DIY: Shop Local

Guest blogger Lydia Regalado is an arts educator, crafter and blogger who writes about people who gather to make things.

Last year, New York Times reporter Andrew C. Revkin wrote about the international “Buy Nothing Day” advertising campaign. For today’s post, he proposes an alternative: Make Something Day. So how about it? what will you be making for those on your list this year, and what’s behind this decision? Share your ideas and comments below, or on the Art & Seek Flickr page.

If you’ve been following my posts, then you are aware of some of the classes and opportunities that can be found to make/create/do-it-yourself around the metroplex. But if time or skills limit production, your best option is to buy local. Pumping money into our local economy helps our community cultivate a creative spirit and morale. Below is a list of upcoming events that provide an opportunity to find that unique handmade gift for those on your list, as well as support local artists and makers. The following are free and open to the public.

Thursday, December 4th
ArtSpace 111 Holiday Market, Noon to 8 pm.
111 Hampton Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76102


Friday, December 5th
Jingle Bells on Bishop, 6-10pm.
Bishop Arts District, Dallas, Texas

Saturday, December 6th
Urban Stret Bazaar,11am to 10pm
Bishop Arts District, Dallas, Texas

Sunday, December 7th
Deck The Halls, noon to 7 pm
South Side on Lamar
1409 South Lamar, Dallas, TX 75215

Holiday Reading

Things are still quiet at Art&Seek HQ. But here are a couple pieces from our featured content to keep you entertained over the holiday weekend: An unusual holiday round-up, a Q/A with the author of a new children’s book about the Nasher Sculpture Center, and this week’s flickr photo winner, who takes art he hates and makes it better.

Looking for something to really get lost in? Here are some options.

Happy Thanksgiving

The Art&Seek team has scattered across the country in search of turkey (or pie, for the vegetarians among us.) But Stephen, Betsy, Jerome and I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. We leave you with a couple recent posts from our guest bloggers and commenters, who reflect on the the arts-related things they’re thankful for this year.  Hope you’ll share with them too. And please join us this afternoon for Giving Thanks, a special Art&Seek presentation on KERA radio. Happy holidays!

Fort Worth Modern Free on Holiday Sundays

I hate this time of year, and if given the opportunity I will spit in your hot chocolate and tell little children there is no Santa Claus. HOWEVER…

I am an avid fan of culture on the cheap, and by cheap I mean free. Behold this fine press release:

The Director of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth announced today that the Museum will be free every Sunday this holiday season, beginning Sunday, November 30, through Sunday, January 4. The Museum is always free on Wednesday.

Fort Worth shall be spared my chilly wrath. Where are the rest of my presents?

Short Pre-Thanksgiving Round-Up

• The top 20 symphony orchestras in the world, according to Gramophone magazine. No, the Dallas Symphony isn’t on it, neither is the Fort Worth Symphony. But then, the Philadelphia isn’t, either, causing a degree of whispering. One promising note for the DSO, however: In the #1 spot is the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. That’s where the DSO’s conductor, Jaap van Zweden, was concertmaster for eight years before he decided to become a conductor.

• It kind of puts the Texas Ballet Theatre’s troubles in perspective: In Vancouver, British Columbia, the Ballet BC has laid off everybody. The chairman says that if 7,000 tickets for next month’s Nutcracker are sold (2,000 have been sold so far), then the company’s spring season can go forward. And no, he insists, this doesn’t mean the company is going out of business.

The Jingle That Won’t Die

With the economy the way it is, plenty of businesses have gone under. But when news came down yesterday that Western Warehouse and Boot Town are going out of business, the first thing I thought of was likely the first thought a lot of you had: There goes one of the most memorable, stick-in-your brain jingles North Texas has ever heard.

If you’ve lived in the area for more than 10 years, I have no doubt you can sing the following:

“I got a ranch in downtown Dallas/I buy diamonds by the ton/Chase cuties in my Cadillac/Drill oil wells just for fun/But when it comes to boots, I need a deal/That will fit me right, toe to heel/So I get my boots at — Western Warehouse.”

The song was fun, catchy and enduring — everything a good jingle should be. And I always thought it was a little satirical, playing off the world’s image of the Dallas of J.R. Ewing. We all laughed at the thought of “a ranch in downtown Dallas,” but I always wondered if the same people who thought everyone here rode their horses to work were in on the joke.

