THE RENAISSANCE MAN: You may know Mathew Bourbon from a number of ways. He’s an Associate Professor of Art at the University of North Texas. He’s been a commentator for KERA (he most recently reviewed the William Kentridge show at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth). And he’s also a successful artist in his own right. His current one-man show, “Matthew Bourbon: Our Splendid Defeat,” is up at the Rudolph Blume Fine Art/ArtScan Gallery in Houston. And it caught Glasstire’s attention. “Bourbon plays with both formal tensions and narrative, infusing each with the other to create work that is intriguing and complex,” Garland Fielder writes in his review.

MUSIC BITS: A few Dallas Observer Music Awards nominees have come up with a bright idea – cover songs by other nominees. It gets your name out there without seeming too vote-hungry. Up first is Air Review playing Ishi. (DC9 at Night) … Mates of State is in town tonight at the Granada. Jason Hammel talks about playing in a band with his wife, Kori. (Front Row). Speaking of Mates of State, we’ve got a couple of pairs of tickets to tonight’s show if you’d like to go last minute-style. E-mail me ([email protected]) and their yours.

RAINY DAYS: Rain is in the forecast for each of the next several days. (Not that I’m complaining.) And that’s a rarity for July. The Amon Carter blog has taken note of the meteorological phenomenon by posting photos of some rain-soaked works from the collection.