Copious Notes

Kentuckians leading Cincinnati Shakespeare's upcoming 'Hamlet'

So, you’re a Cincinnati theater company preparing to bring one of the greatest plays ever to your stage. Who do you turn to? A pair of Central Kentuckians, of course.

Actor Matt Johnson and director Brian Isaac Phillips are well established in the Queen City theater scene.

But allow us a moment of Bluegrass State pride as we note these two Central Kentuckians are leading the Cincinnati Shakespeare Co.’s production of Hamlet to the stage.

Phillips, the artistic director of Cincy Shakes and director of Hamlet, grew up in Lexington and Nicholasville. Johnson, the company’s associate artistic director who is playing Hamlet, hails from Georgetown. Both are graduates of Morehead State University.

The production opens Oct. 17 and runs through Nov. 16. For this production, Phillips is drawing on the film noir tradition to build Hamlet’s world of paranoia.

rctalk: Fireflight at LCA tonight

Dawn Richardson and Wendy Drennen of Fireflight perform June 12 at the Ichthus Festival. Copyrighted photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Less than a month after hosting Jars of Clay, Lexington Christian Academy is back in the local Christian rock scene hosting Fireflight and Me in Motion at 7 p.m. Wednesday. This concert is brought to us by Ichthus Ministries, and Fireflight was indeed part of last Summer's Ichthus Fest, closing out the first night on the Deep End Stage with a scorching set.

While Fireflight was in Wilmore for Ichthus, we spent a few minutes with the band on their tour RV, a nice air conditioned living room on the road, which was one of their perks for having a great year with the success of their hit album and single, Unbreakable.

With the band coming back to town, it seems like a good time to share a few clips from that interview, in which we talked about some of their favorite songs from the album and what it has meant to the group's
career.

I apologize for the audio not being the greatest, but the comments -- mostly from lead singer Dawn Richardson, bassist Wendy Drennen and guitarist Glenn Drennen -- are well worth putting up with the background noise.

On their favorites from Unbreakable:

On the success of the album and song, which was featured in the ad campaign for NBC's Bionic Woman series:

Actors Guild of Lexington hires managing director

Actors Guild of Lexington has hired Kimberly Shaw as its managing director.

Shaw will manage the business side of operations at Actors Guild, allowing artistic director Richard St. Peter to concentrate on AGL's theatrical endeavors.

Shaw is a Lafayette High School graduate who has a master of fine arts degree from Columbia University. She comes to Lexington from Princeton University, where she was assistant director of operations at Richardson Auditorium. Shaw is a former research assistant with Actors Equity, the stage actors union, and her credits include Broadway, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the New York International Fringe Festival.

“After conducting a six month national search and interviewing several well qualified candidates, the board voted unanimously to offer the position to Kimberly Shaw," AGL Board President Jim Dickinson said in a news release.  “We are delighted she has accepted. We believe that she will be able to substantively impact the business side of our organization and will assist in allowing our artistic ambitions to continue to grow.”

Shaw is the daughter of Lexington actor and director Sidney Shaw, who is directing AGL's current production, Tazewell Thompson's Constant Star. Actors Guild will hold a reception for Kimberly Shaw on the stage of the Downtown Arts Center, 141 E. Main St., at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 2.

UK Opera will present 'Porgy & Bess' at World Equestrian Games

Alicia and Everett McCorvey at a May event preceeding UK Opera Theatre's Grand Night for Singing. Alicia had just finished singing Can't Help Lovin' that Man from Porgy & Bess, which the UK Opera will present during the World Equestrian Games in September 2010. Copyrighted photo by Tom Eblen | LexGo.

The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre will present George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess during the World Equestrian Games.

"We will have all of these people coming over from Europe who hear European opera all the time," said Everett McCorvey, director of the UK Opera. "I was trying to think of a quintessential American Opera, and Porgy & Bess popped into my mind."

That shouldn't be surprising, as McCorvey has sung in more than 600 performances of Porgy & Bess and met his wife, Alicia Helm McCorvey, working on the Metropolitan Opera's production of Porgy in 1984. It's an opera that McCorvey has long wanted to present in Lexington, and the coming of the Equestrian Games in September 2010 provided the perfect catalyst.

This is the first performing arts event that has been announced for the games, though numerous groups are planning to present events during the Equestrian Games. LexArts has already announced a second edition of HorseMania that will be on exhibit during the games.

This Porgy will involve numerous other organizations. It will be a co-production with the American Spiritual Ensemble, which McCorvey directs. The group will also be performing in Lexington during the games. Porgy will utilize the chorus from Kentucky State University, the UK Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Nardolillo, and be presented elsewhere in the state before and after the games, including performances in Madisonville, Elizabethtown and Owensboro at RiverPark Center.

One or all of those centers may be involved in building the sets for the new production of the 1935 opera, which tells the story of a crippled man trying to save a woman from the clutches of her pimp and drug dealer in a Charleston, S.C., slum.

Other opera news: The UK Opera Theatre's March event, originally announced as a gala to honor retired UK voice professor and former Metropolitan Opera star Gail Robinson, has been expanded into a full-scale production to honor her: Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor March 6, 7, 13 and 14, 2009. Lucia was one of Robinson's signature roles.

9/22: Political Junkie notebook

Last week was remarkably unfunny. So after ingesting hours and hours of bad news, we needed some laughs. Sometimes we found them, sometimes not so much.

SNL DOA: Last spring, particularly after the writers' strike ended, Saturday Night Live got on a roll satirizing things in the Democratic primary such as the debates and the 3 a.m. phone call ad by Hillary Clinton. This year, the show shot out of the blocks with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's Sarah Palin-meets-Hillary Clinton act. But this weekend SNL stumbled and just avoided falling flat on its face with two political skits, neither involving Poehler or Fey, and a remarkably unfunny show overall.

The show opened with a skit that was reportedly inspired by former SNL writer and actor-turned-Minnesota U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken, who may be making a good move trying to land another day job. In the skit, Republican presidential candidate John McCain is portrayed by longtime cast member Darrell Hammond as adding the, "I'm John McCain, and I approved this message," tagline to an increasingly ridiculous set of attack ads. One insinuates that Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama's desire for universal healthcare means he wants healthcare for everyone in the universe, including Osama bin Laden. It was amusing, and definitely had a point. But it was nowhere near the gut-buster and chatter churner the Fey-Poehler bit was.

But at least it wasn't as awful as the bit after the Weekend Update segment that portrayed the New York Times preparing to send a bunch of clueless, Manhattan-bound reporters to Alaska to report on ridiculous rumors about Palin and her family. It was unfunny, occasionally gross and poorly executed -- guest host James Franco kept flubbing his lines.

Neither of the bits made the chatter show rotation the way last week's SNL did. The McCain and Times bits were MIA on Morning Joe Monday, while last week, they were talking about Fey as Palin more than they were talking about Palin.

On the heels of its political success, SNL decided to open this season with four consecutive new shows and some prime time specials. But if Seth Meyers and his writers uncork another clunker like this week, Saturday Night Live will be irrelevant by October.

In the copyrighted NBC photo, above, from last season, Hammond plays McCain (second from right) along with Fred Armisen's Obama, Bill Hader's Robert Byrd, Andy Samberg's Carl Levin and Poehler's Clinton.

The best line of the night came from Amy Poehler in Weekend Update. After rattling off a list of companies at the center of last week's Wall Street meltdown, she said that if your company's commercials run during golf tournaments, you're done.

The best joke about the campaign came from NPR's Wait Wait . . .  Don't Tell Me. In a segment of the news quiz recounting how Deomocratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden accidentally asked  Missouri State Sen. Chuck Graham, who is confined to a wheel-chair, to stand and be recognized at a campaign stop, host Peter Sagal riffed, "It's just a shame it wasn't Sen. Obama who asked Graham to stand up from his wheelchair, because then, he would have suddenly been able to."

The Daily Show seemed to be in a similar lull to SNL as it settled back into New York after its knockout convention editions. But Thursday night, Jon Stewart got the elixir for his Denver-to-St. Paul hangover from Sean Hannity's soft-pitch interview of Sarah Palin. It wasn't necessarily Stewart at his finest, but his silent explanation of Fey's SNL skit to Palin was priceless (video, above).

The Hannity interview was, again, a demonstration of why interviews by ideologically identical partisans are pretty useless. I didn't think much of Keith Olbermann interviewing Obama, either. Most of the questions in these forums can be summarized:

"Doesn't your opponent suck?"

"That's a great question. Yes, he/she does, because . . . "

Obama's interview with Bill O'Reilly was dominated by O'Reilly's ideology, but at least it challenged Obama and resulted in some lively exchanges where the candidate and the commentator had to articulate their positions. But the best interviews are usually with the straight-up journalists such as Tom Brokaw or Charlie Rose who do their homework and explore sans agenda.

Speaking of straight-up journalists versus ideologues, we get our first look at David Gregory (photo, right, by Virginia Sherwood for NBC) the anchor Friday on MSNBC.

The mini-peacock outsted the duo of Olbermann and Chris Matthews from the anchor chairs after embarrassing turns at the conventions, with on-air squabbles and partisan rants over the two weeks. From a journalistic standpoint, it was probably the right move, though as television, some of those awkward convention moments were highly entertaining. 

Friday's Presidential debate will be our first look at longtime White House correspondent Gregory anchoring an event, though he does anchor Race for the White House every weeknight at 6. We'll see if his debate work is compelling TV or a good excuse to surf to the  other dozen or two nets carrying the debates.

Of course, all this week we'll hear plenty of punditry and commentary about how the candidates will need to do in the debate, with the campaigns likely tamping down expectations to the point they'll declare it a victory if Obama and McCain can string a noun and a verb together.

'Constant Star' a timely history lesson

Lisa Clark (front, center) is one of five actors who play Ida B. Wells and other characters in Actors Guild of Lexington's production of Constant Star. Behind her are (L-R) Sylvia Howard, Mia Harris, Cathy Rawlings and LaNora Faye Long. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

She stands in the middle of the stage, with four interrogators around her. The accusations fly:

Getting married was a distraction.

Having children showed a lack of commitment to the cause.

How can she be a wife and mother and still be a powerful agent of change?

A mother belongs at home.

No, those are not scenes from the first play about  Sarah Palin play to hit the stage.

This scene actually takes place about 1900 in Constant Star, Tazewell Thompson’s spiritual musical about journalist and activist Ida B. Wells that opened last weekend at Actors Guild of Lexington. It draws more than a few knowing laughs and deep breaths as we contemplate how things have and have not changed.

On the change side, Constant Star reminds us that less than a century ago, black people were routinely murdered in community spectacles. Now, we could be on the verge of electing a black man as president of the United States or a wife and mother of five as vice president.

On the other hand, the show reminds us that many of the issues faced by women and African-Americans are still alive and well in the 21st century.

Southern Circuit -- Tour of Independent Filmmakers coming to Lexington

Ripe for Change (above) is the first film to stop in Lexington on the Southern Circuit – Tour of Independent Filmmakers. Director and producer Jed Riffe (below) will come to town with his film.

The Southern Circuit – Tour of Independent Filmmakers will make six stops in Lexington this arts season, starting at 6 p.m. Monday in the theater of the Central Branch of the Lexington Public Library, 140 East Main Street. The aim of the tour is to bring in filmmakers to show their work and engage with local filmmakers and film fans. The first feature is Ripe for Change by Jed Riffe, which explores the politics of food production in California.

Upcoming films in the series are:

Oct. 25: Counting Backwards, Aprill Winney, director: A man is diagnosed with a terminal illness the same day he meets the woman of his dreams.

Nov. 15: The Meaning of Tea, Scott Chamberlin-Hoyt, director and producer: This film explores the ways tea figures into cultural traditions around the world and how the market for tea threatens those traditions.

Feb. 21: Member of the Club: A New Orleans Cinderella Story, Phoebe Ferguson, director: A look at black social clubs in the South focused on a girl groomed from birth to be a New Orleans Mardi Gras queen.

March 28: All About Us, Michael Swanson, producer: The story of two African-American filmmakers who go to Mississippi.

April 18: A Man Named Pearl, Scott Galloway, producer and director: A documentary about self-taught topiary artist Pearl Fryar.

All screenings are free, open to the public, and will include a question and answer session with the director.

Murals will be graffiti proofed

Waseem Touma talked about his new mural on Vine Street at a press conference on Monday. Copyrighted photo by David Stephenson | LexGo.

Yesterday, an alert reader saw our story about the new series of murals being commissioned by LexArts and asked if there was any way they could be protected against vandalism, specifically graffiti. 

Actually, LexArts already thought of that.

"We will be using two layers of permanent clear coat that will protect the murals from UV rays and allow for graffiti to be removed," LexArts community arts manager Nathan Zamarron said in an e-mail.

Zamarron said they had to take the conditions the murals would be displayed in into consideration when selecting a protective coat. The mural at Al's Bar on North Limestone, for instance, will have the most sun exposure, so they selected a specific combination of protective materials that will help keep the mural from yellowing over time.

"The employees at Golden Art Supplies are very good at suggesting specific materials for a given situation," Zamarron said.

There is also a bit of an ethical protection too, Zamarron said. In talking to other communities, he said they heard graffiti artists tend to respect artwork and leave it alone. That's a nice attitude, and hopefully it proves true in Lexington.

