TULALIP — The Marysville Arts & Technology High School is presenting the play “And Then I Wrote …” from 7-9 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 13, and Saturday, Dec. 14, on campus at 7204 27th Ave. NE.
In this showbiz comedy, a producer and his secretary and other associates try to rewrite a drama by a neophyte playwright into a broad farce, while a gossip columnist tries to blackmail the producer into marriage, and a scatterbrained old character actor erroneously creates the impression that the leading lady has died.
The playwright, who’s also an apprentice mortician, is appalled by the histrionics that accompany the opening of a Broadway show, and as the columnist draws mistaken conclusions that the show is a cover for a murder cult, the rest of the group fosters this impression by substituting a lady undertaker in the role of the still-alive leading lady.
Mistaken identities, romance and silly situations are designed to keep the audience laughing through three acts.
Admission costs $8 each, or $1 with a canned food donation.
Tulalip, Washington (December 12, 2013) –Cabela’s Tulalip is celebrating Christmas early by giving away more than $3,800 in free gifts to the first 250 customers in line on Dec. 14. Doors will open at 8 a.m.
Early weekend shoppers at Cabela’s will enjoy refreshments, games, entertainment, camp fires and more, and will have the chance to take home a Savage firearm, Vista Polaris Bow Package, Coleman camping gear, Cabela’s vacuum sealer, Mitchell 300 Pro fishing Combo or a Cabela’s cash card worth up to $100.
The first 250 Cabela’s customers, ages 18 and older, will be given a mystery envelope containing information about their gift. All gifts will be distributed randomly. Winners will be able to pick up their gift at the store immediately after the store opens. Firearm winners will be required to complete a standard federal background check to take ownership of the firearm.
Cabela’s store location and holiday hours are available at www.cabelas.com/tulalip. Extended hours will continue throughout the holiday season.
When Native hip hop act LightningCloud, which consists of MC Redcloud, Crystle Lightning, and DJ Hydroe, won the East vs. West: Battle for the Best contest back in March, the true prize was the chance to record a track with hip hop mastermind Timbaland. As a producer, Timbaland has been responsible for chart-topping hits by Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, and Aaliyah, and left his mark on instant hip hop classics like “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” by Jay-Z and “Get Ur Freak On” and “Work It” by Missy Elliott.
The fruit of the LightningCloud-Timbaland sessions is “Sake Bombs” (available as a free download at LightningCloud’s SoundCloud page) — here’s the official video:
The clip was filmed at The Gas Lamp restaurant in Long Beach. To stay up-to-date on LightningCloud’s further adventures, visit facebook.com/LightningCloud1491.
Chanel hit Dallas yesterday, staging a Texas-centric fashion show for its pre-fall collection — which included Native American headdresses to accompany the “cowboys and Indians” theme. Cue the controversy.
While Karl Lagerfeld has yet to face a full-on backlash, Twitter has already begun to buzz with commentary about Chanel’s controversial decision to send the headdress down the runway. “Can’t wait for the think pieces on that Chanel Native American headdress,” one user noted.
Now, as the skeptical reactions to Chanel’s headdresses on Twitter suggest, the industry is conditioned to anticipate this kind of fashion misstep. But the backlash thus far against Chanel seems to pale in comparison to previous instances — perhaps there are those fashion fans who believe that, in this case, showcasing a Native American-inspired headdress is acceptable. What’s your take on the catwalk homage?
In a few short hours here in Irvine, California, Cirque du Soleil, Totem, performers will charge onto their stage with dramatic makeup, costumes and music.
Behind-the-scenes and inside the “Village on Wheels” as it’s called, there is a flurry of activity.
Look above and you’ll see trapeze artists perfecting their moves.
Down below, artists stretch on thick gymnastic mats and tell jokes, while others visit the medical tent to soothe their muscles through massage.
The makeup team is busy painting faces as costumes are being rounded up by the performers.
