By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
A play offering Christmas in July, a photographic exploration of Palo Duro Canyon, a fascinating art exhibition featuring unusual sculpting materials — all that and more are on tap this weekend.
The Healing Canyon
Photographer Jim Livingston credits his time walking and shooting photos in Palo Duro Canyon with helping him recover from a debilitating back injury.
He's showing his love for the natural wonder with a new exhibition, The Healing Canyon, opening Friday at Chalice Abbey, 2717 Stanley St. An opening reception, featuring music by Mike Fuller and a food truck from Cowboy Gelato, is set for 6 to 9 p.m. Friday. A portion of proceeds from sales at the reception will benefit Partners in Palo Duro Canyon.
"(The canyon) challenged me physically. All of the physical therapists, all of the doctors, everything modern medicine threw at me didn't work," Livingston told me. For more, check out my interview.
The exhibition runs through Aug. 29.
Hellcab
A virtual sea of humanity hails a ride on an eventful Christmas Eve in Hellcab, a provocative drama by Will Kern to be staged beginning Friday in the backroom venue at RR Bar, 701 S. Georgia St.
A handful of actors will play about 25 different passengers in the cab of a nameless driver played by newcomer Kyle Gipson.
"He sees all walks of life and has to treat them equally and be subject to their judgment of him as well," director Ronnie Lloyd Nanos said in my preview article earlier this week. "He's accepting humanity as it is."
The drama will be staged at 9 p.m. Friday, Sunday and July 22 and 23 in the alternative theater space at the bar, 701 S. Georgia St. Tickets are $10. Call or text 806-341-5141 for reservations.
Side by Side: Larry Bell and Gabriel Dawe
A pair of sculptors who work with light and perception rather than clay or bronze are in the spotlight at Amarillo Museum of Art.
Side by Side: Larry Bell and Gabriel Dawe opens Friday at the museum, 2200 S. Van Buren St., and will be on view through Oct. 16.
Bell sculpts with light, coating glass and other materials with thin metallic films, then letting them reflect the ambient light in a room. The sculpture, then, is more than just the Mylar ribbons hanging in the air — it's the play of the light on the wall and anything else in the gallery.
Dawe and assistants, meanwhile, stretched about 35 miles of individual, colored thread strands, "overlapping, intertwining, and providing a unique sensory experience and visual perception of light, space, form, and architecture," according to the museum.
That's a preview of a time-lapse video we've put together about Dawe's installation that you can see above.
"You don't get it in a picture. Until you see it, you don't understand it," curator of art Alex Gregory said in my preview story. "Cameras don't interpret it the way your eyes do and your mind does and the way your mind fills in the blanks."
Admission is free. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
The artists are both scheduled to appear at a reception at 7 p.m. Aug. 19.
ALT Film Festival
Amarillo Little Theatre will explore the 1960s in its annual film festival on Friday and Saturday.
Storytellers: The 1960s will feature four documentaries that chart the massive changes wrought during the '60s.
Panhandle PBS is working with ALT to bring three PBS films — How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin, 1964 and Last Days in Vietnam. The festival opens with TV Family, a documentary by Ethan Thompson about the Robertson family of Amarillo, who were featured in a 1960 NBC special, Story of a Family.
For a complete description and trailers of each film, check out my preview article.
Admission to the documentaries is free, and admission to a 6:30 p.m. Friday gala party is $50.
Call 806-355-9991.
It's Not Me, It's You Karaoke
Amarillo singer Maggie Burt will host a karaoke night with a twist Sunday at Golden Light Cantina, 2906 S.W. Sixth Ave.
In It's Not Me, It's You Karaoke, instead of paying to sing yourself, you can pay to force others to sing. (Of course, you can also sing if you'd like.)
Pay $5 a song to put a friend on the spot (and additional $2 to join in yourself). Or buy an immunity bracelet for $20 to keep from singing — though a $50 donation will override that immunity.
It's all for a good cause — the March of Dimes.
The fun runs from 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday, and the bar will sell drinks for just $2 each.
World Snake Day
Amarillo Zoo will sssssss-celebrate some sssssssss-slithering ssssssss-sidekicks on SSSSSSSS-Saturday at its World Snake Day festivities.
Visitors can get hands-on encounters with snakes from around the world and met other native and exotic reptiles and amphibians during the celebration, which runs from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Zoo, 700 Comanchero Trail.
Though snakes are "often portrayed as creepy, dangerous and aggressive," the Zoo's Mike Boley said in a news reelase, "these animals play a vital role in our environment and are generally shy and reclusive."
The event is free with zoo admission of $4 for adults, $3 for seniors and $2 for children ages 3 to 12.
Call 806-381-7911 or visit amarillozoo.org.
WOWW Wine Tasting
Sample a collection of great wines for a good cause Tuesday.
The annual Windows on a Wider World Wine Tasting runs from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Amarillo Botanical Gardens, 1400 Streit Drive.
Attendees can sample wines from M&R Liquor and food from Macaroni Joe's at the evetn, which raises funds for the educational arm of the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts.
Raffle tickets for a trip to New York City will be on sale.
Tickets for the tasting are $35.
Call 806-342-5600.
Other activities and events
Amarillo Community Market will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday on and around the grounds of the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce at the historic Bivins Building, 1000 S. Polk St. ... The Amarillo Outdoor Expo runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday in the Amarillo Civic Center Complex South Exhibit Hall, 401 S. Buchanan St. The trade show features guides, taxidermists, outfitters and more. Admission is $5. ... Performances of Texas continue at 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Visit www.texas-show.com. … Song of the Eagle performances continue at Kwahadi Museum of the American Indian, 9151 E. Interstate 40. This week, a show is set for 7 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. July 21. Performances continue at 7 p.m. July 23. Tickets are $9 for adults, $7 for seniors and $5 for students; meals are $12 each. Call 806-335-3175. ... Outdoor activities include regular hours at Amarillo Zoo, Wonderland Park and Sports World, as well as at parks across town.
Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and at www.facebook.com/chipchandlerwriter on Facebook.
