It's a great summer for history nerds in LFK and preparations for the sesquicentennial commemorations of Quantrill's Raid are well underway. Our favorite, as we've mentioned before, is the Twitter re-enactment of the Raid that will take place on the morning of August 21 starting at about 5:00 am (damn, we've never tweeted that early before!). The next meeting for Twitter participants or other interested parties takes place at 7:00 tonight at the Castle Tea Room. Here's some of the scoop from the FB event page:
"Missouri State University History Instructor Jeremy Neely will kick-off the evening by leading a 20-minute discussion on the national and local historical context of Quantrill’s Raid. Following the discussion will be a brief demonstration by the Lecompton Players, portraying Jayhawker Jim Lane and Sheriff Sam Jones. Participants can spend the reminder of the evening discussing their character with local history consultants, looking through historical resources or learning how to use Twitter."
Plenty of roles are still available (find them here ). We've decided to take the proceedings (more or less) seriously and will be flexing our Twitter-acting muscles and playing a local hero called Doc Prentiss. However, we recommend that someone take on the roles of "Three Eudora Townsmen," bumbling characters who set out for Lawrence during the raid but encountered a series of deadly mishaps along the way. Something as depressing as Quantrill's Raid surely needs a little comic relief! And, yes, Chip will still be rogue-tweeting on the morning of August 21 in the guise of the fictional "Flip," the town drunk who reports on events while swilling rotgut whiskey on the river levee ("Gol-DURN!! That there's Frank James and Cole Younger ridin' into town, ain't it??").
In related news, our friends over at Watkins Museum and the Percolator are asking area artists to submit pieces (paintings, photography, videos, etc) for concurrent exhibitions called "Modern Views of Quantrill's Raid" that will be displayed from August to October. Contact Abby Pierron at Watkins for details: apierron@watkinsmuseum.org . Works will need to be submitted late July/early August.
What we're planning for this art project is to put together a freak-folk collective called Quantrill and the Raiders to record a concept album that follows the cursed descendants of Quantrill and the James gang in the years since the raid. It's going to be quite nice. Send us your sample lyrics.
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Readers, do you miss the days when it was so hip to enjoy twangy bands out of Chapel Hill. We do, very much. Luckily, Mount Moriah is bringing back those glory days. Even Pitchfork's on board, giving this year's Miracle Temple a respectable 7.8 and comparing lead singer Heather McEntire to a young Dolly Parton:
"McEntire often gets pegged as post-punk, due to her proximity to the DIY scene she came up in, but on "White Sands", she stretches "kids" to nearly four syllables (something like "key-yuh-hid-s" with a little hiccup in the middle)-- conclusive proof that girl is country." (full review here
Oh shit! We love ladies with looooong southern drawls. See you at the Replay tonight as Mount Moriah joins forces with the (also quite good) Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter. The NYT says of Sykes:
"Psychedelia as communal creation, psychedelia as mystical quest, psychedelia as a roiling tangle and psychedelia as a euphoric, entranced sprawl are all encompassed in the music of Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter...There’s nothing neo- about this band’s psychedelia."
Sounds positively psychedelic, right?
Check out Mount Moriah on FB here and Jesse Sykes on FB here.
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