Copious Notes

Hackman and Hutcherson coming to the International Mystery Writers Festival

Before he journeys to the center of the Earth, Josh Hutcherson (center) will journey to Owensboro for the International Mystery Writer's Festival. His co-stars in Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D are Brendan Fraser (left) and Anita Briem (right). Copyrighted photo by Sebastian Raymond for New Line Cinema.

The International Mystery Writers’ Festival in ­Owensboro debuted last year largely touting the cachet of its literary contributors and board members such as ­playwright Ira Levin and novelist Sue Grafton.

This year, it’s adding a little dash of Hollywood.

Gene Hackman will be in Owensboro on June 21 to promote his new book, Escape From Andersonville, a Civil War novel he wrote with Dan Lenihan. According to Zev Buffman, director of the festival and Owensboro’s RiverPark Center, Hackman will turn his visit into a little Kentucky tour, hitting Louisville and Lexington on this trip, though details of those events have not been confirmed.

Hackman is the two-time Oscar-winning star of movies such as The French ­Connection and Mississippi Burning, though he has been saying recently that he’s retired from filmmaking.

Not in any way retired, and in fact at the center of one of this summer’s CGI spectacles, is Union ­resident Josh Hutcherson. The 15-year-old star of Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, due in theaters July 11, will be in Owensboro on June 14 to receive the festival’s Kentucky’s Rising Star Award.

The announcement of the award grouped Hutcherson with other movie stars from Kentucky such as George Clooney and Ashley Judd.

“I never thought that would happen,” Hutcherson said of being lumped with those home-state peers. “It feels like an affirmation of all the work I’ve put in the last few years.”

Hutcherson, who was in Louisiana filming Cirque du Freak when I talked to him, will have a busy day in the Barbecue Capital, speaking to teens in RiverPark’s Young Adult Theatre Academy, giving a master class, receiving his award before a performance of the new Sherlock Holmes play The Final Toast, and hosting a Q&A session about his films, including RV, Zathura and The Bridge to Terabithia.

When he talks to other young people about the film business, Hutcherson tends to tell them, “The reality is it is not all glamour. You have to keep your head up and keep fighting your way up,” he said.

It’s advice some of the new playwrights in the ­festival might take to heart.

The festival will stage 14 world premieres from newcomers and established playwrights such as Stuart Kaminsky, Rupert Holmes, Ray Bradbury, Mary Higgins Clark and Agatha Christie.
Yes, Dame Agatha has been dead for more than 30 years, but the Mystery Fest is getting the honor of premiering Chimneys, a lost Christie script that is being performed with the Christie Family Estate’s blessing.

Kaminsky’s contribution is a new Sherlock Holmes mystery, and Bradbury’s It Burns Me Up is on a double bill with Clark’s My Gal Sunday.

If any of the newcomers are scared of the big-name competition for the fest’s Angie Awards, named for Angela Lansbury, they can take heart from Danville’s Elizabeth Orndorff, whose Death by Darkness beat out some heavy hitters for last year’s top honors.

The festival itself got some recognition at this year’s Edgar Awards, the big award for mystery writing. All three Edgar nominees for best play had premiered at the inaugural International Mystery Writers’ Festival. The winner was Joseph ­Goodrich’s Panic.

So, in Owensboro, you can see some stars, and maybe you’ll see some stars born.

So, are you saying your critics are being bought?

Sometimes commercial campaigns puzzle me. Like, why would cell phone or computer companies think I'd want to buy their brand because their pitchman in a condescending jerk? Why would a soup company think I would be seduced by the idea that their product could turn me into a gurgling zombie?

The current Hotels.com campaign really bugs me.

Now, I like Hotels.com. I have used it to research and to book lodgings on trips and think it's a good service. I've even liked some of their previous commercial campaigns, but the current one . . .

It is probably the first commercial campaign I've seen that highlights the user-reviewer, the citizen critic that is now weighing in on the virtues and pitfalls of virtually every product out there, from hotels to movies to nose-hair removers. Once again, nothing against user reviews. They can be informative for people buying products or services, particularly sight unseen off the Internet. I'll often use them, though in the case of hotels, I usually also check in with professional critics at, say, Frommer's or Fodor's.

The problem with the Hotels.com commercials is the implication that their reviewers are being bought.

In one, a family is checking into a room, and the mom tells the bellman that they picked the hotel based on reviews at hotels.com, and maybe they'd be writing a review. The bellman opens a suitcase full of cash and jewels and says, "I bet you will."

Ha, ha, ha, ha. Hotels want a good review so bad, they'll try to buy you off if you use Hotels.com. Ha, ha.

That was cute, and to any of us who write reviews for a living, it probably reminded us of a time when someone sort of blatantly tried to curry our favor, knowing we were writing reviews -- not that I or anyone I know has been offered a briefcase full of cash and jewels.

But there are a few spots that bug me, because the traveler accepts and encourages the gifts. In one, a man finds a fur bathrobe in his room, and when the bellhop fesses up that it was a bribe and gets ready to take it back, the guest strokes the robe, says he'll let it slide, but don't do it again, especially when he comes back on a specific set of dates. In another one, a man finds two tubes of shampoo, and when his wife says maybe they were trying to butter him up for the review, he shouts, "It's working."

Yes, these are jokes. And maybe I am a little hypersensitive because I am a critic and I don't like to see things that impugn the integrity of that craft.

But the message of these commercials is that the reviewers take and are being influenced by the bribes. Is that really the message Hotels.com wants to send?

An imaginative month of theater

Havala Strauss, Jesse Pavlovic, Allyson Smith, Sara Durham, Mary-Hollis Hundley, Cassidy Twyman, Courtney Collier, Jasmine Webb, and Ashley Smith play the women in of the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in the University of Kentucky Theatre's production of As it is in Heaven, playing the next two weekends at the Shaker Village. Copyrighted portrait by David Stephenson for LexGo.

Late May is usually a sleepy time for theater here in Lexington. But May 2008 has not just been active, it's been adventurous. Last week, LexArts unveiled In This Place . . . a show folks have been buzzing about since it opened a week ago. It's a buzz that usually goes something like, "(Gasp) . . . wasn't that the most incredible thing?!"

The same weekend, TV star and one-time Lexington resident Leslie Jordan opened his one-man show here and Natasha's Bistro brought in Louisville's Shoestring Productions to present Edward Albee's groundbreaking The Zoo Story.

Let's see if this weekend's theatrical adventures are gasp worthy.

The University of Kentucky Theatre is taking Arlene Hutton's As It Is In Heaven back to the place it was born: the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. The UK troupe will be performing the piece in the Meadow View Barn, which has housed the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass -- another extremely imaginative event -- the last two Memorial Day weekends. Could this be the birth of some sort of Shaker Village Arts series?

Meanwhile, back in LexVegas, Theo Edmonds' Cool Life KY operation is presenting its first theatrical endeavor, The Show. Billed as a rock/folk opera about a rock star who loses everything and finds himself in the Bluegrass State, the performance is being billed as a read-through concert to gain support and input for future touring. So, if you are up for a little more adventure, you might want to check out The Show and tell them what you think.

Summer classic: 'Citizen Kane'

The American Film Institute's piece on Citizen Kane as the greatest movie of all time, with commentary from numerous actors and directors, including the recently deceased Sydney Pollack. Below: Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane.

Today, Citizen Kane seems almost synonymous with the phrase, "best film ever." When it was released in 1941, there weren't enough people who saw it for the movie to receive such universal acclaim.

In one way, it didn't pay to go toe to toe with a wealthy newspaperman.

Kane, which opens the Kentucky Theatre's Summer Classics series Wednesday (May 28), was widely recognized in its day as a scathingly unflattering portrait of publisher William Randolph Hearst. In an effort to suppress the film, Hearst banned mention of it, including advertising, from his papers and enlisted the support of allies, including many in the film industry, to squelch the movie and tarnish the reputation of its 24-year-old writer, director and star, Orson Welles.

And by all accounts, it worked, for a time.

Though many critics and non-Hearst publications recognized the movie as a ground-breaking piece of filmmaking, its distribution was limited and after it won only one Academy Award -- screenwriting for Welles and Herman J. Makiewicz -- the movie disappeared for nearly a quarter century. Welles' masterpiece was relegated to obscurity.

Then, it started circulating again. Re-emerged, it began to be recognized for the masterpiece it is, showing us styles and methods of story telling and filmmaking not often seen before, such as extreme closeups and depth of field, with everything from the foreground to the background in focus. With other touches such as an artistic use of shadows, it is truly a treat to see it on the big screen.

And while Hearst's efforts at suppression made the film an initial flop, it has now become a rich part of the movie's legend, including the fact that it makes it seem even more undeniable that Welles' Charles Foster Kane is a Hearst caricature. Now, biographies of Hearst often include at least a passing mention of Kane.

It doesn't seem like going toe to toe with a filmmaking genius worked out so well for him.

The movie shows at 1:30 and 7:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Kentucky. Admission is $3.

