Has it really been two years already since Night Market 831 got its start? The Sand City Art Park has many uses, but this monthly happening is when it really comes alive. Producers Good Vibez Presents has consistently brought in local talent on a rotating basis to the postage-stamp-size space, well maybe more like a postcard-size place now that it’s expanded with more vendors. And in so doing they’ve given more local artisans, chefs, musicians, etc. a space where they can expand the public’s awareness of their chosen endeavors.
Every first Friday of the month is when this happens at 525 Ortiz Ave., just off Sand City’s main entry off Del Monte Avenue, Contra Costa Street. This second anniversary edition will feature musical guest The BASSment, a local soul, hip-hop, funk collective that, if I remember correctly, appeared at the initial installment or at least early on in the event’s ongoing series. Band chief of all things art and music, Hanif Wondir heads up the band and brings the swagger of his DJ personality to the music. He’s also a master artist who has created mural art in the neighborhood nearby, as well as fine art to hang on walls. Other band members are drummer Justin “Tunabunny” Horrell, keyboardist Wobbles, soulful singer Chelsea Riddle, trumpeter Schuyler Horn, bassist Neil Barton, and guitarist Glenn Bell. The band’s website is at www.thebassment831.com.
It is a festive atmosphere at the Night Market 831, with a marquee-lighted sign at the entrance, lights crisscrossing above the central gathering area where picnic tables offer a place to sit down to eat or hang out with friends. The space is fenced in and sandwiched between buildings adorned with mural art splashed with colors of the rainbow.
Last time I was there the place was packed out with people of all ages and demographics, families, hipsters, and neighbors who come from as far away as the Salinas Valley. Kids can play games, participate in interactive art projects and meet new friends. Young adults can also play games, shop for artisan offerings, listen to the music and dance, and otherwise just hang out with their buds. It’s a great spot to foster community.
For the anniversary event there will be over a dozen local art, food and nonprofit vendors, which will include Arsenio Baca, Big Sur Land Trust, Casas De Humo BBQ, Central Coastan Pizza, Johnny Wicks Candles, La Boba Y El Grando De Cafe, Lamboo Trade Company, Maido Japanese Catering, MMM Churros, Post No Bills Craft Beer, Progress Not Perfection Paint Parties, Pupusaria Nathalia, Sabor Latin Fusion, Small Kind Soaps, That Unique Batch, & What’s Poppn’ Popcorn.
This always free and open to everyone event takes place between 5-9 p.m. Dan and Amy Sheehan, the folks behind Good Vibez Presents, have a knack for finding the sweet spot when it comes to holding events that speak to a wide-ranging community. They produce the California Roots Music & Arts Festival, the very popular reggae/ska/hip-hop event held for three days over the Memorial Day weekend at the Monterey Fair & Event Center, and their most recent project, the Rebels and Renegades Music Festival, which recently wrapped up its second year at the Fairgrounds in early October.
As we’re navigating through the Latin American tradition of Dia de los Muertos, whether celebrated in the traditional sense or in a more contemporary pan-cultural way, artists have really connected with the iconography of the skull. The holiday as celebrated in Mexico includes sugar skulls on many of the altars erected in the memory of departed loved ones. The ancient cultures of the Aztecs and Mayans, among others, believed that the souls of their deceased family members would return at this time of the year when the veil between here and the “other side” was thinnest. Today people still take comfort with this idea, and in a sense use their creativity to build altars at the grave, at home or in other public places to keep the memory of those gone alive.
This Sunday from 3-7 p.m., the Sixth Annual November Skulls event, A Collaborative Art Show featuring works of art by Lili Jorge, Michelle Robertson and Rory Glass, takes place at the Headdress Salon, 883 Lighthouse Ave. in Monterey. The public is invited to the exhibition of reimagined photography, digital illustrations and elaborate shadow boxes. If any of the “pieces inspire you to celebrate the ones you appreciate in your life and the community that surrounds you,” the displayed art can also be purchased. Drinks and light refreshments will be available.
Lili Jorge started making sugar skull-inspired shadow boxes in early 2015 as a way to creatively express her admiration for Dia de Los Muertos. Lili uses vintage cigar boxes, multi-media, and recycled material to create a compilation that expresses the delicate balance between life and death. Lili Jorge is Heather Jorgensen’s nom de plume. She is the owner of Headdress Salon.
Michelle Robertson is a local photographer focused on fine art composite photography that tells a story through digitally reimagined photographs. Robertson creates a believable or abstract image through the tools of digital photography applications. “I have opened my artistic world so deeply with this medium,” she said. “I have always been a storyteller. I try to photograph things with a question to the viewer.” Her art has been featured at Nancy Dodds Art Gallery & Pacific Grove Art Works.
Rory Glass is a graphic designer and lettering artist who combines the use of digital illustration, generative AI, vintage ephemera, typography, and graphic art integrated with bold color schemes and vintage styles fused with modern graphic design. He finds a bridge between commercial production and fine art through his experience in industrial graphic design and painting and lettering. He finds inspiration in the weird and wacky world of the occult, as well as the music industry and local wildlife.
Andy Summers, who established his place in music history as guitarist for British rock band the Police, appears Saturday at the Golden State Theatre as part of his solo tour titled The Cracked Lens + A Missing String, An Evening with Andy Summers. In the course of his 80 years on the planet he’s immersed himself not only in music, but also in the art of photography and writing. This multi-media presentation features projected sequences of his photography accompanied by Summers on guitar.
The Santa Monica resident’s career began in the mid-1960s in London as guitarist for the British R&B band Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band. It evolved to an acid rock band called Dantalian’s Chariot when the psychedelic scene became the big thing in London. He had a brief stint with Soft Machine, and with Eric Burdon and the Animals following. He spent five years in Los Angeles where he studied classical guitar and composition at Cal State Northridge, graduating in 1972. He returned to London and toured with acts Joan Armatrading David Essex, Neil Sedaka and others. In 1977 he was a founding member of the Police with Sting and Stewart Copeland. Hit songs from The Police include “Message in a Bottle,” “Roxanne” and “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic.”
Summers created an original guitar tone while with The Police, and his music interests included jazz, new-age, pop, avant-garde in addition to the new wave rock the Police was known for. Post Police he made 15 solo records, collaborated with many other musicians and toured the world as a solo artist. He has published several books of photography, written an auto-biography “One Train Later,” and a film based on the book came out in 2015 titled “Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police.” He’s won two Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Police in 2003, and received the Chevalier of the Order des Arts et des Lettres with the Police in 2007, among many other awards.
Saturday evening’s show starts at 8 p.m., doors are at 7 p.m., with tickets running from $39.50 to $79.50 plus fees, available online at www.goldenstatetheatre.com. Other shows at the downtown Monterey theater this week include Friday, 8 p.m. with Bobby Bones: Comedically Inspirational On Tour, and Tuesday, 8 p.m., Wheeler Walker, Jr.: The Spread Eagle Tour with Channing Wilson opening.