Abbey Court Community Project connects with Carrboro residents
Armed with a $10,000 grant from the town of Chapel Hill, three local artists are hoping to use art to give a marginalized sector of the Triangle a voice.
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Armed with a $10,000 grant from the town of Chapel Hill, three local artists are hoping to use art to give a marginalized sector of the Triangle a voice.
On Jan. 11, Josh Alexander found his lifelong dream hanging on eight words:
Senior Drew Millard has a hard time describing himself.
It would be easy to take a story of religion and homosexuality and make it dogmatically simple.
The feature film “MacGruber,” based on a popular Saturday Night Live sketch, premiered at the Varsity Theatre on Monday. Writer/director Jorma Taccone, writer John Solomon and actors Will Forte and Ryan Phillippe sat down with The Daily Tar Heel’s Laney Tipton Tuesday morning to talk about the film. Read the full version at dailytarheel.com/section/Arts.Q: What do you want students to know about the film?Jorma Taccone: I think that it’s a lot different than you’d expect, from an SNL film in particular. We’re all obviously really excited about it, but like, it’s much raunchier than you’d expect, especially from what we were allowed to show in the trailers.Ryan Phillippe: The movie has a definite edge, and it’s a hard “R,” which I think is a major departure from any of the previous SNL films, and so it’s got, you know, there’s nothing flat about it.Will Forte: Because it’s connected to SNL, I feel like people seem to have an opinion one way or the other before they’ve even seen the movie and have maybe already made their decision. And I think we just would like to go around and tell people to keep an open mind.Q: How did “MacGruber” go from skit to movie?WF: That was none of our ideas actually. We had done a Super Bowl commercial for it last year, and somebody approached Lorne (Michaels) about it, and that was kind of how it started.JT: I think we always had it in the back of our mind that like, maybe we could do that?WF: Well, as a joke, we would have certain things that would be too raunchy for SNL sketches. We would jokingly say “Oh, save it for the movie,” not in a million years thinking that we were going to make a movie. I don’t think any of those things made it into the movie, but in the back of our heads a fictional movie existed.Q: You produced the movie in 28 days, which is a pretty short time. How was that?JT: It is a slight advantage coming from the show (SNL), where you have to make things so quickly on the show … We are all sort of in the know about having to do things in no time at all and coming up with things on the fly and having to adapt and change things. Q: Will, there is a scene involving you with a piece of celery in your butt, and said you watched it with your mom. Is there anything you wouldn’t do in front of your mom?JT: I can answer that. Absolutely not.WF: Probably a year ago, I would have said “Well, I wouldn’t put a piece of celery in my butt in front of my mom.” So that is always changing.RP: The bar gets raised.WF: She’s used to it at this point.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
The one thing Mystery Meat and Oscar de la Satan won’t pack for their Saturday guitar competition is a guitar. But they will bring their “airness.”Students Brady McReynolds and Drew Millard, who participated in the January Air Guitar Championship at UNC, will be traveling to Washington, D.C., to perform at the 2010 Regional Air Guitar Championships. “They are both extremely narcissistic, and with good reason,” wrote Amanda Kao, president of the Carolina Union Activities Board and person responsible for bringing Air Guitar to UNC, in an e-mail. “They hands-down rock harder than anyone with a ‘there’ guitar.”The regional competition will consist of two rounds. The competitor with the highest combined score after the two rounds will be named the winner, and he or she will move on to the national championship.Oscar de la SatanMillard has been strumming air strings for two years.But when Drew transforms into his Air Guitar-rocking alter ego Oscar de la Satan, he says goodbye to all forms of amicability.“His normal self is replaced with a frenetic ball of obscure music referencing energy,” said Nolan Allan, a friend of both competitors.Oscar de la Satan got his name after Millard found out he needed a name to participate in the UNC competition. He said he wanted to try to incorporate the devil in some way because he thought that would give him an upper hand.“Rock is an ally of Satan. Every band associated with the devil has been awesome,” Millard said.Planning to play “My Own Bare Hands” by Ween, he hopes to avenge his air guitar honor after falling to McReynolds in this year’s competition at UNC.Oscar plans to rack up points in the “stage presence” category when he performs his signature move of stripping down to his plaid flowered boxers on stage.Millard admits that Oscar might not be the nicest guy you’ll ever meet, but he says Oscar is very different from him.“He is the yin to my yang, the Superman to my Clark Kent. He is the Mary-Kate to my Ashley Olsen,” Millard said.Mystery MeatMcReynolds is the reigning UNC Air Guitar Champion.“I honestly think he could make it to the second leg of the D.C. competition, perhaps on charisma alone,” Allan said.McReynolds said Meat enjoys sporting a bi-hawk and wearing leather while rocking out on the air version of the Gibson Flying V guitar.To prepare for this competition, Mystery Meat has been playing on the way to class and practicing in his underwear in the mirror in his room.“I think that helps to get over your nerves,” McReynolds said. “You’re just there playing and you’re thinking ‘Hey, I’m kind of fat. But that’s OK, I’m rockin’ out.’”For the competition, he plans to play “State of the Union” by Rise Against.“I thought I should do something political, since it is D.C.,” McReynolds said.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Groups representing cultures and performance styles from around the world will bring their talents together in the name of AIDS education tonight.A variety of groups will take over Memorial Hall at 7:30 p.m. for the fifth annual Triangle Dance Festival for AIDS.The festival aims to increase AIDS awareness while celebrating performance art. It is hosted by Baba Chuck Davis, founder and artistic director of The Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble, the night’s headlining act.
