DON’T MISS NEXT WEEK’S LEGISLATIVE LAMPOONING BY THE CAPITOL STEPS

It’s an election year. Which means you don’t need an exit pole to know that next week’s performance by THE CAPITOL STEPS WILL BE TOTALLY HYSTERICAL — and painfully true.

Don’t believe me, then listen to this year’s public radio broadcast of the Capitol Steps’ April Fool’s Day edition of “Politics Takes A Holiday.”

And then next week you can catch the Capitol Steps’ Legislative lampooning live during the April 24 show at the Capitol Theatre, 19 S. Third St. It starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $10-$35 and are available through TicketsWest, 800-325-7328, or Capitol Theatre box office, 853-2787.

*Kim Nowacki*

ACCORDION BAD BOY COMES TO TOWN

Ladies, prepare yourselves: DICK CONTINO IS COMING TO TOWN.
Who?
Dick Contino — probably the only other accordion player besides “Weird Al” to have groupies.

But Contino’s no jokester. One sexy-cool cat back the day, the tan, fit 78-year-old Contino continues to be a CULT FAVORITE for his blazing, brilliant accordion playing, B-movie roles and legendary bad-boy ways.
On Youtube, one video simply features a turntable playing one of Contino’s records:
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Other videos are clips from “Daddy-O,” the 1958 B-movie starring Contino that was spoofed by Comedy Central’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000.” (For some, getting the “MST3K” treatment solidifies your place in pop culture history.)

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And for the past several years, local apple farmer Tom Deiro has brought Contino — who lives in Las Vegas where he’s also a spiritual healer — to Yakima to play a concert. It’s a wedding anniversary present Deiro gives his wife, Bea. This year they celebrate their 26th anniversary.

“He was like an idol when I was a kid,” says Deiro who was 11 when he first saw Contino play a concert in Yakima.
“And if you’re lucky,” adds Deiro, now 64, “eventually you get to meet your idol, and find out he’s a nice guy, and you become friends.”

Known for his renditions of “Lady of Spain,” “Granada and “Tico Tico,” Deiro considers Contino the greatest accordion player in history.

“He’s fascinating to students,” says Deiro, who used to play the accordion. “He’s the one every one tries to copy but can’t.”

Contino plays this Sunday (April 20) at West Valley Junior High School auditorium, 7505 Zier Road. The concert starts at 2:30 p.m. Tickets cost $20 in advance or $25 at the door. Advance tickets are available at Taylor Music, 725 W. Yakima Ave., 453-7194. For more information, call Tom Deiro at 966-1938.

*Kim Nowacki*

WINERY GRAND OPENING TONIGHT

One more WINERY IS OPENING IN DOWNTOWN YAKIMA.

Tonight is the grand opening for PLAZA SOCIEVOLE WINERY. (Yeah, we don’t know how to say “socievole” either, but it’s Italian for “friendly.”)The new tasting room is on the ground floor of the Larson Building where Dunbar Jewelers used to be at 120 E. Yakima Ave. It offers wine tastings and wine by the glass, a light meals menu, sidewalk café and dining room for special events.

Tonight’s open house is from 6:30-9:30 p.m.

APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

And in honor of that, here is a great little video on local poet and publisher Jim Bodeen’s POETRY POLE:

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MY FAVORITE PHOTO OF THE DAY

His Holiness the Dalai Lama bumps fists with musician Dave Matthews.
(April 11, 2008 )

Photo by: Scott Eklund/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

DEATH OF THE DARIGOLD BUILDING: “ICE CREAM ROOM” FILM

ON Mag writer Kim Nowacki wasn’t the only one who wanted to capture the impact of the Darigold building fire on Ellensburg musicians.

Here’s the animated documentary “ICE CREAM ROOM” by Olympia filmmaker Giles O’Dell. The short film includes interviews with Log Hog’s Sloe T and Seed Verb, archival photographs and news footage of the Darigold building fire.
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Here’s what O’Dell had to say about making the film:

“I had been making hip-hop since I was a teenager. In ’95 I was introduced to Shawn in Olympia, and at that time we were the only two hip-hop producers there. When he moved back to Ellensburg, I would come over periodically and collaborate with them in the Ice Cream Room in the Darigold building. I thought it was a really cool place — potentially kind of spooky late in the midnight hour, but the exuberant creativity going on in there overcame any of my fear of the dark. I thought it was really cool that there was this hub of creative community.

So, years later, I am focusing on making animated films and have been developing my ideas of animated nonfiction. I was initially going to make a film about all of the working class musicians and artists that I knew, and how they balanced their day jobs and family responsibilities with still being consistently productive in making art.

… Anyhow, right as I was getting going on that project, the fire happened. So it became more of a portrait of that single event. I was more limited (by time) than I would have preferred; like I say in the end credits I really would have liked to do a more thorough portrait of everyone in that community.

As it is, I think it was effective in that it was able to provide an opportunity for some emotional release for those guys. A lot of my recent work has had to do with loss and grieving and how there’s not much space given to those processes in our society. So hopefully it is a piece that just communicates that what was going on there was important, what happened was tragic and it’s okay to feel that huge loss, and then to move on.”

DEATH OF THE DARIGOLD BUILDING: THE MUSICIANS LOOK BACK

Mark Mahagin was driving into Ellensburg for work when he saw the smoke rising up from downtown.

 

“I thought, ‘Uh-oh, somebody’s house is burning,’” remembers Mahagin, better known as Seed Verb, drummer and rapper for the indie hip-hop collective Log Hog.

 

Turns out it was his house, he says with a mix of irony and sadness.

It’s been just over a year since an early morning fire ripped through the historic Darigold distribution center in downtown Ellensburg. But the blaze — sparked by a space heater pushed against a sofa — did more than leave a town landmark gray and dead, black burns still clinging to the front.

