LOS LANDSCAPES: The Meadows Museum at SMU is currently hosting the first-ever retrospective of Spanish landscape painter Martín Rico y Ortega. It’s the only American stop for the show, which was organized by the Prado. But you can be excused if you’ve never heard of him. “He was a Barbizon School painter in the time of impressionism, and this helped relegate him to the history of also-rans,” Gaile Robinson writes in her dfw.com review of the show. “During a time of the artistic avant-garde, Rico played it safe.” Still, she says his landscapes – particularly his pictures of Venice – are “perfectly pleasing.” If you’d like to take a quick European vacation and be home in time for dinner, this sounds like a solid option.

DSO TOUR DIARY: The Dallas Symphony Orchestra is enjoying a few days rest before continuing its European tour Saturday in Vienna. And the players should be riding high after a very well-received performance in Jaap van Zweden’s hometown of Amsterdam. If you want to keep up with the orchestra from a behind-the-scenes perspective, senior principal associate concertmaster Gary Levinson is keeping a tour diary for theaterjones.com. His first entry is now up, in which he recounts his rocky trip across the Atlantic.

DAVE GROHL SPEAKS: Dave Grohl will deliver the music keynote address at South By Southwest this morning at 11 a.m. Not in Austin? No worries – our friends at the NPR mothership will live stream his sure-to-be-entertaining speech. For more on all things Grohl, maybe revisit my post about the documentary he made, Sound City.

KERA news reporters Lauren Silverman and Stephen Becker are on their way home from SXSW’s interactive and film conference, and the crew from KXT 91.7 FM is gearing up now for the music conference.  KERA’s Sam Baker asked KXT Program Director Mark Abuzzahab what band was getting the most early buzz leading in to the conference.

• Listen to Mark and Sam on KERA FM:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Or read a summary:

Chvrches

Mark Abuzzahab: I think Chvches is the band that is the most universally written about in the music press. They’re an electronic band from Scotland, they toured here in the U.S. last year, opening for Passion Pit. Their new record isn’t out yet and there’s a lot of excitement about them because they have this supposedly incredible live show.

Sam Baker: Well, they spell the name CHvrch?

Mark: I think that goes back to the running joke that all the great band names have been taken.

Sam: One of the great things about living in North Texas is so many bands playing at South by Southwest make a pit-stop,  playing in this area.

Mark: Yeah, artists have to travel to perform at the festival in Austin. So either on their way there, or the way out, they want to make some money. We really benefit from geography in this case. One of the artists I’m really excited to see this year is Dana Falconberry. She played at 35 Denton this past week.

The Relatives

Dallas band the Relatives played SXSW 2 years ago. They’re playing again. And they’ve got their first new record out in 40 years. It’s such a great story, and the Relatives play here at the Kessler Theater coming up on March 22.

Sam: KXT is part of a unique collaboration at the music conference this year?

Mark: KXT is joining with four other public radio stations in New York, Austin,  Philadelphia and Minneapolis, and we’re all sharing a public radio day stage. We’ll all be broadcasting the  sets live, starting Friday at noon. Artists like Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, Vampire Weekend, Divine Fits, Iron &Wine. It’s a great lineup, seven bands in all. And the whole thing will be live on KXT on Friday.

Sam: How is SXSW different from festivals like Austin City Limits?

Mark: The big difference is SXSW is bigger. Also SXSW is mainly for the music industry.  However, SXSW has also evolved into a spring break destination, since its the same week as the spring break for most colleges in the area. There are a lot of day parties that happen and you don’t have to be registered for the conference to attend them. And you get this phenomenon of college students staying with friends in Austin, responding to invites on Facebook for  the day parties.  So it’s really multiple festivals going on all across the city of Austin. Whereas something like Austin City Limits is really concentrated in Zilker Park during the day, with a few after-shows in the evenings.  SXSW is just massive and engulfs the whole city.

Sam: Any advice for anyone headed to Austin this weekend?

Mark: Wear comfortable shoes.

OK, we confess. This is not actually a photo shot in Texas.  But it sure looks like it could have been, so we’re letting it in this week because we’re still poring over the great details, typical of a HDR (high dynamic range) image. They just elected an Argentinian pope, we can make an exception and admit a photo from Centralia, Washington.