Laughter rocked the walls of the Student Union Cabaret on Tuesday night as 22 students took three minutes at the mic to try to woo the crowd with their funniest jokes.The contestants were competing for a chance to open at the Carolina Comedy Jam featuring stand-up comedians Lewis Black and The Daily Show’s Wyatt Cenac, John Oliver and host Rory Albanese. The competition is part of the seventh annual Carolina Comedy Festival sponsored by Carolina Union Activities Board.Some students prepared by writing scripts to memorize, while others chose to outline what they wanted to talk about and improvised on stage.“It’s just different strokes for different folks,” participant Cody Hughes said.No matter which method they chose to prepare, contestants said they were still nervous.“I’m always nervous,” Vinny Tagliatela said. “But its a good audience. Once you get up there it’s like a conversation. You’re talking, and the audience is laughing.”After the competition, the CUAB comedy committee chose nine finalists to participate in a workshop with Black, who will choose two students to open for the Comedy Jam this weekend.The Comedy Jam will be at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the George Watts Hill Alumni Center’s Carolina Club.Here is a look at the finalists and some of their funniest comments:Matt KrantzKrantz got the audience going with stories of going to the movies with his family of six.“My dad would dispatch three groups, the refreshmenteers, the seat savers and the smugglers,” he said.Kenan StewartStewart named a few things that he thought would be worse than being on UNC’s basketball team this year, such as a sexually frustrated Tyrannosaurus Rex trying to masturbate.Vinny Tagliatela Tagliatela told stories of Wii boxing with his little cousin, who beat him while jumping up and down wildly and shoving gummy worms in his mouth.Jay Morgan Morgan weighed his options after hearing humans are not the only species that practice prostitution.“A prostitute on Rosemary Street is $50 or $100, but a banana only costs 49 cents,” he said. Cody HughesHughes, a junior and winner of the past two competitions, talked about an article in The Daily Tar Heel that described him as awkward and killed his sex life.“I got cock-blocked by my school newspaper,” he said.Scott Banks Banks centered his routine on one-liners.“If you want to go on a safari but can’t afford it, you can just do what I do and pour out a box of animal crackers and look at them through binoculars,” he said.Ben LongLong described the challenges cuttlefish face with the ladies.“Do cuttlefish even want to be third-base fish? I mean, like, ‘Come on girl, can I at least get a fin job? Screw this. I’m going to find a blow fish. I know she’ll put out.’”Danny NowellNowell talked a New York Times article that discussed the uneven gender ratio at UNC. He joked that, as a male, he can do whatever he wants and still get laid.“I call my girlfriend ‘Fat Sally’ because I can,” he said.Emily SatterfieldSatterfield learned this summer that it’s OK to lie.“A guy asked me if I liked baseball and if I would like to go to a game with him. I said, ‘I do like baseball. I also like girls.”Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Combining extreme sports, dance and technology, STREB Extreme Action Company’s “BRAVE” promises to be something much different than you’ve ever seen.STREB will be showcasing its multidimensional work tonight and Saturday in Memorial Hall as part of the Carolina Performing Arts series.“Expect the unexpected,” said Reed Colver, the director of campus and community engagement.Elizabeth Streb, once called the “Evel Knievel of dance,” is a self-proclaimed “action artist.” Streb founded the extreme action company in 1985.