It caused a damaging blow to the area’s music community, which once used the space to rehearse and record.

With the March 13 anniversary of the fire come and gone quietly, I wanted to catch up with some of the musicians of the Darigold building to find out what made a dark, old dairy so special:

“I recall very late nights of a kind of a madness and trying new things. A space like that will definitely absorb the emotional content of 10 years.”
— Shawn Parke, aka Log Hog rapper Nervous

“We just did everything. We’d stay in there for hours and hours. We’d write and record and practice. I remember going in in the morning and coming out when it was dark.”
— 2 Headed Chang vocalist Kurt Caron

“We loved that place. In some ways, we took it for granted — and we didn’t.”
— Tom Dell, aka Log Hog rapper Sloe T

“It was always the center for the freaks. We need a new place like that.”
— longtime Ellensburg musician Mike Elkins

To read the full story, check out tomorrow’s ON Magazine.

*Kim Nowacki*

In the photo: Ellensburg Fire Department firefighters pour water on the remnants of a fire which destroyed the old Darigold building in downtown Ellensburg on March 13, 2007. Fire departments from Ellensburg, Kittitas County and Yakima responded to the early morning blaze.

DOWNTOWN FIRST FRIDAYS BEGIN TOMORROW (FRIDAY, DUH)

Friday night is the time to channel Petula Clark and head downtown.
Yup, downtown — no finer place, for sure.
Downtown — everything’s waiting for you.

OK, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but things sure have changed in Yakima’s downtown core around Yakima Avenue and Third Street. New winery tasting rooms are popping up in former bail bonds spots, live music coming out of greasy spoon diners-turned hipster hot spots, fancy day spas making an abandoned mall almost unrecognizable.

And all of these businesses, plus a lot more, will be opening their doors for the first DOWNTOWN FIRST FRIDAYS, a monthly event organized by the Committee for Downtown Yakima that’s just another part of downtown Yakima’s intrepid move towards revitalization.

From around 5-8 p.m. (it’s Friday, the times are loose), you’ll be able to find food and drink specials, live music, even complimentary facial cleansing rituals — and the excuse to stop in to that new boutique shop you’ve been eyeing each day on your way to work.

Held in numerous cities across the country, these kinds of monthly events (often on the first or final Friday of the month) encourage folks to walk from one place to another, to have a glass of wine, check out a local musician, an art show, have dinner and then maybe another glass of wine — all at different places.

Here’s WHAT’S HAPPENING AND WHERE.

*Kim Nowacki*

HAIKU US!

Yes, it’s true, On Magazine is nearly 3-years-old, which means … it’s time for ON MAGAZINE’S THIRD ANNUAL HAIKU CONTEST!

And just because On likes to jump on just about any bandwagon that rattles on by, this year’s theme will be centered around downtown Yakima’s revitalization. So send us your best haiku about gun banners, new sidewalks, Tuscan-themed tasting rooms, etc., and we’ll run the best of the best in the April 25 edition of On. (Prizes? Isn’t your name in print prize enough?)

For those of you who’ve forgotten, a haiku is three lines, five syllables in the first, seven in the second and five in the third.
Got it?
To refresh your memory, here are last year’s winning poems by Jim Flint of Zillah:

Hot fry bread slathered
with sweet huckleberry jam.
A powwow delight.

A billboard proclaims,
“The Palm Springs of Washington,”
but no palms, no springs.

Send as many as you like, but please remember to include your name, the city you live in and a contact number.

E-mail your submissions to us at on@yakimaherald.com, or snail-mail them to On Magazine, c/o Yakima Herald-Republic, 114 N. Fourth St., Yakima, WA 90901.

The deadline is April 16.

KIDS READING AND PUPPET SHOW

Ren’ae L. Boehler, author of the book “The Unicorn Fish Are Having A Party,” will be at Out On A Whim bookstore Saturday (April 5) to read her story about some very unique fish who teach us to embrace our differences and the differences in others. She will put on a puppet show to go along with the story, then will be available for autographs and questions.

The event is free.

Out On A Whim bookstore is located at 108 S. Third Ave. (It’s the shop with the super cute window displays.)

PLAYING CARD POP ART

Apparently, you can use plain ol’ playing cards for more than just solitaire and drinking games.

ATTN. MUSIC FANS

Bust out the credit card because tickets to A TON OF GREAT CONCERTS go on sale soon. Here’s a run down:

ON SALE 4 p.m. FRIDAY:
VAN’S WARPED TOUR. 11 a.m. Aug. 9. Gorge Amphitheatre, George, Wash. Paramore, Gym Class Heroes, The All-American Rejects, Anberlin, Angels & Airwaves, Bouncing Souls, Bedouin Soundclash, among others. Tickets: $29.05 through Ticketmaster, 453-7139. (Punk-o-rama.)

ON SALE 10 a.m. SATURDAY:
LONESTAR. 6 p.m. May 17. Yakama Nation Legends Casino outdoor arena, 580 Fort Road, Toppenish. With Joe Nichols. Tickets: $10, $30 through the Legends Casino gift shop, 877-726-6311, Ext. 5271, or Ticketmaster, 453-7139. (Country.)
STEVE MILLER BAND. 7 p.m. Aug. 2. Gorge Amphitheatre, George, Wash. With Joe Cocker. Tickets: $39.50, $49.50, $67.50 through Ticketmaster, 453-7139. (Classic rockers.)

ON SALE MONDAY:
TAJ MAHAL. 7:30 p.m. May 30. The Seasons, 101 N. Naches Ave. Tickets: $45, $65 through The Seasons box office, 453-1888. (Roots-blues.)