Appreciation: Sydney Pollack

Sydney Pollack discovers Dustin Hoffman's secret in Tootsie (1982), which Pollack also directed. Copyrighted photo courtesy of the Associated Press and Columbia Pictures. Below: Pollack in 2006. Copyrighted photo by Michael Spingler-AP.

The first time Sydney Pollack registered with me I was around 14 years old seeing the Dustin Hoffman cross-dressing classic Tootsie. Pollack was the exasperated agent of Hoffman's Michael Dorsey, a difficult actor who dresses up like a woman to land a role on a soap opera. He was the possessor of great lines such as, "I'm begging you to get some therapy."

Soon after that, when the Oscar nominations came out, I would learn to he was also the director of the movie -- wasn't the credit reader I am now -- and from that time forward, seeing his name on a movie usually held the promise of an engaging and literate couple of hours.

His death Monday seems somewhat symbolic of the passing of an era when big stars and studios made major motion pictures that were intelligent, wise and witty.

Pollack won an Oscar for directing Out of Africa with Robert Redford and Meryl Streep in 1985. It wasn't my favorite of his movies -- I liked his other two best director nominees, Tootsie and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) better -- but it was a time when great dramas had a place in the multiplex along with the big budget thrillers. That year, Africa, The Color Purple and Witness were in the year-end Top 10 along with Back to the Future. Last year, Michael Clayton, which Pollack co-produced and played a supporting role in, logged in at No. 55, according to Box Office Mojo. Clayton, starring George Clooney and directed by Tony Gilroy, seemed to be very much within Pollack's style of filmmaking. But there was no room for it at a box office topped by Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Yes, Pollack had his fumbles such as The Electric Horseman (1979). But looking at his filmography, there is much to appreciate, especially Three Days of the Condor (1975), featuring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway in one of the most taut political thrillers ever, and Absence of Malice (1981), a wrenching drama about how journalism can be manipulated starring Paul Newman and Sally Field.

It's sad to see Pollack go. He was a marvelous talent, a champion of storytelling and craftsmanship, and Hollywood could use more people like him.

If you can't do the time . . .

Anyone who pays attention to movies or theater has probably read a scathing review of a show, only to walk by a poster or marquee a few days later too see the same critic quoted as if he gave the thing a rave. You know, maybe the critic wrote, "Only an idiot would think this was a great show," and the marquee screams, "A GREAT SHOW!" attributed to that critic. Well in England, that is now a crime, punishable by up to $9,000 in fines or two years in jail, according to Variety.

Christian music update: An 'Austin City Limits' wish list

Phil Keaggy, shown performing at last year's Ichthus Festival, would be a great addition to the Austin City Limits lineup. Copyrighted LexGo photo by Rich Copley.

It's Tuesday, and usually I run a CD review here. But I'm not quite ready to scribble on any new saucers this week, so let's do a little musing.

My absolute favorite televised venue from music is the long-running PBS series Austin City Limits. It's a a show that has seen most everyone who's anyone in contemporary music from country to world music to rock and a lot of genres that fall in between. Though I have a TiVo season pass for it, I often will stay up Saturday to catch the show, even if I am due at church early the next morning.

Every once and a while, I contemplate what Christian artists would be a good fit for this great music showcase. I don't have a detailed list of who all has been on the show, and there have been recent performances of acts that have ties to the faith-based market such as Robert Randolph and Sufjan Stevens. ACL was the first time I encountered Stevens and his band/orchestra in their butterfly wings. That's one of the great things about ACL: because you trust it to deliver great music, you tune in regardless of whose on and make discoveries. So, a few of the acts Austin City Limits could introduce to its audience include:

~ Phil Keaggy: One thing about the ACL audience is they love great musicianship, so they would love Keaggy, arguably the greatest musician in Christian pop. The intimate setting of the show would also suit him well.

~ How about a couple of Texans, like Derek Webb and the David Crowder Band? Webb is one of the most engaging songwriters in the faith market today, and while DCB is labeled a worship artist, that worship comes with a lot of exploration and adventure the ACL crowd would love.

~ ACL is also into showcasing  well-seasoned established artists such as R.E.M. last weekend or Elvis Costello last season. From the Christian market, who could be better for this showcase than Jars of Clay and Switchfoot? The men of Jars have the kind of musical diversity that would play well on the show, and Jon Foreman's thoughtful songwriting for 'foot would have a better showcase in this forum than on some of the massive concert stages we're used to seeing the band on. Foreman the solo artist, by the way, would also be great on ACL.

This is just a short list, but man, it would be great to tune is one Saturday night and see one of these acts performing before the Texas Capitol backdrop.

New 'chick: We don't have any marquee releases today, according to the Gospel Music Association. But peering through the binoculars, we can see a new Superchick release coming up this time next month. Rock What You Got will be the band's first new release in three years, and promises to have some of the same cross cultural appeal of 2005's Beauty from Pain that featured everything from the bittersweet title track to the first pumping, girl-power Anthem. The band is offering a RWYG sampler with three tracks available today at digital outlets such as iTunes and Napster. I'm downloading as I write.

Condolences: As most of you probably already have heard, Stephen Curtis Chapman lost his adopted daughter Maria to a tragic accident last week. A reminder, if you would like to make a gesture of condolence to the family, they are requesting donations be made to Shaohannah's Hope, the Chapman's charity to support and facilitate overseas adoptions.You can leave notes at the Chapman's blog.

In addition to Ichthus: So, we always write extensively about the Ichthus Festival here. That makes sense. It's just a few dozen miles down the road from Lexington in Wilmore, it is the original Christian pop music festival and what else in Central Kentucky, except the UK basketball team, brings 20,000 people together at one time.

But it is not the only big Christian music festival in the Bluegrass State. While fest season starts at Ichthus June 12-14, it winds down with the NewSong Festival in Leitchfield, Aug. 8-10. This year's event features several of the same acts that will hit Ichthus, including Jeremy Camp, Skillet and TobyMac, and some that won't be at Ichthus such as Sanctus Real and Derek Webb.

Country music

Concertgoers arrive at Meadow View Barn in the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill for Saturday afternoon's concert in the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass. Below: Sibling violinists Todd and Daniel Phillips of the Orion String Quartet perform Saturday afternoon. Copyrighted LexGo photos by Rich Copley.

SHAKERTOWN -- Classical music is something we normally associate with the city. There are those big orchestras in New York, Chicago and just about every other metropolis worth its salt. Even here, in the heart of the Bluegrass, our major concert hall is in the middle of a wide web of asphalt.

Meadow View Barn isn't.

The old tobacco barn at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill lives up to its name, nestled atop a hill that looks out upon vast expanses of green valley or trees from every direction.

For the second Memorial Day weekend in a row, the barn and Shakertown are hosting the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, produced by Centre College's Norton Center for the Arts. Featuring the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, direct from the asphalt jungle of NYC, it is one of the most sublime concert experiences you will ever have.

The string musicians' instruments probably haven't been played this close to their natural elements -- i.e. trees and horse hair -- and sounded this at home in a long time. Somehow the cellos sound more woody, the strains of the violins twirl in the air like a lark dancing, and the violas sound like old souls taking it all in.

This year, the chamber music society brought along four musicians of its own: co directors Wu Han, piano,  and David Finckel, cello, and emerging artists Arnaud Sussman, violin, and Beth Guterman, viola, who were new to the festival. Han and Finckel also invited along the Orion String Quartet, which is performing in its own right and splintering off to perform with the Lincoln Center artists as well.

That was an added bonus with Saturday evening's concert in the Meadow View Barn: We got these world-class musicians mixing and matching for more variety than you usually get from a chamber concert.

Jason Epperson is coming home and likely making a movie

Jason Epperson acknowledged the crowd at Winchester's Calvary Christian Church at an August event to watch the final episode of On the Lot. Copyrighted photos by Pablo Alcala for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

See Jason Epperson's Blood Born at the bottom of this post.

It’s been a year since Jason Epperson stepped into the spotlight, and it still seems surreal.

“I still don’t know if it’s hit me,” the Winchester native says, “that I was on a reality show and I went through what I went through.”

The reality show was On the Lot, which bowed last Memorial Day weekend. It was a co-production of reality TV guru Mark Burnett and filmmaking deity Steven Spielberg. The aim was to find the next great film director, and Epperson wound up in the running up until the moment Texan Will Bigham was named the winner.

Though the show turned out to be a critical and ratings flop, Epperson’s runner-up status opened doors for him in Hollywood, where he, wife Cindi and son Isaiah moved after the show wrapped in August.

During a late-afternoon chat Tuesday, Epperson, 32, gave the move mixed reviews but said it was essential to getting his career in gear.

“I’ve made so many relationships in the business,” Epperson says. “Patience is the most important thing to have. You have to keep fighting. You have to keep going.”

Epperson says it was particularly frustrating for him and even Bigham to be trying to get their careers in gear during the writers strike last winter, which brought all production to a halt.
Now, Epperson is close to solidifying plans for his first feature film, a project that is bringing him home. He is planning to shoot The Phoenix, a film about Harold Dennis, a survivor of the 1988 Carroll County bus crash, which claimed 27 lives.

