12 The Band

[Listen to 12 The Band at their website]

Watch: Video for "Prosper"
Visuals by Wendell McShine

12 the Band is a musical collaboration founded in 1999 by singer and songwriter Sheldon Holder. 12's permanent members are Sheldon Holder, Brendon Moore, Nigel Irish and John Hussain.

Part of Rockstone & Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art.

• 12 the band website
• "12 the band hits 10" | The Trinidad Guardian Sept 20, 2009
  

Konk Pack

[listen to Konk Pack]

Tim Hodgkinson • flat guitar, electronics, reeds
Roger Turner • drumset & percussion
Thomas Lehn • analogue synthesizer

"Grob label artists Konk Pack are utterly awesome. Featuring Thomas Lehn on the craziest old EMS synthi A, Tim Hodgkinson on flat guitar and Roger Turner on percussion, the show is awkwardly brilliant and defiant. With startling combinations of punkish nuisance, ingenious change-ups, and rolling, stumbling, tripping and flipping sound inventions, Konk Pack are one of the most exciting Improv groups in the world." - Lee Henderson, The Wire

For over ten years, this group has amazed audiences at festivals and concerts all over the world with the sheer energy of its rapid-fire interplay.

• Links coming soon!
  

The Odd Ball

It's a ball. The Odd Ball.

[click here to visit the Odd Ball '10 page]

Special thanks to our Odd Ball Sponsors:

Lincoln Financial Foundation

media sponsor:

• Odd Ball '09 page
  

Steve Almond

A reading and performance for the launch of Steve Almond's new book, Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life.

Drooling fanatic: (def.) 1. One who drools in the presence of beloved rock stars.

2. Any of a genus of rock-n-roll wannabes/geeks who walk around with songs ringing in their ears, own more than 3000 albums at all times, and fall in love with at least one record per week.

With a life that’s spanned from the Phonographic Era to the Digital Age, Steve Almond lives to Rock. Like you, he’s secretly longed for the life of a rock star, complete with insane talent, famous friends, and hotel rooms to be trashed. Also like you, he’s (sort of) content to live the life of a rabid fan, a drooling fanatic, who has converted his unrequited desires into a noble obsession.

Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life traces Almond’s passion from his earliest (and most wretched) rock criticism to his eventual discovery of a Drooling Fanatic soul mate and subsequent production of two little super fans. Along the way, Almond reflects on the delusional power of songs, the awkward mating habits of drooling fanatics, and why Depression Songs actually make us feel so much better.

• Steve Almond's website
  

Dictionary!
with Ammon Shea and other esteemed guests

Ammon Shea, author of Reading the OED, returns to Real Art Ways to talk about the future of dictionaries, thesauruses, and – more importantly – to play DICTIONARY with us!  
 
Having already read the OED (22,000 pages of tiny text), Ammon is ready and able to take on anyone daring enough to challenge his knowledge of arcane, archaic, and esoteric definitions. Start brushing up on your Greek and Latin roots.

Listen: Ammon talks dictionaries with John Dankosky on WNPR's Where We Live

Read more about Ammon's personal OED challenge in the New York Times

• FROM THE ARCHIVE: Writers & readers: Wordly with Ammon Shea and Michael Erard (1/22/09)
  

Writers & Readers

A gathering for everybody who loves the written and spoken word. For people in writing groups or book clubs; for those passionate about writing, reading and thinking. Each evening has a theme, with time before and after for conversation and connecting.