Musikfest Begins Today

Kate Langenburg/A&E Groove

Crosby, Stills, and Nash will perform on August 9. Photo from boston.com.

One of Pennsylvania’s largest summer music festivals opens its doors to tons of waiting fans today, offering three special performances by The Commodores, Martin Sexton, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Musikfest has been happening in downtown Bethlehem for the past twenty five years now. It has brought many large acts from all across the country to the smallish town in Pennsylvania.

This year, the festival will feature 300 performers, including 10 nightly headlining shows. The concerts will take place on fourteen different stages, eleven of which are free. (Free is good.)

Here’s a quick run through of some of the headliners. You can find information on the rest of the bands performing on the lineup website. I would love to list them all for you, but then this post would never end.

• The Commodores
• Chris Isaak/The Wallflowers
• Yes with special guest Asia
• David Cook with Green River Ordinance
• Third Eye Blind with Matt Nathanson
• The B-52s/Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
• Puddle of Mudd with special guest Stasis
• Pat Benetar & Blondie with The Donnas
• George Thorogood and the Destroyers with Jonny Lang
• Crosby, Stills & Nash

You can see that the festival offers something for everyone. The musical tastes being provided are certainly eclectic to say the least. Each headliner (or two) will be performing one of the nine nights the festival runs.

It should be noted that the headliners cost some money. You can find tickets for each show here. But if you don’t feel like spending the money, there are still tons of free performers spread out all over Bethlehem. It might be quite nice to just walk around and take in the sights and sounds. There are also craft, art, and food vendors all over the place, too.

The whole town pretty much turns into one big music celebration. I recommend you join in the fun!

Get the low down at Musikfest.org.

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Wes Anderson Recreates Roald Dahl Book on the Big Screen

Kate Langenburg/A&E Groove

The announcement of two of the most creative minds in entertainment coming together has been made. It has just been released that director Wes Anderson has created a full length feature movie out of Roald Dahl’s book, Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of Roald Dahl's great tales. Photo from theplayerstheatre.org.

It should first be said that Roald Dahl is by far one of the greatest children’s fiction writers of our time. His books include titles such as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, Danny the Champion of the World, and my personal favorite, The BFG. (That’s Big Friendly Giant.)

Never have I ever stumbled across a children’s book that has made me laugh out loud so much as his. His characters are memorable, quirky, and always a little different. They most usually are somewhat grotesque, too.

Now, let’s have a look at Wes Anderson. He is the mastermind behind such movies as The Royal Tenebaums, The Life Aquatic, Rushmore, and The Darjeeling Limited. Like Roald Dahl, his movies have a similar strange quality to them. So, the fact that he has decided to recreate one of Dahl’s books certainly makes sense.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a stop motion animation spectacular. The story is a tale of common environmental affairs. Mr. Fox is desperate to try to feed his family when a group of human farmers comes in and raids their territory. With the help of other animals living in their area, they try to ward off their human predators.

The film features well-known celebrities as the voices of the characters, including George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Wes Anderson movie regulars Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzmann, and Owen Wilson.

The movie will be the opening premiere at the London Film Festival on October 14. You can watch a trailer for the upcoming Fantastic Mr. Fox at Yahoo! Movies.

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Dale Chihuly: A Glass Blowing Sensation

Kate Langenburg/A&E Groove

I would like to pause for a brief second today to mention Dale Chihuly, a glass blowing artist who has won tons of awards for his projects.

It seems as of late that I have been noticing his art more often. I have seen it in world famous casinos, in photos on the news, and even in the strangest of places — a desert botanical garden.

Although Chihuly’s work takes on very much of the same type of shape and form, all of it is unique in its own way. Take, for example, this statue I came across in Arizona:

Chihuly's main sculpture in the Desert Botanical Garden. Photo by Kate Langenburg.

Each individual piece must have taken quite some time to create. The sculpture stands about eight feet tall. But here’s my question — how does Chihuly get everything to stay together as one sculpture? Does he use some sort of strong adhesive or is all the glass blown like that from the beginning?

Either way, the colors in this statue are amazing. The yellows and oranges make for a fun, happy feeling. And the fact that it is placed right in the front of Phoenix, Arizona’s Desert Botanical Garden makes it really stand out. (The desert could use a little color anyway!)

Dale Chihuly doesn’t just stick to glass blowing, however. He also indulges in drawings, installations, and videos. Some of the most interesting videos on his website are of him creating his works. You can view them all here.

All in all, I’m thinking that we will be seeing more of this artist in the future. Already his work has gained international status. He has had work displayed in many countries, including Italy and Russia.

Also, people have been going gaga over his stuff. At a recent exhibition of his work, I took a stroll over to the “for sale” items. Looking at the price tags on some of the smallest sculptures was worthy of injury. But for the monetarily endowed art lovers out there, I suppose it’s a small price to pay for good art.

I will leave you of a closeup of a similar Chihuly scuplture that was put on display at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut last year. The details in each piece of glass are incredible. But, hey…see for yourself.

This is what one of Chihuly's sculptures looks like up close. Photo by Kate Langenburg.

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Phishing in California

Kate Langenburg/A&E Groove

After endless amounts of talk and speculation, the jam band Phish has finally decided on a location for their fall three day music festival, called Festival 8. It will happen during Halloween, on October 30 through November 1, and will surely give Phish fans something to talk about.

Photo by Jeff Kravitz.

The location, you ask? The Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. The venue is beautiful, judging from the photos on its website. Fans will be surrounded in a tropical, lush paradise overlooking the gorgeous Santa Rosa mountains.

It was not easy to decipher exactly where the band would choose to play their festival.  Leading up to the big announcement, fans checked their site daily. They dragged fans on a mysterious adventure through their website to find out. On a map of the United States, they took away a different state each day until, finally, California was the last man standing.

East coast Phish fans might be really bummed (I know I was) to find out that the band will play on the other side of the country. It’s not always easy for some people to travel that far to see good music. However, Phish played the least amount of shows on the west coast in their comeback tour. Perhaps this is their way of evening things out a little.

The band will play eight sets over the course of the three days. To purchase tickets and read up about the festival, visit the Festival 8 website.

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