About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 22, 2011)
CREATIVE GROOVE Ian McFarlane's photographs of Europe are on display at Etienne Brasserie through July. Turk Glass. Newcomers to the festival include Mandy Elias, Sergio Ruano of Spgke-N-For, Jason Thomas of Red Rocket Farm, Letter Landmarks, Gabriel Brown and Kathleen Masters. Art market Chair Sean Cook worked with two other jurors, Pat McCaffrey of Swampware Pottery and glass artist Susan Staley, to select the artists. Cook says that the group is really excited about presenting their work and that he "loves them all." Drop by Washington and Hull streets to say hello, check out the artwork and take some home with you! The Artists Market is open Friday, June 24, 5-10 p.m., Saturday, June 25, noon-10 p.m., and Sunday, June 26, 12:30 p.m.-8 p.m. Another Round: I had never visited ARTini's Art Lounge before last week, but was curi ous about the painting studio/gallery since it occupies the space that was once the Phoenix Market. The studio is a breezy, shotgun-style room with high ceilings and rough brick-and- plaster walls on one side. On the other, a per fectly smooth and gallery-white wall is where owner Kate Cook showcases paintings, prints and photographs by local artists. Her goal for the space is to encourage local art in two ways: "With ARTini's gallery aspect, I simply want to support the local arts as much as possible. Like many artists would agree, we can be our own worst critics, and I'm excited that I have a venue in which I can represent artists with enthusiasm. With the painting parties, I feel as if I'm bringing art to Turn Your Watch Back About 100,000 Years: Traveling a little farther east, a sculptural installation and contemporary dance performance at the Lyndon House is inspired by historic Mesopotamia. Artist Glen Kaufman (retired UGA Lamar Dodd School of Art fabric design professor) presents "Kaunakes: Ghosts of Mesopotamia." During the open ing for the exhibition, Andrea Trombetta (UGA MFA 2005) will perform a work of contemporary dance. She describes the col laborative piece as "inspired by the traditional kaunake garments which have historic roots in Mesopotamian culture made alive through historic/contemporary associations with Iraq today from Saddam Hussein to the present. The ever increasing loss of civilian lives made manifest by the gallery space filled with empty garment forms floating in space and enhanced by interpretative dance performance." While Trombetta's live performance will only accompany the opening and closing of the exhibition, "Kaunakes" will be on view at the Lyndon House through Aug. 6. The open ing and performance will take place at the Lyndon House Arts Center in the Lukasiewicz Gallery on Wednesday, June 22 at 7 p.m. Drawing from Sources Closer to Home: The artists in "From Our Studios," are three friends who present their work together at the Oconee County Library gallery. The exhibition includes mixed-media paintings by Robin Fay, intricately composed quilts by Sarah Hubbard and paintings created in dyed silks by Rene Shoemaker. Though the artists work in dif ferent media, they share a penchant for rich colors and lots of texture. On view through July 20. Caroline Barratt arts@flagpole.com Taking It to the Streets: This weekend marks AthFest's 15th year and, along with show casing dozens of local bands throughout the five-day festival, local artists will also be part of the scene. The 46 artists presenting their work at the AthFest Artists Market this year are primarily Athens-based, but some are traveling from North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and Florida to attend. A few return ing artists are Jamie Calkin, Chris Hubbard (CHUB), Robert Smith of Blacksmith Guitars, Chuck Hanes of Misty Mountain Pottery, ReCycle Jewelry by Russell Williams and Ken more people—exposing them to art and artists they may not otherwise [experience]. ARTini's unintimidating atmosphere may open them up to visit other galleries." Cook has planned additional exhibitions throughout the rest of the year and welcomes new submissions. Paintings by Matt Bahr are on display through July. His scenes of surf ers shooting the curl are very escapist and appropriate for summertime. Bahr studied at the School of Visual Arts in NYC and is a new addition to Athens; he works as an illustrator at New World Graphics. ARTini's shows rotate monthly; look for Vernon Thornsberry's paintings there in December if you missed him this month at This-Way-Out. -< Living Vicariously: Even if your summer plans do not include a European vacation, you can do a good job of pre tending by visiting Etienne Brasserie downtown to dine on moulesfrites and view Ian McFarlane's dreamy photo graphs that he took while in France and Italy. Romantic scenes of churches, old wooden boats on the shore, street scenes and fashionable shop fronts are great visual sources for imaginative travel. On view through July. BLACK FLAG DADS UNITE! Father's Day was June 19.1 hate