The Arts Council - Thanks So Much for a Wonderful Evening!!

This is a short post my friends - not because tonight's Arts Council of the Blue Ridge Annual Meeting wasn't something worthy of a long post, but because I am just too awed for words. If you are a Roanoker and into the whole love-affair of our area's Arts presence, then you will appreciate this short and sweet entry.

First of all, I am a newbie Arts Council member. I belonged to my hometown's Council years ago in Elizabeth, NJ. We were not exactly bursting with members and programs. (I am still friends with one fellow who is a world-class 6-string Contra Bass player, a member and son of musicians/ artists, his mother being one of the leaders of the Elizabeth Arts Council. In fact, he will be performing here at the Taubman this coming Sunday. I will give details at the end of my post.)

Anyway, as a member to the Arts Council here, I went by invitation to its Annual Meeting and experienced a history lesson of this organization by one of its founding members: Ms Carol Bewley Dalhouse, the Arts Council's first Executive Director. She was the Guest Speaker for the meeting tonight held at the Eleanor D Wilson Museum at Hollins University. What a heart-warming story she told! And it was a real treat to hear it from the person who did so much to make this Arts Council a reality today. One of the amazing things I learned was how in its early days, they felt they had no choice but to return an initial grant of funds because trying to get matching donations took them away from the Council's real mission.

I met and chatted afterwards with some of the wonderful people on the Council's staff and made my way over to the special exposition of Artist Betty Branch: "Through The Crow's Eye, a Retrospective." Her work is currently on display at the Eleanor D Wilson Museum, as well as throughout Roanoke and beyond. (You can find more information about Ms Branch's sculptures and drawings - including videos - on her website http://www.bettybranch.com/. The artist has a Roanoke studio you may visit by appointment. The Betty Branch Sculpture Studio and Gallery is located in the Historic Warehouse District in Roanoke, Virginia at 123 Norfolk Avenue.)

Scuplture of women's figures, crows, a variety of media including fire - I took my time walking through the museum in amazement. I can't remember the last time I was so moved to stare so long at an artist's creations. I wondered what her mind was telling her hands - or was it her heart speaking, or an other-worldly breath? I was also intrigued by the combination of the two subjects. Could it be one theme? Indeed, sculptures of the female form/ female rites of passage (see Biographical Notes on her website) interspersed with sculptures of crows. The soft and the hard; the blunt and the sharp; the curved and the angled... those are just the visual contrasts. It seemed somehow perfect to me in the same room.

Well, I lied. This is not a short blog post after all. Therefore, let me finish by saying that my friends Denise Jordan Finley and Daniel Pagdon, singer-songwriters, will be performing at the Taubman this Sunday at 1pm. Perhaps I can see a woman-crow combination in their musical partnering now that I may never be able to shake that concept... Hmmm.

(Photos of Betty Branch's work are from her website, http://www.bettybranch.com/ and if there are any objections to embedding them here, please contact me and I will humbly comply with your request to remove them.)

NewVa Demo Day and Tech Expo 2009

On Friday, September 18th, the NewVA Corridor Technology Council held a Demo Day and Tech Expo at the Roanoke Civic Center. All visitors were welcome to come and join NCTC in the event, which Mary Miller, President of NCTC, aptly described as “a ‘show and tell’ for tech companies in the NewVA region.”

“Think of it as a science fair for regional innovation and cooperation,” she stated further in NCTC’s Attendee Packet.

It was exactly that! I had pre-registered on their website to be a visitor, and at the last moment requested that I bring the Star City FAME video camera. I knew it was going to be a treat. I’m so glad they said yes to me, because this video will be both educational and fun to watch. I ran across many eye-catching hi-tech wares from businesses in the area. But most special were exhibitions set up by students and their organizations. I have never felt more optimistic since attending the Tech Expo, particularly after talking to high school students and their mentors on the different projects they are working on together.

Let me give you the day’s highlights, although I’m sure I missed out on quite a few things. (I am only one guy with one camera, after all.) First, I headed over to the Welcoming Presentation, given by Mary Miller and Founding Dean of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Cynda Johnson. Ms Johnson spoke about the developments of the new teaching hospital, its importance to our healthcare excellence, and the positive future economic impact of having the VT-Carilion program here in Roanoke.

Afterwards, I ran off to speak with some of the day’s exhibitors. I thought I would video several people, but as it turned out, I spoke with ten different organizations about their products, services, and most importantly, about their innovations.