Review: Leslie Jordan -- 'My Trip Down the Pink Carpet'

Leslie Jordan's biggest claim to fame is his Emmy Award-winning regular role as Beverly Leslie, arch nemisis of Megan Mullally's Karen Walker on Will & Grace.

So you might have expected some Will & Grace moments from Jordan when he took the stage at the Kentucky Theatre for his one-man show, My Trip Down the Pink Carpet.  And there were a few moments, as he started us out at the 2006 Emmy Awards, where he had won his Emmy and was preparing to accompany eight-time Emmy winner Cloris Leachman onto the stage to present a comedy writing award.

Some in the crowd at the Kentucky clearly remembered the moment. Leachman had a line about always remembering her first Emmy, and Jordan, who had just collected his at a separate ceremony a week before, said he took his everywhere, even to bed.

"It's the only woman I ever slept with," he declared.

It was one of the first of many huge laughs during the night, but the line also served as the catalyst for the rest of the show, as Jordan laid out the journey that brought him to a point he could make such an openly gay declaration before a packed auditorium and a national television audience.

My Trip is based on Jordan's forthcoming memoir of the same name. In fact, the show is essentially serving as its book tour, scheduled to hit nearly 30 cities after this opening night in Lexington.

And it's somewhat appropriate the show starts in the South as that's where Jordan started, growing in up in Chattanooga, Tenn., indulging in a crush on the quarterback for the high school football team. He was also a former University of Kentucky student who once aspired to be a jockey.

Jordan regaled us with tales of a number of his crushes after he moved to Hollywood in the early 1980s and landed supporting roles on TV series with men such as Robert Urich, Mark Harmon and our own George Clooney. His best of the these stories is about how he kept dropping a line in the 1992 series Reasonable Doubts so that they would have to repeat a scene where Harmon pushed him to the ground and straddled him.

In the midst of these tales, Jordan kept winding back to a few important themes: an isolation he felt growing up gay in the Bible Belt and self-loathing that would manifest itself in a simultaneous fascination with and repulsion from people like author Truman Capote and center square Paul Lynde who, like Jordan, were effeminate gay men.

Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter dies in accident

The Chapman family: (L-R) Will Franklin, Maria, Steven Curtis, Shaoey, MaryBeth, Stevey Joy, Caleb, and Emily. Copyrighted photo courtesy of Tucker Photography.

UPDATED BELOW

Maria Sue Chapman, the 5-year-old adopted daughter of contemporary Christian music superstar Steven Curtis Chapman, died in an accident at the family home in Franklin, Tenn. yesterday. According to a press release:

"At approximately 5pm on the afternoon of Wednesday May 21st, Maria Sue Chapman, 5 years old and the youngest daughter to Steven and Mary Beth Chapman was struck in the driveway of the Chapman home in Franklin, TN. Maria was rushed to Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital in Nashville, transported by LifeFlight, but died of her injuries there. Maria is one of the close knit family’s six children and one of their three adopted daughters."

Click here for the story from The Tennessean in Nashville.

Chapman is a Paducah native who attended Georgetown College before moving to Nashville. The Chapman's have been outspoken advocates for adoption. In a 2005 interview Chapman told me he promoted adoption because it was like, "You just had an amazing experience -- you've read a great book or seen an incredible movie -- and you want to tell everyone you care about, 'You've got to see this. This will deeply affect you. This will enrich your life and make your life fuller and richer.'

"Adoption has been that for us. Getting involved in the lives of orphans and bringing some of them into our family, or helping other families to do that and watching how it has blessed them and made their lives richer has been one of our great joys as a family."

My wife tells me that while she was driving in to work this morning, a caller to Air 1 dedicated Third Day's Cry Out to Jesus to the Chapmans -- an appropriate selection for a family that will need lots of prayer in the coming weeks and months.

UPDATES:

~ In lieu of flowers, the Chapman family has asked that donations be made to the Shaohannah's Hope Ministry, which promotes and helps facilitate the adoption of orphans.

~ To leave condolences and see a video of Maria, visit the Chapman's blog.

Searching for theater in our history

Michelle Hurst (left) plays Daphney Oldham in In This Place . . . , a play about Lexington's Oldham House, written and directed by Ain Gordon. Copyrighted Herald-Leader/LexGo photo by David Perry.

LexArts president and CEO Jim Clark has been interested in presenting a play rooted in Lexington's history. Four years ago, he invited New York-based stage writer and director Ain Gordon to come tromp around the city and see what sort of stories captured his attention.

That story, as we discuss in a story in today's paper, is about the Samuel Oldham house and its history as the first house in Lexington built by a free black man on property he owned. In This Place . . . is the play that he came up with, a one-woman piece featuring New York-based actor Michelle Hurst as Oldham's wife, Daphney, and multimedia elements including video of historian Yvonne Giles.

Earlier this week, Gordon and Hurst sat down with us to discuss the project.

In this clip, Gordon discusses how he decided the Oldham story was the one to tell (click the play button, and it will play):


In this clip, Hurst talks about approaching the role of Daphney:

Primary coverage: Same as it ever was

Rachel Boca-Vaughn votes Tuesday, May 20, 2008, in the Kentucky primary election in Bowling Green, Ky. Copyrighted AP Photo by Joe Imel of the Bowling Green Daily News.

For a little while during Tuesday’s coverage of the Kentucky presidential primary, it looked as if the national cable news networks might give viewers a little more of Kentucky than they gave folks West Virginia last week.

CNN actually had Candy Crowley doing reports from Louisville with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign, and we saw footage of things such as Jerry Lundergan of Lexington, Clinton’s Kentucky campaign chairman, ­firing up the crowd for the senator from New York.

Maybe the momentousness of the night — in which Illinois Sen. Barack Obama seemed to be claiming some semblance of victory or dealing with his second consecutive drubbing in an Appalachian state, or both — re-energized the talking heads. But pretty soon, it was back to the talking heads.

That doesn’t mean they didn’t talk about us.

They talked plenty about Kentucky, trying to discern why the Bluegrass State overwhelmingly supported Clinton, in what appears to be a lost cause. They used election returns and exit poll data but, from what I saw flipping back and forth, never actually talked to a Kentuckian.

So we were politely generalized as an uneducated state with a race problem — for more impolite characterizations, visit the comments section of The New York Times’ political blog.

Christian music update: American Idols sing for Jesus

Phil Stacey | Phil Stacey
Chris Sligh | Running Back to You

Like the Chris Daughtreys and Clay Aikens in mainstream pop, an increasing number of American Idol finalists who didn't win the big prize are finding homes on Christian music labels, charts and concert tours. Mandisa, who rolled through here a few months ago as part of Winter Jam is probably the highest profile example, but in the past month, a pair of season six veterans released promising debut discs:  Chris Sligh and Richmond-native Phil Stacey.

Sligh certainly hinted this was a way he might go, singing tunes by dc talk and MuteMath on Idol. Running Back to You certainly is the most Idol of the two albums -- take that as you like. From the opening track, Arise, Sligh is showing his powerful pipes. A lot of the album is like this, very radio-friendly, emotional soaring songs that could be completely plausible in the mouths of future Idol competitors. There's also soul and groove in tunes such as Something Beautiful, the album's best cut. It's a superior debut in performance and production.

Stacey is also very true to his Idol self, which was a whole lot country. His voice is at ease in the country format and, though not as spectacular as Sligh's, just as expressive. The thing that marks this album as indelibly country though is the songwriting. The leadoff track, It's Who You Know, is pure Nashville scene-setting and hook that makes Stacey seem like a legitimate two-genre artist. The songwriting credits include several top Christian and country tunesmiths, and the album was made under the direction of veteran Christian artist and songwriter Wayne Kirkpatrick.

Given their Idol notoriety, both artists could cross-over, but for the Christian community, both deliver strong messages of faith. Clearly, the singers are not just seeing the Christian market as a place where they can cash in. They contribute.

Chistianity Today's Christian Music Today website has a great interview with Sligh, Stacey and Mandisa.

Idol Switch: If he doesn't win on Idol tomorrow tonight, could a Christian market contract be in David Cook's future. Last week in on Idol, he uncorked a cover of Switchfoot's Dare You to Move, and got the band a shout out from Randy. Here's the video, if you want to compare Cook to Jon Foreman:

Out today: Warren Barfield offers Worth Fighting For and Tenth Avenue North releases Over and Underneath.

Yahoo!, new Casting Crowns video: Yahoo! Music's video premiers site will be featuring Slow Fade, the new single from Casting Crowns, starting at midnight tonight/tomorrow (May 21).

New FF5: Family Force 5's new EP, Dance or Die, drops on June 3. It will be available at iTunes and at tour dates during the summer,  presumably including the Ichthus Festival , where they play June 14. They're also releasing Blingin' Blogs , Vol. 1 on iTunes with, according to their press release, "12 blogs with over 70 minutes of the world according to Family Force 5." O-K.

Concerts: If you are into the Southern Gospel Music, The Gold City Quartet is playing Tates Creek Christian Church, 3150 Tates Creek Road, at 7:30 p.m. May 30. Admission is free, and an offering will be taken to cover expenses.

