See: A while back, I had a post up about galleries and their often unfriendly visiting hours. The Temple Bar Cultural Trust has decided to take a leaf out of Culture Night’s book, and for the first Thursday of each month it has arranged for galleries in the area to stay open late, so patrons can take advantage of those long evenings to get their arty fix. Among those keeping their doors open until 8pm tonight are Clyne Gallery, Fishbowl Gallery/Exchange, Gallery of Photography, Graphic Studio Gallery, Monster Truck Gallery & Studios, NGG/No Grants Gallery, Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Block T, The Joinery and the Mad Art Gallery & Studio. Here’s hoping the idea spreads further.

The babysitter had some strange friends

Take in: As far as major shows go, there really is only one gig in town this weekend, and it’s an all-Mexican extravaganza. Listed and tipped just about everywhere, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at Imma is doing its level best to justify the hype. The show is small, and very efficiently curated. There are works from Rivera, including his key Landscape with Cactus and Calla Lily Vendors, but there is no doubt that it is Kahlo who is the star of the show, from her self-portraits that almost seem to hum on the page with the vibrancy in her indifferent stare, to the breathtaking The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Diego, Myself and Señor Xólotl (above). This is a deeply accessible show – the notes are strong, there is not enough to overwhelm even a casual gallery-goer, but there is enough variety to keep people skipping from room to room – the photographs of Kahlo in particular are a brilliant surprise in the basement room.

Listen: On Sunday night, I’ll be performing a live soundtrack with 3epkano to the GW Pabst film Diary of a Lost Girl in Dublin’s Button Factory – which is a bit irritating because it means I will miss what promises to be a cracking jazz gig over in JJ Smyth’s on Aungier Street. The Improvised Music Company has been bringing some astonishingly talented players from the US over to show JJ’s who’s boss. Sunday sees Mark Helias let his Open Loose trio run riot, with Helias on bass, Tony Malay on tenor saxophone and Tom Rainey on drums. Helias is a key figure on the US scene, and this trio is promising an “evening of deep, unshackled groove”. Here’s a little taster of the trio in action with Eric T Johnson to get you warmed up.

Usually, I end this post with a video, but this week we’ll make it a story, culled from The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross, an authoritative, highly readable history of music in the 20th century.

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the death of Igor Stravinsky, which made this particular story pop into my head. Apparently Charlie Parker went to Paris in 1949 on tour, and one of the songs he referenced in his solo were the first few notes from the Rite of Spring, Stravinsky’s most famous, innovative piece of music. Several years later, Parker was playing Birdland in New York, and spotted the great composer in the crowd. He immediately worked a motif from Stravinksy’s Firebird into a solo on Koko, “causing the composer to spill his scotch in ecstasy”, as Ross writes. How’s that for a classy compliment?