venangago-go

Gospel Fest is Saturday, Feb. 2 at 3 p.m. in Allegheny College's Ford Chapel. Featured choirs include the Chosen Generation Gospel Choir from Slippery Rock University, United Voices of Edinboro from Edinboro University and the Male Chorus from First Good Samaritan A.M.E. Zion Church in Erie. Gospel Fest is cosponsored by the college's Association for the Advancement for Black Culture and the Religious Life Council.

The Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Allegheny College and the Academy Theatre in Meadville will present an international film festival on Tuesdays on Jan. 29, Feb. 5 and 26, and March 4 and 11.
The schedule of includes:

Jan. 29: Control Room (USA, 2004) takes a look at the war in Iraq from the Arab perspective.

Feb. 5: Paris, Je T'aime (France/Liechtenstein, 2006), a film by Olivier Assayas and Frédéric Auburtin, is an anthology of 18 five-minute shorts by well-known directors.

Feb. 26: Das Leben der Anderen, or The Lives of Others (Germany, 2006), by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, tells the story of an informant for the secret police in East Germany.

March 4: Jorge Gaggero's Cama adentro, or Live-In Maid (Argentina/Spain, 2004), tells the story of a complex relationship between an upper-class woman in Buenos Aires and her longtime housekeeper.

March 11: Ping He's Tian di ying xiong, or Warriors of Heaven and Earth (China/USA, 2003), set in the Gobi Desert, is a compelling historical epic.

General admission to each film is $6. The cost to senior citizens and students is $5, and Allegheny students are admitted free. All shows are at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy Theatre on Chestnut Street in Meadville.

For the really bad days, for the days when you want to quit. . . . when you start to think you will never make a living making art, when you are working on something and feel like you hate it more than you've ever hated anything in your life, when someone makes an offhand remark about your work and afterwards you feel dejected, when you wish you had gone to school for accounting, when you start to believe that maybe your family was right, when you want to lie in bed for a month and eat chips. The artist's survival kit offers some help .

Speaking of the artsy/craftsy world, you only have 9 more days to sign up Thing A Day

A recently published compendium of Robert Frost's personal notebooks is coming under attack from two critics who say that the editor of the volume, Robert Faggen, mistranscribed hundreds, if not thousands, of Frost’s words. Which explains that early draft of "Stopping By the Woods...":

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch me supersoak dat ho
I'm a Pass It To Arab
Then He Gon Pass It To The Low (Low)
Haterz Wanna Be Me
I'm The Man
They Be Lookin At My Neck
Sayin Its The Rubberband Man (Man)
Watch Me Do It (Watch Me Do It)
Dance (Dance)
Let Get To It (Let Get To It)
Nope, You Can't Do It Like Me
Hoe, So Don't Do It Like Me
Folk, I See You Tryna Do It Like Me

La Blogotheque's Take Away Shows features three live videos from Vampire Weekend.

The Hollywood Reporter reviews the film adaptation of Michael Chabon's debut novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.

Tunecore is offering 34 free downloads in itunes. I may have mentioned this earlier.

Last summer, I tried to convince Page France to make a stop in NWPA. No luck, but here's a free and legal download of their 11/18/06 show in Houston. And, hey, there's always next summer...