At the makeshift lounge, there are couches and a flat-screen tv, where performers can watch the previous night’s show and make the necessary notes.
It’s all in a day’s work at Totem, Cirque du Soleil’s show about the evolution of humans.
We caught up with one featured Latino-Native American performer, Eric Hernandez, the show’s Hoop Dancer. Hernandez hails from Covina, California, so Totem’s show this week is a homecoming of sorts for Eric.
Eric has been hoop dancing since he was 10 thanks to his uncle Terry Goedel, a world champion hoop dancer.
And although Eric never imagined he’d being hoop dancing for a living, one look at his performance and you can see why Cirque du Soleil came calling.
MAHWAH, N.J. — The past week has been unsettling for the Ramapough Mountain Indians, who live on this northern stretch of the Appalachian Mountains that overlooks the Manhattan skyline and wealthy parts of Bergen County. The new movie “Out of the Furnace,” featuring a star-studded cast that includes Christian Bale and Woody Harrelson, also features numerous negative references to the Ramapoughs. They include a fight-ring subplot.
Keith Van Dunk, 27, a member of the tribe, took a break from feeding the chickens at his father’s house up on Stag Hill here on Sunday morning and gestured at the surrounding woods.
“You see any fight ring up here?” he said. “Absolutely not.”
Tribal leaders and local elected officials held a news conference last week, speaking out against a film that they claim portrays them as trashy backwoods bumpkins involved in drugs and violence. One Ramapough henchman in the movie even bears Mr. Van Dunk’s last name.
The references constitute a “hate crime” that has “stained the community and stirred up animus” by increasing marginalization and stigmatization, said the Ramapoughs’ chief, Dwaine C. Perry, 66, in an interview.
In the past few days, he said, there had been several instances of Ramapough students in local high schools being picked on by classmates who had seen the film, including one case in which a teacher had to intervene.
At a showing of the movie last weekend, someone hurled slurs at a Ramapough woman in the theater, he said. There was also a fight at a local mall that tribal members said was stirred up by the film.
“The film contains ugly stereotypes that stain you for life,” Chief Perry said. “The undertones are racist and personal. It’s a hate crime when you look at the psychological impact on the kids.”
Contacted for comment, the film’s production company, Relativity Media, released a statement saying that the film is “entirely fictional” and not “based upon any particular person or group of people.”
“As is the case with most films, the filmmakers conducted research and drew upon their own personal life experiences in creating an original screenplay, and the story and the characters are entirely fictional,” the statement read.
Scott Cooper, who directed the film and co-wrote the script, was unavailable for comment Wednesday night. But a Relativity Media spokesman said that John Fetterman, mayor of Braddock, Pa. — the other main setting in the film — had nothing but praise for the way the movie portrayed Braddock. Mr. Fetterman called it a respectful depiction that was “eloquent, forceful and honest,” in a guest column he wrote for Variety magazine.
Several characters in the film have last names that are prevalent Ramapough names, including De Groat and Mann. The film was not shot in the area, but the Bergen County Police Department is portrayed as the local authority.
Mr. Van Dunk said he refused to buy a ticket to the film, but he consulted the IMDB website and saw that several cast members were listed as “Jackson White.”
The term “Jackson White” is a slur used by outsiders to deride the Ramapoughs, Mr. Van Dunk said, referencing the tribe’s descent from Native Americans, whites and runaway slaves who settled in the mountains in the late 18th century. The term dredges up decades of a long, ugly history of discrimination and marginalization.
“To me, it’s like calling a black person the N-word, and my father is black,” said Mr. Van Dunk, who works for a moving company in Hackensack. “In high school, kids would call me a Jackson White in the hallway, and if I stuck up for myself, they’d say I’m living up to the stereotype.”
Before the opening of the film, which was the third-grossing film in the country last weekend, The New York Post published an article saying that it depicts the Ramapoughs as “New Jersey hillbillies.” The article characterized tribe members as unsophisticated, intermarrying types who are ridiculed, who hunt and eat squirrels, and who drive all-terrain vehicles on dirt roads.
Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette Tommy Joseph, a member of the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska, uses a reverse bent knife to carve a 16-foot totem pole that will be permanently installed at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
The story of a raven, two fishermen and a salmon was emerging from the trunk of a Washington red cedar last week under the skilled hands of master carver Tommy Joseph. Today, he will complete the carving and on Saturday a public “Celebration of the Raising of the Totem Pole” will be held as it’s installed permanently in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Mr. Joseph, a member of the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska, was born in Ketchikan and lives in Sitka. He began carving the totem pole, which was commissioned by the museum, on Nov. 26 in the R. P. Simmons Gallery, where he will be until 5 p.m. today.
Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette Tommy Joseph, a member of the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska, talks about his totem pole sculpture.
The totem will be unveiled this weekend at the entrance of Polar World: Wyckoff Hall of Arctic Life and the Alcoa Foundation Hall of American Indians. The all-ages event will begin at 10:30 a.m. with Tlingit song and drumming by musician Morgan Redmon Fawcett. Following the celebration, Mr. Fawcett will play Native American flute, and guided tours of Alcoa Hall and other activities will be offered (included in museum admission).
The 16-foot tall totem pole is a blend of traditional and contemporary practices. The formal qualities of the bold stylized components, and the fact that they memorialize a story told by a Tlingit elder, are timeless. Mr. Joseph carves with hand tools that would have been recognizable generations ago, including an adz, gouges and knives, some of which he made. However, the vivid paints are latex.
When the museum commissioned the totem pole, it requested a story that included a raven but was otherwise unrestricted. That gave Mr. Joseph, 49, an opportunity to fulfill a project that had been on his mind for three decades.
“They told me I could pick any story. This story has never been told before. When I first heard it, I wanted to tell it,” Mr. Joseph said last week.
The description he gave the museum was of two young men on a hunting trip:
“While out on the open ocean with a storm approaching, a young man spotted a large seal and fired at it. He was happy to see that his aim was true, and he piloted his boat over to haul in his catch. The young man grabbed the seal by its tail, but it began to thrash about. So as not to lose it to the ocean waves and the approaching storm, he bit down on the tail, gripping hard between his teeth while grabbing the seal’s flippers with his strong hands and arms.
“In a boat not far away, the young man’s hunting partner and Clan brother was watching this entire scene unfold. He fired a shot into the seal, saving the catch. The hunt was a big success, and both men were able to bring food home to their families, along with an adventure story that would live on for generations to come.”
But there’s more, a personal connection. The men in the boats were Mr. Joseph’s father and the elder who related the story in the mid-1980s. Mr. Joseph’s father was lost at sea when he was 6.
“The museum wanted a traditional raven story,” Mr. Joseph said. “But what is a traditional raven story? It’s a story an elder told. Raven is my Dad’s moiety [descent group].” Mr. Joseph is of the Eagle Moiety.
The raven, at the bottom of the totem pole, appears in Tlingit legends, myths and creation stories. The middle figures are the hunters in dugout canoes. The top figure, a dog-salmon, completes the circle of life, the seal eating the salmon and the people, the seal.
Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette One of the painted “trappings” on the Raven portion of the totem pole Tommy Joseph has been commissioned to carve for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
“Alaskan natives still eat seals today,” Mr. Joseph said. “They’re part of our subsistence lifestyle.
“A totem pole is a visual tool for telling a story,” he explained. “The whole purpose is to be a reminder of the story. [Subjects include] migration, individuals, groups of people, events, history, clan history; grave markers, mortuary poles that memorialize people.”
Mr. Joseph first became infatuated with wood when he made a halibut hook out of yellow cedar in a third-grade woodcarving class. His art includes Tlingit armor, masks and bowls in addition to totem poles. He sells them at his Raindance Gallery in Sitka along with work by other Alaskan native artists.
