February 2010
2 posts
Chairwoman of the board →
“She looked like she had been riding for years on the very first day I watched her ride,” says snowboarder Lindsea Lumpkin’s father, Tommy. “It was incredible.” That was at age 4 - which is not all that long ago, considering Lindsea is now 12. Although Lindsea lists her hometown as Athens, she’s currently living and attending school in Frisco, Colo., enrolled...
Pair has good-natured fun with found footage →
When Nick Prueher discovered the cult-hit TV show “Mystery Science Theater 3000” as a kid, a dream was born: “I thought, these are kindred spirits! They’ve found a way to make fun of bad entertainment for a living. It was something to aspire to: You could be a professional smartass.”
January 2010
3 posts
Fiery Furnaces quietly making noise →
“If you go to a show, and there’s a lot of people there in the audience, and they all like this one band, sometimes it’s a nice idea to just get rid of the band entirely,” says Matt Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces.
It’s an unexpected proposition from a man who makes a significant portion of his income from live musical performance. Then again, The Fiery Furnaces...
Art explores nature and nurture →
Go ahead, stare. In the new exhibit at Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, breasts are front and center, though that’s far from the whole story.
Exhibit puts face on 'Soundtrack to Nothing' →
The inside of a teenager’s mind looks a lot like a movie. Everyday events take on profound importance, time seems elastic and relative, and most importantly, there’s a soundtrack, with songs that distill complicated feelings into silver bullets of emotion. Is it a wonder that coming-of-age stories, then, make such wonderful films? Not to photographer Christy Bush, whose art exhibit,...
December 2009
2 posts
New bike racks practical, thoughtful public art →
“BIKE,” it says, in letters as tall as a five-year-old. It’s an instruction, maybe. A suggestion? It’s actually quite self-explanatory. It’s a bike rack.
Athens embraces the spotlight →
Watching the guys in the Athens band practice, the adults hanging around have so many good things to say about the fellas: how mature they are, how talented and ambitious. The band, named for its hometown, is made up of four guys younger than 16, and the group has performed dozens of shows, mostly alongside musicians twice their age. You can hear the pride in their parents’ voices when they...
November 2009
1 post
Young rockers ready for camp finale →
Take away the foam-covered walls and you’d never know it was only practice to watch Death of the Peanut King play in one of the rehearsal rooms at Nuçi’s Space. The group, made up of Gedia Powell, Jacob Samuelson and Sean VanMeter, is preparing to go into the studio to record their rock opera, “Death of the Peanut King,” to be performed tonight during a showcase at the...
October 2009
3 posts
Sing away the stress →
Sometimes words are so limiting. There are days when a groan, a sigh, a growl or a sob can get your point across more clearly.
“One of my clients started doing these types of things in her marriage,” says Susan Elizabeth Hale, a music therapist and sound healer from Asheville, N.C. “When there were intense things that couldn’t be solved in words, they would take it into...
'Free Press' mingles art, journalism →
Here we have a newspaper article about an art exhibition about newspaper articles.
The premise is unwieldy.
For one, in case you haven’t noticed, print media in general is not doing very well. But talking about that in the paper proves to be awkward. As journalists, our livelihoods are at stake, but we’re not supposed to get personally involved with the story.
Objectivity and all...
Poet, author sharing her stories →
George Bridgetower’s story doesn’t get much press.
There’s not a lot to tell, or at least, not a lot you can find.
Bridgetower, a biracial virtuoso violinist who lived in Europe in the early 1800s, was a celebrated musician on his way to becoming immortalized with a sonata written for him by Ludwig van Beethoven, the “Sonata per uno mulaticco lunattico.” But then,...
September 2009
5 posts
Tibi girls: Success by design →
Twenty years ago, Amy Smilovic was just an undergrad at the University of Georgia, wearing used clothes she bought at Junkman’s Daughter’s Brother, but pining after the dresses in the window at Heery’s Clothes Closet.
Now, she’s a fashion designer with 10 collections a year under her label, Tibi, and has models like Chanel Iman, Erin Heatherton and Coco Rocha showing her...
Gilland wins award, but not slowing down →
Tammy Gilland only looks like a schoolteacher.
