gazznotes

$250, $500 and $1,000 'We Are Marshall' premiere tickets go on sale: Matthews included

2006-11-07T18:08:00.000-05:00

If getting close to Matthew McConaughey or Matthew Fox would really, really make your day, got $1,000? Or $500 might get you within gander range. $250? Might have to work the ropes a bit. A limited number of tickets for the premiere of "We Are Marshall," on Tuesday, Dec. 12, at the Keith-Albee Theatre, will go on sale from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Nov. 13 in the box office at the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center, says a news release from Marshall University.

Tickets are available for $250, $500 and $1,000 each. If still available at 1 p.m., Monday, they will remain on sale in the box office, but also go on sale online at www.ticketmaster.com.

"This is an opportunity for people in the tri-state area to buy tickets to the Keith-Albee premiere in person," says Marshall's H. Keith Spears, vice president for communications and marketing. "Because of unprecedented levels of sponsorships, the number of tickets remaining is limited. I would encourage anyone hoping to purchase tickets to the premiere of 'We Are Marshall' at the Keith-Albee to arrive early at the box office on Monday."

The max number of tickets with which you may abscond is 4 (though at these prices, it might be time to liquidate a portion of your child's college fund). The tickets will not be handed out Monday. You can pick them up between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Dec. 12 at the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center.

What does a $250 ticket get you? A seat in the Keith-Albee and admission to a post-film gala at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena. And $500? A ticket good for orchestra seating closer to the stars in the Keith-Albee and admission to the gala. OK, do you get a kiss from one of the Matts for $1,000? Not quite, but in addition to being seated near the stars during the movie and invited to attend the post-film gala, you also will be able to attend a pre-film reception.

We must ask: what happened to a second premiere of the movie that average folks and below-average-income folks could afford?

The Gazz Guide: coming up

2006-11-07T12:56:00.000-05:00

The W.Va. Film Festival continues today through Saturday at the Capitol Plaza Theater, 123 Summers St. Photo for thegazz.com by Douglas Imbrogno

On Thursday (Nov. 9), watch for the upload of this week's Gazz Guide, a Charleston Gazette webcast of suggested things to do in the Charleston area in the week ahead. Amy Robinson will report on the remaining films showing at the W.Va. International Film Festival at the Capitol Center Theater. The film fest concludes this weekend with showings of "Quinceanera" and "Water" (Friday, Nov. 10) and "Heart of the Game," "Who Killed the Electric Car," and "Half Nelson" (Saturday, Nov. 11). See the full lneup of remaining film fest movies right here.

Also, Morgan Kelly will line up 7 reasons why Bob Seger is cool -- and 7 reasons why he's not. Seger performs 7:30 p.m., Nov. 14 at Charleston Civic Center. Tickets cost $56.50 through www.ticketmaster.com or order by calling 342-5757. There'll be a lot more tips of what to do and when to do it, so check out the gazz home page, this blog or thegazzTV page for the new weekly show.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Say goodnight, Blogger

2006-11-06T16:45:00.000-05:00

There will be no new posts at thegazz.com lineup of blogs all day Tuesday, Nov. 7 as we switch to a new blogging program. We are abandoning blogger.com and moving to an in-house version of the Word Press blogging program. It's hard to complain about a free program (which blogger.com is) and are thankful blogger.com blogs got us blogging in the first place. But long lulls in fresh posts to our gazzblogs have not always been because of bloggers asleep at the switch. Sometimes, the switch didn't work. We have too often been unable to post for long stretches of time and it went on one time too many. And on the web, no one can hear you scream (which is what I was doing when our blogs were down). Our hope is the new program, hosted on our own servers, will allow is to serve up more frequent content to gazzblogs. Stay tuned.

thegazz.com editor
Douglas Imbrogno PS-- Blogger is acting up right now -- failing to recognize paragraph breaks. I feel an Internet scream coming on...

Yes, that Helen Thomas...

2006-11-06T10:01:00.000-05:00

BOOK SIGNING: Helen Thomas and Maggie Gimore, noon, Wednesday, Nov. 8, Taylor Books Annex Gallery, 226 Capitol St.

Helen Thomas, the dean of the White House Press Corps and author of "Watchdogs of Democracy: the Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public" will speak and sign copies of her book, along with journalist Maggie Kilgore, author of "Remember to Laugh: Writing My Way Around the World" in the Annex Gallery of Taylor Books at noon Wednesday.

Thomas has been covering Washington for more than 60 years and nine presidencies and is displeased with the current state of journalistic ethics. She asserts that journalists have abandoned their duty as the watchdogs of democracy and have become mere lapdogs, failing to challenge the government.

GGGGGGG........

2006-11-02T16:48:00.000-05:00

Our Gazz Going Out Guide webcast (or, talk like a pirate now, 'GGGGGG...;) is not online as averred, alleged and signified in this morning's print gazz (above). Our Adobe Premiere editing program has gone into cardiac arrest and is currently in ICU. Meanwhile, in its guts rests the raw footage we shot for the program. Maybe tomorrow (after we sacrifice a goat to the cyber-gods.)

The exodus from YouTube

2006-10-30T16:32:00.000-05:00

If you notice on your visits to YouTube that there seems to be exodus of fresh clips by name folks -- like Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart -- you'd be right. YouTube has been flushing copyrighted video clips (of, for instance, "The Comedy Show" and ""The Simpsons") off the site after recently receiving a 'hey, cease and desist' request via Comedy Central. It's a dicey business because YouTube is an immense word-of-mouth vehicle -- Colbert's savagely polite send-up of George Bush to his face got instant national exposure through YouTube. Here are two takes on the story, one from the NYTimes (registration required) and one from Slate, which explains why YouTube can still keep doing what it does -- so long as it takes a clip down quick-like after someone complains.

Blogger has been acting up...

2006-10-30T15:50:00.000-05:00

And has not been allowing us to post for hours and days now. Fie upon thee, Blogger.com!

A gazzTV visit to the Charleston Bread company

2006-10-27T09:23:00.000-04:00

Charleston Bread company founder Libby Chatfield

I'd read about the recently opened Charleston Bread company in my own newspaper, but had not really come across the place until I drove past the W.Va. public radio offices a week ago -- and there were the breadmakers cattycorner across the street at 601 Capitol St. If you haven't been there yet, make a video visit and watch the new gazzTV story profiling Libby Chatfield and crew's lineup of baguettes, raisin, olive and sourdough breads and more. Click right here. It'll give you a look that lacks everything but the smell of the place, which is heavenly. And the taste, which is just as good.

-- Douglas Imbrogno

Gazz cover: Oct. 26, 2006

2006-10-26T10:37:00.000-04:00

He probably gets too too much exposure, what with those wall-to-wall Ford commercials. But for Toby fans, here he is, on the cover of today's print gazz. Money quote from the story by Adam Harris:

"The more I support the troops, the more pro-war people think I am. Everybody thinks you’ve got this big war-raging, right-wing redneck that does 'Courtesy of the Red White & Blue’' and I’ve never one time said I support the Iraq war," he said.

CORRECTION: Soulful Sundown Service is Saturday, not Friday at Unitarians

2006-10-19T14:16:00.000-04:00

The following event was incorrectly listed in the print Gazz inside the Charleston Gazette today. The event was listed as taking place this Friday, but in fact takes place on Saturday, Oct. 21:

SHAYAR AND KROOSHAL FORCE: 5:30 p.m, Sat., Oct. 21. Free. Part of the Soulful Sundown contemporary worship service. Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 520 Kanawha Blvd. Call 345-5042 or visit www.uucharlestonwv.org.

Gazz cover: Oct. 19, 2006

2006-10-19T13:53:00.000-04:00

Here's today's print gazz cover, featuring the W.Va. Symphony's First Violinist Amelia Chan, pulling off a Pete Townsend roundhouse on her instrument. Not, in this case, a guitar although how cool would it be to see her smash it on the ground early Who-style> Not that cool. But the Symphony will be tackling the music of The Who and the Rolling Stones in a show this weekend at the Clay Center along with the Canadian rock troupe Jeans 'n Classics. Read Morgan Kelly's story right here.

Cover design by Brenda Pinnell, photo by Chris Dorst

The Evens in Charleston: A Short Report

2006-10-18T17:27:00.000-04:00

Photos for thegazz.com by Mark Wolfe

It had to be one of the more curious combinations of act and venue in a long while in Charleston. Punk legend Ian MacKaye (Fugazi, Minor Threat, Discord Records) brought his duo The Evens to town for an all-ages Tuesday night show at the American Legion Post 20 on Dickinson Street. The distaff half of the duo, Amy Farina, womaned a red drum kit and kicked out some nifty piercing vocals, too.

MacKaye made some fans in Charleston years ago when his band Fugazi performed at Bob Webb's old Common Grounds Coffeehouse on Summers Street. So, some of those folks were among the 60 or so people in attendance, leaning against the walls or sitting on the Legion's bare floors. A couple of aging punk sympathizers brought their kids, which explained the father beaming at what looked like a five-year-old as MacKaye made some pithy observation about waking up to the truth after being anesthasized by the current bunch in charge in Washington, in a song called "You Won't Feel a Thing" -- until you wake up.

Waking up was a theme that ran through the concise, hour-long set The Evens performed under these odd circumstances. (In quiet moments, you could hear a TV blaring and conversation by some old-time Legionaires in the bar behind a room divider.) It wasn't a punk show per se -- MacKaye, now forty-something, remained seated the whole while, although he whipcorded himself and his guitar on the more intense pieces. But the night was animated by the best that punk delivered to the moribund, corporate music-killing music scene: not the cliche image of diaper pins stuck through punker skin, but the do-it-yourself ethos of self-aware, independent music. And independent thinking.

Read related story.

By Douglas Imbrogno

"We Are Marshall" website update

2006-10-16T09:59:00.000-04:00

Warner Bros. has significantly upped the ante on the multimedia on view at its website for the upcoming "We Are Marshall" film, with a montage of large photos from the film matched to the kind of stirring, emotionally-rigged music only Hollywood knows how to crank out. Click here for the site

gazz cover: Oct. 12, 2006

2006-10-12T11:53:00.000-04:00

For those ex-pats who read the pixelated version of the Gazette long-distance via the web, here's what today smashed-tree version of the print gazz looks like. The cover was crafted by graphic designer Brenda Pinnell. It refers to three works of theater opening in downtown Charleston within the next 5 days.

gazzTV page's new look

2006-10-11T12:44:00.000-04:00

We just uploaded a new look for the gazzTV page, the central vault for all the online shows we are now producing on a weekly basis. Now, we need to figure out what to call them. What do you think? Here are some of the candidates being heard on the web: 'webcasts'; 'webisodes'; 'videocasts'; Internet TV. Whatever. If you haven't yet seen some of the video stories we've put up, click to gazzTV now and take a look and a listen. We'll upload a couple new video stories (videocasts? vids?) either later today or early tomorrow:

--- A profile of a black-suited mime with a see-through briefcase walking down Capitol Street. People with Fear of Mimes Syndrome might want to avoid this one.

--- A preview of punk rockers The Concept, who perform at Huntington's Monkeybar this weekend.

--- An interview with Martytranny's Collective Pulse, the street musician duo who perform sometimes in front of the downtown library. They open for The Evens on Tuesday in Charleston, a band featuring Ian MaKaye of Fugazi.

gazzTV video on Maya Nye-hosted open mic

2006-10-05T18:20:00.000-04:00

We just uploaded (click here) the gazzTV video mentioned in a post below, featuring the lovely and talented Maya Nye, at right, host of a lively, multi-genre open mic that starts 9 p.m. every Tuesday upstairs at Sam's Uptown Cafe. (She may also have facilitated your enjoyment of gourmet pizza at Lola's Restaurant in the South Hills, where she is front-of-house manager.) Also, take a gander at a new, short episode of Foxy Commander, featuring area rockers Ten Carp Lie, who happen also to be playing at Sam's Uptown Cafe on Friday and Saturday. Someone tell the owners to support gazzTV -- this is a harmonic

You man or woman enough for "Man of La Mancha"?

2006-10-05T12:30:00.000-04:00

Take a short quiz, and you can win two free tickets to the single-night touring performance of "Man of La Mancha," coming 7:30 p.m., Nov. 1 to the Clay Center in Charleston. But you gotta kow your stuff. Do you have a handle on "La Mancha" trivia? The Charleston Gazette has five pairs of tickets to the "Broadway in Charleston" production to give away. To qualify to win a pair, answer a five-question quiz you'll see in the Friday, Oct. 6 People section inside the Gazette. The winners, chosen at random from those with all -- or most -- of the correct answers, will be announced Oct. 19 in the print and online gazz. Look for the quiz Friday.

gazzTV: 2 out of 5 videos uploaded so far!

2006-10-05T12:09:00.000-04:00

Check out the two new videos we've posted at gazzTV for the week of Oct. 5-11: A GazzTV Interview with Mark Wolfe about his Face Value" photo show at UC; and an editorial and alarming video about the dangers to the nation's moral fiber posed by YouTube.com

We're not going to make our noon deadline on the three other videos promised in today's print section of the gazz in the Charleston Gazette: an interview with Maya Nye about a new eclectic open mic at Sam's Uptown Cafe she hosts; a preview of "wargamers" coming to this weekend's CharCon game convention at the Civic Center; and a a taste of Ten Carp Lie, who perform in Charlesotn Friday and Saturday. Check back later today for those videos!

We chopped last week's 15-minute show up this week into bite-size individual servings. Let us know what you think and suggest pfuture programs in the 'Comments' below or email gazz@wvgazette.com

"What's Going On..." now live

2006-09-28T13:24:00.000-04:00

Take a listen, take a look, at the new gazz.com weekly webcast, "What's Going On...," weekly highlights of events in clubs, on stage, on screen and beyond in the Charleston area. Click here.

"What's Going On..." not yet going on

2006-09-28T12:43:00.000-04:00

The new gazz webcast, "What's Going On..." was allegedly supposed to be online by 10 a.m. today. We plead Technical Snafu Syndrome. Give is another hour to heal and you will be able to view this first webisode of a new weekly video show, hosted by the lovely Delta McCalllister.

