Got a great email from Houston Arts Advocate Heather Pray just now about 3 upcoming events this, and wanted to pass along.
It’s been a rough summer, but working on getting back to the blog soon. thanks for hanging in there.
“Three fantastic events below to support Houston arts and they’re all for free. If you can’t join me at all 3, I hope you can make it to at least one — they are not to be missed!
Thank you for your support and if you have any questions, just ask! Also, feel free to pass the information to any of your interested friends!” – hp
Ballet Barre
Young Professionals for Houston Ballet
Season Kick-off Party
Wednesday, August 25, 6:30-9:00 pm
RDG + Bar Annie, 1728 Post Oak Blvd
Ballet Barre has an amazing schedule planned for the 2010-2011 season (you can view it here, www.houstonballet.org/balletbarre) and it goes much beyond attending 4 performances! If you ever wanted an insider’s view of our world-renowned ballet company, this is the way to do it. Membership starts at $125! Join tomorrow night and receive 2 free drinks.
You do not need to be a member to attend tomorrow night.
Capital One Bank Culture Collision Version Theater District
Thursday, August 26, 6-8 pm
ArCH, 315 Capitol, Suite 120
Join Houston arts & culture enthusiasts to kick-off the 2010-2011 Theater District season amidst an outstanding exhibition,Ready, Set, Go showcasing Houston stage designers.
Thank you to our sponsors: Capital One Bank, Cadillac Dealers of Houston, Smith & Wollensky, Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Cafe Moustache, Sprinkles Cupcakes, AIA-Houston, CultureMap and Houston Downtown Alliance.
Complimentary valet or $8 parking in Hobby Center garage.
After a year in the making, Andrew Karnavas‘ solo CD, Film Noir, is recorded, packaged, and ready for your grimey little hands. And it’s spectacular. I seriously can’t wait for you to hear it. No really. Call me when you hear it. I don’t care what time it is. You’re gonna flip. Your lid.
After 5 years in the making, countless solo shows, enduring painful relationships just for the sake of writing a song, our favorite Houston crooner is ready to share with you his melancholy tales of love and loss. And if I have anything to do with it, a few poppy tunes. And maybe a MMJ cover? Maybe? Oh, a girl can dream.
You may have seen Andrew perform solo many times, or with his band Runaway Sun. But on April 24th, you’ll hear him perform like never before. Backed by a legion of strings, steel, and vinyl. Andrew has invited all the incredible musicians who played on Film Noir to play live with him at the Continental Club. Upright bass, pedal steel, violin, mandolin. He’s got it all. And it’s all for you.
And that’s exactly how we felt when we pulled across the Brooklyn/Queens Expressway…we made it.
After five days in the car, Andrew and I were low on energy and exhausted from late nights and early mornings. But as soon as we caught glimpse of the NYC skyline, our morale instantly improved with the thought of meeting up with the rest of the band shortly.
I’ve been to New York many times, but driving into the city that never sleeps is an experience I’ll never forget. Our day five commute had us departing Silver Spring, just outside of D.C. at 7am and through New Jersey, Delaware, and a quick detour through Philly, PA on the Ben Franklin bridge. Philly sure does have a purdy skyline, and that’s pretty much all we saw of it.
We rolled into Williamsburg about noon, met up with the rest of the band and Andrew’s buddy, Matt Pace, and artist and DJ in Brooklyn. It was quite the experience driving through Brooklyn in a huge Texas-sized SUV. Of course, I rolled down all the windows and blasted Jay-Z. What else was I to do?
Matt took us to get some lunch in Williamsburg at Anna Maria’s Pizza, we then headed into the city to setup for the band’s first show of the day at Best Buy in Union Square. I drove the guys and their equipment across the Williamsburg Bridge and said a big hello to Manhattan! Read more…
Early, early morning. And it came really early. We departed Charlotte for DC. Six and a half hours later we arrived in our nations capital. Below is a video of us arriving (fully delirious from being in the car too long), soundtrack provided by Lauryn Hill.
Posted by Monica Danna on Mar 25, 2010 in music, travel
Well, we packed up and headed further east yesterday. Sad to say goodbye to Nashville, but it was more like ’til next time. Chunked the deuce.
Andrew attended an ASCAP Q&A session in the morning, and then we got on the road around noon for Charlotte, NC. It was the most beautiful part of the drive so far. Leaving Tennessee and approaching North Carolina we found ourselves on a beautiful winding road through the Blue Ridge mountains.
We threw on some Mumford & Sons, and of course, some Ryan Adams to get us across the North Carolina border.
Posted by Monica Danna on Mar 24, 2010 in music, travel
So yeah, I’m in love with Nashville. Thanks in part to my amazingly awesome friends Lisa + Mark who have shown Andrew + I the BEST 38 hours in Nashville.
We arrived late Monday night from a long day of driving, and had a great dinner and catch up with Lisa + Mark. That night, Lisa laid out a “Nashville in a Day: Lisa + Mark style” itinerary for us. We were so excited because we really didn’t have anything planned besides trying to stalk Jack White.
Lisa + Mark live in East Nashville, a very quirky, fun neighborhood northeast of Downtown Nashville. We started off with brunch at Marche near Five Points, where I seriously had the BEST turkey sandwich of my LIFE. Absolutely redeemed Monday’s Hamurkey experience. Andrew had a Lamb Burger that was also excellent. Lisa told us that Jack White frequents Marche, but no sightings on this day. Yes, we contemplated staying until we saw him. “More coffee, please.”
