Here’s looking forward to this weekend.
Here’s a new Friday feature that I’ll call "Nuts to that! Three things that made this week in the arts not that great."
1. On Wednesday, I biked to the Rotunda in the absurd April heat to catch Peter Traub‘s latest sound installation, "Not to Scale." The fourth work in Traub’s dissertation series was supposed to connect three pieces of university architecture: Old Cabell Hall, Newcomb Hall’s main lounge, and the Rotunda’s Dome Room. Each room’s architecture, as far as I understood, was to come together to create an amazing feedback loop. Only, the installation was beset by problems with the wireless technology that connected the three rooms. Another appointment kept me from waiting until it worked. Nuts to that! (Read about Traub’s "Solera.")
Sample some of Traub’s excellent work here.
2. The second bummer took place at the ongoing Calder Conference. I showed up about five minutes late to the Bayly, where Calder’s grandson was activating one of the artist’s amazing mobiles, “Big Sphere and Small Sphere.” Only, the museum was packed, and I couldn’t see a thing. Nuts to that! Alas, even a blogger couldn’t stay mad for long—everything that happened after that slight snafu was awesome, especially the series of films that showed in Campbell Hall Thursday evening.
Jean Painlevé’s 1928 surrealist documentary about squid that showed as part of the Capturing Movement series at UVA Thursday.
3. The biggest disappointment of all? I thought I had lined up an interview with Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips in advance of their show at the Charlottesville Pavilion on April 15. The interview would have married my personal desire to hang with Wayne, as I call him, even if only by phone, with my professional desire to produce content that makes people excited to pick up C-VILLE Weekly every Tuesday. Through some course of events that have yet to be explained to me, all I got were phone calls from my mom and grandmother, checking in to see how my big interview went. Nuts to that!
No grudges. The Lips show will be great. So check back on this site next week for a chance to win free tickets to that show, as well as the Ben Harper show.
