Conundrum and ifArt Host Concert

Id M Theft Able & Reflex Arc @ ifArt on June 25

Conundrum Music Productions is pleased to announce a concert by the Portland Maine noise artist Id M Theft Able, at ifArt Gallery on Monday, June 25.   Sharing the bill will be Reflex Arc and bigSphinx.

Id M Theft Able performs within and without the realms of noise, avant improvisation, sound poetry, and performance using voice, found objects, electronics, and whatever else is available. He has given hundreds of performances across 4 continents in settings ranging from the humblest of squats to the fanciest of festivals.

Reflex Arc is a two-piece experimental & improvisational band from Raleigh, NC. Crowmeat Bob plays a variety of horns & sometimes electric guitar while Ginger Wagg plays a variety of body parts, spaces and emotional states.

bigSphinx is a solo project of local laptop improvisor Tom Law.

The door will open at 8:00pm, and a $7 admission fee will be collected at that door.  The music will commence at 8:30pm.  ifArt Gallery is situated at 1223 Lincoln Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29201.   Further information can be obtained on the World Wide Web at conundrum.us, or by using a telephone to dial (803) 250-1295. 

Id M Theft Able: https://idmtheftable.bandcamp.com/

Reflex Arc: http://www.gingerwagg.com/reflex-arc

bigSphinx: http://bigsphinx.com/tomlaw.html

Chris Compton & the Ruby Brunettes, Post-Timey String Band, Dr. Roundhouse, and Pharaohs in Space play at Conundrum for Food Not Bombs - a guest blog by Jeremy Joseph

My name is Jeremy Joseph. I am the organizer of a benefit concert series that brings together local musicians to help raise funds and spread awareness about the work of non-profits and charitable organizations in our city and statewide. I believe that musicians are in a unique position to help mobilize social and political action. We bring people together, we attract media attention, we have microphones thrust in front our faces, and we connect often disparate groups of people in one place and time through our music. That is a unique power that we are privileged to hold, and I believe we can use it for good.

I began this series over four and a half years ago in Washington, DC. Since moving to Columbia in 2011 to attend grad school for philosophy at USC, I have had the pleasure of so far organizing six concerts for great local non-profits including Transitions, Sexual Trauma Services of the Midlands, and the SC Progressive Network, in addition to working with many fantastic Columbia and SC bands including Can't Kids, Co., FatRat Da Czar, The Restoration, People Person, Release the Dog, and the Mobros. I have been truly impressed with the work of these organizations and delighted with the outpouring of support from local musicians and local media in helping to support their efforts. There is truly a caring community here in Columbia!

Friday, January 24th, I am very pleased to bring the seventh Columbia concert in this series in support of the local chapter of Food Not Bombs,who do remarkable work to feed people who are economically disadvantaged in our city, and spread a message of peace. The concert will feature performances by four excellent local groups: Chris Compton & the Ruby Brunettes, The Post-Timey String Band, Dr. Roundhouse, and Pharaohs in Space. It is not to be missed! Your entrance fee will go directly to help feed people in need in our city.

Lastly, I want to thank Tom Law for hosting each one of these concerts at Conundrum Music Hall. I cannot speak highly enough about this venue and its staff. It is unquestionably the best music club in the city and deserves your patronage.

Now, I want to turn this blog post over to Food Not Bombs for a few words from their representatives:

Columbia Food Not Bombs has helped feed people at Finlay Park since 2002. Started by USC students, Columbia FNB has evolved to sharing food with an average of 150 people every Sunday at 1 p.m. It's called a "sharing" because everyone involved helps. Some bring food, some serve food, some set up tables, and some clean up afterward.

Columbia FNB has also served the community in a variety of ways. In 2005, members helped feed Katrina survivors temporarily housed in South Carolina. Three years ago, FNB provided meals to the Occupiers at the SC State House. Columbia FNB members also feed people at the Winter Shelter and Transitions long-term shelter, both in downtown Columbia.

