Forensic Fun

Gil Grissom needs your help to solve a murder! That’s the scenario for tonight’s “CSI:Live” at the Colonial theater.as the Mad Science production company offers an interactive experience for aspiring crime solvers.

Also tonight, another audience participation performance is happening at Gallery 51 on Main Street in North Adams. The college gallery is  hosting an open rehearsal for Creatures of Habitat, an experimental physical-poetry ensemble and audience members are invited participate by bringing in a battery or solar-powered light. Why? We don’t know – if you go, tell us about it.

You can also catch Korean percussion music for free tonight at Williams College’s Goodrich Hall at 7:30 or guitar great Leo Kottke at the Clark at 8 for $28. Guitarist Eliot Fisk is at the Mahaiwe at 8 for $30.

On Sunday, Main Street Stage in North Adams is reading Shakespeare’s “Twelvth Night” at 1.

Love’s the Thing

It’s Valentine’s Weekend, and we would have expected more romantic happenings. If you like Disney Princesses, books and dancing, there’s plenty going on in Pittsfield.  We do like the idea of couples coming together at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts to document their love stories with videographer Mati Kin. It’s part of Pittsfield’s celebration of its black community, part of the local African-American Biography Project.

Dads and their little girls can dance the night away at the annual Father-Daughter Dance in North Adams on Sunday night from 6 to 9.  The annual event benefits the COTY Youth Center and is held at St. Anthony’s Parish Center.

It may seem odd to recognize a spinster on a weekend of love, but Susan B. Anthony blazed a trail of independence for women – far more precious and enduring than flowers or candy. Send some love to the suffragist by stopping at her birthplace this Sunday to celebrate her 189th birthday. The historic home on East Road in Adams will be open from 11:30 to 2:30.

The Mahaiwe comes through with a screening of classic rom-com “When Harry Met Sally” on Saturday night. Yes, we’ve seen it a thousand times but who can resist a winsome Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal at his comic best. Plus, chocolates! (And that restaurant scene!)

P.S. Mahaiwe says flash your tickets at alliumfor a 20 percent discount. Dinner and a movie, the perfect Valentine date.

Hooray, Paree!

We were at the opening reception for the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit at the Clark Art on Saturday night. We’ve got some pictures posted (the camera was being extraordinarily ornery, so they’re not very good). We’ll offer some views of the night as soon as we have time.

If you were there, tell us about it!

Get to the Woodshed

What can you do with lots of stuff? Create like crazy for five days!

That’s the inspiration behind MCLA Gallery 51’s latest exhibit, “Woodshed II: The Next Hundred Hours” in North Adams. (It’s a sequel to the first “Woodshed” two years ago.)

Some 40 artists took the idea of collage to inspired heights that range from video, to textile, to acrylic, to stuffed animals (REAL stuffed animals).

New gallery manager Ven Voisey said some of the artists “are using cast off stuff from our culture … and there’s a lot of it.”

Everything in Act One

Main Street Stage is hosting  series of one-act plays culled from its recent comptition.

There are apparently plenty of aspiring playwrights in the are because the nonproft theater was deluged with 60 scripts! The best are being produced over the past two weekends.

There’s still Friday and Saturday, Jan. 30 and 31, to catch a rising writer at the North Adams theater. You never know, you might be watching the novice efforts of a future Tony winner.

Click here to reserve a seat online or call 413-663-3240. Tickets are $10.

There’s some music happenings this weekend, too.

Do the Time Warp!

The granddaddy of interactive film, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” returns to Images Cinema in Williamstown at midnight tonight as part of the Williams College Queer Film Festival. Audiences come armed with props and dressed in costumes from the film, and are encouraged to yell out dialogue and respond to the movie’s over-the-top acting and musical numbers.

Not sure what to do? Don’t worry, the Come Again Players will lead the way. They’ve got plenty of experience – they’ve been acting out this film every week for the past five years at Towers Theater in  South Hadley.

Robert Adam, one of the group’s three directors and owner of the two-screen movie house,  said the cast of friends got together one Halloween to do it for fun “and never stopped.” The labor of love is funded through admission prices so the cast can buy new props and costumes.

Coffee & Art, Together Again

Thor Wickstrom, a local artist, informs us he’s showing some of his works at the Cup & Saucer, the popular coffeehouse on Main Street in North Adams and one of the many local businesses that have embraced the cultural fervor that’s infected the state’s smallest city.

“I sketch there a lot, because I enjoy getting out of my studio and seeing people,” Wickstrom wrote us. “So many of the interiors displayed are actually done from ‘on location.'”

Wickstrom’s been living in North Adams for about two years and has a studio at the Beaver Mill, which appears to be one of his inspirations. “I love the place – it’s an old mill with huge windows; very industrial. Make you want to set up and paint it.”

His works at the Cup & Saucer include light studies of the mill that was once a bustling part of the old Sprague Electric Co. He’s also got sketches of North Adams, such as the mill housing near Natural Bridge and the Victorians around the library.

Wickstrom has two careers, as a painter and a children’s book illustrator. He’s latest book was “Lester Fizz, Bubblegum Artist.” Oh, and he’s a dog walker, too.

“I’ve really enjoying being a part of this place. The artist co-op gallery this summer was a great experience for me, as it allowed me to meet so many local artists and local people I might not have met.”

Check out Wickstrom’s work at his favorite coffee haunt daily through Jan. 31, from 7 to 3.

Weekend Outlook, Sort Of

We know our Weekend Outlook write-ups every Friday were pretty popular. They invariably jumped into the top story list within a few hours of being published.

It was a great idea – but took hours of work.  Sometimes we were wrapping up only minutes from when something good was about to start. The holidays, with few public events, gave us a breather to think of different way to present information.

So, we’re trying a new format.  Instead of a list every week, we’ll try to spotlight activities, events and people as we hear about them. And don’t forget, you can always check the community and cultural calendars on iBerkshires‘ home page. There’s always lots of free and not-so-free things to do around the county.

You can also help us out by commenting on the posts or sending information on cool things happening around the region. iBerkshires is designed with community participation in mind, so send along those ideas and photos and links, and we’ll spread them along.

You can post here  or e-mail info@iberkshires.com