And to bring this post full circle, Phil Stacey performs at 7 p.m. May 22 in the Bell County High School gym as part of the Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival in Pineville.

UK Wind Ensemble update: depature delayed

The University of Wind Ensemble's flight from Cincinnati to Chicago, United Flight 191, was canceled this morning, and the ensemble will spend an extra day in Cincinnati before departing Tuesday morning for Chicago and then Shanghai.

Cindy Stewart-Birdwell, wife of ensemble director John Cody Birdwell, addressed the delay and cancellation of their first concert due to China's three-day mourning period for victims of last Monday's earthquake in a post on her blog:

" . . . not to worry. We must simply stay another day in our rather comfy hotel here in Cincinnati...not a bad deal really, extra rest is now possible, and we have beautiful surroundings in which to idle the day away . . . all we're really missing is an extra day of sightseeing in and around Shanghai, and that's unfortunate, but it could have been worse. We will arrive at 2 p.m. with a free day and evening in front of us. Tired, needing to stretch and anxious to get into our hotel, we'll just take it easy and go with the flow."

The UK Wind Ensemble, bound for China

In this video, UK Wind Ensemble director John Cody Birdwell and a couple of students discuss the group's upcoming trip to China. Video by Amy Jones, courtesy of UK Public Relations.

This morning, 67 students faculty and friends of the University of Kentucky Wind Ensemble are winging their way west -- Or, should we say far east? -- to China. The journey will take the UK band on a six city tour of the country that is eagerly anticipating the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics while simultaneously mourning the devastating earthquake that struck Central China a week ago today.

We've got a story about the trip, how it came about and what's going to happen, in today's paper and at LexGo.com.

We've added a photo album of pictures taken by the Herald-Leader's Whitney Waters at events leading up to the trip.

If you'd like to follow along, Cindy Stewart-Birdwell, wife of Wind Ensemble director John Cody Birdwell, is blogging about the experience.

Click the play button below to hear John Mackey's Turbine from the UK Wind Ensemble's Distilled in Kentucky, the CD that was a key to earning the offer to play in China.

Click here to hear UK President Lee Todd's interview of Birdwell for WUKY's UK Perspectives program.

Interview: David Finckel and Wu Han on the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass

Wu Han (center) and David Finckel (right) at Shaker Village last year with their daughter Lilian. Photo courtesy of Finckel and Han.

Last year, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center participated in a pioneering effort: The first Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass.

Presented by the Norton Center for the Arts and its director, George Foreman, the fest was held at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, off the beaten path for most concert goers, in a renovated tobacco barn, an atypical venue for musicians more accustomed to cozy concert halls.

And it was a smashing success.

The concerts were sold out, and the chamber music society’s press representative says the musicians haven’t stopped talking about Kentucky.

So, with the second edition upon us, we got on the phone with cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, co-directors of the Chamber Music Society, to talk about the second edition of the festival and their return to the Bluegrass.

Herald-Leader: Tell us about your trip here last year and what made it so great.

David Fickel: The most wonderful thing, besides being in Kentucky, and in such a beautiful place and having such beautiful weather and meeting all the new people and playing for a new audience was being present at the birth of a really exciting new project. These days, when classical music takes root in a new location and blossoms, it’s wonderful news for everybody involved. We also look at our involvement at the Shaker Village there as being something that the Chamber Society is good at, something that we should do, being the kind of organization we are, we should go around and help people start new things because we can present great art in great programs and get people excited.

In the end, we all had a marvelous time. We made a lot of new friends, and we’ve really been thinking about it ever since.

Wu Han: In a regular concert, we usually hit a city and play for an audience of 500 to 2,000 and then we probably split the next morning and hit the next town. That’s a performer’s life.

So, to have the opportunity to base in such a gorgeous environment – it’s inspiring to be in such a pure and spiritual place like the Shaker Village – and to have the opportunity to be involved in a festival is incredibly satisfying. Festival is a place you come to meet people to have exploration, to have a community that has the opportunity to mingle, to eat meals together, to talk and to share a space and exchange ideas. At the end of the festival, we know the presenters very, very well, we get to know the audience, we get to know where to eat locally, we get to hike a little bit and the audience bonded with us. We have so much to share and it’s a very different sensation from just traveling from city to city and doing one night stands. The setting of the Shaker Village is fantastic. I don’t have the TV to distract me with CNN and 30 minutes of updating in my hotel room. And everyday I would wake up in the same place and it is very close to nature and I get to meet my audience in the daytime.

That’s unusual for musicians and I think it’s unusal for the audience to be that close to the musicians.

And playing the tobacco barn is so unusual. It’s very close to the earthiness of what we do using the chamber music form and its intimacy. It’s a project I really treasure.

Q: Last year, before you came, you said you were curious as to what the venue was going to look like. How did the tobacco barn turn out as a place to play?

WH: I loved it. To have a little bit of cowbell and the birds flying around the Dvorak Piano Quintet is not a bad thing at all.

Review: 'All the Great Books (abridged)'

Professor Seale (Eric Ryan Seale) looks on as Coach (Kody Kiser) foists his monster edition of War and Peace on the student teacher (Zack Hightower) in Studio Players' production of All the Great Books (abridged). Copyrighted LexGo photo by Rich Copley.

One of the standard pieces of advice about putting together a rock band is to find people you enjoy being around, whether or not they are great musicians.

An energy will emerge from the camaraderie that will tie everything together.

The same could be said for casting one of the (abridged) plays by the Reduced Shakespeare Company.

While Lexington productions of The Complete History of America (abridged) and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) have certainly featured some of Lexington’s finer actors, what made them work was the unified spirit of the cast all-in-it-together to convey a tremendous amount of information in as funny a way as possible.

The cast of Studio Player’s production of All the Great Books (abridged) certainly has a lot of information to convey -- 86 books to be exact. The idea of the show is that the three men are teaching a remedial literature class of students that have to familiarize themselves with the tomes in one-hour-and-45-minutes, or they don’t graduate.

The thing is, these aren’t  the best or best-matched teachers for this course.

■ You have Coach, played by Kody Kiser, who comes across as a stereotypical macho football coach. But he also has an unsuspected love for literature, predictably War and Peace and unpredictably Little Women, which he maps out for us like diagraming a play in a game, complete with references to the New York Yankees and steroids.

■ Then there’s professor Seale, played by Eric Ryan Seale, a drama teacher who does not know nearly as much about literature as he should.

■ Finally we have Zach, played by Zack Hightower, a student teacher who probably knows as much about the books as the flunk outs in the class. At his entrance, he says he’s been reading The Lord of the Rings and marvels, “They made a book from the movie!”

Following the UK Winds to China

University of Kentucky Wind Ensemble director John Cody Birdwell is taking his wife and kids along on the group's forthcoming trip to China, and said wife, Cindy Stewart-Birdwell (photo, right), is contributing to the effort by maintaining a blog about the experience.

Thus far, Stewart-Birdwell's HigherView blog has been about the stresses of prepping for the trip around the world that starts Sunday night.

But in view of recent events in China, her Monday post had the chilling note that according to an original schedule for the trip, when Monday's earthquake occurred, the Wind Ensemble would have been in Chengdu, about 60 miles from the epicenter. She writes:

"Life is fragile, this we know, so in the words of Leonard Bernstein, 'This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.'"

Click here to read Stewart-Birdwell's blog. I'll also set a link to it in the left-hand column here for the duration of the trip, May 19-29.

Over the weekend, we'll have a full report on the trip in the Herald-Leader and at LexGo.

New plays explore Kentucky

Playwright Arlene Hutton, whose As it is in Heaven will be presented by the University of Kentucky Theatre at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. Copyrighted photo by Aaron Lee Fineman.

We often talk about the ability of theater to transport us to times and/or places far away, and that is definitely one of the stage’s beauties.

But sometimes, you get this nagging sensation that you’ve taken enough trips to Elizabethan England or the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and you know there are great stories around here.

Two upcoming productions are going to illuminate that point here in late May, when theater is usually dark.

■ LexArts and the Pick Up Performance Co(S.) present In This Place . . . , a play about the Oldham House, which was built by Samuel Oldham, the first free African American to own property and build his own house in Lexington. It will be presented at the Downtown Arts Center May 22 to 24. (Note: The company is holding open rehearsals at the Downtown Arts Center starting between 3 and 3:15 daily through May 21, except Sunday. The rehearsals are free, though if you come, you are asked to stay for the duration of the approximately 90-minute run through.)

■ The University of Kentucky Theatre will present As it is in Heaven, a play about nine Shaker Women set during the “era of manifestations” in early 19th Century Shaker culture. The play will be performed May 31-June 8 at an open air barn in the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, where the play is set.

The play was set there by Arlene Hutton, a New York-based playwright with Kentucky ties who has written about the Bluegrass on several occasions. She was the author of The Last Train to Nibroc, a play set in her parents’ home of Corbin, which spawned two sequels: See Rock City and Gulf View Drive, all with heavy references to local touchstones such as Berea College.

After frequently sitting through plays where I was certain I was missing some of the hip New York references, it was cool to see Gulf View Drive in The City last year fairly confident I was getting a number of things the New Yorkers weren’t.