Note: The North Limestone Neighborhood Association is having a dedication celebration for the Al's Bar mural, painted by Michael Burrell, from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday at 6th Street and Line. Musicians will include Lexington jazz legend Byron Romanowitz, and the mural will depict the musical heritage of Limestone. The event will be a fundraiser for a music stage in Duncan Park and musicial outreach programs for childreen in the community.

rctalk: Underoath's 'Lost in the Sound of Separation' . . . Fireflight's coming to town

Underoath are vocalist Spencer Chamberlain, keyboardist Christopher Dudley, guitarist Tim McTague, bassist Grant Brandell, drummer Aaron Gillespie, and guitarist James Smith. Copyrighted photo courtesy of Tooth & Nail Records.

While Christian rock is now readily accepted, even in churches that don't use it as part of their worship, hardcore metal remains a genre a lot of listeners have a hard time wrapping their minds around as a product of faith. How do you find the message is music where the vocalist sounds like he or she is in the very act of retching and the music sounds so angry?

Even as someone who listens to music for a living, there have been times I've walked away from a metalcore set, say at Ichthus, thinking the fans are hearing something I don't get. I have to add though, that when you sit down and talk to a lot of these groups, hardcore describes their faith as well as their music.

For several Underoath albums though, there has been no doubt where they're coming from, and the Tampa band's latest disc is masterpiece of faith-based metal.

One of the things Underoath is constantly credited with is finding melody in the madness, a trick that can be largely credited to drummer Aaron Gillespie, who had a hit of his own in 2007 with the debut of his side act, The Almost. And melody certainly is an aspect of the band's sound, something that makes it accessible to people unwilling to endure 45-minutes of punishing sound to find a message to hold onto. Even in Underoath's accessible world, their music is still an acquired taste.

But more than melody, Underoath finds majesty. It finds majesty in how it pairs melody with howl, the firmness of the rhythm section of Gillespie and bassist Grant Brandell, and the intricate harmonies and melodies the rest of the band lays on top of their base, worthy of comparison to John Bonham and John Paul Jones.

Most of all, in this album, this album finds majesty in a deeply explored theme of searching for God in the midst of despair and loss. That is ultimately what makes Lost in the Sound of Separation a Christian rock masterpiece, and it puts to rest any question whether metalcore can convey a message of faith.

Fireflight concert: Riding the success of their hit single and album, Unbreakable, Fireflight blazes into Kentucky next week with a Sept. 23 show in Louisville and Sept. 24 gig at Lexington Christian Academy.

The concerts are presented by Ichthus Ministries, which brought Fireflight to its festival in June.

New music: Today, we get new music from Nevertheless, which opens for Fireflight in Louisville, as well as 33 Miles, Decyfer Down, Group 1 Crew, Bebo Norman and Krystal Meyers, who we liked last week.

Superchick's Rock What You Got was reportedly used on MTV's The Hills this week, and the band's music is also featured on race car driver Danica Patrick's website.

Political Junkie notebook

Last week the political media was mainly about the women: Sarah, Tina, and Rachel.

Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin has become a GOP rock star but eluded sitting down face to face with an actual journalist until late last week. Charles Gibson of ABC finally got her on the hot seat, grilling her like she'd been caught cheating on her exams. I don't watch a lot of Gibson interviews, so maybe this is more of his style than I'm aware of, but he did have this exceedingly grave tone. (Copyrighted photo, left, by Donna Svennik for ABC News.)

It was interesting to finally see Palin respond to questions that have come up since she was tapped, like why Wasilla was debt free when she became the town's mayor, and she left it $22 million in the red, and what all happened with the Bridge to Nowhere. Not that the answers to those or any other questions will likely change any partisans' minds, but maybe they could be informative to people on the fence. 

Surely, this will not be Palin's only pre-election interview -- if it is, that raises extremely serious questions, regardless of what McCain campaign manager Rick Davis says about respect and deference -- and we'll have more chances to see her on the hot seat.

An interesting comparison is to put Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden's Meet the Press interview last Sunday back-to-back with Palin and Gibson's sit down.

Live from New York: Questions about whether Tina Fey would indeed get her Palin on were answered when Saturday Night Live signed on Saturday with its own dream ticket: Fey as Palin and Amy Pohler as Hillary Clinton (video, above). Fey had some great moments -- "I can see Russia from my house" and the rifle pose -- and so melted into Palin's look and accent, it took a moment to be sure it was Fey. But Pohler retained her title as SNL's supreme political impressionist, portraying Clinton as many suspect she is: fuming at how close she is to not being the first female President of the United States. There was also a pointed message to the press in there.

Even though Clinton is not still in the race, Saturday Night needs to figure out how to keep Pohler's impression on the show. And they also need to get Fey back on the SNL payroll, at least throught November. According to the New York Times' Caucus blog, Palin found the impression, "quite funny." You will also find a lot of commenters who need to grow a sense of humor. Or, I could lend them mine.

Mad about her?: The third big debut in politics this week was MSNBC pundit Rachel Maddow's new show. Over the past few months, Maddow has grown into the Political Peacock's most effective liberal voice, articulating the left's position with passion, but minus the often strident tone of Keith Olbermann. Let's face it, those "Special Comments" can be painful to watch. So, it was welcome news that she was getting her own show to replace . . . well . . .  they ran something at 9.

The biggest disappointment was that The Rachel Maddow Show is essentially cut from the same formula as Hardball, Race for the White House and MSNBC's other shows: a host and a series of talking heads. She did try to distinguish herself with some different guests and stories. It was a relief to tune in Wednesday and see her not lead with the "lipstick on a pig controversy." But her "scoop," along with The Nation magazine, of McCain appearing to board a yacht in 2006 with Anne Hathaway and her then-boyfriend Raffaello Follieri, who was convicted of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy last week, was a bit overblown, to say the least. Maddow (Copyrighted photo, right, by Virginia Sherwood for NBC) does appear to have tried to be a little imaginative in her segments, like "Talk Me Down," in which a guest apparently is supposed to talk Maddow out of being upset about something that's got her riled up. I like the idea of her chats with her "fake Uncle Pat" Buchanan, both because they proved to be good sparring partners during the conventions and it reflects the often divided politics in our families. But the opening night chat got downright vicious discussing Palin's religious views. 

Ultimately, the best night of Maddow's debut week was Thursday and a bit of an unofficial Maddow show, as she anchored coverage following a Columbia University forum featuring Republican Presidential nominee John McCain and Demoratic nominee Barack Obama. It showed that while creating a show may still be a work in progress for Maddow, she does have analysis down pat.

Moment of the week: Chris Matthews' rants can be as grating as Olbermann's. But when well placed and executed, they can be a thing of beauty, such as last week, when he got Republican strategist John Feehery on the mat and would not let him up while discussing McCain's short-lived ad claiming Obama had used the phrase, "lipstick on a pig," to describe Palin. "John, you're allowed to say, 'Uncle,' on this show," Matthews said. "You're allowed to say, 'My party, in this case, is full of bunk." It is exactly what anyone trying to defend that ad deserved.

This is the ad, by the way, that was quickly pulled after CBS claimed it violated copyright by using a Katie Couric clip.The McCain campaign has got to tighten up in its grasp of copyright law.

Washington and Lee University journalism professor Ed Wasserman has an excellent column in the Miami Herald saying that the media is spending too much time reacting to the whims of the campaigns: "Nowhere is it written that news organizations must cover whatever the campaigns decide they want to fuss about," he writes.

Fall Arts 2008

It's that most wonderful time of the year: the start of the fall arts season.

Like every year, we have put together an arts preview edition of the Arts+Life section of the Herald-Leader packed with calendars for arts groups in Lexington and all over the Central Kentucky region. We love the web, and you can check out a lot of our arts preview at LexGo. But if you love the arts, I do highly recommend getting a copy of the actual paper.

One thing we did make exclusively for online is the slideshow above, based on the five area artists we profiled to take a look at how people make a living, or a portion of their living, from their art, and how feasible earning your income from art is. In addition to the comments and pictures, you can hear the Lexington Philharmonic's Clyde Beavers playing J.S. Bach's Suite 1 in G Major for Cello.

Click here for a larger version of the show, and I'll see you at the theater.

George Zack's grand finale: Pictures and notes

 "It's an easier job when you're playing for friends," George Zack told the audience in the Singletary Center for the Arts before conducting his final piece with the orchestra. "It's an easier job when you're performing with friends."

It is not often a conductor steps down from the podium after 37 years on the job conducting the same orchestra in the same town. Zack's grand finale turned out to be a warm evening -- not just due the humid weather that's invaded Lexington -- with a few unusual moments.

• After the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, Zack and soloist Aaron Rosand received a standing ovation. Applause between movements is getting to be more common, but the standing O seemed to be a reflection of the evening's high emotions.
• Before going onstage for the second half, Zack noticed Rosand's chair was still onstage. He told orchestra manager Shannon Cline it needed to be removed, but little did he know it was there for him. Zack was treated to a performance of Aaron Copland's Celebration Fanfare, conducted by Philharmonic violist Paul Englebrecht. After that, he was presented with the score, signed by Copland in 1977.
• After the first movement of Brahms' Symphony No. 1, Zack momentarily left the stage. Overcome with emotion? Not quite. He left his glasses in his dressing room.
• At the end of the second movement, he and everyone in the hall stopped because of musical tones that were filtering into the hall. No one could identify the source, but Cline said they guessed it might be related to a resynchronization of clocks on the University of Kentucky campus at 9 p.m.

Zack was honored with a party after the concert in a tent next to the Singletary Center.The tables were adorned with figures in tails and music was provided by Jay Flippin, a frequent collaborator with the Phil. Our Howard Snyder went to the party and will have a report next week. Also, a photographer from our photo website, Snapped, was there.

Speaking of photos, here are the rest of Matt Goins' images from last night's concert.

 

 

Zack gets a hug from orchestra manger Shannon Cline as she presents him with roses.

 

Zack presents concertmaster Dan Mason a rose.

Finally, don't forget to read Loren Tice's review of the concert.

George Zack slide show

We visited the Lexington Philharmonic's rehearsal Monday night to talk to music director George Zack and some of the orchestra's musicians about his final concert at 7 p.m. Sept. 12 at the Singletary Center for the Arts Concert Hall. Here's what we brought back.

To see a larger version of the slide show, click here.

The curtain rises on the 2008-09 arts season in Lexington

Cathy Rawlings plays journalist and activist Ida B. Wells and other characters in Actors Guild of Lexington's production of Taezwell Thompson's Constant Star. Photo by Rich Copley.

The 2008-09 arts season gets started this weekend with a rush of activity, including a milestone in Lexington arts history Friday night: George Zack's final concert conducting the Lexington Philharmonic as its music director. We have thoughts and some stats about Zack's 36-years with the orchestra here and at LexGo.

Two big plays open tonight:

~ Actors Guild of Lexington presents Tazewell Thompson's Constant Star, and the author will visit Saturday.

~ Studio Players bows with the British door-slamming comedy Don't Dress for Dinner.

Sunday, the University of Kentucky Art Museum opens its new exhibit, Masterworks by Kentucky Painters, 1819-1935.

And also Sunday, we publish our annual Fall Arts Guide. Get out your planners.

'Don't Dress for Dinner' at Studio Players

Graeme Hart as Robert, Randy Hall as Bernard, and Lisa Welch as Jacqueline in Studio Players' production of Don't Dress for Dinner. Photo by Larry Neuzel.

For years, Gary McCormick was a mainstay of the Lexington theater scene, particularly in productions at Studio Players.

But after Crimes of the Heart in 2003, he went on a hiatus during a career shift that has landed him as general manager of Berea’s historic Boone Tavern and Hotel. Overseeing an $11 million renovation can be time-consuming, but McCormick had the itch to get back into the theater.

He’s scratching that itch with ­Studio’s season opener, Don’t Dress for Dinner, which opens this weekend and runs through Sept. 28.

“I read a bunch of plays and I kept coming back to Don’t Dress for Dinner,” says McCormick, who compares the show to another British farce, Noises Off, and the perpetual hit Greater Tuna.
Don’t Dress for Dinner is about a man’s failed attempt to spend a weekend in the French countryside with his mistress.

“It goes very fast,” McCormick says. “The audience won’t have to think about what it’s trying to say.”

And that’s the way McCormick wants to come back.

“I enjoy making people laugh,” he says, “and I hope that’s what this show will do.”

'Constant Star' at Actors Guild of Lexington

Tazewell Thompson has directed all but two productions of Constant Star, his spiritual musical about journalist and activist Ida B. Wells. He'll be in Lexington this weekend to see Sidney Shaw's take on the show at Actors Guild of Lexington. Photo courtesy of Actors Guild.

For the past decade, Tazewell Thompson has been introducing theatergoers to Ida B. Wells.

Most people don’t know much about Wells when they settle into their theater seats to see his musical biography of her, Constant Star, which opens this weekend at Actors Guild of Lexington for a four-weekend run. Thompson really just knew the name when he watched a PBS documentary on the civil rights and women’s suffrage advocate who launched a relentless campaign against lynching in post-Civil War America.

“I was channel surfing, and I came to PBS, and this documentary had just started on Ida B. Wells,” Thompson says from his New York apartment. “I had heard of her, and I knew that she was a newspaperwoman, and she was connected to an anti-lynching crusade. She had just dazzled me in this documentary, and I couldn’t stop thinking about her.”

A year later, he was directing Shakespeare’s Cymbeline at Playmakers Repertory Theatre in Chapel Hill, N.C., and during his stay, he was offered a commission for a new work. It gave him a chance to look deeper into Wells’ life.

He found a few books, including a biography, and a diary, giving him deeper insight into Wells’ feelings and mission.

