Photo by Patrick Duffy


Well, we've been in the middle of a snowpocalypse here in Atlanta all week. It seems like the entire metro area has basically been shut down since Monday.

Fortunately, though, Geoff and I have still been able to make some progress with Pocket the Moon, and I have some updates for you on the project!

You can now check out the Pocket the Moon website to hear a preview track and see what we've been up to! Click here to listen to "Bridge." This is a song Geoff and I have been doing together since the Novo Luna days, but I'm really excited about the Pocket the Moon version.

You can also find Pocket the Moon on Facebook, Reverb Nation, and Twitter. So add us on there! We may be giving away promotional tickets to shows on Facebook and Twitter, so you could get FREE stuff!

Pocket the Moon website - http://pocketthemoon.com
Pocket the Moon on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pocket-the-Moon/130546320341615
Pocket the Moon on Twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/pocketthemoon
Pocket the Moon on Reverb Nation - https://www.reverbnation.com/pocketthemoon

We managed to squeeze in a photo shoot with Belenen before the ice storm hit on Sunday night, so those photos will be coming soon! We're also planning a photo shoot with Alisha Gaspard (I'm ending the "every time a band I'm in gets awesome photos from Alisha, we break up right afterwards" curse). Haha. We're excited to be working with such talented photographers, and we're excited to see what comes from it!

Also, we have our first official show on Saturday, February 5th at Drunken Unicorn. We will be playing with Ether Overdrive and Audiophile with Brennan Johnson, featuring members from Dubconscious, Collective Efforts and Entropy. This is sure to be an awesome night of music and for just five bucks to see three bands, you won't want to miss it! So bring your friends!

In the spring of 2011, you can expect a full album release from Pocket the Moon, and you can also expect to see us play shows with the incredibly talented Nerdkween (who is actually going to play South by Southwest!) and the also incredibly talented Sydney Eloise (who some of you may have seen at The Star Bar when we played there last month).

Speaking of the Star Bar, you can check out a few of our songs from that set in this video, thanks to Dominant Sound.




So make sure you "like" us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and come see us play at the Drunken Unicorn! And thank you so much for your support!!




Shortwave Society

If you're looking for some new things to check out this weekend once the ice thaws, 1880's Dance Party will be playing with Pink Pompeii and Shortwave Society at Drunken Unicorn on Friday, January 14th. It's only 5 bucks, and it will definitely be an amazing night of music you don't want to miss. I will definitely be there so throw on your coat, scarf, and gloves, and come hang out with me and hear some great live music. For cheaper than the price of a movie!


The Head

Also, The Head will be having an EP release show at Vinyl with Young Orchids. I'm definitely going to that show as well. I got the opportunity to see The Head at Star Bar last month, and these guys have a really solid sound. Check it out!


If you're looking for something a little more visual and you missed the Ponce Crush art crawl last weekend, Young Blood Gallery, Kibbee Gallery, and Beep Beep Gallery are still running their exhibits - Anima/Animus at Young Blood, Picturing the Beast: Animal Imagery in Contemporary Prints at Kibbee, and Year of the Rabbit at Beep Beep - featuring some of the cities most talented local artists. Anima/Animus and Picturing the Beast run through January 29th, and Year of the Rabbit runs through February 3rd. Check it out!

There are so many artists doing amazing things in Atlanta, so get out there and support them. Most of the time it's pretty cheap, and it's great to be a part of the community and see what kind of work local artists are creating (in all mediums!). Plus, you can get cheap beer at most music venues, theatres, art galleries, etc. And who doesn't love that?

So I'll end this blog post with a new segment called five things I'm diggin':





1. Jake Shimabukuro's version of "Hallelujah" on Peace Love Ukulele






2. This piece by Kelly McKernan, local artist, entitled Hit Me






3. My friend's blog domesticationfail.com - I'm pretty much the opposite of domestic, but it's really fun to read about her domestic adventures!





4. These hothlanta t-shirts







5. My little brother's writing for DeadJournalist.com now! (Hey, Kev, think you can hook Pocket of the Moon up with a solid review? Kidding, kidding.)

Christmas by  kiiw from Deviant Art

Well, we're officially in the thick of the Holiday season, which is always a fun and exciting time.

There are a lot of exciting things going on with me musically right now!