Dale Morgan has taken her work out of the studio and into the environment, earning a career as an environmental artist.Morgan is one of the many local artists who focus their work on nature by painting, drawing, or taking photos of the indigenous plants and animals of the area.Morgan said she always had a passion for art, illustrating her school yearbooks.“I was really the go-to person in my high school for any kind of artwork,” she said.After college, Morgan found herself working as an architectural drafter, but she wasn’t happy when computers replaced drawings.“I missed having a pencil in my hand,” Morgan said. “I missed drawing.”She turned to the N.C. Botanical Garden in 1999, taking a series of classes that ranged from basic drawing to botany.“When I graduated, I was like ‘Whoo-hoo! I’m going to be an artist!,’” Morgan said.She is now the vice president of the local chapter of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. She is currently helping to plan an international conference for the Guild that the Carolinas Chapter will be hosting later this year.Morgan is also working on a mural of Bolin Creek with another local environmental illustrator, Emily Weinstein.Weinstein first developed the idea of the mural for the Friends of Bolin Creek Festival, which was rained out.The two did some work on the mural before the festival and have found a place for it at University Mall, where they will finish and present the mural on April 10 for Earth Action Day.Weinstein, who says she has been an artist her whole life, also does paintings of people, but her passion is the great outdoors.“I enjoy helping basic humanity to see the planet and the world around them,” Weinstein said.Weinstein enjoys plein air art, which is art created by going outside and painting on location.Chapel Hill resident and environmental artist David Otto uses the lens of his camera to preserve nature.“I have always enjoyed nature and photography as a means to communicate my passion for the natural treasures which surround us,” Otto said in an e-mail.His work is concentrated around the Bolin Creek area, where he has lived since 1995. Otto is the vice chairman of the grassroots organization Friends of Bolin Creek whose mission is to preserve the area.Otto said he enjoys combining his passion for photography and nature to educate.“I use photography as a tool to communicate my love of nature and the urgent need to preserve the remnants that have not yet been developed in Chapel Hill and Carrboro,” Otto said in an e-mail. Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Tune your invisible strings and hook up your invisible amplifier. It’s time for the third annual Air Guitar Championship, hosted by the Carolina Union Activities Board.Fans and contestants will come together tonight to rock out without their guitars out and find the best air guitarist on campus.Admission is free with a One Card, but CUAB will take donations for relief efforts in Haiti.
The ’90s is a decade that every UNC student has in common. Everyone remembers their favorite song or TV show from that era. The Harmonyx a cappella group will be offering a blast from the past with their fall concert themed “I Love the ’90s” at 7 p.m. tonight in Hanes Art Center. Tickets can be purchased in the Pit today from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Carolina Union Box Office, or at the door of the art center.Harmonyx plans to sing popular songs from the ’90s, as well as perform some skits that also go along with the theme of the show.The song “Doo wop (That Thing)” by Lauryn Hill inspired the ’90s theme, director James Malloy said. The group was listening to the radio one day, looking for current hip-hop or R&B songs to sing.“Nothing was peaking our interest. But then one ’90s song played, and then another, and the idea took off from there,” Malloy said.The group will also be dressed in apparel from the ’90s during tonight’s performance.“We always try to dress to the theme,” Malloy said. “Its a tradition.”Torri Staton, a singer in the group, said she hopes that the audience will have fun at the show.“We love what we do, and we do it for our audience,” she said. “We just want to make sure that everyone, including ourselves, is having fun.”Harmonyx, a subgroup of the Black Student Movement, was founded in 1994. President Brycen McCrary said it began to fill a void left by other a cappella groups on campus.“There were no representations of hip hop or R&B,” McCrary said. “Harmonyx wanted to be a voice for that.”Group members said they think it’s going to be a fun night for everyone.“We just want everyone to come and enjoy their time with us. Everyone can relate to the ’90s,” McCrary said.“No one can get down like Harmonyx.”Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Correction (Dec. 29 9:14 p.m.): Due to an editing error, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated that this show is one person acting out five personalities. It is a five-person show. The story has been changed to reflect the correction. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
