REVIEW: Trustus Theatre’s production of BOY

by Kyle Petersen

Trustus Theatre’s production of BOY, the Anna Ziegler play which has won critical praise for its depiction of a heartbreaking attempt to “decide” a young boy’s sexual identity following a botched circumcision as an infant, is one of those plays that runs the risk of being too tightly-constructed without the emotional intimacy of the performances. Opening and closing with mirroring, highly symbolic set pieces at a Halloween party, the play flashes back and forth between a “present” time in the late 1980s as we learn about the young man known as Adam Turner and how we was raised as a girl, “Samantha,” in the 1960s. Rounding out the cast, there’s bewildered parents, a fussy and overconfident psychologist, and, of course, a love interest for the protagonist.

There’s a certain predictable, although occasionally frustrating, momentum which carries through Adam’s early years as his parents and doctor make ineffectual attempts at strictly socializing him as a girl so as to make sure the operation and hormones “take,” and it’s probably here the play lands its sharpest blows. Much of that comes from how acutely Stann Gwynn portrays Dr. Wendell Barnes, the gender specialist convinced of the absolute power of nurture over nature. Gwynn lends that character both a sense of brilliance inextricably linked to a pompous sense of superiority that often seems to plague status-driven academics and researchers. He’s a delight, a next-gen Freud with a tantalizing intimate relationship with Adam that eventually shatters his clinical remove. Gwynn’s fully-realized performance sits comfortably next to strong performances by Jennifer Little and Harrison Saunders, who play Adam’s parents Trudy and Doug Turner. The desperate drive and sense of helplessness that pervades Little’s performance, as well as the blue-collar distrust that Saunders’ Doug brings to the proceedings feel true to type. While some of their behavior can feel almost too pat and accommodating to the liminal uncertainty surrounding sexual identity, the actors make these characters real and heartbreaking in the tight quarters of Trustus’ Side Door. Doug’s rare, beer-assisted conversation with Adam about how we was raised is a special theatrical moment, and one that depends deeply on the actors to bring to life. 

Despite strong performances, there’s an almost documentary-like impulse towards this gender identity-confused coming-of-age narrative. It’s as if in the desire to craft a teachable moment, Ziegler is a bit too dismissive of the thorny ways that socialization still cuts deep, in unpredictable ways, across every person’s complicated sense of self.

This is perhaps even more apparent in the parallel, “present” time plot involving Adam’s romance with Jenny Lafferty, played by Martha Hearn with a quirky confidence that feels straight out of a mid-2000s indie flick. Hearn clearly sketches out her own take on Jenny, something which doesn’t always seems to jibe with the shallowness of the character in the script or with the expected drama of a young woman in the 1980s discovering puzzling, even betraying secrets about her romantic partner’s past. That’s not to say Hearn doesn’t turn in a solid performance, just that it stretches the believability just a bit. 

Where Trustus’s production shines brightest, though, is in the performance of Patrick Dodds as Adam. Dodds is a young actor who has dazzled in other Trustus productions like Spring Awakening and American Idiot but who here, with his musical showmanship set entirely aside, he proves his formidable acting chops as he jumps through the nervous and kindly self-effacing version of his character to the belligerent and angry 23-year-old still struggling with his tumultuous upbringing. Dodds heightens every gut-wrenching moment that Adam faces, only to disappear, often just seconds later, into the childlike wonder and puzzlement of the young “Samantha,” something he does without the benefit of a costume or makeup change (after all, he’s still “Adam”). His potent performance alone is worth the price of admission, a masterly effort that places him firmly in the top tier of Columbia’s theatre talent.

The set itself is relatively bare, a small, utilizing bright lights and a raggedly zig-zagging stage set up in the round with just a few crucial props to block off the scenes and a desk off to one side with a helpful calendar to denote which moment in time we’ve bounced around to. It’s simple and effective, with subtle flourishes of panache, something also true of Ilene Fins’ direction, moving these actors in careful concert in keeping with the taunt framework of Ziegler’s play. 

Although not without some minor flaws, it feels wrong to undercut the emotional impact of this production. While I have quibbles with the overarching narrative, particularly as its gleans a much happier story than the one that inspired it, tender, nuanced moments abound as the characters work their way through some of the earliest clinical attempts at addressing the uncertainties and hardships of pressing a binary understanding of gender identity and sexual biology onto a messy, complex world. Fins and her troupe of actors nails both the 21st century lens that we have as well as the realities of the situation decades earlier which is both revelatory and necessary. This is the kind of play that you might do well to start off 2017 with.

BOY plays on the Cohn Side Door Stage at Trustus Theatre through January 21. For times and tickets go to trustus.org.

Jasper Does Spoleto - part 3, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell @ TD Arena Review

There’s always something a bit odd about seeing music outside of its natural context. For the organic folk and country made by Americana royalty Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell, the music is best heard in a small listening room or, barring that, a cozy theater.

That disconnect might be why it felt a little awkward for the first few songs the duo played with their five-piece backing band on Tuesday night. Opening with a cover of Lucinda William’s “I Just Wanted to See You So Bad” and few other more rollicking numbers, the music sounded both a little thin and a little boomy in TD Arena, hardly descriptors that naturally come to mind when thinking about either artist’s work. Crowell and Harris handled whatever sound struggles there might have been gracefully though, and things settled in after a while.

The duo, whose musical partnership dates back to 1975, when Crowell wrote a few songs and played rhythm guitar in Harris’s The Hot Band, were touring in support of their two duo records, the Grammy Award-winning Old Yellow Moon from 2013 and the recently-released The Traveling Kind, so a decent chunk of the set covered songs from those records, but there seemed to be relatively little formula for how the show unfolded. The ease with which Harris, 68, and Crowell, 64, led their band and joked playfully in between songs drew the show as close as it could to that listening room vibe, and it was clear how and why these guys are world-class entertainers. Both are still in such fine vocal form that you almost forget how many years they’ve been at it, even as they jokingly remind you of their long history. Upstate native Fayssoux McLean, who sang harmonies on those early Hot Band records, was in attendance and got a couple of shout-outs from Harris, but there was relatively little ceremonial about the proceedings as the two talked about playing in a hotel lobby at the Kerrville Folk Festival a few weeks ago and kidded Spoleto about having a festival indoors.

The informality of presentation was belied by the fairly studied nature of the songs themselves. Harris still, forty years later, grounds much of set in the songs of Gram Parsons, with “Return of the Grievous Angel” and “Love Hurts” both given lovely readings with Crowell taking the place of Parsons and Harris re-creating the unforgettable harmonies that dominated those recordings. Other highlights include her plaintive interpretation of Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho & Lefty” and a mesmerizing encore of Parson’s “Hickory Wind,” which she told the audience she only plays when performing in South Carolina. Much of the material on the new record sounded positively effervescent as well, with the elegiac “The Traveling Kind,” the classic country shuffle “No Memories Hanging Round” and the Harris ballad “Higher Mountains” being particular standouts.

These more tender moments were balanced by a clearly talented backing band that played purposefully restrained for much of the evening only to charge through a few dazzling solos near the end of the set. Australian lead guitarist Jedd Hughes was particularly spectacular, throwing down a boisterous rock solo at the end of the night that nearly upended the even-keeled signature performance style that Crowell and Harris are known for.

When the duo returned for the “Hickory Wind”/”Old Yellow Moon” encore, though, a hushed reverence returned to the proceedings. Hearing voices this good, playing songs this good, was ultimately all this night was about.