First of all, thanks to everyone who came out to the Smith's Olde Bar show, which was the first show Geoff and I played with the new two-person band set-up. It went over really well, and I was told by many people that they absolutely loved the new sound, that the songs sounded a lot more stripped down with the perfect amount of instrumental accompaniment. I’m really excited about the new sound, and Geoff and I are hard at work writing/arranging new songs (both songs I’ve written, songs he’s written, songs we’re working on together, etc.), recording our songs, and preparing for upcoming shows! Also, we got the opportunity to play with 1880s Dance Party and the Sarah Mac Band, who were both absolutely incredible. Check them out!

1880s Dance Party on Myspace




Sarah Mac Band's website

Geoff and I have decided on a new band name, Pocket the Moon. Be on the look out for new photos, songs, a new website, etc. We’re currently working on an album, which we’re planning on releasing in the spring of 2011.

We have a couple of upcoming shows as well!

December 18th - Uptown Loft - 9700 Medlock Bridge Rd. Ste 120 Johns Creek, GA - We will be playing with Ravens and Wolves and Part of the Problem - FREE show!

December 23rd - 4th Ward Heroes and Mixtape Atlanta present an Industry Holiday Soiree at the Star Bar - 437 Moreland Avenue Northeast Atlanta, GA 30307 - FREE show!


Also, I am so close to my goal for my tour fund on Kickstarter, and there are just 18 days left to donate! Please stop by and donate what you can (even a dollar!) or re-post the link to help me reach my goal!

I hope everyone is staying warm and having a wonderful Holiday season so far!

Photo by A.D. Gaspard

September is here! And there are a lot of great things going on!

First of all, I have some upcoming events:

• Friday, September 3rd - Sara Crawford and the Cult Following at Smith's Olde Bar - The Atlanta Room - 9:00 PM - 21+ - $8 - My band and I will be playing a set at Smith's Olde Bar in the Atlanta Room. Also, our good friend Kayesha Belnap is moving back to Utah, so we're making this a send-off show! She's going to sing a song with us, too. :-)
• Saturday, September 4th 1:00 AM, Sunday September 5th midnight - The short film I wrote, Leapfrog, will air on Atlanta Shorts on PBA 30, Atlanta's PBS Station - Tune in and check it out!
• Tuesday, September 7th - My chapbook of poems, Coiled and Swallowed, will be released. It will be available here on my website or through Virgogray Press
• Friday, September 24th - Sara Crawford and the Cult Following at MINT Gallery - 10:00 PM - $4

There are a ton of really great events going on this month that I'm excited about! Here are a few:


MUSIC

• Tonight! September 2nd - The Apostles, Ogya, and 3052 Dub Collective at The Five Spot - 8:00 PM - 21+ - $5
  
  
  
• Wednesday, September 8th - Harvey Milk, Hawks at 529 - 9:00 PM - 21+ - $12
  
   
• Thursday, September 9th - El Ten Eleven, Baths, Nigredo at The Drunken Unicorn - 9:00 PM - 18+ - $12
  
   
• Tuesday, September 14th - Julie Gribble and Bob Schneider at Smith's Olde Bar - 8:00 PM - 21+ - $20
  
   
• Wednesday, September 15th - GIVERS, Adron, Little Tybee at The Earl - 8:30 PM -21+ - $10
  
   
• Monday, September 27th - Tera Melos, Vegan Coke at Wonderroot - 8:00 PM
  
   
• Thursday, September 30th - Nobody's Darlings CD Release show at The Star Bar - 9:00 PM - 21+ - FREE
  
   

THEATER

• A Confederacy of Dunces - Theatrical Outfit - Running until September 12th - A World Premiere Stage Adaptation by Tom Key based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Novel by John Kennedy Toole - Directed by Richard Garner - Like Shakespeare’s Falstaff, Ignatius Reilly of A Confederacy of Dunces has the bombastic comic power to subvert reality and his madcap adventures in the 1960s French Quarter of New Orleans prove to be as laugh out loud hilarious as they are brilliantly revelatory of the human condition. It is a tumultuous story, filled with the truly rendered accents and dialects of New Orleans rebels. Two voices, however, dominate: a sharp-eyed omniscient narrator and the sometimes hapless and self-destructive Ignatius J. Reilly. Despite those tendencies, Reilly composes brilliant sketches of his adversaries and dramatizes a set of restrained values that contrasts dramatically with the world in which he moves, through various insignificant jobs and sometimes slapstick mishaps. These are dramatically played off against the equally untidy lives of a host of supporting characters, including his comically oppressed mother, a radicalized girlfriend who taunts him from New York, a strip-bar operator, a pants factory owner, and a Keystonian New Orleans policeman. Richard Garner, Producing Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Georgia Shakespeare Festival, directs.
  
