Wednesday, Jan. 10
Drepung Gomang monks at Brick House
The Brick House invites the public to drop by tonight as the Drepung Gomang monks pay a visit. There’s dinner and a blessing ceremony for Brick House, and sample of the monks’ work and texts will be on hand. Those interested in dinner and the discussion are asked to bring a vegetarian dish.
Brick House
1101 S. 2nd St.
www.brickhouse.cc; gomanginstitute.org
6 p.m.; free
Thursday, Jan. 11
Irwin on ‘Skin Diary’
Stephen Irwin (no, not the Crocodile Hunter) is an artist and man-about-town who has been, well, around town, for many years. The guy is unmistakable with his shoulder-length corkscrew curls and fashionable attire, on view at galley exhibit openings and art performances. Also unmistakable is the haunting quality of his work “Skin Diary,” on display at the Speed Museum through Feb. 4. The piece consists of more than a dozen large sheets of delicate Sekishu paper that are stained in spots with crimson pastels and finished with shellac; they’re pinned by the top corners to hang freely from the wall. The large images, resembling bruised skin magnified, evoke a faint sense of suffering. Julien Robson, the museum’s curator of contemporary art, discusses this work with Irwin tomorrow and next Thursday (Jan. 18). —Elizabeth Kramer
Speed Art Museum
2035 S. Third St.
634-2700
www.speedmuseum.org
Free; 6-7 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 12
Before the Music Dies
The trailer opens with a happy-go-lucky man interviewing two attractive young women on a ritzy streetcorner.
“Do you all know who Bob Dylan is?”
“No,” both girls say, laughing.
“He used to inspire people to drive to Washington and burn their bras.”
“Did she inspire you to do anything?” he asks, referring to Jessica Simpson. “No,” the girls say, They giggle ceaselessly.
Cut to Branford Marsalis making a bold and depressing prediction: “Today Ray Charles would not get a shot. Today Stevie Wonder would not get a shot. They’re blind.”
Cut to Alan Light, writer for Rolling Stone: “Who’s going to get signed are the ones that fit the existing formula, because they’re the most likely to have a hit, the quickest, the most immediately, the most risk-free.”
Interested? You should be. —Mat Herron
Amy Cralle Theatre, Bellarmine University
452-8497
www.beforethemusicdies.com
Free; 7:30 p.m.
Jan. 12 & 15
U of L Honors Dr. King
U of L will honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a pair of events. On Jan. 12, District Judge Joan “Toni” Stringer will discuss the state of civil rights in the 21st century. The Youth Performing Arts School chamber choir will perform, and members of the university’s African-American Theatre program will recite poetry and present awards. This program will be in Room 100 of the Bingham Humanities Building. On Jan. 15, King will be honored “dramatically” with a performance of “The Making of Legend: Madame C.J. Walker” by Kathleen Shaw, along with several special presentations. In addition, Glenda Dickerson, a writer, folklorist, director and professor at University of Michigan, and the only living black woman to have directed a play on Broadway, will present “We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest,” based on a chapter from her forthcoming book. This program is at the Playhouse and adjoining Freedom Park between Second and Third streets. —Kevin Gibson
University of Louisville
852-0229
www.louisville.edu
Free; 11:30 a.m. (Jan. 12) and 1 p.m. (Jan. 15)
Jan. 12-13
Improvapalooza 7
It’s two nights of wacky and unpredictable improv with San Francisco’s True Fiction Magazine crew and our very own Louisville Improvisors with special guest Todd “Jazz Guru” Hildreth. Taking directions from the audience, True Fiction Magazine improvise situations live and without a safety net, spontaneously creating stories on the spot, all infused with their own peculiar brand of pulp-fiction and film-noir retro flavor. Of more than 6,000 stories told, True Fiction Magazine has never repeated one.
Don’t miss the rare opportunity to take one of True Fiction’s Master Classes on their trademark style of Long Form Improvisation on Saturday. Limited to 20 students, these classes are your chance to work with some of the leading improvisers in the nation. Each class will focus on different aspects of Long Form Improv and are completely different — great for the beginner and veteran alike. —Sherry Deatrick
MeX Theater, Kentucky Center
584-7777
$15, $12 (seniors/students); 8 p.m.
Classes: 589-0084 ext. 28
$20; 12:30 & 3 p.m.
Jan. 12-20
CLT’s ‘Oliver!’
