The Irish Rovers
That’s what really sparked my interest in music. I was about 11 or so when Buddy Holly came out, and right away I started playing a cheap guitar. That type of rockabilly music like Buddy Holly and Rick Nelson was what I quite liked.”
George Millar and the other members of the Irish Rovers step into the spotlight at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Mass. on Thursday (March 11).
MCLA’s Berkshire Cultural Resource Center has announced another round of Tricks of the Trade, workshops for artists. This month’s theme is centered around how to approach galleries and get your work shown:
All workshops are free, but do require pre-registration. For more information, and/or to register, call Jess Conzo, the program coordinator for MCLA’s Berkshire Cultural Resource Center, at 413.663.5253.
The Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Mass. has announced that it will be hosting a special Haitian relief benefit concert at 7pm on Sunday, February 14.
The Valentine’s Day show is appropriately named “A Concert for Loved Ones in Haiti,” and musicians from throughout the Berkshires are banding together to raise funds.
Here’s the line-up of performers who are donating their talents:
Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion
The Mammals
Bobby Sweet
Vetiver
Tift Merritt
Meg Hutchinson
Kris Delmhorst
The Guthrie Family
Tickets for the benefit concert are currently available for $15 and $25.
Tearing your hair out over writing your artist statement?
The Berkshire Cultural Resource Center at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts has announced the latest round of workshops from its on-going Tricks of the Trade series, a set of classes entitled “Writing: How do artists write about their work?”
These interactive sessions will be led by writer/editor Seth Rogovoy and artist Meryl Joseph. Facilitated by Kidspace Director and MCLA Professor Laura Thompson, the seminars will examine artist statements to understand what connects an audience most to the artwork. Attendees will then use these techniques to write their own statements.
All sessions begin at 6:30 p.m. Class locations are:
The workshops are free, but pre-registration is required; call 413-663-5253 to register.
(Editor’s Tip: If you’re too lazy to attend the workshop, or you just enjoy baffling folks,
you can try using the fill-in-the-blanks Market-o-Matic to write your artist statement.)
“As I started out playing the Irish fiddle, I was really just getting Irish stuff – Irish fiddle music by bands like the Bothy Band and Planxty, who were around in the ’70s. That was the kind of stuff.
“Then for my own kind of relaxing listening – well, it’s kind of geeky, I know, but I know I was into Boston and those kinds of groups. That would have been my little collection on the side, so to speak.”
Fab Celtic fiddler Eileen Ivers – hailed by The New York Times as “the Jimi Hendrix of the violin” – heads up her holiday concert tour titled “An Nollaig: An Irish Christmas” at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Mass. at 8pm Saturday (December 19).
“I think it might have been ‘Bimbo’ by Jim Reeves.
No, actually, I think it was ‘16 Tons’ by Ernie Ford. Yeah, I think that was it. It was 1956, and I was in Miles City, Montana. It was on Capitol Records with that purple logo and the Capitol Building. I think that would have been it. It was so impressionistic – it took me to swamps and everyplace else.
I didn’t realize that there was a whole genre of folk songs that weren’t really folk songs.”
Pianist George Winston brings his winter program to the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, Mass. on Wednesday (December 9).
ON YOUR MARK, GET SET…: It’s that special time of the year once again. That’s right, it’s almost time for the Santa Speedo Sprint.
The fourth annual .5K benefit run takes place on Saturday, December 12. Registration starts at 12noon at Tess’ Lark Tavern and the Oh Bar, and the race itself begins at 2pm. Registration and pledge sheets are also available in advance online. All runners must make a minimum donation of $25, but runners are encouraged to collect donations from sponsors.
The Santa Speedo Sprint will benefit the Albany Damian Center. (As a public service, we’re not publishing a photo in this item.)
The Royal Palace in Brussels
Hmmm, what do you think the R-Value of beetle shells is?
Calling Berkshire Photographers! The Lichtenstein Center for the Arts has issued a call for photography for an upcoming juried exhibit of contemporary photography, entitled BerkshireCity: Pittsfield on Film that aims to celebrate the unique urban landscape and architecture of Pittsfield. There is no entry fee and artists may submit up to six works.
