by Harold McMillan

Gary's Vision

A couple of years ago when the Artists' Coalition of Austin (ACA) lost their warehouse gallery and studio space, they needed to relocate to another building suitable for exhibitions, classes, and individual work spaces. Finding such a place in downtown Austin, on a nonprofit arts organization's budget, generally would not be an easy task. But they got lucky. It just so happened that a young real estate broker was in a position to be helpful, had access to another downtown building, and was willing to negotiate with the ACA.

The ACA's move to 1705 Guadalupe Street, and hence the creation of the ArtPlex, happened because Gary Peden -- that young real estate broker -- wanted to help create a place for the ACA to continue the tradition of providing their membership a place for their very popular life drawing classes, membership exhibitions, classes and meetings. The benefit of Peden's deal with the ACA for the rest of us is that the organization and several of their members acted as initial anchor tenants for ArtPlex. And for the sake of doing business, these anchor tenants provided the critical mass necessary for the building to attract a steady stream of other arts organizations, individual painters, photographers, hair cutters, massage therapists, and film and media professionals. In short, the Artists' Coalition of Austin and Gary Peden gave birth to a great place for arts professionals to grow their businesses and sharpen their skills.

After just a couple of years, the ArtPlex is always at 100% occupancy -- with a waiting list -- and the core tenants seem poised to move to the next level of cooperation for building a unified arts-business community, all within the confines of these walls at 1705 Guadalupe.

The ArtPlex, and similar "arts coop" concepts, are not unique. The multi-purpose arts facility idea is something that almost all arts organization folks dream, conjure, and envision at one time or another. Visions and dreams are good things. They are necessary to the process. Having visions and dreams, however, does not make one a visionary.

Visionaries are those folks who take their dreams, much like an idea for a painting, and actually get out there and do the work necessary for the dream to live, for the painting to actually get painted. Visionaries make significant efforts to see their dreams become reality. Their vision, their work then has a real life way of being around, being visible, offering a testament to something more than just the idea.

Gary Peden, the founder of the ArtPlex, died earlier this month. All of us here, and many more in his extended family of friends, are saddened by this loss.

Gary's work, his vision lives on here in very real ways. Those of us who are tenants of ArtPlex are grateful that Gary cared enough to be a true visionary, one whose good works live on for the benefit of others.

The Wind-up

A couple of years ago, when I turned 40, I went through this period where almost all of my columns had something to do with age. I was lamenting getting old, warning the 20-somethings to get busy and live, reminding the old folks to feel as young as they can. The thing that was going on, which was obvious to most if not me, was my realization that life experience really does matter. Without harsh judgment of right or wrong, there are just somethings about being older that separate the men from the boys. There are somethings my body just won't do anymore. But there are also somethings that my body can do, but quite frankly, I just don't want to do anymore. There are lots of examples that I'm sure come to mind for those of you who, like me, are now in the over-40 set. Staying up all night, for instance: I named this column "Up All Night" because it reflected the reality of my life at the time. Five years ago when I started this little magazine I literally had to stay up all night (several nights, really) in order to get the thing out of the office and to the printer on time.

That's just one example. Another thing that has hit home very recently has to do with one of my other professional and personal interests. The ways in which I most comfortably experience live music performances have changed, matured, and perhaps gotten very old-fogy. As someone who for the last twenty years has performed, produced, and observed live music performances, I now have an idea of what I consider a good show. I know what invisible production means. I know what artist/audience-friendly is. I know the difference between good presentation and bad.

Most, but not all, of what I just said ties back into the age thing. At this point in my career I'm not sure I really have the smarts to produce a really good alt/rock concert or club date. I'm not sure I would do the right things to make an 18-year-old Foo Fighters' fan have a good time at a club show. I'm being a bit facetious here, but from what I've seen, I think I'd probably want to make the show too comfortable.

You see, I'd be stupid enough to think about sight lines, a good mix of tables and chairs, enough space to dance and stand, good walk-up access to the service bar, and barstool/bar-leaning access to the rest of the bar. To keep my non-smoking clients happy, I'd think about ventilation and air flow. To truly showcase the music and musicians, I'd also have a sound person who understands the difference between a good mix that is loud enough and simply a loud mix.