The debut show features segments on how a guy on the West Side of Charleston recorded and engineered a song from his living room which is now currently featured in the new Hollywood movie "All the King's Men," starring Sean Penn. There's an interview with Will Carter, a founder of the Charleston Jazz Series, about Friday's season opener at Wellington's of Scarlet Oaks featuring three Latin jazz hotshots, pianist Hilario Duran, drummer Horacio "El Negro' Hernandez and bassist Roberto Occhipinti. Our live, local music crew serves up a taste of the Pistolwhippers in full battle gear at The Empty Glass, where the local favorites perform Saturday. There's also an appetizer of live sound by the band Professor Mike, who play Friday at Sound Factory (and are featured in the next episode of the gazzTV show "Radio Free Charleston," due online this Friday).

Stay tuned, click on!

Douglas Imbrogno
thegazz.com editor

Gazz space on Myspace

2006-09-27T17:13:00.000-04:00

Gazz has not one, but two Myspace-related sites worth checking out.

Myspace.com/wvgazzmusic: This is LocalMusic blog maestro Nick Harrah's sizable, substantial and capacious compendium of bands of all genres with West Virginia ties. Lots of music, a growing number of videos, plus blogposts on the area music scene equal lots to listen to, watch and read. If we've written about a band in a gazz article or blog, the link to their web presence is likely here. If not, e-mail us at gazz@wvgazette.com and it'll be up shortly.

Myspace.com/radiofreecharleston: This is the new Myspace site for the gazzTV program 'Radio Free Charleston,' hosted and produced by PopCult gazzblogger Rudy Panucci. Read production notes and background on past shows, see the most recent show on RFC's Myspace crib or go to the gazzTV page, and watch them all.

Here comes "What's Going On"

2006-09-26T12:06:00.000-04:00

Who's this guy? That'd be Kevin Briles, videographer for Charleston Newspapers and thegazz.com. Why are we looking at his mug? Kevin has shot many of thegazz.com videos you may have seen, including all the "Foxy Commander" shows in the current gazzTV lineup. We're showing you the man behind the camera as a means of introducing a new weekly gazzTV show, "What's Going On." Kevin will shoot and edit, and thegazz.com editor Douglas Imbrogno will produce, along with a cast of, well... half-dozens.

"What's Going On"is a new weekly program of thegazz.com that will highlight local events worth checking out for the week ahead. The plan is to launch the show online every Wednesday about 4 p.m. (We say 'about' because the best-laid plans of mice, men and online magazines do go awry.) We'll serve out a heads up on some of the more notable events on stage, in clubs, on the town, on TV and at the movies. Watch for the first program late Wednesday afternoon (knock on pixels)...

Beam me up, Scottie, there's no intelligent commercial radio music down here

2006-09-20T15:55:00.000-04:00

Commercial radio is so generally brain-dead and zombie-like hit driven that it's seems only a matter of time before we watch the corpse wheeled out of the ER. That day will come when everyone has cheap and easy satellite radio availability, everywhere. We don't yet.But wish we did so we could listen to a show like this one below, featuring the possibly insane, but certifiably fun Todd Snider (at right). It's certain Snider will play some unconventional tracks, and likely a few you might even hear on commercial radio. But the very fact of his offbeat ears getting an hour to spin what he likes is certifiably cool:

"This Friday, September 22, Todd Snider takes over SIRIUS's Outlaw Country channel 63 airwaves starting at 8 p.m. EST for a freewheeling' hour of hand-picked tracks from Billy Joe Shaver, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Jeff Walker and Bob Dylan along with sordid uncensored stories behind his own killer tunes from the new record 'The Devil You Know'. (Replays September 23rd at 10pm ET, September 30 at midnight ET and October 1 at 1am ET.)"

Try those AP videos again now...

2006-09-20T10:41:00.000-04:00

A couple months ago, gazz added the link you now see of rotating AP entertainment videos on thegazz.com homepage. Trouble was, the videos were only viewable if you used an Internet Explorer browser. Macintosh users couldn't view them at all. (We Mac-olytes, used to being outcasts in Windowsworld, weren't surprised). AP has upped their game and the videos should now be viewable by many of the most current browsers, PC or Mac, like Firefox and the latest Safari browser, so long as you have the latest version of Flash installed on your computer. If you don't, you can get it here. Let us know if you have problems and what your browser and browser version is.

-- Douglas Imbrogno

You think you're so smart...

2006-09-18T16:46:00.000-04:00

Always dreamed of that call coming in, announcing that you -- yes, YOU! -- have been chosen by the anonymous panel of the MacArthur Foundation as the recipient of one of its genius grants? At last, recognition that you are not a faceless dweeb among dweebs!

Sorry, Charlie. They passed you over again this year. No genius certification for you, go back to adding a new background to your Myspace site. Meanwhile, the following individuals did get the call. Study up what they did (What?! A 2003 grad student gets one of these?). Maybe next time:

CHICAGO (SEPTEMBER 19, 2006) - The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today named 25 new MacArthur Fellows for 2006, among them seven innovators in the arts... This past week, the recipients learned by a phone call from the Foundation that they will each receive $500,000 in "no strings attached" support over the next five years:

Regina Carter - (New York, NY) A master of improvisational jazz violin. Though her work draws upon a wide range of musical influences - including Motown, Afro-Cuban, swing, bebop, folk and world music - she has crafted a signature voice and style.
David Macaulay - (Norwich, VT) A visual storyteller whose illustrated books demystify the workings and origins of objects as mundane as a stapler and as monumental as a cathedral.
Josiah McElheny - (New York, NY) A sculptor who draws from the decorative and functional traditions of glass to craft a new, multifaceted form of contemporary art.
Sarah Ruhl - (New York, NY) A fresh, compelling, and versatile playwright. In her play, Eurydice (2003), written while a graduate student at Brown University, Ruhl adapts a classic myth to modern times.
Anna Schuleit - (New York, NY) A young artist who brings back to life historic sites and structures through her original interpretations.
Shahzia Sikander - (New York, NY) An artist whose visually striking, resonant works merge the traditional South Asian art of miniature painting with contemporary forms and styles.
John Zorn - (New York, NY) An accomplished saxophonist, a versatile composer, an improvisational maestro, and an ardent promoter of experimental music.

"Selection for a MacArthur Fellowship is the culmination of an intensive review of the creative efforts and promise of each Fellows," says MacArthur President, Jonathan Fanton in a press release. "Our call comes as a complete surprise and offers the new Fellows the gift of time and an unfettered opportunity to reflect, explore, and create." To e-mail Jonathan and have him check out your Myspace site or to sign-up for MacArthur's e-newsletter, visit www.macfound.org.

Gazz cover: Sept. 14, 2006

2006-09-14T10:10:00.000-04:00

For people who no longer handle the squashed-tree version of The Gazz, tucked every Thursday morn into the pages of the Charleston Gazette, here's what the cover looked like. Rustle a stack of paper or letters so you can get the full effect.

Got homemade local video and animation?

2006-09-13T10:08:00.000-04:00

Thegazz.com is developing a new weekly Internet show that will deliver a head's up on what's going on each weekend in Charleston and the surrounding area. We're looking to feature local video clips, YouTube-worthy video segments and offbeat animation. Got something to share, show or show off? E-mail us your idea, web address or snippett to Douglas@cnpapers.com and your work may be featured on one of our gazzTV shows. Or call with your video-pitch to 348-3017.

Episode 5 of "Radio Free Charleston"

2006-09-13T10:01:00.000-04:00

Head to the gazzTV listings page to view episode 5 of the musical-variety show "Radio Free Charleston." This one features an archival performance by Kevin Duffer, two songs by the local group Appalachian Celtic Consort, a preview of Saturday's IWA East Coast big-time wrestling match at South Charleston Community Center and the program's usual stew of odd animation, cool sound and trippy visuals.

Later today, we'll also have uploaded a new gazzTV episode of "The Foxy Commander Show," featuring live footage of Hillbilly Deathride and Stone Ka-Tet performing at the Blue Parrot downtown.

2006-07 Arts Calendar Season Guide

2006-09-13T09:56:00.000-04:00

If you've already misplaced your guide to the 2006-07 arts, culture and concert season in Charleston and beyond (the one tucked into the Sept. 3 Sunday Gazette-Mail), or if you never got one in the first place, not to worry. Clink the link below for this comprehensive, day-by-day guide through summer 2007, listing upcoming concerts, stage, museum exhibits, shows and lots more, compiled by Bob Schwarz. It's online here at www.Thegazz.com/artscalendar.

The guide covers season schedules for most of the major area venues, from the Clay Center, Civic Center and Municipal Auditorium and beyond, to season schedules for groups like the Charleston Jazz Series. Light Opera Guild. Community Music Association. FOOTMAD. Kanawha Players. the Symphony, womanSong, the Woody Hawley Concert Series and many more. There are also schedules for the Marshall Artist Series, the WVU Arts Series in Morgantown, Carnegie Hall in Lewisburg and most regional museums within striking distance. PLEASE NOTE: Schedules are subject to change over course of season. Check with a facility or event before making final plans for the farther out shows.If a date does change or an act is substituted, and we've not yet noticed, we welcome readers and venues flagging our attention quickly so we can update the calendar. E-mail us at gazz@wvgazette.com.

Billion-dollar Depp

2006-09-11T13:45:00.001-04:00

If there's any doubt Johnny Depp has legs -- as well as eyes, lips, a rear and whatever else his legions of fans admire -- take a look at these numbers. This past weekend, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" vaulted across the rarified $1 billion in tickets sales. The movie has now taken in $1.003 billion, according to Reuters, lodging it as the third-largest grossing film of all time, after "Titanic" ($1.8 billion) and "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" ($1.1 billion). More.

Maybe a sequel would be a good idea (or would that be a tri-quel?) It's already shooting in L.A., called "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

"We Are Marshall" trailer half-time show

2006-09-06T13:55:00.000-04:00

The trailer for the upcoming feature film "We Are Marshall" will make a rather appropriate debut: on a football field. The movie trailer will be shown at Joan C. Edwards Stadium at halftime of the Thundering Herd’s football home opener with Hofstra in Huntington on Saturday (Sept. 9). Kick-off time is 4:30 p.m. "We are incredibly excited about this," said H. Keith Spears, Marshall's Vice President for Communications, in a press release. "We feel it couldn’t be more appropriate to show the 'We Are Marshall' trailer first, in its entirety, to the Herd faithful."

(NOTE: All of you speed readers on the web, take note. No, they are NOT showing the whole film, just the trailer -- you know, those 3 and 4-minute thingies pumping a film-to-come. Don't barrage us with calls, emails, telegrams and letter bombs about 'when does the movie show?'" and 'how come it was so short?!')

Director McG and producer Basil Iwanyk will be at the game and are scheduled to introduce the preview at halftime. "We Are Marshall," starring Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox (see film shot photo at right), David Strathairn and others, recounts the true story of how the Marshall University football program resurrected itself after one of the worst sports disasters in the history of American sports – the 1970 plane crash that took the lives of 75 people, including nearly the entire Marshall University football team, coaches and staff. The Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures film will be out in theaters Friday, December 22. A premiere in Huntington is being planned prior to the national release.

See, Hear, Write, Design at thegazz.com

2006-09-05T16:40:00.000-04:00

Fairs&Fests Blog: If you saw Quiet Riot, Warrant or Randy Travis on stage at last week's Charleston Sternwheel Regatta, see them again. Local photographer Stephen Ross serves up shots of the performers at our new "Fairs&Fests" blog. Actually, it's the old "Bonnaroo2006" gazzblog, transformed into a one-stop dropbox for photos and news of fairs and festivals inside and out West Virginia. You can still view the fine photos and text by Charlestonians Beth Forester and Pat Dodd from the 2006 Bonnaroo Festival, including Radiohead, Beck, Son Volt, Buddy Guy, My Morning Jacket. Conor Oberst and Death Cab for Cutie.

A cool thousand: Last week, we uploaded to the gazz myspace music site what has to be the only rap ode to the 'Eers in the world: "Blue N Gold" by Morgantown rapper 6'6'240. The song was promptly clicked on for a listen no less than 1,043 times, at last count, fueled by the anticlimactic mismatch between the WVU Mountaineers and the Thundering Herd on Saturday. Add to the numbers by visiting myspace.com/wvgazzmusic.

LocalArt bloggers sought: Gazz is on the prowl for contributors to thegazz.com groupblog Art Attack. We're looking for people to write occasional news and reviews of area art exhibits and take part in discussions on the health (or crippling illnesses) of the arts in West Virginia. Or point out a thousand points of artistic light in Charleston and elsewhere. (We'll actually take seven or eight pinpricks of light.) E-mail gazz@wvgazette with examples of how you'd write about art and the arts.

Design a gazz logo: Got any kind of web design skills? Design a single gazz logo or an animated one and send it to gazz@wvgazette.com and your work may be featured on thegazz.com. Click on the upper left-hand corner of thegazz.com homepage for entry details and past winners.

Revenge of the animals?

2006-09-05T15:27:00.000-04:00

While everyone else had nice things to say in the aftermath of the death by stringray of "Crocodile Hunter: Steve Irwin, author Germaine Greer had a decidely revisionist view of the global star's demise in a scathing article in the London paper The Guardian: "There was not an animal he was not prepared to manhandle. Every creature he brandished at the camera was in distress. The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin." To read on, click here.

Meanwhile, friends and fans are firing back at the feminist icon for her remarks on what she sees as the darker side of Irwin's animal-driven fame.

Iraq War as seen from two different vantage points

2006-09-05T09:31:00.000-04:00

Start your Wednesday night (Sept. 6) this week with a dose of "Control Room," at Taylor Books as part of its Progressive Film Night. Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim examines the role of the media during the war in Iraq by visiting both Al-Jazeera and U.S. Central Command to explore the variations of media reporting and its impact on the public. The free film screens starting 5:30 p.m. in the bookshop's Annex Gallery. For more info on it, see www.noujaimfilms.com. Here's an excerpt from a Chicago Tribune review of the 2004 film:

In wartime the line between information and propaganda can be razor thin. Does showing bombing casualties provide useful perspective to viewers or just inflame emotions? Does that answer change depending on who the victims and audience are?

"Control Room," Arab-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim's documentary about Al Jazeera's coverage of the war in Iraq, is wise enough to raise those questions without pretending to know all the answers. The movie takes us inside the controversial Arab news network, as well as the U.S. military's Central Command offices in Qatar, as coalition forces begin bombing Iraq and an international array of journalists attempt to elicit information from authorities devoted to controlling its flow.

If nothing else, "Control Room" is an eye-opener to anyone whose images of the war have come solely from U.S. news networks. While Americans were seeing sanitized versions of the fighting, with little blood and virtually no U.S. casualties, Arab viewers of Al Jazeera were being shown destroyed homes and bloodied men, women and children.