  
• Becky Shaw - Actor's Express - Running through September 25th - Playwright: Gina Gionfriddo - Director: Freddie Ashley - ATLANTA PREMIERE - "Gina Gionfriddo is some kind of genius! Devastatingly funny. Sends little shockwaves of delight through the house." - Newlywed Suzanna fixes her best friend Max up with her husband's beautiful but odd co-worker Becky Shaw. The blind date ignites a fuse that will soon set Becky off in the midst of Suzanna's family. The resulting blast of dysfunctional hilarity has everyone scrambling for cover, but finding none.
  
  
                                                                                                                                 
• The Nerd - Kudzu Playhouse - Running through September 19th - By Larry Shue - Directed by Wally Hinds - This extraordinarily inventive, side-splitting comedy is one of the funniest plays ever written. The action centers on the hilarious dilemma of a young architect who is visited by a man he's never met but who saved his life in Vietnam—the visitor turning out to be an incredibly inept, hopelessly stupid "nerd" who outstays his welcome with a vengeance. "Shue delivers a neatly crafted package that uses some classic comic forms to bring the audience to its knees, laughing."

VISUAL ARTS/OTHER

• D. Lammie Hanson - art and music - Friday, September 3rd - 6:00 PM - Avisca Fine Art Gallery - Multi-disciplinary artist D. Lammie Hanson debuts new artwork from her 4 Elements series and perform music she created in conjunction with the art project . Free
  
   
• LUCKY STAR: An Evening of Art & Burlesque inspired by Madonna - dooGallery - September 25 - 8:00 PM - $10 donation - Madonna’s unfettered spirit of individuality will be used to benefit The Rainbow Center, an Atlanta-based organization who serves the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered (GLBTQ), those questioning their sexual orientation and gender, their families and friends. The Rainbow Center is a community resource and support center for social, therapeutic, spiritual, educational or volunteer pursuits.
   

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

• QuickSylver Productions seeking short films for SylverReel: A Night of Shorts - The event will be held at the Midtown Arts Cinema. Built in 1987, operated by Landmark since 2003, and located in the Midtown Promenade Center (at 8th & Monroe), the Midtown Art Cinema is quickly becoming the premier home for independent, foreign language and documentary films in the heart of in-town Atlanta. Click here for submission info.

Thanks for reading, everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful fall, and I hope you all get out there and support local and independent artists!

Origin by Manami

I have a lot going on recently, so I thought I'd post a blog about it :-)

Recently, I got the opportunity to play an acoustic set with Be Atlanta. First of all, these guys are freaking awesome. They're doing all of the things I love(d) about groups like Have You Heard, Atlanta Guardian, and 4th Ward Heroes, promoting local music. They host local music shows, they promote local bands, they're constantly posting videos, songs, show listings, etc. Even at their shows, in between sets, they play a playlist of local music. Definitely check out their website - http://beatlanta.com - And check out their shows, too. They have another show tomorrow - Friday, August 27th - with Before the Solstice and Capibara.

They posted a blog about the acoustic show I played the other night, and they even included a couple of videos of some new songs I've been working on:




This one is called "Don't Try So Hard." (Ironically, I was trying way too hard to remember the whole song. It's that new, people!)



And here's "Rooftops." It's about my experience in Mexico.

In other news, my band and I have been trucking along, working on a new EP that we're hoping to release in October. The EP will feature the songs, "You Told Me," "Irresponsible," "Tangled," and the crowd favorite, "Hipster Haircut." Have I also mentioned that my band is ridiculously awesome? These guys amaze me every day with their versitility and talent. I have so much fun practicing with them, and I can't wait for our next show!!

Speaking of shows, I have a few coming up:

• Acoustic set at the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival - Saturday, August 28th - 12:30 - Historic Bandstand Stage - FREE - All ages - I will be playing an acoustic set this Saturday at 12:30. I am so, so, SO excited to be playing the same event as so many incredible Atlanta musicians! (Like Wade in the Rhythm, The Goldest, and Lindsay Apple to name a few!) I will be hanging out all day after my set checking out the music, so come out to this FREE festival and enjoy some great bands!
• Sara Crawford and the Cult Following at Smith's Olde Bar - Atlanta Room - Friday, September 3rd - 9:00 PM - $8 - 21+ - My band and I will be returning to one of my favorite venues, Smith's Olde Bar, to rock your face off. Come check it out!
• Sara Crawford and the Cult Following at MINT Gallery - Friday, September 24th - 10:00 PM - $4 - All ages - This is part of the Rock Science Revival music series! A lot of great bands have been playing these shows recently, and I'm really excited to be joining them!

