360 December 20 2012

Check out the sights and sounds of the season PAGE 3

Skagit Valley Herald Thursday December 20, 2012

This Weekend

Reviews

At the Movies

Head upriver to view eagles wintering on the Skagit River

Music: Bruno Mars, Green Day Video Games: “Ratchet and Clank”

“The Impossible” a vivid recreation of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami

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Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

E2 - Thursday, December 20, 2012

NEW ON DVD THIS WEEK “Pitch Perfect”: This movie about college a cappella groups isn’t sharp or flat. The script and cast are in such harmony in “Pitch Perfect,” it is definitely a Glee-ful hit. It would have been very easy to tune out “Pitch Perfect” after so many seasons of “Glee.” But from the always dependable acting of Anna Kendrick to the in-sync direction of Jason Moore, this production is a comedy octave higher than any episode of the TV series. As an added bonus, John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks are hilarious as former a cappella singers who now do the announcing and color commentary for the competition telecasts. Banks is particularly funny with a delivery that’s so deadpan it masks just how inappropriate her comments are. There hasn’t been such a funny commentary team since “Best in Show.”

“Total Recall”: Director Len Wiseman, the master of the “Underworld” movies and actress Kate Beckinsale’s husband, has shifted the film focus away from the psychological elements for a more physical approach. Once the film starts, it is a white-knuckle thrill ride that doesn’t offer too many chances to breathe. The film has its problems, and it can be nitpicked into obscurity.

The main woe is the way Wiseman deals with the ambiguity of the story.

Fact or fiction? He leans so heavily in one direction that it takes the pop out of the final scenes.

“Trouble with the Curve”: This film is a by-the-numbers story of an aging professional baseball scout, played with cantankerous splendor by Clint Eastwood, and the daughter he’s kept at a distance, played with perfect perkiness

by Amy Adams. The movie thrives on the fastball pitches of aging, parenting and baseball, but it could have used a few change-ups to make it more interesting.

“House of Lies: The First Season”: The cable series based on the best-selling book by Martin Kihn is a wicked and wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the world of management consultants. Don Cheadle plays the head of the team, a man who can masterfully spin any story.

“Cuban Missile Crisis: Three Men Go To War”: A look at how John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro brought the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust.

“Can Science Stop Crime?”: NOVA takes a look inside the criminal mind

YOUR ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION GUIDE TO WHAT’S GOING ON IN SKAGIT COUNTY AND THE SURROUNDING AREAS

Upcoming movie releases Following is a partial schedule of coming movies on DVD. Release dates are subject to change: DEC. 21 Arbitrage - Lionsgate Premium Rush - Sony Resident Evil: Retribution - Sony

This Weekend / Page 5

DEC. 24 The Words - Sony DEC. 31 Looper - Sony JAN. 1 Cosmopolis - eOne The Trouble With Bliss - Anchor Bay JAN. 8 Dredd - Lionsgate Frankenweenie - Disney House at the End of Street - Fox The Inbetweeners Movie - Lionsgate Samsara - MPI JAN. 15 Branded - Lionsgate The Other Dream Team - Lionsgate The Possession - Lionsgate 17 Girls - Strand Taken 2 - Fox To Rome With Love - Sony Won’t Back Down - Fox

Highway 20 stations offer prime viewing of eagles wintering on the Skagit

Inside

JAN. 22 End of Watch - Universal Searching for Sugar Man - Sony

Phone 360-416-2135

JAN. 29 The Cold Light of Day - Lionsgate/ Summit Hotel Transylvania - Sony

Hand-deliver 1215 Anderson Road Mount Vernon, WA 98274

n McClatchy-Tribune News Service

with cutting-edge forensic techniques that help investigators.

“Funny or Die Presents: The Complete Second Season”: Ben Stiller is featured in the sketch comedy show.

“Quincy M.E.: Season 4”: Jack Klugman plays the mystery-solving coroner.

“The Hi-Lo Country”: Best friends return from the war to face a battle over cattle ranching.

“The Millennium Bug”: A family seeks refuge from Y2K hysteria only to find the threat of technological shutdown is the least of their worries.

“Sometimes A Great Notion”: The Paul Newman film make its Blu-ray debut.

“Bro’”: A college student gets caught up in the wild lifestyle of professional motocross. n Rick Bentley, The Fresno Bee

SUBMISSIONS Email features@skagitpublishing.com vrichardson@skagitpublishing. com (recreation items)

Mailing address P.O. Box 578 Mount Vernon, WA 98273

Music, Game Reviews..................6-7 Travel............................................8-9 On Stage, Tuning Up................10-11 Hot Tickets.................................... 12 Get Involved.................................. 14 At the Lincoln Theatre.................. 17 Movie Listings, Mini-Reviews...... 17 Out & About.............................18-19 Cover photo by Scott Terrell / Skagit Valley Herald

Online events calendar To list your event on our website, visit goskagit.com and look for the Events Calendar on the home page HAVE A STORY IDEA? w For arts and entertainment, contact Features Editor Craig Parrish at 360-416-2135 or features@skagitpublishing.com w For recreation, contact staff writer Vince Richardson at 360-416-2181 or vrichardson@ skagitpublishing.com TO ADVERTISE 360-424-3251

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

Thursday, December 20, 2012 - E3

COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS DISPLAY: A variety of elegant holiday place settings and whimsical Christmas decorations are on display through the end of the year at the Anacortes Museum, 1305 Eighth St., Anacortes.

Members of the Ana Curtis and Fidalgo Finderskeepers chapters of the International Questers Organization have filled the Anacortes Presents case with painted pieces by Spode, Lenox, Johnson Bros., Avon, Gibson, Mikasa and other fine china makers. The exhibit also includes a miniature holiday tea party featuring dolls and a set of tiny Christmas plates, as well as a number of different versions of “The Night Before Christmas.” Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. 360-293-1915.

HOLIDAY EVENTS IN THE AREA

HOLIDAY ART FESTIVAL: The 33rd annual Allied Arts Holiday Festival of the Arts will take place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today through Sunday, Dec. 20-23, at 1200 Meador Ave., Bellingham. The festival features the work of more than 100 local artisans and craftspeople and includes a variety of handmade products ranging from jewelry to paintings to wearable art to specialty foods. Enjoy live music, artists in action and a children’s art project are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tueson the weekends. 360-676- day through Sunday. $4, $3 8548 or www.alliedarts.org. seniors and ages 6 to 12, $8 families, free for members and ages 5 and younger.

SKAGIT CHRISTMAS: Check out special exhibits 360-466-3365 or www. showing how early Skagito- skagitcounty.net/museum. nians celebrated the Yule“A CHRISTMAS CAROL”: tide season, through Dec. Seattle’s ACT Theatre 31, at the Skagit County presents Dickens’ classic Historical Museum, 501 holiday tale through Dec. S. Fourth St., La Conner.

30 at The Allen Theatre, 700 Enjoy story times with Union St., Seattle. ShowMrs. Claus, carol singing, times vary. $27-$55 plus gingerbread houses and applicable fees. 206-292more. Free with museum 7676 or www.acttheatre.org. admission. Museum hours

Dickens’ Christmas classic to the stage with a twist. The audience gives suggestions up front, and Unexpected Productions’ improvisers use the suggestions to tell an all-new tale of how Christmas can (or can’t) change Ebenezer Scrooge’s life! $15 plus applicable fees. 800-8383006 or www.unexpected productions.org.

Christmas Day is Tuesday, Dec. 25.

The holiday season is full of numerous events in the Skagit Valley – and throughout the region – for friends and families alike to enjoy.

“FrUiTCaKeS”: Enjoy performances of this holiday tale today through Sunday, Dec. 20-22, at The Whidbey Playhouse, 730 SE Midway Blvd., Oak Harbor. Mix together a batch of fruitcakes, three dozen Christmas trees, 10,000 outdoor Christmas lights, a chicken pox epidemic, two southern spinsters, an estranged old man, a lost cat named Tutti Frutti and a Christmas hog named Buster and you’ve got the recipe for a fun filled and touching evening filled with holiday cheer. Into this world comes Jamie, a kid who has run away from home and comes as far as his money will take him. At first he thinks this town’s inhabitants are “nuttier than fruitcakes.” $16. 360-679-2237 or www.whidbeyplayhouse. com.

HOLIDAY TRAIN RIDE: Join Santa Claus aboard THE LIGHTS OF CHRIST- away options. Meet Santa dance, cultural celebrations, the Lake Whatcom RailMAS: More than a milClaus or talk with “Bruce ice sculpting, student show- way’s Christmas train at 9:30 a.m., noon and 2:30 lion Christmas lights will the Spruce” Christmas tree. cases and more. be displayed at the 16th General admission: $9-$15.

The Winterfest Ice Rink p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22, leaving from Wickersham, annual Lights of ChristDec. 29 is pay-what-youwill be open daily (except 10 miles north of Sedromas, from 5 to 10 p.m. Dec. can night. Theater events Christmas) through Jan Woolley on Highway 9.

20-23 and 26-29, at Warm are extra. 800-228-6724 or 6. $2-$7. 206-684-7200 or Meet Santa and his elf, Beach Camp, 20800 Marine www.warmbeachlights.com. www.seattlecenter.com. sing Christmas carols and Drive, Stanwood. The largenjoy music by Ben the est holiday light display in WINTERFEST: Enjoy AN IMPROVISED the Northwest covers 15 free and affordable activiCHRISTMAS CAROL: 8:30 banjo player. $20 ages 18 and older, $10 ages 2 to 17, acres and features familyties and entertainment p.m. Thursdays through free for ages 1 and younger. oriented entertainment, through Jan. 6 at Seattle Sundays through Dec. 30, Tickets must be purchased live music, theater, crafts, Center, 305 Harrison St., Intiman Playhouse, 201 in advance from Lake food, pony rides, a petting Seattle. Visit Center House Mercer St., Seattle. “An Whatcom Railway, P.O. farm, Polar Express Train for free performances of Improvised Christmas rides and overnight getmusic and comedy, jazz and Carol” brings Charles See EVENTS, Page E15

E4 - Thursday, December 20, 2012

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

MOVIES

‘Zero Dark Thirty’ star: ‘I want to do it all’ Annapurna Pictures financed the film and who knew Chastain from producing “Lawless,” played the NEW YORK — “I want to do go-between. everything!”

“I got a text from her that said: Jessica Chastain is getting ani‘If I ever ask you for anything in mated. Even though she’s manmy life, it’s to call me right now for aged to pack more films into an five minutes,’” recalls Chastain.

18-month period than would seem Bigelow, the Oscar-winning physically possible director of “The Hurt Locker,” was and will, on this set on casting Chastain. day, finish an after“We moved heaven and earth noon of press interfor this woman,” says Bigelow. views with an eve“This is a fairly complex piece and ning performance required somebody with great verof “The Heiress” bal agility. But as importantly, the on Broadway, she’s precision of her carefully calibratnot lacking energy. ed and nuanced performance, I’ve “I want to do seen in her other work but never Chastain crazy villains in to the extent I’ve seen in this.” comic book movies with accents Jessica Chastain plays a member It’s a kind of magic act that and scars!” she continues, shining of the elite team of spies and Chastain does that can even surwith childlike enthusiasm. “I want military operatives stationed in a prise her directors. Jeff Nichols, covert base overseas who secretly to do it all. I think I have to calm who directed her in “Take Sheldevoted themselves to finding down and be like: You don’t have ter,” had heard good things about Osama bin Laden in the thriller to do it all, right now. Hopefully, her and found her charming, but “Zero Dark Thirty.” you’ll be around for a few years.” because it was before most of her Sticking around is at this point films saw the light of day, her talColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. via AP assured for Chastain who last year ent was evident only once work emerged as an actress of seemingly started. limitless range, with throwback “I hadn’t seen anything of hers Pakistan raid that would kill bin laser-like focus. and access to her emotions is part beauty and the subtlety of a chathat was this lightning rod thing,” Laden.

“Any subtext that I have, any of what makes her a great actress, meleon. Due to various distribution said Nichols. “I just cast her. I The performance has already part of the character’s journey, I it made aspects of “Zero Dark delays, her talent was laid out all at once — her “reel,” she calls it — in earned Chastain best actress nomi- have to show through my technical Thirty” difficult — particularly the didn’t really know what I had until I got there.” dialogue and my transformation week spent in a Jordanian prison widely varied performances in “The nations from the Golden Globes The daughter of a firefighter filming the brutal interrogation Tree of Life,” “Take Shelter,” “The and the Screen Actors Guild, and in the 10 years — what happens and vegan chef, Chastain grew up she’s widely expected to land her to my face, my hair, how I interact scenes.

