Hope you can join us!  Come see us at one of Erie's most beloved venues! 
Check our MySpace site for the updated calendar, songs, photos, and more!   

http://www.myspace.com/unklejohnsband2
                
UPCOMING SHOWS:

July 4 --   The Palms (Conneaut Lake)
July 18-   Papa George's (Erie)
July 19 -  Bicentennial Park (Landscapes Picnic Dinner; Meadville)
July 25 -  Bosco's (Meadville)
Aug 1 --   Deer Head Inn (Meadville)
Sep 12 -  Bicentennial Park (Benefit for French Creek Project; Meadville)
Oct  9 -    Sugar Lake Hotel (Cochranton)

FRAN and SHIRLEY show 

The Schanz's invite you to their reception at Urraro Gallery 152 W 12th. Erie, PA

To view all New Works

July 24,2009 7 pm till 11pm

Refreshments provided + live music 

Thanks to ( Paul Fortin Band, Killerinas & Sonic Medusa) 

Show hangs 7/17- 8/15 

(the Schanz's would also like to Thank sponsor Dovetail Gallery for providing band tent and their many friends for their help & support )

Young People's Chorus of Erie Hosts First Summer Choir Camp 

Singers ages 7 to 18 are invited to attend the first Young People’s Chorus of Erie summer choir camp this August. 

The camp will be held on the campus of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, from August 3-7. Elementary-school singers ages 7 to 10 will be day campers and participate in choir activities from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. each day; singers ages 10 and older will live in a Penn State Behrend residence hall for the week. 

Campers will receive personal and group instruction in voice, music theory, sight reading, and choral singing from Dr. Jason Bishop, founder and artistic director of the Young People’s Chorus of Erie and director of choral activities at Penn State Behrend, Brent Weber, assistant director of YPC Erie and conductor of YPC’s middle school chorus, and students who sing in the Penn State Behrend choir program. Residential campers also will enjoy additional recreational and enrichment activities in the evenings. 

The week’s efforts will be showcased when singers perform the National Anthem at the August 4 Erie SeaWolves game; residential campers also will travel to Pittsburgh on August 6 to entertain at a Penn State Behrend alumni reception. 

Cost for the camp is $100 for day campers and $200 for residential campers, which covers all supplies, a room and all meals for residential campers, and daily lunch for day campers. Some scholarships will be available to campers demonstrating financial need. An audition is required of prospective campers who are not currently members of the Young People’s Chorus of Erie, but campers are not obligated to join YPC. 

The camp registration deadline is Monday, July 6. To learn more about the camp program or to schedule an audition, contact Kimberly Hitchcock, YPC administrative coordinator, at 814-898-6789 or e-mail info@ypcerie.org. 

Click Image for More Information	28TH ANNUAL CHAFFEE GATHERING!! July 17th and 18th
	HEADLINERS:
	Friday: The Breakfast Steve Johnson Band	Saturday: ekoostik Hookah The Breakfast One Sweet World

High School Students Invited to Five Summer Admissions Events 

High school students will have five opportunities this summer to attend informal-yet-informative sessions with faculty and other representatives of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. 

The college will host two Spend a Summer Day events, one on Friday, July 24, and one on Friday, August 14. Each begins at 10 a.m. with an Information Fair; faculty from the Sam and Irene Black School of Business, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Science, School of Engineering, and the college’s nursing program will be available to talk with and answer questions from students and their parents. Representatives from admissions, financial aid, student activities, and the college’s Honors program also will be on hand. 

The fair will be followed by academic, admissions and financial aid presentations, walking tours of campus, and a picnic lunch. The program concludes at 2 p.m. 

Three evening events will follow a similar schedule, including a picnic dinner. They begin at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, July 22, Thursday, July 23, and Thursday, August 13. 

The events are free to students and their families, but advance registration is required and can be made online, by e-mail, or by calling 814-898-6100 (toll free 866-374-3378. Can’t make one of the planned events? Individual appointments are available at any time. 

