You can pick up Boise Weekly every Thursday for free at dozens of newsstands scattered throughout the Treasure Valley, plus at all Albertsons and most Jacksons stores. Or if you’d like to get it delivered to your door, just go to boiseweekly.com and click on the home delivery button.
Here’s a taste of what’s coming up in the next Boise Weekly, out on Thursday, April 25.
CROW’S SHADOW LANDS AT THE MORRISON CENTER — BY DRIEK ZIRINSKY
“The Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts is a world-class art facility located at the end of a dirt road in the middle of a wheat field. It’s in the old St. Andrew’s School Building on the Umatilla Reservation outside Pendleton, Oregon.” I wrote that description about 20 years ago when I first got involved with the organization. But I missed the important part of the story. Founded in 1992 by artist James Lavadour (Walla Walla) and scholar and artist Phillip Cash Cash (Cayuse and Nez Perce), it was conceived as a place on the reservation for contemporary Native artists to develop their practice. And in parallel they would also support the teaching of the traditional Native arts. Crow’s Shadow’s mission is to provide a creative conduit for educational, social and economic opportunities for Native Americans through artistic development.
You may be wondering why you are reading about an arts organization in Oregon. A selection of the exceptional fine-arts prints made at CSIA have been purchased by the Morrison Center. They are now on display on the second and third hallways of the center facing the Boise River, where you can see them during performances and eventually online.
PERT NEAR SANDSTONE AT NEUROLUX APRIL 30 — BY JEANNE HUFF
The folksy bluegrassy band Pert Near Sandstone plays Neurolux on April 30, with Armchair Boogie.
Together for two decades, they’ve produced eight studio albums. On April 19, they dropped a new single, a cover of The Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait.”
Boise Weekly did a Q&A with multi-instrumentalist Nate Sipe via email in advance of their upcoming show.
BW LUNCH BUNCH: TAJ MAHAL HOMESTYLE INDIAN AND PAKISTANI CUISINE — BY BW STAFF
In the “About Us” section on the Taj Mahal’s website, Sohail Ishaq says his wife, Farha, makes 90% of the dishes served at the “homestyle Indian and Pakistani cuisine” restaurant. He makes the other 10%.
The family-run restaurant prides itself on creating an atmosphere as inviting as its homestyle food is delicious. It strives for customer satisfaction across the board. “I made it a policy that I would never serve anything on my customers’ table that I would not serve my children,” Ishaq says.
The downtown Indian-food staple has secured the spot at the top of the escalators on the east side of Eighth Street between Main and Idaho for a couple of decades. And yet, when you walk through the door, you feel like you’ve magically traveled to an exotic locale, ensconced in rich maroon and golden-hued fabrics and pillows and art and mirrors. A TV screen mounted on the wall shows Bollywood videos. Succulent scents and aromatic spices waft through the room, making your belly rumble in anticipation. Go there for lunch and it’s like taking an hour-and-a-half mini-vacation in the middle of the day.
The BW Lunch Bunch took just such a trip recently.
BCT’S ‘SILENT SKY’ IS HEAVENLY — BY JEANNE HUFF
One thing “Silent Sky,” Boise Contemporary Theater’s final bow of the season, will compel you to do is — look up.
The play, book by accomplished playwright Lauren Gunderson, directed by Tracy Sunderland with original music by Luke Santy, centers on astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, who, in 1900, became a human “computer;” that is, she and her colleagues computed or rather, mapped the winking and dancing stars in the sky. Yes, you read that right — it was the turn of the 20th century. The play focuses on Leavitt and her colleagues Annie Cannon and Williamina Fleming — all women, yes, doing all the work for the ever-absent Dr. Edward Pickering and his pesky twitterpated assistant, Peter Shaw, who falls head-over-heels in love with Leavitt.
The story entwines Leavitt’s sister, Margaret, who can’t understand why Leavitt wants to look at the stars when she could just simply settle down and marry.
This is all the story you’ll get from me — there are a number of twists and turns to keep audience members enthralled. The true story is so captivating and moving — my eyes shone with tears at the end.
