Blues and Jazz Festival Returns

Erie's favorite rascal is back at it.

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.

channel Orange, Swing Lo Magellan, Hypnotic Nights, and Uncaged -- all reviewed for your listening pleasure.

Three hours and 31 brewers -- Erie, enjoy your craft beer on the bay.

I don?t speak Albanian. Ferki Ferati does, though. Born in the small village of Bare, Kosovo in 1983, it?s his native language.

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.

Here?s a fact. The Earth is warming. The global temperature has risen about 1.3?F in the last 150 years, and two-thirds of that increase has occurred since the 1980s.

This is the 63rd week in a row that I?ve had the pleasure of addressing you, dear Reader readers. That?s roughly 63,000 words I?ve pushed out of this bully pulpit called ?Upfront,? the equivalent of a short novel. If you were to go back and read them all, just like a novel, you?d find recurring themes that permeate that novel as well as permeate our city, our region, and our culture. You?d also creep me out just a little bit, because, come on, who would do that?

With e-commerce and self-employment on the rise, work attire has taken on a whole new role.

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.

The shoreline of Lake Erie stretches for 871 miles, but it would be hard to find a better place than the 3,112-acre Presque Isle State Park to enjoy it.

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.

Blues and Jazz Festival, Discover Presque Isle, and Beer on the Bay are just a few stories amongst the great reads in this issue. But we're also asking the question: Why does Erie like to beat itself up so badly?