If you’re planning an event of any kind, email Caitlin at [email protected]
VIRTUAL EVENTS
Free Range Dairy: Zooming with Stories on Stage. 7 p.m. Thursday, May 14, thedairy.org/events/zooming-with-stories-on-stage-2
Stories on Stage creates funny, moving, thought-provoking live stage performances of all types of literature, centered on the shared experience of hearing great stories. In this second virtual iteration, Stories on Stage favorites Erin Rollman and John Jurcheck present a motley series of stories about wild (and not-so-wild) animals, and question what it really means to be human. There will be a chat with the actors after the performance. For registered attendees, your Zoom Webinar invitation is scheduled to arrive in your email from the “Dairy Box Office” on May 14 at 6:15 p.m. Online registration will close at 6 p.m. on May 14, but if you’re still interested in attending, please email [email protected]. Please consider making a donation to help Stories on Stage and The Dairy Arts Center continue to bring you great programming.
Third Law Dance: Free Online Classes for People with Mobility Challenges. 11:30 a.m. Thursdays through June 30, 3rdlaw.org/dance-technique-classes/#parkinsons
3rd Law Dance/Theater is offering free online classes for people with mobility challenges. These classes are for anyone dealing with a chronic illness, Parkinson’s, challenges with aging or for anyone who needs a gentle movement experience with a community. If you are interested but are not familiar with Zoom (the video software), 3rd Law can help. Contact Lisa Johnston: [email protected], 303-506-3568.
Teen Virtual Variety Hour. 3:30 p.m. Friday, May 15 (and Fridays through June 26), longmontcolorado.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/37385
Fridays, 3:30-4:30 p.m. on Webex, join teen librarians Claire and David for a fun break from the world. New activities and topics each week: Charades, book discussions, escape rooms and scavenger hunts are all on the menu, ideas for future programs are welcome. For sixth through 12th graders only. Register at the link above to receive an email with more details.
Pioneer Mother — livestream from the Gold Hill Inn. 7 p.m. Saturday, May 16, facebook.com/events/689679151863528
Hailing from Nederland, Pioneer Mother features poignant songwriting inspired by nomadic living and driven by three-part harmonies for a soulful experience. The band’s first full-length studio album is set to release in the summer of 2020 and will be available on all major streaming platforms, pioneermother.com.
Popcorn and Wine Wednesdays with Boulder Ballet: Cinderella. 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 20, thedairy.org
Grab a snack and settle in for a family friendly production of Cinderella by Boulder Ballet. Donate $5, $10 or $20 to benefit Boulder Ballet and the Dairy Arts Center and receive a virtual ticket with the video link to this pre-recorded fan favorite.
The Art of Cheese’s Seven Day Cheese Challenge — Live, Virtual, Interactive Sessions via Zoom. Noon, Monday, May 18 (Additional dates: May 19, May 20, May 21, May 22, May 23, and May 24), theartofcheese.com
Challenge yourself to learn how to make one cheese per day over the course of one week with an experienced guide to lead you through the process. Don’t worry if you can’t attend the sessions when they begin live streaming at noon: recorded session will be available. You’ll learn: mascarpone, paneer, chevre/fromage blanc, quark, cottage cheese, feta and Italian hard cheese. Once you register, you’ll receive an email with links to the first session, recipes and a list of equipment and ingredients needed (and where to source them). At the end of each day you’ll receive a link to the next day’s session. Cost is $89.
Recipes for Change: Online Gallery Exhibit by Young Women’s Voices for Climate. May 19-June 15, speak.world/recipes-for-change
How can the arts reverse global warming? Where can I get some yummy plant-based recipes? How do I use the arts to act up for climate? Young Women’s Voices for Change (a group of nine Boulder middle and high school women who use arts-based methods for climate action), along with SPEAK (speak.world) co-founders and CU students, created the art exhibition Recipes for Change to raise awareness and act on climate change. These aren’t recipes in the traditional sense, although some do incorporate actual food. All “recipes” share a common goal: to nourish and heal the planet.
ART
One by one the singing birds come back
by Caitlin Rockett
From her birthplace in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to her home in Niwot for the past 25 years, Ana María Hernando has always found inspiration for her art in nature, especially in the mountains.
Mountains hold a spiritual place for many cultures across the globe. Growing up in Argentina, Hernando was familiar with the mythologies of the Quechua people of the Peruvian Andes who believed in male (Apus) and female (Ñustas) spirits that resided in the mountains and protected people, plants and animals. She gained a deeper knowledge about the presence of these spirits during trips to Peru and from the teachings of Don Américo Yábar, mystic of the Andean traditions and founder of the Poetic Salka Movement. Some of Hernando’s artistic work has revolved around celebrating and amplifying this feminine mountain energy.
Hernando is currently in the Alps Maritimes as an artist-in-residence at Château de la Napoule in the south of France, the first woman to receive the Prix Henry Clews. The biannual award brings distinguished sculptors to the château to live and work for a year, showcasing their creations several times throughout the residency at the château’s museum.