Those scenes, with a fellow Help,” “Coriolanus,” “The Debt” in Northern California knowing second Oscar nomination in two with people,” says Chastain. “It has operative played by Jason Clarke and “Texas Killing Fields.” from an early age she wanted to years (following one for “The to be a more subtle approach. It and a detainee played by Reda She hasn’t let up. Along with be an actor. She trained at Juilliard Help,” an honor she glowingly has to be the kind of acting where Kateb, have already sparked a the bootlegging crime film “LawSchool of Drama but didn’t catch a you don’t see the strings. With renewed dialogue about the role less,” a voice role in “Madagascar recalls as “crazy town”). real break until Al Pacino cast her Screenwriter Mark Boal based Celia (the ditzy Southern belle of torture played in tracking bin 3: Europe’s Most Wanted,” and in a Los Angeles theater producChastain’s character, Maya, on a ‘The Help’), you see the voice, you Laden. her currently running Broadway tion of “Salome.” see all that stuff.”

“There was a 10-minute break debut, Chastain is now starring in real CIA officer whose identity “I’ve been fighting so long,” remains classified. While Boal Seeing herself in one scene while I cried. I had to go hide one of the most anticipated movwhere Maya confronts and behind a building. I just lost it and says the 35-year-old Chastain. “I’m ies of the year: Kathryn Bigelow’s acknowledges Maya was dramanot 17 years old. I trained in this. I docudrama of the hunt for Osama tized for the sake of a film built threatens her supervisor (Kyle started crying,” she says. “I know bin Laden, “Zero Dark Thirty.” around one character, Chastain Chandler) shocked Chastain who I’m playing this woman who’s sup- did a lot of theater. I was playing “I never think about what’s believes the film is “100 percent hadn’t thought herself capable of posed to be — it’s her job — to be dead bodies on TV shows. This is next,” she says. “I always just think: accurate” in depicting the operaevoking, she says, Incredible Hulk- unemotional, but I still feel things. the first time I’m getting offered really incredible roles.”

What haven’t I done yet?” tive’s large role in tracking down like rage. As a contrast, Chastain, And I wasn’t going to be able to Now, her only problem is say“Zero Dark Thirty” easily bin Laden. who describes herself as “a very do the scene again without letting ing no. With just a few hours to go qualified. In it, she plays a dogged, Playing such a tough character, emotional person,” lightens the out, without having a good cry.” until she’s due on stage, Chastain obsessed CIA officer tracking bin Chastain says, was her most difmood of a day discussing the grim Because of her busy schedule, shrugs at overcommitting herself: Laden in a decade-long search that ficult role yet because she had “Zero Dark Thirty,” by wearing a Chastain nearly didn’t do “Zero “A year and a half ago, I didn’t leads from torturing detainees to to build an emotional arc onto pink flowery dress and keeping a Dark Thirty”; she was slated to be intrepid detective work and finally someone who speaks largely in candle going. filming something else at the time. know my life was going to be like this.” to relentless advocacy for the jargon and refuses to detour her Though Chastain’s sensitivity Producer Megan Ellison, whose

By JAKE COYLE AP Entertainment Writer

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

Thursday, December 20, 2012 - E5

THIS WEEKENDin the area

Eagle watching on the Skagit View bald eagles wintering on the Skagit River from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Dec. 22-Jan. 27, at three eagle watcher stations on Highway 20: Howard Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport, Sutter Creek rest area at milepost 100 and the Marblemount Fish Hatchery, 8319 Fish Hatchery Road. Volunteers will provide spotting scopes and binoculars. Free. 360-856-5700.

HOLIDAY CHAMBER MUSIC Three classical music professionals plus a park ranger with advanced skills make up the string quartet that will perform at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23, at Studio 1010, 1010 6th St., Anacortes.

Seattle native Nancy Bean (violin) is assistant concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra whose credits include appearances with Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson and Yo-Yo Ma. Fellow orchestra member Lloyd Smith (cello) has been assistant principal cellist since 1988 and has appeared as a soloist with that institution, as well as with the Indianapolis Symphony and other orchestras.

Violist Karie Prescott graduated from Curtis Institute of Music and the University of Michigan and has performed with the Seattle Symphony and Ballet Theatre Orchestra, among others. She is on the faculty of Pepperdine University and performs with the L.A. Philharmonic, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the L.A. Opera.

Park ranger David Bean (violin) is a member of the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra and a graduate of Western Washington University.

The program includes Corelli, Vaughan Williams, Schubert and Leroy Anderson. A champagne punch will follow. $20. Reservations available at 360-421-2852.

CHRISTMAS DISPLAY A wide variety of elegant holiday place settings and whimsical Christmas decorations are on display through the end of the year at the Anacortes Museum, 1305 Eighth St., Anacortes. Members of the Ana Curtis and Fidalgo Finderskeepers chapters of the International Questers Organization have filled the Anacortes Presents case with painted pieces by Spode, Lenox, Johnson Bros., Avon, Gibson, Mikasa and other fine china makers. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.

360-293-1915 or museum.cityofanacortes. org

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

E6 - Thursday, December 20, 2012

REVIEWS MUSIC CDS Compiled from news services

Brunos Mars “Unorthodox Jukebox”

Bruno Mars was no innocent when he dropped his 2010 debut, “Doo-Wops & Hooligans.” As a writer, Mars had co-written hooks for hits by Flo Rida and such. As a Hooligan, though, he proposed marriage and willingly took grenades for l’amour; he had whiskey oozing from his pores. But on “Unorthodox Jukebox,” when Mars sings “Got a bottle full of liquor with a cocaine kicker / I’m feeling like I’m 30 feet tall” on the sly “Gorilla,” it’s apparent he’s toughened up.

Good. Mars’ newfound grime gives the club-a-dub “Money Make Her Smile” its couch-dancing subtext, while a dark dancehall vibe clings to “Show Me” like skin on bologna. Beyond Mars’ revelation of nastiness — lyrically, sonically — “Unorthodox Jukebox” is, like its predecessor, a slab of pop perfection to be cherished as one would a Bacharach tune. There’s a Burt-like cosmopolitan sensibility on the torchy “When I Was Your Man,” the smolderingly soulful “If I Knew” and the doleful disco-fied “Treasure.”

Still, this is slick 21st century pop.

Throughout “Unorthodox’s” genre-shifting proceedings, Mars, the singer, finds the sweet spot every time. n A.D. Amorosi, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Jessica Pratt “Jessica Pratt”

Part of the appeal of Jessica Pratt’s selftitled debut is that it sounds so old. Pratt, a young singer-songwriter from San Francisco, perfectly inhabits a distant folk world, a world where Vashti Bunyan, Linda Perhacs and Bill Fay are major figures, and sparse, cryptic songs can be deeply transfixing. It’s a world shared by contemporary artists such as Joanna Newsom, Marissa Nadler and Meg Baird.

But while an element of familiarity graces these 11 songs, Pratt casts a spooky spell of her own.

“I am calling out to you from another place,” Pratt sings to start “Bushel Hyde.”

Throughout the album, she uses little more than her finger-picked guitar to accompany her quavering, unadorned voice. The songs are full of images of dark roads and departures, and they seduce the listener to follow Pratt on her journey to the past. n Steve Klinge, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Maria Muldaur “… First Came Memphis Minnie”

Although billed equally with the other contributors on the album cover, Maria Muldaur is really the driving force behind this “loving tribute” to Memphis Minnie. She produced the set and sings on eight of the 13 tracks.

Muldaur has had a long fascination with the pioneering blueswoman who became a primary influence on her. A photo on the inner sleeve shows Muldaur singing a Memphis Minnie tune with her then-husband, Geoff Muldaur, at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Her feel for the music comes through in performances of such numbers as “Me and My Chauffeur Blues” and “She Put Me Outdoors” (one of two duets with bluesman Alvin Youngblood Hart).

Also impressive on the album’s bracingly stripped-down acoustic arrangements are Bonnie Raitt, Rory Block and Ruthie Foster. Two of the album’s contributions, meanwhile, are recordings by now-deceased artists: Phoebe Snow, not known for the blues, offers a striking rendition of “In My Girlish Days” from 1976, backed by David Bromberg and others; and Koko Taylor closes the set with a ferocious, full-band take on “Black Rat Swing” from 2007 that is electric in more ways than one. n Nick Cristiano, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Brubeck Brothers Quartet

“Lifetimes” Dave Brubeck is no longer on this earthly bandstand, but his sons play on, mining in many ways the artistic and entertainment values the old man championed.

Bassist and trombonist Chris and drum-

mer Dan Brubeck create a warm, mainstream quartet that covers a bunch of tunes linked to dad, ranging from Paul Desmond’s iconic “Take Five,” done here as more electric and stiff, to “Kathy’s Waltz,” a winsome tribute to daughter Cathy (someone at Columbia Records misspelled her name on the great “Time Out” album).

The quartet, with guitarist Mike DeMicco and pianist Chuck Lamb, presents a wellhoned sound that is perfectly respectable, if kind of safe. n Karl Stark, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Green Day

“Uno,” “Dos” and “Tre”

Cobra,” but others don’t fire on all cylinders.

Overall, this last installment of the trilogy shows another direction of the band’s evolution. n John Carucci, Associated Press

“The Music Of Nashville: Original Soundtrack” Among the characteristics the network TV drama “Nashville” gets right about its namesake city is the music. Guided by musical director T Bone Burnett, the new series presents a passable and often entertaining facsimile of country radio hits as well as samples of the less commercial side of the city’s music scene.

The hourlong evening soap features vocals by several of its main characters.

The most convincing work comes from an upstart acoustic duo played by Clare Bowen and Sam Palladio, best represented on the album by “If I Didn’t Know Better,” and a rising starlet portrayed with convincing fierceness by Hayden Panettiere, who has received radio airplay for her pop-country dance tune, “Telescope.”

Actors Connie Britton and Charles Esten, as a veteran country star and her longtime guitarist, don’t have the vocal chops of the top singers in Music City. But they perform well enough onstage (especially on the ballad “No One Will Ever Love You”) while displaying their dramatic talents when the microphones are off.

The biggest musical disappointment is the shaggy rocker Jonathan Jackson, who lacks the charisma of the others. On the soundtrack, he fails to sharpen the edge of “Twist of Barbwire,” an Elvis Costello composition. Still, most of the recordings on the “Nashville” soundtrack rate with what Music City regularly produces — thereby achieving the show’s goal.

CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: The quietly conveyed “When the Right One Comes Along,” performed by Bowen and Palladio, features the kind of subtly emotional songwriting heard nightly by patrons of Nashville’s fabled Bluebird Cafe (recreated in exacting detail in the TV drama).

As record sales continue to wane, one has to wonder about the logic behind separately releasing a trilogy of albums over the course of three months. Maybe when you’re a punk band coming off a pair of hugely successful concept albums turned into a Broadway smash, you do things a little differently. Still, it’s an unusual way to release your ninth, 10th and 11th studio albums.

“Tre,” the final installment of the trilogy just released, is a bit more diverse than the others, with a slightly mellower and more mature sound that embraces a variety of styles. Imagine 1997’s “Nimrod,” but with more songs like “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).” Look no further than the opening and closing tracks to sum it up. There’s the country blues-inspired “Brutal Love” to start, and the piano ballad “The Forgotten” to end.

While a common thread runs through the trilogy, each record is distinctly different.

The first, “Uno,” returns the band to its pre-“American Idiot” sound with a dozen rocking songs that are melodic and highly energetic. The songs are also more mature, with themes like married men on the brink of infidelity. Standout tracks on this riffy guitar assault include “Fell For You” and “Oh Love.”

“Dos” attempts to capture the no-frills sound of a garage rock band, but feels like a drop-off after “Uno.” Some of the tracks work well, namely, “Stray Heart” and “Lady n Michael McCall, Associated Press

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

Thursday, December 20, 2012 - E7

REVIEWS VIDEO GAMES Chris Campbell, Scripps Howard News Service

‘Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault’

Platform: PlayStation 3 Genre: Shooter Publisher: Sony ESRB Rating: E, for Everyone Grade: 3 stars (out of 5) Just over a year since the release of “All 4 One,” it may feel strange to revisit the Ratchet & Clank universe so soon. “Full Frontal Assault” has a simple message for gamers: You get one way to play this game, so take it or leave it.