The Oddities of Sein Zum Tode: A Q&A with Bassist Jamie Clark About the Band's Video for "Worse Than Catholic"

By: Michael Spawn Sein Zum Tode’s music is not for the faint of heart. The Columbia trio (Jon Scott—guitar, David Scott—drums, Jamie Clark—bass) is one of the most interesting and aurally challenging bands in the city, and likely the whole Southeast. You’ll typically find them on a bill of metal acts, but to reduce Sein Zum Tode to that genre is something of a cop-out. The sheer mathematical and virtuosic intricacies in every song put them in a class truly all their own. In preparation for their upcoming EP, “Siamese Second Cousins Never Removed,” which will see its official release this Friday at New Brookland Tavern, Jasper spoke with bassist and video director Jamie Clark about his video for “Worse Than Catholic,” an animated fever dream that plays like an old Warner Brothers cartoon set in purgatory and can be viewed below.

Jasper: What is your history with Sein Zum Tode?

Jamie Clark: I actually play bass guitar in Sein Zum Tode. I’ve been playing with them since about 2005. Jon and David handle the majority of songwriting. This allows a level of separation between my videos and their ideas, which I think leads to some interesting interpretations.

J: When and how did you become interested in directing videos?

JC: I’ve been working with multimedia in one form or another since the mid-‘90s. Back then—editing footage of animals to Pantera’s “Fucking Hostile” for a high school biology assignment—the process to get something from the computer to the television was painstaking and expensive. Once I was reintroduced to digital media in college—around 2001—I was amazed at how simplified it had become. I instantly started writing short films and coming up with video projects, which is something I’ve kept up with off and on ever since. Being part of the music scene meant I had an unlimited supply of friends who would love videos. Taking on music videos always seemed like a fun break from filmmaking because their short in length, a lot of your pacing decisions are already made for you, and you don’t have to record on-set audio.

J: What was the original concept for the “Worse Than Catholic” video and how close to that concept is the finished product?

JC: Something that I hear a lot about Sein Zum Tode is the music sounds completely random and chaotic. Since I’ve actually had to write out all of these parts and learn them on bass, I know there’s a very deep, intricate structure to the songs. My goal was to come up with a concept that articulated that structure. Making it animated allowed us to go as crazy as we wanted to go. I had been inspired by shows like Superjail! on Cartoon Network that feature incredibly long and detailed animated chase scenes where things are happening and scenes change so quickly you often have to go back and rewatch. My writing partner and I sat down with a spreadsheet of all the different parts of the song and talked about how we could start tying them all together into a single narrative. To that end, I think the finished product is exactly what we set out to create.

J: Who is your writing partner?

JC: Russell Sanders, the star of the video. I met him when he was studying acting at USC back in 2005 and we’ve co-produced just about everything I’ve worked on since. I handle most of the directing and he handles most of the acting, but we’re both equally active in getting projects to completion. He ran camera on the last video we did for Sein Zum Tode , “Mansteam,” when I had to be on camera.

J: What program did you use to make the animation?

JC: For this project I worked almost exclusively in Adobe After Effects, with a bit of help from Photoshop. Jon and David both have a history of drawing weirdo creatures, so I asked them to draw me as many as they could. I got stacks and stacks of pages, which I then scanned into the computer. Then in After Effects you build something that kind of looks like a paper doll—a creature with an individual head, body, arms, legs, etc. Handling the animation in After Effects means you have to do every little frame-by-frame animation, and much more animation by math. “On frame one have the bat be on this side of the room, and by frame 115 have him on this side,” and the computer fills in the rest. The scene where he’s riding on the mine cart actually almost destroyed (trying to think of a word other than “derailed” to avoid puns) the entire project. When it came time to actually render the video, After Effects was giving me the error, “Sorry, this background is too large.” I didn’t know how to fix is short of starting over again, so I put the project aside for a number of months while I hid under my bed. Once I finally got over my fear and looked into it, it was a pretty simple fix and we were back on track. Even with the fix, it took about 48 hours to render the video every time. There’s nothing worse than not using your computer for two days, finally having a copy of the finished product, and finding an error in the first two seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0N7qfRAgAs

Concert Review: Toro y Moi @ Music Farm Columbia

If the University of South Carolina marketing department was wise, they would have had a slew of cameras capturing footage of Chaz Bundick (Class of 2009), a.k.a Toro y Moi, taking the Music Farm Columbia stage this past Wednesday.

Not only is Bundick himself one of those irresistible success stories that colleges love to repeat--the beginnings of Toro y Moi were planted during his years enrolled at the school, and he’s skyrocketed in the music world since he graduated and released his debut LP Causers of This in 2010--but there were other reasons to trumpet this moment. After all, the Music Farm sits mere blocks away from campus, and it’s ushered in a wave of concerts over this past year that could sway hip college kids to attend, emphasizing the cosmopolitan nature of Columbia and the opportunities afforded here that, say, that school down the road in the Upstate cannot. Plus, although Bundick now resides in Berkeley, California, he has consistently noted his South Carolina roots, taking local bands on tour with him in the region and helping out in various ways, including offering a tune for a benefit compilation for Fork & Spoon’s Aaron Graves battle with cancer and producing (and releasing on his imprint) singer/songwriter Keath Mead’s debut.

And, if they had had those cameras, they might have noticed that, in the range of colors splashed onto the indeterminate black lines that served as a backdrop, there were briefly moments when garnet appeared, giving the effect of the band playing behind a USC logo.

All carping aside though, the show was excellent. Keath Mead opened up with his soaring, 70s-inspired melodies and guitar jams. Stripped of the warm, reverb-laden production of the record, Mead and his band felt almost from another era, in the best way possible. While the set got a bit soggy with ballads in its midsection, they opened and closed with some rockers that had the rather sizable crowd agreeably bobbing their heads.

Still, they were clearly stoked to see their hometown heroes return. In addition to Bundick, the live version of Toro y Moi features a host of familiar faces from Columbia’s music scene, including guitarist Jordan Blackmon, drummer Andy Woodward, and bassist Patrick Jeffords, with only recently added keyboardist Anthony Ferraro foreign to the Palmetto state. The band is ridiculously tight and quite adept at transforming the funky, synth-laden pop tunes that Bundick usually crafts alone in the studio into immersive, sweaty workouts, but it was hard to deny the impact of the more rock-oriented (and excellent) recent LP What For? had on the show. Tracks like “Empty Nesters” and “Half Dome” saw Bundick pick up an electric guitar for the first time in Toro, giving long-time fans a glimmer of his days The Heist & the Accomplice and Taxi Chaps while at the same time giving his sets a more varied sense of room to rise and fall, live and breathe.

Bundick, always a shy presence on stage, seemed to find energy in the shifts between guitar and his array of keyboards, and his voice was in fine form throughout. The addition of yet another album to his catalog also seems to offer his live shows, for the first time, a true greatest hits feel. Only the choicest cuts from his earlier efforts made appearances as the group delved deeply into the new material. Highlights included the giddy power-pop blast of the aforementioned “Empty Nesters,” the Michael Jackson-esque jam “New Beat,” and the rippling one-two punch of the encore of “So Many Details” and “Say That,” two of the best tracks off of 2o13's Anything in Return.

In truth, though, it was hard to note exceptional moments in such a consummately professional show that also managed to revel so much in the slinky grooves that are indelible from Bundick’s output. It was difficult to stop moving for the nearly 90 minute set that Toro y Moi threw down, and I’d bet not a single soul left unhappy.

