Q Cinema Festival - 10 Years Old, But Doesn’t Look a Day Over 8

by Pete Wann

This week Fort Worth plays host to the 10th annual QCinema Festival.

Todd Camp and his crew (including friend of W&C James Johnston) have put together 10 days worth of activities highlighting the incredible work coming out of the gay and lesbian film scene.

And before you say “That’s not for me, I’m not gay!” You don’t have to be gay to enjoy these films. (I know, that point was kind of obvious, but bear with me.) From reading through the descriptions of the films being programmed, they all deal with the same things that everyone deals with; life, death, love and relationships, family, kids, etc. etc. The only difference is that the male/female ratio among the cast members is not even close to even.

When I take people who’ve never been to Spiral Diner there for lunch or dinner, I tell them not to get too wrapped up in the whole “vegan thing.” It’s just a meal; the only difference is that instead of meat on your sandwich (or in your taco salad) you’re getting a plant-based product that’s finagled to look and sorta taste like meat. It’s still lunch, just with a different presentation.

This theory also applies to “gay cinema.” Don’t get all flustered by the “gay” aspect of it. The stories are just like “mainstream cinema,” except that you get two hunky male love interests instead of just one. It’s the same thing, just with a slightly different presentation.

Take a look at the schedule — events run for 10 days starting yesterday (oops!), and during the week they’re scheduled conveniently for us worker bees to make it to the screenings in time. Get out there and broaden your horizons and support one of the longest running film festivals in our city!

Curtain Call - Weekend Concert Roundup

by Kevin Buchanan

It’s going to be a beautiful weekend in the Panther City, and to celebrate, here’s a listing of the music-type events going on throughout our urban core. This is, of course, not listing the guitar-playing hippy or out-of-tune keyboard playing guy who usually inhabit Houston Street in Sundance Square, but I figure their presence goes without saying.

Scat Jazz Lounge | Map
Ricki Derek - Friday - 9:00 PM
Shelley Carrol - Saturday - 9:00 PM

Bass Performance Hall | Map
No concerts scheduled.

McDavid Studio | Map
No concerts scheduled.

Van Cliburn Hall | Map
No performances scheduled.

The Flying Saucer | Map
Dusty Deaton - Friday - 9:30 PM
Sittin’ Duck - Saturday - 9:30 PM
Mike Richardson - Sunday

The Pour House | Map
Space Rockers - Friday
Hindsight - Saturday

8.0 | Map
The Spazmatics - Friday
Big Daddy - Saturday

The Modern Art Museum Of Fort Worth | Map
No music scheduled.

Fred’s | Map
Stephen Pointer Band - Friday
Truck Stop Junkies - Saturday
Magee Payne and Kurt South - Sunday morning
St. Frinatra - Sunday evening

Lola’s | Map
Dark Meat, The Great Tyrant, Quiet Hooves - Friday - 9:00 PM
The Burning Hotels, Rockabetty Burlesque Revue - Saturday - 9:00 PM

Pop’s Safari Bistro | Map
Hank & Jill featuring Sumter Bruton - Friday - 8:00 PM
Bret Taylor - Saturday - 8:00 PM

The Chat Room | Map
Top Secret Shhh…, Peace Corpse, River Crest Yacht Club - Saturday

The Fairmount | Map
Carolyn Wonderland w/ Becca Dalrymple - Friday
Back Porch Mary w/ The Rankin Twins - Saturday
The Pumpkin Sea - Sunday

1919 Hemphill | Map
The Takes, PS Eliot, Rocket For Ethiopia, tba - Friday - 6:00 PM

The Aardvark | Map
Josh Weathers, The Lifters, Vehicle Reason - Friday - 8:30 PM
Get Well, Josh Tatum, Elizabeth Wells - Saturday - 8:30 PM

The Moon | Map
Katsuk w/ Proud Warrior - Friday
King Bucks w/ Mama Sweet - Saturday

The Ridglea Theater | Map
Zysu, Undeclared, Meander, Until Lenore, Addnerim - Friday
God Forbid, Death Angel, Soilent Green, Light This City, Suicide Opera, Fist Full Of War, Bloodstain Carpet - Saturday

As always, if there’s something I missed, please let me know in the comments!

