Idiot Glee Live on WRFL tonight

James Friley, aka Idiot Glee

Idiot Glee, the one-man band-turned-overnight-Internet-sensation featuring Lexington's very own James Friley, will perform live on WRFL tonight as part of Ben Allen's kickass WRFL-Live series. The series features a different local act every Wednesday evening around 9 p.m., and Ben graciously posts photos and mP3 archives of the performance on his WRFL Live blog.

You can tune in to catch the show at 88.1 Fm on your radio dial if you're in Lex (James's sweet and summery pop jams might even make an interesting soundtrack to the second half of the UK game). Catch it via the interweb stream at wrfl.fm if you're anywhere else in the world. (P.S. Shameless self-promotion: My own WRFL show happens to start directly after Ben's ~ 10 p.m. - midnight every Wednesday.)

Idiot Glee got yet ANOTHER mention in a national online publication today, this time in the (rather bizarre) format of a transcription of a Facebook chat conversation between Friley and the writer (Impose Magazine's Hallie Newton). Those internet writers are eating him up, and with good reason. Order the insanely-low priced Idiot Glee EP on 7-inch here.

Local tip: if you're looking for street cred, you might wanna go ahead and align yourself in the "I was a fan of Bedtime before Friley turned into an international pop star" camp before it's too late for anyone to believe you.

UPCOMING WRFL LIVE PERFORMANCES
Live performances from Lexington bands on WRFL, every Wed. night on Ben Allen's radio show (8-10 p.m.). Bands typically play from 9 - 9:45 p.m.

March
10—Ara
17—Little Noodles
24—Matt Duncan
31—Spooky Qs

April
7—Jovantes
14—J. Marinelli
21—Lee Bryant
28—Wretched Worst

May
5—Latin Heat

Creative Cities ~ Now What, Lexington?

In case you missed Tom Eblen's column this morning, new social welfare non-profit ProgressLex has announced a companion event to April's Creative Cities Summit (hosted in Lexington for the first time this year). The free event, called "Now what, Lexington?," is an "unconference" that will take place the week after the Creative Cities event, geared toward taking some of the ideas that might be discussed during the summit and turning them into action steps.

Now What, Lexington? will take place at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, which graciously donated its space for the event. No schedule will be set in advance; rather, participants are encouraged to run their own session and schedule it the morning of the event. Sessions should address action steps rather than simply discussing a problem or issue. If you are tired of hearing the same rehashed complaints about Lexington and are itching to participate in some solutions, I can't imagine a better time to start. The event's website is a wiki, meaning anyone who signs up for a free account can change its content to add sessions they would like to see or lead.

The Creative Cities Summit will take place in Lexington from April 7-9, featuring a variety of sessions that focus on topics like social innovation, creative capital, economic development, etc. Speakers include Richard Florida, Rebecca Ryan, Ben Self and others.

ProgressLex was formed with the vision of helping make Lexington one of the most livable cities in the U.S. through using its most valuable asset - its people.

Now What, Lexington?
Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning
April 17th, 9 a.m until approximately 5:30 p.m.
FREE. Sign up to attend here.

Free screening of weirdo art video TONIGHT

Super cool audio/visual art exhibit tonight at The Cat's Den (in UK's student center): a screening of COLOR FIELD VARIATIONS, a DVD celebrating the abstract modernist work of artists practicing the Color Field movement of the '40s and '50s. According to new Lexington art blog ArtBeat (dig it!), this tripped-out psychedelic art show has only been screened at a handful of exclusive cities across the world (you know, like London, Brussels, Tel Aviv, Lexington...).*

8 pm
Colorfield Variations screening
Cat's Den
Free Pizza and Snacks
Opening remarks by UK professor Dmitry Strakovsky


from the Colorfield Variations website:
"The Color Field movement, defined by abstract canvases featuring broad fields of solid color, flourished in the post-war era of the 1940s and ’50s. Inspired by European modernism and closely mirroring the works of artists like Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, and Barnett Newman, the Color Field movement was born when artists began to break away from the gesture and angst of abstract expressionism, opting instead to examine the subtleties of clear surfaces and pure color.

Fast-forward about 50 years to a new DVD released by minimalist label Line. The limited-to-1000 Colorfield Variations takes Color Field’s central ideas and reinterprets them with stunning audio-visual mood pieces created by a host of critically acclaimed artists from all across the globe. Wonderfully assembled by curator and sound artist Richard Chartier, the DVD is an excellent way for viewers to absorb the Color Field movement from all spectrums—from the warm and milky deluge of vibrant oranges and reds bleeding into one another in Steve Roden's 13-minute "Dark Over Light Earth" to the three-dimensional world of skittering neon blocks in Tina Frank and General Magic’s "Chronomops."

The music accompanying each of the pieces comes from a wide array of experimental sounds, from drone and ambient to the clicks, gurgles, and pops of borderline-IDM. Ryoichi Kurokawa’s masterpiece “Scorch” blends blurred, origami-like geometry in pinks, pastels, and carnation colors to a fuzzy, ambient soundscape. Crinkly shapes multiply like bacteria on a microscope lens, crunching and fizzling as new transparent bodies dissolve and reappear over them. "Chronomanic Redux," by Throbbing Gristle members Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, is another beauty, both aurally and visually. During the piece, a giant block of rich red inches down the screen to what sounds like an orchestra conducted by ghosts. As more classical-sounding instrumentation makes its way into the thick blanket of drone and whir, the red block becomes textured and flows like debris slithering across an ocean floor. ..."

