Friday, February 17, 8:15pm, Manbites Dog Theatre (703 Foster Street, Durham, NC) – A repeat performance of Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: The Pet, an animated short from the early 1920s by Winsor McCay, in which a man eats a rarebit, falls asleep, dreams that a pet comes to stay, horrible things ensue, explosions, destruction, etc. Billy Sugarfix and I will be performing the live, original score, timed to line up with the short, on organ/xylophone/glockenspiel/auxiliary percussion.  This is part of the Strange Beauty Film Festival, and will be included in the Friday night block of films. Tickets to this performance/film showing can be purchased at the Manbites Dog website. This festival sold out last year, so buy tickets early!

Saturday, February 18, 8:00pm, 108 Morris St., Durham, NC – Felix Obelix will open for a large-scale sound/art installation by Greensboro geniuses Invisible. Entitled, The New Obsolete, Invisible will be set up for the month of February, doing weekend performances on a variety of handmade analog/digital instruments.  One of these will be the Selectric Piano – a typewriter rigged to “allow a typist to become an experimental pianist. Each letter typed equals one note played.”  I curated the Liminal Festival in 2009 and had Invisible do their analog drum machine performance, and it was a highlight of that.  This is that times 100.  I am honored to be included in a great list of openers for this ongoing performance, and in the spirit of Invisible, I am going to try, in addition to the Felix Obelix songs you already know, to do some live oboe+loop pedal business. This is only $7 – a bargain for this type of performance!

Lastly, Wendy will be showing a solo collage/mixed media art exhibit at the Open Eye Cafe in downtown Carrboro, NC for the month of March, 2012.  More on that later!

The month of November 2011 brings you two interesting Felix Obelix updates!

1) Josh Kimbrough, Felix Obelix, Yandrew, Cassis Orange, and Prypyat will be playing some songs while you drink cider/hot chocolate, on November 16 at the Trekky House (113 Huse St., Chapel Hill, NC) Yandrew is a new collaboration between Yan Westerlund (Bowerbirds, Mount Moriah, Lost in the Trees) and Drew Anagnost (Lost in the Trees). This will be their DEBUT SHOW!!! Prypyat is a collaboration between Duncan Webster (Hammer No More The Fingers) and Leah Gibson (Lost in the Trees).  This show is brought to you by the Trekky House and Special Passenger Records (Missouri) to mark the release of the latter’s compilation album which celebrates music communities all across our country. Now that the compilation (featuring Daniel Hart, Midtown Dickens, Butterflies, and others) has been released, Special Passenger records is taking the album on tour to each band’s hometown to discover more about the communities, meet and talk to wonderful people, film interesting and beautiful things, and share it all on their website: http://feelslikecominghome.com/.  Show starts at 6:30pm; Felix Obelix second at 7pm.

2) A song by Felix Obelix will be featured in the CD compilation of an issue of Southern Cultures, the magazine put out by the UNC Southern Folklife Collection, to be available in November. Word has it that also on this compilation will be the Avett Brothers, Archers of Loaf, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Last Year’s Men,  Doc and Merle Watson, and the Lumbee congregation, Union Chapel Community Baptist Church, led by Pastor Jimmy Strickland and Sister Flora.  I can’t tell you how psyched I am about this, as I’ve heard nothing but how hard the Union Chapel Community Baptist Church ROCKS OUT. When it’s out and available, I will let you know!

Cheers! Wendy

Friday, March 4 at 9:30pm at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill, NC, with The Lisps, The Forms and Towers.

Friday, July 8 at 8:00pm at Jessee’s in Carrboro, NC. 2nd Friday artwalk.

Both of these shows are the Wendy solo version of Felix Obelix, which you will see much more of in 2011!

Also just added: solo Wendy + ipod show on Saturday, Jan. 15 at the Pinhook in Durham, with Amor de Cosmos and Joy in Red.  This guy is coming and so should you.

I am very curious about the experience of receiving this letter from your past selves, and I encourage you to comment here on this blog post’s comments section about anything having to do with the project: what it was like to write it, did you remember anything you wrote, how had things changed for you, or any other feelings you had when you read your past self’s message to your current self.  Just think, when you wrote it in February, October 2010 was squarely in the Future, and now that future is your present.  Mind-boggling, no?

Please leave a comment! thanks, Wendy