"We wanted to show that every war has a human cost," an Al Jazeera executive contends. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld counters that the network not only is favoring Saddam Hussein's regime but is rounding up women and children to present as bogus victims.

Rumsfeld's characterization of Al Jazeera is not supported by Noujaim's footage, which portrays a somewhat green news network staffed by people who'd like to create their own CNN, even as their perspective invariably is going to differ from U.S. journalists'. The staffers' views of the U.S. and Saddam certainly are more nuanced than Rumsfeld would suggest.

To read the rest of the review, click here.

Does the blogosphere have any legs?

2006-09-03T09:36:00.000-04:00

Blogging has changed the mediascape forever. Bloggers are undermining the traditional media and stand poised to displace and eventually replace those stodgy dinosaurs of the MSM (mainstream media). Blogging is the future of media discourse. Or so goes the conventional wisdom which rah-rah bloggers and blogevangelists promote. But is it really so? In the single best contrarian article I've seen that puts blogging into its proper and most realistic place, Trevor Butterworth writes in the Financial Times of London:

Is blogging really an information revolution? Is it about to drive the mainstream news media into oblivion? Or is it just another crock of virtual gold -- a meretricious equivalent of all those noisy internet start-ups that were going to build a brave "new economy" a few years ago? Shouldn't we just be a tiny bit sceptical of another information revolution following on so fast from the last one -- especially as this time round no one is even pretending to be getting rich? Isn't the problem of the media right now that we barely have time to read a newspaper, let alone traverse the thoughts of a million bloggers?

Anyone who's a blogophile should read the whole piece. The link is here.

-- Douglas Imbrogno

Can You Hear Me Now...?

2006-08-31T13:36:00.000-04:00

If you had -- and are still having -- trouble busting into the Gazette and thegazz.com websites today, you're not alone, kemosabe. The Charleston Newspapers websites went down this morning, stayed down for several hours and are only now back up within the last hour -- and still running molasses-slow at times. Don't know why, we just work here.

In other breaking gazz news, in our ongoing visionquest to find regular, frequently updated blogs, one gazzblog that's been sitting idle for several weeks, Last Call, has been euthanized. The double-team of writers behind the blog thought they'd have more time to keep it updated, but cried uncle. So we administered a sharp, painless blow to the back of one of our servers and let the blog's electrons move on to their next incarnation. We should have announced first THEN euthanized. But contrary to a blog commentator in a post below, no, we're not Maoist thugs quashing dissent (though we like those funky Mao-y wowie jacket and hats.) It's a question worth a graduate thesis why anonymous commentators always reach for The Worst Possible Explanation for Mainstream Media Decisions. No, former Last Call writers Morgan Kelly and Sarah K. Winn have not been disappeared. Though come to think of it, we haven't seen them ever since the system went down...

P.S. If you have an idea for a gazzblog, or already write a blog you and your mom think is way fine, drop us a line at gazz@wvgazette.com. If your mom is right, we might consider adding it to the gazzblog fold.

Bo Bice takes to the Pineville football field

2006-08-30T14:13:00.000-04:00

"American Idol" Bo Bice -- perhaps living proof that being a runner-up will get you to a football field stage faster than to a Grammy nomination -- will perform in concert on Saturday, September 2, at the Pineville Middle School football field in Pineville, West Virginia as part of the annual Wyoming County Labor Day Celebration. The Huntington area band, SRO, will open the performance at 3 p.m. with the 2005 "Idol" runner-up taking the stage at 5:30 p.m. (Carrie Underwood -- remember her? -- was the '05 winner). Admission is free, lawn chairs are welcome, but please, leave the alcohol, weapons or pets at home -- not permitted, says the announcement.

And if you needed further evidence that some Idolistas don't want to be forever branded by the Mark of the Seacrest, check out Bice's bio, which barely -- just barely -- even mentions "American Idol."

Mountain Stagings: Morgantown roadshow

2006-08-30T13:53:00.000-04:00

Here's who's on deck for the next Mountain Stage, a Sept. 10 road show in Morgantown:

The Roches: The Roches - sisters Maggie,Terre and Suzzy (at right) - began singing together as children. In 1970, they met up with Paul Simon who recruited them to sing on "Here Comes Rhymin' Simon" and helped them land a record deal. The sisters are known for acrobatic harmonies and charming, quirky songs. They have recorded and written music for movies and TV including their own episode of Steven Spielberg's "Tiny Toon's" and the score for "Crossing Delaney."

PF Sloan: - Sloan is probably best remembered for writing "Eve of Destruction," one of the '60s most poignant protest songs, for Barry McGuire. His classic "Where Were You When I Needed You," a hit for the Grassroots, was been recorded by the Bangles, Del Shannon, Jan and Dean and Herman's Hermits. On his first domestic release in 30 years, Sloan penned a new set of tunes and enlisted friends including Lucinda Williams, Buddy Miller, Frank Black and Felix Cavaliere.

Teitur: Hailing from Denmark's Faroe Islands, a small, remote group of islands between Iceland and Scotland, Teitur's debut, titled "Poetry & Airplanes," brings to mind artists like James Taylor and George Harrison. Teitur recently completed a tour with Ben Harper, Abra Moore and Vienna Teng.

Kelly Joe Phelps: Kelly Joe Phelps has become one of the leading proponents of modern acoustic blues. Phelps captures the beauty of rough-hewn country and gospel blues with a whiskey-cured voice, masterful command of the lap steel and a wooden "stomp box." After discs that featured guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Larry Taylor (Canned Heat/Tom Waits) and Billy Conway (Morphine), Phelps released "Tunesmith Retrofit" which showcases his guitarwork as well as his considerable songwriting talent.

Judith Owen: - In the words of fellow singer Julia Fordham: "Imagine the classic writing of a Carole King, add a dash of Annie Lennox flair, wrap it up in a soul as big as Aretha's, add a unique bright and witty bow and you would have a rough picture of the many original and innate gifts of
Judith Owen."

Tobias Froberg: A columnist and writer for Swedish magazines and newspapers, guitarist Tobias Froberg decided to record some of his original songs. Froberg's friend, well-known Scandinavian producer Linus ended up producing and playing various instruments. Released in 2004, the CD "For Elisabeth Wherever She Is" was nominated for "Album of the Year" at the Swedish Indie Grammies.

If You Go:
"Mountain Stage" is Sept. 10, in the WVU Creative Arts Center. Doors 6:45 p.m., the show is 7:30 p.m. Advance Tickets $15. Day of show $20. Available at the CAC Box Office, Mountainlair or Ticketmaster. Or see mountainstage.org.

A trip around Google Earth

2006-08-30T12:47:00.000-04:00

Heard about Google Earth but don't quite get why you keep hearing about it? Here's a slideshow on Slate today that will give you some insight into the wonderful, weird, creepy, touching and powerful views of planet earth in close-up that Google Earth lays out at your fingertips. Click here for the show.

The Unicycle King of Afghanistan

2006-08-30T12:38:00.000-04:00

(Above) Zach Warren performs in Afghanistan in July 2005.

Charleston native and Charleston Catholic High School grad Zach Warren just became the Unicycle King and all for one very good cause. Here's the news from a press release:

FARGO, ND -- At 6:30 am on August 29, 2006, juggling world record holder Zach Warren of Charleston, WV, set two new records on a unicycle: "Fastest Mile on a Unicycle" & "Fastest Mile on a Unicycle, While Juggling Three Objects." The fastest mile was clocked at 3:26.22, with an average speed of 17.45 mph. The fastest mile while juggling was 3:50.63, with an average pace of 15.61 mph... Both records await confirmation from Guinness World Records in London, England.

Warren's records are part of a "World Record for Kids" campaign to help children in war-torn Afghanistan (www.Unicycle4Kids.org). All contributions to his campaign are tax-deductable gifts that support the Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children, a child protection NGO based in Kabul. Warren teaches juggling and unicycling at the circus for 1-3 months each year. His campaign has raised over $13,000 in funds and supplies so far.

Warren is a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School, and holds the Guinness record for "Fastest Marathon while Juggling Three Objects" in 2:58.23. For more information, see: www.AfghanMMCC.org.

Why Fargo, by the way? Says the release: "Fargo/Moorhead was chosen on account of its flatness, on a recommendation from other unicyclists." Zach's a good guy. Support the cause.

-- Douglas Imbrogno

A Message From the GazzLady

2006-08-21T18:06:00.000-04:00

The GazzLady offers this reminder to those making comments in the gazzblogs:

My Dears: We know how much you opinionated lovelies like to offer your powerful thoughts and very important viewpoints in the gazzblogs. Rock on, my little ones! The discussions have often been entertaining and educational. Alas, some of you poor dears have been nasty, foul-mouthed and mean-spirited. Who raised you: barnyard dogs? Were you beaten by a drunken uncle and forced to sleep in cages and fed only stale Twinkies?

The Gazzlady is a patient soul. But if civility is not kept by blog commenters then the freedom to post anonymous comments will be, willy-nilly, ended forsooth! Now, we don't want that, do we? The GazzLady also reserves the right to begin to aim her WMDs at the worst offenders and excise the nastiest comments. So if your spittle-soaked comment is there one day and gone the next, you have had some tough love by me. Yes, yes, we know how FUN it is to make tough guy comments behind the screen of your 'Anonymous' identity. As fun as a drive-by shooting! But please, if you want to come to the party, bring some manners, dear.

Much love,
The GazzLady

FrontPorch open stage and podcast coming at you out of Nitro

2006-08-21T16:09:00.000-04:00

Podcasting offers a niche to hear local music that otherwise might never see the light of broadcast. This week's gazzlogo contest winner, Marshall Patton, is the brother of the host of a regular open mic that occurs the fourth Friday of every month at 7 p.m., in the Kathy Mattea Auditorium at the Nitro Community Center, in the old Nitro High School building. Founded by Dick Patton and Steve Criner in November 2005, "The FrontPorch Showcase" open mic has offered podcasts online of prior shows for several months now. Marshall, our gazzlogo winner, maintains the very capable FrontPorch Showcase website, which is a good example of how a little industriousness on the local level can have the world listening in on you nowadays. Listen up at:
www.Frontporchshowcase.com

The next open mic there is this Friday, Aug. 25, starting 7 p.m.. It's much different from the open mic Ron Sowell runs at Unity in North Charleston the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Sowell's space is intimate and round, a real 'listening room' experience. The Mattea auditorium is a big ol' hall with a very good sound system. For performers, it is a fine place to try out songs in a large hall environment. And the quality sounds makes it a pleasurable experience for listeners. Call 610-1017.

A Smithsonian peek into 19th century West Virginia

2006-08-21T14:37:00.000-04:00

"Boys with a Boat, Ohio River, near Wheeling, West Virginia" by Thomas Anshutz, is a cyanotype circa 1880. It is part of the Smithsonian photo collection now viewable online

The Smithsonian is a notoriously sprawling institution, whose collection of Americana, artwork, crafts, documents and other ephemera related to this messy experiment called the United States is boggling to sort through. But at least a small portion of its historic photographic collection is now viewable (in some cases, purchasable) online. The Smithsonian Photography Initiative offers a peak of the riches at a site that just went live yesterday. It serves up access to 1,800 digital images, the work of 100 photographers, who used 50 different processes, according to a Washington Post story. Gazz searched the site for anything related to West Virginia and found the above blast from the past. Says the story: "The Smithsonian was born at the same moment as photography. Then, the Smithsonian was a very modern institution and quite naturally picked up the new technology," says Merry Foresta, director of the SPI projects.

Fun with "SoaP"

2006-08-15T16:40:00.000-04:00

The cultural phenomenon that is Snakes on a Plane finally hits theaters on Friday. Ever since it was revealed that Samuel L. Jackson took the project based on the title alone (he threatened to walk when they tried to change it), buzz surrounding the movie took off. There are SoaP t-shirts, books, a soundtrack and music video, even a board game.

To celebrate this surefire cult classic, we at the Gazz (as well as at other sites all over the Internet) have come up with our own Snakes on a Plane fun, creating titles for the sequel...

On the loose in Miami: Snakes on Cocaine
Snake suicide bombers: Snakes Die in Vain
A tragi-comic tale: Snakes Laugh Through the Pain
Terror in the frat house: Snakes Drunk on Grain
Loose in the loony bin: Snakes Go Insane
Horrors in higher education: Snakes at Tulane
Mayhem in the schoolyard: Snakes Scare Dick and Jane
An interspecies love triangle: Snakes and a Great Dane
Vegetarian snakes: Snakes Eat Romaine
A plumber's nightmare: Snakes Clog the Drain
Up against the Russian Mafia: Snakes in Ukraine
Shot down over Vietnam: Snakes with McCain
Bush's top-secret back-up plan: Snakes Kill Hussein
New technology in the workplace: Snakes Must Retrain
On the lookout for lobsters: Snakes Go to Maine
Snakes in the midwest: Snakes on the Plain
International vacation: Snakes in Brisbane
The real story of the Nirvana: Snakes and Kurt Cobain
With Kirsten Dunst and Spider-Man: Snakes in the Rain
The new airline security warning: Snakes Will Detain
Die Hard IV: Snakes and John McClane

Of course, not all of the sequels have to rhyme or even have something to do with snakes. The message boards at IMDB abound with suggestions like...
Lemurs on a Winnebago
Badgers on a Hovercraft (This one's from MSNBC)
Porcupines with Rabies
Jellyfish on a Conveyor Belt
Bunnies in a Condo
Marmosets on a Train
and
Snakes on a Plane II: Asps on Air Force One

Think you've got a good one? To steal from Cobra Starship's song for the movie: Snakes on a Plane -- Bring it.

Gazz cover: Aug. 10, 2006

2006-08-09T17:52:00.000-04:00

Here's an advance peek at tomorrow's cover to the print gazz, designed by Brenda Pinnell. Singer Carrie Underwood, who brings her post-'American Idol' success ("Jesus Take the Wheel" et al) to an Aug. 14 State Fair of West Virginia concert, is interviewed by Bill Lynch in the cover piece. Watch for the story also here online tomorrow morning.

'We Are Marshall' featurette now online

2006-08-09T17:29:00.000-04:00

The release date for the Warner Bros. movie "We Are Marshall" has been set for Dec. 22, but you can view a 5-minute "featurette" about the movie right now online. Filmed partly in Huntington, the movie recounts the aftermath of the DC-9 charter plane crash that killed 75 people, including much of the Marshall University football team and staff on Nov. 17, 1970. While some in the town and school wanted to cancel the next year's season if not the program, others wanted to press on. Coach Jack Lengyel is played by Matthew McConaughey (at right above) and assistant coach Red Dawson by Matthew Fox (at left).