Funded by a Smithsonian visual artist grant and a USA Artist Fellows award, he traveled to 20 museums and collections in the U.S. and abroad in 2009 to study Tlingit armor. The Alaska State Museum, Juneau, presented the first exhibition of Mr. Joseph’s armor this year. In July, he gave a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk on constructing Tlingit armor.
At his gallery, he teaches carving in affiliation with the University of Alaska Southeast, Sitka Campus. “I always hope there’s going to be some of our young people who will be interested. But to keep [the tradition] going, I’ll teach anybody of any age who wants to know, as long as they’re old enough to work safely.”
Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette Tommy Joseph works on the details of his totem pole.
For 21 years he ran the wood studio of the Sitka National Historical Park’s Southeast Alaska Indian Cultural Center. While there he observed leading wood conservators from the National Park Service and now he conserves, restores and replicates totem poles for the Park Service and other institutions and individuals.
“It’s a huge honor for me that [this totem pole] will be in the Carnegie Museum forever,” Mr. Joseph said. “I have the coolest job around. I get to go to work every day and make stuff, and share it with everybody.”
Tlingit artifacts including baskets, halibut hooks and objects relating to the totem pole creation process may be seen in the Simmons Gallery today through Friday. Information: 412-622-3131 or www.carnegiemnh.org.
Post-Gazette art critic Mary Thomas: mthomas@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1925.
The Best Culinary Traditions from Asia Showcased in One Modern, Zen-inspired Space
Tulalip, Washington — Tulalip Resort Casino’s newest dining concept, Journeys East, artfully combines the best culinary traditions of Japan, Thailand, China, Korea and Vietnam in one modern, Zen-inspired space. From the sleek contemporary Asian décor to a central view of the display kitchen, diners will experience the equivalent of a passport stamp for a seasoned traveler.
This is a Far East immersion course; an explosive celebration of Asian culture. Featuring shareable dishes such as fresh noodles, rice, wok-fired items, hand-made dim sum, sushi, Pho and tempuras, the menu’s bold flavors and rich textures meld together. Guests can dine in or on the go, with a convenient take-out kiosk. The restaurant is open Wednesday – Sunday 6:00 pm to 12:00 am.
Design elements incorporate the use of wood, metal and glass, creating a harmonious blend of Tulalip and Asian décor. The menu is a blueprint for individual or group dining. In addition, the bar features handcrafted cocktails, a broad sake selection, and wine offerings from the Resort’s award-winning list.
About Tulalip Resort Casino
Award winning Tulalip Resort Casino is the most distinctive gaming, dining, meeting, entertainment and shopping destination in Washington State. The AAA Four Diamond resort’s world class amenities have ensured its place on the Condé Nast Traveler Gold and Traveler Top 100 Resorts lists, as well as Preferred Hotel & Resorts membership. The property includes 192,000 square feet of gaming excitement; a luxury hotel featuring 370 guest rooms and suites; 30,000 square feet of premier meeting, convention and wedding space; the full-service T Spa; and 7 dining venues, including the AAA Four Diamond Tulalip Bay Restaurant. It also showcases the intimate Canoes Cabaret and a 3,000-seat amphitheater. Nearby, find the Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve, Cabela’s; and Seattle Premium Outlets, featuring more than 110 name brand retail discount shops. The Resort Casino is conveniently located between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. just off Interstate-5 at Exit 200. It is an enterprise of the Tulalip Tribes. For reservations please call (866) 716-7162.
Christian Parrish Takes The Gun (aka Supaman) is a Crow hip-hop artist and dancer. In this video he talks about the origins of the Fancy Dance and shows off his footwork style. You can see why he was chosen to participate in the 2013 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!
Did you get a chance to read Sings In The Timber’s article on the art of pow wow photography? There’s a great shot of Supaman featured in the article.
You can check out a short clip of the dancers featured in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade here on PowWows.com.
