Everybody likes music right? Of course you do. Throughout the history of music, there have been a variety of formats to listen to music other than actually hearing it live — eight tracks, cassettes, cassette singles, CDs,  and lately through Youtube and more prominently downloaded MP3.

But there is something especially special about hearing it  on an LP being played on a old fashioned turntable. One of best things about LPs is the cover art — being able to hold it in your hands, savour the artwork and get lost in the liner notes.

 This is the inspiration behind Spin, a new art exhibition  and sale happening at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, this Saturday, April 22.

 Numerous local artists got together to design their own LP cover art for two reasons —  to coincide with Record Store Day and to give the the artists a chance to make a few dollars from their work as well as to offer unique art at a reasonable price.
“There is some really neat stuff,” said artist Leila Armstrong, who co-organized this event with Todd Lacharite.

“I was worried at first when only four people showed up to the workshop we held at the Bowman for ’Spin‘, but as the deadline approached, submissions came pouring in. It turned out better than I ever expected,” she continued adding 27 local artists submitted 75 local works for the show, which was on display at the Blueprint  Gallery, but has recently been moved to the Owl Acoustic Lounge to lead up to the Saturday gala event.

There are a couple of interesting exhibits downtown which opened on the weekend.

 The Bowman always has interesting exhibits. Two of them opened April 9 for good sized crowds who came out to enjoy them on the weekend.

 The Students of Life figure drawing exhibit in one room is impressive, with numerous stunningly beautiful sketches and drawings of several nudes.

 But the one that was catching the eyes of most people was Peter Gilligan’s “Under Christou’s Panel— The Recycled  Imagination of Peter Gillian.
 He turned what most people would consider  junk — i.e. pieces of metal, old discs, pallets into things of true beauty.

 A really beautiful fountain is the first thing you see upon entering ‘the curtain.’ Gravel fills a pallet, with wood set along the sides and water flows over three old discs. There are also an assortment of beautiful lamps and a fast moving ballerina and a lot more.

Over at the Penny building, on fifth street downtown, University of Lethbridge New Media students have some of their favourite works on display until  April 21.

 There are mock ups of movie posters, some of the films which were shown at the University of Lethbridge Film Festival a couple weeks ago, photoshopped photographs. A special display is New Media MFA candidate Marta Blicharz’s “Breaking the Spell, ” an exhibit of computer code which shows how much impact changing one tiny character can have on a photograph.

On Saturday, take some time for yourself and check out Craftateria 2, April 16 from noon - 5 p.m. at the Gate downtown.

“There is a lot going on. There’s Record Store Day and the Children’s Fair and a lot of concerts, so come and see us in between the Children’s Fair and going out for the evening,” observed co-organizer Shanell Papp, one of between 17-20 local alternative crafts-people participating in the event.

It was inspired by the first, very successful Craftateria held in December at Mary-Anne McTrowe’s downtown studio.

“We were joking this is the selfish craftateria because Christmas you buy for others, this time we buy for ourselves,” she said, noting there will be a variety of arts and crafts in this event.

“We’re kind of like etsy.com, the little sister to eBay. So there will be things like hand knit cell phone covers that look like owls, some people create necklaces out of resin. And a lot of people are making things out of repurposed items and there is some vintage sellers as well,” she said noting the goal was to keep table rentals affordable so all of the craftspeople can make a little money.