Local blogger scores a nice mention in a national mag.


Erie Blog The Film Chair runs an interview with the man behind the Movies at Meadville,Jon Goldstein.
FC: On the idea of moving a showing around, you also show football games and sporting events. Do you think that that is the wave of the future, as far as theatres go, that they have to find other means of providing income for themselves if people keep going to DVD or the product keeps turning out as terrible as it has been?
JG: It is product. I show football games because it gets people in the theatre who wouldn’t come on a Sunday otherwise. In the middle of October and September . . .I can fill 250 seats every Sunday and that’s a big deal . . .

"Erie rocks harder than any other city!"

By Memorial Day, the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau will have a new Underground Railroad driving tour covering Crawford, Erie, Lawrence, Mercer, Venango and Warren counties.

Sounds like the 13th annual Spring Fever Music Festival went off without a hitch last weekend in Cambridge Springs.

The Meadville Trib is running a really nice series on starting an independent restaurant in NWPA.

The Erie Zoo has four new baby warthogs.







Tired of all those pesky vowels? You say you want to llearn Welsh? Pal, you are in lluck. Erie County library card holders now have the chance to learn another language, including Arabic, Italian, Russian, Swahili and Welsh, online -- for free. All you need is a library card from the Erie County Public Library or any of the other public libraries in Erie County.
For more information, call 451-6911.

Train was in Erie and hauled out every classic rock chestnut available. No word on if they used, "Erie rocks harder than any other city!" or, "You know, we've been all around the world, but Erie girls are the hottest!" or "We just wish we could take you all on tour with us!" But smart money says, "yup."

Non local, but interesting:

Author Neil Gaiman talks to Time Europe about his current list of projects, including writing the screenplay for the film adaptation of Charles Burns' graphic novel, Black Hole. (via largeheartedboy)

The Erie Times News rap article.

It must be spring; not only do I no longer feel like weeping softly under my bed, but there's actually too many cool arts and culture things to do this weekend. To wit:

The Magic Flute is at Mercyhurst Saturday and Sunday. Call 814-824-3000.

The Edinboro University Student Film Festival will be Saturday at 7 pm at the Academy Theatre in Meadville. $3 at the door includes a reception and EUP students are free with ID.

Speaking of Edinboro and film, Adny Dick will be there Thursday April 27th for the East Coast premier of his movie Danny Roane: First Time Director. Go here for tickets

If you missed Cabinets of Curiosities when it was at the Erie Art Museum, you can catch it at the funky and free Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh's Strip District.

Holy Smokes. Robb Frederick has written the whitest rap article. Ever. In History.

And here's our home boy. The local hope. The pride of the lower east side. The big-sleeved, notebook-toting, GED dreamer. A rapper with a muskrat 'stache and lavender sunglasses.
You'll have to register (might I suggest www.bugmenot.com?), but omigod, it so worth reading it. (Make sure you check out the photo with the two black guys lurking in the background to give the white rapper some "street cred". Oh, Erie Times, ever time I think you can't write more poorly on the arts, youup the ante. Kudos my friends, kudos.)


Pittsburgh was named to the nation's third best midsized arts city in a readers poll released today by American Style magazine.

The film adaptation of Michael Chabon's novel The Mysteries Of Pittsburgh may not be filmed there.

What was keeping Sarah from literary greatness? Writing her blog. Oh...I see now....
Music to think about.

The new book about Ginsburg's "Howl" will have you yawping barabarically. It's so bad, I'm surprised Robb Frederick didn;t pen one of the essays. I'm sorry, it's just....Tonight, on stage at Tullio Arena, with the DJ tweaking and the dancers freaking, Charles J will grab for the brass ring.

This is his 15 minutes.

Let's back up some. He's a thin kid, the baby at a table of four. He ditches Jim Morrison, his mom's dead rebel, for the urban versions: Biggie and Tupac, Mobb Deep and Nas.

Omigod. I just peed.

Anyhow, about ten years ago, I got into a shouting match with one of the John's from They Might Be Giants during an interview as we questioned each other's punk cred. Golly, I was lame. Anyhow, the boys are now touring in support of a DVD/CD set called Venue Songs, featuring sonds about specfiic tour stops. Some will remember the Electric Banaa club mentioned in the intro to this song and the rest of you can enjoy the song included about Pittsburgh's newest indie venue Mr. Small's Theatre. Warning: Very low quality.

Carol Channing in Bradford

I just found out that Carol Channing is doing her one woman show "The First 80 Years Are the Most Difficult" in Bradford PA on Friday. If it weren't such a long drive for me and if I didn't have to show up at a benefit the next day...Wow. The show is supposed to be just hilarious and at $35 per ticket, a great deal. NPR talks about it here. And the Bradford Era (one of my favorite small town papers) has a piece here....

Better butch up a bit...The Erie Seawolves have a new website...

Next Friday, Big Jack Earl are playing a free show at Summer House Coffee Roasters at 7 pm on Liberty Street in Franklin.

Reinventing the WPA wheel...again....

The cultural revivial continues in Foxburg.

Pulitzers have been announced. Slate.com says the awards don't matter.

Apparently the Seawolves aren't the only ones tearing out the cheap seats...Speaking of the 'wolves, while my wife and I were there on Easter (sitting in front of the archetypal know-it-all WPA guy - medium height, conservative haircut, morbidly obese, and to top it all a PENN STATE sweatshirt (I'm betting School of Engineering '86) trying hard to get some face time with the 18 year olf doing promotions to explain why these darn new kids just weren't trying. Ah well, at least he wasn't cursing...)she asked, "Do the players get to pick the music that plays when they come out?" Apparently, the answer is, "Yes!"

Sigh. Once again WPA shows off its penchant for reinventing the wheel. A group of Clarion County volunteers is creating a book documenting "...history [that] was captured in photographs, artwork and postcards throughout the years, horded away in attics stored in scrapbooks and boxes." If that set up sounds familiar, it's because it's what Arcadia Publishing does. I've worked as a consultant on a couple of Arcadia projects (and would love to work on more, hint, hint...)and it couldn't go more smoothly when they're involved. Without their know-how though, things tend to go overtime and over budget quickly....What is it about this area that makes us think that we know everything about everything? Or is just an attempt to squeeze a few more dimes out of a project?

My brother, back in town for the weekend, was amazed at how vibrant Meadville has become....

Local filmmaker has begun filming Victimless in WPA.

New book from Greene, New Music from BJE and $27K + of art.

Long time no blog. Anyhow....


Franklin Area High School teacher Peter Greene, has written a history of the Franklin Silver Cornet Band: Musical Service: The Life and Times of the Franklin Silver Cornet Band.





All around artiste Edmund Ramage will be painting another mural in Franklin this summer. Check out his earlier work in my Flickr account, or in person, on the side of the Feldman's building in downtown Franklin.

Big Jack Earl has a preview of "Justin Casey" from their "brand-new, soon-to-be-released album".

What kind of art can $27K buy you? If you're Presque Isle's Tom Ridge theater, you'll get a, "colorful design of a monarch butterfly flanked by beebalm plants" The design is the work of Erie-area artist Susan Kemenyffy.

Old guy rock critic Greil Marcus writes about "Howl" in the NY Times.