It’s at 7 in Marion Square. SpoletoToday will be there with some friends, although we will probably be fashionably late! Look for us! Here’s what we look like.

I was invited to, and actually got to attend, a party at 10 p.m. Thursday after the opening night of “The Burial at Thebes” at the Church Street home of Shea and John Kuhn. Gorgeous home, which probably goes without saying: One perk of being with SpoletoToday.com is the chance to go inside some of the beautifully restored houses one usually only sees from the street.

The first guests I see are Yuriy Bekker, concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and pianist and College of Charleston faculty member Irina Pevzner. Shortly thereafter, we were joined by Charleston Academy of Music founder and director Eun Joo Yun and CAM pianist Susan MacAdoo, and 10-year-old piano student Madeline Kuhn, up late for the big party. Yun’s academy goes beyond the usual requisite piano lessons for children. The school also offers lessons in violin, viola, cello, classical guitar and voice. An accomplished pianist, Yun has attracted instructors from all over the world to help create the next generation of musicians. Bekker and Pevzner are also on the faculty.

I also met Jeffrey Day, who is covering the festival for The State newspaper in Columbia, and John and Gretchen Stoehr. John is the arts editor of Charleston’s City Paper. It’s interesting that there are so many journalists in town and yet our paths seldom seem to intersect. I have yet to meet our own Tim Page. It’s fun to get other professionals’ takes on the performances and the city, but talk inevitably shifts to the state of the media, which is less happy party fare.

It was a crowded affair and I didn’t meet any guests of honor until it was wrapping up. I had just a minute with director Lucy Pitman-Wallace. Nottingham Playhouse has brought the reimagined Greek tragedy of Antigone from England for a run at the College of Charleston Cistern from May 29 to June 2. Rumor has it that Paul Bentall as Creon is phenomenal.

Ok, I confess that I should have had this video report up online yesterday, but I was busy being pre-occupied being on TV myself instead.

Such bad timing/co-ordination then led to Dan to write a post about The Devil and Deep Blue Sea, followed immediately by a video post by me, about, er .. oh .. The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.

Yup … I was out partying on Monday night, which meant that with a martini in one hand, and my video camera in the other I went-a-mingling after the penultimate show to see if I could work out why on earth it involved gingerbread men …

More photos from yesterday’s Reggae Block Dance.

The headliner, Slice International kept the party going despite some early technical difficulties. It was my first block dance, and I enjoyed the music, dancing, and people spotting.

Read the rest of this entry »

Piccolo’s 24th Annual Juried Art Exhibition is called “Vanishing Landscapes.”

It opens Thursday May 22nd, 5-7 pm at City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau St and it’s free.

The theme showcases work of South Carolina artists in two dimensions, three dimensions, and photography related to the state of our planet and its environment. Works confront problems of climate change, disappearing wetlands, air and water quality, the effects on wildlife due to vanishing habitats, etc. The exhibit will also feature the creation of a Tibetan sand mandala and a site specific installation and related documentary called “Ten Trees.” If you love Mother Earth, don’t miss this show.

SPECIAL FESTIVAL HOURS: DAILY 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
City Gallery at Waterfront Park
34 Prioleau St.

Did you know that the Spoleto poster launch was a little, er … delayed this year?

Those chaps over at Piccolo had their design out a few weeks ago, and the big boys at Spoleto USA normal do theirs at the same time.

Seems there was an orientation issue going on this year.

No - they hadn’t lost their way, it’s just that it appears we’re not having a portrait shaped poster this year. So I hit the Taste of Spoleto launch party Friday evening to figure out what was going on. Oh, and looked back at some of the previous years posters via the ‘magic’ of our green screen studio.

It’s hard to believe it’s already Spoleto time, but here we go! One of the best pre-festival events is this Friday, May 2, at which you get to eat and drink and buy tickets at a discount. Everyone is invited and there’s no charge. A pretty fine way to spend a lovely afternoon, if you ask me. I’ll be there with bells on my toes. Come say hi.