Taking a Summer Writing Break Can Nurture Creativity

from www.authorhouse.com

When you get into the writing groove and words seem to be flowing effortlessly, the last thing you want to do is think about taking a break. With summer officially here, you can’t spend the next few months holed up in your favorite writing spots. Taking breaks, especially as a reward for yourself when you meet specific writing goals, is an important step in the writing process and can improve your overall productivity. The next time you finish a poem, short story, or chapter, reward yourself with a fresh perspective and replenish your enthusiasm by taking a break from the writing process.

Be smart about when and how you take your breaks. Before stepping away from your computer, write out any and all of the ideas you may be considering as you finish up your writing. When you do sit down again, whether it is tomorrow or next week, re-reading your ideas will allow you to pick up right where you left off. To keep your project moving forward, don’t forget to nurture your creativity when taking a break. Consider these ideas to give you a break away from your manuscript while keeping the creative juices flowing:

Join a writers’ group
Writers’ groups provide an opportunity to be creative and focus on topics outside the scope of your project. In many cases, a new perspective can open a floodgate of ideas for your project

Read magazines that interest you
Magazines give you the opportunity to access new ideas and topics while you relax. Reading will give you time away from your work and expose you to techniques that other writers employ.

Join a reading group
Reading groups provide a comfortable atmosphere to exchange ideas with other creative individuals. Socialize with others while discussing themes that are woven into a particular book. These groups provide an excellent opportunity to take notes about what readers look for in a story, whether it’s character development or a specific narrative flow.

Take a class to get your mind off your project
While piquing your interest in other areas, you’ll also be allotting yourself time away from your manuscript. And who knows, you may even find a more creative approach that could be included in your book from the knowledge you gain.

Ask your friends and family to read your work
When reading your own work over and over again, you begin to mentally plug holes in your narrative, whereas a fresh reader will immediately recognize places where more explanation is needed. Encourage others to give you their honest opinion. They may even suggest ideas you haven’t previously thought of.

Get out and have fun
Whether it’s a night out dancing with your spouse or sitting in a coffee shop people-watching, make it a point to get out of your work area and get yourself out of the writing state of mind. Watching the way people naturally interact can also give you great ideas for writing dialogue in your story.

Try to keep your breaks short

The longer your break, the more difficult it may be to get back into the swing of writing. Bigger projects may require longer breaks, but never feel guilty about taking the time you need to refresh your thoughts and find new inspiration. Allowing your body and mind a chance to rest and renew your creative spirit will enable you to return to your project rejuvenated and ready to write.

It can take months or even years to finish a manuscript, and breaks serve as a relaxation period—a time when you don’t need to think about your book. Set aside some time to take a break to unwind before the writing blues become a hindrance. You’ll feel that much more accomplished when you complete your masterpiece

Human Sized Kaleidoscope Featured At Erie Summer Festival Of The Arts

by Stan Hall

"My Sister's Keeper" is an unusual sort of tearjerker, about a teen girl's losing battle with leukemia. It's very emotional and often touching, but it's also got chemo, bone marrow extractions and a nihilistic view of death. Given the "Transformers" sequel as an alternative this weekend, most of the older-female target demographic will take this sort of grimness in a heartbeat.

After a very shaky first half marred by excessive voiceover narration, a confusing chronology and an abundance of dialogue-free scenes in which bland songs spell out feelings, it settles into a solid, unsentimental portrait of Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), the stricken teen who bravely, quietly takes control of her fate.

The plot also concerns Anna (Abigail Breslin), a genetically designed blood and marrow donor for her older sister. As Kate's kidneys shut down, their in-denial mother (Cameron Diaz, in a thankless semi-villain role) expects Anna to surrender one of hers. Anna rebels and sues for "medical emancipation" with the help of a celebrity lawyer (Alec Baldwin).

The interesting ethical and moral issues of the situation are hashed out in courtroom scenes (with Joan Cusack as the judge!) that devolve into hysteria in jarring contrast to a sensitively handled death scene that soon follows.

109 min., PG-13, multiple locations) Grade: B-

Video Of The Week: Shag Nazty

Crap, Crap, Crap And More Crap

by T.R. Septaric

I just want to take a minute and talk to you about crap, excrement, feces or what ever else you want to call it. ( I am not allowed to use the word I want to)
The thing about it is that…the first, and most disturbing, thing people see of Erie’s beautiful Bayfront is crap. I am talking about the waste disposal plant where the Bayfront Highway turns to take people in Erie.

