Birds of Chicago: Allison Russell and JT Nero

Searching for something you haven’t heard before?

You might try this group.

They call themselves Birds of Chicago, and they describe themselves as a musical collective.

At the core of this collective are JT Nero, of the Chicago rock and soul band, JT and the Clouds, and Allison Russell, of the Canadian urban folk band, Po’ Girl.

They’ll open at 6 p.m. Monday, May 27, for a 7:15 p.m. show starring California Honeydrops, in the “mini-amphitheatre” at the Lagunitas Brewing Company, 1280 N. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma.

Information: www.lagunitas.com.

“Out of Order,” a free exhibition of work by more than 40 artists from Sonoma County to the United Kingdom, will run from 4:30 p.m. to midnight Saturday (May 25) at the former site of the Santa Rosa Printing Co., 575 Ross St.

The show is the brainchild of Roman D’Argenzio, 26, who staged the monthly “Kaleidoscope” pop-up art shows at various sites around Santa Rosa from 2009 to 2012.

“We’re calling this a mural exhibit,” he said. “The art is painted directly on the walls inside, but there are also sculptures and installations. We want to show the community how talented our artists are.”

The point of showing the art only once is to make people savor and remember the experience, rather than getting used to walking past it every day, he said.

“The goal is to have this big one-night art show on a grand scale,” D’Argenzio said. “We’ll take as many photos as we can to document the night.”

D’Argenzio, who has a bachelor of arts degree in advertising and graphics from the San Francisco Academy of Art, plans to publish a coffee table-style book featuring photographs of the “Out of Order” show, probably by October.

Some of the art is spray-painted, but this is a not a graffiti show, he said.

“There are a lot of pictures of people and animals,” D’Argenzio explained.

The 4,000-square-foot building is owned by his father, Dino D’Argenzio, a Realtor, property developer and owner of the Heritage Public House beer tap room and restaurant and food venue in Santa Rosa, where Roman works.

One of the artists involved is Ricky Watts, who recently painted a large outdoor mural on the southern wall of the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma.

For more information on the online campaign to raise donations to cover the costs of both the event and producing a book commemorating it: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/outoforder/out-of-order-mural-exhibit.

"Heavy Metal" movie poster image

In 1981, a movie came out that combined the talents of giants in two very different fields: comic books and rock ‘n’ roll.

It was called “Heavy Metal,” after the slick, magazine-format comic book, an American version of the similar French magazine, “Metal Hurlant.”

Now you can see it on the big screen again, after several decades, at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 30, at the Roxy Stadium 14 cinemas, 85 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa.

The screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the film’s production designer, Michael Gross.

It’s a special occasion, partly because for a long time, it was difficult to see this cult classic at all.

Legal problems with the copyrights for some of the music used in the film blocked commercial home video release for 15 years. Bootleg tapes, made from occasional cable TV showings, circulated among fans.

The soundtrack was released on LP in 1981, but again, for legal reasons, it was not released on CD until 1995.

The soundtrack features Sammy Hagar, Devo, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Journey, Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath and Stevie Nicks, among others.

The film is anthology of animated short fantasy and science  stories adapted from Heavy Metal magazine.

Contributors included Rich Corben, creator of the bald and hulking young adventurer, “Den,” and Berni Wrightson, best-known as co-creator of “The Swamp Thing.”

Fred MacMurray and June Haver at the Twin Valley Ranch

Fred MacMurray is remembered as a successful screen actor, from his dark portrayal of a desperate man in the 1944 crime drama “Double Indemnity” to the title role of Disney’s “Absent-Minded Professor” in 1961.

Above all, he was the ultimate father figure, whether he was playing the exasperated dad in the original “Shaggy Dog” film in 1959, or the wiser, calmer patriarch in 12 seasons of TV’s “My Three Sons,” from 1960 to 1972.

In the Healdsburg area, MacMurray and his wife, actress June Haver, are also remembered as good neighbors who spent much of their time nearby on the Twin Valley Ranch, later renamed the MacMurray Ranch, on Westside Road.

The couple bought the property, a working cattle ranch, in 1941 and maintained it as a home-away-from-Hollywood for half a century.

Their daughter, Kate MacMurray, still lives on the property, now owned by Gallo of Sonoma, which maintains vineyards there and produces the MacMurray Ranch line of wines.

