That kid from Firestone High who collects Grammys like M&Ms at
music awards and the guy who builds things and then writes books about them
will be the spotlight duet for the Akron Roundtable’s 40th
anniversary celebration dinner.
The Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney, whose father’s main claim to
fame was gashing his head into a sign while hurrying across a downtown Akron
street, and author David Giffels, who believes that if I build it
there’s a book in it, are the featured conversationalists.
The patron party will begin at 5:30 p.m. Monday, October 3 at the
John S. Knight Center, 77 East Mill Street, Akron. Cocktail party starts at 6
p.m. (giving patrons a head start on the drinking).
The dinner will begin at 7
p.m. At 7:45 p.m., Patrick and David are on the stage for their scintillating
conversation, after “mixing and mingling” (PR release’s words) with the guests
from 6 p.m. on.
Want to show up? It’s only $1,500 for a table of 10 for corporate
tables. For the peons, it’s $75 just to get in the door.
Carney, with fellow
former Firestone High grad Dan Auerbach, produced albums like “The Big Come Up” (2002), “Thickfreakness”
(2003), “Rubber Factory”
(2004), a tribute to their Akron roots, “Magic
Potion” (2006), “Attack &
Release” (2008), “Brothers”
(2010), “El Camino” (2011) and
“Turn Blue” (2014).
Carney and Auerbach record with Nonesuch Records. They have played before
sellout crowds from Australia to Europe and throughout America.
Proudly watching this skyrocketing to fame has been Carney’s father,
retired BJ reporter and all-round nice guy Jim Carney, and stepmom Katie Byard,
still a reporter at Ol’ Blue Walls.
In 2009, Patrick also formed the band Drummer, in which he plays bass. Each of
the band¹s members has played drums in another band.
An associate professor
of English at the University of Akron, which no longer has to endure the
leadership of the Scarborough unfair, Giffels wrote a book about repairing an
1813 Tudor house and has one coming out about building a casket with his
father. Don’t ask.
After this dynamic
pair, the Akron Roundtable will have to settle for such lesser lights as
Washington Post syndicated columnist E.J. Dionne, Jr. (October 20), Pro
Football Hall of Fame executive director David Baker (November 17), who is
taking a beginner’s course in field turf management, and Huntington Bancshares
CEO Stephen D. Steinour (December 8).
These are gigantic
steps down from Carney and Giffels, but the Akron Roundtable probably will
recover from the humiliation.
