Short version of this blog: We’re playing tomorrow night from 6-9 pm in downtown Campbell, right around 275 East Campbell Ave. 😉
There’s been a neat little phenomena happening in the art world the past several years. (That, or I’m just suddenly hip to it, me being the slightly-out-of-touch late adopter and all.) They’re called “First Fridays”. They take place on – well, you do the math – each month in art galleries all over the place. It’s sort of an open house, often linked to the opening of a new exhibit. And art being what it is, music is often involved.
Some other towns, not being strict bellwether followers, do their own spin on the thing, running the whole thing on the “Second Saturday” of each month. (Artsy people just love alliteration.) Redding and Sacramento both have monthly Second Saturday events. Locally, there’s are few particularly notable items for this month’s local First Fridays, both on the Santa Cruz and Campbell sides of the hill:
- Downtown Campbell’s “First Friday” doesn’t have art, but all the local shops and restaurants are open, and there are always a few bands sprinkled along the way. I call this “busking by appointment”. Tomorrow night (February 4th), we’ll be in front of Recycled Books at 275 East Campbell Ave from 6-9 pm. I’ll probably spent whatever we make on used books…which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
- Back on the Santa Cruz side of the hill, here’s the First Friday Santa Cruz listing. This is the big monthly open house for the local galleries.
- Music note: Plan your night so you drop into the Museum of Art and History between 6:00 and 8:00 pm. That’s when our good pal Jay Howlett will be playing in the main room. (Here’s a past podcast with a bit more on Jay.)
- The Santa Cruz Government Building at 701 Ocean Street has an ongoing exhibit through March 30. It includes a showing of paintings by several artists include Russell Brutsche, my very favorite local painter. Tomorrow night (February 4th as of this writing), there will be a reception from 5:00 – 8:00 pm. Here’s a sample of Russell’s fine work:
Click for more of Russell’s work
(And here’s a bit more about Russell from a post I wrote last year when he released his latest, CD, The Westbound. Yeah, the guy does everything. And he’s very good.)