What do art galleries, aging veterans and rock 'n' roll have in common?

Well, not so much -- unless you're talking about the upcoming party at Brick's Soul Kitchen out in Narrows.

Soul Kitchen owner, artist and Vietnam vet Brick Marunich is promoting his day-after-Veterans Day event as "a rock and roll party for all veterans" and "Our Woodstock."

Actually, there will be a few differences between this event and the legendary one all those years ago in New York, which so many soldiers in Vietnam had to miss. The music will include Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride," Marvin Gaye's "Heard it Through the Grapevine" and the Animals' "Sky Pilot," '60s anthems all -- but they'll be played by a DJ.

There may be a tad fewer people, too. There just isn't room for 400,000 people in Brick's Soul Kitchen, which is in the heart of this Giles County hamlet in a room barely bigger than a garage.

And then there's the art. The Soul Kitchen, unlike Woodstock, is chock full of art, all of it painted by Marunich himself. The 60-year-old West Virginia-born artist's work often homes in on that chilling moment when the war ended for him, as shrapnel collapsed his chest and he was evacuated from Vietnam's central highlands via helicopter. But it has a child-in-wonderland quality as well, as he and his wide-eyed buddies confront what seems to them an alien world.

Other paintings focus on the less-than-welcoming treatment many traumatized vets got when they came home. "We ain't popular anymore, and never was," said Marunich, who wrote the lyrics for a protest song called "Drafted," recorded by rock and soul legend Mitch Ryder in 1987. (For a YouTube video of Marunich and Ryder talking about the song, Google their last names.)

One more way the Nov. 12 event differs from that other Woodstock: This one will include an appearance by wrestler Jimmy Valiant, who will sign copies of his autobiography, "Woo ... Mercy Daddy! Welcome To My World."

The party is 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Nov. 12. For more information, call (540) 726-2576.

New Arts Council leader

Laura Rawlings has been named executive director of the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge. Rawlings, the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra's development director for the past year, succeeds Margaret-Hunter Wade, now a public relations specialist for Cox Communications.

"I will continue to advocate for the RSO and for all the other rich and vibrant arts organizations that define our region," said Rawlings in a prepared statement.

She starts work at the arts council in December.

Festival comments

As the city's sparsely attended, first-ever annual arts festival fades into memory, at least one out-of-town attendee says she attended multiple events and had a ball.

Arlington's Anne Dawson, a member of the International Buster Keaton Society, came primarily for the Grandin Theatre showing of the silent film classic "The General" on Oct. 7. But she also made a weekend of it, seeing "several shows" and visiting exhibits at the O. Winston Link Museum and the science and history museums at Center in the Square, she said.

"The museums and nearby restaurants were very easy to get to. I hope to come back to see the new Art Museum of Western Virginia," Dawson said in an e-mail.

Local attorney Joe Obenshain had some thoughts on the poor attendance at many events:

"I must admit that my wife and I were among the great majority of Roanoke area residents who found other things to do that weekend rather than attend a festival event. My suggestion to the festival organizers would be to involve more organizations and entities ... A festival should involve all types of groups in a community to ensure interest in, attendance at and support of the festival.

For its long-term success, the Roanoke Art Festival needs to be more that just a government-sponsored-and-operated activity," he wrote.

And finally, Southwest Virginia Ballet's immediate past board president Vicki Honer hopes the city will spread its festival over two weekends next year, "so the ticket prices can be better absorbed by average citizens." This year's inaugural arts festival was held Oct. 4-7.

Gallery watch

Studios on the Square Gallery at 126 W. Campbell will feature the work of Carolyn Deck and Mark Shelton through Dec. 30. Deck's abstract paintings strive to capture the essence of an age of energy and change; Shelton is a brain injury survivor who has learned to draw from the heart instead of the mind. (540) 345-4076; www.studiosonthesquare.com.

In Radford, meanwhile, the Radford University Art Museum will exhibit 10 works by Italian master printmaker Livio Ceschin through Dec. 20. The highly detailed prints include images of the Venetian lagoon. (540) 831-5033; rumuseum.asp.radford.edu.