“I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody stops me in the grocery store or in a meeting and asks, ‘Where do you teach? Are you a teacher?’ ” she says. “No, I just look like one. I must have that look about me.”
Gilland actually is - well, it might be a shorter list to tell what Gilland isn’t.
Qigong class at garden will teach relaxation →
Carl Lindberg almost broke my wrist.
That’s a lie. He didn’t almost break my wrist, not even close. But he could have. That much is true.
Lindberg, widely known in the Athens music community as a jazz musician and member of local groups Grogus, Squat and DubConscious, also is a 15-year practitioner and decade-long teacher of Chinese martial arts, including Qigong and Taijiquan. And...
Guess who's having a Hootenanny →
“I like giving everybody something to rally around,” says Ryan Lewis, Kindercore Records co-owner and Owl Scooters design marketing employee (who’s also Marquee’s very own Action 5! columnist).
Lewis has plenty of experience in bringing people together.
In 1996, Lewis founded Kindercore with business partner Dan Geller. The label was not just about records, but about...
Killick: Free radical →
To hear Killick Hinds tell it, death isn’t quite as scary as you might think. That’s not to say the Athens musician is advocating dying, nor did he himself die - though he came very close. The musician last year arrived at the hospital in a life-threatening state, having lost a large amount of blood from a duodenal ulcer he didn’t know he had. “I woke up one day feeling...
August 2009
6 posts
Mule Train: A label for two →
It takes a special kind of person to operate six businesses from one office. Make that two special kinds of persons.
When Ryan and Jill Kelly launched Mule Train Records in May 2008, they added a full-service music company offering recording, publicity, booking and merchandising to their already busy schedule.
Carolyn Hennesy both author, actress →
Sometimes she’s getting in touch with the self-consciousness and turmoil of her inner 13-year-old. Others, she unleashes her cougar side, a sophisticated, sexual woman on the prowl for younger men. In case that change-up isn’t enough to cause whiplash, she throws in some flying trapeze for good measure.
Exhausting? Confusing? For actress and author Carolyn Hennesy, her many pursuits...
Artists' exhibit makes monsters 'approachable' →
Don’t go looking for TV dinners in Jillian Guarco’s freezer. In fact, don’t expect anything edible. It’s filled with bugs. Sound monstrous? Precisely.
Turtle race to raise funds for child abuse agency →
“It’s one of the bravest things a child can do, to tell someone what happened to them,” says Courtney McVey, executive director of the Tree House Inc., a nonprofit organization in Winder that serves to reduce the impact and occurrence of child abuse. Through its efforts, the staff tries to “plant that seed of beginning that healing process.”
Last year the agency...
Girls learn to rock at camp just for them →
A girl never forgets her first distortion pedal.
Calley Payne, executive director of Girls Rock Camp Athens, relates how one of the campers to Athens’ first such camp reacted to playing her guitar with the effect applied.
“Her eyes just lit up,” Payne says. “It’s amazing when you give girls the tools. The girls have really latched on to what’s going on around...
July 2009
6 posts
Everything Elvis: Woman makes collecting... →
On Aug. 16, 1977, things changed for Joni Mabe. She’d never been much of an Elvis fan, but that day, during a 24-hour radio tribute to the just-passed King, Elvis spoke to her.
“I became a fan the day he died,” says Mabe, better known to many as “Joni Mabe the Elvis Babe.” “Something about his voice - I became obsessed.”
Obsessed definitely is the...
Small actors, big roles →
It’s one week before the opening of “Dear Edwina,” Oconee Youth Playhouse’s latest production, and dozens of elementary and middle school-aged kids are packed into a rehearsal room to run the show.
OYP co-director Terra Hannon is calling everyone to order. “We’re running straight through, no stopping, so just do your best!”
The accompanist starts to...
Choir members gather to sing their old songs →
This is a story about the difference good teachers can make.
Or maybe it’s about enduring friendship.
Then again, it’s mostly about the power of music, and how several dozen people, many of whom hadn’t seen each other since junior high or high school 40-odd years ago, came from all over the country earlier this month to hang out and sing the music they learned together many...
