What: Barbie Angell Poetry Show!
When: Friday, February 4 · 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Where: The Hop Ice Cream Cafe

It’s a little known fact, to the public in general, that one of america’s premier authors of poetry for children, Shel Silverstein, also drew cartoons for playboy magazine. In his lifetime, however, this did not hurt any of his multiple careers. He continued to write books for children while both drawing and writing specifically for adult audiences. A versatile and prolific song writer, he also penned such iconic favorites as “A Boy Named Sue” for Johnny Cash and his own “I Got Stoned and I Missed It”. When my readers are surprised that i write lyrical and g-rated verse for kids while at the same time being highly inappropriate on the childless twitter and facebook, I think of people like Shel & Theodore Geisel. While you may be unaware of Mr. Geisel’s exceptionally explicit adult drawings, I’m positive you’ve read his more well known work under the pen name of “Dr. Suess”.

My upcoming show at The Hop West Ice Cream Cafe will be predominantly directed to the shorter members of the audience....and let me tell you, there is no more difficult a crowd to entertain than those under the age of 15. I intend to be witty, sweet and probably a little goofy as I will be wearing the enormous, pink, tulle skirt given to me by LOFT of Asheville. but, most importantly, I will be leaving the r-rated humor and darker, more serious poems behind for the evening.

Fear not though. I plan to pick all those things back up before heading over to Sazerac for drinks & conversation at the “after-party” event.

~Barbie Angell

What: {Pre}HAPPENING Wine Tasting
When: January 27, 2011 from 5:00 - 8:00pm
Where: The Wine Studio 169 Charlotte Street

Performance: Claire Elizabeth Barratt (dance) and Elisa Faires (music)
An improvisation based on ideas of clarity and precision in movement and sound.

Tickets for the second annual {Re}HAPPENING will go on sale at a special event to be held at The Wine Studio. As an added incentive to get tickets early (before they sell out!), organizers are offering a 10% discount on {Re}HAPPENING dinner tickets to anyone who attends the wine tasting. This event will also showcase video footage from last year's {Re}HAPPENING and a sampler of live performances by local artists. Tickets for the wine tasting are $10 per person. A portion of the proceeds will help defray expenses for this year's {Re}HAPPENING.

Inspired by our idea of what a typical Saturday night at Black Mountain College might have been like, the {Re}HAPPENING on April 9th will begin with a cocktail social, leading into a seated “family style” dinner. The second part of the evening will include drinks, light appetizers and an extended evening of art, performance & dancing. Tickets for the entire evening including dinner are $50 ($40 for BMCM+AC and MAP members). For the second half only, the ticket price is $15 ($10 for members). Vinnie's Neighborhood Italian will again provide the main course, and dozens of local restaurants will contribute. The 2011 artist lineup will be announced soon, so stay tuned to www.rehappening.com for updates.

Who: Stu Helm | www.cheesygraphics.com
What: DIY: Drone Summit of the Carolina Mountains 001
When: Friday, January, 28th, 2011 9PM - 2AM
Where: Downstairs at Stella Blue in Downtown Asheville, WNC

Guest Submission by: Stu Helm

One day I was sitting in a local cafe/bakery reading. Patsy Kline was playing on the stereo, and I wasn't paying much attention. When her song ended, there was a moment of silence and then a subtle droning sound that went on for several minutes, until I took notice, and looked up from my book. "Wow, what a great song," I thought to myself, "but pretty avant garde for this place." Then I realized that the stereo had stopped playing music altogether, and the "song" I was enjoying so much was the hum of the refrigeration unit synching up with the whir of the mixer in the kitchen to create a pleasant and harmonious oscillating drone. I didn't want it to ever stop.

To me this is modern drone music in it's purest form: the accidental music of machines.

When human hands control those machines -- in the form of guitars, pedals, keyboards, synthesizers, computers, and amplifiers -- drones can be created, combined, mixed, manipulated, layered, and elevated to awesome pinnacles of sound and vibration that will numb the mind, and massage the body with tonal tides of audio-kinetic goo.

Ahhhh... gooooo... Drugs can enhance the experience. So can flashing lights and shit like that. Wahhhh!

So, anyways, I love drones -- they sooth me -- and come to find out some of my friends love drones too, and so do some of their friends, and now I know it's wicked hip, because Jamie Hepler is playing Drone Music at after hours parties in Montford and shit. You know, Jamie Hepler from Soft Opening. Soft Opening? Only the best band in Asheville. Sorry, other bands. I did a poll.

Okay, so I've decided to put on a show. A drone show, with music and flashing lights and shit (BYOD) and I decided to call it "The Drone Summit of the Carolina Mountains 001." There's some festival here in Asheville called The Drone Valley Festival, but sadly it has nothing to do with Drone Music, so forget them, I'm putting on a Drone Summit.

I used to book Stoner Rock shows when I lived in Chicago, so I know it's a pain in the ass, but also a relatively easy thing to do.

First, I contacted Stella's on College Street, and asked them for a Friday or Saturday night, they very graciously gave me Friday, Jan 28th, 9pm - 2am.

Next, I booked three bands:
NOOSE 10pm - 10:30
Jamie Hepler 10:45 - 11:25
Zach and Abe 11:45 - 1:00 or 1:30

And a visual artist:
JSF, Projectionist

Then, I recruited a couple helper bees: My buddy Eric and my friend ohia who is great at networking and promotion.

Got some sponsors:
Blackout Effectors
Henco ReproGraphics
Monkeyfist Design

Then I did a bunch of graphics and built a web page (It helps that I'm a graphic designer for a living) | www.cheesygraphics.com/dronesummit
And a Drone Summit Facebook Page.

And then I wrote a press release, and an article for MAP, and then... oh wait, that's now! I am currently writing that article for MAP. And smoking drugs. And listening to Drones. Wahhhhhh.....

Things I still have to do include printing and distributing posters and fliers, printing T-shirts, showing the space to JSF, Projectionist, loading the bands in, doing sound check, and producing the actual show on the night it all goes down. Fun? Not really, it's a lot of work, and I hate people, so being at the show will kind of suck for me, but it will be a shit-ton of fun for the people who attend, care free, grooving on the drones, Man. My satisfaction will come from having done it.

You can do it too! All you need is a concept and some social skills. Bands are easy to deal with, artists a little less so, but still not impossible, and venues are looking for shit to fill their rooms. Just remember: the more people involved with organizing, the more headaches you will have. Be a tyrant. Run your own show. Make those helper bees work! But be nice, because you'll catch more bees with honey than vinegar. Have I mentioned that bees make a pleasant droning sound when they swarm? Bzzzzzz....

For more info read the Press Release.