For Stage West’s upcoming 32nd season – which runs from October to September, 2011 – the theater company is seeking visual artists to exhibit their work during the run of each show. Paintings, drawings, prints, photos, and all “wall-friendly” art will be considered – if it is professionally framed and presented. Anywhere from six to 18 visual artists will ultimately be selected to display their work throughout the 32nd season. Interested artists should submit 3-5 digital images to dana@stagewest.org with “32nd Season Art” in the subject line. Deadline is September 15. Serious inquiries should be directed to Dana Schultes at 817-338-1777.
Stage West Seeks Visual Artists
July 28th, 2010 by Jimmy FowlerJohn Lennon Mulls Killer’s Parole
July 28th, 2010 by Jeff PrinceGood on Yoko Ono for doing what it takes to block parole for Mark David Chapman, the sicko that killed John Lennon.
Fortunately, Lennon’s spirit was gracious enough to give Blotch an interview from the Great Beyond:
Blotch: What do you think about Chapman’s chances at parole and his ability to be reintegrated into society?
Lennon:
Blotch: What’s been on your mind lately up there in the ether?
Lennon:
Blotch: What are your days like, if indeed time is divided into “days” in the Great Beyond?
Lennon:
Iconic Actress Pam Grier Here Friday
July 27th, 2010 by Jeff PrinceWhen it comes to sexy African-American actresses, Pam Grier stands alone.
PAM GRIER IN HER FILM HEYDAY
She was Foxy Brown, she was Coffy, and she was one tough black action heroine — something moviegoers had never seen in the 1970s.
FOXY BROWN MOVIE POSTER
Blaxploitation films such as Super Fly and Shaft crossed cultural and ethnic lines and drew diverse crowds to theaters back then. Macho black actors Richard Roundtree, Isaac Hayes, Jim Brown, and Fred Williamson all wrestled for supremacy as the genre’s top star. But when it came to actresses, there was no debate — Grier was top of the heap.
All these years later, she’s still a force to be reckoned, revealing her travels and travails in the revelatory memoir Foxy: My Life In Three Acts.
GRIER'S NEW BOOK
Grier, now 60, will be signing copies of her book and posing for photos from 7 to 9 pm this Friday (July 30) at The Dock Bookshop, 6637 Meadowbrook Dr, Fort Worth.
GRIER AS SHE LOOKS TODAY -- STILL HOT.
Facebook Got You Jealous?
July 27th, 2010 by Jimmy FowlerWay back in that ancient era known as the ‘90s, a friend told me that she often felt a little jealous after watching the then-megahit NBC sitcom Friends. The reason? The lives of those TV characters rarely appeared boring or lonely or disappointing. I recently stumbled over this thought-provoking post on Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish site that poses a similar problem for today’s social media age: Does Facebook cause unrealistic envy?
Blogger Stan James suggests that Facebook has become a place for members to post selectively edited, misleadingly blissful and unrealistically exciting versions of their lives. For many, it’s become an arena for bragging, extreme social competition, and dishonesty by omission.
Your reaction might be: “Well, duh.” But James’s point is that if the Facebook phenomenon replaces close, long-term, friend-to-friend conversations, the result will be a vast distortion of reality that hinders us from talking about life as it’s really lived. Here’s a suggestion to save Facebook: Be a little more honest, people. Talk about the restaurants that gave you indigestion, the TV shows that bored you, the partners who betrayed you, the children who disappointed you, etc. etc. Talk about anything that keeps it a little more real.
Dez Bryant Says No To Roy Williams
July 26th, 2010 by Jeff PrinceThe Dez Bryant hazing controversy is a tough one to judge.
On the one hand, I admire the rookie wide receiver for refusing to be hazed by veteran WR Roy Williams.
Hazing is silly in any form, such as among college fraternity pledges. But it’s downright idiotic for grown men.
Bryant stood up for himself and refused to carry Williams’ sweaty shoulder pad after practice. Bryant doesn’t think playing for the Dallas Cowboys requires him to allow himself to be treated like somebody’s personal slave. Power to Bryant.
On the other hand, football hazing is a rite of passage, a tradition, and a bonding exercise designed to create team unity. Bryant is risking a lot by refusing to go along with the game.
Still, Bryant was right to refuse. I don’t think any man should allow himself to be hazed if he doesn’t want to.
