Weekend Scenester Guide: Art Auctions, Swampfests, and Femme Assassin Guys

People often forget that the local art world depends a great deal on art actually being purchased, so make sure to attend the Fresh Produce Art Collective's Art Auction at the Lost Art Space on Saturday. Doors are at 6:30 for a silent auction and refreshments and the live auction starts at 7:30. The press material says that "proper dress attire is strongly encouraged," but we're guessing they'll let you in if you're a big enough spender. The auction features works from Paul Flinders, Jeromy Morris, Wayne Propst, Jason Barr, Jeremy Rockwell, Erok Johanssen, Yuri Zupancic, Jesse Gray, Matt Ridgway and more. 25 of the pieces will begin with a $10 starting bid, so it's possible you can take home your very own Propst babydollhead for a small price!




















If you're a local progressive, you'll probably want to spend tonight shouting loudly about the wetlands at the Jackpot's second annual Swampfest benefit to save the wetlands. The event starts early (7:00) with free Local Burger food and live jazz followed by later evening entertainment featuring the doo-wop madness of Dean Monkey, the face-painted drumming warriors of Cloud Dog, a band called Instant Tradition, and (of course) Tyler Gregory, who is also playing the 2nd installment of the Art Center's 940 Live concert series tonight with Truckstop Honeymoon. Does Gregory have magical neo-hobo powers that allow him to be in two places at once. Almost certainly, yes.

And we recommend you kick off your Friday evening at the Replay matinee for MAW's new-CD release show. Check out the cover art for Pit of Desire, and a framed copy of the original piece by Mike Hoffman will be auctioned off at the show.





















If you prefer the theatrical scene to the art and music worlds, don't forget the Fire Your Muse series of staged readings on Saturday and Sunday at the Arts Center. We remain particularly intrigued by Jonah Qwerty is Femme Assassin Guy, "a full-length musical horror about the rise of gay serial killer Jonah Qwerty, who rose to infamy for uploading musicalized murders to YouTube." It's on Saturday at 9:30 and a kind anonymous blog reader sent us this creepy Youtube trailer (normally our anonymous readers only respond in order to call us a bunch of dickheads). The musical will apparently get a full production in May at the Bottleneck.



And don't forget the KJHK-sponsored William Elliott Whitmore show at the Granada (sidebar).