Wednesday, October 16, 2019

OPENING NIGHT! Poe's Garden of Mystery at Summit Artspace



Summit Artspace on East Market is channeling Edgar Allan Poe to bring mystery and Gothic fascination to a juried art exhibit and writing competition, Poe’s Garden, that will showcase local creatives and their love for the unearthly.
Poe’s Garden opens with a free reception with the visual artists and writers on Friday, Oct. 18, 5-8 p.m., in the main gallery at Summit Artspace on East Market, 140 East Market St., Akron. Winners of both the visual arts and the literary competitions will be announced at 7 p.m. There will be readings of the winning poetry and short stories after the announcement.

POE'S GARDEN WINNERS TO BE PUBLISHED

The first-place artwork will be featured in the November issue of The Devil Strip, an Akron communications hub in print and online that connects neighborhoods and serves as a cultural guide to understanding the city and a springboard for contributing to civic life. The winner of the literary competition will be featured in The Devil Strip’s online edition.
The visual arts show, which runs until Nov. 9 in the main gallery, is free and open to the public. It will feature 45 pieces by 33 local artists.

Date And Time



Divergent Sounds: Roots Rock/Americana Meets the Symphony


The Canton Symphony Orchestra presents an evening of “Divergent Sounds” on Thursday, October 24th in Foundation Hall at the Zimmermann Symphony Center, featuring Canton natives Yankee Bravo. Yankee Bravo combines Roots Rock influenced music with Americana style blues. This groundbreaking new series has been a huge hit with fans of not only the orchestra and guest bands, but people interested in live, local music in Northeast Ohio. This concert series is presented in collaboration with 91.3 The Summit and with the generous support of Mark & Beverly Belgya.

Founding members include Benjamin Payne (vocals, acoustic guitar & Guitjo) and Robert Austin (vocals & Mandolin) are often joined by longtime bandmate Brandon Covey (upright bass) as well as Tim Longfellow (piano, organ & accordion), Mark Shengle (pedal steel guitar) and Nick Brewer (drums). Their music is honest, entertaining, and reminiscent of The Avett Brothers and The Lumineers.  

All members of Yankee Bravo aid in the Band’s artistic direction; “Everybody in the band writes…Everyone contributes” writes Austin, the lead vocalist. No stranger to combining different musical genres, Yankee Bravo also incorporates folksy hymns and Roots rock influences in their performances.

For this performance, the band will be joined by Koko Watanabe (violin), Laura Keunnen-Poper (viola), Paul Miahky (cello), and Justin Kohan (trumpet). All four instrumentalists are members of the Canton Symphony Orchestra.

Our Divergent Sounds Series runs from September through May and is an annual concert series. This concert “Roots Rock/Americana” is on October 24thand features Akron group Yankee Bravo. Our Next Divergent Sounds concert features The Diamond Kites on November 14th, 2019 at 7:30 pm.

Tickets for the Canton Symphony Orchestra concert on October 24th, 2019 are $15 and are available online at www.cantonsymphony.org, by phone at 330-452-2094 or in person at the Canton Symphony Orchestra Box Office in the Zimmermann Symphony Center at 2331 17th Street NW in Canton weekdays 9am-5pm.

Founded in 1937, the Canton Symphony Orchestra is a fully professional ensemble and organization dedicated to performing concerts that enrich, educate and entertain residents of Stark County and beyond. The orchestra performs classical, holiday, and a variety of educational programs in Umstattd Performing Arts Hall, 2323 17th Street NW, Canton, Ohio, as well as other venues in Stark County. For more information, please visit www.cantonsymphony.org or call (330)452-2094. Administrative offices are located at the Zimmermann Symphony Center 2331 17th Street NW, Canton OH 44708

MOONLIGHT SONATA: DEAFNESS IN THREE MOVEMENTS - Showing At Nightlight



90 mins | Rated TBC | Documentary
Directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky
MOONLIGHT SONATA: DEAFNESS IN THREE MOVEMENTS IS A COMING-OF-AGE STORY ABOUT A BOY GROWING UP, HIS GRANDFATHER GROWING OLD, AND LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN, WHO CRAFTED HIS “MOONLIGHT SONATA” AS HE WAS GOING DEAF.

Director Irene Taylor Brodsky once again turns the camera on her deaf parents and, now, her 11-year-old deaf son Jonas, who has cochlear implants and is discovering a profound world of hearing—and music. As Jonas learns the first movement of Beethoven’s iconic sonata on the piano, his grandparents, deaf for nearly 80 years, watch with deepening awe what time and technology have bestowed their grandson. But when Jonas struggles with the sound of his mistakes, Beethoven’s own musical journey comes to life in an animated world of watercolor and haunting soundscapes. As the great composer loses the sense that brought him so much music and fame, Jonas’s grandfather Paul loses his grasp on his mind.