“Full Frontal Assault” all but abandons a campaign mode. Instead, this game spends all its time in competitive multiplayer, and while that could open gamers up to a host of opportunities, that is all you get.

The multiplayer mode operates in three phrases (recon, squad and assault), each giving you a chance to mold the battlefield to your liking. The goal is to blow up your opponent’s power generators while protecting your own. Acquire bolts (the franchise’s long-running form of currency) and use them to purchase offensive or defensive units. After several hours of going to war and either winning or losing, if you want to try another match it will be like playing the same thing again. The action and visuals don’t disappoint, and fun can be had, but you yearn for another option now and then.

Those looking to feed their nuts-andbolts fix may appreciate the budget-level $20 price tag for this game, but remember that for the cheaper price you often get cheaper content, and “Full Frontal Assault” is exactly that, an assault on your patience to stick with a game that does one thing, and one thing only.

‘Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two’

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U and PC Genre: Adventure Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios ESRB Rating: E, for Everyone Grade: 1.5 stars I’m constantly befuddled how Disney manages to screw up a video game featuring its most iconic creation. From the entertainment company that has, for decades, brought charming and sophisticated animation to movies and TVs, “The Power of Two” is a sequel to a disappointing game that, sadly, continues to follow every wrong path.

This does not come from a Disney hater; I still sip from the Goofy mug I bought in the early 1990s. Nevertheless, frustration mounts early in playing “The Power of Two,” and the game’s problems remain obvious throughout.

The platform best resembles a child’s nightmare. Running and jumping from surface to surface is constantly undone by poor mechanics, making every leap a 50-50 chance of death. You spend most of your time guiding Mickey through buildings and fighting off enemies with a colorful paintbrush. Oswald tags along as your AI companion, but he provides almost no assistance and ruins several battles by getting in the way.

When making a sequel to a game that wasn’t universally loved to begin with, one would hope that lessons were learned and improvements made. “The Power of Two” shows that a second time around is just twice the frustration. n Follow Chris Campbell @campbler or email him at game_on_games@mac.com.

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E8 - Thursday, December 20, 2012

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

TRAVEL

Savoring tea trails in Darjeeling and Awssam, India

By DENIS D. GRAY Associated Press

Leaves are pictured on a tea plant on the Gatoonga Tea Estate.

If you go Tea Trail accommodations n Thengal Manor, Jorhat, India, doubles $120, www.heritage tourism.india.com n The Heritage Bungalow, Balipara, India, double occupancy, $460 including meals. Other bungalows are $156, including meals, www.wildmahseer.com n Windamere, Darjeeling, India, Colonial Suite, double occupancy, $210 including meals, www.windamere hotel.com n Maikabari, Kurseong, India, homestays $11 per person including meals. Tea is free, www.makaibari.com Getting there: The airport in Kolkata, India, has the best air links to both Assam and Darjeeling regions. Taxis can be hired at most larger towns.

When to go: Weatherwise, October through February is best in both Assam and Darjeeling but tea production takes a winter break toward the end of November.

JORHAT, India — “This is your own home now,” announces our host, welcoming us to Thengal Manor.

And we wish it was, this gracious residence of one of India’s great tea dynasties, which has opened the family villa, its idyllic gardens and an impeccable staff of 15 to overnight visitors.

Thengal Manor marked the start of a two-week journey through the world’s finest tea-growing areas — India’s Assam and Darjeeling. Here we mingled with nimble-fingered women as they plucked a green sea of bushes with astounding speed, drank pink gins by the fireplace in colonialera parlors and were easily seduced by the pampered lifestyle of tea planters.

And of course, we drank many a cup of Assamese (“bold, sultry, malty”) and Darjeeling (“the champagne of teas, the color of Himalayan sunlight”) enough to send aficionados into ecstasy.

Let me confess that I am not particularly teaaddicted. Too much tannin does funny things to my tummy. But my wife, a Scot, more than makes up for it.

So that, plus our love for northeast India, sparked our interest in a travel niche that is very much a growing

Photos by Denis Gray / AP

Visitors enjoy afternoon tea, a heritage from British colonial days, on the lawn of Thengal Manor in Jorhat, India. The manor was opened to guests in 2000 but is still owned by the third generation of the Barooah family, who grew rich planting tea and built the mansion in 1929. of Americans, apparently because of a percolating interest in the United States in the art and taste of quality teas, though my wife insists American tea culture still consists of “hot water and a tea bag.”

Along with two friends from France, my wife and I had Thengal Manor to ourselves, its five acres of lawns, a chandeliered dining room with elegant silverware, A plucker makes her way through the tea bushes on bedrooms with soaring ceilthe Addabarie Tea Estate in Assam, which dates back ings and four-poster beds to 1870 and British colonial times, in Balipara, India. and a gallery of portraits of the Barooah family going trend: tea tourism. ers, the “burra sahibs,” and back to Bisturam Barooah, whose son built the manor It’s not a particularly their domain. Most estates well-organized pocket of are charmers dating back to in 1929 after becoming the richest Indian tea planter in the industry, but more tea the British Raj. Assam. estates, also called gardens, Those taking to the tea The family began to take are opening their properties trails of northeast India, to guests interested not only regions of the south and Sri in visitors in 2000, but it in their product and how Lanka, include locals and remains very much their it comes to be, but in the foreigners. Among them personal place. In a serene unique world of tea plantare an increasing number enclosure behind the manor

stand 19 temple-like tombs, one prepared for the current patriarch.

During our time at Thengal, ringed by rice fields, bamboo groves and neat village homes, we visited the nearby factory of the Gatoonga Tea Estate to observe the five stages of black tea-making and tour two contrasting tea trail options: Gatoonga’s Mistry Sahib’s bungalow and the Burra Sahib bungalow on the Sangsua Tea Estate.

The century-old Mistry is the ultimate getaway, almost smothered by the surrounding greenery, a classic bungalow with a wrap-around verandah shaded by an immense banyan tree. Burra Sahib has been modernized and features an 18-hole golf course meandering through the tea gardens.

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

Thursday, December 20, 2012 - E9

TRAVEL Our second stay in Assam was on the Addabarie Tea Estate near the city of Tezpur, where a tourism enterprise has leased a luxurious onetime residence of the tea estate manager, the threebedroom 1875 Heritage Bungalow, and five more modest houses.

“The tea planter’s lifestyle is this,” said manager Durrez Ahmed. “Lovely bungalows, sets of servants attending to your every need. So visitors who want to enjoy this kind of lifestyle come.”

It also was and remains a hardworking, lonely lifestyle in a world unto itself.

Addabarie and most other larger estates have their own clinics, schools, shops and day care centers. (Almost all tea pluckers are women; far less nimble-fingered males need not apply.)

Ruling over estates is the manager, described as a benevolent despot who

like his British antecedents still retains a large staff and observes strict protocol. His bungalow, in the words of one Indian author, “is to the garden folk what Windsor Castle is to British citizens.”

“And why did tea tourism get started?” we asked Ahmed.

Smaller, private estates began welcoming guests in the 1990s as a marketing strategy to help pull them out of a worldwide tea glut.

Another slump followed in the early 2000s when India opened its markets to cheaper imports, forcing some growers to seek alternative sources of revenue. There’s been no looking back.

From the lowlands of Assam, we ascended 7,000 feet to the Olympus of tea: Darjeeling, where altitude, soil, slope and sunlight come together to concoct magic.

Among the hill stations the British founded to flee

India’s blazing summers, Darjeeling’s gems include the Windamere, haunt of tea people past and present and often cited as one of India’s finest colonial-era hotels.

Originally a hostel for bachelor tea planters dating back to the 1880s, the hotel is owned by the Tenduf-las, a prominent Tibetan family with close ties to the Raj who maintain the aura of those bygone days.

There’s afternoon tea with scones, served since 1939 in Daisy’s Music Room where family albums are stacked atop a piano lighted by candelabras. Hot water bottles are tucked into beds each evening, and English porridge is dispensed by white-gloved waiters at breakfast.

Around Darjeeling are nearly 90 tea estates, including Makaibari, producer of India’s first organic tea and a pioneer in tea tourism, offering 21 homestays with estate

workers and an upmarket residence. Its factory has changed very little since it was erected in 1859, and barely relies on modern technology to produce high-end tea for export to the U.S. and Europe.

“We need the human touch — and nose — not a robotic arm or an aromatic sensor,” says production manager Sanjoy Mukherjee, inviting us to sample six of his teas, including Silver Tips Imperial, which fetched a record $455 a pound at an auction in China.

Back at the Windamere, we dined by candlelight with music of the 1920s and ’30s softly in the background.

Served is honey-glazed lamb and chocolate souffl. Before dinner, Sherab Tenduf-la, the hotel’s owner, offered us pink gins, the quintessential colonial drink, by the fireplace as cold mists veiled the looming Himalayan peaks.

Local travel

SHORT TRIPS: Mount Vernon Parks and Recreation DAY TRIPS: Camano Cen- offers travel opportunities for participants ages 12 ter offers trips for seniors and older (adult supervision and others, departing from required for ages 18 and and returning to Camano younger). 360-336-6215.

Center, 606 Arrowhead Road, Camano Island. 360ESCORTED TOURS: The 387-0222 or www.camano Whatcom County Tour Procenter.org. gram offers a variety of day “Fiddler on the Roof”: Saturday, Jan. 26. Celebrate trips and longer tours, with most trips departing from the power of tradition and and returning to the Bellingchange with this multiham Senior Activity Center, award-winning musical.

315 Halleck St., Belling$65-$70. Pay by Dec. 20.

Seattle Boat Show: Tues- ham. 360-733-4030, press day, Jan. 29. Check out the #, ext. 47015, or wccoa. org/index.php/tours. latest boats and boating gear. $15-$20, transportaPASSPORT APPLICAtion only. Buy tickets at the TIONS: The Anacortes door for $12. Pay by Jan. Public Library accepts U.S. 15. passport applications from Frye Museum and Volnoon to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays unteer Park Conservatory and Wednesdays, and 1 to Tour: Tuesday, Feb. 12.

4 p.m. Saturdays at 1220 Enjoy a docent tour of the 10th St., Anacortes. Pass60-year-old Frye Museum, port forms and information lunch in its cafe, and on fees and how to apply then tour the 100-year-old are available at http:// conservatory. $21-$26, includes tour and transpor- travel.state.gov or pick up an application and passport tation. Lunch on your own.

Pay by Jan. 29. guide at the library.

SVH_4.949x4.75_ December Week 2-4

DECEMBER AT TULALIP BINGO Paying Out Up To $7.1 MillionPaying Out Up To $7.1 Million

9AM SPECIAL BREAKFAST BINGO

NEW YEARS EVE COSTUME CONTEST

$3,000

December 9, 16, 23 & 30

DECEMBER 31 7PM SESSION

HOT SEAT DRAWING

8 Regular Games Paying:

$250 ea.

“Father Time, Mother Nature, & Baby New Year”

2 Blackout Games Paying:

(costumes may not be over revealing)

Cost: $15/9-on

1st Prize: $700 2nd Prize: $500 3rd Prize: $300

MONDAY

SUNDAYS

$500 ea.

(pack includes 2 Blackout Games)

A Free Breakfast is available with a valid bingo receipt buy-in.

Contest winners will be announced prior to the start of the Lotto Blackout.

Breakfast will be available from 8am to 9am

All participating bingo contestants must be present and playing with a valid receipt to claim prize.

$5 OFF BINGO Any 11AM or 7PM Session

Bring in this ad and receive $5 Off

1 coupon per guest • Redeem at cashier window - Not valid with any other offer. No cash value. Only original ad will be honored for special offers - no copies.

Management reserves the right to cancel or amend promotion at any time.

MYSTERY GIFT FRIDAYS

December 7, 14, 21 & 28 (1) Winner drawn at all session halftimes. Each winner will pick a “Gift” from the prize board to determine cash prize.

Winners must be actively playing a bingo slot machine to claim prize.

No seat hopping allowed.

Valid 12/01/12 - 12/30/12 MG BNG01212

1-800-631-3313

December 21 • Holiday Open House/Dinner - LC Retirement Inn 5–7pm December 22 • Small Shop Saturday – Wrapping It Up! • Holiday Bubbles! Hellams Vineyard 1–6pm, 12/22 – 12/31 December 25 • Merry Christmas!