Father's Day. Not because it's a transparent grab at consumer dollars (which it is), or because it's an occasion driven entirely by familial guilt (which it also is), but because for a day that's supposed to be about celebrating the sheer doodah greatness of fathers, it always leaves me feeling horribly inadequate. I don't golf. I don't fish. I don't barbecue or hunt or fix things or build things in the shop. I don't even have a shop. Or a den. Looking at the marketing for Father's Day, it's clear that whatever dads are supposed to be, I'm not it. The life lessons I have passed on to my children are of dubious value at best. That the Joel episodes of "MST3K" are better than the Mike episodes. That you shouldn't take drugs, despite the fact that every artist you like was better on them than off. That it's not only acceptable but crucial to assess a potential partner's musical tastes before dating him or her (I dated a Chicago fan for a year—some times I still wake up screaming). That the only sequel you should ever watch is Evil Dead II. That dating a writer will ruin your life—just look at your mother. So, Cliff Huxtable I'm not, but what am I? What kind of dad goes to shows and bitches about the lousy sound in virtually every club in this town? Or hangs a couple of nights a week at the hipster bar despite his lack of fashionable footwear and a scalp that can now be seen from space? What sort of pathetic scenes- ter man-child have I become? Thanks to Henry Owings and the staff of the mighty Chunklet magazine, I now have a name: Black Flag Dad. "He's the middle-aged guy standing, arms crossed, by the bar or near the door guy at rock shows. He's drink ing responsibly, not macking chicks and he doesn't recognize a mosh pit unless it's mov ing in a circular direction." That comes from the new book by Owings' crew, The Indie Cred Test (Chunklet Industries, 2011), a tome jam- packed with everything hipsters need to know about not crossing that line between detached irony and pretentious douchebaggery. As someone who has lived in this town since the days when people used to move here specifically in order to see Stipe on the street and pretend not to notice, I've encountered every breed of hipster, record-store scholar, culture snob and trust-fund bohemian to be found in the wild. This book is for them, a col lection of quizzes, litmus tests and commen taries to help navigate the perilous country of cool in all its varied terrain. How eclectic is your DVD collection, and how often and prominently is the word "Criterion" displayed? Do you dress "vintage" enough, and does it look like you shopped for your clothes or do you make it seem like your vinyl car coat and American-made Chuck Taylors just grew from your body like snakeskin? Do you actually like all that Afro-dub music you keep buying or do you use it to cover up your Genesis albums when company comes over? And how deftly do you walk that tightrope of buying music that's obscure enough to make you appear "discern ing" and just well-known enough that other people will know how "discerning" you are? Anyone familiar with Chunklet pretty much knows what to expect in the way of snarky humor and pop-culture references, but they'll also realize that the book, like the magazine, often falls into its own trap. In order to make the jokes about music snobbery, Owings et al have to display their own. You can't rag on David Yow without a full understanding of why jokes about David Yow are funny. It's hard, therefore, to tell what is self-deprecating humor at the expense of others and what is just plain old irony of the sort that hipsters suckle like Enfamil—and that question in itself is ironic (don't you think?). Still, The Indie Cred Test is pretty damn funny and worth a straight-through read on the coffee table and repeated skimmings thereafter from its place on your cinder-block- and-lumber bookshelf or next to the toilet. And it'd make a great gift for Father's Day for your favorite Black Flag Dad. See what I did there? I took the opening stuff and referenced it again in the conclu sion. That's what writers do. Just don't date them (see, I did it again!). Attention, Writers: The 17th annual Harriette Austin Writers' Conference will be held July 22 & 23 at the Georgia Center. This is a great opportunity for writers to network and get noticed by authors, agents and publishers. If you have a manuscript you'd like to submit for review at the conference, the deadline is June 20. Manuscripts can be sent to Scott Medine at evan654@gmail.com. For information about the conference, visit http://2011hawc. wordpress.com. John G. Nettles El CHUNKLET BUI INDUSTRIES FIRST EDITION 15 Alt SKIIL LEVELS msMH IBlM) J-5£TJ* omriwm IN3WN At EXPLORING VARIOUS PURSUITS SUCfl ASi UuffH • OtM trwf . lammnttufar «owm • Omm • NMV) « UHmM . marn— rtMfcfc « l«w • feSmataia • <w M C.Bw • U. * ©*<rh ■ Mwm • m MaU Ufiikv. IW'n • 4kk.' PROFESSIONALLY ACCREDITED ' COMWMIO «T <HI ifA*f O* CHUNKltt MAOAX1NI JUNE 22, 2011 FLAGPOLE.COM 9