Take a look at the movie promo right here.

What do Google, AOL and others have on you? Search me

2006-08-09T14:41:00.000-04:00

You, of course, never use Google or any of the other search engines to explore the darker sides of the web or to seek information to help with your personal problems. Oh, wait, you do?! Then, you should read this eye-opening New York Times article today about AOL's inadvertent leakage onto the web of 20 million web searches by 675,000 people over the course of three months.

An intrepid Times reporter explored all the searches by AOL Searcher No. 4417749 -- and lo and behold, was able to discern by sifting the tea leaves of the searches that they were conducted by one Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old woman in Liburn, Ga. Ms. Arnold, needless to say, was pretty surprised and disturbed to be called by the reporter. What's it all mean? It means, according to the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, there's "a ticking privacy time bomb" in all our searches out there on the web. Read the story here (you'll have to register to read it -- it's free).

Joe Francis, We Hardly Knew Ye....

2006-08-08T11:16:00.000-04:00

Today's Gazette bring news of more troubles at Banana Joe's Island Party bar on Capitol Street, its liquor license in jeopardy because of complaints of serial fights and rowdiness. The story brought to mind another time Banana Joe's was in the news, back when two "Girls Gone Wild" buses drove into Charleston on July 8, 2005 to sponsor an evening at the club, captured in a gazz photo slideshow. Bare breasts ensued inside, as is the "Girls Gone Wild" way, and some women were invited into the buses. That's where supposedly willing, usually very drunk, girls go to be filmed sans clothing, encouraged to fondle self and others for videos. These are the videos that have made founder Joe Francis (above at left) and his Mantra Entertainment Co., so rich he's got his own Gulfstream jet and Mexican estate, where he hangs with the likes of Paris Hilton and Vince Vaughn.

Complaints ensued, the club got spanked in the press and Francis and his buses were invited never to return (though we spotted a "Girls Gone Wild" bus in Huntington a few months afterward). Banana Joe's found religion and vowed never, never to do it again. Now comes a story this Sunday from the LA Times, in which reporter Claire Hoffmann hangs with Francis and writes a fairly damning piece titled "Baby, Give Me a Kiss." Francis proceeds to demonstrate millionaire megalomania, crassness, maybe cruelty and possibly some legally actionable sexual behavior (a charge he seems always to be just dodging) all the while Hoffman tries to figure out exactly what's going on inside the buses and why women do it. It's not a pretty portrait. It comes at a time when the 33-year-old smutmaster has been trying to make himself over into a kind of Myspace-era Hugh Hefner. You'll feel a little dirty after reading the piece -- not the fun kind of dirty.

Gazz cover: Aug. 3, 2006

2006-08-03T15:58:00.000-04:00

Here is today's cover to the print gazz version tucked inside the Charleston Gazette every Thursday. To read the cover story on the Charleston-based No Pants Players improv group (that's a Jeff Pierson photo of the group), click right here.

Taking an 'American Idol' breather

2006-08-01T17:43:00.000-04:00

As we turn our attention to less substantive matters in order to take a breather from news out of the Mideast, our minds turn to the one area where we can find release from the onslaught of lousy worldwide news: yes, 'American Idol.' We are the first to admit that we enjoyed Taylor Hicks' spirit, not to mention his spasmodic dancing on the way to winning the 2006 'Idol' crown (dancing which recalled the famous Stark Raven song written by Ron Sowell, titled 'White Boys Just Can't Dance.')

But, alas, sooner than we expected we are already sick to death of him. It's both his fault and not his fault. It's his fault that he signed on so quickly to those Ford TV commercials (a main 'Idol' advertiser'). He almost instantly put himself into Overexposure Mode, not to mention Sacrificing Any Musical Integrity to Immediately Become a Product Shill mode. But one wonders if he had much of a choice. Contracts that 'Idol' winners and high-profile runners-up must sign with the show's owner, 19 Entertainment, are notoriously heavy-handed and controlling, according to many reports (one of which described them as 'Indentured Idols.') Fantasia just fired her managers at 19 Entertainment, according to a recent Fox News report by Roger Friedman (read below the Mel Gibson item). Clay Aiken did so quickly after exiting the show, as did Kelly Clarkson last March, who says 19's Simon Fuller (not the Simon Cowell who is the show's on-air judge) did nothing for her career. As entertaining as the show can be, it is, after all, moving product.

~ By Douglas Imbrogno

Take Ben Out to the Ballgame

2006-08-01T13:22:00.000-04:00

It has been awhile since we were able to report a Jen-Ben media sighting worth a mention. But Charleston homegirl Jennifer Garner and man-about-baseball Ben Affleck were spotted recently at a Boston Red Sox game, where uber-Sox fan Ben nearly became a playah. TMZ.com has the details in which Ben, Jen at his side, nearly tussled for a foul ball with a Los Angeles Angels first baseman. Check out the video here.

P.S. Scandal! Says one commentator to the post: "The real story is how Ben could let Jen sit on the take-one-for-the-team-side. Home plate was to the Left & you let ur girl sit in the line of fire. Poor Jen."

Gazz cover: July 27, 2006

2006-07-27T12:39:00.000-04:00

Former Shirelles singer Shirley Alston Reeves stares back at you from the print cover of today's flattened-tree version of gazz. Design by Brenda Pinnell. Click here to read that cover story and for more details onthe Ribfest at Laidley Field, where Reeves will sing this Saturday.

'Foxy Commander' meets Larry Keel

2006-07-26T12:06:00.000-04:00

Want to see and be seen online? Then head out to the Sound Factory this Friday (July 28), where alternative bluegrass hotshot Larry Keel and Natural Bridge will perform along with opening act Tanglewood. Thegazz.com video crew will film the evening with the flatpick guitar master and friends for an upoming episode of "The Foxy Commander Show," our gazzTV program featuring live music in local clubs. If the cameras swing your way, you know what to do. (Practice now, mouthing these words: "Hi, Mom.") Tickets are $10 in advance through the Sound Factory website or $12 at the door. The club is at 812 Kanawha Blvd. Call 342-8001.

Gazz cover: Thursday, July 20, 2006

2006-07-25T15:31:00.000-04:00

We neglected to post last Thursday's print gazz cover, designed by graphic artist Brenda Pinnell. Here it is, so all you digital gazz-ites can see what the publication looks like printed on tree squeezings.

I've got this great Ringback tone for you that I got off this mobisode...

2006-07-19T17:14:00.000-04:00

JARGONWATCH: You being a web-savvy, technophile who is nearly omniscient about techno-trends, you may already know these terms: Ringback tones and mobisodes. If not, we offer definitions as they are explained in a story we just linked to off thegazz.com homepage, that will take you to our gazz hosted site at the asap Associated Press site. Ringback tones are what someone calling you would hear instead of a telephone ring. Mobisodes (short video episodes of shows designed to be played on mobile phones).

TO READ THE STORY (which is really about how music publishers make money off music in this era of declining CD sales) click here.

Review: Fragile Works Theater production

2006-07-17T12:28:00.000-04:00

Gazette theater reviewer Bob Schwarz caught up with the debut of a new Charleston theater troupe, Fragile Works Theater, last week. Here's his review, which will appear in this Thursday's print gazz inside the Charleston Gazette. The show continues this weekend and next.

The Gazette doesn't normally review local theater unless an established group, namely Charleston Stage Company, Kanawha Players or Charleston Light Opera Guild, puts it on. But my wife and I stopped by Saturday night to check out "A Piece of My Heart," the Shirley Lauro drama staged by Glenn Frail's new Fragile Works Theater at 820 Virginia Street, inside the Charleston Ballet studios in the Masonic Temple building.

This powerful piece tells the story of six women who served in Vietnam, their idealism and naivete going in, their constant struggle living and working in a war zone, and then the long and painful attempt to find normality when they return home.

Glenn Frail has acted and worked behind stage professionally and does a very effective job with a cast of six women and one man. The man plays numerous soldier and officer roles as they crop up. The experienced and talented Patty Rosebourgh helps pull a cast of experienced and newer talents along.

This is a tough show to watch, but under Frail's direction, it is well worth seeing. It's a trifle long at 2 1/4 hours, for it is just one slice-of-life and one-slice-of-death scene after another (and if we had a few less slices, that would have been OK, too.) But with the U.S. bogged down in two small wars, and our leaders contemplating armed conflict elsewhere, it's prudent for all us noncombatants to acquaint ourselves with the price our soldiers -- and the nurses who fix them up -- have to pay.

"A Piece of My Heart" continues at 8 p.m. July 21, 22, 28 and 29. For tickets, $12.50, call 546-3479 or e-mail fragileworkstheater@yahoo.com.

~ By Bob Schwarz

Gazz cover: July 13, 2006

2006-07-13T13:36:00.000-04:00

The thought came to us a moment ago here at thegazz.com that, given the webbishness of this publication, many of you reading gazz online may call home, for instance, the Welsh town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (Which, of course, you already know means "St. Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave.") Hence, given that you live in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (townsfolk shorten it to Llanfair P.G.), you will never ever get a chance to see the real-world, dead-tree cover of the gazz, which comes out every Thursday tucked inside the Charleston Gazette, here in Charleston, W.Va. Well, here it is our dear readers in Llanfair P.G., or in the town of A, in the Lofoten Islands in the Arctic Circle. This is the way gazz looks when it's printed on flattened trees. Click here to read that cover story.

Wusses all: James Taylor, Taylor Hicks, Rascal Flatts, Coldplay's Chris Martin

2006-07-12T10:16:00.000-04:00

As gazz has featured recent coverage of both James Taylor and '06 'Idol' winner Taylor Hicks, we were interested to find them both making Blender magazine's biggest "wuss" list. In fact, James Taylor earns top-of-the-heap "wuss" honors, says a July 11 USA Today story by Edna Gundersen:

And the loser is ... James Taylor? Sure to raise the ire of Sweet Baby James fans everywhere, Blender magazine has placed the sensitive folk-rocker atop its list of the 25 biggest wusses ever. The roster in the August issue accuses Taylor of initiating "an era of confessional, listen-to-my-troubles singer/songwriters and turn(ing) self-examination into a hallmark of the baby-boom generation."

Who else deserves wedgies? Nick Lachey, at No. 2, for a post-divorce disc that "wallows in so much misery and self-pity it makes Morrissey sound like the Pussycat Dolls."

Next are Dan Fogelberg, Boyz II Men, Peter Cetera, Kenny G, Rascal Flatts, Babyface and Chris Martin of Coldplay. His wussiest moment? "Being derided as 'a bit wimpy' by noted ruffian Charlotte Church." In 10th place is Hilary Duff, "a sex- and drug-free sprite best summed up by the name of her next movie character: Sunshine Goodness."

A round-up of sissy songs includes Taylor Hicks' Do I Make You Proud and You're Beautiful by James Blunt, "this generation's Debby Boone, only not as pretty."

Record or applaud yourself onto a podcast this Friday

2006-07-12T10:15:00.000-04:00

If you've ever wanted to a); have a recording of yourself performing live; b) be a featured performer on a podcast; c) be part of a clapping audience heard online or on a CD, here's what to do. Head to the Open Stage on Friday (July 14) at the Unity building in North Charleston, where all of the above will take place. The monthly open mic at the church at 3102 Blaine Blvd. will be recorded by sound engineer Bob Webb for a future podcast to be broadcast on thegazz.com. Any performers can sign a sheet if they wish their performance to be included on the podcast. Plus, for a $10 fee to cover costs, performers can get a burned CD of their performance from Webb, a few days after the event is over.

Anyone else who performs live could also use their recording as a song on a CD, so the chances could be several for having your cheers (or boos) recorded for posterity. I am going to give this a shot, taking off my gazz.com editor's beret and putting on my performing-songwriter one. I'll be giving it a go at recording a live album cut with musical mate Paul Callicoat, for an upcoming CD. (Or maybe not, if we go down in flames.)

The Open Stage is normally hosted by Mountain Stage host Ron Sowell, who is out of town this week performing. Open Stage regular John Lilly will step in to host instead. It starts 7:30 p.m. (Performers sign up at 7 p.m.)To get to the Unity building, go down Kanawha Boulevard, curve past Patrick Street Plaza and take a left on W.Va. 25, toward Dunbar. Take a left again in front of Suzy's Doughnuts at 29th Street and drive until the road ends at the river. Turn right and two blocks down is the glass-walled church. Admission is $5 adults, seniors and children; $2 performers. Call 965-5256 or 346-9210.

Fly the Friendly Skies with Charleston, WV

2006-07-11T16:43:00.000-04:00

West Virginia usually gets the butt end of the stick in national media coverage. But Charleston receives some glossy, positive coverage in a recent issue of US Airways Magazine (which, if you're flying the friendly skies, you'll find in your seatback, we hear). The multi-page spread includes some nice photos, the usual deserved props to Mountain Stage and to downtown restaurants like Soho's, Blossom Deli, Bridge Road Bistro and Laury's. There's a dramatic double-truck photo of the New River as part of coverage of outdoor things to do, a Greenbrier homage, and a piece on Jay Rockefeller with the unduly hip title of "The Rock."

It's not all smooches and ad-ready copy. A short bit on 'Mining Safety' speaks for mining families who wonder why wireless tracking devices have not been used underground. "There are issues with putting equipment underground that could cause a spark and explosion," says Celeste Monforton, a public health researcher at George Washington University who's helping to investigate the Sago mining disaster. "But if you ask manufacturers, they say they know how to do it."

The whole package makes Charleston and WV seem like a semi-happening place. Read for yourself by clicking here.

Of gazzcams, Eagle Cams, Eye of Banff Cams, and Mountain Pass Cams

2006-07-11T09:51:00.000-04:00

By now, you may have checked out the recently added gazz webcam above the entrance to Taylor Books on Capitol Street. If not, check out this nearly real-time view of downtown Charleston right here. After the new cam went online, Gazz reader Steve Black turned us on to "the Eagle Cam." In September 2005, the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown installed a small video camera about 10 feet above an eagle's nest some 85 feet up a large sycamore tree.The nest is about 4 feet across and 2 feet deep, and weighs a few hundred pounds. The eagles who call this nest their crib spend a lot of time on house repairs. When they're around, take a look over their feathery shoulder as they work on their fixer-upper: click here.

