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Friday, Nov. 1
Patrick Jilbert
WHY Louisville
806 E. Market St.
Free; 5 p.m.
Patrick Jilbert is a visual artist, but he’s also a street rat prankster visionary who knows a lot more about some different stuff than you do. The self-taught painter and illustrator is influenced by a chain of up-to-the-minute influences found in music, shoes, people who get around without using cars, other art and everyday adventures. “Slang, lyrics and arbitrary pieces of conversation overheard,” is one way he articulates how the everyday becomes his extraordinary. His current show, “Avoid Everything,” takes all-seeing eyes, modern families and the requisite skulkers and makes it all feel welcoming in a happy-go-lucky, incontinent kind of way. The show runs through Dec. 5. —Peter Berkowitz
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Friday, Nov. 1
‘Fashionation’
Les Filles Boutique
558 S. Fourth St.
Free; 5 p.m.
Louisville artist David Green is better known by his brand name, Starvin Artist, which you will find at the upcoming SoFo First Friday Trolley Hop. This showcase, set in the handcraft-focused Les Filles Boutique, pays homage to fashionistas and fashions of the past century. Green pushes the idea Coco Chanel said so long ago: “Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” His art documents that notion with iconic portraits dressed to the nines, manipulated on canvas by Green’s brush stroke. The result is a balanced composite of block coloring and abstract color schemes that capture the movement and livelihood of these confident and fashionable subjects. Also, free drinks and snacks. —Lara Kinne
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Friday, Nov. 1
Day of the Dead
S. Fourth St. (between Seelbach and Brown)
Free; 5:30 p.m.
Before the end of October meant inappropriately slutty costumes and annual viewings of “Hocus Pocus,” it meant All Hallow’s Eve. And when that hallowed eve comes to a close and the witching hour is at hand, the start of November means one thing: Dia de los Muertos. The newly monikered SoFo is throwing a block party celebration of this Day of the Dead, complete with face painting, puppets, sugar skulls for the kids and margaritas for the kids at heart. The Louisville Downtown Partnership and U of L’s Latin American and Latino Studies Program are also co-sponsors of the event, and the LALS program will, in traditional DOD fashion, erect an altar to Martin Luther King Jr. and other community leaders. With live music, flamenco dancing and food galore, all you Frida Kahlos and calaveras better get your bones downtown. —Jennifer Harlan
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Friday, Nov. 1
‘Olmsted Parks and Parkways’
Carmichael’s Bookstore
2720 Frankfort Ave.
Free; 7 p.m.
Holland Brown Books is issuing Sam Thomas’ posthumous and major work, “The Origins of Olmsted Parks and Parkways,” which tells the tale of the beginnings of what we know now as Louisville’s great green spaces. The vast and illuminating book starts even before Frederick Law Olmsted hit town in 1891, showing how our city’s finest residents have always been working to keep Louisville beautiful, clean and progressive. Archival photos and drawings illustrate Thomas’ look at the long-term planning that birthed what we enjoy today all around us. Thomas, Locust Grove’s original director, was an archivist, lecturer and writer who was passionate about preserving Louisville’s history, and his final contribution is invaluable. His widow, Debbie Thomas, will be present along with publisher Gill Holland at this event celebrating the new book. —Peter Berkowitz
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Friday, Nov. 1
The Hal Galper Trio
U of L School of Music, Bird Hall
$5-$10; 7 p.m.
Hal Galper has played piano for Cannonball Adderley and Phil Woods, among others, and has led groups whose lineups have included the Brecker Brothers. He’s focused on his trio with bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John Bishop, and concentrates on playing rubato style, emphasizing flexibility of tempo. Bishop tells LEO that Galper has “an uncompromising attitude about the music and respects the audience enough that he’s not going to sugarcoat what can be pretty challenging music. I see audience members won over by … that dedication … Once he’s made the decision (about his) band … everybody’s an equal at that point. The musical freedom allows us all to own the music and the direction, and I think the progress we make as a group is more apparent to us because of that.” —Martin Z. Kasdan Jr.
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Nov. 1-3
‘SLEEP’
Swanson Contemporary
638 E. Market St.
Free; 11 p.m.
Because a performance artist needs an audience like a falling tree needs ears, I’m getting the word out about musician Douglas Lucas’ aptly titled upcoming performance, “SLEEP.” For three nights this week, Lucas will be sleeping with an open door at Swanson Contemporary. He welcomes onlookers and late-night guests to visit him between the hours of 11 p.m. and 9 a.m., an hour earlier on the weekend mornings, corresponding to the clocks falling back. Lucas welcomes the public to record his show, so if you’re not at home doing your own rendition of Lucas’ performance yourself, stop by and check it out. See Lucas’ previous work and aesthetic philosophy at douglaslucas.tumblr.com. —Chelsea Gifford
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Nov. 2-Dec. 1
‘Intersections: The Sequence Series’
Revelry Boutique Gallery
980 Barret Ave.
Opening Reception: Nov. 2, 7 p.m.
