Shakespeare goes to college, the black arts and send in the gypsies
By Ted Holteen

by Ted Holteen

I've really got a lot to talk about this week, but as this is a nonverbal forum, I'll write about it instead. First of all, beginning Sunday, Earth Week is upon us yet again. Hear that, George? It's Earth Week. Not Moon Week or Mars Week. Believe it or not, you and yours have yet to solve some issues here at ground zero before spending another $40 billion to determine if there's frost on the Red Planet. But who needs him, anyway? We've got some of the finest defenders of Mother Earth this side of The Monkey Wrench Gang right here in Durango, and next week we'll even get one of them, too. The Fort Lewis College Environmental Center is the champion of all things green around here, and on Sunday the town gets a chance to say "cheers" to the E.C. I think it's called "Cheers for the Environment." Actually, that's exactly what it's called, and it's a fund-raiser going on at the Durango Arts Center. With his typical humility, E.C. tsar Michael Rendon has listed Adrienne Young & Little Sadie as the evening's headliners, and with a slew of nationwide kudos giving them some rock-hard cred in Americana Nation, I guess they could carry the night. However, this critic predicts that Rendon's own creation, Carute Roma, will steal the show and maybe even some wallets and a white slave or two. You see, Carute Roma means "gypsy wagon," and they are simply the Four Corners' premier gypsy band. Michael even sings in Romany, the traditional gypsy tongue. I did an exhaustive search to find other live gypsy music that could sap Carute Roma's audience, but outside of Brooklyn, London and an out of the way Athens teahouse, it's a quiet night on the Eastern European front. Cheers for the Environment gets under way sometime around 6 Sunday night. And thanks to the good people at Carver's, there will be beer for sale, which makes that $40 billion goal seem just a bit more attainable.

If you've lived in the Southwest for an extended period of time, it's easy to forget or never realize at all that, though difficult to believe, there is an enormous population in the rest of this country that is unfamiliar with the writings of Edward Abbey. This next item is addressed to readers other than that population. On April 5, the Environmental Center, FLC's Outdoor Pursuits, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Coloradoans for Utah Wilderness present an evening of Celebration for Wild Utah. It's a slide show and talk thing by activist/authors Mark Meloy and Ken Sleight, and they'll regale their audience of hippies and eco-terrorists about the "good ol' days" in the American West, which includes Sleight's trip as one of the last human beings to raft Glen Canyon before it became Lake Powell. With absolutely no disrespect intended toward Mr. Meloy, it is hard not to call Sleight the star of the show, so to speak. He's the real-life inspiration behind Seldom Seen Smith in Abbey's enviroclassic The Monkey Wrench Gang. Certainly better than meeting, for example, the real-life Hannibal Lecter, right? The evening is just one in a weeklong series of Earth Week events, the full slate of which can be found via the Environmental Center. The Celebration for Wild Utah happens at 7 o'clock Tuesday night in room 130 of Noble Hall at Fort Lewis College.

When folks speak of Durango as a cultural black hole, they're right. But think how much closer we'd be to Mayberry if we didn't have the college here. Without an academic center, many in these parts would still think that Shakespeare's greatest contribution to society was the Ugly Stik. (For those whose necks are a few shades short of red, that's a fishing rod. See, Shakespeare is also a fishing company oh, forget it.) But we do have a college, and the college has a dandy theater department, and they're starting a run of the Bard's "Much Ado About Nothing" for the next couple of weeks, beginning tonight. I like FLC theater productions because they're always weird. No one invited me to a sneak media preview or anything, so I can't review it in the actual sense of the word, but that's never stopped me before, and I like to think that I've elevated prejudice to its own art form. So take my word for it - it's great! Show times are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday this week and next week, with a matinee on Sun., April 10. From what I can tell, that makes seven chances to catch it. If that seems like a lot, it's not; the Main Stage Theater only seats 200 souls, and the scalpers are vicious. Don't miss out.

Such a busy week leaves only a small space to cover the live music scene. Tonight, Thursday, The DSCPA presents San Francisco acoustic troubadours The Waybacks at the Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. I can't top DSCPA strongman Chris Aaland's description of the band, so I'll steal it instead: "Imagine if Robin Williams or Billy Crystal could play mandolin like David Grisman or guitar like Tony Rice, and you've imagined a Waybacks show." I should never be left to my own imagination, but I can testify that The Waybacks are a great score and it should be a bunch of fun.

On Tuesday, April 5, The Abbey Theatre welcomes The Samples, live and in concert. (Isn't that just about the most stupid phrase ever used in the music industry? My words, not the Abbey's.) They're on tour promoting and playing selections from "The Best of the Samples 1989 - 1994," which, I am aware, leaves a void of some 11 years, but I suppose there are only so many hours in a day. Showtime is 8:30 p.m., and it will probably sell out, so get your tickets early.

The only parallel I can draw to illustrate the cast-in-stone habits of NPR listeners is this: What if they changed medication time at the methadone clinic? Well, our NPR affiliate, KSUT, is doing just that (changing the listening, not the methadone) beginning on Sunday, and I for one say "bravo." That's right, the Four Corners finally has a Top 40 station we can call our own. Fortunately, it's not KSUT. What KSUT is actually doing is revamping its schedule, trimming the chaff and putting the focus on top-quality local music programming, which will move into more prime-time evening slots. The changes are much more widespread than I can list here; go to ksut.org for the whole thing. And though I could use this space to scoop my other employer, instead I will provide this tip: Tune into KSUT at noon on Saturday for a really, really big announcement regarding an upcoming musical guest. That is all.

On the quick: Another programming tip - if you're curious about some of the possible effects of the Bush administration's ongoing commitment to the annexation of Mars and beyond, tune into KDUR at 4 o'clock Friday afternoon to see why the Cold War axiom "Better Dead Than Red" is making a comeback. Just listen.

Also quick, though I wish I could spend more time on it. Sunday, FLC Community Concert Hall, 4 p.m. (I have to remember to actually go to this) It's magic - literally - as The Spencers bring their Theatre of Illusion to town. Husband and wife Kevin and Cindy Spencer apparently put on a hell of show, which is more than rabbit-in-the-hat stuff, if you believe their P.R. And I'm not one to question the written word, so I believe it. Funny, though - for all the clichés to the contrary, I've never actually seen a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat. I guess I'll just have to keep waiting.

Even quicker: Hopefully you voted by mail in the last week or so. Here's to keeping Virginia Castro where she belongs and welcoming back John Gamble to public office. I'm still bitter about being prevented from running the dirtiest and most flamboyant campaign since Boss Tweed, so my third vote goes to an empty chair in protest. For some reason, my bosses see a conflict of interest in a news reporter holding elected office. Some people.

Less action and more talk. ted@ksut.org. Do you realize that Sunday will be the first steroid-free opening day since 1995?