Photos by Lydia Bell | Written by Jordan Miller

“The face of a South Florida sun slowly creeps into sight, waking the lower half of the Sunshine State. It’s a typical August Sunday for most. Some are scurrying out to church. Others packing up beach chairs and a cooler. However, ten miles from the Atlantic beach shore, there’s a convoy of tour busses parked outside of Coral Sky Amphitheater. The venue is hosting the last Vans Warped Tour concert. Ever. For the band, Mayday Parade, this day is one that comes with weighted thoughts. Although recently inking a deal with Rise Records, (Sevendust, Of Mice & Men, The Devil Wears Prada,) and releasing their eighth studio album, the band has been part of this tour since forming in 2005. Thousands of eager fans begin making their way into the 20,000 seat amphitheatre. You can feel the unspoken sense of what’s to come after today. Especially for Mayday Parade.”
– Jordan Miller, freelance photo-journalist and singer-songwriter based in Nashville, TN

(pre-amble to upcoming interview with Derek Sanders of Mayday Parade)

Photos by Lydia Bell | Interview with Holly Riley conducted by Jordan Miller

Honeysuckle sweet harmonies. Melodies that dance through the night like smoke easing off a half burnt cigarette. The Adventures of Annabelle Lyn honor the heartfelt sound of traditional roots music and it shows on their recent album, Chasing Horizons. The Tallahassee Folk-Bluegrass trio released their newest project earlier this year and I had the opportunity to catch up with their violin player, Holy Riley while on the end run of their tour.

Your schedule shows you were in North Carolina last night, what other states have you visited on this tour?

We were in five different states, so Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.

How’s the tour been so far? I noticed you posted a picture on the Annabelle Lyn Facebook page standing in knee deep water. What was the story behind that?

Yeah, the weather was mostly pretty good the whole time until we got to Charleston. Early that morning we were supposed to leave, and we happened to be staying at a downtown part of the city that just floods really bad. So we woke up at about 8 or 9am that morning to see everything surrounding us, just completely covered in about a foot and a half of water. All of our instruments and gear were in the car, so we actually ended up having to push the car up a hill to move it to higher ground. We had to take all of the gear out of it so we could push it, and then drive the car to dry ground, THEN carry all of our gear and instruments through about a block and a half of standing water to get back to the car.

Oh wow! The tour life, right?

Ha! Yeah, it was crazy. We were so tired by the end of it.

So I myself used to live in the Tallahassee area, and I’ve had the privilege of catching a couple of The Adventures of Annabelle Lyn shows. So I’m fairly familiar with your music, but I just wanted to ask from your personal perspective how you would describe The Adventures of Annabelle Lyn for listeners who have never heard your music?

Well, it’s certainly changed and expanded a lot over the years. The founding idea or impetus of the band originated from all our of our middle names. Anne, Belle, and Lyn. And the name, The Adventures of Annabelle Lyn was kind of intended to create this fictional character who went on adventures and was really free to explore musically. So we kind of embodied that personality. In those first few years of the band, we did a lot of themed shows. So we would actually base our shows and the outfits we were wearing, or the setting of the show, around some specific themes. We would do a mermaid theme, or an ocean scene. Or even nights that centered around one specific band, such as the Beatles. And what ended up happening was, not only did we get a really cool foundation of music from all sorts of genres and backgrounds, but also a unique and diverse sense of influences. So I think we also started developing a better idea of what we wanted our own sound to be and what our original songs would sound like. During our first two albums, we spent a lot of time focusing on sort of our folk and bluegrass roots, but I think what has come to the forefront over the past few years, is our love for vocal harmonies, along with these interweaving instrumental parts where everybody plays off each other.

That’s pretty unique. I remember reading in your bio about the themed shows. Would you say that doing shows like this inspired or influenced the writing for your albums?

Definitely, definitely. One of the things that has been really special about this band, you know, we’ve all been in all sorts of different types of bands. Everyone of us has a pretty diverse musical background, and we’ve been in lots of bands with other people where we felt there was a really strong expectation to play one genre of music or have a very specific sound. And I think doing those themed shows, where we were free to be whatever we imagined, allowed us to be really creative in the development of doing our own music. So when we did start writing and producing more of our own music, we were less limited and more imaginative towards what we could be and what we wanted to sound like.