Ashley Brossart takes photographs every day — of Louisville architecture and textures, colors and words and materials. Her “Sequence Series” is the umbrella delivery system for her interpretations of all she takes in and then pushes back out: line drawings and paintings, abstracts and photo documentations of a busy world with many intersecting entities. For her, it is “a reflective process of continual constant sifting through ideas about city, environment and inhabitants.” Movement, tension and emotion, she adds, that’s what she’s communicating. If that doesn’t sound fun, she has left some of her original photos around town for anyone to discover, own and collect; new photos can be seen daily on her Instagram. For the opening of this exhibit, which runs through Dec. 1, Revelry promises “tempting tidbits and alluring libations.” —Peter Berkowitz
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Saturday, Nov. 2
The BIG Masquerade
Henry Clay
604 S. Third St.
masquerade.kintera.org/tickets
$50-$75; 8 p.m.-midnight
The official cocktail of the evening will be The Purple Mask — blueberry pomegranate vodka, blueberry juice, a squeeze of fresh lime and maybe a small dash of bitters if you’re into it. Consider it a semi-fancy drink for a semiformal fundraising event benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kentuckiana. This third-annual event will feature cocktails by Brown-Forman, hors d’oeurves and a variety of entertainment, including live music, magic acts, fortune tellers and palm readers. Semi-formal attire and masks are highly encouraged. Ticket prices include drink tickets and bar perks, though partying for a worthy organization like BBBS should be a good enough reason to go. —April Corbin
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Saturday, Nov. 2
The Socials
Rudyard Kipling
422 W. Oak St.
$5; 10:30 p.m.
After more than a decade of playing together, only 90 minutes away, The Socials have never played in Louisville. Oh, sure, they have made noble attempts at doing so — on their first attempt, the venue decided they weren’t actually hosting the show, despite it being booked. On their second try, The Socials got into a bad car accident on the way down. So, we can’t actually guarantee this show will go off without a hitch, come to think of it. But we admire their dogged determination, as well as their lo-fi punky swagger (supported here by Madame Machine and Opposable Thumbs). Leader/bassist Shawn Abnoxious also publishes zines and the blog Thwart, and bandmates Julie Social (voice/guitar) and Juice by Jerry (drums) have completely authentic names, too. —Peter Berkowitz
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Sunday, Nov. 3
Jel
Zanzabar
2100 S. Preston St.
zanzabarlouisville.ticketfly.com
$8-$10; 9 p.m.
Indie hip-hop fans can rejoice this week. A producer and rapper, Jel has worked with acts like Mr. Dibbs, Odd Nosdam and with Doseone as part of Themselves. If you’re not familiar with Anticon-style hip-hop, expect odd beats and strange cadences over fractured samples; this is unabashedly unconventional hip-hop disguised as pop. Touring in support of his third solo album, Late Pass, Jel continues his exploration of caustic political raps set against a musical backdrop that equally combines the experimental curiosity of krautrock with the precision of early-’90s hip-hop. Even though this is on a Sunday, Zanzabar promises the show will start on time and end at a reasonable hour, so you have no excuse to miss out. —Syd Bishop
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Through Nov. 3
‘Gene Spatz: The Art of a Paparazzo’
Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft
715 W. Main St. • 589-0102
Let’s journey back to a more innocent time, when paparazzi photographers weren’t hiding in bushes. Gene Spatz was a pioneer in the 1970s-80s who shot celebrities at formal events and parties in New York. His work was printed in a broad range of magazines, from the National Enquirer to Newsweek. “The paparazzi were a bit less maligned (then), and there was a respect for photographers who had a talent for composition combined with a unique ability for glamorizing the mundane,” says Joey Yates, associate curator at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. “It was precisely this fascination with extraordinary people doing ordinary activities that created the public demand for these photos.” Spatz died in 2004, and with his family’s assistance, KMAC is presenting his first solo exhibition as part of the Photo Biennial. —Jo Anne Triplett
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Through Nov. 9
‘BRAM/NATION’
Galerie Hertz
1253 S. Preston St. • 581-8277
John Nation is a household name around these parts for his many decades at Louisville Magazine. While he’s one of the best local commercial photographers, he also shoots fine art photographs that have been strengthened by his commercial skills. Many of the pieces in the Photo Biennial show “BRAM/NATION” with exhibition mate Richard Bram are of nature, gloriously abstracted. Bram is a street photographer who paces the pavement in cities such as New York, London and Louisville. He says, “This is to be, as Max Kozloff puts it, a ‘professional stranger.’ Most of my photographs originate there, in the random chaos of the street, in the ambient weirdness of everyday life. Street photography may be the single most difficult photographic genre.” The show has been extended to Nov. 9. —Jo Anne Triplett