House Concert: Chad Elliott

Before I moved to Spencer some nine months ago, I knew very little of it. I'd been before, but those experiences existed only as vague memories of the odd Labor Day gathering from my youth, or the RAGBRAI visit that I can't really distingish from all the other RAGBRAI towns (sorry). So when I moved here, one the the first people that I met was Chad Elliott--at a reception at Arts on Grand. And then he was everywhere! (I was at the library the other day and there on the bulletin board were fliers for two different events in town and he's playing at both of them.) Chad Elliott has been a fixture of this town in my experience of it. He's there at the Tree (if not there in person, he's there through his art), he's there are Arts on Grand, he's there in Buddy Holly, he's there where everybody's talking about him. And it's good because Chad is extremely talented and an extremely warm person.

And now he's leaving. He's got a great job at Sticks in Des Moines. When I first heard, I was very disappointed. What is the town going to be without Chad? What's going to happen to me? I'll never get to work with him at the AOG ceramic studio again. I'll never see his friendly, musical face.

I went to the house concert at Martin Arthur's last night. Despite having seen him play before, I'd never actually been to a proper Chad Elliott concert before. He's funny, did you know that? Top quality musician, too. So many songs about wandering and changing weather. I realized--I don't have to be sad that he's gone. As he says, it's just part of the changing weather.

The concert last night was a wonderful experience. There were maybe 125 people in attendance. There was such a buzz. Just top, top quality like you wouldn't expect to find in a town this size but there it is. It's really a blessing that we've got this going on. And it's not going to stop just because Chad's going away--check out Spencer Concert Association for the upcoming schedule.

Chad--thanks for everything, and we'll be seeing you again.

SPL - Jane Austen

Last summer I read Jane Austen for the first time after watching Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice (you know, the one with Keira Knightly). Starting with Pride, I devoured every single Austen book the library had. They didn't have Northanger Abbey. Shame. The past couple of months, PBS has been showing a series of Jane Austen films--pretty much every Jane Austen film made, it seems like. Two versions of Emma--the one with Gwyneth Paltrow and the one with Kate Beckinsale (unrelated, she plays a meddling character in Cold Comfort Farm as well--I highly recommend it). Early on in the series, they showed Northanger Abbey--truly a delight. A story about a girl who reads too many gothic novels. Usually I try to read the book before seeing a movie, so having seen it (and having bought the DVD, actually), I'm required to read the book, ASAP. So today I went to the library to interlibrary loan it (not realizing until writing this that the text is actually available for free online: Project Gutenberg, and other places easily found by a quick Google search). I did a quick check of the catalogue just to make sure it really wasn't there, and guess what. They do have it. In the large print section. Hurrah. It's the size of a small textbook. Thank you, Spencer Public Library!

Comments

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Spencer Antique Shops

I come from a family of collectors. Not collectors of valuable things (besides my dad's antique fishing lures, some of which I suppose really are quite valuable), just things that we find interesting. Such as my dad's spread of interesting rocks, and shed antlers and skulls from various animals. My mom picks up junk off the street she finds while running and saves it for art projects. I'm the absolute worst one. I've got more stuff than I've got space. Besides my cheap plastic souvenir snowglobe collection (mostly from Paris) and postcards, I collect anything that I find interesting from bowls to books to found photographs to unidentifiable objects, especially things painted gold (gold praying hands salt and pepper shakers, horse head bookends with painted gold manes..). I don't care if it's valuable, as long as it looks interesting, and I generally keep it aaaaall on display, so my space is quite cluttered.

So naturally I love going to antique stores. I've most often frequented MainStreet Mall Antiques, 303 Grand Ave. They have wonderful ceramics from gorgeous art pottery vases to highly collectible press molded mixing bowls. They also have very nice cabinets and display cases, postcards, jewelry, salt and pepper shakers, and a whole section of scotty dog stuff. I love walking by and looking at everything in the window. A few things I have purchases there recently:



Autograph book from the 1940's, filled with rhyming messages of friendship. Was a gift for my friend Sarah, who really connects with that sort of thing, and it really relates to the kind of art she is planning to do for her thesis show in college next year. I also got a beautiful, small warm red cornucopia-shaped Shawnee pottery vase for my other friend Sarah, but I forgot to take a photo.



In accordance with my love of things painted gold--a small icon made in Italy. I'm guessing it's a cheap souvenir item. I have also bought vintage valetines, a "Hawaii" belt buckle from 1976 as a gift for a friend but somehow got lost in the mail, and probably many other things I've forgotten about from this store. It's great.

