John Doe

In celebration of the anniversary of the birthday John Doe (born John Nommensen Duchac on February 25, 1953 in Decatur, Illinois), below is a video of an acoustic performance of X's moving "See How We Are." He is accompanied by musician|composer Dave Alvin, a fellow Knitters band member. Dave Alvin is also a principal of The Blasters. Many happy returns!]

Some kinda something is goin on down there

[In celebration of New Orleans and Mardi Gras 2009, Ladies and Gentlemen: The Neville Brothers.]

Eye of the Puppet

The LAB
2948 16th Street @ Capp Street
San Francisco

Eye of the Puppet
The Case of the Sleepwalking Streetwalker

Gray Area Ensemble takes dictation from the underground once again. This time it's a murder mystery and suspects abound. The day breaks and the town shudders with a murder. Sheila and Pal, who carry the secrets of the night, have discovered a body somewhere near a rickety pier. Detective Esther Longdale has arrived to analyze the residue. With its compelling cast and stylish production, Eye of the Puppet asks, are we dead or alive? Sleeping or awake? The script for this production was generated by the ensemble using round-robin exquisite corpse exercises, and then methodically collaged together by director Adam Ansell. This new language challenges conventional ideas of authorship and narrative.

In the twenty years that Adam J. Ansell has been a theater director, he has developed a unique ability to coax original plays from any group of people, from preschoolers to transgender seniors in recovery. Adam’s poetic, painterly experimental performances that resemble plays, draw on his varied artistic background which includes theater, installation, writing, fashion, music, and painting. Ansell's passion and long-term vision is to integrate disadvantaged communities that have previously been excluded from the arts community.

Performances:
Wednesday, February 25, 2009, 8pm
Thursday, February 26, 8pm
Friday, February 27, 8pm
Saturday, February 28, 8pm
Sunday, March 1, 2pm
Admission by donation, no one turned away for lack of funds.

[text and graphic from The Lab Web site.]

Mardi Gras 2009 Slide Show

[There are already thousands of images on Flickr of the 2009 edition of New Orleans' Mardi Gras.
Below is a set of images by Larry Johnson, discovered via a keyword search.]

The Future is not what it used to be

Postmasters Gallery
459 W. 19th St. | NYC NY

February 28 - April 4: The Future is not what it used to be

[graphic from Facebook invitation. Click to enlarge.]

Loudermilk

apexart
291 Church Street
New York, New York

Thursday, February 26 | 6:30 pm

"apexart welcomes Brett Loudermilk, one of today's top sideshow performers and authority on the strange, the odd and the bizarre. Brett will discuss what it was like growing up in a Pentecostal Faith Healing tent show, traveling in the last carnival Ten-in-One sideshow in America, and how he became the youngest sword swallower in the world. Brett will perform select pieces from his one-man show and will answer any questions the audience may have. Not only is the event free, but as a bonus after all questions have been addressed, visitors will be shown the Egress. In conjunction with Kick My Heart's Ass.

[text and graphic from apex art Web site.]

Vivite ut Vehatis. Vehite ut Vivatis

February 20 | 6 p.m.
New Orleans, Louisiana

Le Krewe d'Etat
Mardi Gras Parade

[Graphic from Marde Gras Parade Schedule Web Site. "Vivite ut Vehatis. Vehite ut Vivatis" roughly translates as "Live to Ride, Ride to Live." Click to enlarge.]

Helen Barrett

On a personal note, with thanks to AHS in Oakland, California for the notification, we report the sad news of the death of Helen Barrett of Lexington, Nebraska. She passed away peacefully on February 16 at the age of 103.

I only met her once, on the occasion of an interview in the very first days of a seventeen-day summer 2008 road trip across Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa and Minnesota to document the national political conventions. But she made an indelible impression on me. She was gracious, patient, wise – and witty, as you'll see in the brief video below.

Helen's only living brother David, twenty-three years her junior, died a few days earlier in Florida. Memorial services are planned this Saturday in Florida and Lexington. We extend our sincere condolences to their family and friends.


.

[video caption: "Interview with Helen Barrett of Lexington, Dawson County, Nebraska. August 21, 2008, ten days prior to the GOP national convention in St. Paul.

