Big Jack Earl at Applefest & Eerie Film Festival

Lots of news this week.
If, like me, Applefest makes your skin crawl, then head to a place where that creepy feeling is demanded - The Eerie Horror Film Fest, in Erie PA from Oct 5-9.
However, make sure you're back in town on Saturday for Big Jack Earl's afternoon show at 1 pm at the Food Court, Fountain Park. On Sunday, they play at the Boston Garden at 12pm. Word is their playing around with drums on the new album. Mmmmmmmmm....percussion....


In sadder news, Pittsbugh native and America's pre-eminent 20th century playwright, August Wilson is dead. Ironically, I had to move to Ohio to be introduced to his cycle about Western Pennsylvania - no one even mentioned him at Franklin High School - likewise finding his plays in local libraries is pretty much impossible. A prophet without honor in his own land. It's no wonder, perhaps that he refused to move back here.

Ginsburg's "Howl" is 50 years old this month?! Party, anyone?














Gerald McBoing-Boing - the new hot thing among those wacky kids? Listen to him here.

New Gallery Director for Clarion, Banned Books Week, and "George Bush Don't Care About Black People"

As usual, my best laid plans have failed. I ran out of time to put together a benefit show for Banned Books Week. Sigh. Second year in a row I spaced it. Peter Greene has a decent piece about the week in this morning's News-Herald. They don't of course, put their columnists on line though. So instead, head to the source, the ALA.

Clarion University has a new gallery director, Mark Franchino.



Like many others, I started listening to "George Bush Don't Care About Black People" about a two weeks ago. Now the NYTimes has discovered it as well. You can see the video for the song here.

Crawford Dairy Princess

God love the completely irony free article on the Dairy Princess.

Pirates.

I don't like Major League Baseball. But I love this:

Erie Art Museum Gallery Reviews

Erie Art Museum "the Weavings of War" wrapped up earlier this week.
I saw it on Sunday and was dramatically underwhelmed. The stoires themselves were horrible - but the weavings were really sub-par - overall the sort of stuff you can buy on ebay. Yes, the stories of these women are heartbreaking, but I'm not sure that great art and pathos mix very often.

I think the curator's heart was in the right place, but there needed to be more contextuality and a smaller scope - maybe just focusing on the South American pieces. The Afghan and Middle Eastern pieces seemed tacked on, there only to correspond to current American interests and, becuase they were also the weakest pieces artisically, served just to drag the whole show down. Maybe the strangest part of all was the attempt to work male performance artist Lynn Manning into the exhbit. The press release claims that Manning, the former Blind Judo Champion of the World, "exemplifies this same process [as the weavers] on an individual level." Huh?

On the other hand, "Fables, Foibles, and Fairy Tales" by Susan Read Cronin -- Ground Floor Gallery through Oct 30th --
was entirely charming.
From the well designed introductory text (available as a zine-like publication) to the process of lost wax casting to the cluttered playroom layout of the exbihit itself, this was the best show I've seen at the EAM in years. Cronin's work like "Boing!" (pictured above) skewers stuffy notions about art with its kinetic energy, sense of whimsy, and overall fun. The lost wax prcoess leaves a rough hewn surface to these pieces which also carry a slight patina to them giving them the feel of something totally handmade, no smoothness here, no machined parts.


When my wife and I walked into the gallery and saw "Boing!" the first piece, I started talking about the statment on the American economy it was making, bulls versus bears and so on. My wife waited until I was done and then said, "Or maybe it's just supposed to be cute." It's that sort of show. If you're a stuffy intellectual nerd guy you can project your own biases on the art. But if you're someone who just enjoys life, you can go in and enjoy the show for what it is. Highly recommended, highly kid friendly, this show alone is worth the price of admission. Now if I can just come up with a couple spare thousands to buy "Boing!" or "To The Rescue!" (pictured below)


Looking ahead:

McKeever's 3rd Annual Nature Art Show runs rom Septmeber 23-25. The seven gallereis are located in North, Sourh and West Lodges, the Sandy Creek Conservance conference room and the three infoor areas inside the Dscovery Building. The show runs from Friday 6-9 pm, Saturday 1 pm -6 pm and Sunday noone-4 pm. Admission is free and open to the public.

