If you are getting this over email and the videos failed to load or it’s otherwise not formatting correctly, please view original post here
What’s happening, weekenders? Have you gotten all of the toilet paper out of your trees and the corn syrup blood off of your clothes? Excellent. That means it’s Thursday again, and I’ve got a whole new set of events to attend this weekend. For this issue, I am going to give you TWO options for each day this weekend. That’s right. I said it. TWO options. There’s cool stuff going on everywhere around town, so let’s get right into it.
THURSDAY
Azure Ray w/ Tim Fite | The Mill | 7:00 PM | $10 adv/ $12 Day of Show, All Ages
Fabulous Diamonds w/ Wet Hair, Goldendust & Pigeons | White Lightning Wherehouse | 10 PM | $5, All Ages
Thursday is a concert night for sure, but it is a night of dreams as well. The only question you have to answer is how do you like your dreams? If you like them sad, quiet, beautiful, and sensitive, Azure Ray is your choice. Made up of Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink, Azure Ray has been making those adjectives their hallmark for about a decade. Traveling in support of their new release Drawing Down The Moon, Azure Ray will put the audience into a trance with their strong yet simple sound.
If you prefer your dreams to involve whales that can rob banks and beat the Rock Steady Crew in b-boy competitions and Abe Vigoda slapping people with fishes, Fabulous Diamonds might be more of your speed. While those dreams would be really crazy (how would a whale do a windmill?), Fabulous Diamonds would be a fitting soundtrack. Referencing genres such as free jazz, psychedelica, and house, Fabulous Diamonds defy genre classifications. Their sound is their own narcotizing mix. They will be playing a Night People-curated show with IC psych stars Wet Hair, coldwave upstarts Goldendust, and NYC-based drug pop band Pigeons.
It’s just a question of how you like to dream.
FRIDAY
Intermedia Open House | Studio Arts Building | 8:00 PM | Free, All Ages
Anthology Reading Series | Prairie Lights | 10:00 PM | Free, 21+
If Thursday was for concerts, Friday is for art. As we all know, Iowa City has a thriving arts community. Friday offers a night to check it out. If you are more of a visual art fan, go to the Intermedia open house. Sampling from all genres of art as well as history, politics, and popular culture, Intermedia always manages to put on a spectacle and make the viewer question the definitions that we have attached to the field. At this open house, students from Intermedia will have installations designed specifically for audience interaction as well as projections running all over the building. This will be a treat for the visual art fans.
For those that like the words, I’ve got something for you, too, because I care. At the 10 O’ Clock hour, the next installment in the Anthology Reading Series will be starting to begin. For those of you who are not familiar, Anthology is a periodic series which features poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction essayists reading their work for about five minutes. The community is lovely, and the work is excellent. Anthology is an event that always entertains.
SATURDAY
John Edgar Wideman | IMU Main Lounge | 8:30 PM | Free, All Ages
The Right Now w/ Oh So Good | The Mill | 9:00 PM | $8, 21+
On Saturday, the music and the arts come into conflict. For those that choose the side of music, The Right Now will treat you right. Playing some of that old school soul sound, The Right Now are well known for their ability to rock the house and hit you right in the bones. Mixing lovely female vocals with a horn section and solid rhythm, The Right Now’s stand with Oh So Good promises to be a funky, groovy affair.
On the other side, this weekend will see the rise of nonfiction writers in Iowa City as NonfictioNow runs from the 4th to the 6th. While Fun Home author Alison Bechdel is reading on Thursday, the last speaker for this conference will be John Edgar Wideman. A Rhodes scholar and MacArthur genius, Wideman is one of the great American writers with a career spanning from 1967 until today. His reading in Iowa City will be a very special treat for the literary community here as well as the one that has come for the conference.
Regardless of which side of the divide you choose to stand, Saturday will only deliver entertainment.
After all of these choices, you’ll be pretty beat. Stay low on Sunday. Get some sleep maybe. Do you remember what that is? Yea, I don’t either.
~LV
Did we miss your sweet event? Sorry! Send Weekender suggestions to Weekender@LittleVillageMag.com
