New Year’s Celebration of the Week
02.14.07
1. Chinatown celebrates the Year of the Pig
2. An interactive (and free) Chelsea art walk
3. New York Comic Con gets bigger
4. Uptown pool parlor moves downtown
5. A colorful (and free) Midtown art walk
6. Lincoln Center celebrates eclectic films and Black History Month
7. Avant-garde film at the Whitney
Volume 6, Number 37
February 14-28, 2007
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Multiple locations
Admission: free
212-754-6500
http://www.explorechinatown.com
According to chinese.astrology.com, the pig, or boar, "may be the most generous and honorable sign of the Zodiac." Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon used to regularly debate on the TONIGHT show whether the pig or the horse was the smarter animal. According to NPR, the pig is currently causing controversy in China because the government does not want to upset the millions of Muslims who live in the country, leading to a ban on using pigs in advertisements during Lunar New Year. But here in Chinatown, expect only colorful displays, lots of entertainment, and great food — pork included. The Year of the Pig should bring good luck to those born in the years 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995 and 2007. Below are some of the special events being held for this year’s celebration; for more on what to do in Chinatown, including restaurants, museums, and historic landmarks, check out our special column at www.TimesSquare.com. Gong xi fa cai!
Friday, February 16 Fourth annual Lunar New Year Flower Market at Columbus Park, Columbus Park, Mulberry St. between Worth & Bayard Sts., 12 noon — 10:00 pm
Saturday, February 17 Fourth annual Lunar New Year Flower Market at Columbus Park, Columbus Park, Columbus Park, Mulberry St. between Worth & Bayard Sts., 10:00 am — 6:00 pm
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Fireworks are ready to go off around Lin Ze Xu (Lin Tse-Hsu) in Chatham Square
Sunday, February 18 New Year’s Day Firecracker Ceremony & Cultural Festival, featuring live entertainment and Lion, Dragon, and Unicorn Dances marching through local stores to bring good luck in the new year, Chatham Square, intersection of Bowery, Mott, and East Broadway, 11:00 am — 3:00 pm
Sunday, February 18 Illuminations: Lunar New Year Fireworks Spectacular at Columbus Park, Mulberry St. between Worth & Bayard Sts., 7:00
Sunday, February 25 Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade, through Mott, Canal, Bowery, East Broadway, Forsyth, Eldridge, Grand, and Chrystie, 1:00 — 5:00 pm
Chatham Square Regional Library
New York Public Library
33 East Broadway near Catherine St.
Admission: free
212-964-6598
Thursday, February 15 Chinese Film Cinema presents FLOWERS OF PARADISE, 5:00
Thursday, February 22 Flying Dragon & Dancing Phoenix: Music & Dance of China, with Choey, Kwok Kay, and Margaret Yuen, 4:00
Monday, February 26 Chinese Chess for Adults, 4:30
Museum of Chinese in the Americas
70 Mulberry St. at Bayard St. , second floor
212-619-4785, info@moca-nyc.org
http://www.moca-nyc.org/MoCA/content.asp?cid=14
Saturday, February 17 Lunar New Year Walking Tour, $15, 212-619-4785, 1:00
Saturday, February 17 Author’s Talk: Kylie Kwong, SIMPLE CHINESE COOKING, followed by a Q&A and book signing, $5, RSVP required, 2:00
Saturday, February 24 Living Arts — Preparing for the New Year: Calligraphy, free with museum admission of $3, 2:30 — 4:30
Wednesday, February 21 Peking Duck Dinner, Peking Duck House, 28 Mott St., $80, prepayment required, 7:00
Asian American Arts Centre
26 Bowery south of Canal St., third floor
Admission: $12 adults, $6 children three to twelve
Reservations strongly recommended: 212-233-2154, aaartsctr@aol.com
Sunday, February 18 Family-friendly interactive festival featuring Chinese, Indian, and Tibetan folk artists, music, and food, 3:00 — 5:30 pm
Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Digital Artist in Residence Program
Taipei-born Web artist and foxfatale.com cofounder Isabel Chang currently lives on the Lower East Side. As a participant in the Lower East Side Tenement Museum’s Digital Artist in Residence Program, Chang and her dog, Chewie, set off for many of the temples in Chinatown, looking to the gods for answers about her future. She headed across the Bowery and down Eldridge, Broome, and Canal Sts., visiting such places of worship as the Fulai Temple, the Temple of the Great Yellow Immortal, and the White Door Temple, detailing her adventures in this fun, sometimes confusing interactive weblog. Chang provides a little history about each site while also relating what she sees to her personal life in both goofy and informative ways.
