'The Second City on Tour' hits Hailey
Back by popular demand, Chicago's legendary comedy theatre company The Second City returns to the Liberty Theatre in Hailey on Thursday, Jan. 12, Friday, Jan. 13 and Saturday, Jan. 14, at 7 p.m.
This is the ninth consecutive year that Company of Fools has brought the world-renowned comedy troupe to the Wood River Valley. The tour is designed to introduce the next generation of comic great hopefuls. Their performances are a showcase of sketches and songs, off-the-cuff improvisation and, if history holds, some moments of unexpected pure comic brilliance.
From the battle of the sexes to the battles at the voting booth, The Second City takes a humorous look at anything in contemporary American culture.
For tickets, call 578-9122 or visit online at www.companyoffools.org. Adults are $30, seniors are $20 and 18 and under are $10.
Grant allows artist one man show
Bellevue sculptor Joseph L. Castle III has been awarded a grant from the Idaho Commission on the Arts, which he will use for a one-man show in April at Idaho State University in Pocatello.
"The Hero's Journey: A Homecoming" is a series of bronze relief sculptures that begins with an uncertain creature wobbling forward to begin its transformation, progressing through the first steps of self-discovery, initially vulnerable then finally resolute and transcendent.
Castle's work is at 11 galleries around the U.S., and a piece from the "Hero's Journey" is being installed in Atlanta. He will be feted at an artist's reception in Pocatello in April.
Pick of the flicks
From documentaries to kids films, filmmakers took storytelling to new heights in 2011, not always successfully, but definitely paving the way for grander efforts to come.
Before auld film favorites are replaced with new, the Express invites readers to submit a list of their top five favorite films of the year, as well as their absolute worst one of all.
Please take a minute to submit a line or two about what made a movie No. 1 on your list, as well as what made the worst movie so bad.
Send your responses to jliebrum@mtexpress.com and please include "Top 5 movies" in your subject line. The deadline is Jan. 18.
The results will be published before the Oscars are presented Feb. 26, so there's time to catch up on films you didn't have a chance to see in 2011.
Galena Winter Benefit tickets for sale
Celebrate Nordic skiing at the 16th annual Galena & the Trails Winter Benefit, and next time you are out enjoying the well-groomed countryside, know that you helped make it happen.
The benefit dinner includes a three-course meal and wine, live and silent auctions, and a raffle for a Sun Valley alpine/BCRD Nordic combo pass, as well as other great items and music by All Night Diner. Live auction items include a New Orleans trip for two, a whitewater rafting trip for two down Idaho's Main Salmon River and an all-inclusive Kilimanjaro climb for two.
The evening kicks off the Sun Valley Nordic Festival, a week of events highlighting the valley's great Nordic opportunities.
The dinner will be held at the Sun Valley Inn Limelight Room, Saturday, Jan. 28. For tickets, visit www.bcrd.org or contact Megan Stevenson at 578-5459 or mstevenson@bcrd.org.
Avalanche-resistant house to be documentary item
A Ketchum home built to withstand a fairly commonplace act of nature in snow country will be one of several homes featured in an upcoming documentary being filmed this week around Warm Springs Road.
The home, owned and designed by architect Daniel H. Johnston, is known as the Ski Hut house. The concrete and steel-framed house was under construction at 100 Sage Rd. when the Express featured it in an article in Habitat magazine in 2008. It was heralded for its creative approach to avalanche resistance and design and structural systems that minimize the use of materials, efficiencies of the spatial layout and design for sustainability.
It since caught the attention of filmmakers at Pangolin Pictures as part of a series to be shown on The Weather Channel called "Built to Last."
They are shooting Jan. 10 and 11.
Lots of action at the Community Library
Ketchum's Community Library makes 50 look great as it celebrates 57 years with a Founders' Day event, Thursday, Jan. 12, with a tour starting at 12:57 p.m. and 57 cookies available all day.
In 1955, a group of pioneering women concerned that the valley was missing a free public library managed to create what is today a preeminent source of information, current and historical.
Idaho author Matthew Deren will give a talk about his book "A Forgotten Wilderness: Nature's Hidden Relationship in West Central Idaho." The photo-rich book is the product of Deren's two years in the wilds documenting life in the state's most remote country. The free lecture starts tonight, Jan. 11, at 6 p.m.
As part of the Sun Valley Artists Series, the library will host a screening of "Introduction to the Classical Era and the Age of Enlightenment" with Professor Robert Greenberg. This exploration of the dramatic difference between the music of the late Baroque and Classical eras will be held Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 6 p.m.