Applications are open to everyone and will be accepted until Monday, December 7 at 5pm. The exhibition runs from January 15 – March 6, 2010. More info here.
Making lists is always a seriously fun time suck. Reading other people’s lists? Well, maybe not so much fun. Unless, of course, the list-maker is our old pal J. Eric Smith, former Metroland writer and host of the unfortunately defunct local music TV show, “Sounding Board.” These days, he’s chewing up the Times Union’s blogosphere, and he recently spit out the delightfully entertaining “My Ten Most Memorable Concerts.” Anybody who’s got ears big enough to embrace Nick Cave, Rush and Nippertown’s own Clay People is AOK in our book.
DEADLINE EXTENDED: The Lake George Arts Project is presenting “Peoples Pixel Project,” a video festival of original video shorts of 3-5 minutes in length. Entries are open to anyone living within 75 miles of Lake George, NY. The deadline has been extended to Thursday, December 31. For list of catagories, guidelines and entry form go here. The festival and award night will take place at the Charles Wood Theater in Glens Falls on Saturday, February 6.
File it under: The Crooks Were Stupid, The Mark Was Stupider (Alternate title: Some people just have way too much money….)
A Utah couple has been charged with selling six fake Andy Warhol silkscreens of Matthew Baldwin, one of Alec Baldwin’s brothers, that the artist created in 1996.
There probably is a Matthew Baldwin, but not in the family of actor Alec Baldwin. Andy Warhol died in 1987. So the burning question in our minds is why would someone have laid out a $25,000 down payment for those works?
Theremin Alert!! The Mable Ensemble videos shows 14 musicians simultaneously performing on theremins in the shape of Matrioshkas (Russian nesting dolls):
One of the most angst-ridden decisions an artist must make is how to price his or her work. The Berkshire Cultural Resource Center is coming to the rescue with FREE professional development workshops for artists. This week, the subject is Pricing: How Much Is Your Work Worth? and three sessions mix gallerists, museum directors, and art collectors to explore methods of determining your work’s value in today’s marketplace.
TODAY: (Tuesday, November 10th ) | 6:30 p.m. | MCLA Gallery 51 | 51 Main Street, North Adams | Joe Thompson (Director of MASS MoCA) and Jo Ellen Harrison (Owner of Harrison Gallery)
Wednesday, November 11th | 6:30 p.m. | Lichtenstein Center for Arts | 28 Renne Ave, Pittsfield | Stuart Chase (Director of Berkshire Museum) and Kurt Kolok [Owner of Kolok Gallery]
Thursday, November 12th | 6:30 p.m. | IS183 Art School | Stockbridge | Nancy Fitzpatrick (art collector) and Geoffrey Young (Owner of Geoffrey Young Gallery)
All workshops are free, but do require pre-registration. For more information, and/or to register, call 413.663.5253. Here’s more info.
Charles Thomas O'Neil: 2568 (on the left) and a nattily colored frog (on the right)
This Sunday, November 1 is the last day to see two colorful exhibits at The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield.
Frogs: A Chorus of Color is an exhibit of live, colorful frogs from all over the world. (Fun fact: frogs don’t drink – most absorb all their water through their skin.)
Also closing on Sunday is Color and Form: The Language of Abstract Art which examines the work of contemporary artists Charles Thomas O’Neill and Chuck Webster, along with selections from the permanent collection.
This is simply best new music video that we’ve seen in a long time. It’s also somewhat ironic because the band, Dead Man’s Bones, features two actors – Ryan Gosling (“The Notebook,” “Half Nelson,” “Lars and the Real Girl”) and Zach Shields – but the video doesn’t include even a single actor. Not one real person.
It’s all about the sculpture, “Machine With Wishbone,” by kinetic artist Arthur Ganson. No stranger to Nippertown, Ganson’s thoroughly memerizing works were featured in his one-man exhibition, “Artful Mechanisms” at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Mass. back in 2002.
So for all of you fans of the Brothers Quay and other beautifully creepy stop-motion animation, here’s “Dead Hearts”:
The song “Dead Hearts” is from Dead Man’s Bones’ new, self-titled album on Anti Records.
Nippertown is powered by
WordPress
Site design and development by Dark Wood Design
Entries (RSS)
Entries (Atom)
Comments (RSS)
