The role of brick-and-mortar libraries in the digital age is rapidly morphing in uncertain directions. Who knows what the role of libraries will become— aside from sanctuaries for the homeless?
Until the digital dust settles, Salt Lake’s libraries are filling one niche as public art galleries.
Right now, at the Main Library downtown you can catch a thought-provoking exhibit by Lenka Konopasek, a Czech native and University of Utah grad and instructor with an impressive list of credentials and exhibits.
Konopasek describes her sinister paintings and pop-up paper constructions of epic disasters as “a collision between nature and people.”
“It is a struggle of wills where human structures are being reclaimed and handicapped by nature’s might. It shows our advanced technology being fractured and swallowed by natural elements.”
You’ll have to hurry because Konopasek’s exhibit ends Friday.
While you’re there, check out the whimsical paintings of Andy Chase in the Main Library Canteena.
And, of course, take some time to follow the lines and sweeps of the Main Library itself. Designed by Israeli/Canadian architect Moshe Safdie, it is one of the city’s visual treasures.
ALABAMA SHAKES, THE SALTAIR, Friday, March 8, 7:30 p.m., $27 day of show
I thought the hype surrounding Alabama Shakes was outrageously out of proportion a year ago when the band played The State Room and had a deafening buzz before their album, Boys & Girls, had even been released. Since then, they’ve closed opening night of 2012’s Bonnaroo festival, had their tune “Always Alright” play over the closing credits of Oscar-winning flick Silver Linings Playbook, been nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy, and played Saturday Night Live just a couple weeks back. So, yeah, the hype is still pretty heavy. At that State Room show, I was underwhelmed. At best they seemed like little more than a top-notch bar band, and stretching one album into a headlining set proved tricky. Even so, there was no denying Brittany Howard’s appeal as a frontwoman, playing guitar and wailing with genuine passion. On the best tracks of Boys & Girls, and on some of the televised performances of Alabama Shakes I’ve seen in the past year, she seems incredibly comfortable on the big stage. And that’s what they have for their Friday show at the Saltair, where they’ll be joined by Michael Kiwanuka, Sam Doores and Riley Dowling opening the show.
JOE ELY, EGYPTIAN THEATRE, Park City, Wednesday, March 6, 8 p.m., $29-$44
I don’t know how Park City’s Egyptian Theatre managed to land this show, but this, my friends, is what you call a booking coup. Joe Ely might not be a household name unless you hail from the Lone Star State, but in Americana music circles, the man is royalty. Whether working alongside Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock in The Flatlanders, or doing the solo thing in a career that stretches back to the ’70s, Ely’s skills as a songwriter are hard to beat. His ability to capture a distinct place full of vivid characters with each three-minute salvo made me a fan years ago, and I do my best to never miss the man who has shared stages with everyone from The Clash and Bruce Springsteen to, more recently, Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt. Expect a stripped-down affair when he stops in Park City. Joe Pug opens the show, making this one killer double-bill.
MARSHALL CRENSHAW, THE STATE ROOM, Monday, March 4, 8 p.m., $20
When Marshall Crenshaw first hit the public eye roughly 30 years ago, he came on like a power-pop maestro along the likes of Alex Chilton or Buddy Holly, who Crenshaw portrayed in the Richie Valens bio-pic La Bamba. And while he did score a huge hit with “Someday, Someway” on his 1982 debut album–check out his performance from the early days of David Letterman’s show below–the hits stopped coming, at least in his own name. Other artists like Ronnie Specter and the Gin Blossoms scored hits with tunes penned by Crenshaw. And even though his commercial success has been hit-and-miss for much of the past three decades, Crenshaw never stopped writing songs full of great hooks–songs that SHOULD be hits, if there were any justice in the world. His latest project is a series of self-produced and distributed EPs–each consisting of a new song, a cover of a rock classic, and a reworking of one of his own old favorites. It’s a cool idea, and hopefully one that keeps Crenshaw on the road and in the recording studio for many more years.
DARWIN DEEZ, KILBY COURT, Friday, March 1, 7 p.m., $12
Darwin Deez is an endlessly creative cat, evolving from a guitarist in NYC band Creaky Boards, into a rapper, into an amalgam of hip indie-rock with more of an apparent sense of humor than most of his peers. For evidence of that, no need to look further than his new video for “You Can’t Be My Girl,” a solid tune from his brand new album Songs for Imaginative People, and it’s a love/hate anthem that is really easy to love. The video is a satire of sorts of artsy Tumblr videos beloved by hipsters everywhere. Live, Darwin Deez is a spectacle in the best ways, bringing energy and that same sense of humor to the proceedings. You can find a lot worse ways to kick off the weekend. Caged Animals and Hang Time open the show.
Plan-B Theatre Company’s world premiere of Matthew Ivan Bennett’s Eric(a) is one of the most impressive theater experiences in recent memory, thanks to an incisive script and a must-see performance by Teresa Sanderson in the title role.
A one-person show always strikes me as a difficult thing to pull off, but Bennett, Sanderson and the behind-the-scenes production team of Eric(a) manage to evoke a range of emotional touch points throughout the 70-minute running time, as well as an array of characters who come to life through Bennett’s words–characters that easily allow the audience to imagine a world far more complex and complete than the bare stage, chair and podium that make up the entire set.
The show opens with Eric taking to the dais to offer a lecture called “Living Trans: An Intellectual Defense of Trans Experience,” and Bennett cleverly brings the audience right into the show by having Eric hand out a list of talking points that both he, and the audience, turn to throughout the lecture as Eric intermingles stories of his evolution from a girl/woman named Erica into a man who started “transitioning” three years before the show’s start.
The talking points are useful for those with little background in the language, psychology and realities of the transgender community. More useful, though, in stepping into that world is the connection between Eric and the audience that comes through Sanderson’s incredible performance.
Vignettes throughout the show used to illustrate Eric’s journey are the key.
When Eric describes the awkward, exciting moment of meeting a woman at a club who doesn’t know he once lived as a woman–“I’m passing!”–it’s easy to empathize, and root for Eric. When Eric proclaims, “I’m guilty of the worst sin in the trans community. I’m uncertain,” you realize what a difficult path Eric has chosen. When Eric talks about the distance between him and his adult children, you feel for him, and hope they can grow closer. When Eric reveals his background to a woman he’s been dating for a month, the difficulty of that conversation makes it impossible not to squirm a bit, even as a passive audience member.
But then, the success of Bennett’s script teamed with Sanderson’s performance is that the audience isn’t passive–it’s utterly engaged with this person on stage revealing all the complexities of growing up as a girl, but feeling like a boy on the inside. Acting on that feeling 50 years into a life does nothing to make things more simple, but as Eric avows toward shows end, it’s an absolutely necessary step.
Eric(a) runs Thursday through Sundays through March 10. Visit the Plan-B Theatre Company Website for tickets and more information. Photo by Rick Pollock.
Daniel Nailen 