Initially, he started writing a conventional play, but then things started happening.

“In all the scenes, she kept coming out as someone who took over, and the men in those scenes appeared diminutive in her presence,” recalls Thompson, who is coming to Lexington for the show and will give a pre-show chat Saturday night. “I realized I could have a cast of three or four women to play all the roles.

“Once I discovered that, the play completely opened up for me and I discovered I could write it any way I wanted.”

rctalk: Krystal Meyers' 'Make Some Noise'

Krystal Meyers shown celebrating her birthday in Tokyo. Photo courtesy of Provident Music Group.

Krystal Meyers | Make Some Noise

Listening to the first couple of dancy, chirpy tracks on Krystal Meyers' Make Some Noise, your eyes drift ahead to track four, S.O.S. "Is this really heading to an ABBA remake?" you think. But actually, the new tune, co-penned by Meyers and iconic Christian modern rock producer Ian Eskelin, is one of the big signs that Meyers' third album is a charm.

Give a lot of credit to the influence of collaborators such as Eskelin as well as producers Doubledutch (Josiah Bell and Robert Marvin) who bring 20-year-old Meyers out of her rocker girl persona into the dance hall with steady, deep beats. There are throw aways such as the title track that makes you think, "Didn't Superchick already record this song several times?" But there are also nice pieces of crafts-womanship such as S.O.S., a weepy lyric set to a much more anthemic score. Beautiful Tonight -- there is a rash of recycled song titles on this disc -- is another excellent piece of rock drama.

In mainstream and Christian pop, teen stars often have trouble growing up and bringing their audience along. But Make Some Noise shows Meyers maturing as an artist and creating music that can be embraced by a wider audience.

Audio Adrenaline mission project devastated: The Hatian orphanage run by Audio Adrenaline's Hands and Feet Project has taken the worst of hurricanes Fay, Gustav and tropical storm Hanna, and it has put out a desperate plea for funds to help rebuild. According to a news release, all 48 residents of the project have been regulated to living in one room while they begin rebuilding. In the video above, Audio A frontman and Owensboro native Mark Stuart describes the devastation.

SCC TV: Steven Curtis Chapman (photo, right) will appear on the CBS Early Show Wednesday morning to perform his new single, Cinderella, live for the first time. The song was inspired by Chapman's daughters, including Maria, who died in a tragic accident in late May. The Early Show airs from 7 to 9 a.m. EST. Chapman will also be on Fox & Friends Sept. 22.

Pushing Seabird: Christian artists often tout use of their music in mainstream venues such as TV shows, but this one hits fairly close to home. Rescue, by Northern Kentucky's Seabird, is being used in promotional ads for ABC's Pushing Daisies, probably the best show to be lost to the writer's strike. It returns Oct. 1.

 People need more than People: I feel compelled to mention this because it happened on Christian radio, and it really disturbed me. I was listening to K-Love Saturday night, and the DJ came on and started talking about how he and his wife were out one night, and they had wanted to know more about Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin. So, he said they bought the People magazine with Palin on the cover and thought it was neat that she knew she was having a baby with Downs Syndrome, but chose not to abort him, and that she apparently has a thing for shoes. Now, it is great that he wanted to learn more about a new candidate in the Presidential election. But I certainly hope that the DJ (I didn't get his name) will scratch deeper than the pages of People to get his information about Palin and all of the Presidential and vice-presidential candidates. Find out their stands on the issues, the legislation they've supported, the issues they've fought for, and don't limit your criteria to things like, you and Palin like the same shoes or the Obama girls are cute. This election is too important. People is great for what it does, celebrity lifestyle journalism, but there are plenty of places to get more in-depth information about the candidates and decisions they may make that will ultimately effect you.

A 'Rent' closing reader

 The closing night cast of the Broadway musical Rent included Frankfort's Will Chase as Roger, Michael McElroy as Tom Collins, Eden Espinosa as Maureen, and Rodney Hicks as Benny. Copyrighted photo by Casey Stouffer for Sony Pictures' Releasing.

Rent's grand finale appears to have created one of those wish-you-were-there moments you can really only get from live performance.

The groundbreaking Broadway production closed Sunday night after 12 years and 5,124 performances at the Nederlander Theatre.

Of course, 525,600 minutes is what Rentheads truly care about, the time being the measure of a year and the show the story of struggling artists in New York's East Village battling AIDS, addiction, poverty, society and some fading dreams of glory. 

Most shows close quietly with a notice and a last bow in front of the dwindling audience that prompted the end of the run. But Rent became a cultural icon, and by numerous accounts closed in front of an adoring audience that got to see original cast members join the current performers for a rendition of the hit Seasons of Love.

~ The Associated Press reported that last night's performance was dedicated to Jonathan Larson, the creator of Rent who died right after the final dress rehearsal, just like the first show. Reflecting on Larson, producer Allan S. Gordon told the AP, "I don't miss what he didn't write. I feel bad that he isn't here to enjoy what he did."

~ Broadwayworld.com covered the dedication of a bench at the real Life Cafe to Larson.

~ Over the Weekend, The New York Times' Anthony Tommasini reflected on his historic interview with Larson, just hours before he died.

~ Sara Krulwich, the Times' photographer with Tommasini on that assignment, recalls her journey with Rent, including telling the cast that Larson had posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Both of their pieces remind me of the value of arts journalism and beat reporting as the first draft of history.

The closing cast included Frankfort's own Will Chase as Roger, and though Rent has closed on Broadway, we will get to the see the show. The final cast was filmed, and the it will be shown in movie theaters Sept. 24, 25, 27 and 28. The Lexington Theatres will be Regal Hamburg Pavilion and Fayette Mall Cinemas.

George Zack -- The People's Conductor

George Zack studied the score in his dressing room before he conducted the Lexington Philharmonic in Handel's Messiah at the Singletary Center for the Arts Dec. 14, 2007. This was the last time Zack conducted Messiah, which he calls "Man's masterpiece". Photo by Charles Bertram | LexGo.

Also read: George Zack, by the numbers

When George Zack came to Lexington in 1972, he was told that he might want to bring some books.

Yes, he was going to be the conductor of the Lexington Philharmonic. But they had only a handful of concerts, and other than those, he might need to find some ways to occupy his time.

Zack will lay down his baton for the last time Friday night in a far different ­Lexington and arts community, which he had a hand in creating.

Certainly, Lexington was not bereft of cultural offerings before Zack arrived. Studio Players, the Lexington Singers, ­Lexington Children’s Theatre and other groups were all going concerns.

Since 1972, the Lexington arts ­community has risen steadily from ­indigenous enterprises to a fairly ­professional profile, and the Philharmonic has led much of the way.

A key component of the growth was Zack as a charismatic leader and proponent of the arts. In 1990, Herald-Leader arts writer Kevin Nance dubbed Zack “the people’s maestro,” based on his observation that Zack could be a controversial figure in the orchestra and among musicians, but he always enjoyed unwavering support from the audience.

That’s because he never forgot the ­audience.

Convention surfer: 'Daily Show,' mad rock stars, etc.

Jon Stewart (left) with The Daily Show cast: (L-R) Samantha Bee, Aasif Mandvi, Jason Jones, John Oliver, and Rob Riggle. Copyrighted Comedy Central photo by Gavin Bond.

Before bidding the conventions a final adieu, a little notebook cleaning:

Like we said last week, keeping up with The Daily Show along with all of the other convention coverage was a bit difficult. But it was well worth catching up, online or on Comedy Central.

(Note on all the links below, in this section: I didn't embed any of the clips because, frankly, all of them have a certain level of raunchiness and this is a blog associated with a family newspaper. So, if you click, understand, you may hear some bleeped proafnity and graphic language.)

The consistently excellent features of this week's Daily Show episodes were video splice packages. They highlighted things like the fact that several Republican commentators and officials who were calling  questions and criticisms of vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin "sexist" this week were saying Hillary Clinton needed to stop playing the gender card earlier this year. There was also a splicing of Republican Presidential nominee John McCain's acceptance speech with President George W. Bush's 2000 acceptance speech (it starts around the 5-minute mark) that would make a great campaign  commercial for Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama, if he wants to paint McCain as McSame.

There were also priceless moments such as host Jon Stewart playing Freebird on air guitar as Rudy Giuliani invoked 9/11 in his Wednesday night keynote speech.

My favorite moment was when Stewart responded to Giuliani and Palin's mocking of community organizers.Yes, it's on Obama's resume, and no, community organizer in and of itself is not a qualification to be President. But for the party who's 1988 Presidential candidate praised people trying to better their communities as "a thousand points of light," to denigrate thousands of community organizers across this country from its biggest stage was really offensive. Stewart's retort was pitch perfect (It starts at the 7:25 mark).

The best sport award has to go to former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who was the subject of a graphic joke at the beginning of the Thursday's episode but proved to be a cordial, funny guest at the end.

Over its two-week road trip to Denver and St. Paul, The Daily Show cemented its reputation a the smartest and sharpest political satire show out there. Take it as seriously as you want.

McCain came out on top in the Nielsen ratings after all. His speech Thursday night attracted 38.9 million people, 500,000 more than tuned in Obama's Aug. 28 speech. Palin was close behind the ticket toppers with 37.2 million viewers on Wednesday. NBC had the most watched broadcast of the speech with 8,663,000 viewers.

Heart's cease and desist notice to the Republican party to stop using their song, Barracuda, followed Van Halen's request that their Right Now not be used in conjunction with Palin, a VH fan whose nickname as a high school basketball player was Sarah Barracuda. Since we actually read song lyrics in this corner, we should point out that in Barracuda, the title fish is not portrayed in a complimentary light. I suspect if the GOP had gone with the obvious follow-up to Palin's speech, John Mellencamp's Small Town, they would have had a similar problem.

 It all takes pop culture vultures back to 1984, when Bruce Springsteen asked President Ronald Reagan to stop invoking his Born in the U.S.A. in his re-election campaign. Not that Springteen stays away from politics. Born in the U.S.A. and his recent hit, The Rising, have both been used by the Obama campaign with no protest. In fact, there was a hot rumor that Springsteen, who has endorsed Obama, was going to play at the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Mile High Stadium, but he did not appear.

Anyone have any ideas for a campaign song for Gov. Palin?

That video screen we talked about earlier this week turned out to be a bit of a clunker for the broadcast of McCain's speech. Viewers at home mostly just saw the colors behind McCain steadily changing through his speech while delegates in the Xcel Center were seeing giant images flash behind him. One bad choice was a school with a vast green lawn in front of it. (AP photo, right, by Ron Edmonds.) Viewers at home saw McCain in front of what appeared to be a green screen like weather forecasters use. It was actually a photo of Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, Calif., which brought up a number awkward questions and situations:

• Did the RNC intend to use Walter Reed Army Medical Center and get confused?
• The school's principal issued a statement saying permission to use the school's image had not been granted, and it should not be inferred as an endorsement. (Upside, it may be the most famous middle school in America, now.)
• The green lawn was reminiscent of McCain's early summer speech in front of a similarly uncomplimentary green backdrop on the night Obama claimed the nomination.

That actually -- bringing this post back to Comedy Central -- inspired a Colbert Report contest to see who could come up with the best background for the green screen. All of it begs the question of why convention producers got this cool toy, but didn't figure out the best ways to use it for the live and television audience.

When it comes to sound, the decision to stay inside worked well for McCain. While cheers at Obama's speech seemed to float into the skies above Denver, McCain was nearly drowned out by the crowd in the Xcel Center, and that clearly came across at home.

Now that the conventions are over, I can go back to watching Project Runway.

Convention surfer: Republican National Convention, Day 4

Republican Presidential candidate John McCain acknowledges the crowd as he he gets ready to speak at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Copyrighted AP photo by Paul Sancya.

Last week, the Democratic National Convention moved from an arena to a stadium to give Presidential nominee  Barack Obama, the great orator, a huge stage for his acceptance speech.

Last night, the Republican National Convention made more subtle changes to its stage, but they were also designed to play to the candidate's strengths. The stage was thrust into the audience, putting Sen. John McCain among the people, which is where he's most comfortable. After all, this guy has been proposing town hall meetings with Obama. Why? Because that's a forum that works well for him.

And McCain was comfortable last night, speaking simply in front of the simple backdrop of a flag waving on a pole, making an effort to portray himself as a maverick who wants to take his party back from a corrupt GOP.

The reviews weren't great. CNN's Jeffrey Toobin called McCain's speech, "shockingly bad." The National Review's Byron York called it "flat" on Charlie Rose. On Fox News, Bill Kristol defended the speech saying, "I was done so plainly, which is appropriate for McCain. That's how he talks."

And that was right. Maybe it wasn't the best follow up to Obama's big address last week and vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin's barnburner Wednesday night. It was anticlimactic, but it did seem authentic.

Documentary: The John McCain introduction video certainly tried to pump up the candidate the way any good campaign video does. But in the gravely voiceover and gritty archival footage, it had more of the feel of a PBS or History Channel documentary than most of the campaign videos we've seen this year, conveying a sense that this is a candidate of history.

Nielsens: Palin's speech Wednesday night drew 37.2 million viewers, just shy of the 38.4 million who tuned in Obama's speech last Thursday.

Piper TV: Prior to McCain's speech, cameras from several networks seemed to linger on 6-year-old Piper Palin, hoping for another quintessential cute moment like her hairstyling scene Wednesday with baby brother Trig. 

Hail to the . . . oh, well: I kept switching over to see how my Redskins were doing on the NFL's opening night, and they didn't give me much to cheer about.

