September already?

Happy September!

Yeah, I said it.  Happy September already.  I figure in between the time it takes WKU to beat UK and then UT this coming weekend, why not have fun in town any chance you can get.  To kick things off, relax today for the holiday and then hit the ground running tomorrow after work.  Sound like a plan?  Here’s the plan.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, September 3^rd, you can make your appearance and appreciation felt by joining us at East Side Storytellin’.  With the same start time, 7pm sharp, we are taking it down the street to a new location at 1313 Woodland Street at Mad donna’s.  If it’s sunny, we’ll be on the porch.  If it’s raining, we’ll be upstairs.  This will be our first show here and it will be the first time we’ll feature a local poet.  Jamie Givens, author of Never Give A Dancing Girl A Chair, will perform right before the amazing songbirds of Swan Dive (Bill DeMain & Molly Felder- see http://swandive.org).  Seriously, it will be a blast and you will enjoy yourself.  Take my word for it.

Skip the hump day on to the anniversary day of Thursday, September 5^th, at The Family Wash (2038 Greenwood Avenue), at 8:30pm.  Here’s your chance to come out with me to welcome back one of the best and brightest musicians around in that of Mr. Hazelwood.  The Return of Old Hazelwood will be a fresh reunion show of sorts, matching his wife on stage with the perfect blend of spirits and shepherd’s pie in the crowd.  Come out and enjoy the evening on the East side in style!

Also on Thursday, from 6:30-8pm, over at 427 Chestnut Street, you can get your art dialogue fill with a few experts.  Hal Foster and Ben Davis will be in town!  Hal, an art critic and historian, will explore the relationship that art took with ideas of uncertainty that came along with social and political uncertainty of the 2000s.  Ben Davis, a young New York art critic, will discuss how a clear understanding of class can make evident what is important in many current art debates.  You can keep it classy by showing up and partaking in the open discussions.

Then you can rest easy for a minute and tackle the weekend with full force.  Friday, September 6^th, from 7-10pm, at LeQuire Gallery (4304 Charlotte Avenue), you can witness the first First Time Story Night with the Actors Bridge Ensemble.  Whether it’s a first kiss, first heartbreak, first bike ride, first time you broke the rules, or the first time you did anything fun, the Actors Bridge will host an open mic night of first times.  It’s almost like storytelling karaoke.  The only rules are that the story must be told from memory, not read, be true, and must not be longer than 5 minutes.  Are you up to the challenge?

That said, Saturday is truly where it’s at.  Being that it is the first Saturday of the month, September 7^th, every art gallery downtown will be rocking.  You can park near 5^th avenue and stroll through it all.  That will be an obvious move.  What might not be so obvious are a few of these below:

If you drive near the Sounds’ ballgame, hit up 427 Chestnut Street again and drop into Ground Floor Gallery + Studios.  It’s there, from 6-9pm where you will find E(labor)ated Surfaces (the juncture of painting and fabric, a curatorial statement by Herb Rieth).  The work crosses boundaries from Carri Jobe’s painterly moves to Nick DeFord’s crafted barbs.  Other work noted and seen will be made by Jim Arendt, Briena Harmening, Jessie Van der Laan, and Herb Rieth himself.  It’s a great appetizer for the art around the city.

The Ground Floor Gallery show is a great appetizer for the rest of the Arts & Music @ Wedgewood/Houston area.  From 5:30-11pm, the Wedegwood/Houston neighborhood will have art, music, food, and good people all around.  There is stellar photography found at Cleft Studios, illustrations at Fort Houston, vintage records at Infinity Cat, paintings at The Merrit Mansion, and there is an event like no other at Track One.  It’s a Bring Your Own Beamer (projected light art) event!  You can read more about this event here- www.byobworldwide.com and also http://www.theatreintangible.com/call-for-artists-bring-your-own-beamer/.

Also, a gem back downtown, at CoLab Nashville, at 230 4^th Avenue, Suite 105, Untitled is having their next Pop-Up Art Show, coinciding with the First Saturday Art Crawl.  For one night only, the street-facing lobby at CoLab will have free coffee and wine and a feast of art for you to take in.  Bring a friend … or two.

But yeah, you know you can’t go wrong if you just stay the Saturday course and head downtown for the regular art crawl.  Tennessee Art League, The Rymer Gallery, Blend Studios, Tinney Contemporary, and all the others will have great, new art rocking the streets and making downtown Nashville truly extraordinary. One particular event that you shouldn’t miss, because it is nothing but the TRUTH is at Blend Studio.  It is there where Tiffany Dyer is exhibiting her latest work in “Don’t Look at Truckers and Always Wear Clean Underwear: An exhibition of selected work by Tiffany Dyer.”  The title pretty much says it all, but you gotta get out and see it to get the rest of the picture.  Best title of the year, so far?  Absolutely!

Then Sunday you can rest again and enjoy another round of Breaking Bad.  Doesn’t this all sound nice?  See you at one or a few of the above.  Have a great week and weekend ahead.

much love,

chuck

www.eastsidestorytn.com

www.nashvillesheart.com