What turned out most impressive at the Expo were the student-oriented tables. By this I mean not only college students, but high school and younger. I was pleased to see Junior Achievement represented at the event, and I had spoken at length with its President, Katherin Elam, about the organization that I remember very well having a presence in my high school over thirty years ago. Also, I had spoken with several reps and high school students from the US First organization, which mentors and coaches children, and has several age group competitions in science and technology, such as robotics. Lastly I encountered Virginia Western Community College, whose representative and Administrative Officer, Leah Coffman, spoke to me on projects they sponsor for youngsters in teaching technical skills.

Of course, there were the fun things for motor heads like me. I interviewed two Virginia Tech SAE teams (Baja and Formula) who are part of the Mechanical Engineering program at VT. They brought their vehicles with them to show and describe to visitors. (I think I could have asked to get in one of them, but I’m afraid I would not have been able to climb out very easily at my age.)

I also spoke with businesses and local organizations on camera, so there will be a nice blend of professional-level and up-and-coming young new technology stars to look forward to in near future. It was a pleasure meeting them all. I know you will enjoy seeing and learning more about them too when I post the video interviews.

I hope to present the video on the Star City FAME YouTube Channel as soon as I coordinate final edits with NCTC’s cooperation. (Maybe it’ll even make it on their website!) So look out for that. The Roanoke region and the New River Valley are our great hotspots for technology bringing us a host of bright, talented minds.

If you stopped by the NTCT Demo Day and Tech Expo, let me know what you thought about it. I welcome your comments.

See you around Downtown!!

Ada Lis Jimena and William Krause performance of "Gipsy Soul"

Gipsy Soul is the nickname given in endearing terms to Garcia Lorca. The Spanish Popular Songs program given at the Roanoke Main Library on Monday, September 14th, by the Emerging Artists Series, was performed in his honor. Local artists Ada Lis Jimena, mezzosoprano and William Krause, guitarist, performed thirteen such songs in a mezmerizing, elegant evening at the Library to a full house of spell-bound listeners.

Presented in the musical program was a short written description about Lorca, "Gipsy Soul," distributed to guests so that they too may be familiar with his legend and artistic spirit:

"Garcia Lorca is Spain's most deeply appreciated and highly revered poet and dramatist. His murder by the Nationalists at the start of the Spanish Civil War brought sudden international fame. He must now be bracketed with Mocado as one of the two greatest poets Spain has produced this century, and he is certainly Spain's greatest dramatist since the Golden Age.
As poet his works reflected andalusian spirit. As a dramatist, he wrote romantic pieces with social implications and comedies.
However, music was one of the greatest passions of Lorca's life. In fact, he was a musician before he was a creative writer and had composed music before he wrote his first poems.
This program is about thirteen Spanish popular songs (Trece canciones populares espanolas) that Lorca collected during his trip to the Andalusia region in 1919."

Star City Fame filmed the evening's performance. Included here is one of the songs recorded live, entitled "Los mozos de Monleon."



What I found interesting was that I had seen familiar faces attending the Gipsy Soul performance who range in varying degrees of artistic tastes, and this illustrated to me the significance of Ada Lis' and William's presentation and talents. In the audience was a folk songwriter, a cultural dance performer, pop and rock music fans, opera fans, as well as Spanish music fans.

There is more information about Ada Lis and William on Emerging Artists' website, including additional videos. We look to bring a full interview of Ada Lis Jimena and William Krause in the near future, most hopefully as a video interview!!

About Emerging Artists Series:
River Laker (a/k/a Car Less Brit) is the man behind coordinating artistic performances at the Main Library. These events, the Emerging Artists Series, are some of the best and most interesting in Downtown. It focuses on local talent as well as artists imported from all over. Artists are of fine and performing arts of various mediums and genres.

New and Exciting Developments for Downtown

Some exciting times coming up in the near future for Roanoke City, Downtown in particular. Two of the most innovative projects due up are the Center in the Square renovation and the Heart of Roanoke "netroots" Community Organization which focuses on exploring and making changes in urban design for the core of the city.

Center in the Square Renovation:

Center in the Square, the building on Campbell Ave SW in the Market Square, is set to be renovated beginning early 2010. This historic structure is also home to Center in the Square, one of the seven non-profit organizations under The Western Virginia Foundation for the Arts and Sciences. The organization held its Annual Dinner at the Hotel Roanoke last evening (September 10th) to announce and illustrate its plans developed by local architecture and engineering company Spectrum Design, along with conducting its annual updates to members and guests. They also held a special silent auction throughout the evening to benefit part of its Capital Campaign.

Details of the renovation plan were given by Spectrum Design's David L Bandy, AIA and his associates in a captivating presentation and video, which you can view here through the Roanoke Times' article posted the following morning: Center in the Square unveils renovation plans by Mike Allen.

(Photo above of the Center in the Square Building and the Organization's logo are courtesy Center in the Square's website.)