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Steve also suggested some other webcams worth a gander:

EYE OF BANFF WEBCAM: One of his faves, this features a stunning view that shows the Town of Banff set against the Cascade Mountains in Canada, as viewed from way the heck up in a gondola car. Updated every 5 minutes. View it here.

MOUNTAIN PASSES WEBCAMS: Steve notes how nice it would be if the W.Va. Department of Transportation could find the cash to catch up to other states with useful roadway webcams. As an example, here are some webcams focused on mountain passes in the state of Washington-- a very useful idea for travelers in winter wondering about the high mountain passes in West Virginia. First imagine snowy weather, then click here.

Some Radio Free Charleston lovin'

2006-07-10T16:53:00.000-04:00

The launch of the new gazzTV music-variety show, "Radio Free Charleston" last week led to all sorts of interesting commentary at Rudy Panucci's PopCult gazzblog. See the dust-up in the Comments section reacting to the show and the give-and-take over aging hipsters playing instruments they actually know how to play. And the strange exchanges involving commentator ASpiderNamedBobby, who introduces into our gazz blogosphere the visual artistry of Buddhist chanting in a blog comment (even while at one point he seems to be threatening bodily harm. But then he gets back to a peace, love and understanding vibe -- and more chanting).

Meanwhile, Radio Free Charleston (henceforth 'RFC') gets some loving in the Oncee@Blogger blog written by "A network engineer at a mid-sized law firm in Charleston, WV" (photo at right). While we consider whether to be ashamed or not for our actions (see the outraged by "Victorian Funk" correspondence below), we'll take positive feedback wherever we find it. Says the Oncee@Blogger fellow:

"RFC is one of the best video blogs I've seen. The editing is great. It's pure eye candy. Rudy goes a great job. I can't wait to see the next episode."

All you fellow network engineers and other readers, support your mate at this link.

Letter to gazz: Outraged at 'Victorian Funk'

2006-07-10T16:06:00.000-04:00

At least one person really, really didn't like Morgan Kelly's gazz cover story on Thursday, July 13, "VICTORIAN FUNK: A Guide to Slumming it in Wheeling." Actually, having only ever passed quickly through Wheeling, the article made me want to spend more time checking out the city's funkiness and the remainders of its Victorian style. But one reader had quite, quite the opposite reaction:

As a Wheeling native, I have never been so offended. Your article portraying Wheeling is an outrage. You are way out of line. I will stop supporting the Gazette. I also plan to discuss this article with other dignitaries in the State. Your paper should be ashamed.

Mindy Smith
State Director
March of Dimes

--- Douglas Imbrogno, thegazz.com editor

Nick Harrah's got the goods

2006-07-10T15:29:00.000-04:00

Nick Harrah. LocalMusic blogger for thegazz.com, and a producer for thegazz.com's gazzTV program"The Foxy Commander Show," featuring live music in local clubs, is forced to hold up an issue of print gazz or be fired. No, actually, he is saying: "Gazz-- it's good for what ails you." You can read Nick's local music picks every Thursday in the print gazz inside the Charleston Gazette, or all the time online at thegazz.com where his blog goes where local music has never gone before.

This way to gazzopolis

2006-07-10T15:17:00.000-04:00

Effective this very moment, 3:14:32 p.m., July 13, 2006, the former gazznotes blog would like everyone to know that this blog has been rechristened 'gazzopolis: The Latest News From the Land of Gazz." It will be written by gazz staffers and freelancers along with the occasional guest blogger.

Its focus will be on anything having to do with anything that has appeared in the print gazz and the thegazz.com, the multimedia arts & entertainment magazine of the Charleston Gazette. Letters-to-gazz, follow-ups to gazz articles, new developments, more background on gazz writers and contributors, worthy local weblinks, racy pictures of people in office buildings we can see from the gazz offices (wait, no... we don't have any windows, so ditch that). On occasion, we will feature guest bloggers invited to come to gazzopolis for a week and blog on what they see from their post manning (or womaning) the blog levers.

Byrds of a Fiddle

2006-07-06T10:02:00.000-04:00

The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame is right now a Web site, a good idea, and a bunch of donated items to be eventually featured in an eventual building. But the project got a significant new donation that was on view at the Clay Center during the recent FestivALL Charleston: a vintage, ornamented fiddle owned by Sen. Robert C. Byrd.

W.Va. Hall of Fame honcho Michael Lipton, who picked up the fiddle from Byrd's office, said he was "completely stunned" by the donation and the beauty of the instrument. "I assumed it would be one of six or eight that he gives away for these kinds of things," Lipton noted to gazz in an e-mail. "But it's his favorite one and one that he obviously used for years -- from the wear. And the only one that's gone to someone out of the family."

The fiddle has the good senator's name inlayed in pearl on the neck and the Senate seal and "Senate Majority Leader" inlayed on the back. Anyone who wants to give the fiddle a good home -- once the hall of fame can afford one -- can support the effort through www.wvmusichalloffame.com.

To volunteer, become a "Friend of WV Music" or donate memorabilia, call 342-4412 or email info@wvmusichalloffame.com.

Introducing gazzTV and beyond...

2006-07-05T12:14:00.000-04:00

We ink-stained wretches in newspaperland are somewhat bi-polar when it comes to the web. Being ink-stained and for a couple of centuries devoted to words and pictures on flattened trees, it's hard to change horses so quickly. But the web means a newspaper can now also be a TV and radio station online, which is a whole 'nother bat and ball. Here at thegazz.com, we're committed to boldly going where the Charleston Gazette has never gone, content-wise, before (although where is Spock when you need him to tell you whether this is a logical move or not?) Can't wait for Spock, we're moving forward with Captain Kirk-ian ardor. Hence, we introduce GazzTV this week.

Actually, we've been doing TV online -- if defined as video shows served through your computer -- for months now. See our past LocalMusic video programs from area clubs. Now, we're getting official-like, with a look and a logo. Plus, we're serving up a new program, "Radio Free Charleston" (which is not radio, but is free) and reinventing the LocalMusic program as "The Foxy Commander Show." It's first episode will be online at 10 a.m. Thursday (July 6). We'll be rolling out new programs in upcoming months -- both video and podcasts -- as well as a weekly GazzStation videoclip of what's coming out in gazz, both in print and online.

Are you a webwonk who already has your own program or killer podcast, or got an eminently doable idea for one? Let us know. Or better yet, show us some of your video or audio. We might just add you to the GazzStation lineup of programs. And is there anybody out there capable of producing regular animation or line-drawing series? Can be as sophisticated or as crude as "South Park" and, you know, it should be entertaining. You know where to find us.

Click here to go to the GazzStation gazzTV lineup of the moment.

Fired up once again by fireworks

2006-07-03T10:33:00.000-04:00

Last Call co-blogger Sarak K. Winn has had it with fireworks displays. As I am married to a fireworks-aholic, I share some of this exasperation. If it explodes in the sky and it has nice, sparkly colors and most especially big booms, my wife is there.

So, it was with the usual ho-hum, here-we-go-again mindset that I expected to be only mildly diverted as the 'oomph-oomph' of firework canisters began resounding over the Ohio River at Saturday night's Huntington Symphony Orchestra pops concert along the Huntington riverfront. I am a believer again. The company that pulled it off was Pyrotecnico, based in Pennsylvania and it was -- according to Huntington Symphony GM Jacqueline Proctor-- a $6,000 effort that the symphony group anted up. Worth it! By the time the last oomph oomphed, it was like a great drug trip without the hassle of arrest and rehab. They poured fireworks into the sky for at least 5 minutes at the finale, so that it was like being inside a supernova while exploding. Then, multiple booms erupted, bouncing eery echoes off the opposing hills on the Ohio side of the river. City of Charleston, take note. Hire this company. As the display unfolded, the thought came: instead of going to war, countries should take all that firepower and compete with each other on massive fireworks competitions. The best country wins and then you get the other country's women and oil. Or their leaders and their booze.

Fireworks are the utlimate 'you had to be there' experience. So, in lieu of convincing you that you missed a really great show along the Huntington riverfront, here's this. Put your own fireworks show on -- digitally -- via the Interactive Fireworks games at the Phantom Fireworks site.

New Commissioner of Culture and History named

2006-06-28T14:21:00.000-04:00

Here at gazz, for the last several years we've known him as that odd combination of an internationally performing opera singer from, um, Barboursville. But starting July 1, you can call Randell Reid-Smith (at right) "Mr. Commissioner," as Gov. Joe Manchin has appointed him commissioner of the state Division of Culture and History. He replaces Troy O. Body, who left his post as acting commissioner in December, to take a better paying job in his home state of Kentucky.

"Randall Reid-Smith's background, knowledge and enthusiasm should serve the state well as he takes on this important position," intoned the governor in an e-mail press release we received today. For his turn, Reid-Smith says: "I am grateful to Governor Manchin for the trust he has placed in me and am thrilled to be given this opportunity to lead an agency with a mission that I believe in so strongly. As a performing artist myself, I am well aware of the life-affirming power of our arts and culture. It's vital to the state's future that we nurture the artistic and cultural interests of our people, and I look forward to working with the staff at the Division to accomplish its important mission."

Let's hope so. Some folks I know and trust who work in key spots at the Division sounded pretty concerned about its listing, wayward direction in talking about this appointment at FestivALL this past weekend.. At least two of them -- while holding nothing against the man himself -- expressed exasperation and anxiety as to whether the new appointee was the right person to take the division where it needs to go. The honeymoon is on to see if he is.

According to the e-mail announcment, before joining the Division, Reid-Smith served as the director of education and outreach, production manager, and special events coordinator for the Toledo Opera Association in Toledo, Ohio, from 2002-05. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor of music at the University of Michigan School of Music, and enjoyed a long career as an operatic tenor, both in the United States and abroad. He has a bachelor's degree in music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a master's degree in music from the Indiana University School of Music.

Watch for a gazz Q-and-A with the new commissioner soon in gazz.

West Virginia's artistic blessings & curses

2006-06-28T10:10:00.000-04:00

Graphic artist Jeff Pierson, the Individual Artist Coordinator on the Art Staff of the W.Va. Division of Culture and History, could be found scurrying around town last week, putting out copies of the Summer 2006 issue of the ArtWorks publication. If you're an artist, writer, dramatist or eater of culture in W.Va., this pub is required glancing. Here's a tidbit from a feature on state artists who've earned the latest rounds of artist fellowships. These are remarks by Scott Depot painter Susan Petryszak. They nicely sum up the blessings and drawbacks of being a Mountain State-based artist:

JEFF PIERSON: How does living in West Virginia affect your work?
SUSAN PETRYSAK: I am acutely aware of the space around me. This is the inspiration for the paintings. Where I live influences what I paint. The insulating and isolating characteristics of the state allows my hermitic studio work. However, these same characteristics make it difficult for the work to have a broad audience and for me to conduct the business that is associated with being a professional artist. I don't believe there is a perfect place to produce art -- I can make art anywhere. However, some places seem to possess artistic utopian traits more than others. On a fine day out in the field or in my studio, West Virginia captures those ideals.

FestivALL in Pictures and Webcams

2006-06-26T16:13:00.000-04:00

We've loaded up (and are continuing to load up) the gazz.com with a bushel of photos gathered from what looks to be the smash success of FestivALL 2006 this past weekend. Check out what we've put on the site so far in the FestivALL Charleston gazzblog, the DowntownWV photoblog, and the WVPhotoblog which features weekly pictures shot by the Charleston Gazette photostaff.

As editor of an online multimedia magazine, I am pretty much used to digital techno-wizardry. But even I had a gee-whiz moment, sitting in my Barboursville living room at home Saturday morning about 11:10 a.m., an hour west of Charleston. I was wondering whether anyone would come out for FestivALL that morning. The TV weather people had been broadcasting the scariest weather reports -- Massive thunderstorms! Hail! Toads!! (It was a relief to learn they could be just as wrong in the summer as they are in forecasting dire winter snows that never materialize.)

So, I pop open the new Taylor Books gazzcam, which is set pretty close to real-time images of the view in front of the Capitol Street shop. The image above is what greeted me -- the heartening image, I should say. It was jammed like this around the Capitol Street stage and other venues for a lot of Friday and Saturday. Sunday's rainstorm was another matter, yet even then there were some fine highlights that day. More on that in a future post.

Bonnaroo in pix & words

2006-06-21T17:19:00.000-04:00

Photo by Beth Forester

If you have not clicked over to thegazz.com's special edition Bonnaroo 2006 blog, I urge you to do so right now. Bonnaroo ended this past Sunday, but not before Charleston's own Pat Dodd and Beth Forester blogged back to gazz some cool coverage from on the ground at one of America's biggest, most amazing music festivals, along with great photographs. Like this one of Radiohead's Thom Yorke. Check out the blog at this link.

Here Comes the Sandman

2006-06-21T14:23:00.000-04:00

Photo by Douglas Imbrogno

It's called the Wheel of Life, but in Buddhist circles the sand mandala Losang Samten is crafting as we speak in the Clay Center lobby is more commonly called the Wheel of Samsara, a depiction of the cyclical round of rebirth and suffering. The former Buddhist monk had already completed the heart of the wheel yesterday when I snapped the photo above: depicting the three big enchiladas of Buddhist focus. A rooster chasing a pig chasing a snake chasing the rooster -- representing craving/greed, anger/hatred, and ignorance. He'll be at the work the next two weeks, so stop by and see it in progress. Like many Tibetans, he seems a gracious, happy soul. After it's done, the sand mandala will be dismantled and poured in the river, the deconstruction a Buddhist reminder of impermanence. Traditionally, mandala makers offer little vials of the drawing before it is whisked back into nothingness, and the Tibetan fellow, a former Buddhist monk ordained at the Dalai Lama's temple, indicated they would do that here, too.

Painstaking detail, sometimes grain by colored grain, goes into the mandala (at right)

Here's his public schedule while in Charleston:
MANDALA MAKING: He'll work on it at the Clay Center daily from around 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The painting should be completed by July 1. A dismantling ceremony will take place July 2.
PUBLIC TALKS: Samten will appear 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday (June 22) at First Presbyterian Church; at 11 a.m. Sunday, June 25, at the Unity Church in North Charleston; 5 p.m. Sunday, June 25 at the India Center along Corridor G; and 11 a.m., July 2 at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 520 Kanawha Blvd. W.

An Invitation: The 2006 Gazz Gathering & FestivALL Sampler

2006-06-20T15:01:00.000-04:00

COME TO The GAZZ GATHERING and FESTIVALL CHARLESTON KICK-OFF and witness one of the more curious and interesting evenings of performance art in Charleston for awhile, staged on one of the city’s lesser known historic stages, a 500-seat theater downtown.