Their lives weave a sonata over three centuries, about all we can discover once we push beyond what has been lost.

TO SEE A FULL LIST OF ALL THE MOVIES SHOWING THIS WEEK AT NIGHTLIGHT
 CLICK HERE

Watch The Vindys record live at Westside Bowl Saturday

When popular Youngstown band The Vindys play Westside Bowl on Saturday, Oct. 19, they will commemorate the occasion by recording a live CD/DVD.



Tickets are $10 at Westside Bowl.

Cinematheque 10/16-20: Eighth Grade, Blue Velvet, Rip Torn in Payday & more!

The late Rip Torn tears up the screen as dissipated country singer in neglected 1973 music-movie classic PAYDAY

The late renegade thespian Rip Torn gives perhaps his greatest screen performance in PAYDAY, an authentically raw, rarely revived music-movie classic. Torn plays a low-wattage country-western star (and all-around brash bastard) who recklessly overindulges in drink, drugs, and dames while touring the rural South in a big Cadillac. Torn even does his own singing. The NY Times calls Daryl Duke's 1973 film "a brilliant, nasty little chrome-plated razor blade of a movie" and "a ‘road picture’ that  is not, for once, a sentimental odyssey, but rather a clear-eyed study of people whose lives are linked to the road, how they behave and what becomes of them." See it in 35mm on Saturday at 6:35 pm. Special admission is $12; members, CIA & CSU I.D. holders, and those age 25 & under $9. No passes, twofers, or radio winners will be honored or accepted. This screening is presented with generous support from Nick Amster. Here's the trailer.



Cleveland-shot film version of NATIVE SON receives Cleveland theatrical premiere


Set in contemporary Chicago but largely shot in Cleveland last year, NATIVE SON is the film directorial debut of celebrated visual artist Rashid Johnson. It is an adaptation of Richard Wright’s seminal 1940 novel about the black experience in America. Ashton Sanders (Moonlight) plays Bigger Thomas, a young African American man from the inner city who takes a job as live-in chauffeur for a wealthy white businessman. Bigger experiences a seductive new world of money and power and enters into a precarious relationship with his boss’s daughter (Margaret Qualley of Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood). Johnson’s movie resonates with his visual art, including sculptural works like Shea Wall (1970/2017), shown in the Museum of Contemporary Art (moCa) Cleveland's 2017 exhibition, A Poet*hical Wager. KiKi Layne (If Beale Street Could Talk) co-stars in the film, and the screenplay is by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. Native Sonreceives its Cleveland theatrical premiere this Wednesday, October 16, at 7:00 pm. Admission is free, but tickets are required and donations will be accepted (suggested donation $10-$7). The screening is courtesy of HBO (special thanks to Chad Martinez) and is co-presented by moCa Cleveland (special thanks to Megan Lykins Reich). moCa's Gund Curatorial Fellow, La Tanya Autry, will lead an audience discussion after the screening. If screening is sold out, we will form a rush line in case of unclaimed seats. Ticket holders must be seated by 6:50 pm to guarantee their seat. Here's the trailer.

For a complete listing of all the films you can catch this week CLICK HERE

Monday, October 14, 2019

The Steel Wheels - release of the 7th album, Over the Trees

GAR Logo Final

October 17th- The Steel Wheels- “Few groups have come as far in such a short period of time as The Steel Wheels…” – NPR’s Mountain Stage




Virginia-based acoustic roots music collective The Steel Wheels have announced the July 12th release of their 7th full-length album, Over The Trees. Recorded in Maine with producer Sam Kassirer, Over The Trees draws attention to the impeccable harmonies of the four original members: Trent Wagler (guitar/banjo), Eric Brubaker (fiddle), Brian Dickel (bass), and Jay Lapp (guitars/mandolin). Kevin Garcia, who plays multiple percussion instruments, keyboard, and mallet-based instruments, formally joined the band after the 2017 release of Wild as We Came Here, which Kassirer also produced. In addition to familiar-to-fans harmonies, The Steel Wheels ventured a little farther out of their known comfort zone for Over The Trees. “This is a bit of an experimental record at times, with new sounds and influences,” Wagler says. “We know where we come from. We are a string band from Virginia, but we are evolving with this album, and we are embracing the future.”
Over The Trees opens with the percussion-heavy groove of “Rains Come,” a rehashing of the classic tale of Noah and his ark in relation to today’s contingency of climate change deniers. “If there are real dangers ahead in our planet’s hope for survival, why isn’t it all any of us are talking about?” asks Wagler, the song’s primary writer. “It’s overwhelming, that’s why. I don’t like admitting that I get stuck right there, but this song offers some of those questions.” A little deeper into the record, the swampy chant of “Something New” ushers in a recurring theme on Over The Trees; mantra and meditation. “Get To Work” is another tune that falls under the theme. Wagler muses, “I know that ‘Get To Work’ is self-talk for when I’m feeling down, when I’m feeling overwhelmed, or when I’m feeling like, ‘Ugh, what do we do this for?’” Certainly though, not all the songs on Over The Trees fall so neatly under that umbrella. “Time To Rest,” co-written by Wagler and southern songstress Sarah Siskind, reflects on the weight of letting down friends or loved ones in a lilting feel that Wagler calls “an implied Levon Helm swing.” The album closes with “This Year,” a wistful a cappella ode to keeping an optimistic spirit, even down to showing gratitude for the cat who is waiting for you when you finally get home.

