While You’re In: Check into ‘Hotel,’ admire art and get a load of ‘Laundry Guy’
Radio ‘Extravaganza’
You don’t have to be a history buff or a lover of old-time radio to enjoy “The Hotel Olympian 100th Anniversary Gala Extravaganza,” airing at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 28, on 95.3 KGY FM and online. Bryan Willis’ play, full of period music and humor, blends fictional romance with plenty of facts about the historic hotel’s opening 100 years ago — at a time when Prohibition had just begun and both the Spanish flu pandemic and World War I had recently ended. The recording, featuring such well-known Olympia actors as Carolyn Fry, John Serembe, and Brian and Jana Tyrrell, plus a clever comic turn by Jill Barnes of The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, will air again at 3 p.m. May 23. And stay tuned for details on an in-person version, being planned to happen in early July at the hotel, 116 Legion Way SE, Olympia.
Artistic achievers
The Leonor R. Fuller Gallery at South Puget Sound Community College is launching its fourth annual Juror’s Invitational show Monday, March 29. The show, available online and in person by appointment, spotlights Marilyn Bedford, Ron Hinton, Hart James and John Korvell, the award-winning artists from the 2020 Southwest Washington Juried Exhibition, juried by June Sekiguchi. The opening reception will happen from 5 to 7 p.m. April 2 on Zoom. Incidentally, the last Juror’s Invitational, which opened in March 2020, was the college’s first online exhibition. Appointments to see the show in person at the gallery, 2011 Mottman Road SW, Olympia, are available on the website.
It’s a wash
It’s been a slow year for entertainment, but the idea of a streaming program about laundry still might seem a little strange at first. Get this, though: “The Laundry Guy” starring cherubic cleaning wiz Patric Richardson, doesn’t just provide information about how to do a better job of doing laundry — which, to be fair, is something the majority of people actually have to do, unlike, say, whipping up the tortes and tarts featured on “The Great British Baking Show.” The show also tells stories about the significance of the items Richardson rescues. “My granny taught me that laundry is all about love,” he says in the promo video for the show, which debuts Wednesday, March 31, on Discovery+ and airs at 10 p.m. that day on HGTV. If you want more laundry, you’re in luck: Richardson’s first book, “Laundry Love,” drops Tuesday, March 30, and his website offers how-to videos including one with the intriguing title “How to Use Aluminum Foil in Your Dryer.” (If your question isn’t “how” but “why,” the video reveals that it’s an easy and fragrance-free way to eliminate static in the dryer.)
Freelance writer Molly Gilmore’s cat loves to watch the laundry in the washer. She — the writer, not the cat — discusses arts, entertainment and more with 95.3 KGY-FM’s Michael Stein on “Oly in a Can” from 3 to 4 p.m. Fridays.