One of Southern Indiana’s hidden jewels, Clarksville Little Theatre, brings new twists to Oliver Twist in the Lionel Bart musical stage production “Oliver!” and adds some sugar to Charles Dickens’ gruel with excitingly felonious song-and-dance numbers such as “That’s Your Funeral,” “Boy for Sale,” “It’s a Fine Life,” “You’ve Got to Pick a Pocket or Two” and, my favorite, “Food, Glorious Food.” But remember, kids, crime doesn’t really pay! —Sherry Deatrick
Clarksville Little Theatre
301 E. Montgomery Ave., Clarksville
(812) 283-6522
$8-$15; 8 p.m. (Jan. 12-13, 18-20), 2 p.m. (Jan. 14)
Saturday, Jan. 13
Louisville Orchestra goes ‘All Beethoven’
There are, of course, classical music fans who don’t love Beethoven — but not many. The dissenters may have to content themselves at home this weekend, perhaps humming along with some old Hindemith LPs, as the Louisville Orchestra presents an “All Beethoven” Hilliard Lyons Classics Series concert Saturday night in Whitney Hall.
Celebrated pianist Markus Groh will perform Ludwig von Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 5,” the “Emperor.” Also on the bill is the well-known “Overture to Egmont,” and the unwell-known “Symphony No. 2.” This latter being more like a light Haydn or Mozart symphony than the later powerful pieces with which Beethoven would rock the classical world.
And who would not wish to be rocked? Well, maybe not Prince Lichnowsky, to whom the composer once remarked: “Prince, what you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am of myself. There are and there will be thousands of princes. There is only one Beethoven.” —Bill Doolittle
Whitney Hall, Kentucky Center
584-7777
www.louisvilleorchestra.org
$15-$60; 8 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 17
Villebillies
Louisville’s talented 10 play their first hometown show since their Universal/Motown debut dropped in September.
Since then, Child, 2-B, Demi, Dylan, Tuck, B.J., Justin, Ron, Tim and Adam have been touring the East Coast and South, spreading their infectious mix of hip hop, country and rock ’n’ roll.
The Coyote’s show is the Villebillies’ first of several gigs with Southern rock/punk band Caddle, from Birmingham, Ala. Catch the Villebillies now, because it might be a while before you see them again. —Mat Herron
Coyote’s
166 W. Jefferson St.
589-3866
$12; 10 p.m.
18+
Through Jan. 22
Artist Elmer Lucille Allen
When Elmer Lucille Allen decided to become a full-time artist after decades as a scientist, she chose not one, but two fields: ceramics and textile art. This solo exhibit at the new Pigment Gallery in the Mellwood Arts Center focuses on her fiber work of large blue and white geometric Shibori wall hangings.
The Shibori technique is a distant cousin to the psychedelic tie-dying popularized in the ’60s and ’70s. To get the design she wants, Allen must first hand-sew a series of running stitches, which she uses to pull the cloth (in this case, silk noil) into a wadded ball. She then dyes the gathered fabric; once it’s dried, she removes the thread and lays the cloth flat.
Allen is one of 150 studio artists at Mellwood. The complex is coming along nicely, with the Pigment Gallery a welcome addition to the visual arts scene. —Jo Anne Triplett
Pigment Gallery, Mellwood Arts & Entertainment Center
1860 Mellwood Ave.
895-3650
www.mellwoodartcenter.com
Free; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily
Through Jan. 27
LAFTA group show
In 1995, a handful of local artists created the organization Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists (LAFTA) to promote the fiber arts. If membership is any indication, they have been successful in their mission — LAFTA now has more than 100 members.
Twenty-eight LAFTA members are displaying 75 works in the Gallery at Actors Theatre. If you think textiles are nothing more than embroidery or your grandmother’s quilts, the wide range of contemporary techniques will surprise you. Quilting has been taken off the bed, resulting in such variations as the memory quilts of Jan Malone Sowder and Gloria Kemper-O’Neil’s wall hangings. LAFTA also includes paper and book artists like Elizabeth Riggle, whose work “Flights of Fancy” is made of folded and cut paper. —Jo Anne Triplett
Gallery at Actors Theatre
316 W. Main St.
584-1265
www.actorstheatre.org
Free; 5:30-11 p.m. (Mon.-Fri.), 12:30-11 p.m. (Sat.-Sun.)