Curtain Call - Friday Concert Roundup

by Kevin Buchanan

It’s going to be a beautiful weekend in the Panther City, and to celebrate, here’s a listing of the music-type events going on throughout our urban core. This is, of course, not listing the guitar-playing hippy or out-of-tune keyboard playing guy who usually inhabit Houston Street in Sundance Square, but I figure their presence goes without saying.

This Saturday is the 7th annual iteration of the legendary Fred’s Fest at Fred’s (obviously). Details below!

Scat Jazz Lounge | Map
Ricki Derek & The Vegas Six - Friday - 9:00 PM
Straight Ahead featuring Clint Strong - Saturday - 9:00 PM

Bass Performance Hall | Map
Liza Minnelli - Saturday - 8:00 PM
Kirk Franklin - Sunday - 2:00 PM

McDavid Studio | Map
No performances scheduled.

Van Cliburn Hall | Map
No performances scheduled.

The Flying Saucer | Map
SuperStar - Friday - 9:30 PM
Poo Live Crew - Saturday - 9:30 PM
Mike Richardson - Sunday

The Pour House | Map
Tropix - Friday
Inside Out - Saturday

8.0 | Map
Hearsay - Friday
Lookout - Saturday

Fred’s | Map
Rodney Hayden - Friday
7th Annual Fred’s Fest - Marty Christian, Rambin Brothers, Panther City Bandits, Blackland River Devils, Scott Copeland, Terry Razor, Goodwin, Pablo & The Hemphill 7 - Saturday - 1:00 PM to 10:00 PM
7th Annual Fred’s Fest - Tarantula Pants, Darrin Kobetich, Soul Everlifts, Impulse Of Will, The Me Thinks, Proud Warrior, Stoogeaphilia, Sally Majestic, Katsuk - Sunday - 1:00 PM to 10:00 PM

Lola’s | Map
Dixie Witch, Mescalero, Hell Goat - Friday - 10:00 PM
Stumptone (CD release), Transona Five, History At Our Disposal - Saturday - 10:00 PM

The Chat Room | Map
No events scheduled.

The Fairmount | Map
James Hand w/ Waylon Pierce - Friday
Jason Eady w/ Chris Curtis - Saturday
Country Grudge - Sunday

1919 Hemphill | Map
No concerts scheduled.

The Aardvark | Map
Swilley, Slimshine Brown, Meander - Friday - 8:30 PM
Green River Ordinance, The Lifters, Tim Halperin - Saturday - 8:30 PM

The Moon | Map
High School Assembly w/ The RedHerrings & Ransom - Friday
The Illiads w/ Fate Lions & Nasty Rumors - Saturday

The Ridglea Theater | Map
Hedkase, Stir The Silence, Turbid North, Parallax View, Deaf Angel - Friday
Otep, Creature Feature, Eyes Set To Kill, A New Revolution, Diesel - Saturday

As always, if there’s something I missed, please let me know in the comments!

Hey! Do You Haiku?

by Pete Wann

Just a quick reminder that we’re having a haiku contest Saturday at Prairie Fest. Stop by the West & Clear tent and say hi, give us an earful, a hug, whatever. While you’re there, drop some Japanese poetry on us and you might win a sweet prize!

Main Street Observations

by SteveB

SteveB weighs in (ha!) with his observations from Main St. Arts Festival. Read more of his observations on weighty issues at his website: Fort Worth Blogorrhea. -Pete W.

Fort Worth is a city in transformation, as we all see daily. After a couple of days at the Main Street Arts Festival, I’m not sure were changing for the best. What I saw were legions of cowering otiose simps. Bold statement, you say? Allow me to present my case.

Main St. Arts Festival
Photo by timyates

No longer are the streets of our dear city filled with nubile women and virile men. Speaking for the men, Main St. used to be a place where one’s neck would hurt the next day as a result of all the head-turners peppering the streets. Now everyone is just plain fat. Me included. We need to stop installing steak-houses downtown and start putting in more gyms.

But the most egregious offense against taste and decency was not the morbid obesity, it’s the trend towards the un-ambulatory dog. I was shocked…shocked by how many near-hairless canines were being carried up and down the street. And to break the stereotype, most were carried by men. Emasculated men, to be sure. Of what use is a dog that doesn’t walk?