E10 Thursday, December 20, 2012

ON STAGE in the Skagit Valley and surrounding area December 20-27 Thursday.20 MUSIC

Christmas Concert: Music from around the world with soprano Karina Choe and instrumental music, 7 p.m., Mount Vernon Seventh Day Adventist Church, 4520 E. College Way. Free.

360-416-0443.

Thursday, December 20, 2012 E11

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

TUNING UP Playing at area venues December 20-27 THURSDAY.20

SATURDAY-SUNDAY.22-23

SATURDAY.22

THE PINE HEARTS 7:30 p.m., Conway Muse, 18444 Spruce/Main, Conway.

360-445-3000.

“THE NUTCRACKER” Northwest Ballet Theatre, McIntyre Hall, 2501 E. College Way, Mount Vernon. $20-$30. Check individual listings for times.

360-416-7727 or www.mcintyrehall.org.

VOYAGER 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., Skagit Valley Casino Resort, Winners Lounge, 5984 N. Darrk Lane, Bow. No cover. 877-275-2448 or www.theskagit.com

THEATER

“FrUiTCaKeS”: 7:30 p.m., Whidbey Playhouse, 730 SE Midway Blvd., Oak Harbor. $16. 360-679-2237 or www.whidbeyplayhouse.com.

“Irving Berlin’s White Christmas”: 8 p.m., Anacortes Community Theatre, 918 M Ave., Anacortes. $20. 360-293-6829.

Friday.21 MUSIC

Mount Vernon High School Jazz Combo: 7 p.m., Firelight Bistro, 10007 270th St. NW, Stanwood. 360-629-7575.

THURSDAY.20

THEATER

“FrUiTCaKeS”: 7:30 p.m., Whidbey Playhouse, 730 SE Midway Blvd., Oak Harbor. $16. 360-679-2237 or www.whidbeyplayhouse.com.

“Irving Berlin’s White Christmas”: 8 p.m., Anacortes Community Theatre, 918 M Ave., Anacortes. $20. 360-293-6829.

“Back Home on the Tumblin’ D”: 6 p.m., dinner theatre at The Lights of Christmas Baylight Theatre, 20800 Marine Drive, Stanwood. Starting at $39 per person. 800-228-6274 or www.warm beachlights.com.

Rattletrap Ruckus: 8 p.m., Redlight, 1017 N. State St., Bellingham.

Free. www.redlight bellingham.com.

THURSDAYSATURDAY.20-22

Saturday.22 BALLET

“IRVING BERLIN’S WHITE CHRISTMAS” 8 p.m., Anacortes Community Theatre, 918 M Ave., Anacortes. $20. 360-293-6829.

“The Nutcracker”: Northwest Ballet Theatre, 7:30 p.m., McIntyre Hall, 2501 E. College Way, Mount Vernon. $20-$30.

360-416-7727 or www.mcintyrehall.org.

MUSIC, BURLESQUE

FUnKY SAnTA PArTY: featuring Emily Asher’s Garden Party Band (New Orleans jazz & swing) and The Jezebel Rebels (burlesque), 7:30 p.m., Conway Muse, 18444 Spruce/Main, Conway. $15.

360-445-3000.

“Irving Berlin’s White Christmas”: 8 p.m., Anacortes Community Theatre, 918 M Ave., Anacortes. $20. 360-293-6829.

“Back Home on the Tumblin’ D”: 6 p.m., dinner theatre at The Lights of Christmas Baylight Theatre, 20800 Marine Drive, Stanwood. Starting at $39 per person. 800-228-6274 or www.warm beachlights.com.

Heist, Pawnbroker, Luke and Timmy featuring Bryce: 9 p.m., The Shakedown, 1212 N. State St., Bellingham. $1. 360-7781067.

Shay Mailloux from Trainwreck (country rock): 9 p.m. to midnight, Cyndy’s Broiler, 27021 102nd Ave NW, Stanwood. $5 cover.

360-629-4800 or www. cyndysbroiler.com.

Voyager (hard rock, metal): 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., Skagit Valley Casino Resort, Winners Lounge, 5984 N. Darrk Lane, Bow. No cover. 877-2752448 or www.theskagit. com.

Steve Meyer and Ben Starner (piano): 7:30 p.m., Edison Inn, 5829 Cains Court, Edison. No cover. 360-7666266.

Scratch Daddy: End of the World Party, 9 p.m. to midnight, Rockfish Grill, 320 Commercial Ave., Anacortes. 360588-1720.

Blues Playground: 8:30 to 11:30 p.m., Rockfish Grill, 320 Commercial Ave., Anacortes. 360-588-1720.

The Halyards: 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., H2O, 314 Commercial Ave., Anacortes. 360-755-3956.

Massy Ferguson (acoustic rock): 9 p.m, Big Rock Café & Grocery, 14779 Highway 9, Mount Vernon.

360-424-7872.

The Sardines: 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., Big Lake Bar & Grill, 18247 Highway 9, Mount Vernon.

360-422-6411.

The Blackberry Bushes Stringband: 7:30 p.m., Conway Muse, 18444 Spruce/Main, Conway. $7 cover. 360-445-3000.

Rookery, Totalizer: 9 p.m., Redlight, 1017 N. State St., Bellingham. $5. www.redlightbelling ham.com.

Barefeet: End of the World/Winter Solstice Party, 7 p.m., Birdsview Brewing Co., 38302 Highway 20, Birdsview.

360-826-3406 or www. birdsviewbrewing company.com.

Clambake, Sanoma, Cat Bomb: 10 p.m., The Shakedown, 1212 N. State St., Bellingham. $5.

360-778-1067.

FUnKY SAnTA PArTY: featuring Emily Asher’s Garden Party Band (New Orleans jazz & swing) and The Jezebel Rebels (burlesque), 7:30 p.m., Conway Muse, 18444 Spruce/Main, Conway. $15. 360-4453000.

Girl Guts, Caparza, Black Mesa: 9 p.m., The Shakedown, 1212 N. State St., Bellingham. $3.

360-778-1067.

SATURDAY.22 Craig Parrish / Skagit Valley Herald

THEATER

“FrUiTCaKeS”: 2:30 p.m., Whidbey Playhouse, 730 SE Midway Blvd., Oak Harbor. $16. 360-679-2237 or www.whidbeyplayhouse.com.

The Pine Hearts: 7:30 p.m., Conway Muse, 18444 Spruce/Main, Conway. 360-445-3000.

FRIDAY.21

Sunday.23 BALLET

“The Nutcracker”: Northwest Ballet Theatre, 2 p.m., McIntyre Hall, 2501 E. College Way, Mount Vernon. $20-$30.

360-416-7727 or www.mcintyrehall.org.

THEATER

“Back Home on the Tumblin’ D”: 4 p.m., dessert matinee at The Lights of Christmas Baylight Theatre, 20800 Marine Drive, Stanwood. Starting at $24 per person. 800-228-6274 or www.warm beachlights.com.

Monday-Thursday.24-27

Zydeco Explosion: 8:30 p.m., Edison Inn, 5829 Cains Court, Edison. 360-766-6266.

No events submitted

Voyager (hard rock): 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., Skagit Valley Casino Resort, Winners Lounge, 5984 N. Darrk Lane, Bow. No cover. 877-275-2448 or www.theskagit.com.

The Sardines: 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., Big Lake Bar & Grill, 18247 Highway 9, Mount Vernon.

360-422-6411.

SUNDAY.23 Bow Diddlers: 5:30 p.m., Edison Inn, 5829 Cains Court, Edison. No cover. 360-766-6266.

WEDNESDAY.26 Gary B’s Church of the Blues (blues, classic rock): 6 to 10 p.m., Castle Tavern, 708 Metcalf St., Sedro-Woolley. 360-855-2263.

Rich Rorex, Terry Nelson & Friends: 4 to 8 p.m., The Station House, 315 Morris St., La Conner.

No cover. 360-466-4488.

Fidalgo Swing: 6 to 9 p.m., Rockfish Grill, 320 Commercial Ave., Anacortes. 360-588-1720.

THURSDAY.27 Rattletrap Ruckus: 8 p.m., Redlight, 1017 N. State St., Bellingham.

Free. www.redlightbellingham.com.

E10 Thursday, December 20, 2012

ON STAGE in the Skagit Valley and surrounding area December 20-27 Thursday.20 MUSIC

Christmas Concert: Music from around the world with soprano Karina Choe and instrumental music, 7 p.m., Mount Vernon Seventh Day Adventist Church, 4520 E. College Way. Free.

360-416-0443.

Thursday, December 20, 2012 E11

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

TUNING UP Playing at area venues December 20-27 THURSDAY.20

SATURDAY-SUNDAY.22-23

SATURDAY.22

THE PINE HEARTS 7:30 p.m., Conway Muse, 18444 Spruce/Main, Conway.

360-445-3000.

“THE NUTCRACKER” Northwest Ballet Theatre, McIntyre Hall, 2501 E. College Way, Mount Vernon. $20-$30. Check individual listings for times.

360-416-7727 or www.mcintyrehall.org.

VOYAGER 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., Skagit Valley Casino Resort, Winners Lounge, 5984 N. Darrk Lane, Bow. No cover. 877-275-2448 or www.theskagit.com

THEATER

“FrUiTCaKeS”: 7:30 p.m., Whidbey Playhouse, 730 SE Midway Blvd., Oak Harbor. $16. 360-679-2237 or www.whidbeyplayhouse.com.

“Irving Berlin’s White Christmas”: 8 p.m., Anacortes Community Theatre, 918 M Ave., Anacortes. $20. 360-293-6829.

Friday.21 MUSIC

Mount Vernon High School Jazz Combo: 7 p.m., Firelight Bistro, 10007 270th St. NW, Stanwood. 360-629-7575.

THURSDAY.20

THEATER

“FrUiTCaKeS”: 7:30 p.m., Whidbey Playhouse, 730 SE Midway Blvd., Oak Harbor. $16. 360-679-2237 or www.whidbeyplayhouse.com.

“Irving Berlin’s White Christmas”: 8 p.m., Anacortes Community Theatre, 918 M Ave., Anacortes. $20. 360-293-6829.

“Back Home on the Tumblin’ D”: 6 p.m., dinner theatre at The Lights of Christmas Baylight Theatre, 20800 Marine Drive, Stanwood. Starting at $39 per person. 800-228-6274 or www.warm beachlights.com.

Rattletrap Ruckus: 8 p.m., Redlight, 1017 N. State St., Bellingham.

Free. www.redlight bellingham.com.

THURSDAYSATURDAY.20-22

Saturday.22 BALLET

“IRVING BERLIN’S WHITE CHRISTMAS” 8 p.m., Anacortes Community Theatre, 918 M Ave., Anacortes. $20. 360-293-6829.

“The Nutcracker”: Northwest Ballet Theatre, 7:30 p.m., McIntyre Hall, 2501 E. College Way, Mount Vernon. $20-$30.

360-416-7727 or www.mcintyrehall.org.

MUSIC, BURLESQUE

FUnKY SAnTA PArTY: featuring Emily Asher’s Garden Party Band (New Orleans jazz & swing) and The Jezebel Rebels (burlesque), 7:30 p.m., Conway Muse, 18444 Spruce/Main, Conway. $15.

360-445-3000.

“Irving Berlin’s White Christmas”: 8 p.m., Anacortes Community Theatre, 918 M Ave., Anacortes. $20. 360-293-6829.

“Back Home on the Tumblin’ D”: 6 p.m., dinner theatre at The Lights of Christmas Baylight Theatre, 20800 Marine Drive, Stanwood. Starting at $39 per person. 800-228-6274 or www.warm beachlights.com.

Heist, Pawnbroker, Luke and Timmy featuring Bryce: 9 p.m., The Shakedown, 1212 N. State St., Bellingham. $1. 360-7781067.

Shay Mailloux from Trainwreck (country rock): 9 p.m. to midnight, Cyndy’s Broiler, 27021 102nd Ave NW, Stanwood. $5 cover.

360-629-4800 or www. cyndysbroiler.com.

Voyager (hard rock, metal): 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., Skagit Valley Casino Resort, Winners Lounge, 5984 N. Darrk Lane, Bow. No cover. 877-2752448 or www.theskagit. com.

Steve Meyer and Ben Starner (piano): 7:30 p.m., Edison Inn, 5829 Cains Court, Edison. No cover. 360-7666266.

