Current Issue

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HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff (Available April 24-25) It is not a Hollywood movie pitch: “A chamber-rock opera about the intersection of finance and spirituality.” And, oh yeah, at the center of the story is disgraced financier Bernie Madoff and his decade-old con job. Perhaps not a

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HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Teddy, Out of Tune (Available April 26-27) Noted for its gentle assessment of individuals on the fringe of the American west, the feature film Nomadland has received far-reaching applause and accolades—and a few Oscar nods. Teddy, Out of Tune deserves just as much. A film that is

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Anchor Point (Available April 19-20) The tone for Anchor Point is not incendiary, although the subject-matter is: Fighting forest fires and, more specifically, the challenge of two women to fit in—or not—to the male-dominated culture and policies of the U.S. Forest Service. To examine those (burning) questions, the documentary shadows

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Impact (Available April 26-27) One of the strongest features for this year festival is exploring local issues and individuals—and this film is no exception: At the core of Impact is Medford-based Troy Wohosky, who was once a top junior boxer in the country (as in, number three, and an Olympic

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HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: American Gadfly (Available April 27-28) When first reading the briefing for this film, I assumed it was the premise for a Seth Rogen comedy: A group of daring teenagers recruit an 89-year old sharp-tongued former U.S. Senator out of his mothball retirement for an underdog bid for

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Stalking Chernobyl: Exploration After Apocalypse (Available April 28-29) Chernobyl, Ukraine, was a town that was expected to last for millennia, especially due to the nuclear power station installed there in 1977 by the Soviet Union. The nearby town of Pripyat, Ukraine, was supported by the station, and the people of

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2040 (Available April 16-17) Written as a letter to his young daughter, 2040 is an entertaining documentary by Australian writer/director, Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film), envisioning his hopes and dreams of a better planet for her in 20 years. Instead of bombarding viewers with a lot of dystopian-ish drama, this

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In the Same Breath (Available April 16-17) A man widely opens his mouth, pressing so hard against his mask that indentations remain. He strains to say, “no oxygen,” while slowly asphyxiating, but health care workers cannot hear or help him. Later, the documentary cuts to a scene where the Chinese

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Trammel (shown as part of the “Short Stories & Documentaries: Outsiders,” available April 15 – 29) “Trammel” both means to restrict one’s freedom, and also can refer to a tool that consists of two fixed points. It is also the title to a short film about one man, Dale, and

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Bug Farm (14 minutes, Available April 15) Opening with the soothing tones of the harp, Bug Farm’s soundtrack quickly clashes into the sounds of crickets calling and various bugs skittering. Director Lydia Cornett says in her Director’s Statement that she hopes “Bug Farm offers a deeper look at the disparate

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Meal delivery is promising, but sometimes having a pre-cooked meal delivered on our doorstep is getting boring. We often want to cook our meals, but the only problem we have is the lack of time doing grocery shopping for the ingredients we need to cook the meals that we want.

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Top Instagram trends for 2021 promise us a big year for this social network. Introduction of IGTV, new features such as live video, interactive ad options helped brands easily engage with their audiences. Instagram is also focused on assisting users in finding relevant content through an algorithm system that suggests

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Dry herb vaporizers are one of the most popular products on the market at the moment. Since the legalization of marijuana, new ways to utilize marijuana have been formed. For many years, the only way to consume cannabis was to smoke it, but now because of technological advancements, there are

Vote for Besties 2021

Print Issue Availability

We won’t be distributing a print issue this month due to limitations on locations available.  We promise to get back to printing the Messenger as soon as it makes sense to do so.

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SOUND

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“Doesn’t it feel good to be back?!,” frontman Jay Rapp bellowed to the crowd as they forged through their hour-plus long set at Grape Street Bar on Friday, March 12. After the socially distanced crowd’s enthusiastic response to Rapp’s question, the night carried on with the band plowing through their

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Voted “Bestie” band in the Messenger’s last survey of our readers favorites—the very last print issue we were able to produce in March 2020 before shutting down presses for a year—The Brothers Reed are an active and beloved group of, yes, family members.  Half of the duo, Aaron Reed talked

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Jen Ambrose has been a part of the Southern Oregon music scene for at least 20 years now. She studied flute, oboe, and piano in her early years. Then, she picked up the guitar and is now known for six and twelve string stylings ranging from intricate picking to fast

Beyond the Valley

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Vikki Gilmore’s latest release “Doubt of My Mind” was written, recorded, and produced remotely in collaboration with Mathieu LeGuerrier, as a creative byproduct of the COVID-19 lockdown. This endearing indie-folk reverie was inspired by the hardship and universal loneliness of a global pandemic, mixed with the anxiety of self-doubt that

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Last week, I received an email from Ian Urbina, and it was the first I had heard of his ongoing project The Outlaw Ocean, and the outreach of The Outlaw Ocean Music Project. Read on for some more information about this exciting effort, and episode 3 of The Weekly Catch,

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Within days of Ireland’s lockdown, BBC Folk Award winner and RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards nominee Daoirí Farrell set up a corner of his kitchen as a makeshift stage and began live streaming. There was no plan to make this a regular event but with close to 2k comments and
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