GameCamp! takes off at the Georgia Center →
If you see sending the kids to camp as a way to get them away from computers and video games, you might reconsider that position.
Time to fly away
(this story appeared in the summer 2009 issue of “Next,” a magazine for people over 50 living in Athens, Ga.) On a cool night in early May, among 200-year old iron oak trees covered in Spanish moss, Susan Murphy may have had her swan song. The aerial dancer and founder of Canopy Studio in Athens stepped out from the edge of the gathered crowd, introduced herself to a group of...
Tours offer historic looks of Classic City →
It’s a scorching morning: 95 degrees, and only 10 a.m. The hosts offer what they can to help their guests forget the heat: mimosas served by Peggy Galis on her porch, poured from silver pitchers into immediately-sweating glasses; wide-brimmed hats pulled from Joan Bertsch’s closet and handed out to the ladies in the group.
June 2009
3 posts
ATHICA exhibit all about the journey →
When Robert August Peterson describes his audio/video installation for an upcoming art exhibit as “a total departure,” he’s talking about it in relation to his earlier work - but he just as easily could be describing the creative journeys that brought each of the featured artists to new, undiscovered places.
Reversing roles to raise funds →
As fundraisers in Athens go, aprons fall on the more “vanilla” end of uniforms to be worn by male participants, surpassed in showiness and discomfort by sequined frocks and high heels donned at other local events. Actually, there’s probably a lot about this weekend’s Habitat for Humanity Men in Aprons Bake Sale that’s likely to be vanilla.
Georgia Museum of Art names new curator →
You won’t find Lynn Boland, the newly-named Pierre Daura curator of European art at the Georgia Museum of Art, strolling through spacious galleries or explaining great works to patrons. At least not yet.
For now - and for months to come - Boland will be hunkered down at a desk, poring over manuscripts, making phone calls and comparing notes, nowhere near the museum. …
May 2009
2 posts
Rock: It's a grrl thing →
“I remember my mother helping me get a weekly 3-hour-long gig at age 15 at a restaurant that paid really well,” says Leralynn of Birds & Wire. “She told the booking guy that I was 21, and that I had just recorded an album with some bigwigs in Nashville. He totally bought it. He even poured me a massive margarita at the audition.”
Leralynn - who goes by one name - was...
Meet by chance at 'Intersections' →
Not promising anything, but the multi-disciplinary performance at Floorspace on Friday night just might be a good opportunity to find your next partner - artistic partner, that is.
Denise Posnak, one of the organizers and performers for “Intersections,” says that one of the great things about living in Athens is how easy it is to meet people in the arts community. “I will have...
April 2009
5 posts
Artist opens her doors with 'Small Change' →
The house is positively storybook. Out front, a dozen kinds of flowers flop and tumble down the granite pavers leading from the front door. Squirrels chase each other from rose-covered trellis to ginkgo tree, and on the sunny porch railing, a little green lizard suns itself. The cottage landscape is soft, a little haphazard, the work of a gardener who knows the benefits of just a little neglect....
Twilight: 30 things you should know →
It’s easy to get caught up in the energy of one of Athens’ best weekends: Twilight.
But what do you really know about the annual bike race series celebrating its 30th year this weekend?
Ashley Forgay, the director of marketing and stage manager for Twilight Criterium, sat down with the Banner-Herald to talk about how the event has turned from a home-grown race into a...
20 fabulous years of balls →
As one of Athens’ favorite annual fundraisers, the Boybutante Ball has become an “event of the season” in its 20-year existence.
Born from humble beginnings, the drag show and dance party went from its conception as an over-the-top one-time event to being the most visible benefit for AIDS support services in the Athens area (all event proceeds go to the Boybutante AIDS...
Dancers to showcase their skills at UGA →
“We’re trying to develop the well-rounded dancer who can go out to an audition anywhere,” says Denise Posnak, a lecturer of dance at the University of Georgia. “The contemporary dancer in the 21st century is often required to perform a variety of techniques and styles,” she says. “It is what is necessary.”
