Arts & Culture / Entertainment

These are the hands of an artist.

The GAA is big ? so big, in fact, that it can?t be confined to just one day! Clip and save this handy guide to the GAA goings-on as you join Pennsylvanians from across the state in navigating an entire week of pre-celebrations as well as an afterparty that is not to be missed.

Erie?s no stranger to art festivals. Heck, the dust from Erie?s notorious Chalk Walk is still faintly visible on State Street, and strains of the Erie Art Museum?s Blues and Jazz Festival can still faintly be heard blowing through the wind. But the upcoming Pennsylvania Governor?s Awards for the Arts ? with a week of county-wide celebrations slated to begin on Sept. 16 ? is in a league all its own.

?I really like your reviews,? Ron Bayuzick said to me around Christmas time. ?They?re well written, fair, and you seem to know what you?re talking about.? Before I could start blushing, shuffling my feet, and mutter a ?thank you,? he added, ?I have a show coming up in August, and if there is going to be a review, I want you to write it.?

She?s a disco diva, actress, Philadelphia native, and Distinguished Artist Award recipient in the 1998 Governor?s Awards for the Arts ? and she also makes a mean sesame chicken stir fry.

Once again, Erie Art Museum director John Vanco has cobbled together a strong lineup culled from several genres and sub-genres of Blues and Jazz. I recently sat with him to discuss the lineup for this, the 20th Annual Erie Art Museum Blues and Jazz Festival.

This exhibition of the famed American potter, Margaret Tafoya, has been one of the longest running local exhibitions in memory, with the closing date being postponed a number of times. When I asked a representative of the Erie Art Museum why that is, she responded, ?The show?s closing has been pushed back so many times because it?s a great show?we didn?t want to take it down.? A handsome show it is, and here is your chance to see why exactly they were so reluctant to make room for another exhibition.

Let?s face it: we?re not all called to be novelists or published poets. But when we can?t shake an image or a phrase or a feeling from our heads, we turn to our tattered notebooks and beloved Moleskine journals or even bar napkins. Humans are communicators through language by nature, and finding just the right way to say what we want to say can be an art form.

A summer party is quite a simple concoction at heart. Comprised of one part summer weather and one part family and friends, this magical mixture results in a truly wonderful creation ? good, old-fashioned fun. Of course, sometimes a summer shindig transforms from a little get-together into a big event propelled by popular demand. Just look at The Gathering at Chaffee?s.

Although Erie apparently loves Kansas, and the Buckinghams, and Vanilla Ice, Erie knows music, and Erie?s got soul, which is why she loves Blues and Jazz. She loves being outside, on the grass, listening to these distinctly American art forms at the summer?s best fest ? so you know she?ll be at the 20th Annual Erie Art Museum Blues and Jazz Festival in Frontier Park August 4 and 5.

If we were you, here's what we would do...

Relocating to Erie, one of the first shows that I saw was Panorama, in the corridor of Villa Maria Academy, then a comparatively small and prestigious show located with the rest of the Erie Summer Festival of the Arts.

I'm excited. Two of my favorite things - public radio and drinking beer from a jar - are marrying to make something even better.

Summers in Erie are chockfull of celebrations. Without even looking for them, you could stumble across a few festivals over the course of a couple of days. By combining live music and good food, you have the recipe for a fun-filled event. Really, the only thing that would be better is a musician that can serve up some grub while laying down some killer tunes.

"Won't you be my neighbor?"