Scratch Daddy: End of the World Party, 9 p.m. to midnight, Rockfish Grill, 320 Commercial Ave., Anacortes. 360588-1720.

Blues Playground: 8:30 to 11:30 p.m., Rockfish Grill, 320 Commercial Ave., Anacortes. 360-588-1720.

The Halyards: 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., H2O, 314 Commercial Ave., Anacortes. 360-755-3956.

Massy Ferguson (acoustic rock): 9 p.m, Big Rock Café & Grocery, 14779 Highway 9, Mount Vernon.

360-424-7872.

The Sardines: 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., Big Lake Bar & Grill, 18247 Highway 9, Mount Vernon.

360-422-6411.

The Blackberry Bushes Stringband: 7:30 p.m., Conway Muse, 18444 Spruce/Main, Conway. $7 cover. 360-445-3000.

Rookery, Totalizer: 9 p.m., Redlight, 1017 N. State St., Bellingham. $5. www.redlightbelling ham.com.

Barefeet: End of the World/Winter Solstice Party, 7 p.m., Birdsview Brewing Co., 38302 Highway 20, Birdsview.

360-826-3406 or www. birdsviewbrewing company.com.

Clambake, Sanoma, Cat Bomb: 10 p.m., The Shakedown, 1212 N. State St., Bellingham. $5.

360-778-1067.

FUnKY SAnTA PArTY: featuring Emily Asher’s Garden Party Band (New Orleans jazz & swing) and The Jezebel Rebels (burlesque), 7:30 p.m., Conway Muse, 18444 Spruce/Main, Conway. $15. 360-4453000.

Girl Guts, Caparza, Black Mesa: 9 p.m., The Shakedown, 1212 N. State St., Bellingham. $3.

360-778-1067.

SATURDAY.22 Craig Parrish / Skagit Valley Herald

THEATER

“FrUiTCaKeS”: 2:30 p.m., Whidbey Playhouse, 730 SE Midway Blvd., Oak Harbor. $16. 360-679-2237 or www.whidbeyplayhouse.com.

The Pine Hearts: 7:30 p.m., Conway Muse, 18444 Spruce/Main, Conway. 360-445-3000.

FRIDAY.21

Sunday.23 BALLET

“The Nutcracker”: Northwest Ballet Theatre, 2 p.m., McIntyre Hall, 2501 E. College Way, Mount Vernon. $20-$30.

360-416-7727 or www.mcintyrehall.org.

THEATER

“Back Home on the Tumblin’ D”: 4 p.m., dessert matinee at The Lights of Christmas Baylight Theatre, 20800 Marine Drive, Stanwood. Starting at $24 per person. 800-228-6274 or www.warm beachlights.com.

Monday-Thursday.24-27

Zydeco Explosion: 8:30 p.m., Edison Inn, 5829 Cains Court, Edison. 360-766-6266.

No events submitted

Voyager (hard rock): 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., Skagit Valley Casino Resort, Winners Lounge, 5984 N. Darrk Lane, Bow. No cover. 877-275-2448 or www.theskagit.com.

The Sardines: 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., Big Lake Bar & Grill, 18247 Highway 9, Mount Vernon.

360-422-6411.

SUNDAY.23 Bow Diddlers: 5:30 p.m., Edison Inn, 5829 Cains Court, Edison. No cover. 360-766-6266.

WEDNESDAY.26 Gary B’s Church of the Blues (blues, classic rock): 6 to 10 p.m., Castle Tavern, 708 Metcalf St., Sedro-Woolley. 360-855-2263.

Rich Rorex, Terry Nelson & Friends: 4 to 8 p.m., The Station House, 315 Morris St., La Conner.

No cover. 360-466-4488.

Fidalgo Swing: 6 to 9 p.m., Rockfish Grill, 320 Commercial Ave., Anacortes. 360-588-1720.

THURSDAY.27 Rattletrap Ruckus: 8 p.m., Redlight, 1017 N. State St., Bellingham.

Free. www.redlightbellingham.com.

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

E12 - Thursday, December 20, 2012

BONUS

HOT TICKETS 2 CHAINZ: Dec. 21, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.show boxonline.com.

DWEEZIL ZAPPA: Dec. 23, Neptune Theatre, Seattle. 877-784-4849 or www.live nation.com.

ZEDS DEAD: Dec. 26, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.show boxonline.com.

DIGABLE PLANETS: Dec. 29, Neptune Theatre, Seattle. 877-784-4849 or www.live nation.com.

PICKWICK: Dec. 31, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showbox online.com.

TWO STORY ZORI: Dec. 31, Showbox SoDo, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.show boxonline.com.

RESOLUTION 2013: featuring DOCTOR P, MORD FUSTANG, RUSKO, W&W: Dec. 31, WaMu Theater, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.ticketmaster.com.

NEUROSIS: Jan. 5, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showboxon line.com.

LADY GAGA: Jan. 14, 2013, Tacoma Dome, Tacoma. 800-745-3000 or www.livenation. com.

CIRQUE ZIVA: Jan. 17, Edmonds Center for the Arts, Edmonds. 425-275-9595 or www.ec4arts.org.

QUICKSAND: Jan. 18, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.show boxonline.com.

JACKSON BROWNE: Jan. 20, Benaroya Hall, Seattle. 206-215-4747 or www.livenation.com.

MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL ON TOUR: Jan. 22, Benaroya Hall, Seattle. 866-833-4747.

DOWN: Jan. 22, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showboxon line.com.

PINBACK: Jan. 23, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showboxon line.com.

THE WALKMEN: Jan. 27, Neptune Theatre, Seattle. 877-784-4849 or www.livebation.com.

“AMALUNA”: Cirque du Soleil: Jan. 31-Feb. 24, 2013, Marymoor Park, Redmond. 800450-1480 or www.cirquedusoleil.com.

LEWIS BLACK: Feb. 1, Paramount Theatre, Seattle. 877-784-4849 or www.livenation.com.

MUSE: Feb. 1, KeyArena, Seattle. 800745-3000 or www.livenation.com.

THE SONICS, MUDHONEY: Feb. 2, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showboxonline.com.

EXCISION: Feb. 2, Paramount Theatre, Seattle. 877-784-4849 or www.livenation.com.

ELLIE GOULDING: Feb. 4, Showbox SoDo, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showboxon line.com.

INTERNATIONAL GUITAR NIGHT: Feb. 6, Edmonds Center for the Arts, Edmonds. 425-275-9595 or www.ec4arts.org.

BENJAMIN FRANCIS LEFTWICH: Feb. 7, Columbia City Theater, Seattle. 800-838-3006 or www.brownpapertickets.com.

SOUNDGARDEN: Feb. 7-8, The Paramount Theatre, Seattle. 877-784-4849 or www.live nation.com.

RA RA RIOT: Feb. 8, Neptune Theatre, Seattle. 877-784-4849 or www.livenation.com.

SUPER DIAMOND (Tribute to Neil Diamond): Feb. 9, Showbox at the Market, Seattle.

800-745-3000 or www.showboxonline.com.

TOMAHAWK: Feb. 12, Showbox at the Mar-

ket, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showbox online.com.

LEFTOVER SALMON: Feb. 15, Neptune Theatre, Seattle. 877-784-4849 or www.live nation.com.

PILOBOLUS: Feb. 16, Edmonds Center for the Arts, Edmonds. 425-275-9595 or www.ec4arts.org.

THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Feb. 16-17, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showboxonline.com.

HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS: Feb. 17, Comcast Arena at Everett. 866-332-8499 or www.comcastarenaeverett.com.

COHEED AND CAMBRIA, BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME: Feb. 19, Showbox SoDo, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showbox online.com.

EELS: Feb. 19, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showboxon line.com.

GALACTIC: FEATURING COREY GLOVER: Feb. 22, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800745-3000 or www.showboxonline.com.

MICHAEL KAESHAMMER: Feb. 22, Edmonds Center for the Arts, Edmonds. 425275-9595 or www.ec4arts.org.

AARON NEVILLE: Feb. 23, Mount Baker Theatre, Bellingham. 360-734-6080 or www.mountbakertheatre.com.

IVAN & ALYOSHA: Feb. 23, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showboxonline.com.

HEY MARSEILLES: March 1, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showboxonline.com.

YO GABBA GABBA! LIVE!: March 1-2, The Paramount Theatre, Seattle. 877-784-4849 or www.livenation.com.

MOE: March 2, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showboxon line.com.

G. LOVE & SPECIAL SAUCE: March 6, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-7453000 or www.showboxonline.com.

FRIGHTENED RABBIT: March 8, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showboxonline.com.

BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA: March 9, Edmonds Center for the Arts, Edmonds.

425-275-9595 or www.ec4arts.org.

MAROON 5, WITH NEON TREES & OWL CITY: March 11, KeyArena, Seattle. 800-7453000 or www.livenation.com.

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO: March 13, Edmonds Center for the Arts, Edmonds.

425-275-9595 or www.ec4arts.org.

VOLBEAT: March 22, Showbox at the Market, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showboxonline.com.

BRIAN REGAN: March 13, Paramount Theatre, Seattle. 877-784-4849 or www.live nation.com.

RIHANNA: with A$AP Rocky: April 3, KeyArena, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.livenation.com.

NANCI GRIFFITH: April 5, Edmonds Center for the Arts, Edmonds. 425-275-9595 or www.ec4arts.org.

LORD OF THE DANCE: April 5, Mount Baker Theatre, Bellingham. 360-734-6080 or www.mountbakertheatre.com.

TECH N9NE: April 6-7, Showbox SoDo, Seattle. 800-745-3000 or www.showboxon line.com.

BUY-IN

SATURDAYS GET

30 $ 20 $

FOR

9 am - 5 pm

Present your Rewards Club Card at either cashier cage for $10 in FREE gaming when you buy-in for $20*.

Only

50 16

$

With Rewards Card, $19.41 without.

Tax and gratuity not included.

Dinner Served All Day December 25 • 2 – 9 pm SVH-0706

On I-5 at Exit 236

877-275-2448 • theskagit.com Owned by Upper Skagit Indian Tribe.

*Must be a Rewards Club Member – Membership is FREE! Must play Full Redeemed Value of buy-in offer. Limit one per person per day.

Visit Rewards Club Center for details. Management reserves all rights.

Casino opens at 9 am daily. Must be 21 or older with valid ID.

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

Thursday, December 20, 2012 - E13

VOTED BEST OF ANACORTES 12 YEARS RUNNING

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PLAN YOUR HOLIDAY PARTY HERE!

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happy hour 3-6pm:

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I-5

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open for DINNER 3-8pm:

Family Style Thursday • Seafood Friday • Prime Rib Saturday

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OPEN CHRISTMAS Christmas Buffet OR Limited Menu 8:00AM-7:00PM 360.466.4411

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Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

E14 - Thursday, December 20, 2012

GET INVOLVED ART CLASSES

MUSIC

FAMILY ART DAYS AT MoNA: The Museum of Northwest Art, 121 S. First St., La Conner, offers Family Art Days each month.

Sessions are open to all ages and skill levels and include guided walk-throughs of exhibitions.

Limited to 15 participants per session. To register: 360-466-4446, ext. 108, or FAD@museumofnwart.org. Information: www. museumofnwart.org. Workshops are free with museum admission.

Admission: $8 adults, $5 seniors, $3 students, free for members and ages 11 and younger.

OPEN MIC NIGHT: VFW Post 7392 hosts an Open Microphone Night from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays at 3037 N. Goldie Road, Oak Harbor. Bring your musical instrument, acoustic or electric, or your vocal talents. If you can’t sing, dance or play, come and watch. Free. For information, call Myron at 360-672-5166 or the Post, 360-675-4048, or visit www.vfwpost7392.org.

ART CLASSES: Dakota Art offers a variety of art classes and workshops at 17873 Highway 536, Mount Vernon. 360-4166556, ext. 5, or www.dakotaart center.com.

CAMANO WINTER BREAK ART CAMPS: John and Jenna Delzell will offer a series of two-day art camps for ages 7 to 17 during winter break at the Delzell Studio, 2177 Highland Drive, Camano Island. Sessions will meet from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dec. 20-21, 26-27 and 28-29, and Dec. 31-Jan. 1. Camps will feature a variety of art projects such as 3-D snowflakes, holiday decals, kaleidoscopes, clay sculptures and acrylic painting. $75 per child per two-day camp. 360387-2251 or www.camanoart camp.com.