So you guys are on tour right now. Is there an artist or band who you have had the privilege of opening up for that you were just blown away by or after hearing them live, they had a significant impact on your music?

Well, at the beginning of this year, we had this crazy, amazing opportunity that we did not expect we would get in a million years. We got to open up for the band America. Which we never expected to happen. It was one of those, completely being in the right place at the right time things. We happened to be playing a show down near Panama City and Lynn Haven. The promoter for their show was there and he loved our music. He ended up giving us a call a couple weeks later and just asked if we’d like to come open for one of their shows. Said he sent the band our music and they loved it. We said “Oh my goodness, we’d love to!” So we got to open up for them at the end of January and it was completely, one of the most incredible experiences we’ve ever had. We all grew up loving their music. Our guitar player, her favorite movie growing up was The Last Unicorn, so we’ve all pretty much been in love with their music most of our musical lives. After our set, the band members asked us if we’d like to sit in on their set at the end, so we got to go back on stage for their encore and played Horse With No Name with them.

How was that feeling?

It was absolutely awesome! Here we are playing the soundtrack to our lives, our musical lives. You grow up listening to this song on the radio and now all of the sudden you’re on a stage in front of thousands of people, singing the song with the people who wrote it.

How would you describe your writing process? There’s three of you in the group. Does one person write the songs and the others write the music? Do you all write?

We’re all songwriters. We all write songs on our own mainly, or at least we will start a song individually, then bring it to the band to finish. On this record, Chasing Horizons, there’s thirteen songs and everyone wrote a third of the songs. Everybody also sings lead on a third of the songs, as well. One of the nice things about this band is everyone has different roles instrumentally, so when we write a song, we’re writing from that instruments perspective. So if I write a song on the fiddle, after bringing it to Kat and Elizabeth, they’re able to make the song come alive by adding in their instrument sounds.

Chasing Horizons is the most recent project you guys have done together. What would you say is the one thing you want listeners to take away from this album?

I think the thing that was really special to us about this most recent record, is that everything on it was creative and specific to us. It was something we sort of decided for ourselves and we knew how we wanted it to sound. We had a great recording engineer who let us have a ton of control over making that sound and what we were hearing in our heads. We put a lot of detail in to the vocal harmonies and how the arrangements would go. So if there’s any take away, I think it’s just, as a musician and especially a female musician, you’re allowed to have agency in sounding like yourself, and in putting out a musical product that is totally yours. Something you feel good about, and you shouldn’t be afraid to take that on an adventure. Make it wild, crazy, and fun. Make it 100% you.

Absolutely. I’d say you guys achieved that on this record. What’s next on the Chasing Horizons tour?

We’re wrapping up the summer tour now, but while being in the van for the past week and a half, we’ve booked a bunch of really awesome dates we’re looking forward to inside and around Tallahassee for the next year. So we will be releasing a schedule here soon. We’re going to be playing at the Suwannee Roots Revival in October. Really excited about that. But we’ve got more dates we’re announcing soon!

That’s exciting. I’m yet to attend a Suwannee event, but being from the North Florida area, it’s on my list. Is there anything else you’d like to mention before we wrap up?

We’re super grateful for our community and everyone around us. Especially everyone on this tour who has hosted and supported us along the way. It’s been really special, just the generosity from everyone that we’ve experienced. The people that make music or love music, that’s what makes this possible. So we’re very thankful.

The trio consists of Kathryn Belle Long, Elizabeth Fravel, and Holly Riley. You can check out tour dates and buy the Chasing Horizons album by visiting The Adventures of Annabelle Lyn.

Article Review by Malaka Sanders

There was an award show this week at the Roxie and some of the most thought provoking and honest animated short films produced in recent years are being screened. The Aggregated Animated Shorts Second Annual Film Festival Award Ceremony started at 6:30 pm on July 31. The Roxie is located one block east of 16th and Mission and Aggregate Space Gallery, the event sponsor, is an exhibition and performance space in West Oakland. Winners in categories including Most Seductive Animation, Best Sound Design, and Best in Show are being screened.