Anna's Antiques, just south a block or two from MainStreet Mall Antiques also has a nice collection. I've found (but didn't buy) a bright floral laquered coaster set from Japan, a pristine pillbox handbag, picture frames, jewelry, and a variety of other things I think are quite nice. The window display seems to usually be themed. I remember in February, it was maxed out pink and romantic. In the back room is a maze of furniture and odds and ends piled on each other--certainly some quirky items are to be found, including a large display of glass fairies. My first purchase there was this picture, a small print in a black wooden frame:



I know nothing about it but I find the scene intriguing. On my way out the door I spotted the following item:



A wooden hemisphere with a metal coil attached--I'm not sure if it's called a bookend because it is one piece. My mother has one that belonged to one of her grandparents, but hers is smooth black where this one is carved. I'd never seen any others anywhere. It was only $4, if you can believe that. I went right back in and bought it at once.

I used to think that it was Grantiques as in "granny", but finally realized it had more to do with being located on Grand Avenue (307 Grand Ave, to be precise). This is the one with ivy in the window that serves coffee and scrumptious looking sweets. With a high, tin tiled ceiling, this shop has got shelves upon shelves of beautiful things from spurs to light fixtures to fishing lures to books to shoes and so on. In the basement, you'll find rows of chairs and boxes of shoe trees among other things. I find that most things are out of my price range for the time being, but I did find this for $10:



A single owl bookend. Did I mention I collect owls and bookends?

While Goodwill is not an antique store, I'm just going to mention it for a moment because I always see horse toys in antique stores but I can never afford them because they go for $20 or $30. But a couple weeks ago I was in Goodwill and spotted a whole bunch of horse toys for 75 and 50 cents each! So I got two:



Dear readers, I would like to know what you collect, and where are your favorite places to find things?

Field Trip to the Gathering Place

Field Trip to the Gathering Place, originally uploaded by TreeBed.

Chad Elliott had a show down in Cherokee at The Gathering Place... we (the Shaky Tree crew) had heard good things about what was going on down there... so we loaded up, and went.

What we found was a great venue, full of great people, ready for great live music... and I am pretty sure no one left disappointed. At one point I couldn't help but smile, because I was fully aware that this was what it is all about. It doesn't get much better than people gathering in community to enjoy being alive.

In the smaller context of NW Iowa... it was a chance for the "cross-pollination" of energy in the the growing music/art culture. I hope to see further collaboration between Spencer and The Gathering Place/Cherokee in the future.

Thank you to the Gathering Place for hosting, thank you Chad and crew for performing, and thanks to all the people who made their way to the show (many of whom came down from Spencer).

People Project: In case you missed it...

People Project, originally uploaded by TreeBed.

Way back in January, during the hustle and bustle of the Okoboji Winter Games, there was a piece of art being created. It wasn't a brush stroke, or a sculpted mound of clay that local artist Chad Elliott used as a medium... no, it was people that Chad worked with to shape his artistic vision. Back in the fall of 2007, ArtsLive decided to join the fun of the Winter Games, and create a community art project. They enlisted the artistic talents of local artist/musician Chad Elliott, and the People Project was ready to be born.

To have a "people project" though... you need people. Everyone involved was a little nervous, but as the buses arrived it was clear that there would be a strong community of people to become the art. The actual form that Chad chose to facilitate was a turtle. The turtle design that was chosen came out of the location being habitat for nesting turtles (just below the Iowa Lakeside Lab on Miller's Bay). Turtles are also tied to Sioux legends of creation, rebuilding, as well as lending itself to ideas of community. All which came into play when trying to get over 170 people to form a design on a frozen lake. Although I think the real "art" of the whole thing was being a part of this short lived community (seeing everyone work together, laugh, listen, create)... the result of this ephemeral art, was the final fly-over photo revealing the design that Chad had laid out earlier in the day. It was a very cool thing to be a part of, and I hope it continues and grows larger each year.

The World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions

So, today I went to see the Lipizzaner stallions at the Clay County Regional Events Center. I managed to get a few decent shots mid-jump (I already forgot what all the moves are called).









More info about the horses at the show's website.

Tonight: Go see this show at 7:30 (call 580-3000 for info), or head on over to Shaky Tree to see musician Matt d at 8:00 pm.