Imagine this…you leave New York City to drive to Erie. You have heard so much about the bay front and how it is a major tourist attraction in Erie. You take Route 90 the whole way through beautiful small towns and farms. You smell the grapes when they are in season and, even when you turn onto the Bayfront Highway you see trees, fields and some rather attractive walls along the road.

Okay, now you pass East 12th Street and something just ain’t right. You continue on past East 6th and you KNOW something isn’t right. But you know that you are going to the Bayfront Convention Center so you get ready to turn into town and then it hits you…the smell of crap…a whole city’s worth of crap. Not only that but you see piles of compost and then, a few yards down the road, the tanks of the waste disposal plant.

Isn’t that a turn off to people coming to town?

There is a simple solution that would solve some of the problem. They put walls up all along the highway to lessen the noise from the cars and trucks. Why can’t they put up walls to hide the crap and the decomposing compost?

Now, the bay front is a beautiful place. It has flowers and some beautiful buildings for the people to see but why should tourists see the waste of the people of Erie first?

Contemporary American Studio Potter Exhibits Works at Erie Art Museum

Studio potter Kurt Weiser gives new life to the centuries-old tradition of painting china. His beautiful teapots and jars will be on view at the Erie Art Museum’s Main Gallery, 411 State Street, June 26 through Sept. 13, 2009.

Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser is comprised of approximately 40

ceramic sculptures and several drawings illustrating Weiser’s signature style that fuses

the art of ceramics with advanced china-painting techniques. Weiser’s porcelain vessels range from classically inspired lidded jars and teapots to unique mounted globes that are richly decorated with otherworldly imagery, full of allegorical and mythological references and lush landscapes.

Weiser’s figures, often nude and distorted across the planes of his vessels, move through steamy, Eden-like landscapes, interacting with the natural world they encounter. Themes of lust, predation, scientific curiosities, and the vulnerability of both man and nature abound in these scenes, resonating curiously with the cultivated vessel forms and refined medium Weiser has chosen. Combined together, Weiser’s vessels become three-dimensional paintings and are some of the most captivating work being done in ceramics today.

”The ideas and subjects of these paintings on the pots are for the most part just a

collection of my own history of fantasy and view of reality,” said Weiser. “They are built the same way we dream: around a central idea, a cast of other characters and

environments that just seem to show up to complete the picture.”

Weiser (b. 1950) was born in Lansing, Mi., studied ceramics under Ken Fergusen at the

Kansas City Art Institute from 1972-76, then completed an MFA at the University of

Michigan. His work is in the collections of Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the

Smithsonian Institutions’ National Museum of American Art, the National Museum of

History in Taiwan, the Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art and Institute of Ceramics

in Shigaraki, Japan, the Los Angeles County Art Museum, Carnegie Mellon University

and others.

Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser was organized by the Arizona State

University Art Museum Ceramics Research Center and curated by Curator of Ceramics

Peter Held. This exhibit was made possible with the support of the Windgate Charitable

Foundation’s Artist’s Exhibition Fund, which allowed for the catalogue and underwriting

to all the museums hosting this exhibition.

The exhibition has traveled to museums and galleries throughout the United States.

In conjunction with Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser, the Erie Art

Museum’s ceramic arts facility ClaySpace will conduct a series of free, hands-on

workshops for all ages at the Erie Summer Festival of the Arts, June 26-28, Discover

Presque Isle, July 24-26, CelebrateErie, August 14-16, Gallery Night, August 21 and

Nouveau, August 28. Free admission passes to the Museum and exhibition will be

distributed at each of these community events.

ClaySpace offers pottery classes for all ages and ability levels. Also offered are

inexpensive studios with access to wheels, slab roller, clay mixer and pay-as-you-go

firing fees. All ClaySpace instructors are professional artists who love to teach.

Programs offered include studio potter classes for kids and adults, independent study in ceramic arts, private studios, and group & birthday parties.