Don Herring’s Music Contest Final Leg…

As many of you know, Don Herring Mitsubishi is hosting a very unique music contest featuring artists who are looking to be the next up and coming something big. The contest, “Every Mitsubishi Deserves Its Own Soundtrack” , was a great success and we appreciate all the people who submitted tracks and ArtLoveMagic for helping us out.

We have completed the first leg of the contest… the submissions. Now, we are going to let YOU vote on the one you like the most. Please see the artist and link to the song.

1. Choose the one you like the most
2. Head to the bottom of the blog post on the Don Herring Mitsubishi blog site and vote by leaving a comment
3. You can vote up to 5 times
4. The artist with the most votes wins $500 from Don Herring Mitsubishi
5. Voting will end April 20th, 2011 and the winner will be announced on Friday, April 22nd.

Top 5 Artist Submissions:

1. Southern Karma Song: Better Move Along
2. The Artificial Heart Song: Invisable
3. The Artificial Heart Song: Hope
4. Harmini Song: Rescue
5. O.N.C Song: Rider

In addition to the $500 dollars, the winner’s song will be featured in one of upcoming videos! Make sure to share the contest on Facebook and Twitter too!

Now, head to the bottom of the blog post on the Don Herring Mitsubishi blog site and vote by leaving a comment. Thanks!

the beauty of the night: artlovemagic’s 2010 Holiday show

photos by Kelsey Paine
text by Michael Lagocki

I wanted to share some more photographs from the Holiday party. It was a truly special night (even in an organization that has many special nights). If you missed it, I wanted to give you a chance to see more of what it was like…

The first thing you have to understand is the decorations. Producer Mario Cauley and his team went to new levels, hanging thousands of lights and and transforming, Life in Deep Ellum, a venue we are all familiar with after so many shows, into something that felt fresh and uniquely made as a gift to us. With huge snowflakes hanging, presents wrapped, and a sea of white lights, it really felt like a wonderland.

The lounge microphone hosted a series of local musicians who performed both traditional holiday songs and originals of their own. Mario invited some of his favorite musicians from the shows, including Elle (above) to share the seasonal love.

Artists like Lawrence Alexander, Sarah Zamora, Khalid Robertson, and Samax Amen brought that live artist energy to the evening. There were also interactive art supplies (including handmade playdough) so that everyone could be an artist.

It was the little touches that created the environment where all this happened. Co-producers Curtis Fesser and Marissa Colomo paid attention to every detail from table settings, to giant snowflakes, to color coordination in every room. It was really amazing and we’re already talking about taking some of what this team built and applying it to other artlovemagic events. 

Of course there were plenty of sweets to hype of the kids. An invitation to attendees to bring desserts yielded a sweets bar that was filled with all kinds of delicious. Plus Don Yemington and crew cooked a meal fit for kings and queens. We all ate well.

You gotta mix it up a bit, so halfway through the night we all went outside to see fire painter Josh Dryk light up the dark sky. (it was too cold to do this for long!)Photographers Jen Shu and Sherry Muldoon brought a festival setup out and took free portraits of attendees and their families. See the next 2 posts below for those images (or go to Jen’s site to see all 400+ and order prints).

It was a blessed evening. While tons of time went into set up, tear down, selecting the performers, their preparation and everything else it took to put this event together… the truth is that what the night ended up being about the most was just simple interactions. People sitting down and talking with fellow artists or performers they hadn’t seen in a while. Old friends getting together, families being introduced.

We loved the whole experience and congratulate the production team. Thank you to everyone involved.

Art & Coffee Pics – Feb 2010

story by Michael Lagocki
pictures by Jenice Johnson

Ooooh it was cold out there! For our February 5th Art & Coffee we moved our stage back outside (the traditional Art & Coffee model) and braved the winds while listening to music, poetry, and for the first time…stand up comedy! (more on that later).

Inside, our artists rocked like they were musicians. Great crowd, great art, great fun. Here’s some beautiful pics from Jenice Johnson’s lens.

SMASH! The collage art of the Sunshine Kids includes lots of broken glass and mirrors. Thus the safety goggles and big ‘ol hammer. Each of our artists this night successfully sold original works. Congratulations, girls! Now please, put the hammer down and back away slowly.

Melody’s voice warmed the night when Southern Karma took stage. Their wonderful EP was just released on Amazon. Highly recommended.

Always great to see friends at Art & Coffee. The show inspires a hangout atmosphere, and a lot of people return month after month, so it’s easy to make new friendships. Mario and Zach are two of the greatest men we know.

Rachel Denniger’s make your own jewelery stand was a big hit. We love it when our artists set up stations that allow the audience to create with them. How cool is it to walk away with an original piece that you co-created!?!?

We’re big Spencer Garland fans around here. Spencer brought out some of his older material that artlovemagic founder Michael Lagocki is crazy for. Great to have him around and hopefully we’ll see more of him now that he’s back in Dallas.

Fresh off of UNDERGROUND, Dee Hill and Sherry Smith returned to shoot free portraits of the crowd again. This is something that happens at almost every Art & Coffee. Local photographers shoot hundreds of crowd portraits for free in the hopes that some of those people will go online and purchase prints. Even if you don’t, it’s always a fun experience.

It’s not as dramatic as it looks. Mike is actually asking the crowd to leave in this shot. We’ve mastered the art of the post Art & Coffee tear down. Each time we’ve been at It’s A Grind, we’ve been out in about a half an hour after the show.

Not pictured above, but also in this show were musician Matthew Bridgman, and artist Jessica Trevizo. Our producers were Nicole Rodriguez and Diana Hawkins-Rushing. Last, but not least, a big congratulations to Jenn Hoff and ArtLoveMagic for including a stand up comedy set on our stage for the first time ever. Jenn was funny, and it’s always great to try something new. This is leading to a comedy show (we can feel it in our funny bone).

