… WELL, ALL SORTS OF MUSIC. Christmas music, of course (we’ll get to that) but much, much more. In his column Weekly previews: Practice, practice, practice, for instance, Robert Ham ventures far beyond the seasonal sounds. First he talks with Missi Hasting and John Baker of the Portland Americana duo Mojo Holler – a couple of working-class musical heroes who’ll be playing this weekend at Artichoke Community Music. Then he fills us in on his chat with John Doe of the legendary punk band X, which brings its decidedly un-Xmas music to Portland’s Revolution Hall on Saturday.

• THEN AGAIN, it’s December, the season when choral groups truly love to come out and shine. In It’s about the heart: Choirs meet the demands of the season, ArtsWatch’s choral columnist Daryl Browne states the case clearly: “Singers want to sing. Audiences want to hear music at Christmas.” And she has a bagful of options, from Portland to Salem to Eugene, gospel to carols to classical, both live concerts and streaming sounds.
   
• ODD AS IT MAY SEEM, Stravinsky is insky for the holiday season, thanks to a splendid performance by the Brentano String Quartet at Chamber Music Northwest. As Angela Allen writes in Contrasts and comparisons: Brentano String Quartet’s concert of Stravinsky miniatures, the quartet brilliantly packaged Stravinsky’s short pieces with music by Cage, Machaut, Gesualdo, Verdi, and Beethoven.
   
• THIS MONTH OREGON’S got more music than you can jingle a barrel of bells at – and it’s far from just holiday tunes. In MusicWatch Monthly: Out of darkness into marvelous light, Matthew Neil Andrews takes a deep breath, rounds up the multitudinous mellifluous possibilities, and lays ’em out for your reading and listening pleasure. As he puts it: “Christmas concerts, drag shows, música latina, doom metal, and everything in between.”

Visual art: A show with no gatekeepers

NO JUDGMENT: THE MEMBERSHIP SHOW AT THE MAUDE KERNS ART CENTER. In the art world, the norm is for independent jurors to select the works for a group exhibit – except when it’s not. Once a year, for its “Art for All Seasons” show, the Maude Kerns Art Center in Eugene throws the doors pretty much wide open. “The show, up this year through December 17th, always goes by the same name and is an opportunity for members to exhibit up to two artworks—no questions asked,” Ester Barkai writes. “And anyone can be a member. So you could say the process for selection is highly democratic.” Without doorkeepers, how does it all work out? Barkai, who recently wrote for ArtsWatch about contemporary Japanese prints at the White Lotus Gallery in Astoria, finds a lot to like, both in the art and the idea: Vive la démocratie!

ArtsWatch & the Cultural Trust: Double your impact

DECEMBER IS A TIME OF GIVING, and here at Oregon ArtsWatch we’re grateful for the many individuals, foundations, and agencies who have helped us grow and thrive over the years. We celebrate ten years of publishing this year, and thanks to your generosity, over that decade we’ve considerably expanded our coverage of arts and culture in Oregon. ArtsWatch is a nonprofit journalistic enterprise, which means we rely on the help of friends and readers who believe in what we do. To so many of you reading this, thank you for the support you’ve given us. As the year draws to a close we’d like to ask you to give again, or for the first time, to help us continue to report on the state of Oregon’s culture as all of us deal with the many changes and challenges the past two years have brought. Just click on the graphic below or here to make your gift. Thank you!

THANKS TO OREGON’S INNOVATIVE CULTURAL TRUST TAX CREDIT, you can make a donation to Oregon ArtsWatch and essentially double your gift by matching your donation to the Oregon Cultural Trust. It works like this: You can make a gift to ArtsWatch or any other nonprofit arts, heritage, or humanities groups from a long list, then make a gift of the same amount (you can bundle several eligible donations, within limits) and receive your Cultural Trust donation back as a credit on your state income tax. The Cultural Trust, in turn, dispenses your gift to worthy groups across the state, including ArtsWatch. Click below or on the link in this paragraph for details, And, thanks doubly!

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Movin’ it: Cupcakes, Nutcrackers, Private Speculations

PUTTING THE BODY IN BODYVOX. BodyVox’s “soaring and sumptuous new show Serious Cupcakes,” Bennett Campbell Ferguson writes, is one of the contemporary dance company’s most physically adventurous shows. Offering an eight-pack of cupcakes from eight choreographers, it continues this weekend.

EMMANUELA SORIA RUIZ’S “PRIVATE SPECULATIONS”: CANDOR, ANIMALITY & ARCHITECTURE. The Philadelphia multidisciplinary artist’s “installation-meets-performance-art piece” at Oregon Contemporary, Amy Leona Havin writes, brought to life “the depictions of an ‘animal ballet’ by the 20th century Irish architect Eileen Gray.” 

… AND OF COURSE, IT’S “NUTCRACKER” TIME. In Portland, that means the George Balanchine version, performed by the dancers and orchestra of Oregon Ballet Theatre. This year’s production, live and back onstage at Keller Auditorium, opens Saturday, Dec. 11, and sprinkles its pleasures like a snowstorm of sugar plums through Dec. 26.

Onstage: Ghosts at Imago, widescreen Jets & Sharks

DRAMAWATCH WEEKLY: GHOSTS OF “SHINING CITY.”  Sure, December’s Dickens season. But in Oregon it’s also been Conor McPherson season of late – including the superb Irish playwright’s Shining City, opening a short run at Imago Theatre. It’s something of a ghost story, Marty Hughley writes, but “as with the strange fairy visitations in The Weir and the vengeance of nature in The Birds, the most troubling apparitions in Shining City turn out to be the images conjured by the principal characters’ reflecting upon themselves.” Also: last chance to catch Bella! Bella!; the critics speak out on the new widescreen West Side Story; a holidoozy from the Apple Sisters.

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Movies: A Romanian sex farce saves the day

FILMWATCH WEEKLY: “BAD LUCK BANGING” BEATS OUT “WEST SIDE STORY” AND “BEING THE RICARDOS.”  This week’s big prestige releases, Marc Mohan writes, “range from the overly familiar to the poorly plotted to the disastrously miscast” – which leaves room for an unheralded and smartly satiric Romanian sex comedy to slide in and save the day.