The past few days since I've discovered him, I have been listening to Joe Pug nonstop. Not only listening to him, but running a campaign as epic as Barack's for everyone I know to hear him. Apparently, Pug was a student at Chapel Hill before he, literally, one day decided to redirect his life completely. Dropping out and moving to Chicago to play his guitar seems to have been the right choice: his debut album has made a lot of noise -- The Nation of Heat -- and has been referred to as a sublime lyrical masterpiece (an understatement at best). He will be at Local 506 in Chapel Hill on May 15th, as will I.
Also on a musical note (ha, you see what I did there?). One of the Chartwell Center's employees, Mr. Richard, will be playing at JazzFest this year. Within the last couple months, he joined a band called My Name is John Michael, which is also an interesting story. John Michael, the actual John Michael, challenged himself to write, sing and record one original song every week for a year. Each week he would post these songs on his website, free for all to download and distribute. Fifty-two songs later, he amassed a respectable following and added a full band.
There was a poll on the website, and thirteen songs were chosen to be rerecorded for a full length album. The CD release show for this album is this Saturday at One Eyed Jacks. I hope I can make it to that. Their music is actually really good. I expected it to be decent, but I was really surprised. Richard said they had been compared to Bruce Springsteen and Bright Eyes. He said he didn't hear the similarities, nor do I, haha, but nonetheless, they are good and should be checked out as well. They are also kind of folky, which is all I've been listening too as of late. There is no sound as beautiful as a pained voice and an acoustic guitar.
Aside from music, there are other things going on in New Orleans, believe it or not. In fact, starting tomorrow (technically, it's already the 26th, but everyone knows it's not tomorrow until you wake up) is the sixth annual New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival. At that website, you can find the schedule of events, movie trailers, and anything else you would want to know about the what's going on. Through a series of speakers, music, special programs and, of course, films--from both New Orleanians and national/international producers, the festival seeks to provide an arena for artistic expression as well as cultivating an active human rights community in New Orleans. I hope I can make it to see a few of these screenings. There are several ones listed I want to see.
On an unrelated note, several weeks ago, walking past the Ogden Museum for Southern Art (which I still need to go to before I leave, as well as the WWII Museum, among many other things) I saw a website url spray painted on a wall. www.americanbeautysouth.com - I made a note on my phone to check it out later. I kept thinking about it all night, and wanted so badly to pull the site up when I got back. But so many times before have I seen an interesting url written somewhere and only to be disappointed when you call it up. Being such a romantic of the South and anything Southern, I didn't want this website to end up lame as so many others had. So I sat on it for several weeks, just to keep the mystery and the hope alive. Like that conspicuously wrapped Christmas present you convince your parents to let you open a night early, a name like American Beauty South can only be kept under wraps for so long. Today was Christmas Eve. I finally typed it in the url bar and hit enter. Greeted by a picture of a highway 61 sign adjacent to a pink-rose bush and an elegant American Beauty South logo and several internal links, I kept an interest. How exciting. It turns out American Beauty South is a really cool project in which artists use the streetside walls of hotels along New Orleans's Airline drive as a canvas to depict themes like American beauty, the South and Highway 61. The site also includes pictures and a map of Airline drive designating the locations of each piece, as well as links to each artist. Each link provides information on the artists, a statement about their pieces as well as additional links to their other works. This url turned out to be so much better than I could imagined. I can't wait to cruise Airline and see the pieces first hand.
Other wall art I need to see is by an English graffiti artist named Banksy who came to New Orleans on the anniversary of Katrina to make some statements around the city. I need to get out and see these tags before the "Gray Ghost, a notorious vigilante who's been systematically painting over any graffiti he can find with the same shade of gray paint since 1997" covers the work. Ironically, many of the pieces are in response to him as "He has done more damage to the culture of the city than any section five hurricane could ever hope to achieve." --BANSKY
Currently listening to: Joe Pug Nation of Heat
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