But seriously, we don’t treasure theater with roots here so that we can somehow be hipper than everyone else when the shows venture out into the world. These are events to treasure because they help us understand the world where we live and the things that are around us we might not have time to or know how to investigate unless someone boils it down into 90-or-so engrossing minutes.

Early 'Prince Caspian' reviews

Most of the daily newspaper reviews of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian will have to wait until Friday, when the movie opens. But there are a few early notices out, and most of them are fairly positive.

• Christy Lemire of the Associated Press calls the film, "darker and funner, more substantive and more engaging, more violent and more technically accomplished."
• The Hollywood Reporter's Michael Rechtshaffen says, "the more somber Caspian also shares elements with the second Lord of the Rings installment, The Two Towers, as well as the later, moodier Harry Potter editions.
• Newsweek's Jennie Yabroff is less impressed saying: "There's a dull, bombastic sameness to the last two-thirds of Prince Caspian, as the characters progress from battle to battle, like players ascending the levels of Donkey Kong.

Across the board, critics seem to agree that Caspian is essentially a war film and that Eddie Izzard as Reepicheep steals the show, both of which are consistent with the book.

Chris, Anderson, Keith, etc. probably aren't coming

This was about as much of West Virginia as the nation saw in last night's coverage of the West Virginia primary. Copyrighted AP photo by Jeff Gentner.

Flipping between CNN and MSNBC last night to watch coverage of the West Virginia primary, it occurred to me that I was seeing nary a West Virginian, save for the ones surrounding Hillary Clinton during her victory speech. That probably does not bode well for Kentucky, which at one point was savoring the idea of mattering and being in the national spotlight for our primary, May 20.

Back in January and February, we were watching national media outlets -- particularly the cable news networks -- pulling up roots every week to broadcast from the newest battleground. There was CNN's Ali Velshi in Texas sporting a cowboy hat and MSNBC's Morning Joe broadcasting from some down-home restaurant in South Carolina. The remotes yielded one of my favorite moments in recent cable newsdom when sirens in Charleston, S.C., kept interrupting CNN's John King during a panel discussion on The Situation Room, leading Jack Cafferty to rant about the silliness of outdoor remotes.

Alas, we do have a beautiful outside in Kentucky they could show. But with our race all but a foregone conclusion in favor of the unlikely nominee, we'll probably have to be happy hearing our state named over and over again in interminable banter from panels of pundits. CNN did air a report questioning whether Barack Obama's strategy of blowing off the Appalachian state primaries in favor of a soft opening to his general election campaign may backfire on him in said general election, and MSNBC's Chris Matthews hinted that maybe Kentucky would be closer than people think, though he didn't offer any reason why. I also liked that at least NBC political director Chuck Todd said that while Obama's drubbing in West Virginia probably won't hurt his chances at securing the Democratic nomination, he still should answer for why he lost so badly in the Mountain State.

Another problem for the Bluegrass State in terms of getting attention is that we share our day with Oregon -- hey Stephen and Suzi -- which will be more likely to help Obama close in on the elusive magic number, somewhere between 2,025 and 2,209 depending on whether you're listening to Howard Wolfson or anyone else.

We'll probably get more out of watching KET's election coverage, particularly with a Senate primary in play. That actually may give the national pundits a few more minutes to mull over Kentucky and the possibilities of a challenge to Mitch McConnell in November. Last night, MSNBC in particular devoted some time to actual news out of Mississippi, that Democrat Travis Childers had taken yet another seat in the House of Representatives out of a reliably Republican district. In an otherwise uneventful night, it gave Tim Russert something to talk about.

But it was supposed to be West Virginia's night. And next week was supposed to be ours.

Maybe in 2012.

Christian pop update: Stephanie Smith review, Narnia and Ichthus

Newcomer Stephanie Smith will be a big presence at the Ichthus Festival in June. Photo courtesy of Gotee Records.

Stephanie Smith | Not Afraid

Christian music is almost a decade removed from an era where it seemed afraid to let women rock. From Jennifer Knapp (Where've you gone?) to Fireflight's Dawn Richardson and the BarlowGirls and Superchicks in between, the Christian market has gotten used to hearing a woman's voice in front of a hail of guitars, to the point that it doesn't make headlines.

So why is Stephanie Smith a headline?

First is the backstory is that she was spotted by Gotee Records impresario Toby McKeehan -- you may know him as TobyMac -- who was actually turned down by Smith when he first offered her a development deal.  In the past, the man has spotted acts such as Knapp, Family Force 5 and Grits, so if he's interested, you want to give it a listen. That would lead to second, which is that when he finally signed Smith, he put a lot of support behind her. At least, that's what her debut, Not Afraid, sounds like.

Jamie Moore's production is a collection of high energy anthems seemingly perfectly tailored to launch Smith into the summer festival season, where she'll be a big presence at events such June's Ichthus Festival in Wilmore. Smith sounds ready for it with a voice warm enough for the Miley Cyrus crowd but strong enough to draw in the fist-pumpers waiting for Skillet.

If there's a weakness here, it's in material. Some of the opening tracks such as Beauty and Superstar feel like they've been done before, both in title and execution. The album starts showing artistic maturity in grittier rockers such Over It and the reflective ballad, What if I Made a Mistake? With a winning first effort and clear label support, Smith should enjoy success this go-round and time to grow.

American Idols: We want to ruminate on Chris Sligh and Phil Stacey's albums one more week, so we'll have those reviews next week.

Also out today: With Arrows With Poise by new MTV stars The Myriad.

Dottie Rambo: Southern Gospel has never been my thing. But I certainly knew about Dottie Rambo (photo, right) and her music. The Queen of Gospel Music died Saturday en route to a concert in Texas and former Herald-Leader religion writer Frank Lockwood has an informative tribute to her at Bible Belt Blogger. And we have a guest book at Kentucky.com if you'd like to share your condolences. Walter Tunis also has an eloquent remembrance at his blog, the Musical Box.

Air1 & Ichthus: California-based Air1, heard locally at WVRB-95.3 FM, is giving away a trip for four to the Ichthus Festival, complete with backstage passes. The contest is kind of cute: You start to qualify by being the correct number caller when they ask you to call in. Then, you get to play That's Greek to Me -- Greek, Ichthus, get it -- a contest in which you are asked to correctly identify a non-English word or phrase. If you do, you qualify for a grand prize drawing of a trip for four, including airfare, to the Ichthus Festival, June 12-14 in Wilmore.

Narnia alert: If you are getting geared up for the opening of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian on Friday, you could run down to the Tates Creek Branch of the Lexington Public Library at 7 tonight for a little preliminary event. Asbury College English professor Devin Brown will be discussing and signing copies of his latest book, Inside Prince Caspian: A Guide to Exploring the Return to Narnia, the follow up to his successful examination of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which came out before the last Narnia film. Brown is an internationally recognized expert on C.S. Lewis and the Narnia series.

Then go home and . . . watch Switchfoot perform This is Home, the band's contribution to the Caspian soundtrack, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at 11:35 p.m.

Speaking of faith-based film: You may remember Facing the Giants, a movie about a fledgling football coach who doesn't find success until he finds God, that went on to surprising success in the fall of 2006. It was surprising because the movie was essentially made as a fund-raiser by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. Well, the church's moviemaking ministry -- how many churches have one of those? -- is at it again with Fireproof, the story of a fireman looking to save his faltering marriage, which is due this fall. Fireproof already shows some signs of Sherwood's success with Giants and its predecessor, Flywheel. The trailer, below, shows advanced special effects and camera work, while there's still a down-homeyness about some of the acting. The film also has a Christian pop tie-in with Warren Barfield's Love is Not A Fight, off of his new disc, Worth Fighting For, which is out next week.

SNL-Hillary honeymoon over?

As expected, Saturday Night Live opened this week's episode with politics, specifically Hillary Clinton's increasingly unlikely bid to be the Democratic nominee for President. What was not so expected was that the show and brilliant Clinton impersonator Amy Poehler seemingly picked up a Louisville Slugger and went after the New York Senator who, just a few weeks ago, seemed to have her campaign buoyed by a few sympathetic portrayals on SNL. Clinton even appeared alongside Poehler one night. But after Saturday, it's hard to imagine that again. Do you go back on a show after it has, with no subtlety at all, portrayed you as a sore loser with no personal ethics whose supporters are racists?

After the fun of routines such as the Halloween party, in which Barack Obama actually appeared, the debate sketches and the faux 3 a.m. phone call ad, Poehler blatantly stating to supposed superdelgates that the sore loserness, racists, and lack of ethics are why they should vote for her was a dark and uncreative turn. Yes, some people will find truth in some or all of those points, but we've come to expect more finesse and humor from the crew. This take definitely was not yet ready for prime time.

Later in the show, on Weekend Update, Poehler did have a great line about the increase in the price of stamps from 41 cents to 42 cents: "'Aw, that's cute,' said oil." And Louisville's My Morning Jacket had a fantastic appearance, ending its first number in a glorious feedback duel.

