Go Memphis

The 10th season of the IRIS Orchestra came to a triumphant close Saturday night with a robust blend of brilliance.

In death, as in life, Alex Chilton remained the focus of attention, intrigue and homage. The final day of the South by Southwest music festival clearly seemed to revolve around the Memphis music legend, who died Wednesday in his adopted hometown of New Orleans from a presumed heart attack.

The company members of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater could no doubt turn the hokey pokey into an art form. Such is the spirit and intensity of their movement when they take the stage. To look at their slender arms, muscular thighs, and bodies that travel through space more like liquid than flesh is to witness some of the world’s most incredible dance alchemy.

Singer-songwriter John Mayer has been garnering more attention for his loutish public statements than his music of late. But the 17,000 people who turned out to see the Grammy winner and his band play the FedExForum Friday night seemed in a forgiving mood, more than willing to let his tabloid transgressions pass in exchange for two hours of mellow pop rock.

When the Broadway revival of "South Pacific" was staged at Lincoln Center in 2008, critics and audiences swooned with rapture before the first actor even took the stage. The reason? A visual surprise for fans of Richard Rodgers' timeless score. As the opening notes of "Bali Ha'i" floated through the overture, the stage peeled back revealing the full orchestra underneath.

A lesbian high school student embroiled in a legal flap over her school's prom policy has received a $30,000 scholarship on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
Constance McMillen was speechless Friday when talk show host Ellen DeGeneres pulled out an oversized check from the Web site Tonic.Com, a digital media company.

Violinist Laura Lutzke will perform Sunday at the Belz-Parker Artists Ascending Concert Series at Baron Hirsch Congregation. Lutzke, a 23-year-old Juilliard graduate student, has impressed listeners in performances around the world. She was concertmaster of the New York Youth Symphony for four years and has won numerous competitions since age 9. She will be accompanied by Edvinas Minkstimas, who is considered one of Europe’s top emerging young concert pianists.

Guitar legend Leo Kottke and neo-vaudevillian blues stylist Leon Redbone will get up-close-and-personal with audiences next season at the Buckman Arts Center at St. Mary’s School. The 14th season for the 288-seat theater on the corner of Walnut Grove and Perkins Ext. also continues its tradition of world music and dance. “We try to bring an eclectic range of artists,” said director Cindi Younker. “And also make the best use of our intimate performance space.”

Thursday’s night official South by Southwest festivities were highlighted by the Memphis Music Foundation’s second annual showcase at Barbarella. A solo set by singer-songwriter Harlan T. Bobo drew a surprisingly strong early evening crowd to the club, as Bobo played songs off his forthcoming Goner Records release Sucker. Ardent label act Star & Micey and Big Star’s Jody Stephens followed.

Since 2007, the Minivan Blues Band has been a long-distance affair. That year, Joe Schicke, group co-founder, singer, guitarist, and one of the band's chief co-writers, moved to Fort Collins, Colo., to go to graduate school. Now, without the luxury of playing together all the time, the Minivan has tightened its sound, trimmed the musical excess and fastened in on their original songs. The band plays at the Hi-Tone in Memphis tonight for a CD release party.

So awash in color are the canvases of Allison Weld, you want to dive right in. Take the art-versus-artifice work "Tiepolo's Dream," where an abstract painting bursting with hue feels more organic and "natural" than the panels of flower-motif fabric beside it. A retrospective of some two dozen works by the New York artist made between 1980 and 2009 can be seen through April 17 at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis, where tonight's opening reception is 5-7:30 p.m.

It's 1 a.m. Sunday morning. Nocturnal is hot. The Midtown nightspot is packed with young people — many guys shirtless and young women in summery attire even though it's February. They move to pulsating sounds as laser lights and camera flashes strike their bodies. Others crowd close to the deejay and reach out as if they're grabbing the beats. Outside, a 50-foot line of people wait for their chance to dance before everything stops at 3 a.m.

Want something good to eat or drink this week? Consider the following:

"Avatar," "Star Trek," "District 9" -- the most familiar science-fiction movies of the past year have raised the bar for technical accomplishment, from their galaxy-spanning spacecraft to their computer-generated monsters. But science fiction is a genre of ideas more than effects, which is why clever filmmakers with limited resources continue to pursue strange visions of alternate worlds.

Twenty years have elapsed since Judith Jamison inherited the leadership of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, a dance company-turned-institution that is almost constantly on the move. Jamison, 66, is still moving with it. She'll likely be watching from the back of the Orpheum this weekend when the troupe performs three slightly different programs, each anchored by Ailey's 1960 signature work "Revelations."

Well, come on. Surely we can all have a good laugh together at the mural on the wall at the Mellow Mushroom, the one that says "The Soul of Germantown." Say what? Hey, no one's knocking Germantown here, and definitely not taking a shot at the Mellow Mushroom. It's just funny. Soul and Germantown. Hmmm ... I wonder if Stax is thinking about moving to the 'burbs ...

"The Miracle Worker": Classic tells the story of Annie Sullivan and her student, blind and mute Helen Keller. 8 tonight and Saturday; final performance 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets $30, $20 for students, senior citizens, military; $10 for children. Circuit Playhouse, 51 S. Cooper. Call 726-4656. playhouseonthesquare.org.

Fireball violinist Jennifer Koh, who fiddled a great Leonard Bernstein "Serenade after Plato's Symposium" with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra in 2007, is back in town Saturday with the IRIS Orchestra to perform the same piece. It's the last concert of the season for IRIS, and also features Dvorak's Ninth Symphony and Ravel's "Valses nobles et sentimentales."

A day after his death, shock and sadness slowly gave way to fond remembrance by friends, fans and fellow musicians.

An all-star lineup of African-American comedians will take to the stage Friday at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts with the "5 Star Comedy Explosion," a one-of-a-kind concert event featuring comics Sheryl Underwood, Marvin Dixon, Cory Holcomb, Lester Bibbs, and a surprise special guest.