12 Arts

The Pioneer Log, February 11, 2011

Whirlwind Company First-year band rocks Recess spits on human nature

LINDSEY BOSSE Editor in Chief

Slam poetry has this incredible knack of making the good, bad, sad and happy so damn beautiful. One of Mindy Nettifees first poems reminded us to thank sanity for being a finite natural resource, and as the night continued, the audience sat in awe of Whirlwind Companys uncanny poetic talent, thanks to their limited sanity. Mike McGee, Brian S. Ellis, Jon Sands and Nettifee make up the quartet of the spoken word collective that blew through Council Chamber Tuesday, Feb. 8, complete with musical accompaniment from Portland local Timmy Straw. Each poet embodied a different spectrum of what it truly means to be human. Nettifee, with flashy blonde hair and a biting sarcastic tongue worked the audience through appreciating human faults, such as poor decisions and the inability to be perfect. When in front of the mic, she kept a thumb in the pages of her own book, marking the poem she was spitting, but never referred to the text as she broke down her own twisted version of human nature. McGee, besides being a beat boxing wizard, truly embodied the

Kellogg melts audiences hearts

human desire to be needed. As he walked the crowd through a graveyard shift at Walgreens, where he accepted dirty dimes from a scantily clad cancer patient, and tried to defend his ability to love a human over a housecat, he made the crowd gasp for air in between full-bellied laughs. Ellis brought the roughness of life to the surface. He dwelled on his cesarean birth that seems to haunt him daily and painted the ugliness of homelessness through rage-filled spit. Sands, a true wit, summoned all sexual awkwardness from childhood up to the front of the stage and then dared the audience to point and laugh. The crew was brilliant at crowd pleasing. At one point, they forced the audience to jump in the air, which everyone did with goofy smiles on their face. As a follow up to the emphatic jumping, they invited people down in front of the crowd to thumb-war for various Whirlwind paraphernalia, including a much-desired drink koozy. After the shenanigans, each poet took the stage for one last poem. Each left the aftertaste of the ugly truth of life in the mouths of the audience as they left with the reminder that life happens to everyone and we all have limited sanity.

(From left to right) Daniel Nickerson (14), Elliott Kuhlman (14), Henry Schmidt (14), Erik Lundgren (14), Daniela Jimenez (14), Robert Pirtle (14), Gaby Canjura (14) and Lucy Roberts (14) make up the band Gus Griswold.

PHOTO BY ELENA WEBB

ROBIN KUIK
Staff Writer

A fresh set of first-year musicians brought great musical jams to Maggies Wednesday, Feb. 2. The show started off with a soulful duet between Amelia Walsh (14) and Daniel Nickerson (14). Their instruments included vocals, a guitar and a tambourine that was duct taped onto Nickersons feet. The beautiful contrast in their voices made for some great, relaxing music. Next up was Gus Griswold, an eight-person first-year band. Members include Nickerson (vocals, guitar), Henry Schmidt (14) (trumpet), Lucy Roberts (14) (violin), Robert Pirtle (14) (buckets), Elliot Kuhlman (14) (standing bass), Erik Lundgren (14) (clari-

Side-splitting theatrics yield unpredictable weekend

MARISSA FENLEY
Staff Writer

net), Gaby Canjura (14) (vocals) and Daniella Jimenez (14) (accordion). So far, the band has had three names: Lucy and the Romantic Roofies, Haberdashery, and finally, Gus Griswold, after the character on the television show Recess. Schmidt commented that the name change was because of a conversation that he had with All the Apparatus, a band that had a concert in the Trail Room. All the Apparatus used to be named Haberdashery, but had to change it because of copyright issues with another band. Gus Griswold came into being because of a vision that Nickerson had back in high school. He had written and arranged all of the songs that they play. I like the sound of music and I like putting out the song of music

with other people, said Nickerson. Their orchestrated folk music draws inspiration from bands like Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Nick Drake and contemporary composers such as Phillip Glass and Steve Reich. The ensemble is a great mix of strings, brass, percussion and vocals, creating a strong sound that fills up any space they play in. However, having eight people in a band comes as both a blessing and a curse. Their practice schedule has been sporadic, but they hope to get a more routine practice schedule going. Gus Griswold has had five or six shows thus far, but are trying for two a month. The band is a fun group who want people to dance while they jam.

PHOTO BY ROSALIE KELLY

Sam Kellogg (12) will perform an acoustic set Monday, Feb. 14 in the Trail Room along with a few secret guests.

ZIBBY PILLOTE
Arts Editor

If I could play music in the Trail Room all day, every day, I would do it in the hottest of seconds! Sam Kellogg (12) will make his official on-campus concert debut Monday Feb. 14 in the Trail Room at 8 p.m. The Campus Activities Board is sponsoring the impromptu Valentines Day concert. Although he has been in the Lewis & Clark music scene for some time, Ive never played for a legitimate audience who wanted to see me, said Kellogg. Kellogg describes his music as, the illest variety of impromptu acoustic jams. Heartfelt, uplifting, morose, carbonated, low-sodium and totally fair trade. Although the show is billed as Sam Kellogg & Friends, Kellogg is keeping the details of his accompaniment a secret. According to Kellogg, the friends playing along side him

are, Andre 3000. Maybe some stray cats as well. The show is bound to be a blast. Its all about the experience, said

[The music] is heartfelt, uplifting, morose, carbonated, low-sodium and totally fair trade, said Sam Kellogg (12).
Kellogg. You shouldnt come unless you want your brain to explode and your heart to melt in a furious ecstasy of aural pleasure. The spontaneous musician is more than ready for the show. Fuck yeah, Im excited! he said, hoping the audience will share this sentiment. Monday Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. in the Trail Room. Free.

A script, a director, a cast of actors, some costumes, a stage, a few lights, a set, an audience, a barrel of laughs and a vale of tears all go in to creating a piece of theatre. This process began many hudreds of years ago, but at Lewis & Clark, all you really need is a weekend. The nervous excitement of pushing your way through the crowded Black Box Theatre, the anticipation of a sidesplitting show and the transportation to an unexpected world will manifest once again as the production known as Once Upon a Weekend. The unpredictable series of student written, directed and acted shows will be presented Saturday, Feb. 12 in Fir Acres Theatre after a short production time of just one magical weekend. According to this years event organizer, Chris Khatami (12), Once Upon a Weekend is a night when anyone who wants to can get up on stage in a packed theatre and be a complete fool. He promises this semesters audience a series of shorts that are reliably, unpredictably crazy, chock full of

ILLUSTRATION BY KATE OWENS

inane hilarity, and a show even awesomer than ever before. This years performance will be centered around the theme A Bump in the Night. However, Khatami expects far fewer bumps than last semesters performance. As the production underwent a regime change, the cast and crew experienced more than the usual chaos associated with this whirlwind of a show. With new MCs Jahnavi Caldwell-Green (12) and Caitlin Fisher Draeger (12), as well as a more seasoned crew, everyone with the good sense to participate in this

semesters Once Upon a Weekend is in for a special treat. The true content of the shorts is decided only moments before the show. Khatami said, A Bump in the Night is a theme that has a myriad of connotations, some innocent, others not so much. It allows for the extreme and varied atmosphere we love about OUAW. So if you want be part of the wild ruckus this Saturday, dont miss Once Upon a Weekend, bumps and all. Saturday, Feb. 12, 10 p.m., Black Box Theatre, free.