WHEN: 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday, June 22 on stage at the historic Scottish Rite Temple, 406 Capitol St. (beside the Kinko's/Pressly Ridge Building at corner of Capitol and Washington streets). Admission $10 with free after-party
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6-7 p.m.: Cash bar in the impressive Scottish Rite ballroom
7 p.m.: 10-minute opening comedy act by Dave Stacy, insurance salesman by day, cable channel wanna-be comedian at LA's famed Improv club by night
7:15: Drew the Dramatic Fool's one-man show "Help! Help! I Know This Title is Long, But Somebody's Trying to Kill Me!"
8:30 p.m: Free admission after-party at Vandalia Lounge, 212 Hale St., with ambient jazz by the Bark o’ Loungers
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SUGGESTED ATTIRE: After-work Casual or Hippie Formal
NOTE 1: The gazz.com video crew will film the evening and your smiling face may show up on the videocast of the evening at thegazz.com
NOTE 2: The evening is a fundraiser for FestivALL Charleston. Good cause!
NOTE 3: You are also welcome to come to the cocktail gathering and afterwards to Vandalia. Please pass on to interested compatriots

Drew the Dramatic Fool reinvents an ancient, if bumbling, art practiced by royal jesters, vaudeville eccentrics, silent film comedians, theatrical clowns and imperfect humans everywhere. The Dramatic Fool will perform "Help! Help! I Know This Title is Long, But Somebody's Trying to Kill Me!" in which Drew is the only member of a vaudevillian stage show left alive. In "show-must-go-on" fashion, he tries to avoid the same fate by taking on all the roles of his dearly departed counterparts. He has performed in theaters and festivals across the U.S., including The Arden Theatre at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, The Palace of Variety in Times Square and The NY International Festival Of Clown-Theatre.

The evening begins with a cash bar in the ballroom upstairs, followed by a short comedy act by Dave Stacy in the Temple’s little known and very cool 500-seat theater. A Charleston insurance salesman by day, Stacy was recently filmed as part of the Travel Channel show "This Job's a Trip," in which an average person is thrust into the trials of a completely different job. Stacy was given a five-minute comedy set in February on a sold-out Saturday night at the famed Los Angeles comedy club The Improv. The program will screen later that night on the cable channel.

The Taylor Books gazzcam goes live

2006-06-16T15:50:00.000-04:00

Next time you are downtown Charleston and enter or leave Taylor Books, 226 Capitol St., look up and wave to the new Taylor Books gazzcam. (Then again, if you are escorting your Mafioso brother-in-law for a double espresso after his therapy session downtown, youse guys might wanta look down.) The camera is set pretty close to constant real-time updates, so take a look right now at the scene on the street. (Of course, if it's after dark all you're going to see is, well, darkness, unless street people navigate with flashlights...) And if you are a Charleston business or outfit with an interesting viewscape and interested in your own gazzcam, give us a holler at gazz@wvgazette.com.

Unfortunately, Tom and Kevin's boys can swim...

2006-06-13T13:40:00.000-04:00

Here's the kind of press release we like receiving her at gazz central command. And yes, we are fully cognizant that we are being played like patsies by a gambling site in order to further the extension of their brand of one of the 7 deadly sins. But we're still annoyed by Tom Cruise, and Kevin Federline and Britney are almost as annoying, so we don't mind being used:

STOP HAVING CHILDREN! Tom Cruise and Kevin Federline Voted Most In Need of a Vasectomy for Father's Day

Hollywood has many questionable characters among its elite. Unfortunately, many have recently assumed the role of fatherhood and in the spirit of the quickly approaching Hallmark holiday, online poker site, CDPoker.com, decided to poll just over 5,000 of its players. Executives at CDPoker.com, worried for our future, surveyed their clientele asking the question, "Which celebrity do you think needs a vasectomy the most?"

Responses poured in highly in favor for current fathers Kevin Federline (20%) (at right) and Tom Cruise (19%). The results: Celebrities who need a vasectomy:

Kevin Federline: 20%
Tom Cruise: 19%
Bobby Brown: 14%
George W. Bush: 11%
Michael Jackson: 10%
Charlie Sheen: 8%
Tommy Lee Jones: 6%
Rosie O’Donnell: 5%
Colin Farrell: 4%

Others receiving votes were Kid Rock, Alec Baldwin and Marc Anthony.

"It's obvious that some people just don't have what it takes to be a parent," stated Sean Hawk, executive vice president for CDPoker.com. "Gamblers have good instincts and we hope is that these celebrities name do not continue to procreate or else we fear for the future."

Dramatic Fool Ticket Drawing

2006-06-12T10:07:00.000-04:00

Answer the following question correctly and be entered into a drawing for two tickets to the June 22 Gazz Gathering & FestivALL Sampler, featuring Drew the Dramatic Fool. E-mail and fax entries only to gazz@wvgazette.com or (fax) 348-1233 by 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 7.

Question: Buster Keaton (at right) was a popular American silent film comic actor known for physical comedy. What was his nickname that reflected part of his schtick?

Last week's winner: Doug Minnerly of Charleston. Correct answer: the name of the movie in which Charlie Chaplin was caught in giant grinding gears was "Modern Times."

Where to buy tickets: Buy tickets to the June 22 Gazz Gathering & FestivALL Sampler at Taylor Books, the Clay Center, at the door or by calling 348-3017.

Drew the Dramatic Fool reinvents an ancient, if bumbling, art practiced by royal jesters, vaudeville eccentrics, silent film comedians, theatrical clowns and imperfect humans everywhere. He'll be featured at the Gazz Gathering & FestivALL Sampler, from 6 to 8 p.m. June 22, on the historic Scottish Rite Temple stage at 406 Capitol St.

The Dramatic Fool will perform "Help! Help! I Know This Title is Long, But Somebody's Trying to Kill Me!" in which Drew is the only member of a vaudevillian stage show left alive. In "show-must-go-on" fashion, he tries to avoid the same fate by taking on all the roles of his dearly departed counterparts. He has performed in theaters and festivals across the U.S., including The Arden Theatre at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, The Palace of Variety in Times Square and The NY International Festival Of Clown-Theatre.

The evening begins with a cash bar in the Scottish Rite ballroom, followed by a short comedy act by Dave Stacy. A Charleston insurance salesman by day, Stacy was recently filmed as part of the Travel Channel show "This Job's a Trip," in which an average person is thrust into the trials of a completely different job. Stacy was given a five-minute comedy set in February on a sold-out Saturday night at the famed Los Angeles comedy club The Improv. The program will screen later that night on the cable channel.

I knew there was something funny about why she was smiling all the time

2006-06-05T14:00:00.000-04:00

Katherine, we hardly knew 'ye! Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have supposedly asked "American Idol" runner-up Katharine McPhee to sing at their wedding. McPhee was said to have met the star-powered couple during a visit to the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles. The Magic Morning Show reports that she has been attending classes there with her boyfriend, and goes on to quote someone saying: "Tom and Katie have become Katharine's biggest fans. They think she's destined to become a singing legend." Don't take any antidepressants, if it doesn't work out, though. Tom wouldn't like that.

Keep Your Options Open 6 to 8 p.m., on Thursday, June 22 for One Foolish Night in downtown Charleston

2006-05-30T16:28:00.000-04:00

FestivALL Charleston and the gazz just made a pretty foolish booking.

The citywide arts and cultural event, held June 23 to 25 in venues across Charleston, has added Drew the Dramatic Fool to a growing lineup of performers and events. But the Dramatic Fool will also make a special appearance at a 'Gazz Gathering & FestivALL Sampler,' from 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday, June 22, on the historic Scottish Rite Temple stage at 406 Capitol St.

He'll perform his one-man play, "Help! Help! I Know This Title is Long, But Somebody's Trying to Kill Me!" in which Drew is the only member of a vaudevillian stage show left un-deceased. In true "show-must-go-on" fashion, he tries to avoid the same fate by picking up the slack left by all his dearly departed counterparts. The Dramatic Fool (otherwise known as Drew Richardson) draws from the storied tradition of great clowns, fools and funnymen and women, from Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, to the Three Stooges and Lucille Ball (in her famous candy factory TV episode).

The Gazz/FestivALL evening will begin with a cash bar in the Scottish Rite ballroom, followed by a short opening comedy act by Dave Stacy. A Charleston insurance salesman by day, Stacy was recently filmed as part of the Travel Channel show "This Job's a Trip," in which an average person is thrust into the trials and tribulations of a completely different job. Stacy was given a five-minute comedy set this past February on a sold-out Saturday night at the famed Los Angeles comedy club The Improv, where Drew Carey, Jay Leno, Daman Wayans and manyotre top comedy names perform. The program will screen later that night on the cable channel. Gazz editor Douglas Imbrogno will briefly interview Stacy about an experience Stacy describes as alternately terrifying and exhilarating.

(You may recall that Stacy was featured last year on "Super Size Me" filmmaker Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days" FX cable program, in which he lived for a month in one of the largest and densest Muslim communities in America.)

Tickets to the Gazz Gathering and FestivALL Sampler cost $10 and are available by calling 348-3017 and at the door. There'll be an after-gathering at Vandalia Lounge, 212 Hale St., where audience members can get foolish themselves.

P.S. Last year's pre-Festivall gazz event was also a launch party for the gazz, which was born June 23, 2005. The event featured Charleston native Ann Magnuson, in an offbeat musical performance piece. Take a look at the gazz Snapshow of that event and you'll also get a taste of the funky (good funky) environs of the Scottish Rite building.

'American Idol' Final Show: The Most Surreal TV Since "Lost in Space"?

2006-05-25T13:29:00.000-04:00

Last night's "American Idol" finale was like a drug trip gone south (not that I've ever, um, inhaled, but I've read about it). It starts out fun, gets progressively weird, then you start gobbling up everything because you just can't stop (and you know you're going to feel sick later). Finally, it's over and you feel exhausted and not sure whether it was the best thing for you. But it was kind of interesting in a Life Experience sort of way. Random grabs from the trip:

Meatloaf and Katherine McPhee in a duet?!: Meatloaf appears, backlit, dressed in a black suit, a red hankie clutched in his hand. He looks like a Bizarro World version of Luciano Pavoratti, if Pavoratti had been a rock star on Benzedrine for most his adult life. Meat does great, and McPhee looks great (as usual) and plays along. It's like they're two characters in a twisted Broadway musical. Then, at the end, because she always has to show, 'Hey, it's me, adorable Kat, I'm still your Idol paramour...' she giggles and drops the pose. The entire effect is lost, even as Meatloaf remains in his dissolute sour rockgod mode. This is why McPhee lost the contest. She doesn't have the gravitas of a star, only the looks and pipes. Stars are always characters!

Imitation Clay Aiken Meets Real Clay Aiken: This was actually cool. The scary, skinny kid whose failed, "I have to pee" audition as a Clay Aiken-rip-off spooked Simon Cowell, is invited on to the stage to sing. The backstage parts and -- 'omigod! omigod! omigod!' - the real Clay Aiken appears. It was actually kind of sweet to see this impossibly untalented kid experience what was likely to be the Highlight of His Entire Life, in front of a worldwide TV audience. But the evening weirdness quotient shot up a notch to see Aiken, who appeared with a way hip styled hairdo and dressed in a natty Ratpack suit. You have to recall that Aiken got to the finals a couple years ago based on his boyish "Robert of Sunnybrook Farm," apple-polished cheeks. (Look at him here-- he could be a Mormon Boys Choir soloist). His new incarnation was both dashing and a little creepy. Where's my boy, Clay? The 'Idol' Starmaker Machinery Behind the Popular Song had inhaled him and spit out this simulacrum of Clay. Maybe as strange, in its own way, as imitation Clay across the stage.

Wolfgang Puck Meets Kelly Pickler: In the end, Top 12 finalist Kelly Pickler may find her 'Idol' fame-claim ends up being her calamari cluelessness. Mining the sadism that always lies right beneath the surface of "Idol," (which likes to make fun -- often cruel fun -- of people as much as it likes to make them famous), they pair Pickler with celeb-chef Wolfgang Puck. He tries to get her to eat a rather appetizing looking cooked snail. She turns, spits it into a napkin and puts it on the floor. Then, she freaks as live lobsters are brought to the table. It's fun at first, then it gets sad. They're making fun of her provincialism, which itself is kind of provincial and low. But she really is a provincial hick. Geez, girl, buck it up and just eat the damn snail.

Not so a-Blige-ing: Seeing the Top 12-ers this one final time, I came to realize the person among them who was perhaps the sweetest, realest finalist, one with a heart and voice of gold, was Elliot Yasmin. So it was all the more annoying when he is paired with Mary J. Blige, who proceeds to overemote and over-sing Yasmin's every attempt to get a word in songwise. Blige gets to be a star 24/7, 365. This was supposed to be a duet and even more, Yasmin's last moment in the 'Idol' spotlight. Mary J., like Spinal Tap, your volume control goes to 11. Crank back the ego, you spotlight hog.

Okay, Who Cloned Chris Daughtry?: The weirdness level went up yet again as Chris Daughtry appeared on stage for his duet. He's there with the entire band Live, whose lead singer has a shaved head, attitude, sound and look just like Chris to a spooky degree. They could be the Doublemint twins of alt-rock. Even Ryan Seacrest comments upon it afterwards. Early on, I'd wished Daughtry would win 'Idol' this year -- the show desperately needs a little more edge to one of its winners. But seeing the Doublemint boys was a reminder that nothing much is new under the sun in pop music, especially on 'Idol.' As forceful as Daughtry sang, he was channeling a pose and a look. Look! There's another of me across the stage! Bring on a hip-hop genius next year -- 'Idol' needs some new flavors.

Is Taylor Hicks Real or Is He Memorex?: I like Taylor Hicks. His gravely voice when he does his 'Soul Patrol' vocal lunges is like gargling George Dickel. I love his genuine smile and spirit ("I'm livin' the American dream, America!" he cried into the mic as the confetti rained down on his concluding 'Idol' trot around the bases song). I'd pay up to $40 to see him in concert. I am glad America had the sense to pick him over McPhee. But I harbor doubts. Soul music, real soul, real rhythm and blues, came from the dives, backwaters and dangerous backsides of town. There is soul in his voice, but no real danger. He may be the latest incarnation of serving up black music in easy-to-digest white packaging. This may just be the 'Idol' way. Still, while some have trouble with his quasi-Joe Cocker jerkiness (he toned it down, didn't he, as the finals approached?), the spirit does move in him, some kind of powerful spirit. That's why he won. The spirit was easier to see moving forcefully through him than through the lovely shape of Kat McPhee.