Silk artist's pieces bring new life to classic... →
In her Jackson Street studio, René Shoemaker is a blank slate. Clad in black from head to toe, the artist and director of the Circle Gallery at the University of Georgia’s College of Environment and Design is talking eagerly about color, her voice animated.
The absence of color in her wardrobe could not be more dissimilar from the art surrounding her….
March 2009
5 posts
Chairlift beyond 'Bruises' →
In 20 years, if record companies still release compilation albums, it’s inevitable someone will release a collection of indie songs from television commercials.
I can see the “TimeLife” promo now - the track list would include some combination of songs from car commercials, songs from shoe commercials, and - featured high on the scrolling list of “such favorites” -...
Woman on fire: Art of surprise →
“I want my show to be unlike anything else I’ve ever seen,” says Justin Moyer, known on stage as Edie Sedgwick. The bearded, cross-dressing Moyer is remarkably earnest when he says this. I think. It’s sort of hard to tell when Moyer is joking, and I’m pretty sure that’s the joke.
Sisters revive breast cancer fundraiser →
Do not underestimate the power of 10 ta-tas in one family.
As the founders of the cheekily-named BreastFest, the O’Brien sisters - Anne, Bridget, Megan, Sara and Katie - certainly have made their mark on Athens. Ten years ago, Sara, then an undergraduate student at the University of Georgia, started BreastFest in honor of her mother, Tyanna O’Brien, who lost her battle to breast...
Athens Soundies make low-budget Web videos for... →
This story was fun to do. Jason Miller of Athens Soundies is a great guy—super humble about the cool work he’s putting out. The Soundies are inspired by Vincent Moon’s Take-Away Shows. Check out Athens’ version at athenssoundies.com.
Bare feet sinking into the soft mud of the riverbank, Erin Wright of Dancer Vs. Politician draws her bow across the viola. Against the...
Darling duo: The Watson Twins →
Chandra and Leigh Watson are the kind of girls who smile a lot. In the music industry, it’s a bit of a rarity - performers who are happy and not afraid to show it. The Watson Twins, as Chandra and Leigh’s folk-pop outfit is known, seem like the kind of girls your grandmother would love to feed a home-cooked Sunday lunch, but their sweet dispositions don’t seem to be hurting their...
February 2009
3 posts
2009 Dancing With the Athens Stars lineup →
Dancing with the Athens Stars returns for its second year tonight.
The event puts a spotlight on some of the Classic City’s better-known faces and names, pairing them with an instructor and setting them loose on the Classic Center’s stage to show off their moves. …
Community Connection marks milestone with treat →
Who can resist a dessert so sweet and special, it’s served with a song?
Although it only comes around once a year, birthday cake is guaranteed to be sublime. …
Former Whigs bassist plays on his own terms →
From somebody to nobody might be a familiar trajectory in the career of a musician, but typically it’s not intentional.
Unless you’re Hank Sullivant. …
October 2008
1 post
5 tags
Found Footage Festival celebrates the absurd and... →
Maybe it seemed like a good idea at the time.
What better way to teach kids the proper names for their private anatomy than through a song performed by a friendly man with a guitar? We may never know if children developed a greater understanding and respect for their bodies after watching that educational video, but one thing’s certain: it’s comic gold.
Finding one such video is a...
September 2008
2 posts
5 tags
Review: Baby Mama →
Paste Magazine, September 2008 issue
Science has given us nothing if not new life for the ‘you want to put what, where?’ schtick. …
4 tags
Saturday Night Live
Athens Magazine, September-October 2008 issue
In my dimly-lit living room on a Saturday night, the blue glow of the television flickers in the corner. While the world outside celebrates the weekend in crowded restaurants and bars, Saturday night programming is largely a no-man’s land: those staying in find even the airwaves seem deserted, as if the station manager put in a forgotten movie, hit...
August 2008
2 posts
4 tags
Group is holding steady →
Athens Banner-Herald, August 7, 2008 edition
Followers of The Hold Steady sometimes refer to the New York group’s fan base as “the Unified Scene.” While the phrase has made two appearances in frontman Craig Finn’s lyrics, in this sense, it refers to a certain unity that live music often underscores, and which The Hold Steady shows are famous for delivering: a sense of...