On the whole, Over The Trees is a collection of songs about surviving tragedy. “At times our human response is muted and resigned, at other times triumphant and steadfast,” notes The Steel Wheels’ fiddle master Eric Brubaker, who’s outlook on the album changed significantly when he lost his 10 year old daughter to a sudden illness earlier this year. “Over the Trees is an ode to the community that rises up to support those in need, and is dedicated to the memory of Norah Brubaker.”
We are so excited and honored to welcome back our boys, The Steel Wheels for the release of the 7th album, Over the Trees. For anyone who is a part of the Steel Wheels family, you know the magic they bring to the stage!
General Admission
Doors open at 7:30/Music at 8
Pre-Sale $28/Day of show $32
Purchase tickets on Eventbrite

Make a Visit to the Akron Art Museum the Best Part of Your Day

Live Creative Studio header graphic
Suzanne Treister, Fictional Videogame Still/Q. Would you recognize a Virtual Paradise?, 1992, photograph (from original work on screen of original Amiga computer), Courtesy of the artist, P.P.O.W., New York and Annely Juda Fine Art, London

Make a Visit to the Akron Art Museum the Best Part of Your Day

“I wasn’t seduced as such by video games or computers but I felt I had to deal with them as they were not going to go away. I had been however, since childhood, seduced by science fiction, from the British TV series ‘Doctor Who’, ‘The Tomorrow People’, ‘Adam Adamant Lives’, to the writing of George Orwell, H. G. Wells and J. G. Ballard."—Suzanne Treister, Open World artist
Every week, the Akron Art Museum shares a menu of art experiences you can choose from. This week, find out about The Distance of the Moon at Coffee with a Curator, and join us this Saturday, October 19 for the Launch Party of Open World: Video Games & Contemporary Art. Select from art adventures curated by the museum, or design your own museum experience. It’s a way to include art in your everyday life. It’s a way to live a more creative life. It’s #AAMEveryday.  Find out more.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

FRANKENSTEIN opens tomorrow at Ohio Shakespeare Festival



We open (the coffin) tomorrow night.


Introducing two more Ohio Shakes spectacular original scripts: FRANKENSTEIN and  DRACULA

Frankenstein
October 11, 19, 25
Dracula
October 12, 18, 26


Both based on the classic horror novels, brought to frightening life on alternating nights.

Tickets only $20, students $15.

THE WEEKEND: Sammy Figueroa Latin Jazz Explosion, Dominick Farinacci and more...... 

Tonight (Thursday), we've got NE Ohio's most popular bluegrass group, Paul Kovac's Big 'Grass Band.  Paul's bringing a full sextet with some of the best  musicians in the region.
ImageOn Friday, "Don't Miss" a special concert with Sammy Figueroa's Latin Jazz Explosion.  This group is super hot and is on a rare tour in the Midwest.  Sammy is the leading conga player in the world of jazz, Latin, rock and pop.  He's on over 400 records including Average White Band, David Bowie, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Bette Midler, Chaka Khan, and many many more.  Sammy and the group have been awarded with two Grammy Nominations.  The sextet is out of Miami and many of the members have been at the forefront of the Miami sound for many decades.  Spread the word - this is a "Don't Miss" concert at Nighttown!!
On Saturday, the Joe Policastro Trio rolls in from Chicago to bring some great innovative straight-ahead jazz.  The group is very popular in Chicago, and they are breaking out throughout the Midwest.

ImageThen on Sunday, It's the great jazz trumpet master Dominick Farinacci, returning with some of the amazing students from the Tri-C Jazz Studies department.  Come hear what the program is developing, as well as Dominick's beautiful and strong trumpet playing.   Always a great night!!

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Bob Dylan And His Band - In AKRON! 11.9.19

8:00pm EST E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall Dylan has played more than 2,500 gigs during this incredible run, and despite a catalog that ...