First Thursday & True West

Don't forget -- First Thursday is tonight, and the True West Cinema Festival starts tonight and goes on through Aug. 10 at the Flicks. Pick up a copy of the Boise Weekly for info on both events.

Some of the interesting-sounding exhibits include:

• "Masked: Faces of the Soul," an exhibit of burned and carved gourd masks at Art Source Gallery on 1015 W. Main.
• Glass-blowing demonstrations at Boise Art Glass Studios at 530 W. Myrtle.
• "Dog Days of Summer," an art show and silent auchtion at the Flying M to raise money for artists and the Humane Society.

I recommend checking out American Cockroach and Ad Infinitum at the Boise Art Museum, and it's hard to go wrong at the Basement Gallery, one of my favorite galleries. They have a few Boise State professors and former professors this time and a guy who manated TV news stations for 30 years; the Boise Weekly synopsis mentions some Mesoamerican ceramic sculptures and some exhibit called "Eco-Series."

I have to miss First Thursday again because of rehearsal; we'll see how many of these places I can get to. The good news is that I got to see Boys Life, which has one more show this weekend at the Neurolux, and the exhibits at Visual Arts Collective, so I'll have posts on those soon.

I don't think I'm going to review film on this site; there's enough to do with local theater and visual art, though I may venture into opera, dance or the philharmonic when those start up again. But True West looks like it has a lot of great films this year, and I'd encourage everyone to go.