Note that Ms. Barrett is the mother of retired GOP U.S. Congressman William E. "Bill" Barrett, featured in an interview recorded on the same day."

Part of year-long national media project "The Electoral College."]

Art in the White House

[From The Daily Beast, with thanks to again MFC in Saugus for the scouting tip]

Obama's Plans For White House Art
by David A. Ross

"The art world is buzzing that the president wants contemporary art in the private residence of The White House. Former museum director David A. Ross on what could (and should) be hanging at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

READ

[text and image from The Beast. Photo caption: "Cindy Sherman. Untitled (#199), 1989. color photograph, 24 15/16 x 18 inches. Courtesy of the Artist and Metro Pictures."]

Supply and Demand

[With thanks to MFC in Saugus, CA for the scouting tip, article below from the February 8, 2009Los Angeles Times, reprinted in full. A video featuring Sheppard Fairey in his studio, sporting a Ramones tee-shirt is on the Times site.}



Associated Press
February 8, 2009

Artist of famed Obama poster arrested in Boston

BOSTON -- A street artist famous for his red, white and blue "Hope" posters of President Obama has been arrested on warrants accusing him of tagging property with graffiti, police said today.

Shepard Fairey, 38, was arrested Friday night on his way to the Institute of Contemporary Art for a kickoff event for his first solo exhibition, called "Supply and Demand."

Two warrants were issued for Fairey on Jan. 24 after police determined he'd tagged property in two locations with graffiti based on the Andre the Giant street art campaign from his early career, police Officer James Kenneally said Saturday.

Fairey, 38, of Los Angeles, is scheduled to be arraigned on the misdemeanor charges Monday in Brighton District Court, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk District Attorney. Wark said Fairey would also be arraigned on a default warrant related to a separate graffiti case in the Roxbury section of Boston.

Fairey has spent the last two weeks in the Boston area installing the ICA exhibit and creating outdoor art, including a 20-by-50 foot banner on the side of City Hall, according to a statement issued Saturday by the museum.

The museum said Fairey was released a few hours after his arrest, but authorities did not immediately confirm that.

Fairey's Obama image has been sold on hundreds of thousands of stickers and posters, and was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington before Obama's inauguration.

The image is the subject of a copyright dispute with The Associated Press. Fairey argues his use of the AP photo is protected by "fair use," which allows exceptions to copyright laws based on, among other factors, how much of the original is used, what the new work is used for and how the original is affected by the new work.

A California lawyer who has represented Fairey in the copyright case didn't immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the arrest.

==

related New York Times article:
Outlaws at the Art Museum (and Not for a Heist) By Randy Kennedy

[graphic: screen grab from related LA Times video.]

BJorn Again in Russia

[From the sublime to the surreal, we follow up the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival posts with news from inside the Kremlin of a ABBA tribute band performance. Below, excerpted from the London Times Online is a report by Tony Halpin in Moscow. Thanks to KMcG in IC, IA for the scouting tip!]

Vladimir Putin flies in Bjorn Again for ABBA tribute concert

"The world knows Vladimir Putin as Russia’s judo expert Prime Minister and former KGB spy. Now it can add Super Trouper to his image after he reveled in a secret Abba concert arranged by the Kremlin.

...

The tribute group Björn Again was flown to Moscow from London, then driven 200 miles north by bus to a remote location near Lake Valdai, where they were kept at a military barracks. It was only as they prepared to perform in a tiny theatre the following night that they learned who would be in the audience.

Aileen McLaughlin, who performs as Abba’s blonde Agnetha Fältskog, said that Mr Putin and a woman companion were sitting on a sofa that was veiled by a lace curtain. Half a dozen other guests were present at the hour-long show on January 22 as the group sang 15 Abba hits including Waterloo, Gimme Gimme Gimme and Dancing Queen."

Full Article

[photograph from image search for "Bjorn Again."]