Google's New Toy

I’ve been playing around with BlogSearch – Google’s new specialized search for blog. This will be useful if you are looking for materials on people, comments, or reviews on specific topics:

“Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join the revolution themselves. Whether you’re looking for Harry Potter reviews, political commentary, summer salad recipes or anything else, Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice.

Your results include all blogs, not just those published through Blogger; our blog index is continually updated, so you’ll always get the most accurate and up-to-date results; and you can search not just for blogs written in English, but in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese and other languages as well.”

1st the Seawolves, now the Pirates?

Today's NYT reports that the McClatchy family fortune is running aground. Should Pittsburgh be worried about losing their PNC Park investment?

Dublin Carol and BJE at North Country Brewing

Dublin Carol is over. We had good crowds both nights. As a director, I wasn't too pleased. I couldn't get my vision of the horror, banality, and terror that the main charatcer was going through across to the actors or the audience. I brooded all weekend, but feel better now.

At least we had good music for the show
Pre-show:
1. The River (I have no clue who the artist is, but he has an 80s, Peter Gabriel sort of vibe to him. In a good Lloyd Dobbler sort of way, not a patchouli WOMAD sort of way)
2. So What - Miles Davis
3. Laramie - Amy Ray
5 A day in Space - Ballboy
6 Black Keys - the Lengths
7. Pictures of You - The Cure (instrumental Symphony version)

Intermission
8. Danko/Manuel - Drive By truckers
10 Paperthin Farmer Not So John

And then of course, as people are shuffling out:
11. St Beautiful - Big Jack Earl - Who it must be noted are playing at North Country Brewing in Slippery Rock PA tonight from 7-10 pm. I'll be there. You should too.

Dublin Carol in Franklin PA tomorrow and Friday

Just a quick reminder that TiLT is presenting the play Dublin Carol, Thursday and Friday, in its Northwestern PA premiere.

Can a play be both brutal and tender, as gentle as it is harsh? Such paradoxes seem utterly natural when describing McPherson's painfully beautiful Dublin Carol.Exploring the gap between blarney and real human emotion, Dublin Carol is a subtle portrayal of a man hampered by alcohol, barely hanging onto his life. Fifty-ish undertaker John Plunkett drinks the better part of a bottle of whiskey throughout the course of a day but, as he points out, remembers to eat, has a bed to sleep in, and shows up for work each morning. Spinning tales about his past to his young assistant, Plunkett reveals that he used to be much worse, barely a step above a street drunk. A surprise visit from his estranged daughter makes him face the effect he has had on the lives of the people around him, revealing lost opportunities, a misused past, and giving him one last chance to make it all right.

Theatre in the Little Theatre will present this play on September 15 & 16th at 8 pm in Franklin’s Barrow Civic Little Theatre (1223 Liberty Street). Ed Ramage will perform the role of John Plunkett, Ted Smith plays Mark and Shelia Plymire is Mary Plunkett The cost is $7. There will be a cash bar. This play contains adult language and may be inappropriate for children under the age of 16.

TiLT is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency

This is not an automated list - I send these out because you either signed up for them, or I thought you'd think it was kind of cool. I fyou don't, shoot me a line and I'll take you off lickety-split. Also, look for cast photos and opening night photos here starting tomorrow. Finally, as always, if you're interested in helping out with TiLT in any capacity, drop us a line. Next month is the Dybbuk - it's gonna be a whole lot o' fun.
Thanks - see you at the show.

Tough Love for the Arts

One of Pittsburgh Mayor Murphy's big pushes is to finish the Steel City's bike trails - will that mean fewer visitors to Venango's trails?