Here’s hoping the presence of the Music Farm Columbia with get Bundick and company back here more often now. -Kyle Petersen

South Carolina State Museum's Carolina Makers Exhibit Features Instrument Makers from Columbia

by: Erika Ryan

The SC State Museum’s newest exhibit, Carolina Makers, opened April 18th, and it features South Carolina makers that specialize in everything from metal working to clothing designers to instrument crafters. The exhibit is free with general admission or museum membership--tickets can be purchased here.

Jasper got the chance to talk to the only two Columbia-based instrument makers featured in the exhibit, Damir Horvat and Greg Alexander, about their background in the field, their specialties, and what it means to take part in this art exhibition.

Jasper: How long have you been building instruments, and what got you into the business?

 Damir Horvat: I make string instruments — violins, violas, cellos, and bows — and I restore them.  What got me into the business is that I’m a third generation violin and bow maker — both my father and grandfather used to do it. It’s hard to say how long I’ve been doing it, but I can probably say for the last 18 to 20 years.

Greg Alexander: I started making guitars about seven years ago. I was 21 at the time, and my dad was a furniture builder. I had these books called Foxfire books — they’re basically books about simple living styles in the Appalachian mountains back in the day, and there’s a blueprint for a banjo, so I started to build that banjo. With all the tools I had, I was able to make it much nicer. Then I got an apprenticeship with a guy in Charlotte named Ari Lehtela, and he’s been making guitars for 20 or 30 years. I had an apprenticeship with him for three years, then I moved here and I’ve had a job here for about four years now.

Jasper: How are handmade instruments better than factory made ones? Do they produce better sounds?

Damir Horvat: They produce better sounds and they’re custom made to the specific needs of the customers. If the customer orders the instrument looks and type of sound, and I can deliver exactly what the customer wants.

Greg Alexander: Absolutely. It depends, but like what I built for the museum were electric guitars, and you’re definitely going to have differences in that just because of the wood quality. The wood is especially important with an acoustic instrument, there’s no question that a handmade instrument would knock out a factory made one every single time. They’re going to choose cheap wood, and the wood is the only thing getting you the tonal quality. If you don’t pay attention to the wood when you’re working with it, you’re not going to have a quality instrument, basically.

Jasper: How long does it take you to build an instrument and what is the process like? What materials do you use?

Damir Horvat: The materials we use in instrument making are three very specific woods: maple, for the back and ribs; spruce, for top; ebony, for the accessories and the fingerboard. And it takes about two to three months (to make a violin), but a cello takes longer: about six months.

Greg Alexander: Well, it depends — but the electric guitar I just built for the museum took me about two months. It takes about six months for an acoustic instrument. But, this isn’t necessarily what I do with all my time—I’m also a student and I do other things—so I just get to it when I can. I have a different approach for both, because if I’m doing an acoustic instrument, I’m going to follow a traditional blueprint that’s maybe 100 years old, but if I’m building an electric instrument, I’m probably going to design from scratch myself and be as creative as I can.

Jasper: Can you describe a personalized instrument you’ve made for someone?

Damir Horvat: Well, for example, right now I’m making a violin that’s going to have a lot of Celtic motifs, and this is for a person that loves Irish music. It’s hard to describe, but people usually bring me a picture and tell me, “I want my instrument to look like this,” and I usually make it identical to the picture. But as far as the sound goes, they can decide whether they want a darker or brighter sound, and it can also be custom tailored for the player.

Greg Alexander: The guy I mentioned, Ari Lehtela, he has an acute interest in eastern music and eastern instruments, and he basically approaches his building as a hybrid between east and west, with the six-string guitars as the western model, and sitar or any of those types of eastern instruments, he’ll sort of blend them together. He’ll take different tuning and temperament with different scales… and he’ll blend the two together, and that’s definitely come out in my building too. The guitar I just built for the museum is a seven-string, fretless guitar and the bridge that the strings sit on is modeled after a sitar bridge.

Jasper: What kind of an asset are handmade instruments in a local arts community?

Damir Horvat: Well, it’s an art, so you could ask the same thing to a painter or sculptor, but instruments are different from that because local musicians are able to utilize my services and use my instruments as well as restore their own instruments, because part of my business is the restoration and preservation of historical instruments. So, local musicians from throughout South Carolina and surrounding states come to me to upkeep their old instruments or ask me to make a new one for them.

Jasper: What does it mean for you and your career to be featured in an exhibit like Carolina Makers?

Damir Horvat: It’s an honor — it’s a chance to display my work to the public. I’m hoping to increase the understanding about instrument making just by people looking at the instruments, and also people possibly calling to inquire about making instruments for them, or simply calling to ask about the instrument making process. It’s not only a display of my own work, but also I’m hoping to raise awareness about what makes a handmade instrument different from a factory instrument, and there is quite a bit of difference there that hopefully people will notice — and if not, they can ask me about it.

Greg Alexander: It’s an honor, honestly. I’ve been doing this for seven years, and most of the guys that are in the exhibit and get recognized have been doing this for decades. It took a lot of hard work on their behalf. I guess this has given me the confidence to continue.

To Thine Own Self Be True: USC Senior Ryan Stevens Produces Original Play

“It’s a meditation on hard work and why we dedicate ourselves to careers. It’s a question of the self vs. a higher cause, whether it’s better to be honest or successful, and an insight into the travails, stresses, and rewards of life in the theater and the arts in general,” University of South Carolina senior Ryan Stevens says, describing his new original play. “And it’s funny.”

Introspection? Theatre? Humor? What more could you want from a play? That’s exactly what you’ll get from Stevens’s new work Player King in the Lab Theatre at USC, and you’ll get it in verse, too!

“…I decided the concept of the play had to be big, ostentatiously so…and I decided to write it in verse. From there I figured, even though I’m not a theatre major, I’ve learned so much and gained so much from the people in the University’s Theatre Department, professors and students alike, that this would need to be a sort of thank you note/love letter to theatre and to these past four years. So I made it about actors. And in verse,” Stevens says.

Not only is Stevens the esteemed playwright, but he is also directing his piece.

“It’s been a very interesting dynamic because 'writer Ryan' only knew so much, and now 'director Ryan' has to come in and be the intermediary between the actors, audience, and whatever that lunatic writer was trying to say,” Stevens explains. “Directing it has shown me both just how loopy lines become when you have to say them out loud, and also shown me just how smart actors are. When we’re rehearsing, these actors are connecting dots and analyzing subtext that, unless my memory is horrible, I never thought of while writing the thing. They’re basically doing alchemy, making something out of what I assumed was nothing, but I guess like those old-time ‘alchemists’ they’re actually just really good at finding what they need to find and putting it on display.”

The “alchemists” that Stevens describes include some veterans of the theatre department, some beloved improvers, and some new to the university’s stage.

“I’m working with a lot of actors I’ve collaborated with in the past, and a lot that I’ve gotten see perform before and was very excited to work with, and a few who have never performed on a USC stage before, but even with such diversity of experience, everyone in the cast is giving a hundred percent in rehearsals,” Stevens says. “I think it comes from the fact that I’m encouraging them to go wild, and be sure they’re having fun, because they’re the ones who will have to go out and perform it four times, not me, so they might as well enjoy it. A lot of the actors involved come from an improv background, so while the text is pretty stiff (verse’ll do that), we’re discovering a lot of places of wiggle room, experimenting a lot with actions and nonverbal communication and the like. There are twelve actors with twelve distinct and fine senses of humor, and the results of all this mixing have been spellbinding.”

All in all, this production is the perfect denouement for the last four years Stevens has spent at the university.