The two hour event will also include short films directed by the award winning directors acting as judges for this year’s festival: Meghana Bisineer, Tan Wei Keong, Clement Hil Goldberg, and Jeremy Rourke. Keong’s 2014 short film “Pifuskin” won the award for Best Experimental at the 2015 Singapore Short Film Awards and was the winner in the Non-Narrative category at the Aggregated Animated Shorts Film Festival last year. Scenes from his current film, “The Great Escape” feature a similar, drawn character as the one that starred in “Pifuskin” in almost quiet scenes that are pregnant with meaning.

Stop motion animation, the style used in Herbie Hancock music videos in the eighties, is used to great effect by Mike Cantor, one of the directors competing in this year’s festival. His “Advanced Doodling” is a short film about art making that features over 20 artists and utilizes graphic effects to alter the viewer’s perception of time.

Stop motion animator and film festival judge Jeremy Rourke shot the short film, “I’ll Be Around” – which includes live action sequences of theater equipment traveling down the sidewalk as if walking – in San Francisco. “This part [uninhabited cinema seats traveling rapidly through a neighborhood on casters] was so dangerous” Rourke said in an interview. “I was going across the street. People were stopping traffic for me. They were saying, ‘Stop! He’s trying to make a movie!’”

“Lyrics on the Paper” is a light-hearted, animated, mixed media musical in which Rourke sings and plays guitar throughout. “We travel with the notions and the emotions that we have chosen,” he sings. He continues, “Words aren’t working all that well. I’m using them and I can tell.”

Unspeakable topics like intimate violence are highlighted in a non-threatening way in the beautifully animated productions of festival entrant Carla Ciuffo. Her spacious and abstract cartoons are visually stimulating, contemplative works that touch on social themes. “A Thousand Hands, A Million Stars” ends with a chorus of voices repeating, “We cannot look away.”

Other festival entrants include Noah Aust, Sandro Del Rosario, and Lydia Greer. Aust funded his collaborative, college thesis production, “How to Make a Nightmare” with a Kickstarter. IMDb lists it as released in France in 2015 and he describes it as having a “cranked up to eleven, acid trip, dark comedy style”. Del Rosario’s works include “Lo Sguardo Italiano (The Italian Gaze)“, an artfully animated film full of soft, pastel colors and a reflective narrative on Italy that was created with thousands of oil painted photos. Greer is a San Francisco Bay Area animator whose experimental shadow animation is often screened as part of live, operatic performances. She is the director of Facing West Shadow Opera and is currently working on, “a Baroque puppet opera about the wild west”.

All of this year’s entries will be featured at Aggregate Space Gallery during Oakland’s First Friday event on August 3.

Article Review by Miranda Caravalho

Here’s the thing: I came out at a pretty young age.

It wasn’t the grand and dramatic story people hear about in movies and the like. My immediate family was supportive, and my more distant relatives responded with a murmur and an empty stare that was neither with me nor against me. I was here, queer – and, evidently, everyone was used to it.

But that’s not to say things weren’t without tension, even if just within myself. I tottered into a group of young queer activists during high school. These were radical, brilliant kids who were marching in protests and putting bills into action that would protect generations. Then there was me. My modus operandi? I wanted to get married to a lady. I may have been accepted, but inwardly I felt wholly inadequate.

So when I saw Rise Up! Social Justice in Art open at the San Jose Museum of Art, I was reluctant to go. I felt that taking space there would be an act of fraud, like someone would notice my presence, point an accusatory finger and shout “That woman! She hasn’t called her congressperson!”.

Still, I went. Maybe it was for the review, maybe it was the seductive siren song of Pride Month making me bold. Whatever it was, I’m glad I went, because Rise Up! is a small but truly spectacular exhibit.

