Just a reminder that David Steel, Curator of European Art for the N.C. Museum of Art, will be hosting a free lecture entitled “New Rodin Acquisitions”. Dr. Steel will discuss several of the highlights and behind-the-scenes insights on the entire installation process of the pieces. The lecture is at 10am at Jones Auditorium at Meredith College. Doors open at 9:30am.
The North Carolina Museum of Art has officially set the date for the opening of its new, 127,000 square foot package of butter sticks museum. As expected April 24 is the big date for its opening. The current building is being renovated to house special exhibitions, an expanded box office, and facilities for NCMA’s family and public programs.
A couple of weeks ago three interesting exhibits began in the area:
Onion Head Monster Poster Exhibition
Thru October 4, 2009
Colony Movie Theater, Six Forks and Millbrook
9 new posters featuring the cartoons of Bus Champion, All-Time Monster Champion and most recently Bug Champion, Paul Friedrich
Thru October 24, 2009
Artspace
In association with local artist Paul Friedrich, Artspace presents The Conquerors, an exhibition showcasing cutting-edge American artwork. The Conquerors features the work of five nationally known artists exhibiting for the first time in Raleigh: Mark Bodnar, Mari Inukai, Liz McGrath, Bill McRight, and Bonnie Brenda Scott. These artists are recognized as dynamic leaders of the Lowbrow painting style from the pages of Juxtopoz and Hi Fructose magazines.
Originating in California in the early 1980’s and currently moving towards the East Coast, Lowbrow is a rapidly spreading underground art movement that combines traditional painting subject matter with modern ingredients of underground comics, hot-rod culture, and punk rock. The Conquerors reflects current trends in the Lowbrow genre from the East and West Coasts.
Images at http://www.artspacenc.org/gallery_two.html
Thru October 4, 2009
2 Bit Sho features work by artists from and inspired by the the Triangle’s game industry. Designbox, along with Spark Plug Games, artists Adam Capps, Chris Norris and Paul Friedrich have recruited local gaming artists for a 2 Bit Sho. The exhibit features video game inspired works and pieces by artists currently working in the Triangle’s video game industry. Never before exhibited in Raleigh, author/collector Dave Ellis will be displaying 5 vintage game consoles from his collection. DJ Scoplecopter has composed exclusive "chip tunes" inspired by video games for the show’s music.
curated by Adam Capps, Chris Norris and Paul Friedrich [db]
Those filthy calendars! This one only has downtown events. That one is so cluttered with basketweaving and high school plays, you’ll never use it. That other one is only usable if you happen to be visiting a specific website.
How much would you pay for a calendar that only features the good stuff? But wait, there’s more! How about a calendar that updates itself when impressive events get scheduled? Fifty dollars? A hundred dollars? Uh-uh! Oh, There’s more, a lot more! How much would you pay for a calendar that not only contains the right events, but can easily integrate into your very own calendar system? Two hundred dollars? Think again!
Introducing the gogoraleigh Gogo Do-it Calendar System. With just a few steps, planning nirvana is at your fingertips, complements of gogoraleigh. Oh, did I mention that it is free?
OK, enough Ronco sales pitch. The big feature is finally here! Hopefully your life in the Triangle just became a nonstop stream of fun. Powered by Google Calendar, the Gogo Do-it Calendar System allows users a multitude of ways to integrate the best events in the Triangle into their own calendar systems. Here are just a few ways:
While viewing any page at gogoraleigh, click the Gogo Do-it tab in the right sidebar and a list of upcoming events will expand. Each of the items links to more information such as event time, location, ticket information, and more.
To see more than just a list of events, go to the Gogo Do-it calendar site at Google Calendar. A link to this will live in both the gogoraleigh Calendar page (tab at the top of this page) and in the expanded Gogo Do-it sidebar section. Google Calendar’s standard views are powerful: Week, Month, and Agenda (list). Navigate to a different week or month by using the arrows or the calendar layout in the top left corner. Click on an event, and you’ll see expanded information such as time, location, and a URL linking to more information.
Google Calendar is the easiest calendar system for viewing in the business. Much like World Book’s old human anatomy overlays, Google displays each selected calendar as an overlaid transparency. This allows one to subscribe to and easily toggle calendars they infrequently need as well as their core calendars. To get the best experience, get a Google account and add the gogoraleigh Gogo Do-it Calendar to your own Google Calendar. The best way to do this is to go to the Gogo Do-it Calendar page at Google (click Gogo Do-it in the sidebar and click “View Complete Calendar”). Next and click the “+Calendar” icon in the bottom right corner of the screen. The “gogoraleigh” will then appear in your “Other Calendars” list where you can customize its color.
Google Calendar users can add specific events to their personal calendars easily. While viewing the Google Calendar, click on an event, then click on “Copy To My Calendar”. This will add the event to your personal Google Calendar whether or not you’ve added the Gogo Do-it Calendar to your Other Calendars list.
