athens georgia music&arts

Bad news for Nuci's Space

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:58:54 -0500

hoping we’ll see this go forward with a Supreme Court review. Charitable organizations that offset their costs by way of small profit-making endeavors should not be penalized but thanked for taking intitiative to do whatever it takes to stay afloat. The value of Nuci’s to this community is huge — this taxing is an atrocity.

“Not Since You,” the movie that was shot in Athens a...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:19:01 -0500

“Not Since You,” the movie that was shot in Athens a couple of summers ago (formerly called “The Hill”) and executive produced by Ashley Epting, is screening out in Cali. at the American Film Market tonight.

Lots of locals came on to help bring the film to being, or appear as extras — and anyone familiar with the Epting compound will recognize the sites. Will keep posted for a potential Athens screening.

aewsome: allisonweiss: Allison Weiss - “Fingers Crossed” from...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:11:20 -0500

aewsome:

allisonweiss:

Allison Weiss - “Fingers Crossed”

from upcoming album Allison Weiss Was Right All Along, due out on 11/24.

Everyone in Atlanta should go to the Earl tonight to see Allison perform. She’s pretty much a bad ass.

"When the Right says we have the best health care in the world, that’s absurd and untrue. And..."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:12:00 -0500

““When the Right says we have the best health care in the world, that’s absurd and untrue. And (Paul Broun) really should be in prison. He’s in a position of power and what he wants to do to me is criminal. But we live in a district where the population is naive and believe everything they’re told by the corporate power structure, they’re pawns in this weird, absurd game of money and power.””

- Vic Chesnutt, commenting on our health care system.

My article on Vic Chesnutt ran yesterday — he had some...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:02:00 -0500

My article on Vic Chesnutt ran yesterday — he had some choice words about Paul Broun, considering Vic, who’s been in a wheelchair since age 18, has a “pre-existing condition” and can only get hospitalization insurance. He’s now being sued by ARMC b/c he hasn’t been able to pay off the $70,000 or so he owes the hospital. It’s crazy, ridiculous, rage-inducing stuff, and he’s sufficiently enraged/depressed about it.

On the happier side of things, he plays tonight at the 40 Watt with his touring band o’ punks, made up of Guy Picciotto of Fugazi and about seven members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. This will be a phenomenal show and you should go.

athensview: Athens Jazz. I saw and heard Randy Andersen,...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:54:17 -0500

athensview: Athens Jazz. I saw and heard Randy Andersen, trumpet, for the first and last time back in June at a Ciné jam session. Randy and his horn seemed the oldest of friends, and the two of them, I thought, belonged exactly where they were, left of the keys and right of the saxes, offering some especially loving and respectful contributions to the musical conversation.

Randy died this week after a long fight against cancer. He’ll be remembered at a service on Monday, November 2, at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph’s. Then we’ll all adjourn to Ciné for an extended jam session in Randy’s honor. Please join us at Ciné for what should be a beautifully fitting musical celebration of a jazz artist’s life.

Steve Key and Mitch Rothstein, who knew Randy well, say he moved to Athens in the early 1990’s to be closer to his mother’s family. Born in New York City, Randy grew up around jazz, shmoozing with some of the greats. He served as an Army musician, playing his horn across the U.S. and overseas.

During his years in Athens, Randy was jazz shepherd and evangelist, taking the initiative to put together a number of combos and big bands. Steve Key has a special memory of the night Randy hosted a Morton Theatre performance with saxophonist Billy Mitchell.

Randy studied jazz trumpet with one of the under-appreciated poets of the idiom, Dave Burns.

Another great find via athensview’s Bob...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:53:27 -0500

Another great find via athensview’s Bob Brussack

athensview: Athens People. If I had turned right at Lumpkin this morning, as I usually do, I would not have met Karen Witten. But I crossed Lumpkin and began the long walk down the Broad Street hill, lingering a moment or two at Broad and Finley to renew my acquaintance with the cobblestones that have ushered me and so many other pilgrims into the presence of The Tree That Owns Itself.

When I reached Pope, I turned right, partly to avoid an even longer trek back to the downtown parking deck, and partly to pay my silent respects to Hill First Baptist Church. When the church gathered, some time ago now, to say farewell to my colleague Larry Blount, who died young, the spiritual tide that engulfed the congregation washed over me, standing at the back of the sanctuary, leaving me with the strong conviction that Larry, perhaps alone among all I’ve mourned, received a proper send-off.