In other non-music happenings, I recently got some very exciting news about Leapfrog, the short film that I wrote, directed by Michael Tillman. On September 4th at 1:00 AM and September 5th at midnight, Leapfrog will air with some other short films created by Atlanta filmmakers on the show, Atlanta Shorts. The show airs on PBA 30, Atlanta's PBS station. So make sure you tune in for that!

Also, my chapbook of poems, Coiled and Swallowed, will be released through Virgogray Press on September 7th. I will be having a poetry book release night at Cool Beans in the Marietta Square. The date is TBA, but it will be in mid-September! The first half of the evening will be a poetry open mic night, and then I will read a few poems from the book and have copies available for people to purchase. So all of you poets out there, definitely come and join us for this! Read a few poems, bring copies of your books, and we'll have a night celebrating poetry!

Once again, I just want to say thank you all so much for your continued support of my artistic projects! I hope you will all also continue to support other local and independent artists in Atlanta and all around the world. Trust me, we all need your support! (And I will be posting a blog soon with my September artistic event recommendations, so send me those if you have any you'd like me to include!)

And now I'm off to the Star Bar for an awesome FREE night of music brought to you by 4th Ward Heroes and Mixtape Atlanta featuring Tyler Lyle, Little Horn, and Richard Sherfey!

Photo by Oberonia Photography

I thought I'd just write a random blog.

Blog. Isn't that word funny? Say it twenty times. It's kind of funny, isn't it?

I'm listening to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros at the moment, and it's making me feel rather optimistic, I must say. There has been a lot of great music that I've been listening to lately. I promise I will have my music sharing podcast ready by next week. So, I was watching an abbreviated version of American Idol the other day (abbreviated as in recorded on the DVR and fast fowarded through most of it). I don't really know why. All that show is is a glorified karaoke contest. And then even when there's someone on there that I actually like (it does happen sometimes...like Bo Bice) when they get off the show and make an album, they make them sing these really shitty pop songs, which of course they didn't write. Why can't we have American Open Mic Night? Where we get original artists on there to do their original songs? I guess no one would watch that. People don't want to hear new music. But that can't be totally true, can it? They play new music on the radio. They used to play new music on MTV back when they actually played music videos. So let's get some new original music on American Idol. Let's have American Open Mic Night! (Yeah, that will still probably never happen.)

There are a lot of live shows that I'm excited about. Recently, I got to see Laura Veirs at the Star Bar. She and her backing band (the Hall of Flames) played a really killer set. I still think the Star Bar is a weird venue for her, though, and I would have liked to see her at Eddie's Attic or somewhere like that. There's always tons of trendy people just being loud and obnoxious in the Star Bar. Usually the bands are so loud there, though, that it doesn't really matter. And people who want to listen to the music can, and people who want to be loud and obnoxious can, and it works out for everyone! Laura Veirs, though, had a more mellow set than any other band I've ever seen there, and at times it was hard to listen. I swear, there was this girl standing behind me who did not stop talking the entire set! It would have been hillarious if I weren't trying to listen to Laura Veirs. It was getting ridiculous. The viola player (Alex Guy) would be in the middle of a really amazing part, and the girl behind me would just be rambling on..."You know, I played violin in high school, and I was really bad! I just never practiced, you know? I was like the 15th chair! They had 14 chairs on stage and they shoved me off stage halfway in the curtain! It was awful! I just didn't care about it, though. And then it wasn't until later that I was like 'Oh, man, I really should have practiced!'" Meanwhile, we're all thinking, "Hey, why don't you shut up so we can listen to someone who can play?" It was still a really great show though, and I'm really loving her new album, July Flame. I almost bought it on vinyl when I was at the show, but it was 20 bucks, and I was broke. (I don't really know what I was expecting...hehe.)

