One of the things I’ve always loved about the fine and performing arts is their ability to continuously refresh. Singers, despite circumstance, continue to sing. Painters, despite whatever pressure the outside world applies, paint. Rock bands rock. Dancers dance. Makers make. Artists will always, well, art – in public.
As a result, there’s always something new to discover, to hold up and admire as one of an infinite number of facets humanity’s creative impulse has willed into being. The list is always growing and its roots run from the hobbyist dabbling in watercolors next door to the grandest of Hollywood productions. Work of merit can be found anywhere.
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Which brings us here. The newest incarnation of an idea that has kept me coming back to my keyboard for more than 20 years. When I began writing about the arts, my goal was simple – to find, illuminate and share work that I felt, for whatever reason, was worthy of comment and conversation. It’s a plan I’m sticking to. Brand New Bag will be the place I pull out recent discoveries and unearth forgotten gems – creative work from both Augusta and farther afield – so we might examine them together.
Let the dig begin.
The Georgia E.P. by Death Cab for Cutie: My family is from Washington, but I grew up in Augusta. I went to high school here and college in Bellingham, Wash. about the same time Death Cab was emerging as a local act of note. In fact, I may have written the much-celebrated band’s first bad review. So, for me, the Georgia E.P. – a collection of songs by Georgia artists recorded by Death Cab – is something of a perfect storm. Some may shirk at the politics that motivated the release. It was recorded in celebration of the Democratic sweep of the recent runoff elections. But affiliations aside, it’s a pretty wonderful record. Much has been made of the band’s take on TLC’s “Waterfalls,” but I personally prefer the version of Vic Chesnutt’s dark lament “Flirted With You All My Life.” Other acts covered on this short, sharp and smart record include Cat Power, Neutral Milk Hotel and, perhaps predictably, R.E.M.
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James Brown, I suppose, will have to wait for Volume 2.
The Georgia E.P. is available on all major streaming services and at store.deathcabforcutie.com – on appropriately peach vinyl.
French Exit: The pandemic probably didn’t do this 2020 comedy-of-manners many favors, but I suspect its brittle humor and stylized technique – a sort of Whit Stillman/Wes Anderson love child – would have been a relatively hard sell in even the most bullish of movie markets. It’s a shame. The film skillfully blends high and low comedy and carefully punctuates its precise approach with moments of real absurdity. And Michelle Pfeiffer, who stars as the eccentric heir to a dead husband’s fortune, delivers what might be the performance of a lifetime. The film also features Lucas Hedges as Pfeiffer’s raised-in-a-hothouse son and actor/playwright Tracy Letts as a cat. Yes, you read that right.
French Exit is currently streaming on Starz and available for purchase on Amazon.
The Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art: Before the gamut of galleries that run up and down Broad Street and before the Morris Museum of Art, there was the Gertrude Herbert. It’s no secret that this historic home-turned-art museum and education facility really struggled during the pandemic. The truth is, maintaining the facility – which is now more than 200 years old – was something of a struggle prior to the lockdown. Still, the Gertrude, which has operated as an artistic hub since the 1930s, survives. It’s the first attraction I visited when my family moved to Augusta and, admittedly, holds a special place in my heart. Personal affection aside, I promise the arts community in Augusta would feel poorer and more paltry without that white house on Telfair casting its long shadow. Please go check out an exhibition, take a class from its very fine faculty and otherwise support this civic gem. A Fall Artists Market and The Ties the Bind, a print exhibition inspired by evolving issues of the digital age, open Sept. 10. The Institute’s annual fundraiser, Oysters on Telfair, returns after a COVID caused hiatus on Nov. 4. Be sure to check that one out. It’s always one of the best parties of the year.
Steven Uhles has worked as professional journalist in the Augusta area for 22 years, and his Pop Rocks column ran in The Augusta Chronicle for more than 20. He lives in Evans with his wife, two children and a dog named after Hunter Thompson.
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