Arts & entertainment: Top 7 things to check out this week

As the weekend approaches, here are seven events in the arts and entertainment world in the Eugene-Springfield region to check out. All of this week’s recommendations are indoors, as temperatures are expected to climb into the 90s over the weekend. 

💥 Patton Oswalt at Olsen Run — and at Books With Pictures: While tickets for Oswalt’s show at Olsen Run Comedy Club and Lounge sold out almost immediately after it was announced, fans have another chance to see the comedian. On Friday, Aug. 8, at 5 p.m., he’ll head into the comics and graphic novel store Books With Pictures (in the 5th Street Public Market in Eugene) to sign copies of “Archie vs. Minor Threats,” a crossover between the Archie comics and indie superhero misfits, published by Dark Horse. Oswalt, a writer for “Minor Threats,” will be accompanied by comics writers and artists Matt Fraction, Gail Simone, Laura Allred, Michael Allred (a Roseburg-born comics artist whose series “iZombie” was set in Eugene) and Timmy Heague.

🎵 Concerts at the McDonald Theatre: This weekend will see two very different concerts at Eugene’s McDonald Theatre. On Friday, Aug. 8, the rapper Too $hort (“Blow the Whistle,” “Gettin’ It”) will perform with the Pacific Northwest rappers Cool Nutz and MACKDUB. On Saturday, Aug. 9, the indie rock band STRFKR (“Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second,” “Isabella of Castile”) will perform, with the band Mamalarky opening. Tickets for both shows are still available, starting at $30 for STRFKR and $60.75 for Too $hort. 

🖼️ New exhibits at Maude Kerns, Jordan Schnitzer: Three new art exhibits open this weekend in Eugene. At the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on the University of Oregon campus, “Land of Origin,” a retrospective of the landscape works of Oregon-born Indigenous painter and printmaker James Lavadour, opens on Saturday, Aug. 9, and will run through January. I was able to get a sneak peek at the exhibit, which traces how Lavadour’s approach to landscapes in paintings and prints transformed across the decades. It’s breathtaking.

At the Maude Kerns Art Center, two new exhibits — both featuring all women artists — open on the same day, Friday, Aug. 8. “Inheritance: Women’s Stories” features works examining femininity, family and the societal demands on women. “Lands of Memory” focuses on two landscape artists who, instead of painting directly representative works, paint more subconscious depictions of the hills and coasts they focus on. A free artist’s talk, including artists from both exhibits, will take place on Saturday, Aug. 9, at 1 p.m.

🎬 Robert Reich’s “The Last Class” screening at The Art House: This documentary follows Reich, former labor secretary in Bill Clinton’s presidential administration and later a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, teaching more than 40,000 students across four decades. The documentary follows the final days of Reich’s “Wealth & Poverty” course, while he wrestles with his own aging and the world his students graduate into. “The Last Class” is playing at the Art House, 492 E. 13th Ave. in Eugene, from Aug. 8-14.

⛳ “A Fox on the Fairway” at Very Little Theatre: Fore! The opening show of the Very Little Theatre’s season is this love letter to 20th century English farces, written by the American playwright Ken Ludwig and set at the fictional Quail Valley Country Club, with golfers taking on their rival players from the Crouching Squirrel in a tournament. The play opens Friday, Aug. 8, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 24, with evening and matinee performances. Tickets are $26 for adults and $20 for students.

🎭 “The Tempest” at Cottage Theatre: If you’re not feeling farcical and looking for a classic show, Cottage Grove’s theater is taking on William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” The play follows the exiled sorcerer Prospero and his daughter Miranda, as Prospero causes a ship to wreck onto the island to torment the stranded nobles. The play opens on Friday, Aug. 8, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 24, with evening and matinee performances. Tickets are $29 for adults and $15 for youths 18 or younger.

🎞️ What’s playing in local movie theaters: This weekend’s wide-release titles are:

• The horror flick “Weapons,” about a class of elementary school students who go missing after they mysteriously leave their homes at 2:17 a.m. (playing at Metro Cinemas, Regal Valley River Center and Cinemark Eugene Springfield 17).
• The family movie “Sketch,” about the drawings in a girl’s sketchbook coming to life (playing at Regal Valley River Center and Cinemark Eugene Springfield 17).
• “Freakiest Friday,” the follow-up to the Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis body-swap family comedy (playing at Metro Cinemas, Regal Valley River Center and Cinemark Eugene Springfield 17).

Have a cultural week, Lookout readers! I’ll be seeing “Weapons” tonight.