“It’s a really fulfilling experience. I get to spend four hours every day collaborating with these people who are very dear friends, yes, but also just brilliant artists, and we get to put our heads together and create something worthwhile. This play opens two weeks before I graduate, so in many ways Player King is a very overt symbol for my finishing my college career, but who am I to complain when the process is this enjoyable,” Stevens says. “To get to put something like this on, to get to have posters and interviews and press releases, all about something that I strung together over a year ago, is nothing short of a dream come true. It’s the best closing note I could ever envision for my college career, and I never thought I’d be so lucky as to get to do this project with so many of the people that have made college so great for me.”

Player King runs April 23-26 at the Lab Theatre. The show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are only $5 at the door for “Fakespearian fun for the whole family, another chance to see just how amazing the undergraduate talent of USC is, and a very passionate thank you note to the arts, from a farm boy with a keyboard.”

Sea of Art: The Vista Guild Presents New Public Work by Stephen Chesley for Artista Vista

By Haley Sprankle

“Public art, by its nature, is meant to enhance the quality of life and perhaps stimulate a dialogue within a community on many levels—to search for ways to make life richer for all within the urban fabric,” local artist Stephen Chesley says.

Recently, Columbia has seen an influx in public art works popping up, along with a myriad of different local arts festivals. While Columbia is not always thought of as a cultural hub of the East Coast, the artistic tides have been raised high thanks to the help of groups like One Columbia and Vista Guild.

“Columbia's public art collection is steadily increasing and we've certainly seen an uptick lately,” One Columbia’s Executive Director Lee Snelgrove adds. “One Columbia has more projects in the works for various areas of the city and there are other organizations such as the Vista Guild and the University of South Carolina that are interested in adding more permanent public art. With all the new construction and development, I'm anticipating many more opportunities.”

This year, Chesley unveils his new public art sculpture at the Artista Vista gallery crawl, commissioned by the Vista Guild. The sculpture will reside on Lady Street.

“The sculpture evolved from a project which salvaged the steel from the demolition of the City Garage around 2004, so the materials in the sculpture are recycled. The title of the piece is ‘Cedar’s Fog,’” Chesley explains.

With its triangular base suggesting a ship’s hull and a wind bell within representing the frequency of a fog buoy, this piece offers a balance of industrial and acoustic elements.

“This piece references my affinity for the ocean and the poetic lyricism of cedars,” Chesley discloses. “The sentinel quality and quiet strength of the cedars reflects a stewardship of nature--The dignity of living things.”

This representation of the dignity of living things through Chesley’s work further enhances the aesthetic of the city while providing a rebuttal to the notion that South Carolina lacks cultural growth and development.

“Having this work on public display is a way of sharing its symbolism and adding to the elevation of art and culture in the city--a respite perhaps from the demands of the times and free to contemplate and enjoy--it may help to instill a sense of character and place for the Vista,” Chesley hopes.

This wave of hope for the arts in Columbia washes over the city as local artistic presence increases.

“For me as a citizen of Columbia, it's really great to see public art that is unique and of high quality. I love the idea of the city in which I live expressing itself through public art, and I really enjoy encountering art in my daily life,” Snelgrove says. “But, in my role at One Columbia, I feel that more public art being installed represents Columbian's collective creativity, talent and support for the arts. Public art is a sign to visitors and citizens that we are a culturally vibrant place to live and work.”

The Artista Vista gallery crawl will be April 23-25, showcasing artists and galleries in the Vista along with the premier of “Cedar Fog.” The event is free, so come out and support local art and celebrate the growing culture in the city.

“I would venture to say future of Columbia as a destination point will be enhanced by its level of culture and stewardship of its natural resources,” Chesley says. “It is up to us to plant and nurture now, so that future generations will have fruit.”

Preview: Indie Grits 2015, Day 4

It's Saturday at Indie Grits!

That means the Love, Peace, & Hip-Hop festival is already in full swing on the 1700 block of Main Street. The event boasts a bevy of genuine headliners like Nice & Smooth, Monie Love, and Big Gipp (of The Goodie Mob) but is worth attending largely because of it's family-friendly celebration of the vibrancy and importance of hip-hop culture. Various vendors and non-profits will be dotting the sidewalks as DJs, B-Boy dance crews, and hip-hop visual artists gather together in the spirit of DJ Afrika Bambaataa's "4 pillars of hip-hop."

Jasper is particularly stoked for Big Gipp though--Goodie Mob is one of the key outfits in the Atlanta hip-hop scene of the 1990s, and is still one of the most influential outfits in defining "The Dirty South" sound for a genre too-often thought of in terms of East Coast (NYC) vs. West Coast (LA).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiuEFG0ZBd8

There's also a full day of screenings to take advantage of! The full schedule is at available at the Indie Grits website here, but it's worth noting how many blocks of shorts are available today--the Embarrassing Love block at 2pm, People Portraits at 2:30, Four Minute Film Frenzy at 4pm, Heritage in Drift at 4:30pm, Burdens of the Past at 8:30pm, and Summoning the Supernatural at 9pm. These blocks are a great chance to experience the full range of filmmaking possibilities and thrive off their juxtaposition to one another, something which is commonplace (and great) a film festival but that we don't often experience otherwise.

We attended Burdens of the Past yesterday and can personally recommend that block. It's mostly a collection of portraits of people you would likely scorn--a murderer, child molester, and campus preacher--but each vignette is lovingly rendered and looks to find the depth of humanity in its subject matter. It also showcases the range of motivations and possibilities inherent in making shorts too.

Features tonight include Western at 6pm, a nonfiction take on the genre that still simmers prominently in our national imagination, and Vida Propia, which sounds like a heartbreaking observational documentary of first-generation Mexican immigrants struggling to survive in North Carolina. The latter screens at 6:30pm.

Also going on tonight in the second performance of this year's Spork in Hand Puppet Slam! It's hard to say what exactly will happen at this anything-goes, adults-only collection of puppetry pieces, but Prairie Willows will be performing and puppeteers from around the Southeast will be showcasing the incredible creative abundance of their art form. That starts at 7pm.

https://vimeo.com/124048183

Then there's the closing party at 10pm, where you can get down with all the filmmakers to the tunes of Mechanical River and Infinitikiss. We would say that's a wrap on Indie Grits, but there's more stuff in store for tomorrow, when festival winners will screen throughout the day...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8qxDh4b9so

Preview: Indie Grits 2015, Day 3

By: Wade Sellers

It’s Friday, April 17^th- day three and hump day for Indie Grits 2015. The schedule is packed, from 11am until well past midnight. If you don’t have anything pressing at the office, why are you even considering clocking in today?

Two feature films headline the festival’s evening slate.

The documentary American Cheerleader focuses on the world of competitive cheerleading. The film follows the journey of two high school teams- from Burlington, New Jersey and Southwestern, Kentucky, who compete for the National High School Cheerleading Championship. The twenty-four women from both teams revise the preconceived notions of femininity and sportsmanship that hang over the world of cheerleading. Check out our interview with one of the filmmakers here. - The Nickelodeon, Upstairs Theater- 6pm.

Female Pervert, from Atlanta director Jiyoung Lee, follows a lonely video game designer, Phoebe, as she tries to make emotional connections in the modern world. She attempts many changes in her life but as she endeavors to self-improve her interests turn towards a darker more perverted path. Will she be able to change? Or will she accept her fate as a female pervert? Check out interview with the director here. - The Nickelodeon, Downstairs Theater- 7:30pm

If you must work, but have a lunch break downtown, head to the CMA and Boyd Plaza and check out the Mini Cine. Screenings are free and will rotate between a block of short titled Future Perfect Shorts and a curated program of archival footage from the University of South Carolina’s Moving Image Research Collection titled "Past Hopes for Perfect Futures."