This collection is a variety of mediums – from sculpture, to intricate watercolor, to massive mixed media pieces that literally command space in the room. A good example of this is Mickalene Thomas’s Portrait of Qusuquzah #5, a giant work of enamel, oil and rhinestones that depicts one of Thomas’s many muses in her passion for depicting strong black femininity. Each sequin is placed by hand, adorning the model’s eyeshadow and lips, and her deep, dark eyes stare out at whoever passes her with unquestioned self-assurance. There’s no other way to say it, Portrait of Qusuquzah #5 is a shrine to power that glitters as you approach it from every angle.

I was also drawn to Chris Ofill’s Untitled (Couple E), two portraits that depict an African-American couple dressed in royal regalia. This is a work that grows the more you watch it, as you take in the detail of the watercolor, the precision of the lines in the clothing and the way the colors seep and bleed into each other. It’s strangely soothing, almost cooling in a way. And once more it comes with two more pairs of piercing eyes.

What I went to see, though, and what got me to come back to the exhibit a second time, was Robert Arneson’s Five Times for Harvey, a collection of five portraits depicting Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected official, from his start in office to his eventual assassination. When I first saw these portraits I stood in front of them for a long time. The drawings are all based on the same smiling photo of Milk, but they’re depicted in these frantic, scratching lines and colors – except for the third one. The third portrait is all black and grey. If you look closely you can see the words NO DAN NO scrawled along his upper lip, a reference to Milk’s killer. And in the one following that the colors return with an explosion, blacking out Milk’s eyes and mouth. You can see BANG BANG BANG faintly running across his forehead.

In the final portrait Milk’s face is once again smiling and serene. There’s a gold star painting over it, a nod to the legacy the man left in his wake. It’s a legacy that can’t be shot down, one that rises with each wave of a rainbow flag. I found myself moved to tears right there in the museum.

I left Rise Up! with a sense of pride – who would’ve guessed. I could see my identity displayed in physical form, and it was beautiful. For all the queer persons and POC reading this, let me just say, your humanity is powerful. It is sequins and shadow, and so many colors. It doesn’t matter if you take part in every march or hold yourself more quietly, you deserve to see yourself made into art. Allies too, you have a chance to open yourself up to the souls and minds of your fellow Earth-mates. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to say this without hyperbole, so I’ll say it now – everyone should see this exhibit. Just to entice you I’ve left a few treasures unsaid, so you have a surprise or two in store when you come.

Now, if you excuse me, I have to call my congressperson.

• JUN 8-SEP 30: Rise Up! Social Justice in Art from the Collection of J. Michael Bewley | San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California

Robert Arneson
Five Times for Harvey, 1982
Mixed media on paper
30 × 24 inches
Gift of J. Michael Bewley
© Estate of Robert Arneson, 2018, licensed by VAGA, New York, New York.

Article Review by Lydia Bell (photographs) and Jordan Miller (writing)

Thank you for the tragedy. I need it for my art.
– Kurt Cobain

Inside every creator, every artist, there is a purpose. A mindful thought or reason for what they’re birthing to the world. Some artists know this precisely, while others find inspiration in not knowing. It builds a sense of mystery or longing, which fuels the soul process to an elevation only few have had opportunity to exercise. Luckily for us, our society tends to preserve the life of these creators for our later generations to learn from or better understand; how or possibly why they were capable of reaching that rare and organic place.

Cornered in the Lower East Queen Anne section of downtown Seattle, a distinctive and vivid building sits just a handful of steps away from the iconic Space Needle. The Museum of Pop Culture holds within it, a modernized style of exhibits that depict some of our greatest cultural pioneers. Rooted deeply around music; Rock n’ Roll in particular, two exhibits hold true to this non-profit museum. Whether you were raised on MTV or listened to an FM radio in the hills of Carolina, chances are you’ve heard of the band, Nirvana. In the late 80’s, the rock band made a name for themselves during the boom of the Seattle grunge scene, that led to a cultural movement amongst many. “Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses”, is one the museums most treasured exhibits that showcase the bands existence. The exhibit features passionate photography of images that will bring a behind-the-scenes moment to present day; along with emotional memorabilia that truly shows exactly how powerful music can be. Nirvana’s music.