It's probably good I don't try to produce rock shows for kids. I'd make it too comfortable, take all of the fun out of it. In the back of my mind though, I still have this suspicion that even shoe-gazing modsters would appreciate some of the stuff that is important to me.

In the front of my mind, I know that old, young, and everyone in between who appreciates a comfortable well produced show, has some understanding of the importance of presentation. Just like in the food service business, putting out good tasting food is only part of the mix. It's gotta look and taste good, and be presented in a manner that lets you know that service is a key value of the establishment.

In the Austin live music-presenting business these days, there is a weird thing going on. Some of the weirdness comes from the tense relationship between official fire code numbers and the body count needed to actually pay for the shows. Some of it is about taste, some about limitation of facilities. The IT I'm referring to is the new "don't give'em a place to sit down" trend in the live music halls in town. Whatup wid dat? Am I the only one asking?

I don't think it is just a generation gap thing. I concede that younger folks who might be up for a sweaty night of bump and grind at Emo's probably think about these issues less often. But I'd bet that many of the folks, young and old, who have recently paid good money to hear Roy Hargrove, Charlie Hunter, Taj Mahal, Bernie Worrell, and other touring jazz or blues acts would have really appreciated a place to sit down -- or at least to have the option for a realistic competition for some available chairs, table service, and sight lines to the stage.

I don't mean to pick on La Zona, Antones, and the Mercury. There are, I'm sure, reasons behind the lack of "best possible show" presentation. With Antones the thing seems to be a fire code situation that they inherited once they enlarged the hall. In order to get a reasonable number of folks through the door to pay for their shows, the Fire Marshall says that can't try to seat their patrons. I guess the question really involves exactly just what that 'reasonable number" is. And perhaps that particular number was set when the renovation was done, which happens to have been just in time for the overflow crowds of SXSW. Are they now stuck with an occupancy number because for that week in March they wanted to get all of the SXSWsters they could possibly hold in the joint. If that's true, it's really too bad. I really wanted to actually sit down, along with the other 200 people, to hear and see Charlie Hunter. There was no threat to our safety that night because of uncontrollable crowds rushing the stage and blocking exits. By the way, that was a great show. Charlie and his drummer played their asses off. Old folks just wanna have a seat and listen to the show.

Without giving the same blow-by-blow of my experiences at the Mercury (to hear Roy Hargrove) or La Zona (to hear Taj), just know that both of these shows featured top notch entertainment. The music was happenin'. The Mercury just happens to be a small narrow hall with few tables and chairs, and not much space to stand either. It's just a drag to not be able to sit, or see,or have room to dance when the music is that good. Same for the Taj Mahal show, however, it seems that La Zona would have the resources the really deck the place out with tables and chairs, and have a good large dance floor for an act like Taj. It seemed like a management decision more so than a Fire Marshall edict, or facility/space problem.

As I've said here before, for a medium to small touring jazz or other good listening show, the Victory Grill continues to get my vote for most comfortable live music room in Austin. Unfortunately there's not much happening there these days.

The Pitch

After saying all of that, to let you know how I feel about the importance of presentation in producing live music, here's what I hope you consider to be some good news. I am happy to report that very soon DiverseArts will have the pleasure of producing live music in a new music venue that has all of that stuff I've mentioned above.

I can now announce that I have an agreement with the Clay Pit Indian Restaurant (housed in the historic Bertram's Building at 16th and Guadalupe Streets) to begin live music programming in their second story venue. Our plan is to offer an eclectic mix of what well call "new/world/jazz" music programming: new composition and experimental improvised music, mixed with world musics (including Indian Classical) and various strains of live jazz will be presented.

The music room is one of those every-seat-a-good-seat halls with good sight lines, ample space to sit or move or stand, and a focus on the music performance as the main reason for being there. I am not saying that every performance there will be a DiverseArts produced show, I'm just letting you know that there's something good ready to happen.

If you want to come and check out our trial run show, mark your calendar for Sunday May 23, 8:30pm upstairs at the Clay Pit. We will host a dance party featuring the music of the Gypsies. Believe me, this just might be Austin's next great live music room.

See you next month.