*the Colorfield Variations DVD is available for purchase, so I am not able to verify how many cities have actually screened the thing....

thursday thursday thursday

Coupla' cool events going down this Thursday, March 4 in downtown Lex:

MARE VACCARO exhibit at INSTITUTE 193
MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES
OPENING RECEPTION: MARCH 4, 2010
6 - 9 PM

In honor of Women’s History Month, Institute 193 presents Multiple Personalities, a solo-exhibition by Mare Vaccaro focusing on her use of “self-portrait” photography. According to Institute 193 director Philip March Jones, Vaccaro's work explores “evolving notions of femininity, beauty, adornment and identity.”

“Vaccaro has alopecia universalis, a medical condition that renders her body completely hairless,” Jones continues. “She is thus able to manipulate her physical body as a blank canvas,adorning herself with various found and constructed objects. The result is a series of startling and beautiful images depicting the deconstructed female form in various settings and portrayed as different characters or personalities. The pressure to adorn oneself is satisfied in Vaccaro’s work, calling into question the most basic standards of beauty and gender roles The final product is a gleeful triumph of the individual over society’s expectations or a revelatory acceptance of its overwhelming pressure.”

Institute 193 is located at 193 North Limestone.

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Also on Thursday, March 4: "Music of the folk" at Gumbo Ya Ya.

From the North of Center news desk:

"If there’s anything the past several years have reminded us of, it’s that when things get screwy, it’s the folk who always get fucked: Ninth-warders in New Orleans, holler residents in Appalachia, prison inmates, gypsies across Europe, refugees in Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan and other locales of natural and human destruction, and the list goes on.

This Thursday night (March 4) at Gumbo Ya Ya’s some damn fine musicians will be coming together to play and share some of the wonderful music that has arisen through these all-too-common fucked-folk experiences: songs of love, anger, resistance and humor played through a variety of intersecting instruments, dialects and experiences.

Right now, on tap to play songs new and old are Karly Higgins of the Clack Mountain String Band (mountain folk), Chris Sullivan and Warren Byrom of the Swells and Big Maracas (New Orleans, Cuban and Brazilian folk), and Wes Houp (desparate country blues folk). If you feel you can contribute your unique voice, please join the fray.

Things will be loose, as good music often is.

Show is free. Doors open at 8:00 PM. Music should start sometime around 9:00. If you’re hungry, $5 will get you a refillable bowl of Ya Ya’s goodies (with at least one veggie option). If you’re thirsty, there will be $2 Abitas.

The downtown Gumbo Ya Ya’s is located on Main Street in the same building as the old A1A (and 2nd Dame location).

For those interested in getting the whole folk treatment, head on down to Bluegrass Community and Technical College at 5:00 to watch The U.S. vs. John Lennon, a documentary about the working class politics of the former Beatle. Wes Houp will talk and play a couple songs after the movie. Viewing is located in BCTC’s Oswald Auditorium, located directly in front of UK’s Commonwealth Stadium. Film starts at 5:15."

wrfl presents...NO AGE

WRFL 88.1 will celebrate the installation of its long-awaited new tower with a big (free! all ages!) party on April 23rd, with everyone's favorite Los Angeles experimental noise-punk duo NO AGE booked to head up the party.

As you may know, WRFL got permission from the FCC a few years back to upgrade its signal from 250 watts to 7900 watts. A new transmitter was installed about a month ago, providing a significantly cleaner, clearer signal all over Lexington, and with the new tower (which is scheduled to be installed on top of UK's Patterson Office Tower during Spring Break this month), WRFL will reach folks in Versailles, Georgetown, Midway and Stamping Ground. You can compare the current reach of the signal to the projected reach of the signal. More info about WRFL and all that stuff here.)

The spring celebration will take place at the BAR Lexington/Gumbo Ya Ya compound on Main Street. As you may have heard, the spot (where the new old Dame was until it closed last year) is now being operated by J.D. McHargue. McHargue used to own Blue Moon, but more importantly he used to co-own Breeding's, a premium Lexington music venue in the '80s that hosted shows by Warren Zevon, Ray Charles, Koko Taylor and many others.

It's been my impression that the Main Street space – which is actually super cool, with 4-5 different rooms/bars and a really great back patio – has been victim of poor management (or maybe just poor taste) almost the entire time I have been in Lexington. Definitely excited to see what McHargue & his team will do with it - he's already won points by many in moving Gumbo Ya Ya and the Class A booking/management skills of Ross Compton to the complex. (Gumbo Ya Ya has hosted a number of shows on its own in recent weeks, including a stellar performance last week by avant Euro jazz duo Peter Brontzman and Fred Lonberg Holm (reviewed by Walter Tunis here.)

Mark April 23 on your calendar....more band announcements and details forthcoming!