I'm A Believer

How to pick the highlight from a Friday par excellence?

The ink show for which I'd written the preview in Style?  InLight with people I knew doing installations and live music? French pop until the wee hours?

"History Ink: The Tattoo Archive Project" was everything I'd tried to convey in my article about the exhibit and more. One girl's back and arms told her whole story: two ex-boyfriends and three states lived in. Personal history as body decoration.

One guy's back had a ram and a Nittany lion, symbolizing his undergrad work at Penn State and his graduate work at VCU. Academic career as body art.

I was taken by a picture of a tattoo where the artist and the  decorated were the same person. As if that weren't cool enough, the artist/tattooed arrived at the picture when I did. After ascertaining that he was both, I asked him to stand like he was in the picture so I could verify his tattoo. He did. It was him.

Particularly striking was the confederate flag with ants marching over it tattooed on a black guy.

A favorite explanation of why one guy got his tattoo: "I wanted a big, awesome tattoo with a skull." Sometimes it's really that simple.

After eating and mingling at the DJ-fueled reception afterwards (Depeche Mode, Billy Idol), we checked out "Wickham House 200," a show of art inspired by the rooms of the historic Wickham House and executed by VCU students.

Two pieces struck me. "Oh, No We Never Mention Her" by Rachel Cohn was in the drawing room and used a song found in Mrs. Wickham's music book on a record player. The other, "Perpetual Dusk" by Sohail Abdullah was a light installation set in a slave's room.

Because the slave, Robin, left to work before sunrise and returned after sunset, he never saw the changing light in his small slave quarters. Abdullah's installation imagined the light he never saw. It was exquisite.

Plus it was the natural lead-in to the 2012 InLight along Broad Street.

From the very first courtyard and BYOB (bring your own beamers), we were treated to a face on brick and a meandering pattern based on music. At Adams and Broad, we saw a tree up lit with lights going on and off to the beat of music.

A couple walked up to view it, read the artist's statement and walked away muttering, "I don't understand that at all." Here's an idea. Don't try to understand it, just enjoy it.

A bottom-lit tree on a cold evening was a thing of Fall beauty. Rebecca Najdowski's "Infinity Box #2" caught my attention because it had its roots in a science fair project done in grade school. Then, her father had helped and it had consisted of  a shoebox, a mirror and a strand of lights. Tonight, I put my eye on the black box and saw my eye along with a swirling mass of psychedelic lights.

Down my beloved Henry Street I found "Meandering Dynamics," tied up to a tree and consisting of a series of used white buckets forming a sinuous and continuous chain of light. I walked my way through it.

Then how could I not be taken by an installation by two of my favorite musicians?

"Interstitial Transduction" had been brought to life by Dave Watkins and Nelly Kate, two fabulous musicians who can make themselves sound like a half dozen people. Each. Their installation was highly interactive, with a stand of "leaves" with concealed mics, meaning if you tapped them, the visual or sound changed in some way.

I told Nelly that the piece was a great resume builder and she corrected me. "And esteem builder!"

She said that early on before things got crowded, a little girl came through and took advantage of the absence of people to do it her way. She galloped around the structure, methodically tapping each leaf in turn to make her own music.

"It was the purest joy," Nelly told me smiling. "It was better than a month of therapy." We agreed that the beauty of the installation was the way it drew people in so they could experience the light and music however they chose to.

I stopped by the Trillions installation to hear them play, finding a large cadre of earnest yet tragic looking 18-year olds.

"We 're scared to do this song," lead singer Charlie told the crowd. "Should we?" When the crowd roared their approval he responded, "Yes, this is a democracy. The song is called 'Dead Meat.'" Afterwards, the band joked about InLight not being a competition.

"Yes, it is," the bass player corrected. "We really want to win." "Cut and Paste" was an upbeat boppy pop song I loved, the kind the Trillions deliver effortlessly. Meanwhile, light imagery played on the two side buildings and the curved screen behind them.

Favorite line: "You think too much."

We were told by Charlie that playing "You Gotta Be Kidding" would ensure that something onstage would explode, but nothing did. Well, that was a close one.

I could have gone home happy at that point, but why would I when Ipanema had DJ Sarah Gossett playing French pop songs from the '60s and '70s? I ordered some Franco Serra 10 Dolcetto D'Alba and ran into some friends I'd seen at InLight.

They joined me at my front table near the DJ "booth" although the sound wasn't as loud there as I would have liked. Sarah's music  choices were brilliant, especially some of the covers she played.

Nancy Holloway doing, "Je veux prendre la main" was just one of many Beatles covers I heard. I want to hold your hand, too, Nancy. There was Danielle Denin's "Je Lis Dans les Yeux,'' recognizable as "I'm Looking Through You."

Soon backup arrived to augment the sound near the front of the bar. "The talent requested it," I was told. No, I requested louder music, I corrected. A guy nearby backed me up, "I want it up. We're out here to hear the jams."

Amen.

Erich Saint Laurent's "Je devine la Verite" registered immediately as "I'm a Believer" and I danced along as if it were the Monkees. There were so many covers of British  invasion songs and American pop, things like "Turn, Turn, Turn," and My Guy," but sung in French. There was even a Petula Clark song and who knew Pet could sing in French?

"This is my brief foray into the '80s," Sarah said, playing Lio's "Le Banana Split," the record cover  looking (and the music sounding) oh-so '80s. She returned to form with Les Gam's (the apostrophe mistake is their, not mine) and "Judy's Turn to Cry."

"I Only Want to Dance with You" came courtesy of Les Surfs, a group of four guys in matching sweaters and two girls in matching sweaters and red mini skirts. Adorable.

I noticed and Sarah told me, "I love the covers." Swinging mods and lots of bangs, who wouldn't?

Finally I saw a couple dancing to all this great French pop. It just kept coming with Eileen's version of "These Boots are Made for Walking" which was top notch. And who could argue with a French cover of Sonny and Cher's "The Beat Goes On"?

Play that poppy French music, mod girl. It might just be the grooviest First Friday ever.