Arriving at the château in mid-January, Hernando began a project called ‘Écoutons,’ the French word for “let’s listen.” It began as a “collaborative performance,” as she calls it, hiking with groups of visitors from the château up San Peyre mountain to listen to the sounds of nature while embroidering – no experience in needle point necessary.
But when the pandemic stopped the world in its tracks, there was no way to create art with guests on hikes. And yet nature was louder than ever. Without humanity to compete with, nature seemed to sing from the diaphragm: loud, full, robust.
“Last year I read a research paper that found, between 1970 and now, there are one-fourth less birds in North America,” Hernando says over a recent phone call from the château. “So thinking about that loss I wanted to record in some ways what we are hearing today and bring it as a gift to the mountain. And then also, as a society, we are so much about the listen to me and not the listening that I wanted this piece (the embroidery) in between us to make it about listening.”
Hernando is now asking for people from all over the world to send her recordings of birds, which she will create an embroidery for as part of ‘Écoutons’ — no professional recording equipment necessary.
“I don’t want to make it too complicated, so people feel they can do it easily,” she says. “In that I wanted to open the possibility for people to be in that attentive space, listening to the birds, and maybe if we are lucky and the world reopens, I hope we reopen with a little bit of another attitude, maybe that attitude of listening might stay. On the other hand, I feel this is kind of a community performance and I want people to feel part of a piece that will be a gift to mother nature. All of us together make a bigger thing.”
To see more of Ana María Hernando’s work visit, anamariahernando.com. Send her an audio clip of birds singing from wherever you are to ana @ anamariahernando dot com. Follow Hernando on Instagram @anamariahernandoart.
HOME VIEWING: Alfred Hitchcock
by Michael J. Casey
Alfred Hitchcock may not have invented the moving image, but he defined what it was capable of.
The son of a London grocer, Hitchcock’s career began in the silent era, at Germany’s famed UFA studios, before returning to England as a jack-of-all-trades assistant and designer. There he crossed paths with writer/producer/editor Alma Reville, his future wife and closest collaborator, graduated to the director’s chair, made two dozen pictures — including the first British sound film (‘Blackmail’) — and put the British film industry on the map. Then Hollywood called and the Hitchcocks answered, relocating to sunny Southern California where they continued to make movies from 1940 to 1976 — with a dozen or so masterworks along the way.
Few filmmakers have created a visual language the way Hitchcock did, and it permeated cinematic storytelling for future generations. And not just for popular set-pieces and inventive murders — though those play a role — but with a deep distrust for things as they seem. For five decades, Hitchcock refined his dominant themes of the wrong man, the cool blond, the controlling mother and the disconnect between exterior appearances and interior desires. His movies center on Freudian psychology and the transmission of guilt; they recoil at the threat of domesticity and relish a macabre sense of humor. They connected with audiences then, and they connect with audiences now, especially on the other side of the camera, where Hitchcock’s influence still looms large. Take ‘Blow the Man Down’ (reviewed on page 26), a perfect example of how ingrained the Master of Suspense’s influence is. Curious to discover the roots? Below are four of Hitch’s best. Happy viewing.
‘The 39 Steps’
Made in England 1935, ‘The 39 Steps’ isn’t the first Hitchcock film constructed around “the wrong man” conceit, but it’s one where he found his touch. Robert Donat stars as the hapless man fingered for murder, Madeleine Carroll plays the whip-smart blond he falls for, and Charles Bennett loads the script with one-liners and clever set-pieces. Hitchcock would later refine this simple story into ‘North by Northwest,’ arguably one of the most enjoyable commercial films ever made. Streaming on Amazon Prime, The Criterion Channel and Hoopla.
‘Shadow of a Doubt’
There’s something rotten in small-town, U.S.A., and Hitchcock chose Santa Rosa, California — one of the most picturesque cities in the nation — to set his tale of a modern-day wolf in sheep’s clothing. Joseph Cotten plays dapper dresser Uncle Charlie, the prodigal son of the family and the favorite uncle of his namesake niece, played by Teresa Wright. Hitchcock called on ‘Our Town’ scribe Thornton Wilder to work on the script, and the result is an allegory of Nazism hiding in plain sight. It’s also charming, enchanting and funny — particularly the scenes between Hume Cronyn and Henry Travers, two crime fiction fans trying to pen the perfect murder. Streaming on DirecTV and Starz Amazon.
‘Rope’
A full 70 years before ‘1917,’ Hitchcock tried to make a feature film look like it was filmed in one continuous take. It works surprisingly well, given the technological restraints at the time, but it also helps to have a story this good: Brandon (John Dall) and Phillip (Farley Granger) have just killed a man and hidden his body in a trunk. Their dinner guests will arrive any minute, including a former teacher, played by Jimmy Stewart. The guests arrive, and dinner is served. And, as things go, the conversation turns to murder and Nietzschean ideas of superiority. Hitchcock manages to keep everything light and humorous, but not without taking a couple of shots at a callous society actively choosing not to hear what they don’t like. Streaming on DirecTV and Starz Amazon.