2009 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival - Weekend Two Music Lineup

40th Anniversary New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

Weekend Two Music Lineup
April 30 – May 3, 2009

Thursday, April 30
Ben Harper & Relentless7, Emmylou Harris, Solomon Burke, Jakob Dylan, Meter Men: Zig, George, and Leo, Mississippi Mass Choir, the subdudes, Theresa Andersson, Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials, Marva Wright & the BMWs, Nicholas Payton, Eddie Bo, Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes, Anders Osborne, Ronnie Kole, Rosie Ledet & the Zydeco Playboys, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots, George Wein & the Newport Allstars feat. Howard Alden, Anat Cohen, Randy Brecker, Lew Tabakin, Jimmy Cobb, and Esperanza Spalding, Banu Gibson’s Hot Jazz with special guest Bucky Pizzarelli, Linda Tillery & the Cultural Heritage Choir, Delfeayo Marsalis presents “Sweet Thunder”, John Rankin, Creole Zydeco Farmers, Silky Sol, Sharon Martin, Little Freddie King, Jumpin’ Johnny Sansone, Kirk Joseph’s Backyard Groove, Michael Ward, Sonny Bourg & the Bayou Blues Band, Bonsoir Catin, Honey Island Swamp Band, Rumba Buena, I’Voire Spectacle feat. Seguenon Kone, Po’ Henry & Tookie, Kenny Bill Stinson, Kim Che’re and the Greater Mount Calvary MBC Choir, Coolie Family Gospel Singers, Corey Ledet, Mark Braud, Javier Tobar & Elegant Gypsy, Paulin Brothers Brass Band, Charles Jackson & the Jackson Travelers, Tornado Brass Band, Louis Armstrong Jazz Camp Alumni Band, Alex McMurray, Louis Ford, Gal Holiday, Original Last Straws, Melody Clouds, Chris Clifton, Bamboula 2000, Carolina Tuscarora Stomp and Smoke Dancers, Culu Children’s Traditional African Dance Ensemble, McMain High School Gospel Choir, Eddie “Chops” Paris, Red Hawk and Black Seminoles Mardi Gras Indians, Bon Temps Roulez Social Aid & Pleasure Club, Black Eagles and Geronimo Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, VIP Ladies Social Aid & Pleasure Club, Tulane University Jazz Combo, Inspirational Gospel Singers, Dillard University Jazz Band, Julia Yerkov, O. Perry Walker Charter High School Choir, Young Audiences Brass Band Throw Down, Roscoe Reddix, Banneker and Dibert School Performers…

Friday, May 1
Sugarland, Tony Bennett, Bonnie Raitt, Common, Doc Watson, Patty Griffin, Marcia Ball, Julian Marley, Kermit Ruffins & the Barbecue Swingers, Esperanza Spalding, VaShawn Mitchell and Friends, Dirty Dozen Brass Band & Glass House Reunion w/ Rebirth Brass Band, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Frankie Ford, Walter “Wolfman” Washington & the Roadmasters, The Iguanas, Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band, John Scofield & The Piety Street Band, Crocodile Gumboot Dancers of South Africa, John Boutté, Ori Culture Danse Club of Benin, Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie, George Wein, Howard Alden, and Anat Cohen, Twangorama, Charmaine Neville Band, Lars Edegran & the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra Fredy Omar con su Banda, James Rivers Movement, Cheick Hamala Diabate of Mali, The Chilluns, Pinettes Brass Band, Walter Payton & Filé Gumbo, Shades of Praise, Tim Laughlin, Doreen’s Jazz New Orleans, Jambalaya Cajun Band, John Lee & the Heralds of Christ, God’s House Westbank Cathedral Choir, Clarinet Woodshed featuring Evan Christopher, Gregory Agid, and Tim Laughlin, J. Monque’D Blues Band, Keith Frank & the Soileau Zydeco Band, Driskill Mountain Boys, Washboard Chaz, Truth Universal and Jimi Clever, The Revealers, Marisa y Mariachi Agave, The New Orleans Moonshiners, Danza, New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian Rhythm Section, 101 Runners, Mt. Hermon BC Mass Choir, Leviticus Gospel Choir, Glen David Andrews, Bester Singers, Dynamic Smooth Family, Forgotten Souls Brass Band, Original Big 7, Original 4, Scene Boosters, and Old N Nu Fellas Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs, New Wave Brass Band, Fi Yi Yi & the Mandingo Warriors, Young Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians, Carolina Tuscarora Stomp and Smoke Dancers, SLU Jazz Ensemble, Eric McAllister, Young Audiences Performing Arts Showcase…