There comes a point with some jingles when they actually become bigger than the business that they are advertising. They’re just out there as part of the pop culture, taking on an existence all their own. At that point, have they been elevated to something other than advertising?

I’m not ready to call the Western Warehouse jingle a work of art. But it is safe to say that it became part of the fabric of our city — something you’d put in the Dallas time capsule of the 1980s and 90s. In closing the stores, the company will hold the usual going-out-of-business sales through the holidays. And a part of me hopes I’ll turn on the radio and hear that jingle a few more times before it’s gone for good.

Giving Thanks, Continued

Guest blogger Sarah Jane Semrad is Executive Director of La Reunion TX.

First up - I am thankful for the artists in Dallas. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to serve the creative community for the last 5 years. Oh, you’re a cumbersome, emotional bunch at times, but I love you all the same. I truly believe when creativity is harnessed and focused, we can make great changes in the world. Artists are at the heart of creativity – because they have the gall to know and honor something we all have somewhere in us by virtue of being human.

On a more personal note - I’m thankful for my family and my husband, Paul, who support me on this crazy endeavor known as La Reunion TX. I’m thankful for a supportive board of directors, without whom this would not be possible. I’m thankful for friends, supporters and colleagues who, despite my sometimes crazy hair and tattoos, still believe in the project. I’m thankful Art Conspiracy has truly grown legs and will rock Dallas on Dec. 6.

Finally - I’m thankful for strangers on the bus. That one homeless guy whom always smiles at me on my way home. The new friends I met while in Kazakhstan a couple of months ago. I’m thankful for you. And me. And the sky totally being the limit.

A Serving of Thanksgiving with a Side of Culture

Guest blogger Brad Ford Smith is a Dallas artist and arts conservationist.

I was out early Tuesday picking up some of the items on our Thanksgiving shopping list, items that will soon be transformed into numerous plates and platters of steaming, traditional goodness. The kind of food that after consumption turns even the loudest of our family conversations into low moans and slight nodes. I like to think of this as Thanksgiving afterglow.

While at the store, I also picked up a 2009 date book. So, after putting away the groceries and making some coffee, I settled down to transfer the dates from the 08 book into the 09 book. This trifle of bookkeeping is as much of a personal tradition for me as the turkey, cranberry sauce and the giblet gravy we serve at Thanksgiving.

This is my event. It is a quiet, reflective and solitary. It is the one time every year that I see laid out before me all of the birthdays of those people that are important to me and that I love. It is the time that I add one more year to August 26, the day I told the love of my life for the very first time that I love you.

This is the time that I flip through the pages of the old date book, reading and remembering what has transpired over the year. The parties, the dinners, the calls to happy hour. Movie dates, music nights and art openings. The big happy events of friends and family, and the sad passing of the same. I promise myself that this year I will send Christmas cards and birthday cards to everyone. And that I will make time to spend time with more people, and that I will let more people know just how much do I care.

Now, this may all sound more like the sort of thing that one should do at New Years, but New Years is too loud, too flashy. It feels too much like amateur night at the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader tryouts. Not that I am putting the DCC tryouts down, it’s just not the time or place to reflect on that day at Caddo Lake when we drifted quietly past a family of beavers sunning themselves on the bank.

Thanksgiving is basic. It is the most basic of all the holidays. It is simply about family, food and being thankful. So, for me, it all begins by picking up a new date book, and then selecting beautiful and sumptuous produce and meats that my wife and I, working as a team, slice, dice, marinate and bake into a banquette that we happily share with those who are able to join us.

Just so you know, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but I normally don’t wax on about it. I am doing so now only because Stephen Becker at Art&Seek asked me to write a blog about some of the artsy stuff that I am thankful for, and I guess I did mention some artsy things in an off-handed, cryptic kind of way. So let me correct that with a more culturally centric but still self-centered thankful list. Thanks to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth for not only having some great shows this year, but also for providing me with the opportunity as an individual artist to make a difference in the way people experience art. Thanks to non-profits such as EASL and La Reunion TX for asking for my help. It makes me feel like I have made a contribution to the health and future of art in Texas. And even though I had nothing to do with it, I am grateful to CADD and DADA for their efforts in creating new energy and excitement in the local art scene …

The list goes on, but I want to stop here before things got to diluted, and state that I am very thankful to Anne Bothwell, Stephen Becker and the other staff members at Art&Seek for hosting a Web site where people like myself, artists with no journalism experience, have the opportunity to write about their experiences with art. This single action has caused a renewal and reinterpretation of my interest in the DFW art scene. It has also lead me to meet and talk with people that I would normally be too shy to approach.