BTW, we had fun talking to political comic Paula Poundstone for a story in yesterday's paper. Click the link, if you missed it.

If you are a political junkie like me, you may enjoy this profile of NBC's political director Chuck Todd by the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz.

NBC is announcing today that former SNL star Jimmy Fallon will succeed Conan O'Brien as the host of Late Night when Conan succeeds Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show next year. The Jimmy Fallon-Tina Fey Weekend Update duo was easily among the best ever in that segment, so it was hard to see Fallon struggle in his attempt at a film career. Maybe this will be a good move for him. (AP photo by Evan Agostini.)

L.A. Times critic comes home to Lexington

The University of ­Kentucky College of Fine Arts distinguished alumni award has gone to such artists as sculptor John Henry, tenor Gregory Turay and Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche.

This year, it went to — I love this — a critic.

F. Kathleen Foley was a theater student at UK in the 1970s and has gone on to a career as a theater critic for the Los Angeles Times and several other publications in Southern California. Foley’s original intention was to act, which she did in New York, Kentucky and L.A.

“I became a critic by default,” Foley says from her home in Los Angeles. “I wanted the free tickets, so after acting didn’t work out, I kind of segued into this career.”

That’s one of two careers Foley has. By day, she works for Breakdown Services, a Los Angeles firm that reads scripts and ­disseminates information about the available roles to actors, directors, agents and other interested parties in the film trade. Foley and her colleagues read scripts, then distill them into quick information about the plots and characters to distribute to clients. For instance, a script might call for a 23-year-old blonde bimbo who roller skates, so when the information goes out, agents can send all of their clients who match that description.

“It’s really leveled the ­playing field,” Foley says.

And she and her ­colleagues have a lot of fun, including reading egregiously bad scripts out loud to one another.

“After Pulp Fiction came out, everything we got was really raw and awful,” Foley says. “But I read good scripts, too. I read The ­Departed,” which won the 2007 Oscar for best-picture.

By night, Foley loves to see good theater, filing an ­average of two reviews a week.

Above: F. Kathleen Foley accepts her distinguished alumni award at UK, May 4, 2008. Photo courtesy of F. Kathleen Foley.

SNL has My Morning Jacket this week, and hopefully more great political humor

Louisville's My Morning Jacket is the musical guest on Saturday Night Live this week, providing guest host Shia LaBeouf and Mr. SNL Digital Short Andy Samberg with a wonderfully cheesy joke in the video, above.

Of course, we've also come to expect great political humor from SNL lately, Amy Poehler's Hillary Clinton impression being the biggest reason why.  For some reason, I keep thinking this week, it would be funny to remake the Thing that Wouldn't Leave sketch -- a faux horror movie trailer in which John Belushi is an annoying dinner guest who won't take a hint that it's time to go, leading to anguished screams from his hosts -- and frame it in the context of the Democratic primaries. Maybe I just want to hear Fred Armisen scream as Obama. Whatever the professional sketch writers come up with, we'll probably be talking about it Monday morning.

(By the way, the Jimmy Carter clip that comes up in the video menu after Andy and Shia is another classic.)

Note: On Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me this morning, they played the newsmaker countdown, in which they play a song inspired by someone who was in the news during the week, and then the contestant has to guess who inspired it. The song inspired by Hillary Clinton: that Dreamgirls showstopper, And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going. The show repeats at noon Sunday on WUKY-91.3 FM or you can hear it at Wait Wait's website.

UK Wind Ensemble still needs money for its trip to China

University of Kentucky trumpet professor Mark Clodfelter (left) performs with the UK Wind Ensemble, conducted by Cody Birdwell (right), at a April 20 concert previewing the Ensemble's upcoming trip to China. Copyrighted LexGo photo by Whitney Waters.

As the University of Kentucky Wind ­Ensemble is gearing up for its tour of China, from May 19 to 29, it is still in the process of raising funds for the journey.

“This is obviously not the best year to be trying to raise additional funds for a trip like this,” UK bands director John Cody Birdwell said, referring to the faltering economy and budget-tightening at the university.

But it’s also the one chance for the band to go be part of a cultural event leading up to the Beijing Olympics.

The trip will take place regardless of the state of fund-raising at take-off, but the band is still seeking donations. Tax deductible contributions can be made to the University of Kentucky Bands Alumni and Friends, 33 Fine Arts Building, Lexington, KY 40506-0022. For more information, call the band office at (859) 257-2263.

Studio Players' 2008-09 season

Studio Players’ 2008-09 season features a holiday play that has been a sold-out hit in many areas and a contribution to the Lincoln bicentennial celebrations. Here’s the lineup:

Sept. 11-28: Don’t Dress for Dinner by Marc Camoletti, adapted by Robin Hawdon; directed by Gary McCormick. A man’s plans for a romantic weekend in the country with his mistress go horribly awry.

Nov. 6-30: A Tuna Christmas by Ed Howard, Joe Sears and Jaston Williams; directed by Marc Roland. The local radio personalities in the third-smallest town in Texas are back on the air, tellin’ y’all about the Yuletide season happenings. This show is an annual sell-out at Actors Theatre of Louisville and other theaters.

Jan. 15-Feb. 1: The Last of Mrs. Lincoln by James Prideaux, directed by Paul Thomas. This is a look at the life of Mary Todd Lincoln after the assassination of her husband, President Abraham Lincoln.

March 19-April 5: Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare, directed by Eric Ryan Seale. The title of the play, which was made into a hit 1993 movie starring Will Smith, has become a pop culture catch phrase, suggesting we are all just six people away from knowing everyone else. The story centers on a con man who talks his way into the apartment of a wealthy New York couple by saying he is Sidney Poitier’s son and friends with their child, who is away at college.

May 21-June 7: Dearly Beloved by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten; directed by Tonda-Leah Fields. Studio starts the season with an affair gone awry and ends it with a wedding in chaos. Take your favorite June bride.

Season tickets will be $60, and go on sale with the opening of All the Great Books (Abridged), which runs May 15 to June 1. After June 30, the season subscription price will rise to $65. Subscriptions will be available at the Carriage House Theatre during performances, the Downtown Arts Center ticket office, by calling (859) 225-0370.

Ichthus goes green

Ichthus Festival director Jeff James has an animated moment during an organizational meeting for the event's environmental initiative as Natalie Corso from Crossroads Christian Church and Carrie Berend with the Catholic Action Center look on. (Below) Ginny Ramsey of the Catholic Action Center. Copyrighted LexGo photos by Rich Copley.

Add the Ichthus Festival to the growing list of cultural outposts “going green.”

At last year’s festival, the second edition held in June and after most school systems close, Ichthus began bringing in church groups who were coming to the festival anyway and asking them to do service projects in Lexington and Eastern Kentucky in the half-week before the music started.

This year, those projects will have an environmentally-friendly theme.

During the three days before the festival, the mission groups will participate in clean-up and planting projects in several Lexington inner-city neighborhoods and Eastern Kentucky communities, and they will help educate kids in those areas about how they can be more environmentally friendly.

“Sometimes we’re given stuff we’re supposed to do,” said Ginny Ramsey of the Catholic Action Center, which is helping organize the  Ichthus initiative. “When it’s right in front of you, what can you do but do it. The Lord is going to take us where we need to be.”

The initiative at the 39-year-old Wilmore Christian rock music festival, June 12-14, reflects a growing trend of evangelical churches embracing environmental concerns. Several area churches are participating and helping house participants such as Immanuel Baptist Church, The Vineyard Church and Crossroads Christian Church.

Chamber fest gets a composer

Daniel Thomas Davis sat down for a chat at Third Street Stuff to discuss a new piece he is writing for the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington. Copyrighted photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

After a successful debut in 2007 with works by masters such as Mozart and Beethoven, the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington will have a composition of its own this year.

Musician Daniel Thomas Davis will be the composer-in-residence at the festival, Aug. 27 to 31, and his new piano quintet will premiere Aug. 30.

"The idea was for me to come down here and ­somehow be prompted by the people and the place," Davis said over coffee at Third Street Stuff.

To that end, he came to Lexington in February and spent a week with festival creator Charlie Stone, who ferried him around the region to soak up local color and sound.

"We had gone to Shakertown," Davis recalled, "and the Shakers have a long musical history.    

"It was a frighteningly cold morning, and no one was there. And I remember this incident: I was standing in the meetinghouse all by myself, and I whistled. I got this amazing echo — not a big stadium echo, but far more colorful. It came back with a very different color from where it started."

Davis initially met Stone in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where the composer was an artist-in-residence at the ­legendary Yaddo Colony ­artists' retreat.    

It was the latest in a ­career of numerous honors for the composer, who has bachelor's degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and Johns Hopkins University and a master's from the Royal Academy of Music in London. He has studied composition with well-known writers such as William Bolcom, Peter Maxwell Davies and Jennifer Higdon. His most successful composition to date is To Canaan's fair and happy land, which has been ­performed more than 75 times and has been excerpted on radio in the United States and Europe.