The Indie Bits Showcase starts at noon in the Skyline Room at Tapp’s. Don’t miss out on the chance to play indie games that are in competition from across the southeast.

Heritage in the Drift is a group of experimental shorts playing early in the day. - The Nickelodeon, Upstairs Theater- 1:30pm

Burdens of the Past features a group of documentary shorts with subjects ranging from a street preacher, an openly gay young man in South Carolina, the 1993 killing of Chicago blues musician Boston Blackie and psycho-geographer and convicted sex offender, Denis Wood. The Nickelodeon, Downstairs Theater- 3pm

Brothers Bill and Turner Ross, and Indie Grits alums, screen their Sundance Award winning film Western this afternoon. “What would a nonfiction western look like? If you can find John Wayne, what does he look like, what’s he doing?” Find out at The Nickelodeon, Upstairs Theater- 3:30pm

Finders Keepers tells the almost unbelievable story of Shannon Whisnany, a North Carolina bargain hunter, who refuses to return amputee John Wood’s embalmed leg after he finds it in a used grill at an auction. The Nickelodeon, Upstairs Theater- 8:30pm

There is plenty of evening and late night fun with the Stairwell Concert, the Spork in Hand PUPPET SLAM at 1216 Taylor St., and Weekly Revue at the Big Apple.

Need more? Head to Hunter Gatherer at 11pm for live music or The Whig for a Friday night Taco Party.

Chatting with Jiyoung Lee, Whose film Female Pervert Screens at Indie Grits 2015

By: Wade Sellers

Female Pervert director Jiyoung Lee took the time to answer a couple of questions about life in Atlanta and her film, which screens in competition tonight [The Nickelodeon, Downstairs Theater- 7:30pm] at Indie Grits.

How is life as an indie filmmaker in Atlanta?

It's nice to be an indie filmmaker in Atlanta. You have access to great community of actors and film professionals. (Many Hollywood productions are shot in Atlanta.) And the Atlanta Film Festival is very supportive of local filmmakers.

The downside of being a filmmaker in Atlanta is that you have few local sources for funding. But funding is hard these days, regardless of location. Also, the hot and humid summers in Atlanta can make film shoots challenging.

The synopsis of Female Pervert mentions that your film touches on classic issues of young men and women, such as finding true emotional connections in the world, but digs deeper into your protagonist’s eccentric interests. How has the film been received so far and what are some of the responses you have gotten?

Female Pervert is an idiosyncratic movie and I didn't necessarily try to please people when making it. People either love or hate the movie. Very few people have a middling opinion of the movie. However, most people agree the lead actress Jennifer Kim did a fantastic job. So the movie's definitely worth seeing just for her performance alone.

https://vimeo.com/116829918

Preview: Indie Grits 2015, Day 2

There’s really so much going on at Indie Grits each day that picking and choosing what to do comes down, more than ever, to time, taste, and happenstance. But here’s a few picks anyway.

We’ve already highlighted director Amanda Berg’s Every Body Hit Somebody, which screens at 7:30 tonight, here, but it’s worth noting that she also has another film in the festival, Welcome Home, Fayetteville Observer, a short about daily military life on Fort Bragg, that screens ahead of Old South, a fascinating documentary by Danielle Beverly that looks at the interactions between a predominantly (and historically) black neighborhood in Athens with a newly-arrived white fraternity house that just happens to fly the Confederate flag and hold an annual antebellum parade. Jasper got to see an early cut of this film last year and found it to be a fascinating exploration of naiveté and oh-so-tentative understanding between unlikely neighbors. Old South and Welcome Home screen in the 5:30 block today.

https://vimeo.com/122387929

We’d also be remised if we didn’t point out that today is the grand opening of all of the Future Perfect visual art installations that mark the first time Indie Grits has ventured so wholeheartedly into that arena. Over 20 artists are showing in various spaces throughout the 1500 and 1600 blocks of Main Street as they tackle questions about past, present, and possible futures for a 21^st century South. Various tours are launching from the Nick at 6:00, 6:45, and 7:30, on which you’ll have the opportunity to ask the artists questions. We’re the tour guides on the 6:45 one, so you should probably cross the other two off your to-do list. We’ll have Oreos. Seriously.

In another bout of shameless self promotion, my podcast with Lee Snelgrove, Art, Pop, & Fizz, had a great conversation with Maureen Conner of the Institute for Wishful Thinking, which will have an installation in the One Columbia office at 1219 Taylor. Check that podcast out here.

Last but not least, we’d like to strongly endorse checking out the Fork & Spoon and Friends show at Music Farm tonight. Fork & Spoon is celebrating five years in business, and they’ve consistently put out some of our favorite local records while also managing to be supremely talented and awesome individuals.

Below are a few of the bands playing tonight. See ya out there gritting it up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUr-7ftDa7U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEkXiuYCmI0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk2Xj2dNDe0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXOucUbg2jA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_PpNmfHxk0

Double Header: Thinking About Gender and Athletics at Indie Grits

Indie Grits has always put an emphasis on documentaries engaging with thought-provoking social issues, and the 2015 edition is no exception. When Jasper was glancing over the schedule the first time, we quickly noted that two of the films--Every Body Hit Somebody [screening Thursday 4/16 at 7:30 in Nickelodeon Theater 1] and American Cheerleader [screening Friday 4/17 at 6:00 pm in Nickelodeon Theater 2]--explicitly tackle women and athletics, a rich area for exploring gender construction that both films tackle in different ways.

Every Body Hit Somebody, directed by Amanda Berg, is an experimental documentary that follows a women’s football team, the Carolina Phoenix, through the course of a season as it ponders questions of masculinity and femininity that are tied up and constricted in sports in ways that make the team and its league’s existence surprising and confounding. Berg made the film while getting her MFA at Duke University, and its unusual in a variety of ways, most notably in its combining of traditional documentary techniques like extended interviews and live-action with extensive use of still photographs (some of which have been featured on the New York Times Lens Blog) as well as its no-man’s-land run-time of 43 minutes.

American Cheerleader, on the other hand, takes on a more dominant and traditional cultural trope in the cheerleader, but attempts to both humanize the zany pop culture version of the sport typified by films like the Kirsten Dunst-starring Bring It On (2000) and to underline the competitive edge that the sport has. Directors James Pellerito and David Barba were initially skeptical about their subject matter, and that skepticism seems to have served them well in creating a compelling narrative that removes the more sensational aspects of how our culture understands cheerleading.

Jasper decided to shoot the makers of both films a few questions to get a sense of their films--how they came upon these topics, what they found surprising, and how they ultimately grappled with similar subject matter differently. Here’s what they said.

Jasper: What originally drew you to your subject matter? How did you “find your teams”?

James Pellerito (American Cheerleader): David Barba and I were originally approached to direct and produce a documentary about high school cheerleading and we were apprehensive because of the existing stereotypes of cheerleaders.  Our only points of reference for the sport were the National High School Cheerleading Championship broadcast on ESPN every year, and the movie Bring It On.  We took the project on as a challenge to produce the real Bring It On and break stereotypes about cheerleaders.

Amanda Berg (Every Body Hit Somebody): My own nostalgic football feelings and the desire to tell stories that explore gender boundaries. I researched “women’s tackle football” and found out there was a semi-professional women’s team right in Durham (NC), where I was living. I went to check out one of their pre-season practices and spent the rest of the season documenting.

Jasper: Both of you follow a single team over the course of a season, which provides a built-in narrative, but one I imagine many documentarians struggle with. What stories remain untold in this framework?