Columbia FNB is a community partner with Harvest Hope and receives donations from Food Lion, Rosewood Market, City Roots, and El Burrito. Approximately 35 volunteers prepare and share food each month. Excess food is shared with Hannah House, Sister Care, and the North Main Men's and Women's Shelters. Volunteers are always welcome, as are paper products, gas cards, and monetary donations. For more info call Maris at 803-331-6383.

V-Day Speak Out -- Listen to the Vaginas

Alexis Stratton, friend of Jasper and essayist in the most recent issue of the magazine (Jasper Watches: An Essay -- Reclaiming Vaginas) shared some info with us about an upcoming event that we think is pretty important. (Jasper adores the confluence of art and politics!) Rather than prattle on about it, we'll let Alexis do the talking:

Come enjoy a night of music, readings, storytelling, and speaking out at V-Day's open mic night at Conundrum Music Hall (626 Meeting St., West Columbia)!

All artists, writers, musicians, and other community members will be invited to take the stage at "V-Day Speak Out: Break the Silence, End the Violence" on Thurs., Feb. 7. We welcome everyone who has a song to sing/play, some spoken word to deliver, a story to share, or anything else you'd like--the sky's the limit! Doors open (and sign ups start) at 7:00, open mic begins at 8:00!

We're hosting this event in support of raising awareness of sexual and domestic violence, so we especially invite artistic expressions that respond to those issues. However, you're welcome to respond to those themes creatively, using them as a launching point or a place to start brainstorming.

Admission is free, but donations will be accepted for Sexual Trauma Services of the Midlands (www.stsm.org). Tickets for The Vagina Monologues will also be on sale. Find out more on our Facebook event page!

We hope you'll join us for an empowering, healing evening of speaking out, fighting back, celebrating the arts, and building community!

The Making and Celebrating of Jasper #3 - What to Expect

When we started planning Jasper #3 we looked at the date the magazine was due and thought -- really? Would anyone really be interested in a new issue of an arts magazine so early in the year -- so close to Christmas? Having increased the size of Jasper #2 by 8 pages we thought that maybe we should ease back for #3 and go back to our original 48 pages. We also thought it would be a good idea to make the issue somewhat literary heavy, given that so many folks would still be in that holiday state of mind in the middle of January, and not much would be going on in the performing or visual arts. So we thought.

It didn't take long for us to realize that there was way too much going on to reduce the pages of the magazine -- in fact, we increased them even more. Jasper #3 will be 16 pages longer than Jasper #1. But the fascinating thing about putting together a magazine that is reflective of the arts community it represents is how organic the whole process is. For example, our choices of cover artist and centerfold artist easily gave way to our choice of venue for the celebration of the release. Our Jasper Reads story led us to our choice for Guest Editorial. An essay written by an esteemed visual artist on how social service can act as a muse for creation directed us to another story on a local theatre troupe that we quickly made room for and wrote. Our story on Columbia's choral arts scene suggested an obvious choice for entertainment at our release event. Things like that.

The other thing that surprised us was just how much would be going on in the performing and visual arts community this early in the calendar year.

This week has been packed already with an abundance of diverse and stimulating art. Tuesday night we had the opportunity to visit Tom Law's Conundrum concert hall and sit in on Jack Beasley's The Weekly Monitor, which hosted Elonzo, Magnetic Flowers, and Henry Thomas's Can't Kids.

Magnetic Flowers blew us away, by the way, and we've listened to their new CD 4 times in the last 24 hours. For more on Magnetic Flowers, read Kyle Petersen's story in Jasper #3. We were also pretty charmed by the raw almost 80s sounding tunes of the Can't Kids. I look forward to hearing what Kyle has to say once he gets a chance to listen to their new CD.

Wednesday night saw us attending the opening reception for Thomas Crouch's new show in the Hallway Gallery at 701 Whaley. We're pretty big Crouch fans already, and it was great to see some of his new work and to meet his mom, duly proud of her boy. Kudos to Lee Ann Kornegay and Tom Chinn for making blank wall space meaningful. We  hope to see more and more businesses do the same. There is no shortage of art to hang on Columbia's walls.