Read More »

Conductor Jaap van Zweden (right) signals the DSO’s horn section to rise and be recognized during the DSO’s ovation

The Dallas Symphony is on tour in Europe. Tuesday night, it received an ecstatic response from the audience in Amsterdam’s famous music hall, the Concertgebouw. KERA reporter Jerome Weeks talked with Jonathan Martin, the DSO’s president who’s on tour with the orchestra.

• KERA radio report:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Extended online report:

On the live streaming of the Dallas Symphony’s performance of Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, you can hear the famous ending that dwindles into pained silence — and then comes one final, symphonic outburst. Then a moment of held breath — and then comes an ovation so long you look at your watch. Don’t bother timing it, I already did. It lasted for four and a half minutes. And then came the encore from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde — which got another two minutes of applause. Dallas Morning News classical music critic Scott Cantrell wrote a review the likes of which he rarely pens (” If there was ever a time to be proud to be a Dallasite, it was Tuesday night…. On a stage where Gustav Mahler conducted 11 times between 1903 and 1909, the DSO has never played more electrically, or with as much finely finished detail”).

So, Jonathan,  it sounded like conductor Jaap van Zweden, who used to play in the Royal  Concertgebouw Orchestra, got a hero’s welcome from his hometown.

Martin: “It was an extraordinary homecoming for Jaap and for the Dallas Symphony. It was almost like you could feel the orchestra going from one stage of its development to another within the same concert. It was that important and it was that good.”

Read More »

Fred Armisen Photo: IFC

AUSTIN – You can call it a panel discussion, but anytime you hand four comedians microphones, it’s really a comedy club you’ve entered. That was the case Tuesday afternoon when Fred Armisen, Marc Maron, Scott Auckerman and Chris Gethard gathered to discuss transitioning alternative comedy to TV.

“I’m an alternative comedian that IFC is trying to figure out how to transition to TV, so I’m very much looking forward to hearing the advice of our panelists,” Gethard, the defacto interviewer, said by way of getting things started. The other three (Portlandia, Comedy Bang! Bang! and Maron) each have shows on the network.

Alternative comedy at this point is more a sensability than anything. Maron said the term began to describe comedians who worked outside the club circuit in alternative spaces – places where they could stretch the boudaries of convention a little more. Now, when you hear “alternative comedy,” you’re really describing anything with a certain level of quirk. And it doesn’t have to necessarily fall outside the main stream – plenty of what Saturday Night Live does these days qualifies.

So how did these guys get here? Aukerman and Maron mostly have very successful podcasts to thank. The beauty of the podcast, Auckerman said, is that, “Hundreds of thousands of people want to hear you, just not all at the same time.” And now that many people have DVRs and subscribe to services like Netflix and Hulu, they can also watch your show whenever they get around to it. But don’t get a podcast as a stepping stone to a TV show, they all said. (Easy for them to say.)

Maron said he knows the tricky transition to television well. He auditioned back in 1995 for Saturday Night Live and didn’t really connect well with Lorne Michaels (Armisen theorized that since he never really heard back from the show, maybe they’re still considering him.) And he pitched plenty of pilots to networks before IFC picked up Maron, which debuts this spring.

In the past, when other networks passed, Maron said he would just wait out his time on the bench.

“Then you hope your life becomes more interesting or worse so you can pitch it again two years later,” he said. “No, I’m not that guy anymore – I’m much sadder!”

After about a half hour, the floor was open to questions. And a useful lesson was learned: Be careful when you approach a table of live comedians. The first person who approached the mic asked about how the comedians’ humor translates internationally. Armisen explained that he was recently in Sweden and happy to see that there didn’t seem to be any cultural gap in understanding Portlandia. The woman seemed satisfied with that response and began to head back to her chair as Maron was about to add his two cents.

“Stand up! Get back at that microphone - we’re still answering your question!” Armisen shouted with mock rage. “What kind of a person asks a question and just walks away?”

After that, each audience member with a question politely asked if they could be seated once they received their answer.

Photo: Dallas Children’s Theater

Want to take your family on an adventure? You can when The Dallas Children’s Theater presents the theatrical adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s sci-fi classic, A Wrinkle in Time.

Travel across time and space with Meg and Charlie, and their neighbor Calvin on a mission to rescue Meg and Charlie’s dad.  But you don’t really have to travel across the space–time continuum to do it. All you have to do is win this Big Deal – tickets for four good during the March 22 – April 14 run of the play at the Rosewood Center.