They may be corny (I'm sorry, I just couldn't help it) but the area's fall big scale mazes definitely count as both art and culture to me...
Salt Lake is asking its residents a question that I think our region should consider, "How should local arts be covered?" I remember a few months ago picking up an Erie Times News review of a play that the reviewer just ripped apart. At first, I was taken aback, but then I thought, yeah, this is what local arts really needs. There isn't a real fine line between supporting and enabling, but what I see and hear is a lot of enabling and no criticism at all. I tend to be pretty glowing here in the blog, but I'm really selective about what I go to see - I don't go to something if it doesnÂ’t interest me, or if it has a bad vibe about it, so I'm not trying to set myself up as a critic - of anything really - much more of a fan - but I don't think I've ever been to a show, for instance, at the Barrow Civic Main Theatre that didn't get a standing ovation. Really? I mean, they've all been great? I'd like to see some of the arts commentary community develop some teeth around here and I'd like to see the community itself grow to a point where such criticism can be accepted and utilized.

Mercyhurst's Cummings Gallery is hosting Erie Native Gary Cardot's excellent "Geography Lessons: Photographs of the Industrial Triangle" show currently - it runs through October 8th.

Franklin's Applefest has a website up. It's pretty rudimentary. Why can't I download a schedule here, or see sample menus from the listed eateries?

Some general Arts & Culture news:
Blockbuster has given up on VHS.
PayPal has announced MicroPayments for things like chapters of books, , or photographs, or essays or individual songs. Seems like this would be perfect for some of Venango's lesser known, but still commercially viable artists...

"Mexican" food and Art Exhibits

About fifteen years ago, my friend Mark McClusky and I sat in what had been the Idlewood restraint, but had been turned into a Mexican restaurant of dubious notoriety that we had termed "Nos Vomitos". The original name escapes me. That night, I ordered a bean burrito and when the waiter had taken the order back, the cook suddenly appeared at the window between the counter and the kitchen.
"Who ordered the bean burrito," he asked?
"I did," I answered.
"Order something else," he said forcefully, "Seriously, you don't want to eat what that's made of."
Flash forward fourteen years. It's Christmas break and my wife and I sit in the freezing dimly lit dining room of El Canelo in the Oil City Arlington Inn, in what used to be Kate's, when the hotel was still a Holiday Inn, before the franchise had been pulled for, well, why ever...
We order, unfortunately, following the advice on the menu, one of the combination platters and are treated to doughy, lukewarm Tex Mex cuisine that would have made an e coli platter at ChiChis pretty attractive.
Finally, flash forward one year to last Saturday when I, defying all logic, went to the El Canelo that has opened on Route 8 just south of Franklin. There's no bar yet, and no hint that they may get one, but the food was piping hot, Telemundo boomed from the satelite, and most surprising, the place had a good mix of young couples, families like me, and old guys already jockying up to the counter. Bienvenido a la barrio, caballeros.

They're thinking of Christmas already in Titusville.

With leather seats, booze and big screen football, it sounds like the new theatre is in direct competition with Synn City.

The Virginia theatre in NYC (on W52nd) is being renamed in honor of dying Pittsburgh playwright, August Wilson.

Pittsburgh was also named as one of 10 international "Islands of Green" in the Sept-Oct 05 issue of the Utne Reader. Cited was its large Dutch (?) population. Huh? I mean, it's a nice honor and all, but, did I miss something... (registration required to read the whole article)


Caldecott Award winner Paul O Zelinky's work is on display at the Schuster Gallery at Gannon University (3rd floor of the Nash Library, 619 Sassafras St)



!
Allegheny College has two great exhibitions going on right now, "Eight Hour Drawings" and "Graphics & Graphix" both through Oct 4. One of the artists in "G&G" owes me money. So if you see Michael Budai - tell him I want my art or my money.




The Great Lakes Independent Film Festival swears that Andy Dick is going to be at the fest...But which Andy will it be? Crazy drunken coked up Andy Dick or the safe for TV Andy?

The Franklin Public Library is accepting donations of used books through September 28th for their Used Book Sale from Oct 1 to Oct 10th