Gotta have Heart: I never ever, ever, ever thought I'd hear Heart's Barracuda played in a political convention. Never even considered it. But, with the nomination of Sarah "Barracuda" Palin -- her high school basketball nickname -- as vice-president, I guess it was inevitable. Wednesday night, I expected to hear John Mellencamp's Small Town after Palin's speech. UPDATE: Heart has denounced Palin and asked the Republicans to stop using Barracuda.

Obama meets O'Reilly: Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama actually got some airtime last night sitting down with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News. O'Reilly has been angling for this interview for a while, and since it would likely be his only chance to sit down with the senator, he seemed to want to address longer-term questions than any news of the day. It was a spirited exchange, and a few times I really wanted O'Reilly to get out of the way and let Obama give complete answers -- this is a gripe I have with the interview styles of several broadcasters, NBC's Matt Lauer in particular.

Last night's interview focused on national security. Subsequent portions of the interview will be aired Monday through Wednesday and will focus on other issues including Obama's controversial association with William Ayers, former leader of the Weather Underground, a 1960s and '70s organization the FBI labeled, "a domestic terrorist group."

The one major sticking point O'Reilly and Obama had was over a conservative sore point: the belief that Obama won't admit the recent troop surge in Iraq was a success, and he was wrong in voting against it. Obama did say, through O'Reilly's interruptions, that he did believe it was a success in reducing the violence. But he didn't believe that it was successful in getting Iraqis to take more responsibility for their country, and he stood by the vote against the surge because he didn't trust the Bush administration to successful prosecute the surge. But, O'Reilly wanted Obama to say, "I was wrong," and since he didn't say that, the conservative commentator said in a chat after the interview segment aired that Obama hadn't answered the question. That's a hazard of submitting to an interview with a partisan on either side of the aisle. It will be interesting to see the next installments of this exchange. (Photo, right: Obama campaigns in Dillonvale, Ohio, Wednesday. AP photo by Alex Brandon.)

Funny: On Charlie Rose, Newsweek's John Meecham compared Palin to Fortinbras, the character in Hamlet who comes in at the end and makes everything all right. Funny thing is, the last time I saw Fortinbras, a comedy based on the character, performed in Lexington, the title character was played by one of the most devout liberals I know.

That's it: Well, seven nights of conventioning are over. Now both campaigns head out into the wild frontier of the campaign trail, away from the embrace of the faithful. I'm tempted play campaign manger for a moment. If I were heading McCain's outfit, the rest of the campaign's theme would be portraying McCain and Palin as "The Mavericks." If I was Obama's messenger, I'd go to Chicago and create a series of ads on what a community organizer does. There's probably a reason no one is paying me to run their campaigns. But, I am a political junkie with a blog, so Copious Notes will continue to keep an eye on how Campaign 2008 is being covered and file posts when interesting things come up, including the debates and election day.

The talking heads seemed to all agree that right now, this election is about the personalities of the candidates, which is interesting considering the issues the nation faces. This has already been the nuttiest election I've seen, and older friends concur, so this is gonna be fun.

Read Ryan Alessi's piece about the significant role Kentuckians played in events on the final day of the Republican convention.

Convention surfer: Republican convention, day 3

Alaska Gov. and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin delivered a sharp, snarky speech at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night. Copyrighted AP photo by Susan Walsh. Below: Mitt Romney's speech was carried on CNN and MSNBC, but not Fox. AP photo by Ron Edmonds.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told us she "is not a member in good standing of the Washington elite," last night. But in virtually the same breath, the presumptive Republican vice-presidential nominee showed she had learned a time-honored Republican tactic: Blame the media.

"Here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators," Palin said. "I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country,"

She was hardly alone yesterday, as an anti-media sentiment swept through the Republican National Convention, mostly fueled by a perception Palin was being unfairly pilloried by the press, and colored coverage of the event. 

That led to numerous reminders from members of the media that presumptive Republican Presidential nominee John McCain once called the media, "my base," and enjoyed glowing press coverage. Chris Matthews on MSNBC and Anderson Cooper on CNN both advocated that the media has simply been doing its job in researching the background of the Alaska Governor, who few knew before Friday and by many accounts had been lightly vetted by the McCain campaign before being named to the ticket. Tom Brokaw in particular went on a spirited monologue before the action got started Tuesday trying to marginalize the anti-media stance as an old saw.

"It has worked particularly well I think for the Republican Party," Brokaw said. "They always feel that this country is held captive or held hostage, if you will, by what they would call the eastern liberal press establishment . . . So I think we`re going to see this pattern throughout. It`s been going on for a long, long time. In 1964, it was probably the apotheosis of this at the Goldwater Convention when John Chancellor was let off the floor and had that memorable line "John Chancellor reporting from somewhere in custody." We're grown ups. We'll have to deal with all this.

I think it`s important for our audience to know that what we have been reflecting here in the last 24 hours or so is what we have been hearing and not just from Democrats. A lot of Republicans, members of the establishments, even members of John McCain`s most ardent supporters are raising questions about Sarah Palin."

If you think it's an old saw and attacking people for doing their jobs, you probably liked the brush back from Brokaw & Co.

If you think the media are in the tank for Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama and unfairly savaging Palin, you had to love the Governor's speech as she commanded a national audience for the first time tossing out conservative red meat with a wink and a smile. She was at ease in front of a crowd and showed passion and good ol' snark that indicated she may be like Tina Fey in more than just looks.

She also showed why she was really brought onto the ticket: excitement. It is highly doubtful any of the men on McCain's presumed short list would have excited the crowd as much as Palin, and you have to wonder if the guy at the top of this ticket will. It will be interesting to see what ratings are like Wednesday night compared to Thursday night, because many people undoubtedly tuned in last night to get a first look at -- to borrow the Mother Tongue's nickname for Palin -- "The Thrilla from Wassila."

No dead air: Once again, while the Democrats left wide swaths of time between speeches last week, the Republicans packed the evening tightly together, particularly at 10, when the broadcast networks signed on. Gov. Palin strode on stage just seconds after former Presidential candidate and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani strode off, giving the talking heads little time to dissect his fiery speech before Palin started her historic address.

Off the air: This was really interesting. Last night, CNN and MSNBC, two of the networks the Republicans have been throwing stones at, were showing the speeches by former Presidential candidates Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and lesser-known figures in the Republican party in full while Fox News, the Republican network, stayed on The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes. The latter show even had Barack Obama's communications director Robert Gibbs on delivering a spirited critique of the Republican convention thus far, while Romney was speaking. Weird.

Romney's speech was roundly criticized, even by Republicans. After Romney's rant about how liberal Washington was, David Gergen, former adviser to three Republican Presidents and President Clinton, asked what decade Romney thought this was, pointing out Republicans have been in the White House eight years and controlled congress six of the last eight years. On Charlie Rose, New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks called Romney's speech, "borderline insane."

Carter country?: CNN kept throwing its broacast to Anchorage, Alaska, and Palin's sister Heather Bruce and brother-in-law Kurt. The location of the interview: The Peanut Farm Restaurant. How 1976.

Or just country?: Palin's speech was followed by country stars Cowboy Troy, John Rich and Gretchen Wilson delivering a combination of the Star-Spangled Banner and the pledge of allegiance followed by Rich performing his campaign anthem Raisin' McCain.

Cute kids, RNC style: The Obamas had their video family moment last week. Wednesday night, it was 6-year-old Piper Palin's moment in the spotlight as she cradled her baby brother Trig in one arm and licked her palm to wet down Trig's hair with the other hand while mom spoke on stage. (Photo, right: McCain talks to Piper Palin while Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, holds Trig. AP photo by Ron Edmonds.)

The Daily Show: Wednesday's Daily Show still had that "liberal salon" vibe, as Brian Williams described it on Tuesday, but there was a genuine Republician in the guest chair. Newt Gingrich joined Jon Stewart for a spirited discussion about Sarah Palin and abortion legislation. The second segment of the show featured a typically brilliant clip package, followed by a very amusing Gingrich response. 

Three days: The Republican National Convention was delayed by events beyond anyone's control, but it advances an interesting idea: chopping the conventions back by a day. Here we are, only two days into this, and we've already had the veep speech and we're heading to the grand finale tonight. The Democrats ended on a high note last week, but that four days was a haul. The World Series only demands three straight weeknights. After the Olympics and the conventions, I'm going to bed at 10 p.m. every night next week.

Top 40 pundit: We don't usually tune in The Cat (WLKT FM-104.5) for political analysis, but Dave of the Dave and Jimmy show summed up one campaign controversy pretty nicely this morning. Talking about the "experience" argument between Palin, a half term governor, and Obama, a two-third term senator, Dave said neither candidate, "needs to be pimping the experience argument."

Barack is back: Some Democrats may be wondering when Obama will have a chance to respond to all the GOP love. It will actually be Thursday night at 8 p.m., when Obama enters Bill O'Reilly's "No spin zone" on Fox, where they seem to love their Democrats.

Don't forget to check out dispatches from Kentucky delegates to the RNC at PolWatchers.

Merlene Davis blogs on Bristol Palin, and you can discuss Sarah Palin at Bluegrass Moms.

RNC on the big screen

Fred Thompson speaks in front of the giant video screen that is the centerpiece of the Republican National Convention's set. Copyrighted AP photo by Rex Arbogast.

One thing that intrigued me about the Republican National Convention last night was the giant video screen that makes up the backdrop of the main stage. As Fred Thompson spoke about presumptive Republican Presidential nominee John McCain, images of Sen. McCain showed behind him, giving the actor and former senator's speech a theatrical flair. 

It'll be interesting to see how they use this screen the next two nights and if they have other ideas for enhancing speeches with photos and video imagery. I also wonder if they offer delegates those rippling flag stripes we usually see on the jumbo monitor as a screen saver.

Convention Surfer: Republican National Convention, Day 2

President George W. Bush's video address is cheered on by the Texas delegation to the Republican National Convention, Tuesday night. Copyrighted AP photo by Charles Dharapak.

Nobody flipped a coin at the beginning of the Republican National Convention's second night, and first real night of politics, but the Grand Old Party seemed to start on defense.

On CNN, coverage began with the "best political team on television" discussing how Hurricane Gustav, polling showing Democratic challenger Barack Obama did indeed get a bounce from his just finished convention and new questions about vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin got the Republican convention started on a sour note.

"Why so gloomy?" conservative icon Bill Bennett said when finally given the mike. "May we make our case?"

Soon, the Republicans were making it, headlined by current President George W. Bush giving a hearty endorsement of presumptive nominee John McCain and Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, who eight years ago ran against Bush, endorsing McCain and appealing for bipartisan unity.

"What is a Democrat like me doing at a Republican convention like this?" Lieberman asked, and went on to tout McCain. All the while he was egged on by yelling from a guy who sounded like an escapee from a Twin Cities bar.

At one point, Lieberman tried to get applause for accomplishments of President Bill Clinton, which the Republicans seemed a bit reluctant to cheer.

The Republicans overall seemed to have a more concise schedule that fit into the major networks' allotted 10 to 11 p.m. block than the Democrats last week. Though President Bush's comments actually took place before 10 Eastern time, ABC, CBS and NBC all squeezed in part or most of his address and aired Lieberman's speech. Fred Thompson spoke between the two, and while CBS and ABC's attention wandered to pundits and interviews, the former Law & Order star got attention from the Peacock.

On Charlie Rose, Bloomberg News' Al Hunt praised the speech by the former candidate for the Republican nomination saying, "He woke up eight months too late for his own campaign."

Vetting: There's been a lot of talk about vetting of vice-presidential candidates in the last day, which reminded me of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine's interview on The Daily Show last week. Discussing being vetted as a potential running mate for Obama, Kaine said, "People know a lot of things about me I never thought I'd reveal, you know, your high school girlfriend's middle name. Then you give a name, and then they come back and tell you she said she was never your girlfriend."

The angry left?: Even President George W. Bush utilized the term "angry left," to describe the Republicans' opposition. But consistently, it was conservative pundits and figures who came across as embittered when they were given a microphone yesterday. In an interview with CBS' Katie Couric, Steve Schmidt, a McCain campaign adviser, said voters would "angrily reject," what he characterized and unfair attacks on vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Figures such as Rudy Giuliani and hosts such as Fox's Sean Hannity and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough were spitting venom at any suggestion that the pregnancy of  Palin's 17-year-old daughter was a legitimate story. Who's angry? 

From the stage Tuesday, Republicans came across as proud and optimistic, but one-on-one, they often seemed less appealing last night.

Discipline: One stark contrast between the Republican convention and last week's Democratic convention is the consistency of delegates. While correspondents had no trouble finding delegates to discuss misgivings about Barack Obama, express support for Hillary Clinton, etc., at the Dems' affair, Republican delegates didn't give an inch to any of the controversies ranging outside the Excel Center -- questions about Palin, President Bush appearing via video instead of in person and things of that sort.

Where's Big O?: Monday and Tuesday night, MSNBC's liberal icon Keith Olbermann was broadcasting from New York. Will he make it to the Twin Cities for the Republican convention? According to an NBC source, Olbermann is staying in NYC to anchor hurricane coverage when Hanna makes landfall on the East Coast late this week. Seriously? Since when is Olbermann a general news anchor? He has always been a partisan pundit. Hannity had the nerve to show up in Denver. Olbermann should be in Minnesota. Rachel Maddow is there, articulating a liberal position despite a less than supportive crowd surrounding the MSNBC outpost.