More adventures can be found with our other two deals this week - tickets to see Jeanne Robertson at the Majestic Theatre and tickets for Bob Schneider at the Granada Theater.  And is always the case, you must first be an Art&Seek e-newsletter subscriber to win the Big Deal.

Sign up below for a chance to see A Wrinkle in Time.

UPDATE: We have our winners. Don’t forget to come back next week to play again!

Austin musician Bob Schneider is fixin’ to start his new tour – the “Unpromised Land, Out West Tour.”  After playing at SXSW, he’ll navigate north and make his way up this way.  If you win this Big Deal you and your bestest buddy will receive general admission tickets to see the singer/songwriter perform at the Granada Theater on March 30.

It’s a perfect day to sign up for this Big Deal and our other two deals this week – tickets for Dallas Children’s Theater’s A Wrinkle in Time and tickets for Jeanne Robertson at the Majestic Theatre.  First make sure you are an Art&Seek newsletter subscriber, then sign up for the Big Deals.

Sign up below for a chance to see Bob Schneider.

UPDATE: We have our winners. Don’t forget to come back next week to play again!

Are you in a left-brain / right-brain relationship or know somebody who is? Speaker, author and humorist Jeanne Robertson is and she’ll having you tearing up with laughter as she recounts stories of her “Left Brain” husband and her every day observations delivered with humor that is suitable for all ages.

The former Miss North Carolina, who can be heard daily on Sirius XM Radio, will take the stage at the Majestic Theatre, as part of her “FABulously Funny Tour.”  And the winner of this Big Deal will win a pair of tickets to see the “Right Brain” comic on March 24.

After reading about our other two Big Deals this week, your Left Brain might be telling you to sign up for those as well – tickets for Dallas Children’s Theater’s A Wrinkle in Time and tickets for Bob Schneider at the Granada Theater. Don’t forget in order to win any Big Deals you must first be an Art&Seek e-newsletter subscriber.

Sign up below for a chance to see Jeanne Robertson.

UPDATE: We have our winners. Don’t forget to come back next week to play again!

Busy, busy: Fort Worth playwright James Venhaus tells The Dallas Morning News‘ Lawson Taitte that he has three different plays in production this spring.  And they couldn’t be more different.  The Happy Couple pits a pair who are looking to rekindle their relationship by checking out a place they rented years ago against the squatters who now live there. Masquerade looks at what happens when the world of comic book cos players intersects with drag performers. And Romeo and Juliet at Verona High is a play written specifically for young actors.

SXSW Stuff:  NPR has set up shop at South by Southwest in an effort to draw younger listeners into its fold. The New York Times has a look at how the network is trying to give folks under 30 “a stronger sense of belonging” in public radio.  And speaking of SXSW, calling your attention to Lauren Silverman’s piece on Facebook dresses and tank tops that double as pilates instructors. Also check out  Stephen Becker’s recap of some of the films he’s seen at the conference.

The many faces of: The Dallas Museum of Art opens the career retrospective for photographer  Cindy Sherman  next weekend.  Uncrated has behind-the-scenes pix of the installation in progress. Excited about the exhibition? Here’s a nice backgrounder from The New York Times, written just before the exhibition opened in New York last year.

Wearable Technology designer Jennifer Darmour created this garment to help people improve their technique in Pilates. Multiple sensors detect positioning and provide feedback to the wearer. (Leo Lam)

3-D glasses, sleep-monitoring headbands, energy-generating jackets…Wearable technology is on the verge of becoming mainstream. But can ski goggles with a built-in GPS and leotards that remind you to sit-up-straight actually be stylish and not just, well, geeky?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Steve Mann, a pioneer of wearable technology in the 1970s, demonstrating three of his inventions (CC, Glogger).

The world of wearable technology has come a long way from the “wearable computer” of the 1970s. Back then, researchers at the MIT Media Lab in Massachusetts were experimenting with attaching computer parts to their bodies and clothing. The early prototypes were  not exactly stylish.

Today, there’s a movement to blend technology and fashion more seamlessly together. Designer Jennifer Darmour came to South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive to talk about how we can literally weave technology into our clothing.

“Let’s face it,” Darmour says, “if we are going to be making these wearable devices and gadgets and we’re asking people to wear them, they need to look good.”

She says it doesn’t matter if your sweatshirt can protect you from UV rays and your shoes can track calories if their  uncomfortable and unattractive.

Read More »