A bonus feature will appear soon. As new events are announced on gogoraleigh, a button will appear so one can easily add the event to their personal Google Calendar. For example, here is a button for adding Thursday night’s Coldpay/Elbow concert to a personal Google Calendar
iPhone Integration: There are many ways to integrate the gogoraleigh calendar into the iPhone. The simplest is for users who prefer the web version of Google Calendar. Once the Gogo Do-it calendar is in your “Other Calendars” list on Google Calendar, you can use it on the iPhone. Simply navigate in Safari to calendar.google.com. At the bottom of the page, click “Settings”, and make sure “gogoraleigh” is checked. On the iPhone Google Calendar offers Day and Month views. Unfortunately it does not offer link recognition in an event’s Description section. Copy and Paste is necessary to to see more. Thankfully, though, the map function for each event links to the iPhone’s Google Map native app.
Another way to integrate the gogoraleigh Gogo Do-it Calendar into your iPhone’s calendar is to subscribe to the calendar via Outlook or iCal. After syncing your portable device, the latest Gogo Do-it events will appear. The iPhone will show gogoraleigh as a subcalendar, which can be displayed on its own or included in the “All Calendars” view.
No doubt, this is a big, big undertaking for gogoraleigh. Peruse the calendar and you’ll see that there are many, many events entered. Getting to the calendar is easy from this website, however it can be even easier if you set it as a bookmark in your browser.
The possibilities with the system and I hope you enjoy having it as a resource to finding fun in the Triangle.
The creator of the Barrel Monster, Joseph Carnevale, has been sentenced to 50 hours of community service. According to the News & Observer report, he will likely serve this sentence with Habitat for Humanity.
This is a tough one. The Barrel Monster was hilarious. I don’t like Carnevale’s creativity. I love it. We need more of this kind of thing in Raleigh. Although the owner of the barrels, Hamlin Construction, was amused and wished to not press charges, completely allowing Carnevale off would have set a dangerous precedent.
In theory we cannot have a society where it is OK for one to steal and mutilate someone else’s property without permission. We see this enforced with music mashups, photography on the web, etc. If we allow Carnevale to avoid any sort of punishment due simply to the merit of the outcome, then what happens when the next artist steals property to create art that is, perhaps, of lesser merit? Where do we draw the line on what materials are OK to take without permission?
Some ask why the cops weren’t out stopping “real criminals”. What, exactly, is a “real” criminal? Someone who steals $500 of materials for their art? $20,000 in the name of art? I have a hard time believing reports of the barrels’ pricetag of $385, however if that is correct, is it OK to steal $385 worth of materials from Jerry’s Artarama? Does Jerry refund artists if their final product is as worthy as the Barrel Monster? Of course they don’t.
Not only is the value of ownership in our society an issue here, but also the value of process. The disappearance of a few barrels caused the construction company to halt the project long enough to replace the missing barrels that ensure public safety. While in this case the disturbance was very small, it is a cost in addition to the disappearance of the property, that has to be considered. Do any of us like being forced to work overtime for free? I don’t.
Additionally, the purpose of the barrels is for public safety. What if the disappearance of barrels was critical enough to cause a driver or bicyclist to have an accident?
As much as I love Carnivale’s work, the means by which he attained his materials is not something that a peaceful society can tolerate. It created an additional burden on the owners and the period of time when barrels were missing created a safety hazard to the community.
Carnivale’s punishment of 50 hours of community service is a bit severe, though. He basically will lose 5 days of work/leisure as his sentence. Thankfully the charges will be dropped once he completes his sentence.
Today marks the beginning of a cross-country road trip for Helena and Tim at Raleigh’s Well Done Media. Their project involves documenting their adventures and experiences while on the road, as well as art, music (including meeting with the Triangle-based Bowerbirds and Megafaun on their national tours), and any other interesting people or things they encounter.
A massive media project will be growing each day as they travel and outsource part of the project to blog viewers in real time. This should be fun to watch over the next couple of weeks.
This week a site plan (.pdf) was submitted to the city for the new Contemporary Art Museum (CAM). The 2-story facility is planned for Martin and Harrington streets, and includes 21,064 square feet of space. It is little, but it is a start!
The Umstead Hotel & Spa (warning: music) recently began a fascinating exhibit in its Art + Nature Series. The artist is Christopher Marley, a renowned entomologist, who sources rare butterflies and insects from all over the world and creates art with them.
Marley will be here July 16th to give an illustrated talk about his world travels in pursuit of artful butterflies and insects. Mingle with Chris and other guests for an interactive discussion about his work, inspirations and technique. There will be wine, light hors d’oeuvres and a glimpse into this artist’s passion for the living world.
The event will take place on Thursday, July 16th from 5:30-7:30pm. Space is limited and tickets cost $35 per person. Call 919-447-4065 by July 14th to reserve your spot.
As part of the event, The Umstead Hotel and Spa is offering a special rate for all Art + Nature Lecture attendees of $129. To make a guestroom reservation, call the hotel (919-447-4050) and mention booking code “BUGS0709”.
Marley’s exhibit will be on display through mid-August, and art tours are available upon request.
Today’s New York Times features a 36-hour visit to some of the Triangle’s eclectic offerings. From Poole’s to the Scrap Exchange to the Eno River Park, the writer bounced along several interesting stops. (The Cat’s Cradle story isn’t quite right, though. Nirvana and Pearl Jam both played to very full houses in the same summer, 1991.)