Lyndy is 'Dancing with the Stars'

Lexington-native Lyndy Franklin and her fellow castmates from A Chorus Line will be on Dancing with the Stars at 9 tonight (May 6) on ABC. Franklin made her Broadway debut in the hit revival of A Chorus Line in 2006 and is now the company's dance captain. Along for the ride was company manager and fellow Lexingtonian Adam J. Miller. Miller and Franklin went to the Sayre School together.

Copyrighted Herald-Leader photo by Aaron Lee Fineman.

WUKY airing call-in show regarding Eight Belles

From 11 a.m. to noon May 7, WUKY-91.3 FM will air an hour-long call-in show dealing with the death of Eight Belles in the Kentucky Derby and controversies regarding thoroughbred racing. The show is On Point, a call-in show from Boston-based WBUR. Among the guests will be Versailles-based breeder Jim Squires.

Christian music update: Andy Hunter review

Andy Hunter released his second full-length album, Colour, last month.

Andy Hunter | Colour

Christian music has had a tenuous relationship with Moby in the past, but since 2002, the genre has had an amazing electronica talent in its fold with Englishman Andy Hunter.

It's not a talent all the Christian music world's own, since the mainstream has definitely discovered Hunter's gift and utilized it in film (Matrix: Reloaded), TV (Alias) and video games (Need for Speed Underground) -- all of those credits should include the phrase, "to name a few." That's somewhat natural, since in England, faith-based artists are all in the same marketplace with secular pop.

Hunter's new full-length effort, Colour, shows tremendous growth in the years since that debut -- which included a 2005  EP, Life -- as well as connections he's made. Among his collaborators are dance artist Shaz Sparks and former Ultravox frontman Midge Ure. Those and several other collaborations are indicative of Hunter's work becoming more accessible. While there are still moments where the music unfolds like an endless expanse before our ears, there are just as many strong songs and effective mixes of the two. Ure's work on Smile is an example of a strong song, while Technicolour, featuring D'Morgan, is an example something more oriented toward the dance floor. The fun in the words to the latter is how embracing God is equated to a rush of color and sound.

Hunter's message is clear to anyone who cares to listen. Take the closer, the final stament, You:

You are the one.
The one in three.
Three in one.
Infinity.

Electronica and trance music are a bit of a different flavor to Christian audiences. But they are also a more natural fit than we'd assume. By its nature, electronica has an ability to transport the listener to a different and more contemplative plane, like jam band or classical music. Hunter has penned terrific soundtracks to movies, and Colour could be a great addition to the soundtrack of your life.

Out today: Chris Sligh becomes the second American Idol contestant in as many weeks to release a CD in the Christian market with Running Back to You. Phil Stacey was the AI vet last week. Maybe this calls for an Idol two-fer in the review slot next week.

Tween popsters Jump5 always appeared to be built for a season, not built to last. But now that the group has disbanded, it's founding members are carrying on. The founding duo of Brandon and Brittany Hargest (photo, right) made their debut as Guest at Gospel Music Week in Nashville last month. You can sample their EP, Perfect, at Guest's myspace page.

What was the most played song on Christian radio last year? Well, BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) tracks that sort of thing and last month honored writer Ed Cash with song of the year for Made to Worship, which was recorded by Chris Tomlin, and songwriter of the year for work on that and other songs, including Tomlin's How Can I Keep from Singing? Click here for a complete list of the most performed songs on Christian radio, including gospel and Southern gospel outlets.

P.O.D. on TV: With very fond memories of P.O.D.'s Late Show with David Letterman appearance in 2001 to sing Youth of the Nation backed by, I believe, the Harlem Boys Choir, this sounds appealing: The San Diego band will be on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at 11:35 p.m. Wednesday (May 7) performing an acoustic version of Tell Me Why, backed by a string quartet. The song is from When Angels & Serpents Dance, which debuted at No. 9 on Billboard magazine's album chart and was the No. 1 rock album at iTunes during its debut week.

Look out for a post later this week about Ichthus going green.

Tickets on sale for UK's new concert series

Manhattan Transfer -- (L-R) Tim Hauser, Janis Siegel, Cheryl Bentyne and Alan Paul -- will perform a Christmas show with conductor John Nardolillo and a small local Orchestra as part of the  Singletary Center's Signature Series.

A jazz legend and another marquee soloist for the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra are highlights of the Signature Series lineup at UK’s Singletary Center for the Arts. If the name sounds new, center director Michael Grice says that’s because he aimed to combine some of the best elements of the center’s several series — Corner on Classics, Turning the Corner and even Spotlight Jazz — into one series that would offer a broad spectrum of artists.

Leading off the season will be trumpet celebrity Wynton Marsalis (photo, left) and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, on Oct. 4. For Valentine’s Day, the UK Symphony Orchestra will perform with hot young violinist Gil Shaham (photo, right), who will play Igor Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto in D, which he will perform five days later with the Cleveland Orchestra.

“If we can get artists here, not just to perform, but also match them with students and faculty, that’s nurturing the arts in our community,” said Grice, who paired the UK Symphony with cello legend Lynn Harrell last season.

Grice said that UK Symphony director John Nardolillo and a small orchestra of local musicians will accompany The Manhattan Transfer in its Christmas concert here, on Dec. 20.

Here’s the full schedule of concerts, most of which are on weekend nights:

• Oct. 4: Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.
• Oct. 23: Song and Dance Ensemble of West Africa.
• Nov. 8: Andrea ­Marcovicci’s Love Songs of World War II.
• Nov. 12: José Porcel and Ballet Flamenco.
• Dec. 20: Manhattan Transfer holiday concert.
• Jan. 30: Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra.
• Feb. 14: Violinist Gil Shaham with the UK ­Symphony Orchestra.
• March 13: Blue Note Jazz Tour.

Tickets for the series go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday, May 5, at the Singletary Center ticket office. Call (859) 257-4929 or go to www.singletarytickets.com. The center has changed its fee structure for the series, pricing tickets according to seat location instead of by status such as student, UK faculty and staff, etc.

“All the same prices are still available,” Grice said. “It’s just according to where you sit now.” He said that brings the Singletary Center’s pricing policies in line with most other performing arts centers and even groups that use the Singletary Center, such as the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra.
The center will offer five ticket packages, from all eight concerts to three shows, and ranging in price from $88 to $272. For complete pricing information and an order form, go to the Singletary Center website.

Mixed emotions

Eight Belles, above, shown in an April 27 workout (Herald-Leader photo by Mark Cornelison) and, below, shown striding toward her second place Derby finish (photo by Rich Copley).

What a swing from our perch in the Jockey Club, watching Big Brown's big win, to entering the press room to hear that Eight Belles had been euthanized. Do people streaming out of the Downs even realize what has happened? You think you just saw a victory by a promising champion, maybe a successor to the excitement of Barbaro. But then, almost immediately, we are hit with the same emotions of the other side of the Barbaro story -- the tragedy of seeing a horse fatally injured when the whole world is watching. Wow.

Note: Originally, we were going to end this thread with accounts of the departure from the Downs: everything from the street preachers to the Mardi Gras bead hawkers to the women falling off their high heels, the bizarre aftermath of Derby Day. But after what happened to Eight Belles, the Herald-Leader staff was retained in the media room to make sure we had the story covered and I don't really think diving into drunken revelry would have been terribly appropriate. Though the sun came out and temperatures warmed up, in a way, today feels as gray as it started.

My old ky hm

So Churchill is letting people send text messages to the scoreboard for a buck 99 each. So, scrolling across the bottom of the board are slams by Colonel John fans and love messages to the Jonas Brothers. How Disney Channel.

Found my perch

The University of Louisville Marching Band leads the singing of My Old Kentucky Home before Kentucky Derby 134. Photo by Rich Copley.

It was an irresistable inivitation: Want to go up to the jockey club to watch the race? It's a sweet perch, but a windy one. Taking a group photo was something of a challenge, because anyone with long hair is having trouble keeping it out of their faces. And the finish line is obscured by a spire. But hey, we're next to the twin spires. Someone just asked when we should leave. After collecting my winnings, I hope.

Full field

When the day started, there was a smaller-than-normal crew set to dash for position, when Churchill Downs gates opened under dreary skies. And into the morning, it was a lot easier to get around than it normally is on Derby day. That' all changed. The Paddock is now full of people -- folks in fabulous outfits standing on a floor of crushed beer cans and cigarette butts. And the betting windows are stacked a dozen deep with people making those last minute wagers.
We're an hour away from post time.

My brother, my bookie

So now we get to the real nitty gritty of this day: the bets. Like I a lot of people, I get sent to the Downs each year with a fistful of Derby bets to place. That sounds easy, until you get into the slew of numbers a 20-horse field presents you and the complications  of win, place, show, exacta, trifecta, superfreakingfecta, etcectra.

After all, if your mom's co-worker wanted to make a win bet on Court Vision and he comes through, but you just dropped two-bills on show for that 20-1 shot, you're going to need to cough up the difference. And then you need to keep all of these tickets straight.

It's like being back in math class.

Anyway, those bets are all in. Now it's time to work on mine.

What do you want to talk about?

Our new friends from Nebraska, above, and Tabitha Davisson, Jessica Duzenbeery and Michelle Lyons of Missouri, below, in the Infield. Photos by Rich Copley.

