The Oil City Derrick ran a series of articles about the recent attempts to get the Oil City Playhouse a new home. One of the articles mentions the Old Drake Theatre - the place where I saw both Star Wars and the Karate Kid and one of the most beautiful theatres I had seen at that point. Strangely enough - they also seem to have been written by a local high school student - cheap labor I guess, or possibly part of a senior project. I'm leaning towards cheap labor...

March 8th Pulitzer prize winning poet C.K. Williams will receive the International Poetry Forum's second Charity Randall Award during his reading at the IPF in Pittsburgh on March 8, 2005 at 8 p.m $12

In non local news:
Storyglossia is a great lit mag focusing on short stories.

The Franklin Silver Coronet Band is looking for someone to design a commemorative pin to help celebrate the group's 150th anniversary. Specifications include five different colors depicting the band's history.
A $50 prize will be awarded to the winner of the contest. Complete contest rules are available at the band’s Web site . Entry deadline is March 20.

Realms of the Unreal in Franklin

Whoo-hooo! Good news from reader Nancy E:
Friday evening, February 24, at 6pm in the upstairs room at the Franklin
Library In the Realms of the Unreal, a documentary about Henry Darger. A reclusive janitor who spent his childhood in an asylum, Henry Darger created hundreds of paintings, drawings and manuscripts unknown to the public until his landlord discovered after his death in 1973. Dozens of these works, including Darger's 15,000 page illustrated novel, The Realms of the Unreal are at Pittsburgh's Warhol Museum until April 30, 2006. The film is free and open to the public!


Junction Dance Theatre wants to throw a house party. But first it needs a little help from local writers.
The modern-dance company seeks stories for its annual House Party, an experiment in dance, theater, poetry, music, food and drink. The writing, whether fiction or non-fiction, must relate to the home or use home as departure as a theme. Poems, fiction and memoirs are welcome, regardless of word count.
Send stories to:
Junction Dance Theatre
Kumquat Dance Center
3500 Lancaster Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
ATTN: House Party Inspiration

or to interact@junctiondancetheatre.org.

The deadline is Feb. 28.


Pittsburgh's Film Kitchenen has announced its 2006 contest and mini-fetsival. They're looking for short films and videos about or involving coffee
Subisssion muct be four minutes or less and must be about or involve coffee.
Submissions can be silent or soubnd
acceptable formats are 16 mm, Super 8 mm, VHS, DVD and mini_Dv, one submission per artist.
Deadline Fri April 14th at 5 pm. Send entries (with a SASE for return to
Film Kitchen Contest
c/o Pittsburgh City Paper
650 Smithfield St Ste 2200
Pittsburgh PA 15222
412-316-3342 X 178
driscoll@steelcitymedia.com

A Titusville High School graduate is currently working on a project to document the importance of Cyclops and Cytemp Specialty Steel and its employees through photos and is seeking former workers and interested individuals to be part of the undertaking.

A late President's day treat:






Richard Nixon, Republican nominee for vice president, and his wife Patricia are greeted by Congressman Leon Gavin of Oil City during a 1952 whistle-stop in Oil City






It's not too late to apply to be in the Artists in Education program. As a former participant, I can personally highly recommend this.

In non-local arts news:
The Guardian (UK) takes a look at self-publishing.
Marvel comics is putting their heroes in a post Patriot Act world.

Last year, when I was talking music with some students, one of them was trying to convince me to give contemporary country a chance. Nope, said I, I worked at a CC radio station and that was enough for me. You should try Keith Urban she said, you'll like him. He used to be a junkie. I'm not sure what that means or says about me or my musical tastes, but regardless, Keith Urban will be performing at this year's Crawford County Fair

Warm weather puts Mountain View Ski Area on thin ice

Oil Creek State Park needs volunteers.

Weinermobile

No Internet access at work for three days! Not that I errr, ever blog from work or anything....Anyhow...


The Weinermobile was in Oil City last night - my family consoled my terrible disappointment - like a sugar hyped three year old, I imagined a crowd of hundreds surrounding a weinermobile of RV size with free hot dogs and a band.

Instead there were about 7 people crowding around what looked like a giant hotdogs perched on a Gran Turino. Even the whistles were pretty crummy. One of the drivers I talked to was from Texas. She was a sweet girl, even if she did have the tendency to veer wildly in and out of corporate-speak. One minute, we were having a lovely discussion about Austin and then suddenly her voice would increase in level and she'd something to me like, "I mean, c'mon, in what other country in the world is there enough freedom for a company to put together such a great and wonderful opportunity to connect with its customers."

Earlier in the week, I had pitched a human interest story to the Penn Stater because the other driver was a Penn State graduate. 'Sorry," she said, "So many Penn State graduates have taken that job that it's no longer a novelty." Really? Maybe that's the story in itself. Or at least a new slogan to recruit students.

Before long I felt like the child there who was terrified of the giant sausage and wept wildly (the kid did, not me, at least not until I got home, but what's unusual about that?).

Today, as I was walking around Franklin, finishing errands, I saw the Weenie Wagon pull up at a red light diagonally from the Sheetz on Liberty. A woman shot out of the church and reached the driver's side window just as the light turned green and the Mobile drove away. She waved sadly, then sprinted back to her car parked along the street and spun gravel in hot pursuit. Don't do it Lady, I thought, it'll break your heart.
















Last weekend, I finally drove up to the Movies at Meadville to see Capote. I was wildly underwhelmed by the theatre. It's just a normal theatre - a lot like the one in the Clarion Mall, albeit with the promise of someday serving beer. The movie though was just as good as the reviews suggested. So much so that I'm now checking out Capote in Kansas graphic novel











Lots of arts news in the local papers today.
Dion Hayes' face will appear in an upcoming episode of the popular cartoon show Loonatics Unleashed.

A Chinese new year celebration, ringing in the year of the dog, drew more than 180 people to Emmanuel Christian Church in Stoneboro.

Oil City continues its ill-conceived plan to bring artists to the river community which will, in turn, save the city from falling further into meth induced madness.

Franklin On Ice really began today with carvers moving their ice in and setting up.

CDBaby's Long Tail

Good news for local bands like Big Jack Earl who sell their CDs through CDBaby. NPR reports that "the indie music retailer...has joined forces with electronics chain Best Buy". Thank God for the prevalence of the Long Tail theory in businesses today.

Also on NPR, a piece about DIY audiobook podcasts. While I like Librivox NPR also highlights Dead White Males a podcast run by a self important gradstudent that hasn't been updated in nearly four months.