So, to sum it up, whether it’s family, friends or culture, the things I am most thankful for are the opportunities that I have had this year to help and to give.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone,

Brad

For those of you in a reflective mood on Thursday, KERA (90.1 FM) will air a two-hour program called Giving Thanks 2008: A Celebration of Fall, Food and Gratitude from noon-2 p.m. The show, hosted by John Birge, serves as a contemporary reflection on the meaning of the holiday and includes writers and musical guests riffing on the subject.

The State of Repertory Film in North Texas

Guest blogger Julie Hwang is Community Relations Director for the Asian Film Festival of Dallas, which serves as our guest film blogger for November.

As a self-described film geek, I’ve seen A LOT of movies, but there have always been very notable lapses in my film going experience. I’ve only managed to see one film, Tokyo Story, from revered Japanese director Yashujiro Ozu, for instance.
If I was living now in Los Angeles, I would have the chance to address that deficiency by attending the month long Ozu retrospective at the Cinefamily repertory theater. No doubt, I would have met a few new Asian film aficionado friends in the process.
Looking at the schedules of other repertory movie theaters in the U.S. elicit pangs of envy. The Brattle Theatre, one of the oldest repertory theaters in the country, will treat residents of Cambridge and Boston next month to a new print of French New Wave classic Shoot the Piano Player (which I also haven’t yet seen) as well a program called Roots of the Whip: Indiana Jones and His Influences. The latter series will allow thirtysomethings like me to relive the childhood glory of the first three Indy films and to discover the classic swashbucklers and adventure serials that inspired them. And yes, those who weren’t completely disappointed by Kingdom of the Crystal Skull can see it again as well.
The lack of a dedicated repertory theater or even solid repertory programs in Dallas is a subject that has often come up in discussion amongst my film going friends. As someone whose love of film developed through weekly repertory screenings organized by my college film society, I can attest to the value and joys of being able to discover foreign and older films on the big screen with an audience. There’s a vibe and a chance for memorable experiences that can’t quite be matched by watching the films at home on DVD, like watching Shaft for the first time in a theater full of cheering frat guys.
I’ve been told that Dallas had a few repertory theaters back in the day, but like many others around the country, they closed due to dwindling audiences and competition from VHS and DVD. The last notable attempt at repertory in Dallas was when the Magnolia Theatre first opened and offered an extensive repertory program in addition to first run films. The Magnolia repertory was given up after only a few months due to lack of attendance.
Fortunately, repertory is not completely absent in North Texas. I was pleasantly surprised to discover several film programs, many of them free. I’ve listed the ones I’ve found below. I’ve also included the Midnight Movies at the Inwood series, which has been one of the longest running and most reliable programs in the area. It’s pretty tough, though, to really enjoy something like the three-hour director’s cut of Brazil when you start falling asleep at 2 a.m.
Please share any other programs that I’ve missed, as I’m sure there are a few.
The programs below help fill in the repertory void in the area, but I’m still holding out hope for something more in the vein of the programs of other cities. Perhaps Dallas is ready to try again?
What are your opinions about repertory, and do you think it can succeed here now?
Repertory film screenings in DFW:

Hot Holiday Happenings – Free outdoor screenings on Monday and Friday of classic films at Mockingbird Station.

Auteur Film Series – Free film and discussion program through Colin County Community College.

TCM at the Magnolia Theater – Big screen digital presentations of selected films airing on Turner Classic Movies.

Dallas Cinemania Film Society – cult/genre screenings on the big screen, aiming to bring the grindhouse experience back to Dallas.

Midnight Movies at the Inwood – great for people who can still stay awake.

Remembering Arts Editor Mike Maza

As an editor at the Dallas Morning News, Mike Maza probably wouldn’t have called himself an advocate for the arts. My guess is he’d say Journalists only advocate for stories and readers. And when there were conflicts between the two - a few memorable calls from influential readers complaining about a restaurant or theater review come to mind - his priority was clear. He had a backbone and good ideas. He nurtured writers and fought for stories, ultimately giving us all a clearer picture of cultural life in North Texas.

Critic Scott Cantrell put it well in the DMN’s obituary today:

“He was every writer’s dream no-nonsense editor, and, as a human being, radiated unflappable decency“

Mike’s career was one of service to our community. Those of us who knew his work miss him.