Season Finales, Part 1: 'Lost' 'House,' 'West Wing,'

2006-05-24T12:11:00.000-04:00

The long drought approaches next week as favorite TV addictions disappear and re-runs and summer try-outs kick in. It's enough to make you take up Tae Kwon Do or light bulb collecting, to pass the time until Greg House returns to being an entertaining ass on your TV. Some riffs on how some favorite shows ended up:

"House" -- I Sing the Body Bloatastic: Last night's episode was possibly TV's ickiest prime-time show this season, next to a few of the gorier "CSI" investigation-fests. An eye pops out. (Bleck!). A tongue bloats into grapefruit size. A testicle explodes. Then, House carves the guy up like a pig, to prove he's hallucinating. Which he is. But he has still been shot. Did he ask for ketamine at the end, so his leg could be healed? I love this witty/dyspeptic guy who has become a hit since he's everyone's fantasy of saying every noxious thing they wish they could say. But think about it -- if last night's finale was all hallucination, House had a nice conversation with himself about being such an ass. (Ever hear British-born actor Hugh Laurie's real, very English voice? That's an American English accent he is acing.)

"Lost" -- Stop Writing So Hard!: The writers of "Lost" need to stop drinking so much coffee. The show lost me with its plots turns and character assassinations, both literal and figurative. How can you care for Charlie anymore after his babynapping stunts? Who cares anymore about Michael and his quest for Walt after he gunned down Anna Marie and Hurley's love bunny? I perked up with the arrival of Eko, who soothes me every time he appears. But he may not be enough to keep "Lost" from shark-jumping, entering "Twin Peaks" mondo confusion zone.

"West Wing" -- Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Jed Bartlett: Some critics say the show was wandering as it concluded its 7-year run last week. Still among the best writing and characters on TV, even without show creator Aaron Sorkin. The battle between Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Arnold Vinnick (Alan Alda) was every bit as absorbing as anything that came before on the show. A necessary antidote to the King Bush years, for people who still believe the Constitution was meant to be non-fiction and not fictional. Thank you, Martin Sheen, for role-modeling what a feisty-smart president with principle might look and sound like.

Season Finales, Part 2: 'America Idol, '24,' 'American Inventor'

2006-05-24T01:25:00.000-04:00

More season finales:

"24"-- My God, let the man get some rest!: Jack Bauer is either: a) The kind of guy we really wish W. had sent after Osama; b) A dark, wish-fulfilling fantasy of how we we wish we could kick the ass of everyone who has peed on our American dream of being the coolest kid on the world's block; c) A conservative wet dream of how Homeland Security should be run. d) Captain America, updated. e) All of the above. Jack gets the sheee-iiit kicked out of himself so regularly that there is a weird, S-and-M bottom note (so to speak) to the show. The dialogue is sometimes drawn straight from an overwrought crime novel. It's can also be exhausting to sit through and you may feel like you need a shower afterward as annoying scruples like decency and morality are cast overboard in the battle for the soul of the West. Plus, like "Lost" the "24" writers simply don't hesitate in offing significant characters ("Damn!" you imagine these shows' characters saying, reading that week's script. "They &^%$# killed me off!") "24" ended, though, with a satisfying arrest of the malfeasant President (talk about wet dreams) and a fleeting kiss Jack receives before Chinese ruffians sail him off into the east for another 24 hours of hell. Next Fall, that is.

"American Idol"-- It's not 'McPheever,' just lust: My 11-year-old daughter and her best friend think Katharine McPhee is full of herself. "Stuck up," they say (and 11-year-old girls know stuff like that). Then, there's that cute way she purses her mouth, the adorable,twinkly stewardess way she smiles. (Can't you just see her saying: "Buh-BYE!" as you de-plane?) Still, if I may be impolitic, I'd drink her bathwater. Now that we have full disclosure out of the way, she nailed "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," last night, a notoriously difficult song. (I know, as I've muffed it in performances myself). But both her final song and Taylor Hick's final tunes were shaggy dog, overwrought attempts to bring down the house. Hated the way they modulated to another key, an old Barry Manilow show-stopper technique that only Barry, Emperor of Sap, can pull off. Even a swinging black choir in cobalt-blue robes-- usually a sure bet for roof-raising -- failed to lift the top off the amazing theater where the finals were held. Taylor wins, though, for sheer fun and gravely, bluesy confidence. I am available to commiserate with Katharine upon her loss.

"American Inventor" -- What's that you've got there?: Did anyone else get into the show as I did or was it just me and my 11-year-old watching? This spin-off by Idol's Snidely Whiplash (I mean, Simon Cowell) was often compelling. Even moving, as inventors mortagaged their lives to dreams of inventions. That said, the show's editors committed crimes worthy of felony bathos charges (see charge 2.a). The double set of 2-hour season finales was ludicrous in how it stretched out the exact same footage of the four finalists, their visits home with their mentor judges and how they each used $50,000 to modify their original ideas into prototypes and marketable commodities. Still, it was real people, offering up real creations from their own minds. The judges and voters had to settle on something that would find a very wide marketplace niche. The cool thing about the finale were the consolation prizes -- an internship with toy and bike companies, support from a sports star for one invention. If you see a new breed of bicycle with a removable front handlebar seat, a radically reconceived children's car seat, a game called Word Ace or an odd new chest-piece for learning how to be a wide receiver, this is where it came from.

"American Idol" tours its way to Huntington

2006-05-23T13:09:00.000-04:00

Gazette feature writer Amy Robinson passes on this note to Idol-istas:

Fox's wildly popular "American Idol" is product placement at its finest. There's the Coca-Cola beverage cups, the Ford faux-commercials and the Cingular phone texting. There's also the Pop Tarts-sponsored live tour, which this year will make a pit stop at the Huntington Big Sandy Superstore Arena. The show is scheduled for 7 p.m. Sept. 14.

Adoring fans can plunk down their hard-earned cash for the $49.50 or $63.50 tickets beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday. The tour features this season's top 10 finishers: Paris Bennett, Bucky Covington, Chris Daughtry, Taylor Hicks, Mandisa Hundley, Katharine McPhee, Kellie Pickler, Lisa Tucker, Elliot Yamin and Ace Young. If your favorite is among them, secure your seat, (starting Thursday, May 25), by calling 342-5757, visiting a Ticketmaster location or logging on to www.ticketmaster.com.

Meanwhile, this year's season winds to a close tonight and tomorrow with a sonic shoot-out between Taylor Hicks (above right) and Katherine McPhee. Who's your money on: the white-boy Soul Patrol Hicks, who channels the tics and Tourette's Syndrome-style of Joe Cocker? Or the cheerleader beauty McPhee, who looks like she should be doing make-up commercials, flinging her hair in slo-mo instead of belting out ballads? Taylor's an awful lot of elbow-flinging fun, but it's hard to see him headlining stadiums. We prognosticate a win by McPhee -- for the 1.67 million votes that will be cast her way just for her looks alone, forget the voice. Which is pretty good.

But what are the odds? Sportsbook.com lists Hicks as the 1-2 favorite to be crowned the fifth American Idol. McPhee is down with (strange numbers) 17-10 odds of winning. Hicks, says a Sportsbook press release, "has been praised for his consistent performances throughout the competition. Bettors have taken note, as Hicks as received 22 per cent of wagers at Sportsbook.com since betting opened earlier this season." Hicks is angling to become only the second male American Idol in the program’s five years of existence.

Change that slogan to this one

2006-05-22T12:13:00.000-04:00

Speaking of leaving and coming back to West Virginia (see post below), every time I re-enter the state I grit my teeth once more at Gov. Joe Manchin's transformation of the state slogan on some state highway signs from "Wild and Wonderful" to "Open for Business." This is a slogan more suited to an all-night diner or a brothel, than a cool state that is still finding its way in the digitized world, where it becomes more and more possible to work anywhere and live somewhere habitable and beautiful. Like the Mountain State. I've seen the following line on some West Virginia tourism advertisements, which updates the old one, is more forceful and energetic and is my candidate to bump off the execrable "Open For Business":

"The Wild Side of Wonderful."

Joe knows how to change directions, like his about face and apology to W.Va. Patriots for Peace for signing a U.S. missile "Sending you to Hell from Almost Heaven" while on a governors' visit to Iraq. Humble pie sometimes tastes good!

New York Times turns to West Virginia

2006-05-22T12:07:00.000-04:00

Seen/heard/viewed the multimedia article on West Virginia, titled "For Many West Virginians, Leaving Is First Step Home," at the New York Times website? The piece begins with the two paragraphs below, but it's that third one, what journalistos call the "nut graph," that nails the theme squarely:

For three decades, Donna Briggs has worked at the West Virginia Welcome Center here not far from the Ohio border, eagerly greeting visitors entering her proud state but wistfully watching as much of the traffic flows the opposite way.

Sylvia Ghaznavi, who owns a used-book store, left Pittsburgh two years ago to return home to Buckhannon, W. Va. "People leave because they have to, not because they want to," Ms. Briggs said. "Looking over your shoulder and missing home is something West Virginians know a lot about." ...

For West Virginians, the tension between the economic push to leave and the emotional pull to return plays a central role in the state's cultural identity.

Be sure to listen to the multimedia piece, whose strongest element is the bit by former Morgantown rapper 6-6-240, now living in Atlanta, who raps about being a country boy and looks forward someday to his return here. To scan the whole piece, click here (registration required):

LocalMusic Videocast: Alan Griffith

2006-05-18T14:05:00.000-04:00

GAZZ VIDEOCAST ALERT: May 18 2006. The Local Music vidcasters weigh in with another all local gazz videocast. Click show name or photo to view the program. Send your feedback, constructive criticism, destructive rants (take your medication first) and suggestions for LocalMusic programs to us through a blog comment or click on 'Contact' at the top right of this page.

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Show 5: ALAN GRIFFITH: The LocalMusic video crew stepped out of the rock clubs and into the coffeeshops when they caught a Friday, March 31 performance by Boone County's poetic, gravel-voiced perfomring songwriter Alan Griffith.
SHOWNOTES: Crank up that sound when the interview comes on-- we're still figuring out our new microphones!

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Show 4: SPORES INVADE: The LocalMusic video crew caught up with The Spores on 3.11.06 at The Empty Glassand a strange eve it was . A killer band whose puppets also know how to rock, not to mention sing N.W.A.'s " Straight Outa' Compton." For more on The Spores, check out their hep website.
SHOWNOTES: With the Spores program, we debut a new LocalMusic theme song, a tune by Mudjunkie. And we must admit it: Lies, all lies. We said before we had finally gotten some lights to go with our videocams, and they'd start with our next gazzcast. Not so. This is the last poorly lit show. Let there be light! Pinky promise?

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Show 3: Motley Crue-ing: The LocalMusic videocrew hung out with the crowd waiting to get in to see the raunch'n'roll at Motley Crue's March Civic Center show.
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Show 2: Tarantulas at the Glass: This one features the hip, no bulls!$t rockabilly of the Twistin' Tarantulas, who performed recently at the Empty Glass. A cooler use of an upright bass cannot be found. Plus those are some way-out tattoos around the lead singer's neck.

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Show 1: Sound Factory Threesome: The debut LocalMusic videocast, featuring Fairweather Fan, Ten Carp Lie and Vintage Tone at Charleston's Sound Factory in February. WE shall overcome -- and get a little better with actual lights and microphones -- which were absent from this initial shoot. (And the 2nd one!)

Lassie Lives

2006-05-17T15:46:00.000-04:00

To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald about the rich, journalists are not like you and I. Oh, wait, I'm a journalist. What I mean is, when was the last time someone invited you to interview a dog? A famous one, too. I got the offer in an e-mail today: "...To arrange an interview with Lassie and her pet vet, please contact me via reply e-mail."

I am still mulling it over and what I might ask: "Lassie, did Timmy... well, ever touch you, um, inappropriately?"

I am being offered quality time with Lassie because Lassie is headed Charleston's way. Inevitably, it looks like Lassie has cashed in (or cashed out), according to the publicist's e-mail:

"Lassie, America’s most beloved pet, and her pet vet are coming to Charleston next month, from June 26 - June 28, to promote pet health. Known for her 11 movies and 691 TV episodes, Lassie is one of the most enduring figures in entertainment history. Lassie has 'em-barked' on a new all-natural dog food line, Lassie Natural Way so any pet owner can 'treat' their dog like the celebrity Lassie."

The reason Lassie has re-entered the stadium is the inevitable movie version of the old TV show. "Lassie" is set to open in theaters in September. Of course, the original Lassie trotted off to that kennel in the sky long ago, and hosts of imitation Lassies have stepped into the limelight since. The movie version features a dog whoe real name is Mason, according to a review of the film screened recently at the Tribeca Film Festival. And Mason's "Lassie" needed a stunt dog -- his name was Dakota -- for, like, wells and things, I guess.

Getting funny at the 'Forum'

2006-05-16T13:29:00.000-04:00

It's the small things that make life (and the Internet) bearable. Charleston's Light Opera Guild has an otherwise unremarkable website. But roll your cursor over the page navigation masks at upper left on your way to the "Forum." Nice. Here is Bob Schwarz's review of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," which continues with performances this Friday and Saturday, May 19 and 20, at the Charleston Civic Center Little Theater.

The Beatles, served a la carte

2006-05-15T16:25:00.000-04:00

Gazz PopCult blogger Rudy Panucci recently directed readers to the Beatlegs Podcast, which features a half-hour chunk of rare Beatles music, interviews, and snippets of Beatle-ania every episode. What he could not direct you to is where and how to to buy Beatles songs online. That's because you can't. Of course, you can buy albums from everyone and their sister, but not individual songs, a la iTunes. That's going to change, notes a May 9 story in the Wall Street Journal. The story concerned how Apple Computer, the computer and iPod company, won its lawsuit against Apple Corps., the Beatles' longtime record label, over use of the Apple logo to promote iTunes. The story goes on to note that preparations are afoot to finally sell Beatles song a la carte online:

During the trial, Apple Corps Managing Director Neil Aspinall said he was creating new master copies of the band's original recordings to sell online, a first for the songs, according to Mr. Valner, the record label's lawyer.

Aspinall didn't say when or how the songs can be nabbed. For the benefit of our Russian readers, here is the the first Russan Beatles website we've seen. (We'd like to say 'Enjoy!' in Russian, but this is how our web browser mangles the Cyrillic: Насладитесь!)

