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Sunday June 10 we held an Opening Reception for the new artist showing at the Footprint Gallery. The gallery also doubles as the canvas offices. When we planned the event we didn’t realize the Long Island Gay Pride Parade was being held up the street the same day. Although we were all aware of the parade and knew the date, we never made the mental connection about how it would impact our event.

Unfortunately our reception and the parade also began at the same time and, as we surveyed an empty room, we started to receive calls from hopeful reception attendees saying they could not get near the gallery, that the streets were closed and they were stuck in traffic. Knowing we couldn’t have a no-show reception, we improvised; printing out flyers for the gallery, running up the street and distributing them to parade attendees. We adopted guerilla marketing techniques, creatively soliciting attendees to visit the gallery.

As my business partner Matt and I shifted gears, we tried different ways of engaging those we met and sharing the benefits of visiting the gallery. The result was the gallery filled up, we made some new canvas friends, and were able to introduce the magazine to folks who did not know us already. People came, reviewed artist Taylour Mishel’s work, enjoyed a refreshment graciously provided by Whole Foods Market and spent some time with our publication.

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Welcome Canvas readers to the first of many thoughts on music. If you love it as much as do, then one column a month just won’t cut it. As a music columnist, I am constantly discovering someone new to write about. Rarely do I find a musician I don’t like. Even rarer that I’m not downloading my new finds. The problem is there’s not enough passionate ‘ipod-ers’ to share my music with. Often, I’ll mention a great band to a friend and they’ll look at me like I have four heads and say, “Where do you find these people?” On the flip side, I’ve definitely turned a few of them on to some great new music.

So, what exactly is great music? Like anything else, it’s purely subjective. My personal A-list: Pete Yorn, George Harrison and Elliott Smith to name a few. The common thread being all are great songwriters and great guitarists, melodic and mellow in tone, introspective in nature.

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According to recent headlines President Bush is urging new greenhouse gas goals. However at the same time the U.S. has not ratified the Kyoto treaty and according to a BBC article the other day, the President will oppose any demands for the U.S. to cut carbon emissions.

I had said in a previous blog post that politico’s right, left and center spend so much time arguing details that we go ‘round and ‘round that nothing gets accomplished. To me this is just another example of going ‘round again.

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