SENIOR HIKE: Join Friends of the Forest from 10 a.m. to noon Friday, Jan. 11, for a gentle 1.5-mile hike through forest and wetland habitats in Anacortes. Meet at the end of 32nd Street, off of D Avenue. Learn about the beaver that maintain the wetlands, and the winter waterfowl that visit there. Free.

360-293-3725 or www.friendsoftheacfl.org.

plies included. To register, call 360-755-9649.

Epic illustrations and creature creations: 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays, Jan. 12-Feb. 2. Art students will draw and create four masterworks, with a different focus each week: Star Wars/black & white, fantasy anime/mixed media, avengers assemble/intro to color theory, and cartoon comic strip/ intro to writing and sequential art. Register by Jan 9.

Mixed media: 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Saturdays, Jan 12-Feb. 2.

Students will experiment with five mediums other than pencil.

They’ll use color partnered with drawings in markers, chalk, ink, watercolor and colored pencil as they complete two pieces of art.

Register by Jan. 9.

WATERCOLOR FOR KIDS!: 4:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays, Jan. 9-30, at the Burlington Community Center craft room, 1011 Greenleaf Ave., Burlington. Kids ages 7 to 13 will learn brush handling, color mixing and more.

PAPER PLAYSHOPS: Join Kari $40 plus $20 one-time supply fee payable to instructor. Register by Bishay to get creative and “play Jan. 3 with Burlington Parks and with stuff” at the Anacortes Center for Happiness, 619 CommerRecreation: 360-755-9649. cial Ave., Anacortes. Workshops INTRO TO ILLUSTRATION ART are held from 1 to 4 p.m. SunCLASSES: Burlington Parks and days. All materials are provided. $18 each class. Preregistration Recreation will offer a series required: 360-464-2229 or www. of art classes for ages 8 to 14. anacortescenterfor happiness.org.

Instructor Max Elam will introNext up: duce young artists to a variety Greeting card extravaganza: of styles and art mediums. Each four-session class costs $45. Sup- Jan. 13. Learn strategies for cre-

ating unique birthday and thank you cards, then stamp, emboss, cut, punch, layer and build enough for your entire year of card-giving occasions.

FREE MUSIC JAMS: Come and play or just watch the fun at Cyndy’s Broiler, 27021 102nd Ave. NW, Stanwood. Free for participants and spectators.

Teen Jam: 7 p.m. second and fourth Tuesday each month.

Jam Night: 8 p.m. Thursdays.

360-629-4800 or www.cyndys broiler.com.

OPEN MIC: Share your music or enjoy the musical talents of others at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 27, at the Conway Muse, 18444 Spruce/ Main, Conway. 360-445-3000 or www.theconwaymuse.com.

CARTOONING FOR KIDS: 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, Jan. 8-29, Burlington Parks and Recreation Center, 900 E. Fairhaven Ave., Burlington. Kids ages 7 to 12 will learn basic drawing skills and leave with a portfolio of their favorite cartoon characters. $40, includes supplies. Register by Jan. 3: 360-755-9649.

MUSIC-MAKING SESSIONS: Join Sally Kirk for fun musicmaking from 5:45 to 6:25 p.m.

Wednesdays, Jan. 9-30, at the Anacortes Center for Happiness, 619 Commercial St., Anacortes.

Class includes easy improvisations, no music reading. $48. Registration required. 360-464-2229 or www.anacortescenterforhappi ness.org.

DANCE

RECREATION

CONTRA DANCE: 7 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 5, Depot Arts Center, 611 R Ave., Anacortes.

Learn the fundamentals of contra dance and practice dancing to live music. No partner needed. $8 at the door. 360-755-3969 or www.skagitcontra.org.

BEGINNER SQUARE DANCE LESSONS: 7 p.m. Tuesdays, beginning Jan. 8, at the Mount Vernon Senior Center, 1401 Cleveland St. Families, couples, singles welcome. First two weeks are free, then $4 per lesson. 360424-4608 or 360-424-9675.

WINTER BREAK PROGRAMS: Burlington Parks and Recreation will offer a variety of winter break activities for ages 6 to 12.

Limited enrollment. Register by Dec. 21: 360-755-9649.

Gymnastics, Games and Goop: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 26. Be spoiled with one hour of gym time at Dimensions of Gymnastics, then play games and make goopy messes at the Parks and Recreation Center. $25. Pack a lunch.

Absolute Air Play & Playtime: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec 27. Enjoy two hours of jump time

at Absolute Air Play, followed by more fun games and crafts. $35.

Pack a lunch.

Ice Skating, Pizza and Cocoa Creations: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Dec 28. Travel to the Everett Ice Arena for some skate time and pizza, then back to the Parks and Recreation Center for some hot cocoa treats. $35.

THEATER THEATER CLASSES: Anacortes Community Theatre’s Class Act School for the Performing Arts is enrolling kids from preschool through 12th grade for winter classes on acting and theater arts. Classes are held at ACT, 918 M Ave., Anacortes.

360-293-6829 or www.acttheatre. com/classact.

Imagination Explorers (preschool age): 10 to 11 a.m.

Tuesdays, Jan. 29-March 5, or Wednesdays, Jan. 30-March 6.

Students will take part in creative dramatic games designed to use their imagination, improve selfconfidence and provide social interaction as they create crazy characters, sing and dance. $50.

Superhero Stories (kindergarten through second grade): 4 to 5:15 p.m. Fridays, Feb. 1-March 8. Students will create their own superhero as they play fun theatre games and work on their acting skills. Class will culminate in a performance March 8, on ACT’s Second Stage. $50.

Alice in Wonderland (grades 3-6): 4 to 5:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, Jan. 28-March 6. Students will stage a retelling of the classic tale of Alice’s trip down the rabbit hole, starting with auditioning, creation of a character, memorization of lines and culminating with a full public performance complete with costumes and makeup March 8-9 on ACT’s Second Stage. $100.

Are We There Yet? (grades 7-12: 3 to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, Jan. 22-Feb. 28. This class starts with auditioning for a part and continues with creation of a character, memorization of lines and a full public performance with costumes and makeup March 1-2 on ACT’s Second Stage. $100.

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

w Events Continued from Page E3

Box 91, Acme, WA 98220.

When ordering tickets, give a second and third choice of date and time, as rides often sell out. 360-595-2218 or www.lakewhatcomrailway. com.

Y-STAR: Formally known as Rec N Roll, Y-STAR is a YMCA program for individuals with disabilities. To sign up for holiday events and activities, call 360-3369622 or email j.mcadams@ skagitymca.org.

Upcoming Y-STAR events: Lights of Christmas at Warm Beach: 4 to 8:15 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 29. Meet at the Skagit Valley Family YMCA, 215 E. Fulton St., Mount Vernon. Dress appropriately and bring extra money if you want to shop. $10.

CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE: Check out the Christmas tree and teddy bear collection from 6 to 8 p.m. today, Dec. 20, at Cap Sante Court Retirement Community, 1111 32nd St., Anacortes. Free. 360-2938088.

FREE CHRISTMAS FILM: “IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE”: 7 p.m. today, Dec. 20, Concrete Theatre, 45920 Main St., Concrete.

360-941-0403 or www. concrete-theatre.com.

CHRISTMAS WITH THE CELTS: Enjoy Celtic music, dance and more at 7:30 p.m. today, Dec. 20, at the Mount Baker Theatre, 104 N. Commercial St., Bellingham. $20-$42. 360-734-6080 or www.mountbakerthe atre.com.

CHRISTMAS PROGRAM: Oak Harbor Christian School kindergarten through fifth-grade students will present “Checkin’ it Twice, a Celebration of Christmas” at 7 p.m.

today, Dec. 20, in the school 360-421-2852. gymnasium, 675 E. Whidbey Ave., Oak Harbor.

JAZZIN’ WITH THE Free. 360-675-2831 or www. CLASSICS: “YULETIDE oakharborchristian.org.

BAROQUE & BEYOND”: 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 28, at the HORSE-DRAWN TROLLEY Floyd Norgaard Cultural RIDES: Enjoy free horseCenter, 27130 102nd Ave. drawn trolley rides from NW, Stanwood. Enjoy live noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, music by Linda Tsatsanis, Dec. 22, around downtown soprano; Martin Lund, Anacortes, starting from flute, clarinet and piano; Upstage Boutique & Men’s Jeffrey Cohan, flute; and Store, 520 Commercial Gene Nery, guitar. $15 Ave. For information, call suggested donation, free the Anacortes Chamber of for ages 18 and younger.

Commerce at 360-293-7911. Includes holiday refreshments. 360-629-6110.

“THE NUTCRACKER”: Northwest Ballet Theatre: Christmas dinners Saturday and Sunday, BURLINGTON VETERDec. 22-23, at McIntyre Hall, 2501 E. College Way, ANS’ DINNER: The Burlington American Legion Mount Vernon. $20-$30. will host Dinner to Honor 360-416-7727 or www.

Our Veterans in Need from mcintyrehall.org.

6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21, at the Burlington American PHOTOS WITH THE Legion, 721 E. Fairhaven GRINCH: Bring the family for photos with the Grinch Ave., Burlington. For inforfrom 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sat- mation or to volunteer, call 360-416-3987. urday and noon to 5 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 22-23, at VilMOUNT VERNON: The lage Books, 1200 11th St., Mount Vernon Moose Bellingham. Get a photo Lodge will host the 38th CD for $10. 360-671-2626 or www.villagebooks.com. annual Vic Cain/Donna Moore Memorial Christmas Dinner from noon to 4 HOLIDAY CHAMBER p.m. Christmas Day, TuesMUSIC: Enjoy classical music performed by cellist day, Dec. 25, at the Moose Lloyd Smith and violinists Lodge, 813 S. First St. (on Nancy Bean, Karie Prescott the revetment), Mount Vernon. Enjoy turkey, and David Bean at 4 p.m. ham, green beans, stuffing, Sunday, Dec. 23, at Studio mashed potatoes and gravy, 1010, 1010 Sixth St., Anacortes. Champagne punch yams, cranberry sauce and will follow the concert. $20. dessert. 360-336-3662.

Thursday, December 20, 2012 - E15

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

E16 - Thursday, December 20, 2012

MOVIES

An intimate epic – and the best movie of 2012

By ROGER MOORE McClatchy-Tribune News Service

It begins with a disaster, a huge one witnessed not from a distance, not via the safety of a TV news report, but up close and personal.

The horror of the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 is made intimate, so awful that you recoil from the screen, ducking as tree limbs and shards of debris are hurled at you and the onscreen victims in “The Impossible.” The effect is akin to being stuffed into a washing machine filled with brown water and about 400 things that can poke, puncture, slice and lacerate you.

While you don’t drown.

Then, stripped, battered, injured and doomed to infection, you try to save yourself and then others.

You look for help. You find yourself depending on the kindness of strangers, people who don’t speak your language who are suffering and lost, too, for your very survival. And having children in your care, you try to cling to your humanity as you all cling — barely — to life.

“The Impossible” is a vivid recreation of a disaster made moving by a stellar cast, a gripping, “How will this end?” script and all-too-real special effects and sets. You’ll feel you’re in that oceanic washing machine with Naomi Watts, grieve for her chances of survival and cry over the life lessons she struggles to pass on to her son (Tom Holland).

A Christmas vacation in Khao Lak, Thailand, turns terribly wrong for a family of five, headed by Maria (Watts) and Henry (Ewan McGregor) — English teachers living in Japan,

Summit Entertainment via AP

Naomi Watts stars in “The Impossible.”

‘THE IMPOSSIBLE’ HHHH Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland Running time: 2:02 MPAA rating: PG-13 for intense realistic disaster sequences, including disturbing injury images and brief nudity

enjoying the sun and surf until that December morning when the world was turned upside down and washed away within minutes.

Miraculously, they survive the tidal wave. But

they’re separated — dad with two small boys of 5 and 7 years, mom with 12-year-old Lucas. We follow their stories, separately, each looking for and despairing of finding the other, each facing the awful reality that they may be the last members of their family.

For Maria, that takes on extra urgency as the film unfolds. She’s badly hurt, and the struggle to get Lucas and a small boy they rescue along the way to safety becomes the thing that drives her even as we see her pallor change, her own death become imminent.

Lucas, a frightened, confused and rebellious kid, has staggering responsibilities thrust on him. Mom’s “I’m scared too” is hardly consolation. He might be all alone in the world at any minute, with no way of reaching even distant relations in the aftermath of this cataclysm.