The fact that the hazing was coming from an overpaid disappointment like Williams makes it even more difficult to blame Bryant. Then again, it’s understandable why Williams needed help carrying his pads — he surely would have dropped them.
Fort Worthian Spearheads Concert for the Gulf
July 26th, 2010 by Anthony MarianiPaschal High School grad and native Fort Worthian Gary McGrath’s indie record company, GB Records, is presenting Concert for the Gulf, benefiting the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, on Fri., Sept. 10, at The House of Blues New Orleans. Headliners include Dick Dale, Fastball, and Shawn Mullins. Tickets are $35 and up and go on sale Tue., July 31, at www.ticketmaster.com, www.houseofblues.com, and www.livenation.com.
33
Lochrann’s Inaugural Oysterfest Full of the Fort
July 26th, 2010 by Anthony MarianiFort Worth will be in the Frisco house on Sat., Sept. 25, for Lochrann’s inaugural Oysterfest. Headliners Rhett Miller (Old 97’s), Bowerbirds, Efterklang (from Denmark), Jukebox the Ghost, Buke and Gass, Via Audio, and Hooray for Earth will be joined by 817’ers Analog Rebellion, The Burning Hotels, Telegraph Canyon, Whiskey Folk Ramblers, and more. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Gulf Aid, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping gulf fishermen and their families and the wetlands. There will be two stages –– one indoor, one out- –– and the music will begin at 11 a.m. Lochrann’s can seat 1,000-plus. Tickets are $15 advance and $20 day of.
33
FW Guitar Show This Weekend
July 23rd, 2010 by Jeff PrinceGet your motor running, head out on the highway.
Some folks are born to be wild for guitars, and there’s plenty of heavy metal thunder expected at the 9th Annual Fort Worth Guitar Show tomorrow and Sunday at Radisson Hotel, 100 E. Alta Mesa Blvd.
The show offers new, used, and vintage axes in a casual setting with dealers from around the Southwest.
Other cool collectibles, such as T-shirts and DVDs of classic rock ‘n’ roll shows, are usually available as well.
The show is put on by Competition Music. Call Scott with any questions, 817-535-2040.
Fort Night on KERA-TV’s “Think”
July 23rd, 2010 by Jimmy FowlerTonight’s (Friday’s) 7pm edition of KERA-TV Channel 13’s local chat show Think is all about the Fort: Jerre Tracy, executive director of Historic Fort Worth, will name the top endangered structures/sites in the city and how preservationists are working to earn historic landmark status for them. Then actor-writer-puppeteer Lake Simons – daughter of Hip Pocket Theatre’s Johnny Simons – discusses her own explorations into the rarefied art of puppetry for adult audiences.
National Honors for the Weekly
July 22nd, 2010 by Gayle ReavesThe Fort Worth Weekly team hit some homers recently in the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ national competition. Texas Music, “boxcar tourist” Bo Keely and, of course that local character named Barnett Shale loomed large in the stories that brought the Weekly team a second place and two first places in the 2010 AltWeekly Awards. Most prestigious of all: the Public Service Award, which went to Peter Gorman, Dan McGraw, and Jeff Prince for a set of stories representing our coverage of the shale debate during 2009. (As loyal readers might suspect, the six stories we submitted for that entry were a mere sampler package of our shale coverage during the year.)
Peter’s first-place feature story, “Renaissance of the Rails,” was about Keely, the one-of-a-kind author and former nationally ranked athlete who has crisscrossed this country for decades by hopping freights.
It was another profile, “Phases and Stages,” about longtime Texas concert promoter Roy Stamps, that won second place for Jeff in the arts features category.
And Peter, Jeff, and Dan shared reporting and writing duties on the Barnett Shale coverage that won the public service honors. That included cover stories by Peter – “Sacrificed to Shale” about a DISH-ful of drilling woes suffered by one small town — and Dan, who wrote about gas companies reneging on mineral lease agreements in “Worth the Paper They’re Written On.” The other pieces of the package: “Gas Well Smell Test,” by Jeff, and “Compressed Anger,” “Big Takeover,” and “Shift in the Shale” by Peter.
The AltWeekly Awards, according to AAN’s web site, “honor superior journalism and graphic design among alternative newsweeklies across the United States and Canada. The contest seeks to promote excellence by recognizing work that is well written, incisively reported and effectively challenges established orthodoxies.”
That’s us. Get your excellent writing, keen reporting, and orthodoxy challenges fresh here, every week.