Heart of Roanoke:

Eldon Karr, "Appalachian Architect," runs a blog describing his urban design ideas and themes and has recently added a Facebook Page for the Heart of Roanoke. The concept for it comes both from the "Design'79 Urban Design and Planning" in Roanoke and the more up-to-date "Netroots" effort (termed so in a manner of online-social-networking-meets-grass-roots-community-organizing). The first meeting for this group began on Saturday, August 29th, when a Photographers' Walking Tour of Downtown assembled outside the Hotel Roanoke. Dan Smith, owner, editor and photographer of Valley Business Front, led an informal photography class. While the focus for Eldon is a passion to green up and revitalize things for Henry Street, the scope of this organization is much wider for the Downtown area as a whole.

Star City Harbinger, "Appalachia's Online News Alternative," ran a nice review of the event on their website. In a collaborative piece, Hank Bostwick (SCH's editor), River Laker (Car Less Brit), and I filmed and edited a short video of this first-of-a-series Photog Walking Tour. The video opens with impressive historical information about Downtown, the Heart of Roanoke's roots and its efforts, narrated by Mr Laker in his marvelous British accent. (Girls, I didn't see a ring, but I wasn't looking either...) Please check out SCH's article and video Exploring Alternative Visions for the Heart of Roanoke," and also add their blog to your news feed while you're there.

I can't wait to see all this transformation going on soon!! Hi-tech roof-top with butterflies in Roanoke? Oh yeah!! Vertical Wall Gardens? Yes, and much more...

SEE YOU AROUND DOWNTOWN!!

Ugly Spaceship Downgraded to Semi

A couple months ago, Roanoke was visited by a UFO which has been kept under tight secrecy for security reasons. Our cameras were there, but we could not publish these pictures until now, after being given clearance and some particular directions on what to say. Clearly, this is a UFO. We all know UFO’s exist and we definitely know one when we see one.

In our “official” story, we are being forced to tell you that, indeed, this vehicle is a reject space ship built by the US space department. After failing many tests, it was sold to Rolling Reinhausen for fifty-two dollars and twelve cents at an auction in Roswell, NM, on July 4th 2009, prior to being scheduled for incineration as a fireworks prop. Two other bidders who almost won the confiscated UFO (I mean, scrapped space ship) were Aquariums-R-Us and Cool Laundromats, Inc. They both were out-bid by over fifty dollars.

At the time of these photos, neither Rolling Reinhausen nor the pilot could be reached for comment. This landing was witnessed by dozens of typical Roanokers. All of them realized the terrifying implications this alien aircraft would have on our City. And if you don’t believe me, just look closely at the photos to see how there is no way anyone on earth could possible mistake this for a tractor trailer and get down the highway without texting a loved one and crashing into something.


I can totally understand why the space department held our story back. This is life-threatening!!

In fact, the same day, I also caught pictures of the destruction left behind which I assume was caused by this UFO. Here is what SW County looked like just moments before the landing:

Here is what Downtown looked like moments after:

Okay, now you know what really happened. That’s what we’re here for. Stay tuned for more real-life stories about Roanoke from our newsroom at Star City FAME. (If we don’t get busted for going against orders, that is.)

The Grandin Theatre – Open Projector Night

Edited from original post on Star City Harbinger – August 26, 2009

You can live in a town for quite some time before visiting a place that is a landmark or doing something that ought to be part of one’s typical interest as a resident. For example, I lived in the New York City area for over 45 years, yet I have gone to the Statue of Liberty only once. I rode to the top of the World Trade Center only once. I have never been to Coney Island. Sometimes I don’t feel like acting like a tourist, but definitely, there just isn’t enough time to see and do everything.

Finally, after living in Roanoke for five years, I visited the Grandin Theatre. The event, I felt, was the best one to which I could be initiated – The Open Projector Night.

I learned that Open Projector Night is a quarterly contest for filmmakers of all levels. I wanted to acquaint myself with Open Projector Night because I too am interested in entering a short film in November. I needed to see how videos looked on a theatre-sized movie screen and to get a taste of the talent in our area. Of course, I also went to enjoy myself, which I did.

I paid the admission price of $6.50 and walked up to the ticket collector who gave me a flyer. This flyer is no ordinary piece of paper, I thought, looking at the names and titles listed on it. This is what Open Projector Night is all about for the filmmakers who have entered their pieces for the evening. This, I knew, was the holiest sheet of paper ever printed on and ever to be checked off by every person in attendance. It demanded that I pay very close attention to each single frame flickering by on the screen.