Bruce Hornsby & lots more added to FestivALL Mountain Stage

2006-05-11T14:48:00.000-04:00

The Mountain Stage that takes place during FestivALL Charleston is shaping up to be a happening one. The lineup for the 7 p.m., June 25 concert at the Clay Center features jazzy piano popmaster Bruce Hornsby in what's being described as "a special extended solo performance"; the Dirty Dozen Brass Band; the guitar wunderkind virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel and Rhett Miller. In the usual Mountain Stage tradition of a surfeit of riches (or not knowing when to 'stop me booking before I book again!'), other guests are still to be announced

Tickets go on sale Monday (May 15), they cost $25 and all seats are reserved. Take note of this one: they are ONLY available through the Clay Center website or by calling them at 561.3570, and at Taylor Books, 226 Capitol St. For more on FestivALL Charleson, the citywide arts and culture event across West Virginia's capital city from June 23 to 25, see the FestivALL blog and website.

James Taylor Post Mortem

2006-05-09T14:09:00.000-04:00

After all was said and done, my Great James Taylor Ticket Hunt lodged me in the absolute final row of the topmost, second balcony of the Clay Center last night. This is not a place to be for anyone who suffers vertigo, although there seemed to be enough oxygen. Meanwhile, I awarded my wife -- in the interests of matrimonial sucking up and because this was supposed to be our 17th anniversary outing -- the one floor seat I was able to purchase from the wreckage of the Clay Center's Taylor ticket sale meltdown. (I overheard someone say BB&T had territorial rights on much of the front row, where Taylor graciously and rather lengthily bent down to sign autographs, t-shirts and his old album covers).

Still, Taylor's crew and the Clay Center tech squad led by Tom Pasinetti, deserve kudos. The sound of his guitar and voice were crystalline, way out in the orbit of Pluto where I sat. And Gazette staffer Morgan Kelly did a decent job on his review (I assigned it to him, wanting to see how a twenty-something, non-JT fanatic might react to Taylor's thing.) As an almost fifty-something, lifelong JT fan (we were overly represented in the hall's 1,900 seats), I had my own age-specific reactions. One was -- excuse me, fellow fans -- all the exasperating ovations. At his every appearance or jig. At the start of songs ("Oh, my, it's 'Fire and Rain'... no, wait, it's 'Shower the People.'! YEAAAAAAAY, HOOOTTT!!'). The ovations for middling electric guitar solos. The ovations for, well, if he had farted I am sure there would have been an ovation. Maybe a standing one. It interrupted the chance to appreciate the songs in detail.

But in truth, much of the appreciation was not for the particulars of this concert. It was a very, very good show, but not a great, heart-stomping piece of musical theater. It had no great emotional arc, leading to a resounding finish -- the kind of thing Bruce Springsteen is so good at. But it didn't matter. For someone of a certain age, like, say... mine, it is hard to stay in the present moment while listening to James Taylor. Hearing "Fire and Rain," you are experiencing yourself hearing it when you, like James, had more hair on your head. You are, as I was, experiencing the song through a 25-year-old filter of what the song meant way back then. When you were younger, and lost a relationship with a woman named Suzanne, too, and craziness was involved. In short, your attention has left the building, and you are somewhere else.

Which is why my wife, spent a goodly portion of the concert (she reported later) with tears puddling her eyes. It was not, per se, a life-altering concert. But it was -- and this is where the power comes in -- a life-recalling concert. I disagree with Morgan's review on one particular: Taylor's voice did not betray age or his hellion's heroin and coke years. He sang as sweetly as he always does. That voice -- sounding much as it did in the '80s, '70s, '60s -- helped sing many in the audience back into their younger selves. More hair. More dreams. More time. I suppose it'll be the same experience for Eminem fans someday, when he's a crotchedy old fart. He'll be so lucky to still have the intact soul, the verve and spirit, that Taylor displayed, heading toward sixty-something-land himself at the Clay Center Monday night.

'Mission' status report

2006-05-08T12:04:00.000-04:00

Can Ernest Borgnine-hood be far behind? See post below. Salon reports:

"Mission: Impossible" wins and still loses: Despite coming in first at the box office over the weekend, the consensus is that "Mission: Impossible III" had a poor opening, weaker (when adjusted for inflation) than either of the previous two installments of the franchise.

It may just be franchise-fatigue. Or it may be signs of incipient onset TCAS (Tom Cruise Avoidance Syndrome). If that's so, here's what the future could hold.

A Mission Impossible Manifesto: Why is this man still smiling?

2006-05-05T11:29:00.000-04:00

I hereby and in front of the assembled blogosphere announce that I will not be going to see "Mission Impossible 3" because Tom Cruise is just too annoying. It was not always thus. I used to be annoyed by him only because he has only two (three, tops) facial expressions as an actor: Wrinkled Brow Intensity with A Lowered Eyes Variation. And Don't Ya Think I'm Cute or Beddable Winning Smile. (Is there a third? Maybe Sly Frat Boy Smirk.) Still, I'd go to see his movies because he was kinda cute and had a fizzy sweetness like, say, ginger ale. Not a great drink, but a pleasant one -- and the bubbles are fun.

But, no, the whole weird Scientological Borg thing, the constant mosquito bites of blanket media coverage of the TomKat immaculate conception, Tom's refusal to be chastened but in fact emboldened as a crackpot media strumpet, shilling for a crackpot cult. It's long past time to pull the plug. Step back from the popcorn. Not just walk out of the theater, but never enter it when it says 'Cruise' on the marquee. If more of us stand up in objection to being annoyed, if we are able to start a movement that turns Cruise's career into one that more resembles, say Ernest Borgnine's, think of how much better People magazine will be. Join me on the other side of Tom Cruise's fame. The downward slope.

Stephen Colbert Report

2006-05-03T17:00:00.000-04:00

Heard/seen yet the remarkable Stephen Colbert performance at the White House Correspondents' dinner, President Bush almost at his right elbow, that has so many commentators in a tizz? (Here's the full transcript.) The party line, as Salon.com points out today, is now that Colbert wasn't funny. Which somehow is supposed to make less notewothy his in-your-face, bold as hell performance, delivered in character as the Bill O'Reilly-esque commentator on his "Colbert Report" on The Daily Show. The performance wasn't all that funny in the laugh-a-minute sense -- it was, in fact, painfully direct at times. But that is also what makes it so ballsy. Speak truth to power, indeed. Big cajones, this man has. Salon's Scott Rosenberg puts the performance in a longer perspective on his blog today:

Evaluating this event on laugh-meter scores is absurd -- it's just one more way of marginalizing and dismissing what actually happened that night. Just for a moment, Colbert brought a heavily sheltered President Bush face to face with the outrage and revulsion that large swathes of the American public feel for him and what he has done to our country. He did so at an event in which a certain level of jovial kidding is sanctioned, but he stepped far beyond. His caricature of a right-wing media toady relied on irony, and irony rarely elicits belly laughs, but at its best, it provokes doubt and incites questions. The ultimate goal of Colbert's routine was not to make you laugh but to make you think; it aimed not to tickle but to puncture.

In that sense, those observers who have criticized Colbert for being rude to the president are absolutely right... the performance was a deliberate act of lese majeste. That means it was meant to pop the balloon of protective ritual around Bush and let reality in, so we can see him -- along with those in the press who have been complicit with him -- for what he is.

Inside the Beltway, humor is supposed to be disarming, "humanizing." Ever since Richard Nixon appeared on "Laugh-in" and said "Sock it to me!," suggesting that he was not quite the conservative gorgon that he seemed to be, politicians have wanted to use comedy as a prop in their own campaigns of self-promotion. But that's a late-20th-century degradation of comedy. There's an older tradition -- stretching back to the commedia dell'arte and beyond, into the medieval court and its "all-licensed" fools -- in which the comic seeks the discomfiture of the powerful.

If you're not a Salon subscriber, you can get a day-pass to read the rest of this, by sitting through an ad. It's the American way.

George Lucas: The Early Years

2006-05-03T10:27:00.000-04:00

If you're a science fiction film fan, check out one of the more curious sci-fi flicks ever released and one of George Lucas's first dips in feature filmmaking. The W.Va. Division of Culture & History continues its monthly film series with a screening of Lucas's 1971 film "THX 1138" (88 min, starring Robert Duvall and Donald Pleasance) on Saturday, May 6 at both 1 and 4 p.m. It's free, too. See the entire free film schedule here or call for more information to by 558-0162.

Lucas adapted the movie from a short film he shot in university. It's set in a futuristic society located beneath the surface of the Earth (though don't expect Lucas's later fancy special effects -- this minimalist film is like a film shot inside an egg). The society has outlawed sex, with drugs used to control the people. THX 1138 (Duvall) stops taking the drugs and gets LUH 3417 (Maggie McOmie) pregnant. They are both thrown in jail where they meet SEN 5241 (Pleasance) and start to plan their escape. The film is an intriguing look at a filmmaker just beginning to work out his ideas (and who'd go on to rock the culture with "Star Wars" films, "American Graffiti" and "Indiana Jones" among others).

Auctioning off James Taylor

2006-04-27T12:25:00.000-04:00

Had I thought about it, I could have dispensed with the frazzle and ferment of trying to mount the Clay Center ramparts for James Taylor tickets and just waited until some culture vultures began scalping them on eBay. Right now, there are no less than 9 tickets to the May 8 Taylor show at the Clay Center up for eBay auction. At, of course, ballooning prices. Several sets of the $66 balcony seats are yours for $179, at this moment. Meanwhile, a cherished front-row seat was available for a mere $325, with about 2 hours left on auction, several minutes ago. (Is this really what Adam Smith had in mind?) To enter the Taylor ticket e-marketplace, rob a small undefended liquor store and click here. To see what lessons the Clay Center has learned (like, take the Reading stright to www.tickets.com, next time) click here to read my interview with Clay Center folk about what went down. Like, their servers.

No, alas. No Neil Young

2006-04-26T11:48:00.000-04:00

If you read Jeff Hanson's review in the Monday Gazette, a write-up of Sunday's "Mountain Stage" Clay Center show featuring Martina McBride, you quickly came upon this paragraph:

Sunday night's Mountain Stage at the Clay Center underscored the show's evolution from a local phenomenon that featured regional musicians to a polished worldwide entity with gigantic names. Headliner Martina McBride and future guest Neil Young are just two feathers in a cap grown heavy with plumage.

To which we have to say: no, no, no. Indeed, the show has great plumage, but, no, Neil Young is not in Mountain Stage's future. Jeff had a double-synapse breakdown on deadline, thinking of the forthcoming James Taylor concert, transposing Neil Young for James, then inserting said show into the upcoming Mountain Stage lineup. (Jeff gets his spanking here; in his defense, he lost a dear family member a week ago and has been frazzled and fried.)

But, um, if the Clay Center can get Taylor, can someone get Young? He's making headlines with his forthcoming CD, "Living With War," which harkens back to CSN&Y days of protest folk and features the rather straight-with-no-chaser song "Impeach the President." As this story from the English paper The Independent notes, the CD has buzz going for it on both ends of the Atlantic:

It started as a rumour - gossip shared by fans on internet chat sites. Could it true, they asked? Could Neil Young, a cultural lodestone for a generation of country rock fans, really be turning his attention to President George Bush and the war in Iraq? Now Young himself has confirmed it. Not only has he recorded an entire album about the conflict, but in one of the songs he spells out who he thinks is to blame for the ongoing chaos and violence and what the consequences for that person should be. That track is called "Impeach the President".

Let's hope Young doesn't have cause to rewrite "Ohio" after all is said and done, since the meter works out just as well: Tin soldiers and Dubya coming...

Gazz critic also writes the music

2006-04-25T17:33:00.000-04:00

Gazz contributor and classical music critic David Williams is one of West Virginia's most accomplished composers who's not dead. His not-dead-yet creativity continues apace this weekend. The Appalachian Children's Chorus decided to celebrate its 15th season by sponsoring a poetry contest for young writers and then commissioning David to set the winning entries for the combined forces of the chorus and the West Virginia Youth Symphony. The composition, "Appalachian Muse," receives its premier performance Saturday night at 7 p.m. at the Clay Center. The piece has three movements: "Beauty Comes and Goes," a lyrical setting of a poem by contest winners Charlene Prather and Shannon Vandall of Greenbrier County; "The Seasons of the Farmer," a humorous piece based on an old West Virginia folk song; and "West Virginia", a fantasia on a poem by contest winner Leigh White of Spanishburg. Selina Midkiff is the chorus' conductor and Robert Turizianni conducts the Youth Orchestra.

Recent Links We Liked

2006-04-24T16:45:00.000-04:00

Finally decided to become evil? Had it with the hassle of trying to be decent and good? Here are some pointers for succumbing to your inner megalomaniac, a step-by-step guide to joining the forces of darkness. LINK: Right here

Ruper Murdoch recently paid a half-billion dollars (let's run the actual zeros: $500,000,000) to buy Myspace.com, surely the ugliest-looking, runaway web success ever. After the dot-com meltdown, the web is baaa-aaaack. Or is it? New York Magazine editor Kurt Andersen, who went down with Inside.com during the dot.com debacle (when, as Anderson notes, "millions of dollars of market value vanished in 24 months") wonders if the web's promise is a bi-polar disease. LINK: Right here

Does The Boss have writer's block? Jody Rosen at Slate takes a listen to Bruce Springsteen's new release, "The Seeger Sessions," a collection of folk standards associated with Pete Seeger. Has he been doggy paddling since "Nebraska" and "Tunnel of Love," she wonders? Least he still knows how to cover songs in "Springsteenesque" fashion, "inflating them to gargantuan size and belting them out until the veins in his neck bulge as thick as cable rope." And we're talking "Old Dan Tucker," "Erie Canal" and "We Shall Overcome" here. (Young writers, take note: this is how to write a hip review.) LINK: Right here

-- douglas imbrogno

Dubya and Don Knotts

2006-04-24T16:28:00.000-04:00

I don't mean to pile on -- oh, wait yes, I do -- but after the current administration gets swept into history's dustbin, the sum total of satiric art it will have inspired will fill a wing, if not a database, of the Smithsonian. Piling-on-wise, Gazz's Popcultist links today to one of the latest yields, inspired by the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour." But, if you haven't viewed it yet, West Virginia's recently departed homeboy Don Knotts has gained a mini-retrospective of his filmwork in the pretty dead-on www.dubyamovie.com. Which, in the depths of one's darkest hours, can seem more like a documentary.