‘Good Dog’ weds science, music
What happens when a science educator and a music teacher write songs together? The result is “another angle on learning” taken by Good Dog to educate children about marine life.
On Friday, Good Dog is performing “original nature songs aimed at teaching basic ocean literacy” said co-founder Jim Pfeiffenberger.
Good Dog uses scientific accuracy, “one guitar and two voices” to illustrate the adaptations of maritime mammals, birds, and fish.
Trained vocalist Liesl Davenport-Wheeler and Jim Pfeiffenberger formed Good Dog over a dozen years ago in Seward.
Jim currently works at the Ocean Alaska Science and Learning Center. Now a choir teacher at Bartlett High School in Anchorage, Liesl continues to sing as part of Good Dog at events such as Whale Fest Kodiak, the Seattle Folk Festival, and school assemblies around Alaska.
In 2002, they released eleven original songs entitled Tunes from the Tides. The CD prominently features a variety of percussionists, tuba and the naturalistic duo.
Shorebird Festival: 20 birds for 20 years
In honor of its special 20th anniversary, the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival presents “20 Birds for 20 Years,” original watercolor paintings by Homer artist Carla Stanley, exhibited at the Homer Council on the Arts for the month of May.
“20 Birds for 20 Years” paintings will then be available for bidding during a silent auction that runs May 4-12, and during the live auction event “The Big Year, The Big Night,” on May 12. The exhibit opens with two receptions: Friday 5-7 p.m. for locals and Friday, May 11, 5-6:30 p.m.
First Friday finds favor with teen art, shorebirds
On Friday, local galleries plus a few surprise venues are in store for those who wish to venture out on a spring evening.
The Back Room Gallery of Ptarmigan Arts presents two metal artists for “Nesting Shorebirds and Spring Flora.” Chuck Jackson combines his steel bird sculptures with the delicacy of Ukrainian decorated eggs to provide a unique combination celebrating the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival.
Jackson will also demonstrate the wax resist and dye process of egg decorating from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday.
Picture Alaska art gallery presents Halibut Cove artist Tara Alverson’s and her recent series of watercolor paintings focusing on the Alaskan Lifestyle. An opening artist reception will be held May 4 from 5 until 7 pm. Alverson will be in the gallery during the Shorebird Migration birder’s walk to greet the birders and answer questions. Her paintings will be on exhibit through May.
Taj Mahal show packs audiences to the brim
Famed blues player Taj Mahal is probably the most requested musical artist ever to come to Homer, a musician whose range of talent spans a global history as much as a rich sound.
Downward Dog producer Michael Hayes said Taj has been to Alaska at least once that he’s known of, and comes to the Kenai Peninsula for fishing trips now and then.
“He’s a big fisherman. He’s probably the most requested artist we’ve ever had in the years we’ve been doing concerts. It isn’t sold out yet, but it’s on its way,” Hayes said. “He’s been around, forever. He even played with Jimmy Hendrix back in the ‘60s.”
Bird poets prepare for shorebird production
“It was a terrible state of affairs,
And all because one greedy old man
Had gathered all the light–
Every single ray–
And locked it away
In a house with no door,
A house by the Nass,
A river that flowed
From mountain to shore.”
‘Chicken Every Sunday’ offers tasty adventure
A cast comprising 21 students from the musical “Into the Woods,” as well as Drama, Debate and Forensics team members, will put on the play, “Chicken Every Sunday” on Friday and Saturday at the Mariner Theatre.
Based on the novel by Rosemary Taylor, the play is described as a “bucolic farce” set in the early 1900s.
Emily Blachman (Homer’s Adi Davis) has converted her mansion into a boarding house so that the Blachmans, “will have a roof over their heads and something to eat,” said Director Amy Christianson, Homer High School DDF coach and band director.
“As she suspects, the day will come when her imaginative husband Jim (Jonas Noomah) overextends himself in his enterprises,” Christianson explained. “He is president of the trolley line, of a bank, and of a laundry business, but is always broke and borrowing money for new investments.”
Arts Briefs – April 18
Say what you need to say Haven House and Bunnell combine to present, “Voices Unite,” at 7:30 p.m., April 21. The evening will feature live theater and discussion to foster strength, hope and healing for survivors of sexual assualt. The presentation is being held in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Homer actor and playwright, [...]
In time for spring: Kenai Peninsula String Duets
Last month, Homer Council on the Arts invited members of the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra to perform on April 20, as part of the gallery concert series.
Concertmaster Sue Biggs, her husband Jack Will, Trina Uvaas, and Aaron Lohmeyer seized the opportunity. The group chose to play as two duos rather than as a quartet; Trina and Aaron prepared duets for guitar and fiddle, while Jack and Sue will plan to perform mostly double fiddle pieces.
Master classes, performance by Thodos Dance Chicago
Thodos Dance Chicago, an internationally acclaimed dance company featured in a PBS special, comes to Homer this weekend to share expertise as a rare treat for dancers and audiences.
Workshops Friday and Saturday are followed by a full scale performance at 7 p.m. at the Mariner Theatre.
As they perform their vibrant choreography, Thodos Dance Chicago has been described as breathtakingly athletic and powerfully beautiful.
Audiences are in for a delightful performance from a level of skillful dancers that normally do not venture far from the large metropolitan areas.
Troll’s fish, fossils depict science in funky art
Alaska is a fish culture, or more specifically, a salmon culture based on the drama of the runs as species of salmon go on epic sea journeys from fresh water to salt water and back again.
They begin another epic journey as their “flesh falls off their bodies, males get all spawned out, their snout changes and their bones transform until they become these monsters,” Ray Troll told his packed audience Friday night at the Friends of the Homer Library annual fundraising event honoring Lifelong Learning.