Saturday, May 2
Dr. John, Bon Jovi, Kings of Leon, The O’Jays, The Whispers, John Mayall, Cowboy Mouth, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Aaron Neville Gospel, Irvin Mayfield & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Buckwheat Zydeco’s 30th Anniversary feat. The Hitchhikers, DJ Captain Charles, Eric Lindell, Deacon John, Kind of Blue @ 50 featuring Jimmy Cobb, Bonerama, C.J. Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band, Chris Thomas King, Gina Brown, Bobby Lounge feat. Sarah Quintana, New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, Roddie Romero & the Hub City Allstars, Rocks of Harmony, Bryan Lee & the Blues Power Band, The New Orleans Bingo! Show, Treme Brass Band, Pinstripe Brass Band, Greg Stafford’s Jazz Hounds Tribute to Danny Barker feat. Juanita Brooks, Ensemble Fatien feat. Seguenon Kone, Dr. Michael White, and Jason Marsalis, Midnite Disturbers, The Johnson Extension, Hot Club of New Orleans, Feufollet, Kidd Jordan-Al Fielder & the IAQ, Rotary Downs, Reggie Hall & the Twilighters feat. Lady Bee, Jamal Batiste & the Jam-Allstars, Crocodile Gumboot Dancers of South Africa, Ori Culture Danse Club of Benin, Tony Green’s Gypsy Jazz, Sherman Robertson, Otra, Percussion Inc., Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole, Julio y Cesar, JD & the Jammers, Greater Antioch Full Mass Choir, War Chief Juan & Young Fire, New Orleans Helsinki Connection, Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Courtney Bryan, Drew Landry Band, Voices of Distinction, Mario Abney Quintet, Morning Star BC Choir, Berard Family Band, Roland Jack and Dillard University’s VisionQuest Chorale feat. George Huff, Franklin Ave. BC Mass Choir, Free Agents Brass Band, Westbank Steppers, Valley of Silent Men, Pigeon Town Steppers, New Generation, Undefeated Divas, and Secondline Jammers Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs, Apache Hunters, Wild Red Flame, Mohawk Hunters, and White Cloud Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, Carolina Tuscarora Stomp and Smoke Dancers, Johnette Downing, Young Guardians of the Flame, N’Fungola Sibo West African Dance Company, Javier Juarez, Stephen Foster’s Family Program, Trouble Nation and Ninth Ward Hunters Mardi Gras Indians…

Sunday, May 3
The Neville Brothers, TBA, Allen Toussaint, Los Lobos, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, Buddy Guy, Rance Allen Group, Kurt Elling, Guy Clark, Chuck Brown, The Radiators, Voice of the Wetlands All Stars, Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, Snooks Eaglin, Ellis Marsalis, Soul Rebels Brass Band, Luther Kent tribute to Bobby Blue Bland, Jonathan Batiste, Benny Grunch & the Bunch, Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas, Jeremy Davenport, The Genius of Sidney Bechet: A Tribute feat. Bob Wilber, Dr. Michael White, and Brian “Breeze” Cayolle, Big Chief Bo Dollis & the Wild Magnolias, Shamarr Allen, Bob French & the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band feat. Teedy Boutté, George French & the New Orleans Storyville Jazz Band, Sherman Washington & the Zion Harmonizers, DJ Soul Sister, Elysian Fieldz, New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra, Watson Memorial Teaching Ministry, First Emmanuel BC Choir, Red Stick Ramblers, Juke Joint Duo: Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcolm, Dash Rip Rock, D.L. Menard & the Louisiana Aces, Brother Tyrone, Kenny Neal, Lil’ Brian & the Travelers, Betsy McGovern & the Poor Clares, TBC Brass Band, St. Louis Slim, Crocodile Gumboot Dancers of South Africa, Ori Culture Danse Club of Benin, Lazerus, Higher Heights, Paky Saavedra’s Bandido, New Orleans Jazz Ramblers, Lionel Ferbos & the Palm Court Jazz Band, Panorama Jazz Band, Blodie’s Jazz Jam, Lyle Henderson & Emmanuel, The Electrifying Crownseekers, Ebenezer Baptist Church Radio Choir, The Gospel Stars, Wild Tchoupitoulas Mardi Gras Indians, Highsteppers Brass Band, Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Band, Wild Apaches Mardi Gras Indians, Original Prince of Wales and Original Lady Buckjumpers, Lady Rollers, CTC, Nine Times Ladies, and Ladies of Unity Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs, Carolina Tuscarora Stomp and Smoke Dancers, Golden Sioux, Black Feathers, and Big Chief Peppy & the Golden Arrows Mardi Gras Indians, Curtis Pierre, Kilts of Many Colours, KIDsmART Showcase, Young Traditional New Orleans Brass Band, Adella Gautier, N’Kafu African Dance Ensemble…

[photograph from image search for 'Creole Zydeco Farmers.']

