Read the whole study cited in today’s front page story on local arts organizations and the economy

If you’d like to read the study {The Economic Recession’s Impact on Cultural Organizations in the Puget Sound} cited in today’s YH-R story about how local arts organizations are coping with the economic downturn, you can download it HERE.

It’s an interesting read and really what’s happening in the Puget Sound area is parallel to what’s going in Yakima, and most likely plenty of other cities of all sizes.

Guilty Pleasures goes viral

The Internet, with all its infinite uses — playing on Facebook, reading snarky hipster reviews on avclub.com, buying shoes — is primarily to blame for sucking up more time than Guilty Pleasures ever spent packing for Burning Man or studying for the GRE, combined.

Sure, some of these Web surfing stints are spent following the news or e-mailing Mom, but most are spent on time-wasters, those viral bits of nonsense that you find so downright amusing you just have to share them with everyone.

Yes, those.

You know ’em, you love ’em, so here are a few of Guilty Pleasures’ recent favorites:

• textsfromlastnight.com — OMG! What a brilliant way to share all your most regrettable or just plain funny text messages. Most are about sex and/or drinking, and all are hilarious. Plus, with no names or faces attached, just an area code — Guilty Pleasures loves to scan for 509 — you can feel better about sharing your Blackberry bloopers with the cyberworld.  Here are few posted Read more

RIP Michael Jackson

The 10-year-old me in my pretty yellow dress proudly carrying my Michael Jackson pee-chee to the first day of school is sobbing right now.

RIP MJ.

Been a long time since you rock and rolled? Check out Friday night’s Led Zeppelin tribute concert

This Friday night, the Yakima Speedway sidelines the race cars to make room for some live rock and roll.

Dubbed Power Jam, the tribute band triple-play concert features headliner No Quarter, a popular Led Zeppelin tribute that channels the sound — from “Black Dog” to “The Wanton Song” — and the look of Plant, Page, Jones and Bonham.

Opening the show are Live Wire, an AC/DC tribute that’s played Yakima a number of times; and Drop Dead Legs, a female-fronted Van Halen tribute.

While ticket sales have been slow, promoter Steve Hall is staying optimistic that classic rock fans will show a whole lotta love at the gate.

“I’ve heard there’s large walk-up crowds (in Yakima), which would be good,” says Hall, who’d like to do more concerts at the Speedway if there is an audience to support it.

For Friday night’s all-ages concert, the Speedway will be arranged with the stage on pit row and the crowd on the track and in the grandstands. There’ll be concessions and beer available. The gates open at 5 p.m. and the rock cranks up at 6 p.m. at 1600 Pacific Ave.

Tickets cost $16 in advance and are available through Gap West Broadcasting, 509-972-1460; the Yakima Speedway, 509-248-0647; Eve’s Garden, 509-575-9566; Ted Brown Music, 509-248-6015; and Speed Motor Sports, 509-453-7223.

Tickets at the door cost $21.

Butterfly conference set for July 17-19 in Yakima

Next month, the Washington Butterfly Association will hold its 10th annual conference in Yakima with lectures at the Oxford Suites and field trips roaming the rugged wilderness outside of town.

Yakima is a first-time location for the conference, which runs July 17 through July 19. The conference is open to the public and all ages. You can register for a single event or for the entire conference.

Here is the schedule:
• 7:30-8:30 p.m. July 17 — Dr. David James, associate entomology professor at WSU, presents “Butterflies of the Yakima Region.” He will describe species that may possibly be seen on the July 18 and July 19 field trips.

• 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. July 18 — Field trip.

• 6:30 p.m. July 18 — Dinner at the Oxford Suites.

• 7:45 p.m. July 18 — Renowned lepidopterist and writer Dr. Robert Michael Pyle presents keynote address “Conserving the Rainbow Resource.” His talk will cover the history and challenging future of butterfly conservation and includes historic and color images.

• 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. July 19 — Field trip.

Both speakers will participate in the field trips, which may visit Read more

‘Transformers’ sequel opens with midnight showings

The Decepticons are back and looking for vengeance in “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” which opens tonight:

• A digital print will be shown at 12:05 a.m. at Yakima Cinema, 1305 N. 16th Ave. You can buy tickets in advance at the theater box office and should probably arrive about an hour early to line up. (Then beginning tomorrow, a regular print will also be shown at The Majestic, 1919 S. 14th St. in Union Gap.)

• Grand Cinemas in Sunnyside will also open “Transformers” tonight right at the stroke of midnight. Tickets are available at the box office or online.

Nothin’ But A Good Time: Def Leppard and Poison tour together

Hard rock bands Def Leppard and Poison play The Amphitheater at Clark County on Sept. 11, and the White River Amphitheatre on Sept. 12. (Ooooh, so many mullet jokes, so little time.)

Tickets cost $25-$99.50 and go on sale at 10 a.m. this Saturday, June 27, through LiveNation.com for the White River show. Tickets are already on sale through Ticketmaster for the Clark County show.

Speaking of Live Nation, it’s been offering special one-day-only ticket deals on Wednesdays for the past couple of weeks. This Wednesday’s deal (June 24): No service fee on 4-Pack tickets.

Stonehenge Memorial sets the stage for ‘King Lear’

This Saturday, Maryhill’s Stonehenge Memorial becomes a stage for Shakespeare when the Portland Actors Ensemble performs “King Lear.”