I have this new obsession with listening to vinyl records. It feels like a much more tangible music listening experience than listening to songs on an MP3 player or even a CD. My vinyl collection so far is pretty tiny, but I just added Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins and Teen Dream by Beach House to it. One of my old favorites and one of my new favorites. Speaking of Beach House, I'm so incredibly in love with Teen Dream. If you haven't listened to it, I recommend doing that!

(But I'm foreshadowing my music sharing podcast now!)

In other news, I got to see The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe at The Center for Puppetry Arts last weekend. I hadn't seen a show there since I was a kid, and I had never been to their museum. They have so many cool things in there! Pieces from The Labyrinth and all of these Jim Henson puppets and Fraggle Rock stuff and other really interesting puppets. I feel like CGI kind of killed the art of the puppet, at least in movies. Anyway, I really loved how they wove all of the Edgar Allan Poe stories together, all of the interesting musical instruments that the musical accompanist was playing, and of course the actual puppets themselves. The puppets and the set were very innovative and creepy. And seeing a number of Poe's stories back to back like that reminds you of how disturbing they all are. But the whole show was very well done. I definitely plan on going to see another show there sometime soon.

Tomorrow is a good day for me both in terms of theatre and music. During the day, I'm having my first read-through of Community Service, the play that I'm working on for the Horizon Theatre Apprentice Company. So this year's apprentices will get to see it for the first time tomorrow. I really hope they like it! It's a completely ridiculous comedy filled with art made out of PBR cans (P-B-Art if you will), gender neutral pronouns, Jeopardy! questions, and slightly gay rednecks. Anyway, after that, I'm heading over to the Gwinnett Center to see Muse and the Silversun Pickups with my little brother, who got tickets for Christmas, and is taking me! (Because he rocks. Read his music blog.) Then on Sunday, we're doing a Long Absent Friends photoshoot with Alisha Gaspard, who if you'll recall took all of the badass Painted cast photos (and the photo above!). So, this weekend is looking pretty exciting for me, in spite of it being the LONGEST WINTER EVER.

In other news, I have found that there are some people out there who are always going to do whatever they can to bring you down. This is something that a lot of people I care about have been having issues with lately, something I've been having issues with lately. And I'm not just talking about in the artistic community, either. This applies to life in general. I'd just like to say, though, than nine times out of ten, these people are just really insecure and unhappy with their own lives, and the only way they know to try to be happy is to make other people unhappy. Or instead of outwardly projecting how insecure they are, they outwardly project condescending arrogance and act like they're better than other people. I'm trying really hard not to be judgmental, here. I don't think most of these people are consciously aware of what they're doing. But I think it's important to just try to do the best you can for who you are and not worry about other people who appear to be unsupportive or negative towards you. For every unsupportive bitchy person I have in my life, there are at least ten other people who are supportive and understand that I'm doing the best I can with what I've got. Just some food for thought. I guess the moral of this story is "Some people are bitches, but don't let them get you down." (Didn't I say that at one of my shows recently? I feel like that's becoming a slogan. Haha.)

But February is almost over, spring is almost here! and there are so many awesome things to be excited about right now. There's Girl Scout cookies, Beach House shows, people around me getting married and having babies and being very excited about the new stages in their lives, hillarious theatre, pool games, cheap beer, Bad Cat calendars, crafty glittery projects, Rocky Horror, old books, Radiohead, live music, dancing, being goofy, crying for no reason, life. There are so many wonderful people doing wonderful things all around me, so much to laugh about and dance around to and learn from and love.

(Yes, I'm being a hippy. It's okay, though, because I still take showers and have a job. :-p)

Waterfall at Roswell Mill by Gareth Botha


Well February is here! Time for Valentine's Day, wishing it was warmer outside, getting really sick of the whole winter thing, birthdays for Aquarians, all of that crap!

If you've got the "I'm sick of winter" blues, here is a bunch of really cool artistic stuff for you to do! Lots of choices, so don't ever say I didn't tell you about anything cool to do!