2009 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival - Weekend One Music Lineup

40th Anniversary New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

Weekend One Music Lineup
April 24 - 26, 2009

Friday, April 24
Wynton Marsalis, Joe Cocker, Spoon, Drive-By Truckers and Booker T., Henry Butler, Tab Benoit, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Amanda Shaw & the Cute Guys, Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band, Marc Broussard, Roy Rogers & the Delta Rhythm Kings, Yacub Addy & Odadaa! of Ghana and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Donald Harrison, Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr. & the Zydeco Twisters, Tribute to Mahalia Jackson feat. Irma Thomas, Mavis Staples, and Pamela Landrum, Warren Storm, Willie Tee & Cypress Band feat. Tommy McLain and T K Hulin, Benjy Davis Project, The Vettes, Terrance Simien & the Zydeco Experience, Ladysmith Redlions of South Africa, Chris Smither, Spencer Bohren, Mem Shannon & the Membership, MyNameisJohnMichael, Willis Prudhomme & Zydeco Express, Freedia and Nobi, Rockin’ Tabby Thomas, Leroy Jones presents the Fairview Brass Band Reunion Tribute to Danny Barker, Val & the Love Alive Fellowship Choir, Marlon Jordan, DJ Hektik & the New Orleans Society of Dance, Tommy Sancton Quartet feat. David Paquette, David Egan, Gospel Soul Children, Topsy Chapman, McDonogh #35 High School Gospel Choir, Christian Serpas & Ghost Town, 19th Street Red Blues Band, Hadley Castille & the Sharecropper Band, Water Seed, High Ground Drifters Bluegrass Band, Lost Bayou Ramblers, Creole Wild West Mardi Gras Indians, June Gardner & the Fellas, Real Untouchables Brass Band, New Orleans Night Crawlers Brass Band, Sophisticated Ladies feat. Barbara Shorts, Leslie Smith, Cindy Scott, and Judy Spellman, Connie Jones, New Orleans Spiritualettes, Kumbuka African Drum & Dance Collective, Semolian Warriors Mardi Gras Indians, Gringo do Choro, Native Nations Intertribal with Hoop Dancer Lyndon Alec, Fred Dupin’s New Bumpers Revival Jazz Band of France, Smitty Dee’s Brass Band, Comanche Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, Como Now, Donnie, Second Mount Carmel Gospel Choir, Keep N it Real, Single Ladies, Family Ties, and Big Nine Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs, Casa Samba, Xavier University Jazz Band, David & Roselyn, Masankho K Banda of Malawi, Red Hot Brass Band, Gray Hawk, Bombes2Bal of France, UNO Jazz Combo…