Posted by Monica Danna on Mar 23, 2010 in music, travel
So we’ve arrived in Nashville! After a full day of driving, we are staying here in East Nashville with my good friends Lisa + Mark, who have awesomely created a “Nashville in a Day” itinerary for us. Can’t wait to explore the city. For updates along the way follow on Twitter or Facebook.
The drive up was pretty uneventful. We left Houston about 6:30am, and headed up 59 to Lufkin. I drove until lunch, then Andrew took over and brought us through Arkansas, Tennessee, and finally to Nashville about 7:00pm.
I’ve posted our road trip playlist below (with notes), or as best I could keep up with it. Once we hit Tennessee, it was country all the way to Nashville. Natch.
East Texas brought us some interesting rest stop retail items, with which we held a Facebook photo caption contest for the one below. Yes, that is a clock. And, oh yes, those are 2 lions. And of course that is the Last Supper. Don’t miss the FOUR crucified Jesus’ in the corners. The jury’s still out on the best photo caption, leave yours in the comments and we’ll pick a winner. No, you don’t win the clock.
We were pretty sure we couldn’t top the weirdness of East Texas…until we got to Hope, Arkansas. Yep, home to President Bill Clinton. Many, many jokes ensued. “I HOPE you don’t live here anymore.”, “HOPEFULLY there’s more than the Country Fare to eat at here.” Well there wasn’t, and I ended up eating (or not eating) the most indistinquishable meat I’ve ever seen. We named it Hamurkey. It was supposed to be Turkey. It was the color of Ham. And looked like Olive loaf. I’m still sick thinking about it.
However, more disturbing than the Hamurkey, we discovered while in AK, was at a rest stop near Little Rock. Yes, the picture below is exactly what it looks like. “Perfect Pets” as they were called. Yes, those are FAKE animals. Please draw your attention to the sign on the top left “Look we’re breathing!” and please notice the one pet wrapped in PLASTIC. I was so crepped out I didn’t even buy a Diet Coke. I know, right?
We were never so happy as to see this sign once we left the Arkansas border:
Exploring through Nashville today. More updates later.
NO SLEEP TIL BROOKLYN! (<— ok, come on, I couldn’t resist that)
Day One Roadtrip Playlist:
JTim + Timbalake – “Carryout” (duh.)
Bone & Biggie – “Notorious Thugs” (for Andrew)
Little Wayne + Robin Thicke – “Shooter” (for me.)
tom tom club – “Genius of Love”
Neko Case
ghostland observatory
temple of the dog (doing our best chris cornell impressions)
beck – velvet underground tribute album (as andrew slept)
ray lamontagne (great east texas driving music)
joey kneiser (excellent new solo album)
new mgmt (live streamed it from NPR and AUXed into the speaker. nerds. we didn’t care for it)
glossary (we agreed that we like joey’s oslo stuff better, but still good stuff)
joshua james (david gray-ish, thanks everson for the rec)
cory chisel ( OF COURSE we had to come into Tennessee on this)
justin timberlake (while in Memphis. duh.)
justin townes earle
son volt
whiskeytown
miranda lambert
mason proper
dixie chicks (from Memphis to Nashville played the entire DC catagolue. poor andrew. I sang at the top of my lung to EVERY song.)
So we’re off on Monday morning for 10 days. Packing up the car, and heading East.
My friend, and uber talented singer/songwriter Andrew Karnavas, along with his band, Runaway Sun, are headed on their first East Coast tour. And guess who’s tagging along. YOU BET I AM.
Runaway Sun will be playing 3 shows in New York next weekend, and Andrew and I will be driving the equipment up in my Mom’s gas-chugging SUV. Thanks, Mom. The band will meet us in NYC next Friday, and Andrew and I will make our way there, stopping to play a few solo shows along the way. I’m totally the merch girl.
Friends we’ll be visiting along the way include my friend Lisa Battaglia in Nashville, the stupidly awesome Laurie + Bob Smithwick in Charlotte. NC, and many many friends in DC, including Ogi, Annelies, and the David All crew. If you’re in the DC area, or have friends who are, Andrew will be playing at the Red & the Black on Thursday, March 25th, 8pm. We’d love to see your faces and hear your voices!
I’ve just finalized our playlist, as hard as we tried we couldn’t fit the record player in the car. But coming along with us will be some Justin Timberlake (Memphis, what?! what?!), plenty of Neil Young, and everything in between.
Andrew and I will both be blogging along the way, with plenty of video and photos of the trip to share. I’m going to try to attempt some live streaming from the car, thanks in holy awesomeness to the wonderful James Beck (aka @eatmoreheat) for letting me borrow his MiFi modem. Lord knows, I would have had convulsions without internet for longer than an hour. James, just returned from a road trip and assures me this MiFi will keep me from jumping on the first plane home. Please give him some love, he may have saved me and Andrew’s friendship.
So that’s it, folks! Hope you’ll follow along on our little adventure. I’ll be blogging here on cosmopolitician, and of course updating Twitter, and Andrew will be blogging on his blog here and his Twitter here.
p.s. Andrew’s Solo album, Film Noir, just arrived and it’s beyond fantastic. Can’t wait to share this thing! He’ll be playing a solo release party at Continental Club in Houston on April 24th. Hope to see you there!
Ballet Barre
Capital One Bank Culture Collision Version Theater District
So we’re off on Monday morning for 10 days. Packing up the car, and heading East.