Dating 20 years prior to Nirvana’s call to fame, a young Jimi Hendrix was paving a path by reaching elements of music and playing that none had experienced before. If you ask any guitarist today, to name a few of their inspirations, you are more than likely going to hear Jimi Hendrix on the list. He was a mysterious, yet calm and cool figure amongst the music scene, and was not afraid to experiment with sounds that had yet to be presented to the public’s ear at that time. To some, he is considered heroic or godlike, but the museums “Wild Blue Angel: Hendrix Abroad, 1966-1970” exhibit will leave you with a sense of knowing the person behind the sweat covered bandana and wicked guitar riffs.

There’s an argument that could be had, emphasizing Kurt Cobain (lead singer of Nirvana) and Jimi Hendrix hosted personal similarities that only the two of them could reveal if they were to have a conversation in present day. Did these two artists truly ever know what their purpose was when creating music? Did they realize in those creative moments, that what they were doing went beyond the music and would live well beyond their life? Both are left handed guitarists, Seattle natives, and sadly, both left this world at the young age of 27.

If you are planning a trip to the Seattle area, music lover or not, these two exhibits at the Museum of Pop Culture is a must-see, and will inspire you through pure muse emotions. Still to this day, and even more so, we lose some of our greatest artists only to find they dealt with internal demons that came with searching for their purpose. When, in reality, they were living their purpose the entire time. This museum reveals that.

Article Review by Natalie Wiser

Live at the historic Curran Theatre: don’t miss Soft Power, a “play with a musical” now showing until July 8.

Written by David Henry Huang, who worked on famous plays and musicals such as M. Butterfly, Aida, Tarzan, and Yellow Face, enter what feels like a very Inception-like play about a musical based on a real story. David, a real Chinese-American man, fell in love with the popular Rodger and Hammerstein’s The King and I, but noted it’s odd story. A white Englishwoman travels to Siam, this “uncivilized” third-world, originally as a governess, but somehow knows how to “properly” rule a country and bring it into the family of greater nations. It was a diffverent time when this show was first created, but David decided to flip the switch. What if instead of Caucasian and European cultures being educated and enlightened, it was actually Asia that dominated the world? What if today’s world leaders learned a thing or two from Chinese culture to make their societies better?

This idea is then born into Soft Power quite literally: the show starts with a character named David Henry Huang (played by Francis Jue) based off of the real David and creator of the show. While floating in and out of fantasy and reality, this show is riddled with catchy songs, irreverent dance numbers, accurate Chinese language pronunciation, and of course political banter. A core event of the show is the 2016 election, which as David portrays was a dangerous time to be an immigrant in America, even though he had been born here and had live here his whole life. This show is full of political jokes, lots of large semi-automatic riffles, Budweiser, and other classic American icons that what make our country great. As a quick disclaimer, the show was predominantly one-sided and very, very blue, so perhaps it is not the best for easily offended conservatives.

Overall, it was a fantastic show. When first going into the theatre, I did not really know what it was going to be about besides Chinese culture. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t much actual Chinese culture in it; I was expecting real Peking Opera scenes or mostly Chinese dialogue. However, I did appreciate that it was an all-Asian cast for all of the Asian roles. It did get a little too political and satirical at times, but it quickly pulled you back at just the right times. The cast was extremely talented and the sets filled up the small Curran stage appropriately. You will feel moved, you will feel inspired, and you will laugh a lot when you go see this show.

Come catch Soft Power while it’s still here! You get to see Hillary Clinton dance, so if that doesn’t sell you on the show, then I’m not really sure what else will.

• #SoftPowerCTG
• #SoftPowerArtsEarth

Article Review by Malaka Sanders

The 2018 Architecture and Design Films Showcase at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts runs until July 1.  More than fifteen films covering these important topics are being shown in the YBCA theatre; including Dream Empire, which won the top prize at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival last year and was produced by the Danish Film Institute and Sundance Institute.  Dream Empire is a boom to bust story about the real estate hyper bubble in China – the economic event that has created the most world-renowned, architecturally significant, destination airports.  The final screening of this film at the YBCA is on Sunday, June 24 at 3 pm.