To assuage my dour feelings of the state of affairs in Fort Worth, I need only four words. They were from Dallas.

We Need You To Haiku. Yeah, It’s a Contest.

by Steve-O

haiku
OK, perhaps you’ve heard there’s going to be this PrairieFest shindig at Tandy Hills Park on Saturday. The West and Clear posse will be out in full force to support this wonderful park, and to help spread a little more beauty in the Panther City, we’re sponsoring a Haiku Contest at our booth.

It was either that or have Pete Wann wrestle a bobcat, and this just seemed more earth friendly.
[Read more]

Heads Up For The Weekend

by Pete Wann

Since I know you’re starting to make plans for the weekend, now is the time to clue you in to a couple of cool events around the city.

On Saturday, there’ll be a fundraiser for some folks participating in the BP Houston to Austin MS150 Bike Ride (I don’t know which one, exactly) at the Rahr Brewery from 7-10 PM.


View Larger Map

They’ve got a ton of raffle giveaways, and you get free beer! All you have to pony up is $10 at the door, all of which goes to the Lone Star Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Update: (Ryan does a better job selling it than I have in the comments…)

The Fort Worth Community Arts Center will be hosting a reception for their current and incoming batch of local artists on Friday from 6-9PM.


View Larger Map

Update (2): Herb e-mailed to let us know that Wayne Horvitz’ Gravitas Quartet will be playing this Friday and Saturday at the Van Cliburn Recital Hall. For tickets and showtimes, hop on over Bass Hall’s website. Looking for more info on Wayne Horvitz’ Gravitas Quartet? Check them out on iTunes.

Update (3):The Texas Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture (the ORIGINAL professional treehuggers) is hosting its Tree Climbing Championship in Trinity Park Friday and Saturday. This looks like a really fun and interesting event! (Fair warning — these guys and gals get up EARLY! All events are scheduled to be finished and the get-together adjourned by 4PM, so don’t be late!)

I’m sure there are a TON more things going on. Is there something I missed? Something you’d like to add? Are you planning an event and want us to mention it here? Send me an e-mail!

Rahr Pub Crawl Saturday Night!

by Pete Wann

I have it on good authority that a number of the Rahr faithful will be meeting at Dutch’s Burgers on University (just south of TCU) at around 5:00 PM tonight for a pub crawl in that area and then down to Bluebonnet Circle.

This is your chance to visit with Fritz Rahr, the brewery’s founder, who’s in town for a brief visit from his temporary job down in the Virgin Islands. (Sounds like a tough life, eh?)

I’ll be there, and I hope to see as many of you there as can make it!

All Sorts of Politickin’ In Fort Worth This Week

by Pete Wann

Since I’m lazy by nature, I see no reason not to just link to the roundup of political events that the Star-Telegram has put together, instead of going to all that effort myself.

I will add this, though: Please take public transit. That’s the one thing that the roundup leaves out. They list plenty of parking options, but never mention that a whole bunch of perfectly good buses (in the case of the stockyards) and trains (the convention center gets both!) that go by these places that would love to see you on them. (You could also ride your bike, since both are on street bike trails and/or near the Trinity trails.)

Do I detect a theme here?

by Pete G

If you’re really paying attention you’ll notice an interesting theme running through many of top issues discussed around here these days. In essence, how do we view Nature and how do our views affect how we interact with it?

It sounds like an intellectual question, but think about how this question reverberates through contentious issues like the Trinity River Vision, fixing I-35, urban gas drilling, our need for light rail, how our buildings look, etc, et al, ad naseum.

There’s an interesting lecture coming up at the Amon Carter Museum on Saturday, November 10 at 11am that explores this question. Here’s a description from the Carter website:


Noted author and scholar William Cronon explores the various ways Americans have conceived of their national landscape and how competing conceptions of the human place in nature continue to affect environmental politics.

Reservations are required; seating is limited. Please call 817.989.5057 between October 10 and November 5 to register; confirmation will be sent.

This program is in conjunction with Accommodating Nature: The Photographs of Frank Gohlke.

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