Music

- TONIGHT! February 2nd - My band, Long Absent Friends, will be playing at Lenny's Bar along with Goodland, Transloader, and Aftermath. (Goodland features Geoff Goodwin and Chase Adkinson, who I played with in Novo Luna.) Goodland will be on at 9:00 PM, Long Absent Friends at 10:00 PM. The cover is 6 dollars - 21+ - Lenny's Bar - 486 Decatur Street Southeast, Atlanta, GA 30312

- February 4th - Nobody's Darlings, Ordain, The Mitch Hansen Band, and The Issues - 9:00 pm - 6 bucks - 21+ Lenny's Bar - 486 Decatur Street Southeast, Atlanta, GA 30312

- February 4th - Lindsay Appel, Lexi Street & Soul Shakers -  The EARL! - 9:00 pm - 7 bucks - 21+

- February 4th - Haji Basim - Library Coffee Company - 2523 Caldwell Rd NE - Atlanta, GA

- February 19th - Trances Arc, The Modern Society, The Biters - The Earl - Atlanta, GA - 9:00 pm - 7 bucks

- February 20th - Elliott Rubin - 8:00 PM at The Uptown Loft, Johns Creek, Georgia - Cost: $5

- February 20th - Laura Veirs & The Hall Of Flames, Cataldo, The Old Believers - Star Bar - 9:00 pm - 12 dollars

- February 26th - Kim Boekbinder of Vermillion Lies, Adron, Rita of Helen Keller's Ukulele - The Drunken Unicorn - $5 for 21+, $7 for 18+

- February 27th - Blair Crimmins & The Hookers, A Fight to the Death - Star Bar - 9:00 pm - 8 dollars




Theatre/Dance

- February 13th - The Voodoo Revue: A Mardi Gras Masquerade! Come and enjoy a night of mayhem and excitement as The Collective transports you back to a time of voodoo magic and old New Orleans. This is event is a fundraiser for The Collective and our newest work Rising Sons performing at 7 Stages February 18th-21st. -  We will have three amazing bands performing, including Skylights and H.M.S. Disco. Also, enjoy comedy, magic, and other acts from Collective performers!  -  The cover is $10 (cash only, please!) and the event is BYOB (must be 21 to drink!) Doors open at 8pm and the show starts at 9pm.  -  Don't forget your mask and your dancing shoes! It is sure to be a fantastic time!

- January 22 - February 7 - Relapse Theatre presents Clive Barker's "A History of the Devil," running January 22 through February 7, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Friday and Saturday performances begin at 7:30, Sunday performances at 5:00. Tickets are $10 at the door, First Come, First Serve!

- February 5th and 6th, 2010 - doors at 7:00 p.m. - Spectrum: Mythos at The Georgia Ballet Studios - Join The Georgia Ballet for an incredible evening of extraordinary performances that showcase the company in contemporary and inventive new choreography! Spectrum: Mythos, An Evening of New Works will include a one hour dance showcase performance, live music, food and drink, and a silent auction with fun and exciting items for everyone.

- February 12 - March 14 - Shooting Star by Steven Dietz at Horizon Theatre - Sparks fly and snowflakes fall as two old flames meet by chance in a blizzard bound airport. Reed, a suit-and-tie with Blackberry, and Elana, a bohemian with rain stick, were once idealistic college lovers. Here they reconnect and share stories deep into the night. Humor, heartache, secrets, and snow. When morning comes and all flights are cleared for departure – what’s the final destination for these two? A delicious, bittersweet comedy with heart and bite.

- Jan 29 - Feb 21 - Alliance Theatre - Tennis in Nablus, A World Premiere by Ismail Khalidi -  Palestine. 1939. Allegiances… and identities… are never what they seem. Under British colonial rule, two nations buckle under conflicting claims to their rightful land. And as the world explodes around them, one divided family seeks to achieve the delicate balance between peace and freedom.




Visual arts

- February 4 - Eyedrum - Ayed Hallim: Instrumentalities - Opening reception for a Small Gallery show of new assemblage works by Atlanta bricoleur Ayed Hallim. Hallim, the pseudonymous alter ego of a former local arts journalist, creates works in found metal, spent packaging, and other repurposed materials. After the reception, Hallim performs during Open Improv on some of the "perjunction" instruments included in the exhibition. Exhibition on view through February 21.

- February 5 - "Columns, Stacks, Heaps, and Piles" by Justin Richel - Young Blood Gallery - Starting Friday, February 5th, YBG will be displaying a series of small-scale works on paper by Justin Richel. This series will focus on small and affordable works from the "Sweets" series.

- February  6 - Art Papers 11th Annual Art Auction - 7:00 to 10:00 pm - Mason Murer Fine Art

- February 13 - March 7 - Beep Beep Gallery - Material - "Material" is a group sculpture featuring five artists working in a variety of media. Artists include: Lucha Rodriguez, Romy Maloon, Crystal Wagner, Chase Folsom, Jessica Orlowski



There you go! Tons of awesome artists to go out and support! :-)

As always, leave a comment if I've left something out.