And so I walked into a dark theatre, feeling embarrassed for being obviously late, and made my way to an empty seat all the way down in the front rows. It was an awkward walk, but once in my seat, I was relieved and, in an instant, forgot my crime. The screen had immediately grasped my full interest and I remained, as did the entire theatre full of viewers, focused without interruption.

I’m not sure how many seats are at the Grandin, but the theatre seemed pretty filled. I did not meet up with the Blacksburg Media Artists group that I recently joined, because I was late leaving my office. However, I managed to see all but the first selection.

I had no expectations, except that perhaps I might like or dislike some films more than others. But I hoped that at least one or two would prove worthy of the six bucks I just spent. To my surprise, each short film had a life of its own. Each had a statement to make. Some of them suffered slightly from holding back in cutting what might not have made it into its finished version once the film’s editor learned to say more with less. Most of the evening’s pieces were challenged technically from the difficult conversion to a large screen, having been shot and edited as videos and not in professional (and expensive) 16mm film. Otherwise, Open Projector Night was clearly a winner in itself, bringing out the best in our area’s short-film creators.

A couple films were dramatic pieces, one of which was presented in black and white (ii played for her), and told a story about a young man meeting a woman, to whom he’d eventually play his saxophone once he’d get up the nerve. There were a few music videos. One such work was entered by Randolf Walker, who set to his own version of “House of the Rising Sun” an emotional Wild West piece, which he directed and also played in as the wretched, gambling, drinking man whom his maiden (Lisa Angell) sang about in lamenting flashbacks while walking sullenly and lonely by the old railroad tracks. (You can see this piece here on YouTube.)

There were several comedies. Most enjoyable were The Great American Road Trip Part 2 about a road trip to the Martinsville Speedway, and First Impressions, about a young man sitting in a waiting room before an interview when suddenly he reverts back to his childhood fantasies.

Open Projector Night’s showcase of local filmmakers is one of the few held in Roanoke for this genre of visual media, oddly enough. The screening is paneled by the Young Curators and the Teen Advisory Committee of the Taubman Museum of Art. (You can see past winners on the Grandin Theatre website).

Roanoke appears to be the Arts hub of SW Virginia with all of its galleries, museums and music venues. This is a nice addition and shouldn’t be missed in anyone’s repertoire of things to do in Roanoke… I for one will put it on my rotation.

The Grandin Theatre and the area itself are very conducive to the Arts. The Roanoke Ballet is on the same street. The Grandin neighborhood is home to the Heart of Virginia Foundation, led by Americana artist Tommy Edwards and his partner Nancy Hunter. (They will be hosting a “Healing through Creativity” Festival from October 17-24. Please visit their website for more information.) The locals also enjoy the bohemian and artsy atmosphere in town, which includes the Grandin Gardens and the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op.

What’s Been Going On – StarCityFAME in Roanoke

Last weekend was a typical Roanoke weekend, amazing and busy as usual. Star City FAME had the pleasure of capturing four great events from some of our incredible people and organizations in and about town. A big part of our “mission” is to bring events online for everyone to see, whether they were there or not, to relive it or to find out what we Roanokers are all about here in the Valley.


Local Colors – A Taste of Culture
“Dragon” Pearl Fu and the Local Colors organization continues their monthly celebration of the cultural kind every second Friday during the warmer season right after the annual Local Colors Festival. We went to one this past month for the Vietnamese “taste” on August 14th.


Car Less Britt Museum - Touring for the Turtles
This new museum established by River Laker (Emerging Artists, Roanoke City Library) in downtown is not only an exhibit of bicycle memorabilia and other interesting bike things, but also promotes going without a motor vehicle by switching to riding a bicycle all over town – as a way of life!! They just hosted a pair of eco-bio experts who spoke on leather-backed turtles and their mission - touring on bike to get the message out.


Star City Roller Girls – Game at Lee Hi Skates vs Little City Roller Girls
The Roanoke Valley has a women’s pro sports team… it’s not basketball, baseball, football, hockey, or golf. IT’S ROLLER DERBY!!! And we got highlights of this awesome, energetic, and crowd-pleasing game.


Sister Cities and Local Colors – International Fashion Show
Ms Pearl Fu was at it again in high style, as she and co-host Tammy Epes presented a fabulous International Fashion Show at the Hotel Roanoke. Members and friends of both organizations participated, including contestants of Miss Roanoke Valley Pageant. The show was presented at the Ladies Luncheon during the Grand Encampment Knights Templar 64th Triennial Conference at the hotel last Monday, August 17.

Videos will be posted on the Star City FAME YouTube channel as well as here. Find us on Twitter and Facebook, too! If you’d like for us to attend a really cool event in Roanoke, just give us a shout and let us know what, when, and where!!