As I moved beyond the church on Pope, I encountered something unexpected. To my right, in a hollow between the back of the church and a row of wood-frame houses, vegetables grew in neat rows and patches. Here — only a block or two from the 40 Watt and the arch — was a garden. And walking slowly through it, carrying (I think) one of those plastic grocery bags, was a diminutive gray-haired woman. She was dressed so modestly, and she carried herself with such humble grace, that I thought she might be homeless. As I watched, she stopped, midways of the garden, and busied herself. I realized then that the garden was no mere waypoint for her, but a workspace. She was the gardener or, as it turns out, one of them. She is Karen Witten. Karen, a physician, has spent more time in Addis Ababa than in Athens. For more than a decade, she worked closely with Ethiopian scientists to try to rid the country of the scourge of malaria while her husband Wray, a lawyer, helped build Ethiopia’s system of legal education. About two years ago, Karen and Wray retired to Athens, moving into a house near what is now the garden, but was then just a kudzu-dominated patch of open space.

The story of the garden’s creation and of its tending by a diverse community of volunteers should be told, and the telling already has begun. This week’s Flagpole (as Karen pointed out to me) includes an excellent feature on “the hand-made garden.” After you’ve read the piece, drop back by. I’ll post a few more images when they’re ready, and I’ll add a detail or two to the story.

Note: For access to a dropio drop where you may download a high-res version of this image for your personal use at a nominal cost, click here.

(via ajamars) b/c i love her.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:48:58 -0500

(via ajamars)

b/c i love her.

Hilarious Darius-as-John-Madden call for donations for...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:31:09 -0400

Hilarious Darius-as-John-Madden call for donations for America’s Giving Challenge

The Darius Goes West crew is rallying the troops again, trying to get the most supporters to give $10 (or more) by Nov. 7. Winning team gets $50K donated to the cause, second place gets $25K donated, and 3rd-7th place gets $10K donated. Easy-peasy for these guys to at least get $10K donated to Charley’s Fund for Duchenne muscular dystrophy research.

DMD is a terrible disease that attacks kids, it’s fatal in all cases by the time they hit their late teens and early 20s. $10 toward helping find a cure costs each of us very little, but collectively helps very much, so please join in the cause and pass it along.

Broun gets a smackdown. It’s amazing that he just keeps it...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:25:37 -0400

Broun gets a smackdown.
It’s amazing that he just keeps it going, thinking that reading from his shuffled papers is an appropriate reply.

The wonderful Linda Phillips, who founded Nuçi’s Space in...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:13:00 -0400

The wonderful Linda Phillips, who founded Nuçi’s Space in Athens, was given an honorary key to the city on Saturday (Oct. 24) from Athens mayor Heidi Davison.
I’ve been lucky enough to get to know Linda, first meeting her back when Nuci’s Space was just an old car garage, gutted out but even then beautiful with her vision to create a musicians’ resource and practice space in memory of her son, Nuçii, who she lost to suicide on Thanksgiving Day in 1996.

I’m not sure how many musicians have passed through the doors since Nuçi’s opened nine years ago (the event where she was given the key was the 9th anniversary) — and we’ll never know how many have been saved from the same fate as Nuçii. But even one would be enough.

The goodness Linda has given this community through Nuçii’s Space can’t be overstated.

Over the last couple of weekends, the Lyndon House hosted a...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:00:00 -0400

Over the last couple of weekends, the Lyndon House hosted a scarecrow-making workshop, the scarecrows made from materials that otherwise would have landed in the dump or the recycling center. A great idea for a project (though no one can touch Houschton in fearless scarecrow record-breaking numbers) — especially considering it was part of a food drive to collect cans of ravioli for the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia’s Food 2 Kids program.

The scarecrows today move to Chase Street Elementary School, where they will be displayed as part of the Environmental Education Alliance of Georgia’s 13th annual Outdoor Classroom Symposium on Friday.

(via schwegler) This one’s for foreignaffair

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:49:38 -0400

(via schwegler)

This one’s for foreignaffair

juliephillips: Where the Wild Things Are The movie is so super...

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:26:00 -0400

juliephillips: Where the Wild Things Are

The movie is so super cool, true to the book, and yet delving into a deeper meaning, the universal feeling of being a kid and navigating through family and friends, and the difficulties of personalities that collide; and even when we can live our dreams, there’s always something that eludes us.

The music was beautiful too — but wondering what it all would’ve sounded like to Kyle’s soundtrack (named for a line in the book, especially to hear it read aloud by President O., above).

