Arts DEVO

The windows are open The early-morning sun is radiating through the window behind me in my corner office, and I think I actually feel warmth on my neck. While I have a few moments of peace—after the gloomy May, but before the street crews start loudly reshaping the intersection in front of the CN&R into a roundabout—I should do a little local-arts-news spring cleaning:

• Barwick strikes again: I think I’m going to start calling Scott Barwick the Mayor of Chico. The bed-headed honcho of Origami Recording Lounge found time in his busy engineering/promotion/performance schedule to put together a really fun and great-looking short film stocked with Chico hipsters called “The Wash,” about a girl and the mustaches in her life. Visit Barwick’s YouTube page and leave a nice comment: www.youtube.com/user/scottbarwick.

• Artoberfest comes early: Chico Palio, the art-horse race and day-long outdoor arts variety show that kicks off the October/Artoberfest month, is coming a few weeks early this year—Saturday, Sept. 10 (the day before Taste of Chico). Does that mean Artoberfest will be about seven weeks long, or that there will be a three-week pause between the kick-off and the month of art?

• Dead art: 1078 Gallery is calling for artists and performers of all stripes to audition for Gee I Like to Think of Dead, “a night of performances from the macabre to the transcendental” being organized by Rebecca Senoglu, Janice Porter and Malama MacNeil. Auditions are Thursday, June 16, 6-8 p.m., at the gallery. Contact Senoglu at <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">{ document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,97,32,104,114,101,102,61,34,109,97,105,108,116,111,58,114,115,101,110,111,103,108,117,64,121,97,104,111,111,46,99,111,109,34,62,114,115,101,110,111,103,108,117,64,121,97,104,111,111,46,99,111,109,60,47,97,62)) } </script> or 588-6175.

• The Bins: Got a random e-mail from former Chico State music major Clark Barclay (aka The Bins) who, while traveling around Asia and Mexico, somehow found time to cobble together samples from 150 or so vinyl LPs and record the kick-ass, thick and funky, six-song rap EP Every Minute of the Day. Listen/pick up a copy at thebins.bandcamp.com.

• Slick Jerry: Chico artist/writer Jerry Harris has started a new S.F. Mission District-based website called Slick People Magazine featuring art and “all the news that’s not fit to print”: www.slickpeoplemagazine.com.

• Arts winner: Congrats to graduating Chico State ceramic artist Meaghan Gates, who just won a $15,000 Wingate Fellowship award and now gets to travel to China and Japan to study her craft.

• Arts wiener: Found this awesome, anonymous, kid-with-wiener painting online. Though I probably should come up with better wording for my description.

• Bad Seeds: Artists from The Art Studio program at Pleasant Valley High are showing their works at Chico State’s University Art Gallery’s annual The Bad Seeds group show, June 13-28.

• Speaking of Bad Seeds … Have you heard about this? Former player in Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds—and also former guitarist in The Cramps and a founding member of The Gun Club—Kid Congo Powers is coming to Chico! He just released a new album with his band Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds, and on Monday, June 20, they’ll be at Duffy’s Tavern (with, appropriately, The Shankers opening). This is a treat, folks. If you don’t make it, don’t be surprised if your friends randomly punch you in the crotch. Go to his blog (www.kidcongopowers.blogspot.com) and watch Congo and the boys tear it up as a prom band in the cool video for “Golden Browne.”