JP: For American Cheerleader, we followed two 12-member high school cheer teams and additional coaching staff.  The challenge for us was what stories to tell in the amount of screen time we had and of course we weren’t able to touch on every team member’s story.  We settled on four stories per team that served as a representation of the teams.

AB: A critique of the structure itself. A season is a linear narrative, one that we are all familiar and comfortable with. I saw this film as an opportunity to challenge narrative expectations as much as gender expectations. A lot is left untold in the hope that questions are more powerful than answers.

Jasper: Why do you think it’s important to make documentaries that tackle questions of athletics and construction of gender?

JP: It’s important to tackle these questions in order to get to the truth.  Stereotypes about athletics and construction of gender are generalizations that exist in public consciousness and have been perpetuated over decades.  If nothing is done to get to the truth, stereotypes persist.

AB: Questions about athletics and gender are important because of their prevalence in daily life, mainstream media and influence on individual freedom. Sports don’t simply reflect gender assumptions. For a really long time now sports have been one of the places where gender boundaries are defined.

Jasper:  What surprised or challenged you in the process of making your respective films?

JP: In making American Cheerleader, we were surprised by how driven and hard-working the teams were, as well as the family bonding among the athletes.  From our perspective as filmmakers, It was humbling to see how fearless and passionate the teenagers were in striving for their goal.  Their practice and competition schedules were not unlike those of high school football or other team sports.  And of course, we never could have predicted the ending.

AB: I was not expecting the Phoenix would go undefeated and win the league championship. Actually, I was having so much fun working on this project it didn’t cross my mind until we were in Texas for the title game.

Jasper: To what extent do these sports still construct certain kinds of gender identities? Is there a way forward to challenge or upend these conceptions?

JP: Cheerleading is still primarily a sideline sport promoting high school spirit and supporting other sports like football and basketball.  That will never change and maybe it shouldn’t.

AB: Football is still perpetuating “manliness.” More coverage of female athletes will promote mutual respect and opportunity between the sexes. As of now women’s sports only constitutes 2% of media coverage.

How have your films been doing? Have you shown anywhere else, or have plans to show elsewhere?

JP: American Cheerleader premiered on the festival circuit in October, screening at IndieMemphis, Dance On Camera at Lincoln Center and winning the audience award at Louisville International Film Festival.  The doc is screening at several festivals this Spring and Summer and is being distributed by FilmBuff.

AB: Every Body Hit Somebody recently screened at Images Festival in Toronto and photographs from the film were featured on the New York Times Lens Blog. Indie Grits will be its second festival screening.

Preview: 2015 Indie Grits, Day 1

by: Wade Sellers

Has it been 12 months already? Indie Grits begins its ninth festival today offering Columbia more artistic variety in less time than any previous installment.

The Indie Grits Opening Night Party blasts off at Columbia Museum of Art and Boyd Plaza. Be the first in line to check out the movie theater in a shipping container known as the Mini Cine. The best part of the Mini Cine is that it is free. There will be bands, beer and the party never disappoints.

Cotton Road is the screening with the most buzz on the evening. Laura Kissel’s film follows the commodity of cotton from South Carolina Farms to Chinese factories to illuminate the work and industrial processes in a global supply chain. The film has been gaining momentum on the festival circuit and has been met with praise after screenings across the country. This is Cotton Road’s premier in Columbia. Kissel will be on hand for a Q&A after the screening. If you don’t have a ticket, try to reserve one right now because it is sure to sell out [Update: Yep, it's SOLD OUT].

5:30pm- Nickelodeon Theater 2.

If you need to get you’re indie film appetite sated before the party, head to the Nick and check out the Four Minute Film Frenzy.  5pm- in Nickelodeon Theater 1.

People Portraits is a collection of documentary shorts about, well, people. 7pm- Nickelodeon Theater 1.

Lost Colony is a narrative feature from North Carolina Filmmaker Christopher Holmes. Named after the infamous failed settlement on the Outer Banks in the late 16th century, Holmes' film promises to feature plenty of lingering shots of the Tar Heel State's shorelines as the film explores--or perhaps undermines--traditional coming-of-age story expectations. -Kyle Petersen; 8pm- Nickelodeon Theater 2.

https://vimeo.com/70538171

You have no excuse not to grab an Indie Grits schedule at the opening party, but if you have a major league excuse you cannot attend, the festival lineup can be viewed in detail here.

Mama Mia: Vista Queen 17 Takes the Stage

By Haley Sprankle

You are the Vista Queen, young and sweet, only 17!

Wait… That’s not how the song goes, is it?

17 years ago, Larry Hembree had an idea for a fundraiser that wasn’t your typical drag show.

“This event features men who would not normally (for the most part) do drag, but who we turn into men who really look like amazing drag queens, not just men in a bad dress with some ‘sort of’ make up on,” Hembree explains. “There is always a theme that gives it some focus. The wonderful Clay Owens produces it and it is hosted by Terrance Henderson and Walter Graham, both of who look amazing in drag. There are also some hot men as men in it too! The evening is all about helping Trustus raise money and everyone having one hell of a good time.”

You may be asking yourself, “What constitutes as ‘men who would not normally do drag?” With a ballet routine to the theme from Miami Vice that Hembree “will never forget,” Sherriff Leon Lott won the first pageant 17 years ago. That certainly set the standard for subsequent contestants.

“The production team searches for men who we think will have some fun and who have the potential to raise money from their friends and colleagues and, of course, who have the guts and confidence to put on a pair of panty hose in public,” Hembree adds.

The men dawning the dresses for this evening of drag include Tug Baker, Kevin Bush, Gregory Garrett, Mario Guevara, and Wade Sellers.

“I’m excited about seeing Tug Baker without a beard, seeing Mario Guevara as Amy Winehouse and seeing how the audience connects to Kevin Bush' persona,” Hembree elaborates. “I am also simply curious to see what Wade Sellers looks like in drag, and I am most excited to see how Greg Garrett bring his experience as a professional hair artist to his own self.”

While this is a pageant, it’s still a fundraiser, so the criteria for the queens’ success is based 60 percent on how much money they raise and only 40 percent on the judges’ score, including talent, onstage personality, and final questions. So, how can you help them win?

“You can give for each contestant directly to the contestant, by calling the theatre at 254-9732 and donating for a specific person, as an online donation or by attending the event (it sold out in 23 minutes this year) and making a donation to specific contestants at the event,” Hembree says.

While Trustus is currently raising money for their capital campaign, none of the money raised at the pageant goes towards the campaign or Marv’s, the new bar.

“All the revenue goes to helping with operations at Trustus. The amount of revenue from tickets sales each season only account for 33% of what is needed to meet the theatre's budget,” Hembree informs. “Fundraisers like this one help us make up the difference. Operational expenses include things like payroll (we have 10 full time and part time employees and over 150 other contracts per season as everyone who works at Trustus in any capacity gets paid), electricity, marketing, taxes, costs associated with producing our shows and educational programming and benefits like health insurance.”

At the end of the night, everyone is a winner; the audience gets a great show, Trustus gets better funded, and one queen will leave with the title of Vista Queen 2015.

“[The prize is] a lovely sash and some opportunities to appear in public as the most esteemed representative of the Congaree Vista,” Hembree says. “And of course a lot of grief from friends.”

Anybody could be that queen, so be sure to make it out to Vista Queen 17: Barely Legal on April 13 and donate to your favorite!

