Get your dancing shoes on darlin, we're going out tonight

Last week I received an invite to see the Charleston Jazz Orchestra. I said yes, then realized it was for the 10 p.m. second set. Oh.

Now I love jazz. It's my main "writing" music, and I make a point to see some each year during Piccolo Spoleto. But I don't see it live as much as I say I want to. So I got off the couch, changed out of my Saturday night stretchy pants, put on some heels and made good on that orchestra ticket.

Best decision I made that week. My face hurt from smiling, responding to conductor Charlton Singleton's excellent direction and easy manner. The show was infectious, fun, and the 10 p.m. showing was open, loose, and more personal. Everyone that was there seem to feel it, including Stacy Huggins of Charleston Art Mag (who I missed seeing that night. I didn't look around really -- eyes mesmerized by the stage). Stacy's blog recap was perfect, check it out here, but I want to express how it made me feel.

It changed the course of my thoughts. I wasn't feeling great when I got there, and when I left, I was walking on air. It's the power of music, of a language that we all understand, of the joy that the musicians felt playing together. It washed over all of us, a gift.

A place for Modern Design?

Don't think you have to have a modern home to enjoy modern art.

Stacy Huggins of Charleston Art Mag recently sent me a fascinating blog post featuring The Beehive in the Garden. It highlights a wonderful modern art sculpture inspired by the interaction of man and bees, and it's set in a formal garden of a Parisian mansion originally built in the 1620s.

Dance of Bees, or "La Danse des Abeilles" by French designers Vaulot & Dyèvre 

I love the color and the old-fashioned idea of a beehive re-presented as this blue cage-like sculpture. To me, it is inviting, saying that the garden is part of the present, not just revered because of its role in the past, but very much today. The past is preserved, yes, but at once you think about the people who chose this sculpture, who live here now. And that's a beautiful thing.

Pertinent discussion, perhaps, for Charleston, don't you think? In fact, such a debate is in progress, and I for one, agree with Robert Behre, who says, "reusing buildings gently --without tarting them up so their original incarnation is completely obscured." Here in Charleston, it's a balance between respecting the old while living in the present. Just like The Beehive in the Garden.

Required reading added to the list

There is a good chance that you have not seen Charleston Art Magazine. It's petite with a petite distribution, but this quarterly, and the ladies who put it together, know what's going on. And I mean, know. Go to any hip event, and there's a good chance that Stacy or Olivia will be there. And will know much more about it than you (well, maybe not you, but me).

Still, they are not just about the events. They recently started a blog for the magazine, and it's filled with good info., calls for artists and a really great resource list of "artsy" things to get you plugged in fast. I'm honored that "From My Little Desk" is part of their blog roll too!

Add it to your blog reading list, all you art fans out there -- it's a great resource for the region.