Democratic oasis?: The Daily Show has gone to the Twin Cities, but judging by the audience reaction, it seems Jon Stewart's faux news show is probably a main attraction for the Democratic response team that set up shop across from the convention and liberal protesters. The audience hooped an hollered as Stewart and Co. shredded the Republican's line about, "taking off our Republican hats and putting on our American hats," and generally mocked the past eight years. Also, while last week's episodes featured Democratic leaders, the first guest this week was NBC News anchor Brian Williams, though their exchange couldn't  have been testier if Williams was Karl Rove. "It must be nice to have a little liberal salon," Williams said near the end of their interview.

Wednesday night: We hear from the Governor of Alaska. What wine goes best with mooseburgers?

rctalk: Chris Tomlin's "Hello Love" and Questapalooza pics

Chris Tomlin (center) with bandmates (L-R) Matt Gilder, Travis Nunn, Jesse Reeves, and Daniel Carson. Photo courtesy of EMI Christian Music Group.

Chris Tomlin | Hello Love

I really wanted to love Chris Tomlin's new album. 

Seriously, despite our curmudgeonly reputations, critics love to see or hear something great, and where should you expect that more than from someone who has already proven their greatness? Chris Tomlin is ostensibly the voice of Christian music today, an artist responsible as much as anyone for merging the worlds of the church and contemporary Christian music. I have enjoyed his music and learned to play some of his songs myself, so it seemed like a good day when Hello Love arrived in the mail.

But after a few listens, it seemed like someone needed to give Tomlin a little push.

This isn't a bad recording. There are a number of terrific songs here including Sing, Sing, Sing and God of This City, which we heard earlier this year on the latest Passion CD, and a gorgeous new rendition of an old hymn, All the Way My Savior Leads Me. There's also Jesus Messiah, the hit single that preceded the album. It's all good.

It also sounds very familiar, a stringing of melody, chorus and vertical lyric that is starting to sound repetitive as praise and worship settles down from hot trend to establishment. Tomlin just seems a bit too comfortable as Tomlin, so while there are definitely some nice songs here, there's nothing as compelling as, say, How Great is Our God or Made to Worship. Granted, no one writes a blockbuster every time, but it would feel a bit better hearing less compelling Tomlin if we were in turn finding some adventure like we do in his fellow Texan and Passion artist David Crowder.

Unfortunately, Hello Love, even with its standout tracks, sounds a bit too much like the complacency that ails contemporary praise and worship.

Questapalooza photo album: Photographer Gabriel B. Tait and I were out at Questapalooza Sunday with our cameras, and I put together a little photo album you can see by clicking here (If you're checking in early Tuesday, I need to get into the office to get Gabriel's photos in). We saw legions of you with cameras out there, and if you've got photos you'd like to share, upload them to our new Snapped service and give Questapalooza a presence there. (Photo, right: Kutless' James Mead and Nick DePartee jam at Questapalooza. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.)

Questapalooza 2008: The Music

Kutless gets the crowd waving their arms in the late afternoon sun of Questapalooza. Below: Faces of Kirk Franklin at Questapalooza. Bottom: Henry Shrader (left) took on Kutless guitar player Nick De Partee (right) in Guitar Hero and won. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.

At Questapalooza, you had to keep reminding yourself this was an event put on by one church.

From the stage set to the video work - complete with steady camera on a crane - to the solid sound to the solid lineup, this was a purely professional Christian music show.

Another reminder, of course, was the lineup that attracted an estimated 6,500 people to a field next to the Quest Community Church property Sunday. Questapalooza, in its third edition, presented gospel legend Kirk Franklin along with chart toppers Kutless and needtobreathe.

Questapalooza started in 2006 with a head-turning but modest lineup including Shaun Groves and Tait. Last year, it upped the ante with a certifiable  superstar in TobyMac. This year, they went for a genuine legend in Franklin. 

Franklin was also a cross cultural move, and indeed, Questapalooza attracted as diverse a crowd as you'll see at a Christian music event.

The man proved worthy of the draw in a set marked by dance moves out of James Brown's playbook, a tight ensemble including Lexington's Terry Baker  on drums, and hits such as Revolution, Hosanna and Imagine Me.

One thing that you are reminded of seeing Franklin is he is not a traditional singer. In fact, his few moments singing had the modest sweetness of Kermit the Frog singing It's Not Easy Being Green. Franklin is more of a frontman, rapper, hype man and even preacher. Though he was the biggest star of Questapalooza's history, he may have also done the most to fulfill Questapalooza's goal of building community, stopping numerous times to exhort people to come together to hug and declare things they want to give up in 2008 so they can live a more Christian life. Franklin was connecting to the back edges of the temporary amphitheater, which goes along way toward telling you why he's enjoyed 15 years of success in Christian music and crossed racial barriers that others haven't cracked.

By the way, Terry Baker got a big introduction, and then there was one of those moments that can only happen on a hometown show, when Baker's 15-year-old daughter Amber sat in at his kit, and I'm here to tell you, keeping the beat runs in that family.

Another thing to love about Questapalooza is they give all the bands a good long time to play. No 30-minute sets, which are common to festivals, here.

So Kutless got to honestly show us what we missed when they got rained out Ichthus, and that would be a tight arena-rock set including Take My Pride Away and Show Me the Truth to get the crowd pumped and Sea of Faces to slow it down. John Micah Sumrall went for the very cheesy ending of punting an open water bottle into the crowd, but it worked as 20-year-old Dustin Lanier fielded it like he was on special teams or something.

The band also provided a fun interlude with guitarist Nick De Partee taking on Quest Kid Henry Shrader in a Guitar Hero contest. Shrader had won a Guitar Hero competition in the festival site during the day. The two faced off over Pat Benatar's Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Shrader's guitar skillfully shredding, De Partee struggling with clunky amp sounds.De Partee said before the competition he'd only played Guitar Hero three or four times.

South Carolinians needtobreathe opened the musical portion of the festival with their bluesy sound and a healthy serving of new material, including Girl Named Tennessee, which really got the crowd dancing.

Despite oppressive heat today, it was well worth being out at Questapalooza for the music, and you have to think organizers have set the bar pretty high for '09.

Read our story about Questapalooza.

Watch here for a Questapalooza photo album in the next day or so.

Interesting: If everyone's estimates are right, Questapalooza outdrew Nine Inch Nails, Sunday.

Convention surfer: 'The Daily Show' & Sarah Palin

John Oliver's clever piece about vigilant Clinton supporters. (There is mild profanity.) Below: Van Halen's music rocked the introduction of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate. Copyrighted Associated Press photo by Stephan Savoia.

Here was the problem keeping up with The Daily Show this week: With most of the Democratic National Convention speeches ending after 11 p.m., and then analysis coming immediately after, it was pretty much impossible to catch the 11 p.m. showing. But, Comedy Central does rerun The Daily Show numerous times, including a Saturday morning marathon of last week's convention shows, and the show is available online. There were a bunch of funny bits, including Jon Stewart, aping Barack Obama imploring people to get to Mile High Stadium early because, "Hope don't park the (bleeping) car!" The part where he had the Stones, Hendrix and Mozart playing before Obama's speech was great, too.

The two best bits were Monday's Healing Clinton Supporters (embed above), in which John Oliver brought in a child psychologist to help the PUMA's and their ilk, and the faux campaign video, Barack Obama: He Completes Us.

Stewart and crew will be in St. Paul/Minneapolis next week, again broadcasting from Tuesday to Friday, like last week.

Surprise!: Credit John McCain for a masterpiece of thunder theft, announcing his historic pick for vice-presidential running mate just 13 hours after Obama's stadium speech Thursday that was reportedly watched by 38 million viewers.

The punditry, like Thursday night, was fairly predictable with folks like Sean Hannity hailing the choice of Palin as brilliant and Olbermann and Maddow dissecting it on MSNBC -- though they did allow that the probe into Palin's firing of an Alaska state official probably won't amount to much. To me, the potential masterstroke of the pick was evidenced in a Good Morning America promo Saturday that billed Palin as the Hockey Mom who could be the next vice-president. Forget the political junkies, appealing to the People magazine-morning chat show crowd with Palin's human interest story -- mooseburgers, half-eskimo husband -- may be the way this ticket attracts swing voters.

A little pop culture connection was explained to me in this morning's paper. John McCain and Sarah Palin's first appearance was preceeded and followed by Van Halen's Right Now, which is a pretty good choice for a campaign theme. Turns out, Palin and her husband Todd are big VH fans, going so far as to name their son Trig Paxson Van Palin in tribute to the band. Of course, considering Right Now is from the Sammy Haggar era for Van Halen, maybe Sam would have been the appropriate third name.

On the Copious Notes Twitter, we endorsed Kristen Wiig to play Palin on Saturday Night Live, though sources as dispirate as The Daily Show and The New York Times have noted the striking resemblance between Palin and former SNL Weekend Update host and head writer Tina Fey. Maybe some guest appearances will be in order this season.

The Mother Tongue weighs in on the Palin choice calling comparison's between Palin and former Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton "apples and oranges in pantyhose."

Kirk Franklin's Questapalooza gig a homecoming for his drummer

Terry Baker, photographed by guitarist Doc Powell, has played drums for Kirk Franklin since 2000.

When Kirk Franklin plays Questapalooza Sunday night, a Lexingtonian will be keeping the beat.

Terry Baker joined Franklin’s band eight years ago, fulfilling a dream to play for a gospel star.

“I’ve been playing drums since I was a young guy,” says Baker, a 1990 Bryan Station High School graduate. “I always wanted to play with a gospel artist. I never thought of going for a secular career.”

He first met Franklin when he was playing drums on a TV show, Bobby Jones Gospel on BET.

Baker moved away to be on the show, but the Franklin gig allowed him to come back to Lexington and his family: wife Elaine and three children, Amber, 15; Terry Jr., 12, and Lauren, 7.

He attends House of God Church on Georgetown Road.

That’s when he’s in town.

Beating the skins for a gospel superstar means a lot of weekends on the road, including overseas trips to Europe and Africa. Baker really treasures the hometown gigs, though.

He’s had the chance to play a couple of Ichthus Festivals in Wilmore and in Rupp Arena when Franklin came with Franklin ­Graham’s crusade in 2000.

“That was shortly after I started playing with Kirk,” Baker recalls. “It was pretty incredible to play in Rupp Arena.”

And Quest Community Church, which presents Questapalooza, won’t be bad either.

“When I got the e-mail asking if I was available for these dates, and I saw the Questapalooza date, I was really excited,” Baker says. “It’s always fun to play for your family and friends.”

Convention surfer: Democratic National Convention, day 4

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama addresses the Democratic National Convention at Mile High Stadium in Denver. Copyrighted Associated Press photo by Charlie Neibergall.

When Bill Clinton spoke on Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention, it seemed like 1992 all over again, with Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop playing him in, taking Democrats back to a time when they prepared to unseat a Bush.

Thursday night, as cameras chronicled crowds filing into Denver's Mile High Stadium, and the preshow started with highlights such as a Stevie Wonder performance and an Al Gore speech that might've gotten him elected if he gave it eight years ago, it was clear that this was a bigger political event than anyone Barack Obama's age has seen before. The Democratic nominee set a huge stage for his acceptance speech at the DNC, creating an event that looked more like a Super Bowl, Live Aid or the just finished Olympics than an ol' political convention. As cable news and PBS cameras chronicled the evening, the major networks seemed silly staying away until 10 p.m. for things like CSI reruns.

There was one way the venue did hurt Obama a bit -- sound. The crowd actually did sound louder for Clinton Wednesday, probably because the roof of the arena captured the cheers that went into the skies above Mile High -- skies which were not an answer to Focus on the Family's prayers. It did actually give an aural feeling of detachment. But as the cameras panned the crowd, you could see they were excited, enthralled and moved by the man and the moment of seeing a brilliant orator who is the first African-American major party candidate for President. That it was the 45th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech only added to the gravity of the event.

Of course, that will inevitably feed into Republican presidential candidate John McCain's charge that Obama is a merely a celebrity who can fill stadiums.

It is funny that is considered a liability. In most arenas, theatrical and athletic, being able to fill a stadium is considered an asset. Here, in Lexington, there is a pride that the University of Kentucky basketball team can pack more than 20,000 people into Rupp Arena even for exhibition games. We are fascinated with bands like the Rolling Stones and U2 that fill stadiums night after night. But, when it comes to the leader of the free world, this is a liability?

There are definitely debatable issues between Republicans and Democrats, but criticizing a candidate because tens of thousands of people want to hear him is strange.

But it is a charge that will probably be aired again, because as political theater goes, Obama has given McCain a tough act to follow.

Talking heads' reaction: Prior to the speech, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow seemed to be on the verge of tears having read it, and Keith Olbermann seemed to be in danger of stealing Obama's thunder reading passages. Meanwhile, at Fox, Sean Hannity was trying to re-air his talking-point criticisms of Obama. Afterwards, Fox's Brit Hume was grumbling a question about whether this was standard issue Democratic rhetoric while MSNBC's Olbermann and Chris Matthews were calling the speech "extraordinary." Last week, I contended, and stand by the contention that MSNBC is not ideaologically driven in its news coverage. But reaction to the speech clearly showed the differences in the pundits at MSNBC and Fox. It's a safe bet they'll have opposite reactions this time next week.

The final decision, of course, belongs to us, the voters.