“Gallo purchased the ranch in 1996, and it’s still used for agriculture, which is what Daddy wanted. There are beautiful vineyards planted there now, but the homestead is the same,” MacMurray said.

Working with the Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society, MacMurray has collaborated on an exhibit of photographs, posters, mementos and memorabilia called “The Movie Stars Next Door: Fred MacMurray, June Haver at the MacMurray Ranch.”

“We’ve never done anything quite like this before,” MacMurray said. “Both of my parents had a very rich personal life, and of course, their film careers. I am so touched to have an exhibit this personal, and in Healdsburg, particularly, because Mom and Dad loved Healdsburg.”

Fred MacMurray died in 1991 and June Haver died in 2005, and although their daughter has hosted public events at the ranch, this is the first local museum exhibit.

Visitors to the Healdsburg Museum will see posters for “Double Indemnity” and other MacMurray films, and photos of his famous guests at the ranch, including actors Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable, and comedian Red Skelton.

Displays also cover MacMurray’s hobbies — watercolor painting, fly fishing and skeet shooting — as well as Haver’s — painting and crewel embroidery. Artifacts include MacMurray’s saddle and several hats he wore in Western movies.

Healdsburg Museum curator Holly Hoods first approached MacMurray last year about staging an exhibit, which opened May 15 and runs until July 21.

“This exhibit came together because of the local interest in the MacMurray family ranch,” Hoods said, “and Kate MacMurray has been a longtime supporter of the museum.”

THE DETAILS

What: “The Movie Stars Next Door: Fred MacMurray, June Haver and the MacMurray Ranch”

Where: Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society, 221 Matheson St., Healdsburg

When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, until July 21.

Admission: Free.

Information: 431-3325, healdsburgmuseum.org.

Ned Kahn (Press Democrat photo by Mark Aronoff. 2007.)

Internationally recognized Sebastopol sculptor Ned Kahn’s proposal for a $2 million public art installation at the Denver International Airport is moving through the approval process.

“Earlier this year, the airport had a big competition and got it down to a couple of proposals, and they picked mine. The project still has to jump through a couple of approval hopes,” Kahn said. “They need to get their local city council to approve it.”

The piece Kahn plans will be a kinetic work made of some 20,000 wind-animated panels aluminum and stainless steel, to be spread across half an acre on a new plaza between the main airport terminal and a new hotel center and light rail station.

“It’s basically a horizontal version of the piece I did in Santa Rosa on the AT&T building. Instead of a vertical surface, it’s a horizontal field. It’s intended to look like metallic grasses blowing in the wind,” Kahn said.

Kahn’s “Digitized Field” was installed on the side of the former AT&T building on Third Street near B Street, on 2005.

The Denver International Airport construction is under way now and expected to last at least two more years, Kahn said.

Kahn’s proposed sculpture is part of an overall art purchase totalling $5.2 million, mandated by the rules of Denver’s Public Art Program, which stipulate that 1 percent of the construction budgets of major city projects must be set aside for public art. The airport project’s total budget is estimated at $500 million.

“It’s a good gig,” Kahn said.

Kahn won a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” fellowship for exceptional creative work in 2003. The foundation is named for late philanthropists John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, of Chicago and Palm Beach.

Kahn said he also has some other new projects in the works.

“I’m working on a pedestrian bridge that will be part of Union Station in Los Angeles. For San Francisco, I working on a bus-activated fountain at the Transbay Terminal. That’s also under construction,” Kahn said.

The 6th Street Playhouse ensemble for 'August: Osage County': (from left ): Elizabeth Woodruff, Alan Kaplan, Craig A. Miller, Jill Zimmerman, Mollie Boice, Chris Schloemp and Ron Smith. (Photo by Eric Chazankin.)

The 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa has won six awards from the San Francisco/Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle for 2012.

The Playhouse won for best ensemble performing in a theater with 100-300 seats for its production of “August: Osage County.”

The show also won awards in that division for Jill Zimmerman, as best principal female in a play; John Browning, best featured male in a play, and Marty Pistone “best specialty,” for his fight choreography.

For its Studio Theater production of “Souvenir,” the Playhouse won two awards in the size division for theaters with less than 100 seats: Mary Gannon Graham, for best principal female in a play, John Shillington, for best principal male in a play.

