The holiday season has kicked into full effect. It’s supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year (that’s what the slogans always tell me), but the weather recently has led me to think otherwise. It’s telling us that we need to start sealing our windows and preparing for the wind that really hurts. While this might be real talk coming from nature, it hasn’t ruined my spirits. Actually, the weather can’t get me down because it’s my favorite time of the year: awesomely-named craft event season! Yes, Iowa City’s heavenly crafters are on the prowl once again. While the sky has only changed shades of grey this week, there are plenty of people who want to add some color to your weekend.
THURSDAY
Sam Gould of RED76 | Adler Journalism Building E105 | 7 PM | Free to All
A loosely organized collective, RED76 merges art with political commentary in the effort to help people reconsider the spaces that surround us. While being commissioned for works at major art museums such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis, the pieces of RED76 are not to be confined by the white walls of the gallery. In projects such as Pop-Up Book Academy and Surplus Seminar, the art gallery is the backyard of a friendly writer’s house and whatever materials can be found in that area respectively. RED76 is doing inventive work to help in not only considering our own spaces but our connection to the materials that fill it. The leader of the collective, Sam Gould, will be giving a talk here in the Adler Journalism Building on the University campus on the work that he and RED76 are doing.
FRIDAY
Dave Zollo & The Body Electric w/ Shannon McNally & The Hot Sauce | Iowa City Yacht Club | 7 PM | $7, All Ages
I don’t believe that I have to say too much about Dave Zollo & The Body Electric. The local bluesman with his husky voice and hard-hitting lyrics will grace the stage of the Yacht Club once again. If you need incentive to go see this show outside of Zollo, go to see Shannon McNally. Mixing country with her swamp surroundings of her home of Mississippi, McNally reminds me a little of Emmylou Harris. Her voice has the same smoky quality and sounds beautiful just like Ms. Harris. McNally’s songs have solid melodies and are instantly engaging. This should be a fun show for the blues/country fans here in the Little Village.
The Nutcracker | Englert Theatre | 7:30 PM | $16-22, All Ages
I think I would be brought up on the Alien and Sedition Act or some other piece of antiquated legislation if I did not put something vaguely holiday-related in every weekender until 2011. For this week, I can only recommend the Rolls Royce of Christmas events: The Nutcracker Suite. If you have never seen it before, you should. It’s one of the great christmas traditions like watching It’s A Wonderful Life or A Christmas Story. Even those who have seen it over and over again know that it never gets old. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas (I know that at least a few of you exist), the Nutcracker is still an entertaining piece to watch.
SATURDAY
Jewel of a Show | Modela, 323 E Market St, Iowa City | 10 AM | Free (unless you buy something), All Ages
As I said, the best time of the year has started: awesomely named craft event season. While there have been other awesomely (and not so awesomely) named craft fairs during the year, the month of December gets a heavy preponderance of them. If you couldn’t guess from the title, this craft show will feature work from six Iowa City jewelry makers: Penny Adrishok, Kathy Edwards, Satomi Kawai, Jillian Moore, Susan Shinnick, and Laurie Moore. There will be a raffle and complimentary champagne (for the adults) and cookies for visitors.
Craft & Fancy 3 | Home Ec, 207 N Linn St, Iowa City | 10 AM | Free (unless you buy something), All Ages
If jewelry is not your thing and you still want some craft in your life, mosy over to Home Ec. for Craft & Fancy 3. Featuring work from Heather Atkinson, Jenna Hammerich & Eric Johnson, Melissa Arp, Jennifer Black Reinhardt, Tonya Kehoe, and Molly Martlin, the range of craft on display will range from hair pens and silver jewelry to screenprinted t-shirts and glitter wristbands. Regardless of which one you choose (although you should really choose both, especially since they are around the corner from one another), go support the local artists.
Brendan Wells, Seashia Vang & Peter Tomka | Public Space One | 7 PM | Free, All Ages
Local arts are in heavy supply on Saturday. If crafts are not your thing (I’m not sure how that can be, but I totally sort of understand), there will be the closing reception to this week’s show at Public Space One. On display are conceptual 7″s and sculptures made by Brendan Wells along with polaroids of the destruction in Chile by Peter Tomka and photos and video from Seashia Vang. At 8:30 during the reception, Vang will do a multimedia performance piece. If you want to find out what she will do, I guess you’ll have to go.
Pieta Brown: This Land is Your Land II | The Mill | 8 PM | $10 Adv, $12 Day of Show, All Ages
Following the success of her residency last year, Iowa City native Pieta Brown will be reviving This Land is Your Land at the Mill. Featuring a specially built set and art from local artists, the series is intended to encourage sharing between artists and musicians and to invoke discussion about this beautiful piece of the country that we live in. This show will be the first of two consecutive Saturday shows that Brown will play. This one will feature Brown playing with The Vagabonds. If you don’t know who Pieta Brown is, I’m not going to tell you. I’m going to let her play a song. You’ll know why you should be at this show after listening.
Salsa Vibe | Gabe’s | 10 PM | $7, 21+
So far, you’ve been crafting and celebrating the fine arts. Why should you stop now? You shouldn’t. Instead, go feel the latin fire of Salsa Vibe. Based out of Des Moines, Salsa Vibe does what their name says: make some grooves on salsa vibes. Ain’t too much to say. These guys, to paraphrase Phife Dawg, know that quality is job one and they get the job done. All Gabe’s says is prepare yourself. Consider yourself full prepared.
SUNDAY
House | Bijou Theater | 5:15 PM | Free for Iowa Students, $5, 18+
After a long Saturday of supporting local artists doing their thing, I have a good way to relax. Go to the Bijou Theater and see House. Before you start wondering if they adapted the television show to screen and why you hadn’t heard of it, it’s not that House. This House features a young girl named Gorgeous who goes to visit her aunt when she faces the reality of having a stepmother. Accompanied by six friends, Gorgeous and her friends try to survive the house. A Japanese horror classic, the Bijou will be showing a film copy of this movie that is already a cult classic in Japan and swiftly becoming one in America as well.
Music, crafts, arts, residencies, and Japanese horror films. Sounds like another excellent weekend here in the City of Iowa City, Iowa. I’ll see y’all on the beat.
~LV
