.
Like many arts organizations, Coeur d’Alene’s community theater has weathered some rough seas, but it has an intriguing season planned under new executive artistic director George Green.
“Evita” will be followed by “The Elephant Man,” “A Taffeta Christmas,” “Of Mice and Men,” “Almost Maine,” “The Scarlet Letter,” “Dearly Departed” and “Urinetown.”
Call (208) 667-1323 for tickets.
A 4000 Holes deal
Here’s a great ticket deal for anyone interested in several upcoming shows at the Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague.
You can buy two-for-one tickets at 4000 Holes, the venerable record store at 1610 N. Monroe St., for the following shows:
• Spur Wild! Wylie and the Wild West with Paul Zarzyski, Oct. 16, 8 p.m.
• The Jill & Julia Show, starring Jill Sobule and Julia Sweeney, March 11, 7:30 p.m.
• An Evening with Leon Redbone, April 22, 8 p.m.
Cash or checks only, please.
Quarter-century of Saturday Night Cinema
KSPS-7’s “Saturday Night Cinema” with Bill Stanley passed a landmark Saturday night: It has now been on the air for 25 straight years.
It all began with Stanley introducing “Mary Queen of Scots” in 1985. Since then, he has presented more than 950 films.
Last night’s show was “Arsenic and Old Lace,” which will be followed this season with “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” “Elmer Gantry” and “Edward Scissorhands,” to name just a few.
Antique Appraisal Days
Get those family heirlooms ready.
The Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture will hold its popular Antiques Appraisal Days in two weeks at Custer’s Fall Antique and Collectors Sale at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center, 404 N. Havana St.
It takes place Oct. 2, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Oct. 3, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The cost is $6 to get into the sale, and $5 for each appraisal item. There’s a five-item limit.
The last Rockin’ Bluegrass
The Rockin’ B Ranch’s final bluegrass night of the season will feature Big Red Barn and Columbia on Tuesday, 7 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
Tickets are $7 at the door, food and drink cost extra. The Rockin’ B is near the state line at I-90’s exit 299.
World-class organist
Gail Archer, one of the most accomplished organists in the U.S., will demonstrate her mastery in a recital on the Zimmer pipe organ today at 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 316 E. 24th Ave.
Archer is the college organist at Vassar College and the director of the music program at Barnard College. She’ll perform works by Bach, Schumann, Franck and Guillou.
This concert is presented by the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists. A $10 donation is suggested.
A Kenworthy gala
The Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its rebirth as a Moscow, Idaho, cultural center with its 2010 Gala, titled “Take Ten,” on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.).
The gala will include entertainment by 10 local acts, food, a social hour and a silent auction.
The Kenworthy opened in 1926 and was the city’s movie theater and performing house for decades. In 2000, the building was donated to a nonprofit group which has preserved and restored it as a venue for film and live performance. In 2002 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Tickets to the gala are $10, available at the Kenworthy box office the night of the event. Tickets are also available at BookPeople of Moscow, 521 S. Main.
The theater is at 508 S. Main.