Actress and songstress Alicia Witt has let her fans know that Ben Folds will sit in on bass for her New Year’s Eve show in her hometown of Worcester, Mass. The show, at Mechanics Hall, is part of First Night Worcester, that community’s New Year’s celebration. Tickets are available from the Mechanics Hall box office and via Groupon.
Ben to sit in with Witt
Ben Folds’ photographs in new UK gallery exhibit
Those who have been at a Ben Folds show in recent years have become accustomed to the house lights coming up at some point, whereupon Ben pulls out a camera and takes a picture or two of the audience. He’s also known for Tweeting and Instagramming pictures of his travels, rehearsals, and family moments. Over the past several years, Ben’s photography has gone from a curiosity to a high level of competence and skill. You’ll recall that his triptych of solo EPs and subsequent compilation albums bore a photographic theme – Sunny 16, Speed Graphic, Super D.
Now, Ben’s photography takes another leap over his music with an exhibit of his works at the most prominent gallery in the United Kingdom. (more…)
Wait, wait – it’s Ben Folds Five!
This weekend, Ben Folds Five becomes part of one of public radio’s most popular shows as Ben joins Peter Sagal, fellow North Carolinian Carl Kasell and the panel on Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me.
Wait Wait is a weekly light-hearted news quiz program in which a panel of columnists, satirists and commentators discuss the week’s serious and strange events in a nutty way that will have you laughing. It’s recorded each week in front of a live audience, usually at the Chase Auditorium in Chicago, though they go on tour a couple times a year. Listeners call in (1-888-WAIT-WAIT) to play games like the Listener Limerick Challenge, where they have to complete a series of limericks about the news, or Bluff the Listener, where the caller has to figure out which of three offbeat news stories is the real one.
The most popular segment, though, is called Not My Job, where a celebrity guest (more…)
Number Ten (with a bullet)
The long-awaited return of Ben Folds Five in recorded form, The Sound of the Life of the Mind, made a successful launch this week, scoring a number-10 placement on the Billboard 200 chart, listing the top-selling albums of the week in physical and virtual units. TSOLOTM moved roughly 30,000 units, and the tenth-place ranking was the highest for any Ben Folds with-or-without Five album ever, even during the Brick days. Looks like all the advance buzz from the “Dam VPs” paid off!