Here are the official details:
Spoleto Festival USA’s Fifth Annual Taste of Spoleto

What: A free event where you can buy discounted festival tickets to select performances at a 20% discount to Monkey: Journey to the West, Laurie Anderson, Boston Ballet, La Cenerentola, Bank of America Chamber Music concerts, Wachovia Jazz concerts, The Burial at Thebes, and much more. You will be able to watch performance video of upcoming events and get your hands on the official poster for the 2008 festival Enjoy Lowcountry nibbles from Tidewater Foods & Catering.

When: 4 - 7 pm, Friday, May 2

Where: Gaillard Auditorium, 77 Calhoun Street

Sponsors: Taste of Spoleto is made possible through the generosity of All Occasions Party Rentals, Charleston Brewing Company, Coca-Cola, Dedicato de Patris LLC, and Tidewater Foods & Catering LLC

The thing to know about the Piccolo Finale: There’s not a hint of preemptive nostalgia about it. It’s not sentimental about the festival drawing to a close (and the Piccolo festival isn’t. There are still more events on the “little festival” schedule on Sunday).

Instead, it’s a lot more like a block party for people who like to get out and listen to some live music, and no matter what it says on the printed program, the party really doesn’t start until the mercury starts to settle.

This year seemed even more laid back than usual. The new arrangement for vendors kept things more confined to one defined area (the duck pond), but it never felt crowded or all that energetic. Seems like we’re all just slouching into summer here in Charleston…

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The Piccolo and Spoleto finales typically have a distinctly different vibe, with the Sunday lawn party far more nostalgic and romantic. People don’t tend to wax poetic at the Piccolo finale, but on Sunday? Get ready for the waxing, baby…

I just edited my last story, proofed my last page, and that means it’s finale time at the P&C. The news desk will handle it from here.

I love going to Middleton Place for this last concert, because it is the ultimate Southern evening and the dividing line between seasons. Before this event, it’s still spring. After it, we are beginning the meltdown of summer. But for one glorious night, it seems like we might be able to stay on the cusp, put on a enough bug spray and enjoy being outside.

I like to see who shows up, as in festival celebrities; and who shows up with chafing dishes and crystal in tow, as in lifestyles I will never acquire. Then I settle back on my blanket with a glass of wine in a plastic cup and wait for the music to start. Somewhere along the line, my patient hubbie realizes I can talk again without babbling about deadlines, headlines and online.

Now the notion that I’m a music fan is laughable given the critics I’ve worked with in the last two and a half weeks, but even I can recognize that sometimes the humidity plays havoc with the string section, and the crickets chirp louder than the flutes. There are certain pieces of music that work much better outside than others. This year is “Pictures at an Exhibition” so it ought to hold its own against the climate.

But no matter what the weather, I still love the night. And on Monday, I’ll be down a bit. The artists have gone home, the gossip has died down, and the audience has all headed to the beach. So I will sleep for a week, and then wish the festival would start all over again. We’ve just gotten the hang of it by the time it’s over.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s festival and thanks for sharing your comments with us. This blog has been one great adventure. See you next year.

The Book of Longing party went down at the Wickcliffe House on Ashley Avenue last night which this blogger managed to sneak into. It was the usual Spoleto party affair - hob nobbing people with wine and h’or deurves-a-plenty, a band playing gentile music and people trying to work out who’s who.

One man that stood out from the crowd because his face has been plastered all over town for the last three weeks was the Glassmeister himself, whom I was dying to ask what he actually thought of seeing a (slightly younger) version of himself everywhere.

But when it came to the crunch all I could muster was a polite “I know you must be sick of having your photo taken by now, but may I?” and thus snapped festival director Nigel Redden and Philip in the middle of them having a deep discussion on … well … something.

My second dream-come-true moment of the night also happened when I got a snap of this pair of shoes. These apparel-a-pied belongs to none other than Ida Becker (The Grande Dame of the Charleston Mag spoleto blog) who has been jovial tainted with being a regular shoe snapper herself at such events. Touche!