Awkward: Clearly, surfing the channels this week, I've missed a few things like a testy exchange between Olbermann and Joe Scarborough, with an ellipsis from Chris Matthews. Then there was this one between David Shuster and Scarborough on Morning Joe. Wow. I'm not on the treadmill at the right time, though I did hear Scarborough mocking the MSNBC evening anchors for portraying everything as wonderful with Monday night's convention coverage. Hmmmmm. Makes me not want to surf and sit on the mini-Peacock, and maybe take an extra long walk on the treadmill tomorrow morning.

UPDATE: OK, no fisticuffs on Morning Joe today, but it was fun when Time's Mark Halperin came in reporting a charter flight had gone from Anchorage to Dayton last night, and suddenly Halperin and Mika Brezinski are sitting there on the air working their Blackberrys trying to see if Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was McCain's vice-presidential pick. A few minutes later, they cut to Kelly O'Donnell in Dayton cradling her laptop in one arm and checking her Blackberry with the other hand while trying to report what the buzz was. Later, they were showing shots of Andrea Mitchell working the phones in the diner they were broadcasting from and documenting at the bottom of the screen who was out: Pawlenty, Romney, etc. Nobody was as overtly working this story on the air as MSNBC, and it was very entertaining.

Convention surfer: Democratic National Convention Day 3

Chuck Todd cruches the numbers with Meredith Viera on the Today show. Would you want this man's face on your thong? Copyrighted photo by Virginia Sherwood | NBC. Below, you could rock this Chuck Todd trucker for $13.99.

It's the third day. The Cintons are still the spotlight act, though this is Obama's convention;  Democrats are cheering Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarborough is sure Hillary is really going to vote for McCain.

Let's get weird.

Probably the best thing I learned about watching Morning Joe Wednesday was Viva Chuck Todd. For folks who don't share my political TV addiction, Chucky T is NBC's political director, a man who can crunch poll numbers like a 3 year old crunches cereal.

At Viva, you can find things like an exhaustive chronicle of Chuck's Monday, a poll asking who's the best fourth wheel on Morning Joe (winner: Anyone who can tell host Joe Scarborough he's full of crap) and a chance to buy all manner of Chuck Todd merchandise, including T-shirts, thongs and a pet bowl -- maybe you can make it a cereal bowl. Wondering if Chuck gets a cut? Proceeds actually go to charities late NBC newsman Tim Russert supported, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Catholic Charities USA.

BTW, how about Luke Russert as the youth correspondent?

Fox News's Shepherd Smith was invoking Mystery Science Theatre 3000 promoting his Strategy Room webcasts. Tuning in during Vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden's speech, it did have a bit of that air: Three shadowed heads  -- Smith (right, Fox News photo), Fox News correspondent Bret Baier and (I believe) Politico's James Kotecki -- watching the speech on a big screen and throwing in comments. It was a bit more typical banter than witty banter, Shep making observations such as, "Imagine watching your son up there," as Biden highlighted his 91-year-old mother in the audience and, "he's not playing an every guy, he is an every guy."

The funny moment was when Biden talked about getting knocked down and Shep started sing a little Chumbawumba: "I get knocked down, but I get up again."

Maybe the most interesting thing though was simply the chatter between speeches. Smith carried on a conversation with a wireless microphone in one hand and the fingers of his other hand on his laptop. Prior to Biden's speech, the king of the track pad started an interesting conversation about the impact Hurricane Gustav may have on next week's Republican convention, both with public officials and news organizations that are scrambling reporters to the Gulf Coast.

"You cannot juxtapose partying in St. Paul with death and destruction on the Gulf Coast," Smith said, thinking aloud about what a Monday landfall may bring.

No Boss?: Listening to The Rising play after Biden's speech made me hope that reports Bruce Springsteen will not be on stage at Mile High tomorrow night prove to be as true as Biden's claim, "I'm not the guy," last week. I know John Clay does too.

'Mac Daddy: With former President Bill Clinton taking the stage to Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop it felt like 1992 all over again, which seemed to be the idea.

Breaking news: During the late afternoon roll call, MSNBC seemed to be most on top of what was happening, Keith Olbermann detailing how New Mexico would yield to Illinois which would yield to New York so Hillary Clinton could call for Barack Obama to be nominated by acclamation. Later in the night, they were on top of Obama speeding toward the arena to make an appearance after Biden's speech.

Kentucky did get its moment in the proceedings, Kentucky Democratic Party chair Jennifer Moore promising to try to turn the Bluegrass into a Blue State and Gov. Steve Beshear invoking the World Equestrian Games while announcing our votes.

Networks broadcast and cable were far from unified in their coverage of the roll call. MSNBC and CNN gave it uninterrupted coverage. Fox News let Brit Hume's show go on almost as normal and once 6:30 rolled around with the network newscasts, CBS and ABC were on it, while NBC barely got back from a Transitions Lenses commercial in time for Clinton's appearance.

Showtime: Next stop is Thursday night with the first major-party African-American presidential nominee, one of the most gifted public speakers of our time, giving his acceptance speech in a stadium on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's  I Have a Dream Speech. The expectations could not be higher.

Chamber Music Festival slide show

As promised Sunday, here is our slide show from rehearsals of Daniel Thomas Davis' Book of Songs and Visions for Piano Quintet, a new work commissioned for this years Chamber Music Festival of Lexington. Davis was in town yesterday and will be back at the end of the week to work with the musicians on the piece which has its world premier Saturday night.

• Click here for a larger version of the show
• here for our story about the composition
• and here for Sunday's post including an audio sample from the piece

Convention surfer: Democratic National Convention Day 2

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton soaks in an extended ovation before she addresses the Democratic National Convention in Denver,Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008. Copyrighted AP photo by Charlie Neibergall.

If Monday night was The Cosby Show at the Democratic Convention, Tuesday was more like some reality show with warring members of the same team or the cliffhanger of a favorite drama.

What would Hillary say?!

Will her supporters follow her?

Will it help Barack Obama's foundering poll numbers?

Just before prime time, on CNN, Carl Bernstein said Hillary Clinton was, "uniquely positioned to deliver the presidency," to Barack Obama. John King did follow up asking why, if she had that power, didn't she deliver it to herself.

But the drama was set for the second night of the convention: What would the close second in the primaries and her ardent supporters do to help the nominee? It was the story all the cable news nets  told.

Get this on a Daily Show loop: Who says the Democrats can't stay on message? With a whole day to kill, Dem after Dem was asked how they thought Hillary Clinton would do in her speech, and they all said she'd, "knock it out of the park." Maybe it was the thin air that makes Coors Field such a hitter's park. Or maybe that's just a really easy baseball cliché.

Hardest working man: Terry McAuliffe, Clinton's campaign chairman and most myopically passionate supporter during the primaries, was everywhere on the air Tuesday, on MSNBC at least twice and even venturing into enemy territory on Sean Hannity's radio show -- Hannity, like John McCain, trying to act like a Clinton supporter or something.

Speaking of strange bedfellows: Only in convention coverage could you get moments like this spirited chat on MSNBC between ultra-liberal Rachel Maddow and ultra-conservative Pat Buchanan, about the soft tone of the convention up to Hillary Clinton's speech:

Maddow: If you stand up and say, 'We are all things to all people, we are nothing really specific, we're going to move past all the specifics of fighting now,' you're going to offend no one, but earn no votes. You have to define who you are . . .
Buchanan: . . . and what you are against.
Maddow: Yes.
Buchanan: This what we don't want, we've had enough of this, we're against this, against him . . . Where's Cheney for heaven's sake?! Cheney's at 18 percent or something. It's a free shot.

At that line, the crowd behind the MSNBC perch erupted in cheers. Maddow and Buchanan agreeing and crowd of Democratic die hards cheering Buchanan? Dogs and cats living together . . .

By the way, Maddow is emerging as the most passionate, articulate liberal voice among the punditry. The convention is giving her a great ad for her new show.

Not so strange bedfellows: Attempting to plot strategy for John McCain on Fox News, Bill O'Reilly and Karl Rove imagined going into campaign consulting together with Rove musing, "O'Reilly and Rove, consultants to the very rich and powerful."

From the department of reading too much into things: While MSNBC's cameras lingered on Bill Clinton, he was handed a "Unity" sign and quickly put it down, continuing a conversation. Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews immediately seized on this as possibly a sign he was not on board with the whole unity message.

No more tears: That Hillary video to introduce the senator signaled an end to the weepy campaign videos -- or at least a suspension -- with much of it set to Lenny Kravitz and Tom Petty.

Make some coffee: Clinton went on at 10:41 p.m. I can't remember when Michelle Obama started Monday, but it was late in prime time too. These aren't sporting events with indeterminate time limits. The primary speeches could at least have been timed to being shortly after the broadcast networks sign on at 10 p.m.

Best pop culture riff: Hillary Clinton referring to her supporters as the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Suits."

What could have been: CNN probably had the most compelling delegate after the speech in a woman identified as Ann Price Mills (spelling not specified), who told Suzanne Malveaux, "You know that was a Presidential speech . . . and now everybody wants us to simply shift." Mills said she wouldn't vote for McCain, but, "Obama has two months," to get her vote. After weeks of talking head chatter and poll results, this delegate put a passionate, human face on the frustrations of Clinton supporters.

Best nightcap: Charlie Rose's interesting panels on KET, including presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on Tuesday, have the best post-show chats, delving into subjects like Obama's actual policies and the media's reluctance to address race, that are never cracked by the news nets in their hours and hours of coverage. And they can be fun. Last night we had Elvis. Tuesday, it was Rose introducing New York Times columnist David Brooks by saying he'd written a column he'd written before. Brooks folded his arms in mock offense at the fumbled intro saying, "I didn't come here to be insulted."

All about the Clintons:  The morning chatter is focusing on Bill Clinton's speech tonight. Hey, isn't someone else the headliner?

Convention Surfer: Democratic National Convention Day 1

Michelle Obama: Would Phylicia Rashad play her on TV? Copyrighted photo Associated Press Photo by Ron Edmonds.

The first day of the Democratic National Convention in Denver opened with an informative NPR report on how political nominating conventions evolved from being actual contests to coronations -- shows that many believe have dubious news value. Essentially, after disastrous 1968 and '72 gatherings, the last one including George McGovern giving his acceptance speech well after midnight, Democrats decided on a process to deliver a nominee to the convention and in turn make the convention a big ad for their guy or gal.

So, if the DNC is a show, what was Monday's show?

The Cosby Show, according to Rev. Eugene Rivers on the 5 p.m. edition of MSNBC's Hardball. In an interview with Chris Matthews, Rivers said presumptive nominee Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, Monday night's speaker, had to work to make Americans as comfortable with their family as Bill Cosby had made the nation with his fictional upper-middle class, African-American family in the 1980s. "They are the Huxtables," Rivers declared.

Or, is it the Clinton show? CNN's Jack Cafferty expressed exasperation at all the attention being paid to primary runner up Hillary Clinton, her ex-President husband Bill, and their contentious supporters  saying, "I hope I see some Barack Obama over the next four days."

~ Rachel Maddow, MSNBC's new 9 p.m. host, introduced "post-rational" as a phrase to describe disgruntled Clinton supporters threatening to disrupt the convention and vote for John McCain. We'll see how that catches on.

~ The big news story of the night was that the Obama and Clinton camps were trying to work  out a roll call that would make both happy.

Or, the Kennedy show? One surname that wields more power in the Democratic party than Clinton is Kennedy. And while Clinton "news" kept rumbling under the proceedings, it was Kennedys that preceded Michelle Obama on stage. Specifically, it was Sen. Ted Kennedy, just a few months removed from surgery for a brain tumor. That he occasionally halted or fumbled a word reminded us he was still battling back and that being on that stage was of paramount importance to the party's elder statesman. That was punctuated by his invocation of his brother's torch and Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream imagery. It was also the first time that action on the stage was more compelling than the talking heads on cable news. OK, it was substantially more compelling than that.

Interesting that Kennedy's speech, strident in its liberal politics, even drew praise from the Fox News crew. Chris Wallace said it brought a tear to his eye, just a moment after being reminded by Brit Hume how he had mocked Teresa Heinz Kerry in 2004, saying he was waiting for her to break into Don't Cry for Me Argentina, after her convention speech for husband John Kerry.

It wasn't the Jim Leach show: The former Republican congressman from Iowa's speech was billed as an aisle-crossing moment, but the the news nets quickly pulled away from his dry remarks.

No, it was the Obama show: The video preceding Michelle Obama's speech had the line of the night from Michelle, recalling meeting her future husband at a law firm: "Who names their kid Barack Obama? So, I figured this kid has to be weird."

Obama's speech made the Obamas seem like the great American family, more real than the Huxtables, with a dad who carefully drove their first child home from the hospital and lived like most anyone else. It was punctuated with a cheesy moment where Barack Obama appeared from Kansas City via satellite feed. But if the script called for making the Obamas seem like a regular family, it succeeded. Affirmation of that came on Fox News, not from a quippy Wallace, but from NPR contributor Juan Williams, who said, "Given all the tensions in black America over families, and to see that positive image there for everybody to see . . . man, that's just awesome."

In the end, night one felt as warm as The Cosby Show, though post-show reviews generally called for something closer to Celebrity Smackdown the next three days.

On the Charlie Rose show, there was unexpected humor when ABC News contributor Matthew Dowd poo-pooed the idea of presumptive Republican Presidential nominee John McCain picking his one-time  rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, as his vice-presidential running mate. "Mitt Romney has no Elvis," Dowd said, "and John McCain needs a little Elvis on his ticket."

Clinton, Kennedy, Cosby and Elvis. Maybe this wasn't such a bad show.

I'm off to listen to some Mojo Nixon, and contemplate whether Romney is the new anti-Elvis.