In the Bard’s uncompromising tragedy, the proud King Lear declares his intention to divide his kingdom between his three daughters based on which one loves him most.

This production is part of the Portland Actors Ensemble’s Shakespeare-in-the-Parks program, which makes classical theater accessible to audiences in nontraditional environments. The play begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are accepted. Stonehenge is off Washington Scenic Route 14, just south of Goldendale. Click HERE for a map.

Then on Sunday, the Goldendale Astronomy Club will set up a solar observing demonstration at Stonehenge from noon to 5 p.m. Visitors will be able to look through specially filtered telescopes to see views of the sun during this longest day of the year. The event is free.

The Tasting Room Yakima lets you get biodynamic

This coming Sunday marks the summer solstice, or longest day of the year.

In honor of this official start to summer, The Tasting Room Yakima — a winery cooperative that offers up wines from Harlequin Wine Cellars, Naches Heights Vineyard and Wilridge Winery — is hosting a pig roast from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. this Friday, June 19. Of course, there’ll also be wine and beer for sale and live music by KCJ Jazz. Cost is $12, which includes food and one glass of wine. Kids eat for free.

But Friday night’s party is just the kick-off for The Tasting Room Yakima’s weekend-long Summer Solstice and Biodynamic Vineyard Festival.

A bio-what? Read more

Gasperetti’s onion rings get shout out from Kyle MacLachlan

Yakima’s most famous actor export Kyle MacLachlan may live in New York and Los Angeles, but when he wants some delicious shoestring onion rings, Gasperetti’s are his favorite, he says in this Q&A in Bon Appétit magazine.

Also, did you know MacLachlan is part of Washington’s booming wine biz? (He collaborates with Walla Walla’s Eric Dunham.)

Downtown winery to host benefit for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

Plaza Socievole Winery is hosting a benefit wine tasting and food pairing from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. this Thursday, June 18, to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. There’ll also be silent auction items to bid on.

Plaza Socievole Winery is at 120 E. Yakima Ave. (in the corner of the Larson Building).

Gilbert Cellars and Carmen’s Comedy Club partner for Thursday comedy night

Gilbert Cellars at 5 N. Front Street, has teamed up with Carmen’s Comedy Club for a Thursday comedy night in Gilbert’s “underground” (the downstairs area that apparently used to be a prohibition-era speakeasy).

Comedian Dave Testroet will take the mic at 8:30 p.m. this Thursday. Tickets at the door cost $10 and also get you a $5 discount at Carmen’s Comedy Club in Selah this weekend.

Summer concert updates: Live Nation offers another Wednesday-only deal; AC/DC move concert date; Pain in the Grass tix go on sale; Aerosmith to play hit album in its entirety

• Live Nation’s Wednesday ticket sale promotions continue this week with all lawn tickets on sale for $24.99 this Wednesday only.

• AC/DC’s originally scheduled Aug. 30 concert at the Tacoma Dome has been moved to Monday, Aug. 31. Tickets to the originally scheduled date will be honored for the new date.

• Tickets for the 99.9 KISW Pain in the Grass festival go on sale at 10 a.m. this Saturday through Live Nation. Featuring Slipknot, Mudvayne, Chevelle and Saliva, the rawk fest is Aug. 22 at White River Amphitheater.

• Aerosmith has announced that during its current North American summer tour, the band will perform its classic “Toys in the Attic” album in its entirety, along with an array of other hits.
Released in 1975, “Toys in the Attic” had the hit singles “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion.”
Aerosmith play the White River Amphitheatre with ZZ Top on Aug. 17. (Although, apparently by then, the band will have swapped out “Toys” for the 1976 album “Rocks.”)

Remembering Bert Grant with a brew

In 1982, Bert Grant (pictured) made Yakima the birthplace of the craft brewing revolution when he founded Yakima Brewery & Malting Co. and opened Grant’s Brewery Pub, considered to be the first brewpub since Prohibition.

On Saturday, Yakima Craft Brewing Co. — which brews with Grant’s original copper boil kettle — will uncap an homage to that brewing history, an amber ale aptly called 1982.

“We decided to do one that’s reminiscent of that time,” brewmaster Jeff Winn says about the malty beer made with local Cascade hops.

“It’s a simple and straightforward beer you would have had back then,” says Winn. “Today’s craft beer is all over the map.”

The new brew — 5.4 percent alcohol and 45 IBUs for you beer-ophiles out there — will be unveiled from 3-6 p.m. Saturday at Bert’s Pub (which is also named in honor of Grant) in the basement of Glenwood Square, 5110 Tieton Drive.

“It seemed fitting to do it at Bert’s,” says Winn.

Dig this: Ice Age mammoth excavation site opens to public in July

Beginning next month, visitors can watch history unfold — one painstaking inch at a time — when the Central Washington University Wenas Creek Mammoth Project begins its fifth field season at the at the excavation site near Selah.

Here, the public is invited to watch the recovery of a 16,000-year-old Columbian mammoth and other associated animals and artifacts. The project began after in the spring of 2005, the left humerus, or leg bone, of a mammoth was found sticking out of the dirt along a freshly cut driveway on a ranch off South Wenas Road.

Led by Patrick Lubinski, an associate professor of anthropology at Central, this summer the crew of CWU students and others expect to expose Read more

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