Tag Archives: music

Patti Smith at the Archives of American Art

Tomorrow night there’s a very exciting fundraising event for the Archives of American Art. Patti Smith will be performing new material inspired by materials in the archives, as well as some of her previous work.

An innovative and electric performer, Smith is best known for her early influence in the punk movement. Her artwork was first exhibited at Gotham Book Mart in 1973, and she has been associated with the Robert Miller Gallery since 1978. “Strange Messenger,” a retrospective of 300 works, made its debut at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and has been exhibited worldwide, most notably at the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia; Haus der Kunst, Munich; and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Her books include “Witt,” “Babel,” “Woolgathering,” “The Coral Sea” and “Auguries of Innocence.” In 2005, she received the Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the highest grade awarded by the French Republic to eminent artists and writers who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts throughout the world. In March 2007, Smith was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Tickets are $50 for general admission and $40 for Archives’ members. For tickets and information, contact the Archives at (202) 633-8768 or visit the Archives’ Web site at www.aaa.si.edu.

[read the entire press release]

There’s an official SonyBMG website at PattiSmith.net is her official site and she’s also got a myspace presence. We got to chat at a conference last year, but the only times I’ve seen her perform have been at rallies, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow night.

Husband's childhood friend makes, uh, good

One of Husband’s old friends has a band that performs live covers. They don’t just perform live covers, they perform them while listening to the originals and playing along (instead of, presumably, listening to each other). Sometimes they play along to the video. Husband showed me some of their videos of [tag]YouTube[/tag] last night. I laughed so hard at their performance of [tag]Journey[/tag]’s “Anyway You Want It” that I got the hiccups.

I give you…[tag]The Legion of Rockstars[/tag]:


(I embedded a new video because the one originally embedded in this post is no longer available as of january 26,2009)

I haven’t watched all of their videos, but their performance of [tag]Van Halen[/tag]’s “Jump” is also very, very funny. Maybe even funnier than Journey. Stick with it to the guitar and keyboard “solos” at the end. That’s quality.

I met my match

Godspell broke me. Within minutes. Not only had I apparently repressed the entire story but I’d also completely repressed just how bad the movie is. Even with judicious fastforwarding I believe I was only able to watch a total of 10 minutes before stuffing it back into the netflix envelope while uttering exorcism-worthy invocations.

Thanks to a reminder from the Bunny, I remembered to watch Threshold, which I didn’t think was too bad. I do hold it responsible for the incredibly vivid dreams I had of remarkably fastmoving, sword-wielding babies chasing me.

I don’t understand why TV critics are giving ABC’s Lost sole credit for spawning the spate of sci-fi shows this season. Lost may have provided evidence the shows are still viable, but I think the X-Files deserves a at least a small nod for proving marketability in the government conspiracy, alien-invasion, blue lighting and fog genre.

Godspell’s badness at least compelled me to turn off the TV and pick back up Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The Bunny has wisely counselled me not to attempt a trip to the 9:30 Club on a Friday night while on crutches. (Have I mentioned the crutches a hundred times yet? I sprained my ankle – doing laundry. Seriously.) Consequently, Husband took his AstroKnotics bandmate to see Southern Culture on the Skids in my place. While I sat home.

*deep pathetic sigh*

OK, yeah, so it was my idea to stay home, but that’s not the point…