Saturday, April 25
Irma Thomas, James Taylor, Wilco, Erykah Badu, Third World, Pete Seeger, Johnny Winter, Galactic, Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Pete Fountain, The Dixie Cups, Rebirth Brass Band with guest Kermit Ruffins, Ivan Neville & Dumpstaphunk, Big Sam’s Funky Nation, Del McCoury Band, Chris Owens, John Mooney & Bluesiana, The Anointed Jackson Sisters, Ilê Ayiê of Brazil, DJ Jubilee with 5th Ward Weebie and Ms. Tee, Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band, New Birth Brass Band, Connie and Dwight with St. Raymond/St. Leo Gospel Choir, Savoy Music Center of Eunice Saturday Cajun Jam, Paul Sanchez & the Rolling Road Show, Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers, Texas Johnny Brown, Young Tuxedo Brass Band, Crescent City Allstars feat. James Andrews, Joe Krown with Walter “Wolfman” Washington and Russell Batiste, Jr., Astral Project, Judith Owen, Henry Gray & the Cats, Thomas “Big Hat” Fields & his Foot Stompin’ Zydeco Band, Stephanie Jordan, Ingrid Lucia, Amammereso Agofomma of Ghana, Sharde Thomas & the Rising Star Fife & Drum Band, Leah Chase, Don Vappie & the Creole Jazz Serenaders, St. Joseph the Worker Music Ministry, Mahogany Brass Band, Patrice Fisher & Arpa feat. Chiko & Rogerio of Brazil, Lil’ Buck Sinegal Blues Band, New Orleans Jazz Vipers, Society Brass Band, Washboard Leo, Jonno Frishberg, N.O.C.C.A. Jazz Band, Tipsy Chicks, Arthur Clayton & Purposely Anointed, Red, White & Blue and Wild Mohicans Mardi Gras Indians, Small Souljas Brass Band, Golden Comanche, Seminoles, and Golden Blade Mardi Gras Indians, Nine Times Men, Single Men, Dumaine Gang, Divine Ladies, and Lady Jetsetters Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs, The Cork Singers, Native Nations Intertribal with Hoop Dancer Lyndon Alec, Nineveh BC Mass Choir, Archdiocese of New Orleans Community Choir, Collage, The RRAAMS Drum & Dance…

Sunday, April 26
Dave Matthews Band, Earth, Wind & Fire, Etta James & the Roots Band, The Robert Cray Band, Orishas of Cuba, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Hugh Masekela, Mavis Staples, Better Than Ezra, The Avett Brothers, Papa Grows Funk, Kinky, Terence Blanchard, Sonny Landreth, Robert Mirabal, Dew Drop Inn Revisted hosted by Deacon John feat. Wanda Rouzan, Robert Parker, Eddie Bo, Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, and Allen Toussaint, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & the Golden Eagles, Locos por Juana, Harlem Blues and Jazz Band, Wayne Toups & ZyDeCajun feat. “Back To My Roots”, Ebony Hillbillies, Dr. Michael White & the Original Liberty Jazz Band feat. Thais Clark, Trout Fishing in America, Tyronne Foster & the Arc Singers, Jo “Cool” Davis, Pine Leaf Boys, Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band, Lil’ Malcolm & the House Rockers, Tarace Boulba of France, Storyville Stompers Brass Band, Joe Hall & the Cane Cutters, Rockie Charles & the Stax of Love, Clive Wilson’s New Orleans Serenaders with guest Butch Thompson, The Mighty Chariots of Fire, Germaine Bazzle, Herlin Riley Quintet, Amammereso Agofomma of Ghana, Ilê Ayiê of Brazil, Pfister Sisters’ 30th Anniversary, Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble, Zulu Male Ensemble, Vivaz!, Guitar Slim, Jr., E.O.E., AsheSon, Schatzy, The Untouchables and Furious Five Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs, Brasilliance!, SUBR Jazzy Jags, Kid Simmons’ Local International Allstars, Betty Winn & One A-Chord, Craig Adams & Higher Dimensions of Praise, Voices of St. Peter Claver, Jim McCormick, Roderick Paulin & the Big Easy Groovers, Jake Smith, Golden Star Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, Big Steppers, Olympia Aid, New Look, and First Division Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs, Carrollton Hunters, Flaming Arrows, Cherokee Hunters, and Ninth Ward Navajo Mardi Gras Indians, Theatre Coatimundi of France, Loyola University Jazz Band, Native Nations Intertribal with Hoop Dancer Lyndon Alec, Heritage School of Music Band, Kayla Woodson & Louisiana Lightnin’, Young Pinstripe Brass Band, Judy Stock & the Calliope Puppets…

[line-ups from Jazz Fest Web site. Photo of Henry Gray from Henry Gray and the Cats Web Site.]

Lux Interior

[with thanks to KMcG in Iowa City, IA for the sad news]

[From the February 4, 2009 edition of the Los Angeles Times, reprinted in full:]

Lux Interior dies at 60; founder, front man of punk band the Cramps
By August Brown

Lux Interior, the singer, songwriter and founding member of the pioneering New York City horror-punk band the Cramps, died Wednesday. He was 60.

Interior, whose real name was Erick Lee Purkhiser, died at Glendale Memorial Hospital of a heart condition, according to a statement from his publicist.