Daniel Thomas Davis' new piece for the chamber fest

In only its second year, the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington has commissioned a new work for the event. Daniel Thomas Davis's Book of Visions and Songs will premier Aug. 30 at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion. It's an 18-minute work for Piano Quintet that was created based on Davis' visits to Central Kentucky earlier this year and written in Italy, Virginia and his current home of Ann Arbor, Mich., where he teaches composition at the University of Michigan.

These days, of course, a lot of that work is done on computers, including creating facsimiles of the piece to give the composer an idea what the piece sounds like. As of today, the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington ensemble has not played the piece, but Davis has given us permission to post the sample version of the second movement of the piece. Keep in mind, this is just a sample of what it will sound like. (Click the play button to hear it.)

Read about the piece at LexGo, and this one from our first chat with Davis.

Photo of Davis, above, by Rich Copley.

Obama's new media moment bombed

Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden at a Chicago event earlier this month. Copyrighted Associated Press Photo by Charles Rex Arbogast.

3:28 a.m.?!

Barack Obama came at his selection for vice-president with a pretty cool new media idea: He would send a text message revealing his pick to anyone who signed up at his website. We would get the news on our cell phones at the exact same time the gate keepers in the political media did. 

And the Obama campaign kept the suspense going.

When I went to bed around 11 last night, there was still no official word on who the veep would be, though the choices were narrowing with Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and Indiana Senator Evan Bayh officially out.

Then I went out to pick up the paper this morning, and there it was, "Obama picks Biden" -- getting the news from the printed newspaper, of all things.

I checked my texts, and sure enough, there it was: "Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee." The time code was 3:28 a.m. So, if a text message is sent to the middle of  a forest, and no one's there . . .

Basically, it seems Obama fumbled this new media moment for two reasons:

1. He held onto the news so long, traditional reporting did eventually scoop him. If you stayed up even just a little after midnight last night and were plugged in, you would have known.

2. It was really no surprise. All signs had been pointing to Biden for days. Now, if everyone who signed up for the text got a message, say, Friday afternoon -- when people were obsessively listening for their text chimes -- saying it was Hillary Clinton, or some other surprise pick, that would have been a big moment in political new media. Once Biden was becoming obvious, the campaign should have sent the text.

But, with no surprise and people who signed up for the text not being the first to know after all, it just kinda bombed.

~ The Mother Tongue said her hubby joked that maybe Obama was trying to show he could take 3 a.m. phone call better than Hillary Clinton. Or maybe it was that he could make it as well.

MSNBC is not the liberal Fox News

Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann anchor campaign coverage on MSNBC. Below: Rachel Maddow begins a 9 p.m. show on MSNBC on Sept. 8. Photo copyright NBC.

With the announcement that Rachel Maddow will start hosting a 9 p.m. weeknight show, hardcore liberals and hardcore conservatives now have pretty clear cable news choices between 8 and 10 p.m.

Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity are on the right on Fox News. Keith Olbermann and Maddow, who starts Sept. 8, are to the left on MSNBC.

Even before Maddow got her new gig, MSNBC was being defined by many observers as the liberal answer to conservative Fox News.

That’s upset a few Republicans. Last week saw the latest flare up, as officials for presumptive presidential nominee John McCain lashed out at NBC news correspondent Andrea Mitchell. Her crime was airing an allegation by the campaign of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama that McCain might have cheated in a presidential forum at Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church.

“We are concerned that your news division is following MSNBC’s lead in abandoning non-partisan coverage of the presidential race,” McCain campaign manager Rick Davis wrote in a Aug. 17 letter to the president of NBC News, Steve Capus.

Hmmm.

Is he talking about the same MSNBC where, after that Aug. 16 forum, three commentators tripped over themselves to declare McCain the winner, although the event could have just as easily been defined as showing McCain and Obama’s contrasting styles?

Is he talking about the same MSNBC that greets most weekdays with The Morning Joe, a political chat show hosted by former Republican Rep. Joe Scarborough, often with conservative icon Pat Buchanan literally and figuratively to his right?

Is he talking about the same MSNBC where every superficial question about Obama — Is he tough enough? Is he too skinny? — gets as full an airing as anywhere on the dial?

Or, are Davis and several other conservatives who have leveled similar charges at MSNBC engaging in that time-honored political practice of working the refs?

Methinks as the party conventions get under way this week and we start a sprint toward Nov. 4, we’ll hear this charge again.

But MSNBC is no Fox News.

Barnstable twins' 'Quark' coming soon on DVD

Quark was a 1978 NBC comedy series that was supposed to capitalize on the sci-fi craze that had launched the year before with the release of Star Wars.

Richard Benjamin played Adam Quark, captain of a United Galactic Sanitation Patrol Ship, in the sitcom from Get Smart co-creator Buck Henry. Members of his crew included Gene/Jean, a “transmute” with male and female characteristics, a plant-man named Ficus and Betty and Betty, a woman and her clone played by none other than Louisville’s Patricia and Cyb Barnstable. The pair argued regularly about who was the clone and who was the human.

The Barnstables are also known as the Doublemint Twins from the Wrigleys gum commercials and for their annual Derby Eve Gala at Patricia Barnstable Brown’s Louisville home, which attracts an all-star crowd and raises millions of dollars for diabetes research at the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville.

Well everyone can get a fresh look at the Barnstables’ past with the DVD release of Quark. All eight episodes of the short-lived series are coming out on Oct. 14. The packaging prominently features the twins in their intergalactic glory.

Summer classic: 'The Philadelphia Story'

Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart's great scene from The Philadelphia Story.

When I contemplate why The Philadelphia Story is my favorite movie, sometimes I'd say it's the witty dialog, or maybe Katherine Hepburn in her prime, or the whole Philly society story. I remember the first time I saw it -- on a big screen, like it will be shown at 1:30 and 7:15 p.m. today at the Kentucky Theatre -- being fascinated with the idea people actually swam in pools in the 1940s. Give me a break, I was still in high school.

But when I really, really level with myself, it's the guys.

In Cary Grant's C.K. Dexter Haven and Jimmy Stewart's Macaulay Conner, The Philadelphia Story has two terrific leading men that, depending on my mood, I wanted to be. There was Dex, the suave, sophisticated guy who didn't realize what he had until she was gone. Then there was Mike, the mercenary cynic who really had an honorable soul. OK, neither was perfect, but each was interesting and fun in the midst of a hilarious story. They both had things going for them and were played by some of the best screen actors ever.

So, did I ever figure out which I wanted to be? Well, you grow up and realize you're going to be you. But still, given a choice, which would it be? Maybe it's answered with one of their exchanges:

Mike: Doggone it, C.K. Dexter Haven! Either I'm gonna sock you, or you're gonna sock me.

Dex: Shall we toss a coin?

rc talk: Rick Warren excels in candidate forum

Republican presidential candidate John McCain (left) and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (right) with Pastor Rick Warren (center) during the Compassion Forum at the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., on Aug. 16, 2008. Copyrighted Associated Press photos by Mary Altaffer (above and McCain) and Alex Brandon (Obama).

I'm a little bit behind on my listening, so I'm going to pass on an album review this week. But there was a big event in Christian pop culture in the past few days worth mentioning.

Now, I don't call Saturday night's  Saddleback Church forum for presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain part of Christian pop culture to diminish it. At le blog, we give popular culture very serious consideration, and with the runaway success of The Purpose-Driven Life, Pastor Rick Warren is undeniably a major name in Christian popular culture. And it was undoubtedly that big name that persuaded McCain and Obama to make Warren's church their first venue for a joint appearance since becoming their parties' presumptive nominees for president.

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only guy who hasn't read Purpose-Driven Life and does not have tremendous familiarity with Warren, beyond the fact that his Orange County, Calif., church is one of the mega, mega churches in America.

But I came away from watching the forum fairly happy with Warren's choice of topics and selection of questions. After spending the first half of the year hearing TV anchor and political pundit after TV anchor and political pundit launching pointless, gotcha and inside baseball questions at the candidates, it was refreshing to see Warren ask some basic questions and hear how the candidates answered them.The forum probably didn't change the way many viewers would vote. But if, say, you came in thinking Obama was just an empty suit full of rhetoric, you maybe saw a more thoughtful and aware man than you believed he was. And if you thought McCain would just be a third term of Bush, maybe you saw someone who was more his own man.

In a way, Warren kind of sabotaged himself, because his approach didn't really produce any nuclear moments or break any news. (That said, the forum was all over the Sunday talk shows, and Warren was featured on Larry King Live and Nightline Monday.) The biggest news from the event was suspicion that McCain, who went second in Warren's parallel interviews, was apprised of the questions before he took the stage and not in a "cone of silence," during Obama's appearance, as Warren had asserted. McCain did indeed seem more precise and prepared than Obama, though that could also be because he was possibly better prepped by his staff or he was comfortable playing to an audience predisposed to favor him.

That showed most in Warren's question about abortion, which was phrased as, at what point does a baby have human rights? Obama had to tread lightly through a desire to see abortion reduced but support for Roe vs. Wade because he doesn't think women take abortion lightly.  McCain comfortably took the applause line, "At conception." In person, this was an easier crowd for McCain, because evangelical Christians have been a core constituency for the Republican Party for decades. And it was probably even easier on TV, because a lot of progressives were not interested in this forum because they see it as another blow to the separation of church and state.

I am happy religion has not been a centerpiece of the 2008 presidential campaign thus far because, as a Christian, I'm sick and tired of seeing Christianity prostituted for political gain.

But I didn't mind this forum.

Like any minister, Warren deals with real people and tough issues every day. He oversees ministries local and international and has a broad world view. It actually got me wondering who else could question the candidates who would come at it from outside the Washington political-and-news communities. Yes, there were a few slanted questions, like the phrasing of the abortion question. And I would have liked to have heard him work in a few more global issues, which he told Larry King he wanted to do, rather than revisit the gay marriage thing, again. But the candidates knew they were coming into a venue with a point of view, and should have been prepared for that.

Warren succeeded overall because he asked questions real people think about. He wasn't trying to extend the  bloodsport game of politics. He was trying to get the viewers and candidates to think, which in 21st Century politics, people don't do enough.

Despite no reviews . . . there are some marquee releases today that we're listening to: Charlie Hall's The Bright Sadness, Brandon Heath's What if We?, Bart Millard's Hymned Again, Jimmy Needham's Not Without Love, and This Beautiful Republic's Perceptions.

In the next week or so, watch out for coverage here and in the paper of Labor Day weekend's Christian music events here in Lexington: Lexington Christian Academy's back to school bash, featuring Jars of Clay, and Questapalooza, featuring Kirk Franklin.

Woodland Art Fair 2008 slide show

You couldn't have asked for a better walk in the park than this weekend's Woodland Art Fair. There was art, there was food, there was music and dance, and there was fellowship, both human and canine.

Herald-Leader photographer Pablo Alcala got out to the 33rd annual Woodland fair Saturday, and I went out Sunday to grab some pictures and comments. Click the play button above to watch our slide show or go to Herald-Leader Photo for a larger version.

Film review: 'Thank You, Mr. President'

Journalist Helen Thomas with filmmaker Rory Kennedy. Photo by Will Hart | HBO.

Read our feature on Rory Kennedy and making Thank You, Mr. President at LexGo.com.

Rory Kennedy has a great subject for her most recent documentary, Thank You, Mr. President, which premiers Aug. 18 on HBO.

Helen Thomas is a journalism legend. Born in Winchester, Ky., to immigrant parents, she went from very humble roots to be one of the first female members of the White House Press Corps. And she's been a member of that elite group since John F. Kennedy's administration, covering nine presidents first as a reporter for United Press International and now as a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. In the course of that career, she has held the distinction of asking the first question at presidential press conferences and closing them by saying, "Thank you, Mr. President." She is the dean of the White House Press Corps.

Unfortunately for Kennedy, she and Thomas have a mutual object of derision: President George W. Bush. And with Thomas providing Kennedy, niece of President Kennedy and daughter of slain presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, with a lot of verbal and archival clubs with which to beat W., the film often gets distracted.

At the Art League, look downstairs

Ronald Longsdorf's I Tried to Build Us a Home is on exhibit in the Lexington Art League's Project Gallery downstairs at the Loudon House. Below: C-City was the product of a workshop with middle school students this summer. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.

If you head over to the Lexington Art League to see Election or for Fourth Friday next week, make sure to look downstairs.

A pink glow emanates from LAL's Project Gallery as you walk down the hall. When you enter, you are in a room with tables, chairs, a bed, bookshelves and stairs all made from polystyrene insulation.

It's interesting being confronted by this room that initially seems crazy but quickly draws you into thinking about homes, how we build them and what we expect them to do for us.  The piece is I Tried to Build Us a Home, an installation by Delaware artist Ronald Longsdorf that is thought provoking for its craftsmanship and its concept.

Down the hall, you can see the results of the Castlewood Fun Camp with middle school students. C-City looks like a lot of cardboard and trinket towns we or our children have assembled as kids. But these kids were directed to be thoughtful in how they represented these buildings and locales and how they crafted them. The results are interesting, if you look at them thoughtfully.

You can also check out the work of Enrique Gonzalez, whose studio is in the basement.  It's a colorful collection with quirky takes on Bluegrass icons such as thoroughbred racing. Gonzales' work is for sale.

Lexington Art League's 'Election'

David C. Hufford's Under Surveillance, part of the Lexington Art League member's open, Election.

