Our film curators Dave Filipi and Chris Stults discuss the Wex Drive-in and Soundtrack Available: Music in American Film summer film series.

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Chuck Helm, Director of Performing Arts, discusses the upcoming Next@Wex shows including Dirty Projectors, M83, and Jenny Lewis.

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With so many Next@Wex shows happening this summer, we’ve had to split the Mixtape into two parts. Enjoy this first mix of songs featuring bands performing here over the next few weeks. Perfect for BBQs, Tweet Ups, and long car rides to Bonnaroo.

00:01: King Khan, Welfare Break
04:03: Jenny Lewis, See Fernando
07:36: Dirty Projectors, Stillness Is the Move
12:30: James Blackshaw, Fix
17:44: Camera Obscura, French Navy

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Chuck Helm, Director of Performing Arts, discusses the upcoming performance of Hugh Hughes in Story of a Rabbit.

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Get ready for Bare Walls: An Intro To Art Collecting happening May 7 at 6pm with a quick primer in the form of a podcast with Senior Curator of Exhibitions, Catharina Manchanda. If the allure of stimulating art discussion, drinks, food, and meeting our new curators isn’t enough, Archie Griffin will be on hand with welcome remarks to further reinforce the notion that the distance between Ohio Stadium and the Wexner Center is but a few steps. You can buy tickets (only $5!) and RSVP here.

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Chuck Helm, Director of Performing Arts, discusses the upcoming performance of CONTINUOUS CITY by The Builders Association.

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Shelly Casto, Director of Education, discusses the upcoming family performance of At Nightfall.

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Wexner Center’s Dave Filipi discusses the latest program of Rare Films from the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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Pictured: The Desert Song

This was the 20th anniversary of my first trip to Syracuse’s Cinefest, the annual gathering of cinephiles devoted to sitting in the dark for a weekend and watching rare classic cinema.  I could do an entire post on the glory that is Dinosaur BBQ and the cast of characters that populate Cinefest, but I will limit myself to some of the onscreen highlights from the past weekend.

Gumbasia (Art Clokey, 1955)
A surprisingly elegant and charming short, Gumbasia is the experimental pilot film that Clokey used to sell NBC on what would become the most famous claymated character – Gumby.  The film is a non-narrative exercise demonstrating the possibilities of animating clay set to a great jazz score and in brilliant color.

The Desert Song (Roy Del Ruth, 1929)
A contract dispute kept The Desert Song from being the first all-talking movie musical and the film does display some of the staginess common to films in the early sound era.  But there was much of interest, especially the role by lead John Boles.  Boles plays the milquetoast son of a French general in Arabia charged with keeping native insurgencies in check.  By night, however, Boles dons a mask and cape and becomes The Red Shadow, leader of the Arab uprising.   It’s an interesting precursor to the dual identity characters that would become so common with the popularity of Superman and Batman a decade later.  Myrna Loy (in her 30th screen appearance according to the program) looked amazing as a harem dancer.

The Dancin’ Fool (Sam Wood, 1920)
Any film starring Wallace Reid and Bebe Daniels is worth a look.  The film is about a young man (Reid) who tries to balance his love for “jazz dancing” with his attempts to revitalize his uncle’s jug business with modern marketing techniques.  It was pretty average but there is a brief animated sequence when Reid is contemplating new advertising ideas that I found interesting considering the era in which the film was made.

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Curator Jeffrey Kipnis discusses the upcoming exhibition COOP HIMMELB(L)AU: Beyond the Blue.

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