MAC - Black Friday

We have a special "Black Friday" deal for the holidays. Very soon we'll announce it on Facebook so if you're not a fan become one.

Give thanks for all the good in our lives and enjoy the holiday.

be well
Stephen

Sara Hickman

I've followed Sara's career since my time in Dallas, Texas in the early nineties when she was on a meteoric rise moving from the songwriter pubs and folk festivals of Texas to a national record label and appearances with Carson on the Tonight Show. She has always been a soulful songwriter with a charmed voice.

In the mid nineties her major label record company, Elektra, couldn't recognize that she was bigger than Billboard box and let her go; however, they kept the recording session tapes she had been working on in their studios. Elektra told Sara she could buy them back for the price of a small home. Here comes the amazing part, singer-songwriters don't have enough money to put a roof over their own heads let alone buy an album back from a LA record company. Sara's fans, one dollar - ten dollars - a hundred dollars at a time, bought her album back from Elektra for $50,000 and Necessary Angels was released.

Since that time Sara has continued to grow as an artist, releasing many more albums on independent labels. She has advocated for women and children with her music and won numerous awards. But the folks in my office can't get the Daisy Sour Cream song out of their heads.

I am looking forward to having Sara visit Club MAC with her graceful songs and charm - and my daughter will be dancing at the kid's show.

be well

Stephen

State of Affairs

I was recently on a state-wide conference call listening to Ra Joy, Director of Arts Alliance Illinois, Terry Scrogum, Director Illinois Arts Council, and State Representative Harry Osterman discuss the dismal situation that state arts funding finds itself in. The state is in a precarious position with not enough money in the coffers to fund all of the services and projects that the legislators and the citizens want to see funded. In times like these the arts are often categorized as unessential and something that can be idled while the rest of the machine is gassed up.

I was in a public school two weeks ago judging an art competition and was told that the elementary children there receive art and music instruction once a week. The teachers were happy of that fact while I wondered where is drama and dance and is setting time aside for two hours a week all the commitment we have to the creative education of our children.

It is important to remember that it was creativity as well as academic intelligence that built skyscrapers in Chicago, put men on the moon, and put a PC on every desk.

If we think that art has a place in our schools and in our society we must tell our elected officials.

be well

Stephen

Blue MAC Friday

Go to You Tube and type in Paul Thorn. Pick any video, the one with his daughter is really sweet. You will hear what I heard two years ago at BB Kings in New York City - a whiskey and cigarettes voice from a man who has lived hard, he was a professional boxer and knows of the Divine, he is the son of Pentecostal preachers. Not that his music is sacred, but it is spiritual and sometimes profane.

Paul will share the MAC stage this Friday with Joan Osborne, you need to think beyond "If God were one of us" - she is so so much more than a top forty pop singer, and the Holmes Brothers who will take you to their blues infused church. This will be a once in a life time show - I am certainly looking forward to Friday night.

be well

Stephen