Meanwhile, Henry frantically searches for Maria and Lucas, struggles to keep his boys with him even as evacuations threaten to pull them all out of the area and remove any hope he has of finding his wife and missing son.

The genius of Spanish director Juan Antonio

Bayona’s approach is the myopia here. Bayona (“The Orphange”) lets us see only what the victims see. The chaos of the aftermath, First World survivors hurled into the Third World abyss with everybody else there, is stark and alarming.

What they don’t know, not being able to get information, to find loved ones, to let relatives know they’re alive, is maddening.

Bayona spares us little in the detail of the injuries, the ocean that victims vomit up days later.

And Watts, in the best performance in an already illustrious career, makes us feel it all. Maria is never so

stricken that she cannot see past her own misery, never more heroic than when she distracts her son by charging him to “Go help people, you’re good at it.” Fading in and out of consciousness, fully aware of her own fate, she’s determined to leave Lucas, if she has to leave him, with that one last life lesson.

The effects make “The Impossible,” based on the true story of a French family caught in the tsunami, wholly credible and real.

But Watts and young Holland make us feel it, and make this the most moving and the very best film of 2012.

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

Thursday, December 20, 2012 - E17

MOVIES MINI-REVIEWS Compiled from news services.

Ratings are one to four stars.

“Flight” — After opening with one of the most terrifying flying scenes I’ve witnessed, in which an airplane is saved by being flown upside-down, Robert Zemeckis’ “Flight” segues into a brave and tortured performance by Denzel Washington -- one of his very best. Not often does a movie character make such a harrowing personal journey that keeps us in deep sympathy all of the way. Washington plays a veteran commercial pilot who has built up a tolerance for quantities of alcohol and cocaine that would be lethal for most people. Drama, R, 138 minutes.

HHHH “Hyde Park on Hudson” — Bill Murray plays Franklin Roosevelt as a sometimes lonely and sad man whose vacation getaway is his mother’s family mansion, Springwood, near Hyde Park in upstate New York. Here in June 1939, he receives guests whose visit could change the course of world history: England’s King George V (Samuel West) and Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman).

Witnessing from backstage is his sixth cousin, Daisy (Laura Linney), with whom FDR has a sweet and secret affair.

Murray finds the exact tone, gentle and confiding, for this view of Roosevelt.

Biography, R, 94 minutes. HHH1⁄2 “Life of Pi”: A miraculous achievement of storytelling and a landmark of visual mastery. Inspired by a worldwide best-seller that seemed unfilmable, it is a triumph over its difficulties. It is also a moving spiritual achievement, a movie whose title could have been shortened to “Life.” The story involves the 227 days that its teenage hero (Suraj Sharma) spends drifting across the Pacific in the same lifeboat as a Bengal tiger.

The movie quietly combines various religious traditions to enfold its story in the wonder of life. How remarkable that these two mammals, and the fish beneath them and birds above them, are all here. One of the year’s best.

Fantasy, PG, 125 minutes. HHHH “Lincoln” — Steven Spielberg’s new film focuses on only a few months of Lincoln’s life, including the passage of the 13th Amendment ending slavery, the surrender of the Confederacy and his assassination. Rarely has a film attended more carefully to the details of politics. Daniel Day-Lewis creates a Lincoln who is calmly self-confident, patient and willing to play politics in a realistic way. Not about an icon of history, but about a president who was scorned by some of his opponents as a hayseed from the backwoods. He understood them better than they did him. Sure to win many Academy Award nominations. Drama, PG-13, 149 minutes. HHHH “Playing for Keeps” — Tells the story of George (Gerard Butler), a has-been soccer star whose career is foundering but who is a completely nice man with none of the character flaws that soccer stars have been known to possess.

AT AREA THEATERS ANACORTES CINEMAS w Dec. 21-23 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13): 1:00, 4:15, 7:30 Rise of the Guardians (PG): 4:05, 6:40 Skyfall (PG-13): 1:10, 8:50 Flight (R): 1:15, 3:55, 6:35, 9:15 w Dec. 24 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13): 1:00, 4:15 Rise of the Guardians (PG): 4:05, 6:40 Skyfall (PG-13): 1:10 Flight (R): 1:15, 3:55, 6:35 w Dec. 25 Les Miserables (PG-13): 4:30, 7:45 Parental Guidance (PG): 4:05, 6:30, 8:55 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13): 4:15, 7:30 w Dec. 26-Jan. 3 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13): 1:00, 4:15, 7:30 Parental Guidance (PG): 1:30, 4:05, 6:30, 8:55 Les Miserables (PG-13): 1:15, 4:30, 7:45 360-293-7000 BLUE FOX DRIVE-IN Oak Harbor 360-675-5667 CONCRETE THEATRE Dec. 20-27 It’s a Wonderful Life: Thursday: 7 p.m.

Life of Pi: Friday: 7:30 p.m.; Saturday: 5 and 7:30 p.m.; Sunday: 4 p.m.; Monday: 2 p.m.; Tuesday-Thursday: 6 p.m.

360-941-0403

Moving to Virginia to be near his exwife (wonderful Jessica Biel) and young son (Noah Lomax, a natural), he finds himself a seduction target for all the trophy wives and divorced moms in the grandstands. Unreels pretty predictably.

Romantic comedy, PG-13, 105 minutes.

HH “Red Dawn” — Opens with a hardfought high school football game before the next day in Spokane, is interrupted by the thud of bombs. The young gridiron stars of the Wolverines race outside to see enemy aircraft flying overhead in formation, dropping paratroopers from the skies. Light on dialogue, heavy on mindless action.

Action, PG-13, 93 minutes H1⁄2 “Rise of the Guardians” — Hyperactive 3D animated fantasy regarding the plight of Jack Frost, who nobody seems able to see. Called upon in a crisis to help the Guardians (Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, etc.), he saves the day. Younger children like the breakneck action, magical ability to fly, and the young hero who has tired of being overlooked. Their parents and older siblings may find the 89-minute run-

CASCADE MALL THEATRES Burlington For listings: 888-AMC-4FUN (888262-4386).

OAK HARBOR CINEMAS w Dec. 21-23 Jack Reacher (PG-13): 1:05, 3:45, 6:30, 9:10 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13): 1:15, 4:30, 7:45 Red Dawn (PG-13): 3:55, 9:00 Rise of the Guardians (PG): 1:25, 6:40 w Dec. 24 Jack Reacher (PG-13): 1:05, 3:45, 6:30 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13): 1:15, 4:30 Red Dawn (PG-13): 3:55 Rise of the Guardians (PG): 1:25, 6:40 w Dec. 25 Parental Guidance (PG): 3:55, 6:40, 8:50 Jack Reacher (PG-13): 3:45, 6:30, 9:10 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13): 4:30, 7:45 w Dec. 26–Jan. 3 Parental Guidance (PG): 1:25, 3:55, 6:40, 8:50 Jack Reacher (PG-13): 1:05, 3:45, 6:30, 9:10 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13): 1:15, 4:30, 7:45 360-279-2226

ning time quite long enough. Animated adventure, PG, 89 minutes. HHH “Skyfall” — “Skyfall” triumphantly reinvents 007 in one of the best Bonds ever made. This is a full-blooded, joyous, intelligent celebration of a beloved cultural icon, with Daniel Craig taking full possession of a role he earlier played unconvincingly. The film at last provides a role worthy of Judi Dench, returning as M, who is one of the best actors of her generation. She is all but the co-star, with a lot of screen time, poignant dialogue, and a character who is far more complex and sympathetic than we expect. In this 50th year of the James Bond series, with the dismal “Quantum of Solace” (2008) still in our minds, I don’t know what I expected in Bond No. 23, but certainly not an experience this invigorating. If you haven’t seen a 007 for years, this is the time to jump back in. Action, PG-13, 143 minutes. HHHH “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” — “The Hobbit” is stuffed with Hollywood’s latest technology — 3-D, high-speed projection and Dolby’s Atmos surround sound system. The

STANWOOD CINEMAS w Dec. 21-23 Jack Reacher (PG-13): 1:10, 3:50, 6:40, 9:20 This Is 40 (R): 12:50, 3:40, 6:30, 9:10 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13): 1:00, (2:30), 4:15, 6:00, 7:30 Life of Pi (PG): 1:20, 9:00 Rise of the Guardians (PG): 4:00, 6:50 w Dec. 24 Jack Reacher (PG-13): 1:10, 3:50, 6:40 This Is 40 (R): 12:50, 3:40, 6:30 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13): 1:00, 2:30, 4:15, 6:00 Life of Pi (PG): 1:20 Rise of the Guardians (PG): 4:00, 6:50 w Dec. 25 Jack Reacher (PG-13): 3:50, 6:40, 9:20 This Is 40 (R): 3:40, 6:30, 9:10 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13): 4:15, 7:30 w Dec. 26-Jan. 3 Les Miserables (PG-13): 1:20, 4:30, 7:45 Parental Guidance (PG): 1:30, 4:00, 6:50, 9:00 Jack Reacher (PG-13): 1:10, 3:50, 6:40, 9:20 This Is 40 (R): 12:50, 3:40, 6:30, 9:10 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (PG-13): 1:00, 4:15, 7:30 360-629-0514

result is some eye candy that truly dazzles and some that utterly distracts, at least in its test-run of 48 frames a second, double the projection rate that has been standard since silent-film days.

It’s also overstuffed with, well, stuff.

Prologues and sidestepping backstory.

Long, boring councils among dwarves, wizards and elves. A shallow blood feud extrapolated from sketchy appendices to J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” to give the film a bad guy. Fantasy-action, PG-13, 169 minutes. HH1⁄2 “Wreck-It Ralph” — The new Disney animated feature for families takes place inside several arcade-style video games, providing an excuse for the backgrounds, ground rules and characters to constantly reinvent themselves.

Its hero is one of those clumsy, misunderstood big guys who dream only of being loved. Ralph (voice by John C. Reilly) spends every day knocking down an apartment building, which is constantly repaired by Fix-It Felix Jr. (Jack McBrayer). Lively, endlessly colorful nonstop action, also with Jane Lynch and Sarah Silverman. Animated comedy, PG, 101 minutes. HHH

AT THE LINCOLN THEATRE 712 S. First St., Mount Vernon 360-336-8955 www.lincolntheatre.org

‘The Master’

7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Dec. 21-22 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23

In the years after World War II, an American intellectual creates a religion. When he meets a troubled drifter, he invites the man to help him spread the new faith.

As their congregation increases, the drifter begins to question the religion he once accepted and the mentor who gave his life direction.

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Jesse Plemons.

Rated R. $10 general, $9 seniors, students and active military; $8 members; $7 children 12 and under. Bargain matinee prices (all shows before 6 p.m.): $8 general, $6 members, $5 children 12 and under.

Please recycle this newspaper

E18 - Thursday, December 20, 2012

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

OUT & ABOUT ART “RICHARD MORHOUS: LINE PAINTINGS”: The show continues through Dec. 30 at Lisa Harris Gallery, 1922 Pike Place, Seattle. Morhous presents urban scenes from New York, San Francisco and Seattle, landscapes and floral subjects in an innovative style of linear abstraction. Gallery hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. 206-443-3315 or www. lisaharrisgallery.com.

SMALL CANVAS: Anne Martin McCool Gallery is featuring a Holiday Special Small Paintings Show through the end of December at 711 Commercial Ave., Anacortes. The event includes small paintings on canvas and paper by Anne Martin McCool, and other gallery artists will be featured as well. 360-293-3577.

ACRYLIC PAINTINGS: A show of new paintings by Jennifer Bowman continues through Jan. 29 at Scott Milo Gallery, 420 Commercial Ave., Anacortes. Also showing are photographs

by Randy Dana, Dick Garvey and Lewis Jones; fused glass by Robin Larson; pastels by Amanda Houston; and acrylics by Joel Brock.

Gallery hours are 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. 360-2936938 or www.scottmilo. com.

‘FIRST SNOW’

FALL ART SHOW: The Salish Sea Plein Air Art Group’s fall show continues from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through December at the Rexville Grocery, 19271 Best Road, Mount Vernon.

360-466-5522 or www.rex villegrocery.com.

“GLACIAL SPEED”: A show of recent artwork by Cynthia Camlin continues through Jan. 13 at the Skagit Valley College Art Gallery in the Gary Knutzen Cardinal Center on the SVC campus, 2405 E. College Way, Mount Vernon.