Stay tuned for another podcast full of music sharing and awesomeness. (Like a mixy but with me talking in between songs so it's legal!)

Reticent by Gareth Botha


Well, December is upon us and there is a lot going on!

First of all, I have several announcements/upcoming events:

• UNSENT LETTERS CD release - December 15th - On December 15th, I will release my debut album! It will be available here on the website for digital download for 5 dollars or you can order a physical copy for 7 dollars.
   
• Unsent Letters CD release show at Smith's Olde Bar in the Atlanta Room - Friday, December 18th - 11:00 pm - 8 dollars - 21+ - Come out to Smith's Olde Bar where I will be playing a set and selling my CD (for just 5 dollars!). Come shoot some pool, drink some beer, and hear some music! I would absolutely love to see all of you there!
   
• New Facebook Page - I have a new artist page on Facebook. So if you are on Facebook, be sure to become a fan for all of the updates, and suggest me to your friends!
   
• Long Absent Friends shows - I am in a new band called Long Absent Friends, and we are playing our first shows ever coming up! We will be playing on December 27th at 10:00 pm at Smith's Olde Bar in the Atlanta Room and January 8th at 8:30 pm at Red Light Cafe. Come check it out! Especially if you are a fan of the Smashing Pumkins, Stars, Arcade Fire, and/or Broken Social Scene.
   
• New links - Check out my links page for a couple of new things. For example, my brother, Kevin, has a new music blog which is pretty sweet.

THEATRE

December is a time for theatres to do Holiday shows! Actually, for a lot of theatres in Atlanta, a great portion of their ticket sales comes from these shows. (See this interesting article from Access Atlanta.) So make theatre part of your Holiday traditions!

Some of my favorites:

• Atlanta Ballet's Nutcracker - December 11 - 27 - Nutcracker has always been a Holiday tradition for me, and I absolutely love this production. (And not just because I played a toy soldier in it when I was 12! Haha.) Combine the beautiful dancing with the gorgeous costumes and set and the imaginative coreography...not to mention Tchaikovsky's classic and beautiful score...and it's really hard to go wrong.
   
• A Christmas Carol - The Alliance Theatre - Nov 27 - Dec 24 - What is Christmas without a little Dickens? Alliance has always done an excellent job of staging this Holiday classic, and it's really just a fun show.
  
   
• Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris - Horizon Theatre - Nov 27- Jan 3 - I have a personal relationship with this hillarious holiday show about an out-of-work 30-something writer who takes a job as an elf at Macy's. Last year, when I was working as an apprentice at Horizon, I did my crew/volunteer hours on this show, and I ran the spotlight. Even though I saw the show literally 30 something times, it was still funny. So check it out!

For more Holiday show listings, check out Access Atlanta or Atlanta Performs.


STAGED READINGS

• Turning Pastoral by Matthew Katis - Saturday, December 12th - 7:00 pm - Kennesaw State University - FREE - Come out to this staged reading of CMU grad student, Matthew Katis's, new play. 
   
• Working Title Playwrights presents The Scrapbook: A Modern Christmas Carol by Raymond Fast - Monday, December 14th - 7:30 pm - Academy Theatre - "You can't buy happiness. Nice thought - until you're money's gone. Since Gary's heart attack, he and wife Micki have lost their business, home, and savings. Now Gary thinks their kids and grandkids would be happier not traveling across country to visit them for Christmas. Can the memories awakened by a scrapbook remind Gary that love has no price tag, needs no trappings, and is worth more than anything money can buy?"

Come help these playwrights develop their new works! Your feedback is the most important thing for playwrights!


MUSIC

Three shows that I'm hoping to catch!

• Tealights / This Piano Plays Itself / Venice is Sinking - The Earl - Wednesday, December 9 - 8:30 PM - 10 dollars
   
• Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun / Gift Horse / Hammer no More the Fingers - The Star Bar - Friday, December 11 - 9:00 pm
   
• The Yonrico Scott Band / Laura Reed - The Five Spot - Thursday, December 31 - 9:00 pm - 20 dollars

Well, that's it for me. If there are any December events that you'd like to mention, be sure to leave a comment here on the blog so that all of my readers can hear about it. :-)

Stay tunes for my Top 10 Albums of 2009. I'm thinking of doing this in a podcast as opposed to a blog so I can actually play some tracks for you. :-)