Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

From the Lovely Molly of Bickett Gallery:

Dear Bickett Gallery patrons,

This is the last weekend at Bickett Gallery. I hope that you will be able to attend at least one of our events. They are all going to be very special. We will be celebrating the gallery with multimedia events, food and drinks. Please stop by and enjoy!

Friday, May 18th

Renay Aumiller and Bickett Gallery present “I Bickett Fluently” a multi-media collaboration featuring independent choreographers, musicians and writer Eric Amling, who will read from his new work. Presenters are from Raleigh, Greensboro , Chicago, and Louisville , Kentucky. I Bickett Fluently consists of six works from active members of North Carolina’s dance world, as well as Laura Chiaramonte, a Chicago-based dancer. Cost is $6. Doors open at 8pm with the performance beginning at 9pm.

Saturday, May 19th

Bickett Gallery presents a night of melodic Indy music featuring Zachary Gresham of the critically acclaimed Athens Ga. band, The Summer Hymns, Raleigh’s Bowerbirds, who performed first at Bickett Gallery and has just released a new record, under Raleigh label BurleyTime Records, The Never of Chapel Hill (Trekky Records) and Deleted Scenes from Washington, DC . Doors open at 7pm. Performances begin at 8pm. Cost is $7.

Sunday, May 20th

Bickett Gallery will have an extended day event opening at 4pm. The afternoon will begin with a screening of Who Gets to Call it Art? a film by Peter Rosen about curator Henry Geldzahler, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first contemporary art curator.

Featuring Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Jackson Pollock, Larry Poons and many more mid-century visual artists. The film also features The Velvet Underground. The film depicts the New York art scene of the 1960’s and the man who made it POP! Screening is at 5pm.

Performances by a number of local musicians will begin in the evening. Charles Latham, *Sons, Heads on Sticks, Monologue Bombs among others will play. 7pm. Cost: $7

I can’t spend too long on this because I have a study schedule to stick to, but if you’ve been living under a rock… or if you just don’t spend your life on Flickr (same diff, no?!), then there was a huge upset in the photographic world yesterday. JPG Magazine, which is a print magazine comprised of themed submissions from “regular” photographers, was created by Heather Champ and Derek Powazek. Used to be (2 days ago) that when you went to JPG Magazine’s “About” page, you got this. That link tells of how Heather and Derek (a married couple) founded the magazine. Well now the site contains no mention of either of them and no longer contains the contents of the first 6 issues on the site. Flickr people are pissed, and we’re all deleting our JPG Magazine accounts.

Like I said, I don’t have time to write it all out, but here are some more detailed descriptions of what has happened:

• JPG Delete
• Digital Photography Goes To Hell For A Day
• Metafilter Discussion

And then there’s this whole thing.

Good grief!

View the rest here. I’ll probably add more as I have time to edit, but that link will include anything I’ve added. I don’t know that I’m a rodeo fan now, but I sure enjoyed shooting there!

I first saw Kristin Hersh in 1988, and I’ve seen every iteration of her music/performance since. I’ve seen her in Atlanta, in London… I traveled to a Throwing Muses gig in Cleveland once during college that was “canceled due to illness”. I think I just about cried. My ex-husband and I first connected over our love for her music. Our first “date” (as friends at that point) was a TM gig. I saw her perform when she was VERY pregnant in Atlanta in the late 80’s. I saw her while I was in grad school in Bloomington, Indiana performing with Andrew Bird and Howe Gelb. I went by myself to a WONDERFUL gig at the Orpheum in London in 2003. All the people around me thought it was so cool I’d seen her in America! I remember driving with my friend Melissa from Atlanta up to Oberlin in Northern Ohio singing “Walking in the Dark” at the top of our lungs over and over and over. I saw her do a very special gig last August at The Middle East in Cambridge. Her newer band, 50 Foot Wave, “opened” for Throwing Muses. In the middle was a delightful gang of kids who were remarkably skilled and entertaining. She’s been on constant rotation in the soundtrack of my life for 20 years now. Her ventures into new ensembles has made her continually interesting to me, and then of course there is her voice, her intensity, her lyrics… and her collaborators aren’t half bad either. She’s not known for being social. I’ve seen her leave after every show. I’m sure some rabid fans have met her, but I don’t force myself on musicians unless they present themselves as open to it. Last night, she announced that she’d be selling CDs from the stage. I finally met her. I got to actually talk to her. Then on the way out, I actually met and spoke with Bernard Georges, her longtime bass player for TM, 50FW, and for this version of her solo act. Both of them were a delight, normal, gracious, sweet, and silly. I know she isn’t the most famous person in the world, but she means more to me than most “real” famous people. What a great experience. I’m a happy fan girl!

I didn’t ask for an autograph. I was holding a set list, which is also not something I aimed to acquire. I usually leave them for the younger “collectors”. I was snapping a picture when a man on the stage asked if I’d like it. Noone was racing, so I accepted his kind offer! When she saw I was holding it, she offered to sign the back. Thanks, Kristin! She even drew a picture. I didn’t recognize it right away. I asked what it was. She said it was a guitar, but it was a mess up “Meat Puppets” guitar!

Here’s some video of great banter and “Gazebo Tree” I took at the gig:

Here’s the whole set of pictures from last night’s gig.

There are a million more things to say. Hell, I’m thinking of having Katy write up the whole thing, since she was coherent, and I was starstruck. Maybe there will be some guest blogging soon! Cool, cool, cool!

My comment spam is outta control, so I’ve not set all my spam karma settings to “total biotch”! Hopefully, this will help. However, you make get stuff sent for me to moderate, but don’tcha worry, I approve pretty much anything that isn’t spam. I know I’m more picturey than wordy lately. Right now, I’m preferring a more visual form of expression. Blogging is fun for me because I only do it when and how I want.

If you’re wanting more, the real action is here.