Radio Free Charleston's 2012 FestivAll Preview

[HTML1]

Above this text you see RFC 160, "Deep And Dangerous Shirt," our FestivAll stream-of-consciousness preview/sampler show. We tell you about some of the cool things happening during FestivAll, and we give you some examples of the artists and performers on display. This is not, by any means, a comprehensive guide--for that, visit the FestivAll website. This is just a sampler, so enjoy!

We kick things off standing in The Lee Street Triangle, where, on Saturday July 16, at Noon, there will be a free edition of Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art show, where anybody who wants to will get the chance to do some live figure drawing.

[caption id="attachment_8336" align="alignright" width="260" caption="John Lilly, nearly in silouhette"][/caption]

Also kicking off at noon a few blocks South and around the corner, is the Music Works songwriters event at Capitol Roasters. Performers such as Andy Park, Paul Calicoat, Emily Burdette, Uncle Eddie and Robin and more will be bringing their original music to the coffee house setting at Roasters. We begin our FestivAll sampler with John Lilly, who will take the stage at 1:30 PM. This is from last year's Music Works.

[caption id="attachment_8338" align="alignleft" width="260" caption="Buddy Black"][/caption]

We then go to Park Place Cinema, where on Monday, June 18, Park Place will present a showing of Danny Boyd's classic WV Horror film, "Chillers" which is celebrating 25 years with a DVD rerelease, a graphic novel and a tribute EP by Canadian punker, Buddy Black. Buddy will be performing at The Boulevard Tavern shortly after the movie ends, and we have his cover of the theme song from Chillers on this week's show. This was filmed at Bruno's, directed by Curtis Baskerville and features many of the original "Chillers" cast and crew.

[caption id="attachment_8339" align="alignright" width="260" caption=""Ladybeard""][/caption]

Next up we have the trailer for David Smith's movie, "Lady Beard," scenes of which will be screened at WVSU's Digiso during the open projector part of the WV Filmmakers Guild annual spring meeting. The meeting kicks off at noon, while workshops begin at 2:30 and open projector night starts at 6 PM.

[caption id="attachment_8341" align="alignleft" width="260" caption="The Demon Beat"][/caption]

Music lovers won't want to miss a great night of music June 15, following Live on the Levee, as The Demon Beat, Tofujitsu and Qiet storm the stage at the Boulevard Tavern. Through the good graces of Sean Richardson, we have a very cool music video of The Demon Beat performing "Get It."

On the bill with The Demon Beat, are Tofujitsu and Qiet. But you will see also be able to catch Tofujitsu, along with Qiet, providing music for FestiBrawl, a

[caption id="attachment_8343" align="alignright" width="260" caption="Qiet"][/caption]

Chemical Valley Rollergirls bout which will be held at the Charleston Civic Center at 5:30, Saturday June 16.  As a taste of that event, we bring you a video of Qiet performing on Capitol Street during last month's ArtWalk. You can also see Tofujitsu performing Sunday June 17 at the East End Main Street Streetworks Auction and Celebration, and in a music video directed by Eamon Hardiman on our sixth anniversary show, coming up in July.

[caption id="attachment_8344" align="alignleft" width="260" caption="Jenna Brooke Swanson"][/caption]

Capitol Street is, in some ways, the main artery of FestivAll. On June 16 this is where you'll find the Art Parade and Dr. Sketchy's.. On June 23 and 24 this street becomes the art fair, with tents loaded with the works of local artists and several performance stages dotting the street. You will see music, magic, and even bellydancing.  We bring you a clip of Jenna Brooke Swanson that we filmed last year. I do not have the name of her fellow dancer, but I'm hoping that one of my readers may enlighten me in the comments section of this blog.

At this point in the production notes, I'm going to give a little "inside baseball" explanation of some of the stuff in this episode of RFC. We put this epic show together on the fly. Host segments were all shot on Sunday morning, ad-libbed from a page of cheat notes, which are visible in almost every shot. Life, in the form of bats and toy shows, intruded on our production schedule, and we wound up having to drop two planned tapings of theatrical events for this preview. Another result of the impromptu nature of the show is that I introduce Jenna as dancing with her troupe, and then show a clip that is just her with one other dancer. The truth is, while editing the show, I found a better clip than the one I planned to use, so I ran with it.

[caption id="attachment_8345" align="alignright" width="260" caption="Sasha Colette"][/caption]

"Next To Normal" is one of the musicals which we planned to record for this show. Because of extenuating circumstances which would look like I was mimicking the late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, we did not get to do that, but I do stand in front of a poster for the musical, and plug it thusly...At the Civic Center Little Theater. The Charleston Light Opera Guild presents "Next To Normal." This most unusual musical opens June 15, and runs throughout FestivAll.

From the Civic Center Little Theater we go back a year or two, to the Gazebo in Davis Park, where our cameras caught up to Sasha Collette and the Magnolias. Sasha will be part of the Music Works event at Capitol Roasters on June 16.

[caption id="attachment_8350" align="alignleft" width="260" caption="Comparsa"][/caption]

Another great theatrical experience that was a victim of our assaulted schedule is "Norman Rockwell's American Paradise," which opens here at the WVSU Capital Center Theater. This original musical by Dan Kehde and Mark Scarpelli brings to life the paintings of Norman Rockwell, and is presented by The Contemporary Youth Arts Company. It opens June 14, and runs through the 23rd.

Capitol Roasters, right across the corner from the Capitol Center Theater, is not only the locale for Music Works 2012 on June 16, It will also play host to the Derick Kirk 2012 scholarship concert. Starting at 6 PM, musicians such as Jim Lange, The Bob Thompson Unit and The Voodoo Katz donate their time to raise money to honor the memory of their fallen colleague, Derek Kirk. Returning this year is WV's hot Latin Band, Comparsa, we bring you footage of them recorded last year at the Derek Kirk Benefit.

Sunday, June 17, sees the East End Main Street Streetworks Auction and Celebration, held at Habitat Restore. More than 25 local artists have created artworks that will be converted into 36" round street signs to be installed aloned Washington Street East. You can read about my experiences making one of these signs here. . The original works will be auctioned off, with half the proceeds going to EEMS. I am pround to be one of those artists, and you can get in on the early bidding at the special Facebook page for the event. Music for the evening will be provided by Tofujitsu, who are certainly not slacking, with three shows in three days to kick off FestivAll 2012.

[caption id="attachment_8347" align="alignright" width="260" caption="Brian Diller"][/caption]

Playing us out on this forty-five-minute FestivAll sampler is one of our local legends, Brian Diller. This year, Brian is reuniting his old band from the 1980s, so we will see Brian Diller and The Ride perform for the first time in over twenty years at Haddad Riverfront Park . I shot this footage Brian a couple of years ago, when he returned to his native Charleston from his current home in Nashville.

[caption id="attachment_8348" align="alignleft" width="260" caption="Deep and Dangerous"][/caption]

Our namesake shirt this week is "Deep And Dangerous" a shirt from Washington DC's Arena Stage. We shot host segments all over town, jumping out of Melanie Larch's car, recording them, then jumping back in to zoom to the next location. Mel's car even shows up in a couple of points in the show.

That's the story of our FestivAll 2012 preview show. We did only scratch the surface, so please visit the Festivall website for the full schedule. We will return in a week with our "FestivAll-vérité" look at the first weekend of Charleston becoming a work of art.