In addition to its winning entries, the Playhouse was nominated in a dozen other categories, for a total of 18. Included were nominations for the Playhouse productions of “The Marvelous Wonderettes” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Two other Sonoma County theater companies also were nominated, with two for “110 in the Shade” at the Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma, and six for “Camelot,” staged by the New Spreckels Theatre Company in Rohnert Park.

The winners were announced earlier this month in Oakland.

Patti LaBelle

Wells Fargo Center will kick off its 2013-2014 season in August in a newly renovated auditorium, with shows by soul diva Patti LaBelle, singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile, country music superstar Randy Travis and comedian Ron White.

The opening blitz includes: LaBelle, Aug. 16, with tickets priced from $79 to $119; Carlile, Aug. 18, $39-$49; Travis, Aug. 21, $45-$59, and White, Aug. 24, $62-$172.

The season also features comedy by Lewis Black on Sept. 13, $47.50-$57.50; an appearance by stars from the TV series “Whose Line Is It Anyway” Nov. 9, 39-$59, and Kathleen Madigan on Feb. 15, $32.

Other highlights include: country star Vince Gill, Oct. 30, $59-$79; blues legend Buddy Guy, Nov. 8, $47-$67; the annual Dave Koz & Friends Christmas Tour, Dec. 17, $39-$69; African vocal ensemble Ladysmith Black Mambazo, March 4, $29-$39; the Jazz at the Lincoln Center orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, March 9, $49-$89.

Ron White

The season features more than 40 performances through next May, including the Symphony Pops and Clover Stornetta Family Fun series.

For a full schedule and ticket information: 546-3600, wellsfargocenterarts.org.

The center’s 1,600-seat Ruth Finley Person Theater is closed until mid-August for a $2.8 million renovation, including a stage expansion and new seating.

Marcus Shelby

The new HJF (Healdsburg Jazz Festival) Freedom Jazz Choir, a chorus of more than 100 voices, led by jazz bassist Marcus Shelby and accompanied by his 17-piece orchestra, will perform Saturday, May 18, in Santa Rosa.

The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Glaser Center, 547 Mendocino Ave. Admission: $20.

The program will include “Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” a jazz suite written by Shelby.

Performers will include Faye Carol, and Adam Ivey’s Joyous Noise Ensemble, of the Community Baptist Church.

Supported by a James Irvine Foundation Grant, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival and Shelby brought together local singers to celebrate the diversity of the community.

This year’s 15th annual Healdsburg Jazz Festival runs May 31 through June 9, and will feature a June 6 performance by the Freedom Jazz Choir at the Raven Theater.

Tickets and information: www.healdsburgjazz.org.

Tony Redhouse

Tony Redhouse, Grammy-nominated performer from Tucson, Ariz., will perform at a “Native American Song Dance & Music Concert” from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, May 25, at the Petaluma Veterans Memorial Building, 1094 Petaluma Blvd. S.

Redhouse, a dancer, musician and spiritual teacher of the Navajo Nation, also teach a “Dream Catcher Workshop” from 1 to 3 p.m. the same day at the same location.

Admission costs $20 for the concert. The workshop fee is $7 for ages 7 to 17; $14, 18 and over; 6 and under free.

Proceeds to go to support Petaluma’s annual Veterans Day Parade, and Vietnam Veterans Chapter 563.

Information: (707) 776-7534, www.historyconnection.net.

Graeme Stevenson

Followers of local fine arts may remember an Australian painter named Graeme Stevenson, who lived and worked in Sonoma County for a decade, from 1991 to 2001, before returning to his homeland.

He was back in Santa Rosa recently, talking about his Australian reality television series, “Put Some Color In Your Life.”

A husky 54-year-old, with piercing blue eyes and reddish and white hair and beard, Stevenson doesn’t look much like the art critic type you might expect to host this kind of show.

And that’s exactly the way he wants it.

“I ride around on my Harley Davidson and I go into these artists’ studios. The reason I can get into these studios is that I’m an artist myself,” he explained.

“The idea is I take people on a journey to these art studios and film some of the best artists in Australia,” Stevenson said. “I hope to film the best artists in the world before I’m through.”

The show airs four times weekly now on Channel 4ME in Australia, and Stevenson says he’s getting expressions of interest from broadcasters in the United States, Ireland, England and New Zealand.

The show is also seen on Virgin Airways flights worldwide, he said.

“Now I’ve got them coming to me,” Stevenson said, “which is pretty amazing.”

For more information: www.colourinyourlife.com.au.