I had the great pleasure and honor of doing a Q&A with the great Liz Mikel last week, which is featured today on Art&Seek. Sadly, on January 6, Liz’ condo burned down leaving Liz and her daughter with nothing to salvage. Tucker’s Blues in Deep Ellum is having a weekend-long fundraiser for Liz and her family. Please …join us for 3 great nights of live blues, jazz, R&B and warm welcoming donations to help Liz and her daughter recover from their losses. All information as to attending the show(s) or donating are on the links below.
Tuckers’ Blues is hosting fundraisers for Liz all weekend long, January 8-10. Each night, they’re inviting local singers, musicians and spoken word artists to perform. There will be a $5 cover and they will be giving all proceeds to Liz. They will be also accepting other gifts for Liz throughout each evening, including cash, checks, and gift certificates (made payable to Liz Mikel). We hope you can join us one of these evenings. Show time is around 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday January 8 and 9, and at 7 p.m. on Sunday, January 10.
I got to take a tour of LaGrange in Deep Ellum just a couple of hours before they opened their doors. There are full videos here…and one just as a taste below. Go check out the full tour here.
LaGrange: the opening night musical wrap up. Music courtesy of Slick 57
Shot this for Art&Seek and it still ranks about #1 on anything I’ve ever shot, video-wise….I love Becky and Bill and I love this video of them rehashing….
Yeah, so I know I’ve been all up in the KXT 91.7 launch, but wherever Reid Robinson and Rawlins Gilliland go…I follow. Nuff said.
Tuesday, November 10th KNON 89.3 FM Sonic Assembly Power Hour with Hosts Reid Robinson & Allison Gordon
Writer and commentator Rawlins Gilliland will be the guest DJ tonight! He’ll be playing his favorite Latin music choices spanning 50 years, many forms, and several countries. El Grande Combo, Elaine Elias, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and many more…
Whew! KXT 91.7 launched this morning and it’s absolutely music to my ears…literally. It feels like Austin up in here. It’s so fun over-hearing folks ’round KERA talk about Sarah Jaffe and The O’s and all things local and regional. It’s a historic day for the DdFW airwaves…drink it up like a fine wine…hiccup…you don’t even have to get up—listen live from right where you be.
In-studio performances all this week, include Sarah Jaffe, The O’s, Rhett Miller, Little Black Dress and lots more! Check it out here.
Be sure to tune in to Good Morning Texas tomorrow, Thursday, October 29th, when Dave takes over the show…should be a fun romp with Dave and Rob trading comedic genius..ness..ness…have I mentioned how much I love Dave Little?
Well kiddies, I’ve somehow managed to land a real job with my beloved KERA-Art&Seek. Lemme hip you to a few things. Fer one, they are fantastically dedicated to the arts/music/culture communities over there on Harry Hines Blvd. These here are some very very very good folks. They make it really simple to promote your events, but you gotta do a little bit of work yourselves…oh, wipe that look off’o'yo’ face. Just a teeny bit of work on your part.
I’m going to make this really easy on ya…go here and submit your “organization” (which can be your venue, your group, your church, your association, your store, your whatever). There it shall remain forever, unless you want to make changes and you just gotta let us know by clicking on the “Update Page” link on your profile page.
Next, and this is really the easy part, you go here to submit your events (like your shows or exhibits or concerts or acting gigs or whatever). That’s it. It’s my job to take care of the rest.
It’s all free of charge. And there are perks, too. Lots of those great events get featured on the site, and some of ‘em even get featured on Gini Mascorro’s radio feature on KERA Radio.
PS – this round of Track by Track is fantastic. Paul put together a sampler podcast this time and it’s brilliantly fabulous. It includes some Bosque Brown, Danny Balis, Doug Burr, Rhett Miller, Robert Gomez, Telegraph Canyon and Trey Johnson. It’s so freakin’ great, go listen. NOW!
…The Webb Gallery specializes in this kind of thing, the funky and the visionary: folk art, outsider art, backwoods Americana, art from self-taught painters and prophets. As collectors, Bruce Webb says that he and his wife Julie are “flea-market trained.” The two native Texans enjoy driving cross-country to scout for things like hand-painted carnival banners from the 1940s, banners hawking freakshow acts like the man with “Two Noses” or “Creation: The World’s Most Amazing Attraction (Children Under 16 Not Admitted).” The Webbs have been doing this for 25 years…Read it all
Below is another (of the ongoing) videos in the “Resurrecting the Kessler” videos shot by Jeff Liles. Being former band-geek and drummer, I particularly love this video. It’s a bunch of the kids from Kessler co-owner Lisa Cabaniss’ dance studio drumming with the great Mitch Marine (think Smashmouth, Tripping Daisy, Andy Timmons, Dwight Yoakam)…wicked-awesomeness cubed…
Zac Crain. My love for you has renewed, yet again. Not that it ever left, but it needed a little dusting off.
