Charleston Gazette

Home Away From Home

It's four days of arts and crafts, music, candlelight walking tours, cook-offs, food and fun around Beckley this weekend when the Raleigh County city hosts the Appalachian Festival. Events begin with the Taste of Appalachia along Main Street from 6 to 9 p.m. today with music from Paris and the New River Jazz Band, followed by a walking tour of historic haunted home sites around town. Other events include an arts and crafts fair at the Beckley Armory, tours of the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine,...

Those Krazy Katz

If you haven't been to one of Charleston's Live on the Levee performances yet, this is your last chance. Friday's 6:30 p.m. concert by local favorites the VooDoo Katz concludes the series, which assists a variety of local charities. The VooDoo Katz - Mark Davis, Kai Haynes, Derick Kirk, Andy Park, Deron Sodaro and Ammed Solomon - blend international influences for a unique, worldly sound. The Katz have a CD to their name, but it's their percussive, energetic, dance-inducing shows that have ma...

Mounds of Fun

From Cigar to Stage

A Hinton festival and museum honors a homemade instrument, spun off from the cigar, that was the first guitar ever played by Carl Perkins, Roy Clark and Jimi Hendrix tara@wvgazette.com

Film Clips

* "DEUCE BIGALOW: EUROPEAN GIGOLO": Grade: F. Marquee Cinemas. A bad movie about a gigolo isn't any better the second time around. Nor does it improve with hackneyed jokes about Europe. Rated R. - Dave Gustafson * "FOUR BROTHERS": Grade: B. MC, Park Place Stadium Cinemas. For people who complain that gang culture gets glamorized by Hollywood, this is a strong counterpoint. There are hot women, cool clothes and sweet cribs, but there is no glamour. Instead it's an unflattering and unsettling p...

Great Bowls of Fire!

Instrumentality

Between now and Sunday is the last chance to catch Ken Butler's "Hybrid Instruments" exhibit at the Clay Center's Avampato Discovery Museum, where a figure-eight chair-back takes up with a cello, where a "piano" plays Super102 when you depress the right key, and where another "piano" puts on light shows. One highlight is the Cubist throwback "Accumulation of Futures: A Reliquary of Braque and Roll," where guitars intersect with cellos, framed like a painting but three-dimensionally jutting ou...

Calendar

IN CONCERT * IVY TERRACE: Shows begin at 6:30 p.m. The schedule for this outdoor concert series includes: Central Standard Time (jazz), today. 105 Church St., Lewisburg. Free. Call 645-7917.

P.S.: ; Cigar Box Sounds

The Festival of the Rivers, held Labor Day Weekend in Hinton, is all about the music. This year, the free event crams a whopping 33 state, regional and international music acts into a mere two days. With the music running from noon to 11 p.m. both days, that's more than an act an hour. Some highlighted performers include:

Monkeying Around

If you're a fan of MTV's "Viva La Bam" or "Jackass," hit The Monkey Bar, 611 4th Ave., Huntington on Saturday for "Dunn and Don Vito's Rock Night," which will feature Ryan Dunn, Don Vito and two other "VLB" cast members as well as the bands Open Hand, Fight Paris and Disengage. According to the tour's Web site, the show will incorporate "multi-media, self-destructive behavior and music" for a night of "DIY stunt-work, video projectors, crowd participation and live rock." The all- ages show st...

Review: ; the Sacred and the Secular

Check out some of Wycliffe Gordon's singing trombone style on the disc "Slidin' Home" (Nagel Hayer Records, 1999). Highlight cuts include a gospelized slow jam rendition of "Amazing Grace." Gordon's plunger mute work conjures up the moaning of a desperate man who knows he's done wrong.

When the Trombone Speaks, It Must Be Gordon

Wycliffe Gordon admits that his instrument of choice - the trombone - will never win a popularity contest among the varied musical instruments found on stage. That's fine by him. As far as he's concerned, what the instrument may lack in flash is more than made up for by a rich, mellow tone that no trumpet or saxophone can ever duplicate.

Nightlife in Area Clubs

* BILLY SUNDAY'S BAR & GRILL: John Ross (acoustic and electric guitar and vocals), 9 p.m. to midnight Wednesday. 720 N. Winfield Road at the foot of Scary Creek Road, St. Albans. Call 204-2455. * BMW'S THE ULTIMATE GRILL: Jim Snyder, 8 to 11 p.m. Friday, no cover; ETA, 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday, no cover; Blues, Brews and BBQ Night with Mother's Trucker, 7 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, no cover; Bike Night with Mother's Trucker, 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday. 30 Nitro Marketplace, Cross Lanes. Call 776-8269.

Gazz Notes

Snapping to it If you've been visiting the Web version of the gazz (thegazz.com) during the week, you'll have noticed that new content is starting to appear there and not just on Thursdays, when the site is updated at the noon hour with everything you see in this print version.

In Short

Artists Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church seeks 14 local visual artists working in all media to create one station each for "Stations of the Cross: a Devotional Art Installation," a mixture of ancient Christian spirituality and contemporary art, which will be presented at the church, 805 Price St., in April. Visit www.livingstoneswv.org and follow the link to "Stations of the Cross." Or call Pastor Doug Minnerly at 346-7489 or e-mail revdougm@juno.com.

Next Week

Overloaded with Cliches, 'Red-Eye' Better Off Delayed

REVIEW "Red-Eye" Grade: C Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of violence and language) Directed by Wes Craven Starring Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy Marquee Cinemas, Park Place Stadium Cinemas Wes Craven is best known as the director of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Scream." In "Red-Eye," many of the same elements are examined.

This Bird Movie Doesn't Fly

REVIEW "Valiant" Grade: D Rated G Directed by Gary Chapman Featuring the voices of Ewan McGregor and Ricky Gervais Marquee Cinemas, Park Place Stadium Cinemas For the Gazette

Two Infantry Battalions Ordered to Iraq: ; Paratroopers Tp Provide Security for Elections

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has ordered 1,500 paratroopers to Iraq to provide security in advance of two upcoming national votes, the military announced Wednesday. Two infantry battalions from the 82nd Airborne Division will deploy to Iraq before the scheduled Oct. 15 referendum on the proposed constitution, and remain through the December national elections, the Pentagon said in a statement.

5th State Homeland Security Official Quits

ericeyre@wvgazette.com A fifth West Virginia homeland security official has resigned amid state and federal investigations.