‘Frenzy’
Hitchcock’s most graphic film is also his most unsettling. Made in 1972, when the strictures of nudity and violence were loosened significantly compared to the ’40s and ’50s, ‘Frenzy’ is the story of a serial killer (Barry Foster) and the police officer (Alec McCowen) tracking him down. Pay attention to how often the topic of murder comes up at dinner, and you’ll find both hypocrisy and a direct link to ‘Blow the Man Down.’ Hitch was no vegetarian, but he must have taken great delight knowing that in homes across the country, respectable people sat down to dinner, drew knife and fork, and mercilessly hacked away at a corpse. Streaming on DirecTV and Starz Amazon.
BOOKS
Local book store news:
Boulder Book Store curbside pickup is available again from noon-4:30 p.m. everyday on orders placed on the website or by phone. Shop online at boulderbookstore.com or call
303-447-2074.
Boulder Book Store is still offering mystery bags, now available in three price tiers. Tell the staff what you love to read, pick a price point — $25, $50 or $100 bags — and they’ll pick a selection of on-sale and high-quality used books to ensure you get the most books for your buck. Mystery bags are also available for kids and teens too.
And check out the Boulder Book Store care packages:
Boulder Book Store Care Package ($50) Consists of: Boulder Book Store T-shirt (put size and whether you prefer a neutral or colored shirt in the comment field when you place your order); Boulder Book Store mug; and two paperbacks in the genre of choice (specify in the comment field when you place your order).
Boulder Book Store Self-Care Package ($50) Consists of: luxurious soap or bath product like a bath bomb, lip balm, gourmet chocolate or blank journal; and a book selected to help calm your mind.
Boulder Book Store Kids Idle Hands Package ($54) Consists of: kid’s coloring book, colored pencils, kid’s jigsaw puzzle, sticker book and activity book.
Boulder Book Store Adult Idle Hands Package ($50) Consists of: adult coloring book, colored pencils, crossword puzzle book, origami book and deck of playing cards.
Boulder Book Store Reach Out Care Package ($45) Consists of: address book, pen(s), assortment of greeting cards (need occasion cards? Humorous? Blank? Postcards? Let the staff know in the notes) and a pack of decorative sticky notes.
Local author new release:
‘Why Bother? Discover the Desire for What’s Next’ (Page Two Books, April 21, 2020)
After Boulder resident Jennifer Louden lost her father, a close friend and a marriage, she found herself spiraling into existential despair. “Why bother?” she found herself thinking. But eventually she wondered what would happen if she actually tried to answer the question. The answers took her on a journey chronicled in her new book, Why Bother? Discover the Desire for What’s Next. The book challenges readers to open their minds, hearts and lives by following where a traditionally apathetic question leads. Louden demonstrates how to care when it feels impossible. She shows why we must prioritize what’s calling us at any time in life, and how tapping into our deepest desires can give us the energy to move forward — even when the world seems in dire straits.
MUSIC
World Bach Competition 2020 — hosted by Boulder Bach Festival. Applications open now through July 11,
boulderbachfestival.org/world-bach-competition
The Boulder Bach Festival (BBF) has launched an online Solo World Bach Competition, open to musicians in multiple age categories, including high school and university students, professionals, and community musicians — with no upper age limit. All instruments and voice types are encouraged to apply, performing solo Bach: percussion, brass, woodwinds, strings, keyboard instruments, plucked instruments, non-traditional instruments, non-classical instruments, non-Western instruments, acoustic and electric instruments and singers. Transcriptions of J.S. Bach’s works are welcome. No multitracking — all entries must be performed live in the video, with the exception of vocal accompaniment in observance of social distancing. First prize in each of the 12 categories is $500. Applications cost $60, which supports the Boulder Bach Festival (a 501c3 nonprofit), including administrative costs, adjudication, PR, future planning and educational programs. Prizes are underwritten by a generous BBF donor. Visit the website for more information on categories, submissions, rules and prizes: boulderbachfestival.org/world-bach-competition.
Nick Forster’s ‘Teach me One Thing.’
Available on eTown’s YouTube and social media channels and via podcast each Tuesday, etown.org/teach-me-one-thing.
In a series of video chats, eTown co-founder and Hot Rize bassist Nick Forster calls on his pals to teach him something new. Guitar great Bill Brisell explains the beauty of the “G” chord; Steve Martin demonstrates how to perfectly shuffle a deck of cards.
“The funny thing about teaching, especially if you don’t do it all the time, is that it makes each of us think about what we know and what we’re good at,” Forster said in a statement about the new series. “Most of the time it also reveals things we wish we were better at, and that’s the whole deal with any artist’s journey, always working to get better.”
Teach Me One Thing launched on Tuesday, May 12 with Forster chatting with Phish bassist Mike Gordon, to be followed by Steve Martin on May 19 and Billy Strings on May 26. A new episode will be released every Tuesday. Viewers can find Teach Me One Thing by visiting eTown.org, eTown’s YouTube Channel, or by following eTown_Radio on Instagram, and eTownRadio on Facebook and Twitter. The episodes will also be available to listeners via podcast streaming services and the eTown app.