Zac wrote a simply splendid story on my beloved Bill Wisener and his sorta-kinda-but-not-really-new location over on Lamar for D Magazine and it’s a must-read. No excuses. Stop what you are doing and read it.
Walking into Bill’s Records on a July afternoon gives me the same feeling, I imagine, that people who grew up in Rust Belt towns get when they return home for a visit. It’s a soft punch to the heart, a mixture of guilt and sadness. I hadn’t been to Bill’s in maybe five years, probably more, so I didn’t see its slow slide into near obsolescence at its old super-sized North Dallas location. And I had yet to see its small-scale rebirth in The Cedars, snuggled up next to Poor David’s Pub, in the shadow of the Southside on Lamar loft complex.
Owner Bill Wisener is right where I left him all those years ago, sitting behind the counter near the front door, clad in his uniform of jeans and faded polo shirt. But apart from the young employee lurking near the counter, I am the only other person here, a head count that would have been impossibly small on a sunny summer Friday a decade ago. Back then, and for much of the two decades prior to that, Bill’s Records was sort of a musical clubhouse. It had the best records, and so it attracted the best employees, and the best customers, too. The aisles were choked with people thumbing through cardboard boxes, and the air was thick with debates over this band or that album and more than a little cigarette smoke. Bill’s Records was High Fidelity, but it was even better. It was the only place I wanted to be on a Friday afternoon…READ IT!
I’ve been a stones-throw from the old location on Spring Valley most of my life. I spent time there as a kid, but even more time there over the last decade. I worked for KHYI 95.3 The Range for awhile a few years back, and was front and center at every showcase they hosted on Friday afternoons. And while I have done some live video streaming at the new location (Erykah Badu’s CD Release to name one), I haven’t really spent time there visiting with Bill, as I should have done. Shame on me.
I love that man. I love his quirks, his personality, his genuine love for artists, music, vinyl and his customers. I’m going to visit him this week and thank him for all he’s done to keep me happy.
Summer Ames, Camille Cortinas and Becky Middleton have all found loyal fans in Dallas, without the benefit of constant blog buzz or headlining gigs at high-profile venues. But it’s time more folks found out about these talented singer-songwriters…READ IT ALL!
If you haven’t checked-out each and every one of these extremely talented young artists, then you need to rectify that post haste. M’kay?
I’m so so so waaaaay behind on gettin’ my Paul Slavens on. Moving. Looking for a job. Nagging a 17-year old. Ya know, the usual stuff has kept my attention away from the ‘puter.
However, my mission for the rest of the week is to listen to every darn one of ‘em. You should too. Paul only invites the best of the best on his magnificent Podcast. He, quite literally, rocks.
I just left a job that kinda, sorta meant the world to me. Living and working in the same building in Deep Ellum just don’t do it for me no’mo’. I’m tired of looking out the window and seeing a highway and trashed-up alleys. I pick it up, others pick it up, yet every morning there’s a whole new batch of broken bottles, empty chip bags and goodness knows what else. Unfortunately, the lack of change of scenery, many many overtime hours and stress at work…I’m up and leaving it all for destinations unknown. (kinda, I’m moving back out to Richardson so the boy-child can finish his senior year)
Do I still love Deep Ellum? Yes. But it’s just too hard on an old broad like me, and 10-year old pooch who has had his own backyard since birth, and a 17-year old boy, wanting to hang out at Starbuck’s in Richardson.
What the hell am I going to do now? I have no idea. I went from barely making ends meet, to…well…the ends still need to be met, therefore I’m laying awake most nights trying to figure out how I’m going to make that happen.
Inspiration.
I need inspiration. I need an idea. I need a job that pays more than $?.00 an hour. So I often turn to the places that inspire me on a regular basis, or to those folks who do the same. Thank GAWD for Art & Seek. Truly. Thanks.
Art & Seek is my little hideaway, where I go to read, see and hear wonderful things. Wonderful things in a positive way. So it was no surprise that my little oasis on the web featured two other people who always inspire me and make me smile. Camille Cortinas and Eric Neal, two of the loveliest people I know.
I never get to hang with my Denton folk much, no’mo’….but I got to see Matthew and the boys, last night for…like…30-seconds…got chased off….I miss that darling boy…gotta hit little D sooner than later….
