It happens every year, and its always worth picking up. The Oxford American has put out its 11th annual Southern Music issue, which provides some of the most insightful and well researched music writing of the year. With this edition, the publication launches a new series that will continue throughout the next several iterations of this issue, focusing on the music of a specific state. They start with their home, Arkansas. All Things Considered ran a piece on it the other day, and Wisconsin-based music blog Muzzle of Bees also ran a post on the issue today. As both ATC and the blog noted, Arkansas’ Johnny Cash doesn’t make his way onto the compilation disc, but Linda Martell, Larry Donn, Wiley and The Checkmates, Feminine Complex, the Oliver Lake Organ Trio and William Grant Still are all in the mix. Check it out.
WXDU will be hosting a live on-air performance from Des Ark Sunday at 4 p.m. Per the blog (albeit edited a bit), Aimee Argote has been writing a ton of new songs:
…but now i got a pile of new songs, and these new ones, they’re nothing like those two old ones. they’re f–ing sad, & so i’m just writing to let you know that everything is going to be ok, that everything is back to normal. i’m done wasting your time with that sappy happy crap, kicked the bug from my system. i’m playing real songs again. it is time to f–ing cry, y’all!
You can listen here. And in an other bit of Des Ark news, we just unearthed this video of Argote playing solo from the Midtown Dickens release party in April. Remember when she was going to bring everyone outside and play under a tree? That show. Enjoy.
In a press release issued today, Full Frame announced the duo of Liz Garbus and Rory Kennedy, the founders of Moxie Films, will be the recipients of the festival’s 2010 Career Award. From the press release:
Together, they have produced and directed a wide range of work exploring social issues through the lives of everyday people, including examinations of the U.S. legal system, AIDS, violence, abuse, and human rights.
“We are honored to celebrate the work of Liz Garbus and Rory Kennedy. It has been a privilege to exhibit their work since the Festival’s beginning,” [Director of Programming Sadie] Tillery said. “Their unique directing and producing partnership is responsible for such an incredible collection of films, and we look forward to having the opportunity to showcase a selection from their outstanding careers.”
Garbus produced and directed the Oscar-nominated The Farm: Angola USA, which also received an Emmy nod and won the first ever Full Frame (then Double Take) audience award. She also won an Emmy for 2007’s Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, which Kennedy directed. Kennedy also directed 1999’s American Hollow.
Though the Full Frame Festival is months away, some of last year’s best documentaries are returning to Durham for a second lap.
The Beaches of Agnes will kick off the short series and screen tonight at 7 p.m. at Bay 7 of the American Tobacco Campus . The documentary, about an aging French artist looking back on her life, originally screened at last year’s festival and has just been shortlisted by the Academy as a possible best documentary nominee. The Cove (Feb. 10) and Food, Inc. (March 10), two other Full Frame alums, also appeared on the list of 15 potentials and will screen in the coming months.
The Nasher is kicking off the semester with a big one. Art critic and cultural theorist Dave Hickey, author of Air Guitar and The Invisible Dragon. As the Nasher’s Wendy Hower Livingston puts it, Hickey “was practically born cool”: his resume includes a tenure as executive editor at Art in America, he spent time around the Factory and he has a MacArthur grant to his name.
Hickey is speaking at the museum tomorrow, Jan. 14 at 7 p.m. This is one not to be missed.