You walk through the upstairs gallery at the Loudoun House, look back and realize you have just contemplated sustainability and the environment, constitutional rights, religion, immigration, war, gay rights and poverty.

And that’s exactly what the Lexington Art League wants you to do with its ­current exhibit, Election, on display through Aug. 24. It will be up for the Fourth Friday party Aug. 22. The exhibit is the annual members open, for which people in the art league are asked to ­submit pieces ­pertaining to a certain theme.

This year, it is the looming presidential election involving Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

To comment on the race, some people get on TV and sound off or write letters to the editor. These folks make art — and some pretty powerful statements.

There’s little mistaking what Transylvania University art professor Jack Girard thinks of Hillary Clinton’s treatment in the ­recent Democratic primary elections. His pieces Besieged and Wasp portray women torn and ­isolated in the midst of ­symbols of power.

In a similar vein, Ron Davis, working under the pseudonym upfromsomedirt, delivers a pair of digital images that contemplate the difficulties that African-Americans and women face in ­breaking through ­political and ­historical barriers. ­

2008 Rosa Goddard International Classics Festival

Tony Leung and Wei Tang in Ang Lee's Lust Caution, which will make its Lexington premier at the Rosa Goddard International Classics Festival.

Just a few days ago, we mentioned the Kentucky Theatre's annual Rosa Goddard International Classics Festival. Guess what we have, now. The lineup for the 2008 Rosa Goddard International Classics Festival, starting the day after the summer classics series wraps up. Here it is:

Sept. 4: if . . . (1968) -- This is a different sort of role for Malcolm McDowell: rebellious youth leading a violent revolt in Lindsay Anderson's classic. Showtimes 5, 7:20, 9:40 p.m.
Sept. 5: Lust Caution (2007) -- Ang Lee's first film since Brokeback Mountain is a World War II espionage thriller that sparked controversy for its explicit sex scenes and some brutal violence. This is the Lexington premier. 4, 7, 9:50 p.m.
Sept. 6 and 7:  The Red Balloon (1956) and White Mane (1953) -- These are classic children's films by French director Albert Lamorrise. 1 p.m.
Sept. 6: Diva (1981) -- Lexington resident Wilhelmenia Fernandez starred in Jean-Jacques Beineix's cult classic about a soprano who refuses to be recorded, a tape recorder, and the mob. This is a new print. 2:45, 5, 7:30, 9:40 p.m.
Sept. 7: Kagemusha (1980) -- In the late 16th Century, a thief tries to take the place of a fallen warlord in another Akira Kurosawa classic. This is a newly restored print. 3, 6, 9 p.m.
Sept. 8: Metropolis (1927) -- In 1927, Fritz Lang imagined a world still 18 years in our future. This movie always makes me think of Queen's Radio Ga Ga video. 5, 7:20, 9:40 p.m.
Sept. 9: Satyricon (1969) -- Federico Fellini's adaptation of Petronius' book can be a weird, perplexing ride. New Print. 5, 7:25, 9:45 p.m.
Sept. 10: Never on Sunday (1960) -- In Jules Dassin's film, an American philosopher attempts to redeem a Greek prostitute. 5, 7:30, 9:30 p.m.
Sept. 11: The 400 Blows (1959) -- Francois Truffaut's French New Wave classic looks at a child who turns to crime after being neglected by his parents. New Print. 5:50, 7:30, 9:40 p.m

It's always appropriate to note the festival is funded by a bequest from the late Rosa Goddard, a long-time Kentucky Theatre supporter. All seats for all showings are $5.

These shows must go on

Gil Thurman as Burl Sanders and Evan Sullivan as the Rev. Mervin Oglethorpe in Smoke on the Mountain. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo. Below: Ed Desiato in the 1950s.

Two hit plays from this summer are getting second runs on alternate stages.

■ Ed Desiato’s performance as John Barrymore packed Natasha’s Bistro in June. At 8 p.m. Aug. 21, he’ll give another performance of Barrymore at The Kentucky Theatre’s State Theatre. The show, by William Luce, portrays the stage and screen icon reminiscing at the end of his career. Tickets are $15 adults, $12 students and seniors. Call (859) 231-7924.

■ Smoke on the Mountain, the debut production of the Lexington Stage Company, played to sold-out crowds for most of its July run at Studio Players’ Carriage House Theatre. The gospel musical set in a rural North Carolina Church in the 1930s moves to Danville for four performances at Centre College’s Norton Center for the Arts. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Oct. 3, 3 and 8 p.m. Oct. 4 and 3 p.m. Oct. 5. Tickets are $30 each and available by calling 1-877-448-7469 or visiting the Norton Center website.

Project Runway: Good news and bad news

Brooke Shields was a guest judge on Project Runway Aug. 13, picking out an outfit for her show, Lipstick Jungle. With her is regular judge Nina Garcia. Below: Model Shannone in Keith's winning design. Farther below: Polina in Blayne's miss. Copyrighted photos by Barbara Nitke for NBC.

If you are among the competitors stuck on the runway representing, "the highest scores and the lowest scores," as Frau Heidi tells us each week on Project Runway, you want to hear the judges praise your work as simultaneously unique and well made. That's usually a win, which it was for Keith tonight.

What you don't want to hear is Nina or Michael questioning something as fundamental as your taste, which usually means goodbye. This week it was goodbye Kelli, though you could easily argue that Blayne failed more decisively and Daniel is cashing in lives quicker than a curious cat. Oh, well. It will probably be interesting to see what drama emerges after Kenley openly laughed at Daniel on the runway as he declared he had impeccable taste -- well, he was as declarative as one could be mumbling through their nostrils.

The challenge was to design an outfit for Brooke Shields to wear on the NBC series Sex in the . . . uh . . . Lipstick Jungle. Brooke picked six of the 12 designers' ideas to be executed, and then the designers were paired up to build the outfits.

She's supposed to be a business woman by day hanging with her musician husband by night, with a little bohemian flair. OK, you didn't have to look hard to figure out which contestant would have no concept of how anyone dresses in an office. The closest Blayne appears to have been to an office would be the office in the back of his favorite tanning salon. So, he offered up a completely inappropriate shorts thing that looked more tailored for rock climbing or wading into the ocean up to your knees than an office or a boho bash. But, Brooke did select it to be made, and the minute Michael Kors declared Kelli's outfit, "slut-tee," you knew it was over for her or partner Daniel. In what they showed us, Daniel seemed to be a pretty indifferent collaborator, but in these team efforts, the leader usually takes the fall. Bye, Kelli. Keep eating the 9 Lives, Daniel.

Also in contention for the top were Stella and Jerrel, who came up with a very cool, funky, adult outfit. They really seemed to compliment one another. But Keith's sculpted, high dress really was head turning, and apparently it will actually be worn on Lipstick Jungle. He just needs to hope it's not paired with a line like, "What is that?!" But it will probably be A HIT! -- whoops, wrong reality show.

Summer classic: 'The Magnificent Seven'

In the 1970s and '80s, Americans seemed somewhat hung up on finding warriors as cool as Japanese samurai and ninjas.

But back in the 1950s and '60s, it seems filmmakers knew the American equivalent: Gunslingers.

That, at least, is what we might derive from John Sturges' The Magnificent Seven (1960) and its source material, The Seven Samurai (1954). In both stories, a band of seven elite fighters is enlisted to protect communities besieged by marauders.

Samurai was written and directed by Japanese filmmaking legend Akira Kurosawa and is routinely included on lists of the greatest movies ever made. The Kentucky Theatre shows The Magnificent Seven on its Summer Classics series at 1:30 and 7:15 p.m. today. The theater actually showed the Seven Samurai as part of the Rosa Goddard International Film Festival last September, so if you saw the Kurosawa masterpiece last year, you can do a direct comparison of the big screen classics.

In most circles, Samurai fares better. While Magnificent Seven is seen as a classic western, it doesn't quite carry the ground-breaking, all-time great cachet of its Japanese counterpart. Having not been around when Magnificent debuted, it seems a little odd to have Yul Brynner as the leader of a band of gunslingers including Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn. All of them went on to noteworthy tough-guy careers, and while Brynner's filmography does include a number of Westerns (including the dreadful Return of the Seven in 1966), he is best known as the King of Siam and Pharaoh.

One thing that is undeniably classic about the Magnificent Seven is Elmer Bernstein's iconic, Oscar-nominated score.

I've included the trailers from both films, Magnificent Seven above and Seven Samurai below, if you want to do some trailer comparisons.

rc talk: Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken + Jars of Clay

As we are lulled into late summer, it feels like the right time to take a look at some recent EPs:

Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken | Ampersand

The ampersand has always been a cute, lo, romantic, way to join parties, particularly those in love. William Shakespeare may have penned it as Romeo and Juliet, but Romeo & Juliet is always the one that looks right. And Ampersand is an appropriate title for Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken's first duo effort. It is definitely romantic, though rarely cute. D&S are far beyond the puppy love of R&J. Ampersand is a chronicle of a couple that has had a few rough patches and fights, and even found that as ugly as those can be, perseverance over them can serve as confirmation that the bond is strong. This is an adult album, not in the sense that there's any R-rated material, but in the sense that people who are where Webb and McCracken are will most strongly identify with songs such as Watch Your Mouth, that ode to the affirming power of conflict which will have a familiar edge to Webb fans. If you've found Webb's solo material abrasive, this EP softens him, and it's a nice introduction to McCracken, if you haven't heard her before. The couple met when Webb was member of Caedmon's Call and he saw her playing at coffee shop near a recording studio. Ampersand is affirmation that they can make beautiful music together, particularly a cover of Bob Dylan's If Not for You.

Jars of Clay | Closer

This is our introduction to post-Essential Records Jars of Clay, and it's interesting, if not entirely satisfying. While Jars' recent albums such as their 2006 masterpiece, Good Monsters, and live efforts have been trending toward more rootsy rock and acoustic sounds, this EP is very electronic, starting with the chirpy looping keyboard sounds of the title track. There are also heavily ornamented versions of Flood and Love Song for a Savior. The EP's closing track, Prisoner of Hope, sounds the most like a progression from Good Monsters, both lyrically and stylistically, as opposed to a departure or even return to some early career styles, which is what you hear in most of this disc. This is just a brief offering before Jars' new album, slated for release next year. In many ways, Closer leaves you wondering what to expect from indie Jars of Clay.

Speaking of indies: GRITS, which has carried the banner for Christian hip-hop for nearly a decade, is striking out on its own with its forthcoming album Reiterate. It will be their first disc on their own label, Revolution Art, and away from TobyMac's imprint, Gotee. Lest we think there's any friction there, T-Mac will lend his voice to Reiterate as will Jars of Clay's Dan Haseltine and Third Day's Mac Powell. The album drops Sept. 16.

 U2 blast from the past: Many U2 fans' first encounters with the band was the Live Under a Blood Red Sky EP and video from Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheater. The pair are being rereleased Sept. 30 in a package that includes the remastered CD and the concert video on DVD for the first time. The new Live at Red Rocks DVD will feature several new tracks from the 1983 concert including Surrender, Two Hearts Beat as One and Out of Control.

Speaking of U2: St. Michael's Episcopal Church is holding a U2Charist, which is a Eucharist (communion) using the music of U2, at 5 p.m. Aug. 24. All the funds will go to Espicopal Relief and Development, a member of ONE, which U2's Bono founded to address poverty worldwide. U2charists started in a Maryland (see the comments section for a little more info). St. Michael's officials believe this is the first time this has been done in Lexington.

Lexington should take note of Olympic architecture

China's National Aquatics Center and National Stadium illuminated by fireworks during Friday night's opening ceremonies for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Associated Press/Color China Photo. Below, the proposed design of the CenterPointe project in Lexington.

We've been treated to a lot of stunning images from Beijing over the weekend with the opening of the Olympic Games, including the exquisite opening ceremonies and the astonishing victory by the United States' men in the 400-meter relay, which I am so glad I stayed up to see last night.

Some of the most striking images we have been treated to over and over are new structures, built specifically for the games.

The National Stadium, aka the Bird's Nest, and the National Aquatics Center, aka the Water Cube, are the two structures we are seeing the most, and like most exceptional architecture, they never fail to fascinate.

The New York Times has a great interactive graphic showing some of the thought processes behind these structures as well as the new facility for China's state television network, the National Theater, and Airport Terminal. It's interesting to note the care that went into both tailoring these facilities to their purposes and making them visually stunning.

It's something for Lexington to contemplate as we discuss adding a new signature building to our skyline. While the primary argument about the downtown CentrePointe  development has been the demolition of what some regard as historic properties, there's also been a lot of discussion about the design of the proposed new structure -- a combination of a four-star hotel, luxury condominiums, and shops -- and what it will add or detract from Lexington's skyline. A July 22 Herald-Leader story offered up a trio of alternative designs from three teams invited by the University of Kentucky College of Design. They generally went over like a lead balloon with our readers.

But those ideas, as well as designs that can be seen in cities as close as Cincinnati, and the images we're seeing from China should prompt us and even CentrePointe's developers to think. The National Stadium and Aquatics Center, even that crazy state television building, will become signatures of Beijing's skyline, structures that will become synonymous with the city in years to come.

Here in Lexington, we of course have our postcard-perfect countryside. But what are and will be our urban signatures? What do we want them to say about us? And should we think about them a little bit more?

'History Boys' in 'Lord of the Flies'

Today's Arts & Life centerpiece is on the crew that starred in SummerFest's Lord of the Flies and is set to open History Boys at UK's Briggs Theatre this week. Here is a reprise of hour video of the guys at work on Flies back in July. Click here for a larger version.