A Literary Finale of Musical Proportions

Last year, we finished off the festival with a fun and energetic concert for all ages by folk musician and children's book author Barry Louis Polisar (he recently gained more mainstream recognition with his contribution to the soundtrack for the movie Juno). After a few discussions, I think our planning for this year is leaning toward a similar sort of finale performance, but one of a more collaborative nature.

In 2009, our favorite quirky author/artist/bookmaker duo Idiots'Books teamed up with fun, whimsical, experimental, independent-label band Bombadil for a different sort of book project. For Bombadil's newest album Tarpits and Canyonlands, Robbi Behr and Matthew Swanson (of Idiots'Books) created the album art and a strange but fitting sort of story that is soundtracked by Bombadil's music. Yes, this album art/story is a real book--another example of the vast and under-appreciated realm of book arts. This album was also released as Volume 22 from Idiots'Books subscription service.

Again I will indulge our hopes for the ideal finale performance for this year: a collaborative musical multimedia performance with Bombadil and Idiots'Books. We would arm storytellers Matthew and Robbi with a projector (possibly their own) and projector screen, and Bombadil could play a soundtrack to the Idiots' interpretation of Tarpits and Canyonlands. I would like to add as a disclaimer, that (again) none of these plans have been confirmed with any of the artists. This is just what we would really, really, really like to happen. We were, in fact, saddened to learn of an illness in the band that has caused them to take a bit of a hiatus from touring to regain their strength. We hope that you will get better soon.