Photo

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:16:45 -0400

athensview: (Funny) Faces of Athens. “Monkey Face.” 2009. So...

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:50:37 -0400

athensview:

(Funny) Faces of Athens. “Monkey Face.” 2009.

So I’ve had my two Egg McMuffins (but no hash browns, so please cut me some slack) and I’m on autopilot wondering where my right brain wants to take me and my Nikon this overcast fall Friday morning in the Classic City. It turns out we’re headed downtown. Yes! Downtown is like a box of chocolates. You never know what photo ops will present themselves.

Well, I haven’t even parked yet — I’m still rolling slowly west along Broad Street — when I spot a fellow photographer at work at the corner near Mr. Haircut #1 (Is it still called that? I can’t remember when I had my first haircut there, but I’m pretty sure it was during the Johnson Administration.)

Anyway, both the photographer and her subject are young women, and as I’m watching, the subject sticks out her tongue. Okay. That’s not so unusual. They’re probably friends, maybe from out of town, just fooling around.

But then the subject walks away, and the photographer moves down the street toward Five Guys corner. Hmmm. She stops somewhere along the street in front of a guy sitting at one of the outdoor tables. You know what’s coming next, right? He makes a face, too. And then she moves on.

At this moment, what I need more than anything else is a parking space. So we roll, Code 3, around the block, and I park across the street from what was Cookies and Co. (I have only one coin — a dime — for the meter, so I have 12 minutes to find my quarry, get the story, and get back to the van.) I know she strikes quickly, then moves on. So I hurry to the area of her projected location. Nada. Not around Starbucks. Not around Five Guys.

So I walk down Broad toward Lumpkin, make the right at Lumpkin and the next right at the Globe. I’m walking along Clayton back toward College when I spot her. She’s at the corner near OK Coffee. Time to motor.

By the time I’m halfway along the block, she’s crossed the street and is headed toward Five Guys. I close rapidly and catch up to her. We introduce ourselves.

She’s Lauren. Lauren Hook. She’s an art student at Lamar Dodd, and she’s gathering images for a class project. She wants a bunch of funny faces. And most of the folks she asks have been willing to take part. (The possibility of art — especially photographic art — often depends on this generosity of spirit from subjects. Thank you, world!)

Is Athens a special place. Yes. And I have the evidence.

(via papertissue) I hope in the case of the last of these,...

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:19:21 -0400

(via papertissue)

I hope in the case of the last of these, either nostalgia or a need for a source of reliable information will see newspapers through. If nothing else, newspapers are a matter of historical record, the place where you find your birth annoucements and obituaries, learn about the school board meeting and the commission hearings, and learn about the other people in your community who you’d never know about via blogs. I’m not so confident that in 40 years you’ll be able to find what I’m writing right here on my tumblelog.

Newspapers (and journalism) are a flailing industry to be sure, but it’s fixable. And just because there are alternatives doesn’t mean newspapers should go away. Paintings survived photographs, land lines have survived cell phones, cursive handwriting has survived block lettering and analog clocks have survived digital. Most in danger here is really the VCR. And I think I’m OK with that.

Music as torture

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:29:00 -0400

As I was filing a quick story about R.E.M.’s signing on with the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo, it’s totally awful and inappropriate, I know, but all I could think was that the music/bands that were apparently used in torturing detainees are begging for opening monologue jokes: James Taylor? Neil Diamond? Meatloaf? Britney Spears? FOR GOD’S SAKE! (And the Meow Mix cat food commercial song?!!!)

All played for how many hours at ear-splitting decibels?

Torture is an understatement. (That said, it has to be stated: huge, huge relief to see “Shiny Happy People” was not on that list.)

R.E.M. among bands questioning if their music was used on Gitmo detainees

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:34:08 -0400

R.E.M. among bands questioning if their music was used on Gitmo detainees

On Halloween night in Athens, there’ll be a freakshow...

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:06:04 -0400

On Halloween night in Athens, there’ll be a freakshow parade! It’s headed up by none other than Timi Conley (Abbey Road Live! and costumer extraordinaire).

I just spoke with him and he said that he and friends had been discussing the Wild Rumpus, as it’s called, long before they ever knew the movie (“Where the Wild Things Are” of course) was coming out. A little sweet serendipity there, that.

At any rate, downtown Athens is all about the crazy costumes on Halloween night; how cool that now there’s a parade so gawkers don’t have to bar hop to check them all out. And everyone costumed is invited to join in*

* there are rules, courtesy being top o’ the list.