With his wife, guitarist "Poison" Ivy Rorschach, Interior formed the Cramps in 1976, pairing lyrics that expressed their love of B-movie camp with ferocious rockabilly and surf-inspired instrumentation.

The band became a staple of the late '70s Manhattan punk scene emerging from clubs such as Max's Kansas City and CBGB, and was one of the first acts to realize the potential of punk rock as theater and spectacle.

Often dressed in macabre, gender-bending costumes onstage, Interior evoked a lanky, proto-goth Elvis Presley, and his band quickly became notorious for volatile and decadent live performances.

The Cramps recorded early singles at Sun Records with producer Alex Chilton of the band Big Star and had their first critical breakthrough on their debut EP "Gravest Hits."

The band's lack of a bassist and its antagonistic female guitarist quickly set it apart from its downtown peers and upended the traditional rock band sexual dynamic of the flamboyant, seductive female and the mysterious male guitarist.

The group was asked to open for the Police on a major tour of Britain in 1979 and reached its critical apex in the early '80s with such albums as "Psychedelic Jungle" and "Songs the Lord Taught Us."

While the Cramps' lineup revolved constantly, Interior and Rorschach remained the band's core through more than three decades. The Cramps never achieved much mainstream commercial success, but instead found a reliable fringe audience for more than 30 years -- they even played a notorious show for patients at Napa State Hospital in Napa, Calif.

"It's a little bit like asking a junkie how he's been able to keep on dope all these years," Interior told The Times some years ago. "It's just so much fun. You pull in to one town and people scream, 'I love you, I love you, I love you.' And you go to a bar and have a great rock 'n' roll show and go to the next town and people scream, 'I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.' It's hard to walk away from all that."

The band's influence can be clearly felt among lauded minimalist art-blues bands, including the Black Lips, the White Stripes, the Horrors and Primal Scream, whose front man, Bobby Gillespie, allegedly named his son Lux.

The Cramps' most recent album, a collection of rarities, "How to Make a Monster," was released in 2004, and the band continued to tour well into the later years of its career, wrapping up its most recent U.S. outing in November.

Interior was born in Stow, Ohio, on Oct. 21, 1948. A Times report in 2004 said that he and Rorschach (born Kristy Wallace) met in Sacramento, where they bonded "over their enrollment in an art and shamanism class and a shared affection for thrift-shop vinyl before hitting the road for New York City."

In 1987, there were widespread rumors of Interior's death from a heroin overdose, and half a dozen funeral wreaths were sent to Rorschach. "At first, I thought it was kind of funny," Interior told The Times. "But then it started to give me a creepy feeling."

"We sell a lot of records, but somehow just hearing that you've sold so many records doesn't hit you quite as much as when a lot of people call you up and are obviously really broken up because you've died."

[photo from a Google image search for 'The Cramps.']

XLIII

Noteworthy that the Superbowl ads, at least as of Feb 2, 10:00 CST, were sponsored by Coca Cola.

XLIII

[screen grab from hulu.com, one of the most commercially robust indications that television-Internet convergence is no longer speculative.]

The future before it happened

Outpost for Contemporary Art
exhibition at
The Glendale College Art Gallery
1500 N. Verdugo Rd
Glendale, CA 91208

This Is The Future Before It Happened
Jeff Cain, Krysten Cunningham, Tom Dale, Veaceslav Druta, Adam Frelin, Olexander Gnilitsky, Vlatka Horvat, Tim Hyde, Yuliya Kostereva + Yuriy Kruchak, Nebojsa Milikic, Maarten Vanden Eynde, and Angie Waller

This is the Future before it Happened concludes two years of artist residencies and exchanges sponsored by Outpost for Contemporary Art. Over half of the included artists are presenting new work developed during their residencies in Los Angeles or while on exchange in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Over the last two years, Outpost has worked with Eastern European artists who are challenging official histories, reclaiming forgotten pasts, evoking future possibilities, and asserting an aspiration and ability to affect positive social change in order to complicate the paths of progress claimed by their governments. Inspired by this critical stance, this exhibition plays with the fixity of time and how one moves through it. Rather than thinking of time as a linear progression, the title suggests an elliptical oscillation that allows mental projections from the present to the past and into the future in a start-and-stop dynamic.

[Text from an Outpost press release. Screen grab from Outpost's Web site.]