While you’re in: Scream, sink into ‘Soul,’ and check out Kodō drummers
Just scream
It seems a pretty safe bet that sometime over the past 10 months or so, you’ve wanted to scream. In fact, chances are pretty good you’ve felt that way multiple times in the past few weeks. Well, there’s good news. Teacher and self-described quiet person Christopher Gollmar has come up with Just Scream, a website and phone number devoted to screams. The number is 561-567-8431, and the instructions are simple: “Wait for the beep. Scream. Hang up.” As you probably guessed, Gollmar did launch the site in 2020 and moreover, to quote the site’s “about” page, “just before Election Day in the U.S.” “There’s just screaming in the air right now,” he told “Good Day Sacramento” in December.
‘Soul’ food
“Soul,” Pixar’s latest animated feature, gets into some pretty heavy territory for a family-friendly animated flick: It’s the story of Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a jazz pianist who falls into a manhole and finds himself a disembodied soul in search of both a way back into his body and the meaning of life. Both moving and funny, it’s been charming both arts-loving locals and national critics with its skillfully animated settings — from a super-realistic New York City to a pastel world inhabited by souls not yet ready to be born. Also noteworthy is its jazzy soundtrack, largely provided by pianist-composer Jon Batiste, who wowed South Sound music fans in 2013 when he played at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts. It’s streaming on Disney Plus, which also, natch, has the rest of the Pixar lineup — and, of course, “Hamilton,” though surely if you are a regular reader of this column, you’ve already watched that.
Big drums
The Meany Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Washington in Seattle, known for its diverse offerings of music and dance, is keeping things going during COVID-19 with digital treats. Next up is a performance film featuring the famed taiko drumming group Kodō, which had been scheduled to play at Meany later this month. The Japanese group plays regularly at Meany (and has visited the Washington Center in Olympia, too). “Kodō: Legacy,” a one-hour film combining some of the group’s best-loved pieces with new work, is available to stream free on the Meany website from noon Friday, Jan. 22, to 11:59 p.m. Jan. 29. Also available is “The Art of Apprenticeship,” a documentary showing the life of a Kodō apprentice.
Freelance writer Molly Gilmore isn’t much of a screamer, but she appreciates the great idea. She discusses arts, entertainment and more with 95.3 KGY-FM’s Michael Stein from 3 to 4 p.m. Fridays.