Which brings us to Thursday night -- the celebration of the release of Jasper #3 as well as Night #1 in Columbia Alternacirque's 3-Night Festival of Doom. We hate missing this first night of the only kind of circus we're ever interested in seeing, but we're reassured that there are two more nights of awesomeness we can avail ourselves of AND Ms. Natalie Brown -- the mother of the tribe -- will be visiting us down at the Arcade as soon as she's off the boards at CMFA Thursday night. For more on Natalie Brown, read Cindi's article on her in Jasper #3.

Much like this issue of the magazine our release event scheduled for Thursday night has grown far beyond our initial intentions. Rather than being a quiet evening of acoustic music and intellectual conversation, as we thought it might be, it has turned into a multi-disciplinary arts event.

Here's what to expect:

• 7 - 7:15 -- a performance from the balcony of the Arcade Building by the Sandlapper Singers (Read Evelyn Morales's piece on them and the rest of the choral arts scene in Jasper #3)
• 7:15 - 7:30 -- Kershaw County Fine Arts Center will perform three of your favorite songs from the musical Chicago
• 7:30 - 7:45 -- the NiA Theatre Troupe will perform
• 7:45 - 8 and throughout the evening, a young acoustic guitarist named David Finney will play classical guitar
• then, starting about 8 pm rock 'n' roll time, Tom Hall has arranged for the nationally known and esteemed Blue Mountain band featuring Cary Hudson to perform
• Chris Powell's The Fishing Journal will follow them up (See Jasper #2 for a little ditty on the Fishing Journal)
• and then, the Mercy Shot, with Thomas Crouch from Jasper #2, will play.
• In the meantime, Michaela Pilar Brown will be displaying her most recent work in the Arcade lobby, and
• street artist Cedric Umoja will be demonstrating his work (Read more about Michaela in Jasper #3 as well as Alex Smith's article on Cedric), and
• all the galleries of the Arcade Mall will be open -- including those of our Cover artist and Centerfold!
• Throughout the evening we'll have the return of our famous EconoBar with cheap beer, decent wine, and big spender craft brew at $2, $2, and $4 respectively, and
• a nice little cheese spread courtesy of our friend Kristian Niemi and Rosso, as well as
• a sampling of delicious roasted coffees from SC's own Cashua Coffee, and
• the Krewe de Columbia-ya-ya will be on hand to school us all on the importance of parades, beads, beer, and dogs.
• And, of course, there will be the release of Jasper #3.

Not a bad night for free, huh?

Please join us in the historic Arcade building on Main and Washington Streets, Thursday night, January 12th from 7 until 11 pm as we celebrate the art that makes us all get up in the mornings. The afterparty is at the Whig. We hope to see you both places.

Thank you for your support, Columbia.

-- Your Friends at Jasper

Tom Law Celebrates 4 Months at Conundrum with a Free Concert Featuring David Greenberger & The Shaking Ray Levis

Spoken word performer David Greenberger can claim the title artist in a number of ways.

As a young painter, Greenberger took a day job working at a nursing home to help pay the bills. But what he soon found was that, visual arts aside, the young man had struck gold in the form of the conversations he enjoyed with residents of the home. While most people who capitalize on conversations with the elderly focus on mining their memories, Greenberger is more interested in his subjects as individuals – normal and not-so-normal human beings with an agency and capacity to impact the world as much in their elder years as in their youth.

Greenberger began publishing a zine, The Duplex Planet, in 1979 in which he recorded his interviews with the residents of a Boston nursing home. He has since become a somewhat regular contributor to NPR’s All things Considered, developed Duplex Planet comics and CDs, and overseen spoken word performances of his collections – and he still publishes his zine.

But more importantly, Greenberger is coming to Columbia for a free performance, along with the Shaking Ray Levis, this Thursday night at Conundrum Music Hall. If you haven’t made it out to the coolest new music venue in the state yet, Thursday night’s concert and performance is the perfect opportunity. Conundrum is located at 626 Meeting Street, West Columbia. The show starts at 8 pm and, once again, it’s a free show and proprietor Tom Law’s special gift to the community.

And while you’re there, give Tom a pat on the back and wish him Happy Anniversary – it’s the 4 month anniversary of the hall.