Dream Empire chronicles wealthy real estate investors using finance capital to fill remote towns in China with opulent, Vegas style condo megaplexes – one is shown that even has its own underwater museum.  It was shot by David Borenstein, an American director who also narrates parts of the documentary.  But the film is mostly narrated by its star, Yanna Yang, the female co-founder of the “foreigner rental agency” that employed the director – as a “white monkey” he says – when his anthropology scholarship ran out.  Yanna sells shows – international acts – to real estate developers who feature costumed foreigners as entertainers – and, even, props – at massive condo sales events.  The stunning architecture of the brand new developments provide a lush backdrop for the difficult circumstances being navigated by the two.

After finding out the fate of the agency in a peak at the ending during the opening scene – which lends a bookend effect to the documentary that is reminiscent of an essay – Yanna is then seen recruiting David, on the streets of the thriving city of Chongquing, during the early years of the company.  Her business partner, Jimmy, takes meetings with investors and she also, separately, makes sales presentations.  Together, Jimmy and Yanna chronicle the growth of their company in videos of their expanding office space over the years.  Yanna, a rural migrant, struggles financially when the firm’s margins thin.  She sells her stake in the firm to Jimmy, because she has no money, and tells him that she’s taken a unique economic perspective following her tenure as a co-owner of their business.

The environment is festive as David documents his experience as a performer at “the most eye catching projects not only in China but in the entire world” according to one investor interviewed on-screen.  Sexism in the industry is briefly highlighted when Yanna tells David about an early career experience with a male investor that led to her to seek the protection of a male business partner.  As she states reflectively, during one of her narratives, “The things I have experienced have completely destroyed my way of seeing the world.”  Cultural appropriation is also writ large when David’s camera observes an expo attendee – likely a prospective home buyer – petting one of his co-workers as he stood as a prop – and the co-worker communicating his disdain.  Then, the expo was interrupted by protestors – a group of buyers of the dream homes that were now, largely, empty towers. Panning shots of these dark and lifeless structures at the end of the film contrast sharply with the big parties and exuberant declarations made by China’s President Xi Jinping years prior about China’s economic power to bring any beautiful thing that could be imagined into existence.  Dream Empire allows the viewer to witness China’s architectural renaissance.

Photography by Lydia Bell | Article by Talia Colarusso

Nestled between Tommy Bahama flip flops and soft rolling sand dunes appears a bright and vibrant artist who is more versed in events such as Art Basil Miami, and Fashion Week Athens and Madrid. How exactly did Billy the Artist find himself preforming a live mural exhibition in the quaint town of Destin tucked away in Florida’s Panhandle?

Well apparently, the art scene in Destin is anything but quiet, the town is home to the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County, CAA’s mission is to bring Walton County into the spotlight as a thriving community for the arts and cultural excellence.

We arrived at the beginning of Art Week for the kickoff event featuring Billy the Artist. The event felt like it was straight out of a New York art exhibition, only the venue and patrons all beamed with that wonderful mix of southern comfort and tropical vibes one can only find in the Florida Panhandle. The event was held at the Foster Gallery and featured Billy the Artist holding a live mural performance in which he danced to the beat of the DJ while he created a large canvas mural right before the guest’s eyes. Not only did the event feature the live muralist but the gallery also hosted the work of 22 local and regional artists, many of which attended the event.

Between the music, the food, and the live art this was a night to be remembered.

Photos by Jon Bauer

MAR 22-25: Afrolicious – Non-Stop Funk Party Nights 1-4 at SFJAZZ

Afrolicious has established itself as both one of the most legendary weekly parties in San Francisco, and of the top live/electronic bands on the scene. Started as a weekly dance party featuring DJ’s and brothers Pleasuremaker and Señor Oz alongside percussionists, MC’s and horn players, and an amazing crowd from day one. Over the years it has evolved as founding DJ/Producer Pleausremaker (Joe McGuire) alongside brother Señor Oz (Oz McGuire) hooked up with some of the most exciting personalities in the Bay Area music scene and started writing original music under the alias Afrolicious.