Preview: NiA Company Brings Back the Complex Slavery Tale The Whipping Man for an April 11-13th Run

By Haley Sprankle

So often, when the topic of slavery arises, many make the rash assumption that all slave owners were bad and that all slaves hated their masters. It is assumed that slavery is solely an issue of racial prejudice. This clouds our understanding of slavery, all of its complexity and paradoxes, and how it ultimately comes down to incredibly personal and fraught relationships.

Fortunately, Matthew Lopez’s The Whipping Man, which the NiA Company is performing once again after a 2013 production, breaks that pattern.

“The Whipping Man is on the surface about a Jewish Confederate officer that returns home at the end of the Civil War to find two of his former slaves waiting among the ruins,” says Charlie Goodrich, who plays Caleb, the aforementioned office. “However, more specifically, I think that it is simply about a family, one that exists beyond biological or socio-economical barriers.  The three men that appear on stage fight, poke fun, celebrate, and enjoy each other’s company as members of a family do.  No matter the political circumstances, the familial bond still exists between them.”

The play revolves around three characters; Caleb, John (played by Michael Clark), the elder of the two remaining slaves of Caleb’s family, and Simon (played by Darion McCloud), the younger of the two. The three characters celebrate the traditional Jewish holiday of Passover together as they attempt to ascertain the nature of their new relationship.

“The Whipping Man addresses how it was possible for believers of a Faith that reveled in its celebrations of freedom could live with, condone, and put into practice an institution that vehemently juxtaposes itself against what they believed in the first place,” Goodrich explains. “Foremost, the play takes place during Passover in April of 1865.  The Jewish Festival of Passover commemorates the Israelites exodus from their enslavement in Egypt.  The three characters celebrate Passover with a Seder meal not long after the two former slaves were freed.  Throughout the dialogue leading up to this meal, various characters address what it meant to exist in the Jewish Faith as slaveholder and slave, and how this existence proved to be sometimes problematic in their understanding of this faith.”

Aside from the religious aspect, the play also calls into question not only the humanity of the situation the characters face, but the humanity of each character.

“Playing the aforementioned Confederate soldier has created an interesting crossroads between my personal feelings and the history of my family in this state,” confesses Goodrich. “It’s no secret that I’m a pretty liberal individual who has not always felt at home in a state that has historically been primarily conservative.  So, it’s no shocker that I went into the production thinking that a Confederate soldier would probably be a total 180 from myself.  However, a portion of my Grandmother’s family has been in this state since the 1690’s.  Towards the end of the 18^th century, a portion of them moved from the Lowcountry to York County.  Most of this land, near the town of McConnells, is farm country, and my ancestors owned and ran plantations.  Coming across some of their wills in my ancestral research years ago, I discovered that they were slave owners.”

“This discovery got me to thinking: while I am liberal now, how would I have thought 150 years ago?  While I, in no way, support slavery or oppression, would I have gone along with my family then or rebelled against them? It’s so easy for me to judge slaveholders now, but how do I know what my ancestors in the same situation were thinking? Did they like owning slaves or was it just Southern tradition that they were observing?  To make a long story short, researching my ancestors has opened me up to approaching Caleb without bias.  He’s just a man, and like every other man, he has strengths and weaknesses as well as assets and flaws.  He makes mistakes and is faced with a lot of the same life decisions that exist to this day. I’ve even been able to find parts of myself within him, and vice versa. Becoming Caleb has proven to be not just a fascinating and rewarding experience, but a relevant one as well.”

Throughout the production, the cast and crew have partnered with Historic Columbia, Columbia Commemorates, One Columbia, and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia in tandem with the end of Historic Columbia’s Burning of Columbia celebration that began in February.

“Partnering with all of these institutions has been highly beneficial, most especially in bringing in different audiences to see our show.  Columbia Commemorates and Historic Columbia will bring in history buffs; One Columbia will bring in artists; while Unitarian Universalist will bring in an entire congregation of people that are curious to see the play that will be produced in their sanctuary.  Unitarian Universalist also used to be a synagogue, and performing the piece there will add to the atmosphere of the play.  Furthermore, all of our rehearsals have been at the Unitarian church as well, and the staff and members there could not have been more kind, receptive, and helpful. It has been a pleasure to work with them in such close proximity,” Goodrich says.

So now we ask, what did it mean to be a slave? What did it mean to be a slave owner? What does it mean to be a family?

With some intriguing answers to such questions, The Whipping Man runs April 11-13 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia. Tickets can be purchased through reservations@historiccolumbia.org or at the door.

“I hope the audience will leave with a stronger insight into what it meant to be a slave or a slaveholder at the time of the Civil War,” Goodrich concludes. “Also, I hope audience members leave with a better understanding of what it truly means to be a ‘slave.’  The word is not, for a lack of a better phrase, all ‘black and white.’  There are countless ways that people can be enslaved or enslave themselves, and the playwright does an astute job of bringing up this issue.”

Call for Submissions: The Vistovka Transporte Project, an Indie Grits Installation

by: Abby Davis

Vistovka Transporte is a community driven arts installation coming to Indie Grits this year.  The project will use advertisements and public service announcements from the perspective of the city to illustrate how the people of Columbia view the future of public transportation.

Matt Tenebaum, the main brain behind Vistovka Transporte, says “It’s goal is to bring together these ideas under this year’s Indie Grits theme of future perfect and explore how people imagine an ideal Columbia, whether tomorrow or deep into a potential future.”

Borne from conversations with Andy Smith, executive director of the Nickelodeon, about doing a community-centered project that engaged with the festival’s theme, “Future Perfect,” the two eventually settled on the Vistoka Transporte idea. “We wanted a project that could get the community involved in the theme but also be a little satirical,” Tenebaum says. “When we discussed our mutual stories about biking and walking around Columbia, the idea to do the project about transportation began.”

The advertisements will be dispersed throughout the entire festival and placed in a way to make them look like natural advertisements done by the city. “We seek authenticity to both build the illusion that they are real and catch attention to the ideas they represent,” says Tenebaum.  A social media campaign will run simultaneously, serving both to draw attention to the ads and to explain the story behind them and the artists’ ideas for the future.

“Watching people think about issues or ideas that they feel strong about and then putting them into artistic form is a fascinating process,” Tenebaum continues. “Focusing that process towards a single subject reveals ideals and aspirations from many different people and paints its own picture of the community.  People want the city to be better; they aspire to live somewhere that has the things they want rather than just leave to somewhere that already has them.  They care, and for that reason I can’t wait to see what they have to say about their future perfect city.”

Submissions can be sent in through the website, vistovkatrasnporte.com or to vistovkatransporte@gmail.com.  Images need to be submitted as a jpg at a minimum of 300 dpi and cannot contain nudity or profanity.  Other than that, however, the project is open to a wide array of possibilities.  A sample list of potential subjects includes: “new or potential bike lanes, buses and bus routes, highway expansion, light rail, ride sharing programs, passenger tail lines, airport development and international terminal creation, super sonic air transportation, magnetic levitation trains, extra-orbital flights, space elevators, space ports, lunar travel, flights across the solar system, and interstellar travel.”

“One of the things I hope for the Vistovka to accomplish for the community is to draw those ideas into the fore.  The quality of them doesn’t matter in the face of simply putting them out there as inspiration for more,” concludes Tenebaum. “In many ways, the Vistovka really is just a textbook brainstorming session using Indie Grits as a white board.”

Native American Rock Group Dark Water Rising Play at USC

By Erika Ryan

Museums tend to revolve around nothing more than the past, but McKissick Museum presented its series “Traditions, Change, and Celebration: Native Artists of the Southeast” in a way that celebrates the Native American culture of today. With five public events, McKissick showcased native artists from all disciplines , but on April 3rd, native musicians will be in the spotlight for a concert with the group Dark Water Rising.