Local artists have found a unique venue and audience at UNC Hospitals through the Door to Door program.The initiative seeks to provide hope and happiness to patients through the arts, bringing nearly 200 artists a year to perform.“The idea of Door to Door is to offer the best of our community artists to patients so they can have an extraordinary experience,” said founder Joy Javits.Door to Door received a needed boost of $10,000 from the N.C. Arts Council to pay 75 artists, cover the cost of administration and support the coordinator.Some artists are paid to perform, others volunteer their time.The program has helped patients, families and hospital staff for 16 years, since Javits established it in 1993. Artists from all backgrounds, including poets, PlayMakers Repertory Company actors, harpists and cellists, perform for patients.Javits said patients receive “a breath of fresh, beautiful air,” from the artistic guests.During the time spent with the artist, patients get to relax and free their mind from the hospital room, Javits said. Hospital staff are also rewarded, as the artists provide a break from the monotony of a workday.“They get an exciting, sweet, interesting moment in their life,” Javits said.The artists can also take something away from the experience. “I have always enjoyed Door to Door at the hospital,” said Leslie Alperin, a cellist who has participated in the program. “It is clear that music is a powerful balm, reaching deep into their hearts and souls. When I leave the hospital, I count my blessings.”Javits said she is excited about the potential offered by the grant.“We are so grateful to the N.C. Arts Council for the grant. By giving it to us, they are acknowledging the worthiness of the work we do,” Javits said.The budget generally consists of money from fundraising, grants and various supporters, such as the Maola Foundation for Children and the UNC Hospitals Volunteer Association.Javits said the experience is a “win-win-win,” because the patients, hospital staff and artists all benefit.The program gives artists a chance to reach out and give back to the community.“The Door to Door program brings the arts into a world that is often bleak,” said Callie Warner, a guitarist and singer who participates in the program.“In the time that live artistic expression is shared, the patients and loved ones have a chance to escape.” Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Due to a reporting error, this story misstated the date the institute will hold a training session. The event will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
Through stand-up comedy, slam poetry, two short personal films and highlights from his two identity-based exhibits, artist Kip Fulbeck gave a dynamic and compelling presentation Thursday in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium.The performance and reception that followed was the culmination of Fulbeck’s piece, “part asian, 100% hapa.” The exhibit — videos and portraits of a variety of individuals — has lined the walls of the FedEx Global Education Center since July 1. Fulbeck, also a professor of art at the University of California at Santa Barbara, explained the current exhibit and one of his additional works, “Permanence.” The latter is a book about people, their tattoos and their stories. He shared his experience creating these exhibits through slideshows of individuals and anecdotes from the photo sessions.Hapa is a Hawaiian word derived from the English word “half” and can be used to describe people of mixed descent.Fulbeck, son of a Chinese mother and English-Irish father, felt like he didn’t really fit in growing up.When he was a little boy, Fulbeck wished he had some visual way to connect with others like him, he said. He initially envisioned an illustrated book.The idea stayed in the back of his head, and a few years ago, Fulbeck decided to take action.He put the word out about his project, asking for hapas to volunteer, and was overwhelmed by the response.“I’d get there at 4 o’clock for a 5 o’clock shoot and there would be 30 people lined up waiting,” Fulbeck said.In three years, he has taken 1,200 portraits of people who come from mixed backgrounds, and the project that started out as a book has evolved into an exhibit. More than 100 photos line the walls of the Center.The portraits are all taken in the same way — from the collarbone up, devoid of any jewelry, clothing, glasses, makeup or smiles.Fulbeck chose to represent the participants this way to play off neutral forms of identification, such as driver’s licenses.Also included with the photos in the exhibit are the handwritten responses to the question that hapas are constantly asked: “Who are you?” Every response is different, ranging from simple to funny, poetic or angry. Some participants chose to mention their racial and ethnic backgrounds in their answer, such as one man who wrote, “I am 100% black and 100% Japanese.”Others chose to focus on things other than ethnicity. “I am goddess. I am woman. Confident and arrogant,” wrote one woman.The exhibit will remain on display until Oct. 31.Junior Justin Crowder slammed the exhibit in a blog on the Carolina Review Daily online and spoke harshly of it when asked what he thought about the exhibit.“I think this is disturbing,” Crowder said. “They are putting their identity in their race, and I think it’s stupid that they’re naked.” Fulbeck does not let the negativity bother him and said he actually enjoys the negative feedback.“It is the job of the artist to provoke an emotion,” he said. “If I was doing it for people who felt the same as me, what’s the point?”Assistant Arts Editor Abe Johns contributed reportingContact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.