The exhibit interprets environmental change through visual metaphors, depicting the phases of melting glaciers through abstracted forms. Gallery hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. 360-4167812.

“HONEY, I SHRUNK THE ART”: The 22nd annual show of small artworks continues through Jan. 27 at Matzke Fine Art Gallery & Sculpture Park, 2345 Blanche Way, Camano Island. The show features small format paintings, sculptures, glass and more by 40 artists. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, or by appointment. 360-387-2759 or www.matzkefineart.com.

“CALIFORNIA IMPRESSIONISM, SELECTIONS FROM THE IRVINE MUSEUM”: The exhibit continues through Feb. 17, 2013, at the Whatcom Museum, 250 “WE REMEMBER JOHN Works by Aleut artist Thomas Stream are featured in a new show at Arctic Flora St., Bellingham. The SIMON”: Gallery Cygnus is Raven Gallery, 130 S. First St., Friday Harbor. Stream uses geometric designs show features 50 paintings featuring paintings by John embodied in his creatures to reflect the importance of Aleut spiritual beliefs. from the Impressionist Simon through Dec. 24 at 888-378-3222 or www.arcticraven.com. Pictured: “Sand Dollars” Period (1890-1930) show109 Commercial St., La casing an array of CaliforConner. The show includes 5 p.m. Friday through Sun- Schouten Gallery, 765 ceramics, paintings and nia landscapes, from coastal more than 30 paintings prints and more. Gallery beaches to vast deserts. from the late artist’s estate. day. 360-708-4787 or www. Wonn Road, Greenbank.

Twenty-four of the region’s hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Also called California plein This work spans the artist’s gallerycygnus.com. finest artists have created weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 air painting, California career and has not been “HOME FOR THE HOLIa variety of affordable gifts p.m. weekends (closed Tues- Impressionism focused on seen by the public since DAYS”: The show contin— handblown glass, silk days). 360-222-3070 or www. capturing the special light Simon’s death in 2010. ues through Jan. 1 at Rob scarves, jewelry, sculpture, robschoutengallery.com.

Gallery hours are noon to and color of the state’s

landscape and helped to define modern landscape painting.

Museum hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. $10, $8 student/ senior/military, $4.50 children ages 5 and younger, free for museum members.

360-778-8933 or www.what commuseum.org.

VALLEY SCENES: Local artist Roger Small is showcasing acrylic paintings of Skagit Valley scenes from noon to 5 p.m. Fridays through Sundays during December at J’s Gallery, 101 N. First St., La Conner.

Also featured: work by Ed Kamuda, Jay Bowen, Tom Pickett, Chuck Bankuti and Dan Soler.

AT THE ANACORTES MUSEUM: “Young Man in a Hurry: The Life of Isaac Stevens and the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War” is on display at the museum’s Carnegie Gallery, 1305 Eighth St., Anacortes. As the Washington territory’s first governor and superintendent of Indian affairs, Stevens pushed through treaties with tribes that set off the region’s Indian Wars and still create controversy today.

Designed for the lobby of the office of the Secretary of State, the exhibit covers Stevens’ actions as governor and their impacts, his subsequent appointment as territorial delegate to Congress, his service as a general in the Civil War and other Washington connections to that conflict.

The exhibit also includes information on Stevens’ local impact and the city’s own Civil War veterans.

Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday (closed Wednesday) and 1 to 4 p.m.

Sunday. Free admission.

360-293-1915 or museum. cityofanacortes.org.

Skagit Valley Herald / goskagit.com

Thursday, December 20, 2012 - E19

OUT & ABOUT MoNA EXHIBITIONS: New exhibits continue through Jan. 1, 2013, at the Museum of Northwest Art, 121 S. First St., La Conner.

“CIRCULAR: From The Permanent Collection”: Artworks selected from the museum’s collection explore the meaning and influence of the circular form. The show features works by Maria Frank Abrams, Guy Anderson, Marc Boutté, Kenneth Callahan, Doris Chase, Clayton James, Leo Kenney, John-Franklin Koenig, Louise Kikuchi, James Minson, Viola Patterson and Mark Tobey.

Pilchuck: IDEAS”: Celebrating 50 years of Studio Glass, the show features work from the Pilchuck permanent collection rarely seen off the famous glass school’s campus. These pieces from the early days of the revolution in studio glass were created by some of the most important artists working in the medium, including Dale Chihuly, William Morris, Joey Kirkpatrick, Flora Mace, Ben Moore, Lino Tagliapietra, Italo Scanga and more.

The works on display are especially significant because they show these artists in the process of teaching, experimenting and in some cases searching for iconic forms and expressions for which they have become famous. Groupings of early glass are shown next to mature examples of the artists’ work from private collections.

Museum hours are noon to 5 p.m. Sundays and Mondays, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. $8, $5 seniors, $3 students, free for members and ages 11 and younger.

360-466-4446 or www. museumofnwart.org.

“WILD EAST MEETS WILD WEST”: A show of photographs from Nakhod-

ka, Russia, by Georgy Pakin continues through Jan. 6, 2013, at the Whatcom Museum Lightcatcher Building, 250 Flora St., Bellingham.

Pakin’s photos vividly portray daily life in and around Nakhodka during Soviet and post-Soviet times, including the presence of Americans in Nakhodka, its large fishing operations and other activities. Museum hours are noon to 5 p.m.

Tuesday through Sunday. $10; $8 students, military, seniors ages 62 and older, $4.50 ages 5 and younger.

360-778-8930 or www.what commuseum.org.

100 Allied Arts members, including professional artists, students and new or emerging artists. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Monday through Friday, and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. 360-676-8548 or www. alliedarts.org.

NATIVE ARTISTS: Award-winning Pacific Northwest artists will be featured at “A Gathering of Native Artists 2013” from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 19-20, at the Skagit County Historical Museum, 501 S. Fourth St., La Conner. Artists will show and sell a variety of Native and Native-inspired QUILT MUSEUM TEMart. A special presentation PORARY CLOSURE: The La Conner Quilt & Textile Saturday evening will feaMuseum will be closed Jan. ture “Neqáx Kwélengsen” from the Samish Nation.

1 through mid-February Participants will include while contractors install noted artists Sharon Akers a fire suppression system, (Omaha), Jay Bowen restore the first level and (Skagit), Robert Eagle refinish the museum’s floors. Watch for the muse- Bear (Lummi), Leslie um to reopen in mid-Febru- Eastwood (Samish), Bill ary with the exhibit “Color, James (Lummi), Fran Design & Inspiration: Kaffe James (Lummi), Kevin Paul (Swinomish), Mary Fassett & Brandon Mably Snowden (NI), Lisa Telford in La Conner.” 360-466(Haida), Toma Villa (Yaka4288 or www.laconner ma Nation) and others. quilts.com.

Visitors are invited to watch and learn as the artFIRST FRIDAY GALLERY ists carve, weave, make basWALK: Check out a variety kets or hats, knit and create. of art on display during a Visitors can also participate reception from 6 to 9 p.m. in a silent auction of the Friday, Jan. 4, at several artists’ works. Admission: galleries and other venues $5, $4 seniors, $10 famiin downtown Anacortes. lies. 360-466-3365 or www.

Featured artworks include skagitcounty.net/museum. paintings and prints, baskets, sculptures, pastels, MORE FUN fiber arts, glass, ceramics, TWO-MUSEUM PASS: wood, photography, jewelry Take your family to visit and more. 360-293-6938. two local museums for one MEMBER SHOW: Allied price with a two-museum Arts of Whatcom County’s pass from the Skagit Counannual Members Show will ty Historical Museum and open with a reception from the Children’s Museum of Skagit County. $15 buys a 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 4, family pass good at both and continue through Jan. museums: the Historical 26 at the Allied Arts GalMuseum, 501 S. Fourth St., lery, 1418 Cornwall Ave., La Conner; and the ChilBellingham. The show will feature work from nearly dren’s Museum, located

inside the Cascade Mall in Burlington. Passes are available at either location.

For information, contact the Historical Museum at 360-466-3365 or www. skagitcounty.net/museum, or the Children’s Museum at 360-757-8888 or www. skagitchildrensmuseum.net.

FISH HATCHERY TOURS: Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group will offer free guided tours of the Marblemount Fish Hatchery facility from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Saturdays and Sundays, through Jan. 27, at 8319 Fish Hatchery Road, Marblemount. Learn about the enhancement group, hatchery operations, salmon and their life cycle and other visitors to the area, such as bald eagles. Tours start inside the visitors’ center.

The hatchery is open daily for self-guided tours. 360336-0172, ext. 304, or educa tion@skagitfisheries.org.

EAGLE WATCHING: View bald eagles wintering on the Skagit River from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through Jan. 27, at three eagle watcher stations on Highway 20: Howard Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport, Sutter Creek rest area at milepost 100 and the Marblemount Fish Hatchery, 8319 Fish Hatchery Road.

Volunteers will provide spotting scopes and binoculars. Free. 360-856-5700.

FULL MOON ECSTATIC DANCE: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 29, at the Anacortes Center for Happiness, 619 Commercial Ave., Anacortes. Tap into the incredible reservoir of peace and joy tucked away inside you.

All ages. $5. 360-464-2229 or www.anacortescenterfor happiness.org.

NEW YEAR’S EVE: The Camano Center’s annual New Year’s Eve Black and

White Ball from 8 p.m. to midnight Monday, Dec. 31, at 606 Arrowhead Road, Camano Island. Camano Junction will play big band music. $15, includes hors d’oeuvres. Beverages, including beer and wine, available for purchase. Call 360-3870222 for reservations.

nie Graham at 360-466-3173 or email mgraham@lc.k12. wa.us.

“MUSIC AND MEMORIES”: The inaugural Music and Memories Auction to benefit The Bradford House and Gentry House will be held at 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12, at St. Joseph Center, 215 “POWER PAST COAL” N. 15th St., Mount Vernon.

CONCERT/WORKSHOP: Hans & Phil, Trish Hatley The Conway Muse will and Joan Penney will perhost a “Power Past Coal” form live music. The event concert and workshop fea- will feature a buffet dinner turing guitarist/singer/song- and live and silent auctions. writer Dana Lyons at 7 p.m. Skagit Adult Day Program, Saturday, Jan. 5, at 18444 the parent organization for The Bradford House and Spruce/Main, Conway.

Gentry House, is designed Attendees can learn how to serve individuals sufferthey can raise questions ing from Alzheimer’s and and concerns about Bellingham’s proposed Cherry other dementias. Tickets: $50, available at www.

Point coal export terminal skagitadultdaycare.org. before the Jan. 21 scoping Information or tickets: 360deadline. $10 suggested donation, free for children. 428-5972.

360-445-3000 or www.

SPAGHETTI FEED AND conwaymuse.com.

PROGRAM: The Skagit, Whatcom, Island Trail STEAK DINNER: WelMaintaining Organization come the new year at the (SWITMO) will present a Knights of Columbus’ spaghetti feed fundraiser Steak Dinner from 5 to from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 5, at Immaculate Heart of Mary Jan. 12, at the Sedro-WoolChurch Hall, 719 Ferry St., ley Community Center, 703 Pacific St., Sedro-Woolley.

Sedro-Woolley. Enjoy a complete steak dinner with Enjoy food provided by Joy’s Bakery of Sedrobeverages, salad bar and Woolley, along with a prodessert for $8, or have a hamburger with fries for $5. gram featuring the Alaskan For information, call Doug adventures of two local motorcyclists. $10, $5 ages at 360-853-5344.

12 and younger. Tickets are EMPTY BOWL PROJECT: available at Joy’s Bakery or call the SWITMO office at La Conner High School students will hold the third 360-424-0407. annual Empty Bowl Dinner CRAB FEST: The annual from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 11, in the La Con- event will take place from 3:30 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. ner High School culinary 19, at Camano Center, 606 arts room, 502 N. Sixth St., Arrowhead Road, Camano La Conner. Enjoy a meal Island. Enjoy a whole of homemade soup, bread, coffee and cookies. $5. Add Dungeness crab, with side a hand-painted bowl (yours dishes, dessert and more. to keep) for $10 more. Pro- Swingnuts Jazz will provide ceeds will be donated to live entertainment. A cash Friendship House to help bar will be available. 360it build a new kitchen. For 387-0222 or www.camano information, contact Mela- center.org.

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