Although Native American music isn’t a widely known genre, Dark Water Rising is among the best in their niche. Based out of North Carolina, their sound teeters between blues and southern rock, and it’s clear that their music is deeply rooted in their cultural background.

Since their first album release in 2010, they’ve gotten plenty of attention — from radio play spanning across the East Coast, a feature on NPR, and two Native American Music Awards, Dark Water Rising captivated large audiences with deeply emotional, inspirational ballads, such as “Hometown Hero.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkF4YM4Mb4c&feature=youtu.be

Friday’s concert “Native and Now” is the final program for the “Traditions, Change, and Celebration” series, but the exhibition featured on the second floor of the McKissick Museum is open until July 25th. As part of the museum’s Diverse Voices series, the mission “Traditions, Change, and Celebration” was to explore how traditional Native American heritage is incorporated and maintained in the works of today’s southeastern, native artists.

The “Native and Now” performance will be at USC’s Booker T. Washington Auditorium this Friday at 7:30p.m., and while the concert is free to the public, be sure to claim a ticket on McKissick’s website before the show. - Jasper intern Erika Ryan

Review: John Mellencamp at the Township Auditorium

For most of the 24 hours leading up to John “Cougar” Mellencamp’s performance last Tuesday at the Township Auditorium, I made jokes about his name change. You would think that the joke would be stale, given that now-legendary rock and roller dropped the manager-demanded stage moniker in 1991. But, somehow, it still seemed to suggest some critical distance, as if, even if I liked Mellencamp’s songs, I still recognized them as the fluffier, commercially friendly flip side of the alt-country underground that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In truth, such a critical distance isn’t really necessary. Yes, Mellencamp had some rather dominant pop hits (“Hurt So Good,” “Cherry Bomb,” and “R.O.CK. in the U.S.A” among them) that felt like water-downed Springsteen, ready to be force-fed to an eager nation in the wake of Born in the USA’s mammoth sales, even if some of them preceded that blockbuster. But, by and large, Mellencamp wrote some of the best straight-forward roots-rockers of all-time, full of elegant small town details and genuine populist fervor, over the course of his career, and he's continued to write and record solid records, with 2014’s Plain Spoken greeted with critical if not commercial acclaim. Yes, he can come off as a poor man’s Springsteen, but really what he does is strip a lot of the excess from The Boss’s approach, writing with a keen sense of detail and little wasted in his spare lyrics. He arranges his songs similarly, balancing acoustic guitar and fiddle against understated electric guitars and organ with little in the way of soloing bombast or orchestral pretension. And I’ll be damned if the chorus to “Jack & Diane” isn’t the most perfect catchy-bleak-honest sentiment of any heartland rocker I’ve ever heard, Bruce be damned.

Plus, the whole Springsteen thing has probably followed him around enough as it is. If anything, generations of Americana singer/songwriters since the 1980s owe more to Mellencamp than he ever owed to his Jersey counterpart. Seriously, listen to folks like Ryan Bingham or Chris Knight and tell me they aren’t just pale imitations when you compare them to the real thing.

So how was the show you ask? Pretty good. Mellencamp opened with a couple of tunes from Plain Spoken as if to prove his songwriting hasn’t lost his step and each was full of his characteristic populist anger and cynical regret. He then proceeded to move smoothly between big hits and deeper cuts, keeping the crowd happy without devolving into pure nostalgia. His solid backing band was as unflashy as his recordings, with only violinist Miriam Sturm truly stepping out and showing off virtuosic chops. And although he was in fine vocal form throughout the evening, punctuating most every song with an energetic yelp or a holler, he seemed mostly bemused, as if he’s a cantankerous-yet-energetic young grandpa who is surprised to find himself surrounded by grandchildren given what a gruff he’s been throughout much of his life. The only time he addressed the crowd directly was to speak vaguely of history and aging, warning that “time is the only critic without an agenda” and delivering a cryptic parable about eating your eggs. It all felt vaguely like a performance Michael Keaton might riff on, Birdman-style, in the next few years.

While the hits might seem the obvious highlights (the acoustic “Jack & Diane,” replete with a gentle chiding of the karaoke crowd for prematurely jumping to the chorus, was genuinely moving), my favorite moments were on newer introspective ballads like “Longest Days” and “The Isolation of Mister” where Mellencamp’s weathered voice and wizened perspective were perfectly matched with the jaundiced philosophy of his earlier material. The other big surprise was when he went into full on Tom Waits-mode, playing up the cragginess of his voice as he sauntered around on stage with maniacal glee on bluesy romps like “The Full Catastrophe of Life.”

At the end of the day, a few people with me were still a bit bummed about some missed hits, but a set featuring “Small Town,” “Pink Houses,” “Cherry Bomb,” “The Authority Song,” and “Rain on the Scarecrow” can hardly be faulted for not giving the crowd what they wanted. For myself, I was just glad to see a legend who was still vital and creating new music while finding a comfortable way to please his audience and put on a good show. As we’ve too often seen, a 60-something rocker can do far, far worse. –Kyle Petersen

Revived Magazine Auntie Bellum Provides an Outlet for Southern Women to Speak Once Again

by Kirby Knowlton

Thirty years ago, there was a magazine for South Carolina women and their art, ideas, experiences, and concerns. This magazine was called Auntie Bellum and was first published in 1977. The founding editors wrote in the inaugural pages that “this kind of publication is long overdue. Women here have lacked some necessary tools for examining what experiences they have in common with those of other women.”

Today, Auntie Bellum is being revived by a new group of Columbia women. Though the original magazine only ran for four issues, it featured women of all different backgrounds and covered many different subjects. Auntie Bellum was a place for artists, activists, hair stylists, and beauty queens to write about everything from women’s history to health, politics to poetry. Meeghan Kane, the new editor, aims to pay homage to the original publication and grow a community for southern women.

“Like the original,” says Kane, “we’d like to focus on arts and culture, politics and health.” The magazine wants to show particular attention to the issues of domestic violence and reproductive rights, especially how they are being debated in the South Carolina State House. As a safe space for women to talk about all subjects, Auntie Bellum will “publish survivors’ stories from a broad range of experiences, including rape and assault, and struggles with sexual orientation, harassment, and discrimination,” says Kane. Auntie Bellum is looking for article-length content about any subject pertaining to southern women, including “the music and art they’re creating, the jokes they’re telling, and the stands they’re taking.” Not to leave the original publication in the past, the magazine also to include a great deal of southern women’s history.

Auntie Bellum is as necessary a resource for women today as in 1977. The original issues give evidence that there were more abortion clinics open back then than there are today. “Equal pay, sexual harassment, and domestic violence are all, unbelievably, still hotly debated topics,” says Kane. Auntie Bellum’s mission is to amplify voices who have the ideas and will to bring about changing the inequalities still affecting southern women. Kane hopes to include podcasts, photography, videos, and art in the publication and its website, “to get a bunch of women involved, and give us a broader reach and a longer run.”

The magazine will have a website up in early April, and plans on having its first print issue by the end of the year. The women involved are Meeghan Kane, Roxy Lenzo, Heather Green, Courtney Phillips, Sara Kennedy, Jenni Brennison, Brittany Braddock, Karla Turner, and Betty Benns. Auntie Bellum aims to be an inclusive publication, inviting anyone to speak who has a story to tell, regardless of age, gender, or sexuality.

For more information about Auntie Bellum, check out their Facebook page at facebook.com/AuntieBellumMagazine or email them at auntiebellummagazine@gmail.com