So, you have this idea to talk about something like, how much drinking happens before lunchtime at Derby.

After all, how many of us have downed a beer and two cocktails before noon, on any sort of regular basis?
Well, it appears this is not so weird if you factor in things like Mardi Gras and football games -- at least in Nebraska and Missouri.

But the real fun is where these conversations go. Like, our chat with our friends from Missouri strayed into prime places to see the race and ultimately which Springfield The Simpsons are actually from. "They're from the Midwest," Michelle Menze, 27, of St. Louis says. "Either Missouri, Illinois or Kentucky."

Talking with our new friends from Nebraska, where there is no punk rock, we learn going to the track in Omaha is as big a party as Derby Day or Keeneland -- and they are well aware of Keeneland. "We only have one week of racing each year," says Brendan Leehy, nursing a mint julep he's only drinking for the cup. "So we turn it into a big party."

Fun, and it tempts you to stop asking these purposeful questions and instead just go up to people and say, "What do you want talk about?"

"Go big, or go home"

So Deanna Amos started having this hat party a few years ago with her friends. They'd work up crazy-beautiful Derby chapeaus and get together for a mutal admiration society with a touch of competitiveness.

"Everybody knows, 'Go big or go home," she said of the hats.

They'd go to the Derby together. Things have clearly escalated. Saturday, they were out on the plaza striking poses and accomodating dozens of requests for photos. The attraction was their matching, custom-made silks of hot pink and teal. "It's hard to find that much material in one color for this many outfits," Amos said. The pay off is memories for her, her friends, and the hundreds of people who had to have their pictures taken with the ladies.

Deanna Amos (back row, in sunglasses) and her hot-pink and teal crew. Photo by Rich Copley.

One nation, in the tunnel

Saxophonist Marshall Chambers has a good payday playing in the Infield Tunnel on Derby Day. Photos by Rich Copley.

I heard the diverse voices of our great country come together to sing our national anthem, in the tunnel between the main concourse and the infield. It's one thing to hear an orchestrated rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner. It's another to hear people spontaneously lift the song in unison, as they did while saxophonist Marshall Chambers of Indianapolis wailed the tune on his horn, utilizing the tunnel's resident echo.

Chambers said he has been coming to the Derby for 10 years and makes a figure in tips he declined to state for the record, because it might tempt other buskers to compete with him. He also hits other major events and festivals, noting he'll be back home in a few weeks at the Indianapolis 500.

Needless to say, he's happy with the response he gets, in dollars and in song.

Stay with the Seersucker

Above: Peter Biava sizes up the field in his seersucker. Below, descending: George Pappas and Ashley Blackburn looking very springy at the Paddock. Taj Grills in his favorite fabric. Photos by Rich Copley.

I am now officially ashamed of myself for abandoning my seersucker suit.

When the day started, it was overcast, it had just stopped raining and there was a chilly breeze in the air. It just didn't feel like seersucker weather.

But clearly, that was not a unanimous decision.

Every corner I turned, there were men in their seersucker, looking cool as the temperature rose.

"It's a perfect fit with the Derby," said George Pappas of San Francisco. "It compliments a spectacular event and the beautiful lady on your arm," he added, his beautiful lady being Louisvillian Ashley Blackburn, who will graduate from UK tomorrow.

"I don't feel dressed up," Taj Grills, who lives outside Avon Lake, Ohio, said. His affection for seersucker extends to shorts and casual shirts, and he apparently has several suits in his closet, saying he might break out a red one next year.
Notre Dame Student Peter Biava grew up going to the track with his dad and says, "I never wear anything but a suit to the track, and at the Kentucky Derby, you've gotta wear seersucker and a bow tie."

Point taken. Next time, I'll wear seersucker, even if it's snowing.

How should I feel about this?

The Pimp of the infield would not talk to me because he needed a beer. Should I be offended? Maybe this explains why he is the Pimp of the Infield.

Can't see

Ah, the call to the post, meaning there will be a race. A race I cannot see, because I am dead center of the infield. But there is hope, because I've just come upon this little cadre of seats next to the Winner's Circle. Let's see how this goes. One of my quests today is to see the actual Derby with my own eyes, despite having no access to sweet seats.

Hallelujiah

There is now a reason to put on sunglasses.

Imported parimutuels

Here's one to file under, I've been here 10 years, but who knew: At the entrance I ran into Carrie Glenn and Terry Voight who usually work as parimutuel tellers at Manor Downs outside of Austin, Texas.

"You've never heard of it," Voight says, indicating that's OK.

But every year, they and a lot of other tellers take a tour of the big races, including all of the Triple Crowns.

"The Kentucky Derby is the best," Glenn says. "All of the people are nice and its such a huge event."

Asked what they really like about the Derby atmosphere, Voight said, "The hats and the clothes. Everybody says that, but it's true."

The Hennegans are here

John Hennegan and Skip Koepnick share a laugh about The First Saturday in May. Photo by Rich Copley.

Equine auteurs John and Brad Hennegan are at the main entrance to Churchill Downs hawking the DVD of their documentary, The First Saturday in May, which opened two weeks ago at the Kentucky Theatre.

"Documentaries don't have a long theatrical life," John Hennegan said. "So getting the DVD out is a way to pay back investors and get the word out."

He said they felt good about the opening weekend for the movie, two weeks ago, as it's per-screen average gross doubled that of Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden, which was much more widely released and advertised.
The Hennegans were doing brisk business, selling DVDs by the handful at some points and even meeting some notable characters.

Skip Koepnick, "the hat man," had a notable moment in the film that's also in the trailer -- it's the sex line -- and John Hennegan asked to have his picture taken with him, like just about everyone else in the Downs.

"I spend the whole day having my picture taken with people," said Koepnick, of Wyoming, Mich., whose battery-powered horse features two horses running in a circle.

Live: The Derby experience

Proud Spell sloshing her way to victory in Friday's Kentucky Oaks. Let's hope things dry out today. Copyrighted Herald-Leader photo by Mark Cornelison.

Ten years ago the first Saturday in May, I arrived at Churchill Downs for the first time to attend the Kentucky Derby. My assignment was to write the "Derby virgin" story, chronicling first encounters with uniquely Derby experiences such as the mint julep, placing a bet and the infield.

Since then, I've covered nine of these things -- if you're counting, I took last year off in favor of covering LBB in the Legally Blonde opening in New York -- and experienced a lot. I've watched the race from the roof of Churchill Downs, I've hung with Scooby Doo in the infield and I trailed Lee Cruse and his antics around the Downs.

Back then, blog might be a way to pronounce log if you had too many mint juleps, and we filed our stories via dialup. This year, I will be your Derby blogger, your Kentucky Culture Vulture trying to bring you a bit of the experience, what makes Derby distinct.

Barnstable Brown redux

Above: One of the unique aspects of the Barnstable Brown Gala is seeing stars such as the Supremes Mary Wilson give impromptu performances. By Angela Baldridge. Below: Party regular Bo Derek, looking a very classy 10 at 51. By David Perry. The photos are copyrighted by the Lexington Herald-Leader.

You do have to hope that the Barnstable Brown Gala is not becoming something like the Ichthus Festival.

Ichthus, for those not in that loop, is a Christian music festival in Wilmore that for years was plagued by rain and worse. For the second year in a row, the Barnstable Derby Eve party had to contend with the elements -- an added glitter was lights reflecting off wet pavement.

Among Derby Eve events, it is uniquely vulnerable to the weather because it is mostly held outdoors, albeit mostly under a massive tent. When it's a beautiful 60-something degree night, it can be magical.

When thunderstorms surround, you wish they'd magically disappear.

For most of the 2008 edition, the storms did just surround, lifting enough for the stars to make their grand entrances and walks up the Barnstable driveway to the awaiting party.

Patricia Barnstable Brown and her twin sister Cyb Barnstable were making their ways down that long, winding driveway and ran into celebrity chef Bobby Flay and his wife, actress Stephanie March.

"It's a fabulous party, and you made the rain stop," Flay said, beaming.

Brown replied, "This is what happens every year. It rains, and then, just in time for the party, it stops."

And then the stars come out.

This party has been happening for 20 years at 1700 Spring Street in Louisville.

This year's guest list included regulars such as singer Michael McDonald, photographer turned celebrity dad Larry Birkhead, Olympic skier Bode Miller and newcomers such as talk show host Carson Daly and Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner, who brought his reality show The Girls Next Door to the party.

Murray native Molly Sims marveled at the throng of photographers quietly snapping her picture.

"You all are so polite," the former Las Vegas star said. "This is the nicest paparazzi I've ever seen."

Daly invoked Hefner in his opinion of Louisville and the party: "People at home think this is the Playboy Mansion of Louisville. But it's not. It's a real home in a real, lovely neighborhood."

We could go on, but the things that tell the story best are David Perry and Angela Baldridge's photos and David Stephenson's video of the evening at the Herald-Leader photo site.

Check back here later today for Copious Notes' live Derby blog. I'm looking out the window trying to decide whether I need to ditch the seersucker for today.