Art & Coffee is back at It’s a Grind March 5th- this time with the return of our OPEN MIC. Join us (and bring a poem or a song).

Details at www.artlovemagic.com

February Art & Coffee

ArtLoveMagic presents Art and Coffee on Friday, February 5th

Riding on the momentum of Underground, February Art and Coffee is upon us! Being held at It’s A
Grind Coffee in Deep Ellum, the talent will warm your soul like the java warms your insides.
Musically- ArtLoveMagic newcomer Matthew Bridgman starts us off with his touching melodies. A near and
dear Southern Karma ‘lets it flow’, and Spencer Garland emerges from space and time through song.

Southern Karma, photo by Jenice Johnson

Photography- Dee Hill and Sherry Smith collaborate to capture the light of patrons on film.

Sherry Smith as photographed by Dee Hill

Live Visual Arts– Deb Driscoll and Keanna-Marie Pohl (The Sunshine Kids) will be turning luck on it’s ear co-creating a piece
from shattered mirrors. The amazing Josh Boulet inks a masterpiece. Rachel Deniger makes you feel
50 feet tall with crafted jewelry and miniatures and Jessica Trevizo does Casa Azul proud with her
beautiful masks.

Ink by Joshua Boulet

Join us for this unique and free event !

Held at:

It’s A Grind Coffee

2901 Indiana Ave. Dallas, TX 75226.

7:30 – 10:30 pm

Near Baylor hospital in Deep Ellum (easy access from the Dart Rail)

– Article by Tony Cherry of Southern Karma

The faces (and guitars) of Art & Coffee

Dee Hill took these beautiful shots at our most recent Art & Coffee show at Saxby’s. This show has become an absolutely blast month after month with big crowds, a wonderful open mic, and gorgeous live art. Almost feels like home.

More than just beautiful. Alexandra Marie’s love poetry takes the crowd on a romantic ride. She feels it when she speaks, you can hear it in the vibration of her voice. Stunning. It was wonderful to have her as our feature poet.

Tony and Melody of Southern Karma warm up before performing. Their new EP is so good it’s crazy. We’ve extended an invitation to them to be our feature music act at an upcomming Art & Coffee.

This guitar can make strange noises that make your soul dance funky. Nuff said.

Jacob and Mandy brought their brand new baby, MacKenzie, to Art & Coffee. Welcome to the world young musician. Jake then took the mic and played “Live Give Love”, a song inspired in part by artlovemagic.

The mic is open. Arrive early to get on the list and perform. There’ve been huge audiences for the last several Art & Coffeees.

Always a surprise to be had. I bet our audiences didn’t expect to see a 1,000 crane origami set up. Thanks, Nathon!

K. Zach – things have been better since you’ve been around. An example of a creative cat with a helpful soul. K. Zach has been running sound as a volunteer for our last several shows. Then he kills it on the mic- you go poet.

—

Our next scheduled show is Friday July 10th at 7:30 – 10:30 pm.

Absolutely free to attend.

More details at artlovemagic.com

post by Michael Lagocki
photos by Dee Hill

Free Music Alert

by Deb Driscoll

ArtLoveMagic is known far and wide, all across the magic kingdom of Dallas for not only its delicious visual art, but also its scrumptious local music meaty-melodies.  It’s early and I haven’t had breakfast, hence the tasty adjective use.  But seriously, I feel genuinely satisfied after listening to any one of these as yet overlooked artists.  For instance, Haylee and Amanda are a duet of harmonious female voices paired with Haylee’s guitar singing as one voice, perfectly synched one with the other.  Playdough is huge in Australia (for real) and can rock a hand-held mic with his hip-hop hard-knock verbs in 2 heartbeats.  Parallel Play folks you right the heck up.  And Southern Karma soothes the soul and reminds you that what goes around comes around; in fact, their freshly released EP is entitled “What Goes Around…” and it sincerely takes the listener deep within their own heart.  I am not too proud to admit that track #1, “The Road” made me weepy when Michael Lagocki relayed to me how it applied in the life of one of our very dear friends.

A buzz about the lack of Indie Artists available to the main stream is now being generated across the web, and it’s about damned time!  That would lead me to believe that we need to jump on this sexy train of sultry sounds ASAP!

So what are we to do to get all of this local music heard without begging some crap radio stations owed by one power hungry jack ass to play them?  We give it out for free to local retailers who are proud of their city, its talents and their relationships with customers.  So I’m suiting up and hitting the road with a big mail bag of beats, passing around samplers of our artists to willing, local stores.

Here’s your shot, Dallas : email deb@artlovemagic.com if you are interested in being hit up with free hand outs of quality local music to be played in your place of business.  My angle here is I won’t give these priceless promos out to just any ol’ store.  The stores that receive the music will be asked to put the CD into rotation on at least a bi-weekly basis so that there can be enough room for response from their customers.  As soon as your clientele start asking where they can buy the delightful music they are hearing, you can send them to our website, www.artlovemagic.com, where a list of our artists can be found with their respective websites.  I expect the demand to be large enough to sell individual retailers the full length CD’s on consignment to re-sell to their customers, and VOILA!  Local, independent music success for our city, our people, and our heartbeat.  No one does it up like Texas , folks.  So why the heck do we only want music from L.A. or New York or wherever they write the big contracts these days?  Exactly.

Be on the lookout for your friendly neighborhood ArtLoveMagic Music Director.  Oh and to my local musician peeps – if you are interested in being a part of the free music hand-out, let a girl know!

words by Deb
photos by Jenice Johnson