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Doug Aitken, "Wilderness," 2006, automated mirror sculpture
303 Gallery
525 West 22nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through March 3
Admission: free
212-255-1121
Fresh off his thrilling five-part film series that screened on the Museum of Modern Art, Doug Aitken presents ten new multimedia, interactive works at 303 Gallery. In the outside window, Aitken’s neon "99¢ Dreams" announces the exhibit as if it is a sideshow attraction, only in this case it’s free. Inside, you’ll lose yourself in "Wilderness," a motorized mirror sculpture that continually alters your view of your personal reality. Aitken also plays with reality in "Disappear," a neon and plexi lightbox in which each letter of the title contains images of airplanes, perhaps hinting at an oncoming Bermuda Triangle. (The small exhibition poster, shaped sort of like a paper airplane, features a photo of a woman looking out the window of a plane, seeing nothing but emptiness.) Grab a drumstick and pound away with strangers on "K-N-O-C-K-O-U-T (Sonic Table)." Follow the movement of the neon lights in "Beautiful and Damned (Diamond Neon)." Once again, Aitken involves the viewer in his fun, exciting, and multilayered work.
Copyright © Priska C. Juschka Fine Art 2007
Still from OPERA, 2006
Chinese Contemporary
535 West 24th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves., third floor
Through March 22
Admission: free
917-207-7668
http://www.chinesecontemporary.com/newyork
Chinese Contemporary makes a big splash with its inaugural exhibition of Wu Junyong’s awesome three-part animation series, OPERA, which follows on the heels of his even more awesome WAIT US RICH short film. The DVD animation pieces, approximately three to four minutes apiece, are alive with bright colors, naked, often faceless men, and trippy music. Bathed in Communist red, Wu’s satirical films come with their own iconography in which pointed hats are signs of power, combat, or cuckoldry, a person with a fat stomach is a banquet-stuffed politician, a dropping face depicts a man with no shame, and a guy with too many legs is a Casanova. Ridiculing traditional society, politics, and the changing Chinese culture, Wu has created a carnivalesque world of sex, power, flatulence, and modernity in vastly entertaining ways. The exhibit is supplemented with sketches and drawings related to the DVD works.
PaceWildenstein
534 West 25th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through March 10
Admission: free
212-929-7000
http://www.pacewildenstein.com
Irish artist Corban Walker has installed five mesmerizing works throughout the large, wide-open PaceWildenstein gallery, extremely delicate handmade sculptures of glass or aluminum and steel that invite the viewer to examine their wonder — but don’t get too close. When we were there the opening weekend, a visitor had touched one of the pieces, causing damage, so there will probably be security guards watching you carefully as you walk around the exhibition. Upon entering the gallery, you’ll be facing "Wall 1," a five-foot-long, three-foot-high metal barrier, as if it’s blocking your way in. Behind it is "Runway," a beautiful green glass sculpture that is as welcoming as "Wall" is threatening. Be sure to spend extra time by "Grid Stack 1" and "Grid Stack 2" and watch how they glitter and change with the light as you move about them. And then "Wall 2" sort of blocks your way out, a good excuse to check everything out again. None of the pieces is higher than four feet; Walker is only four feet tall himself, but these works are monumental. You can see him in action in a video on the above Web site.
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Yoshiko Sato and Michael Morris, "LightShowers," with Paul Ryan
Lucas Schoormans Gallery
508 West 26th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves., eleventh floor
Through February 24
Admission: free
212-243-3159
http://www.lucasschoormans.com
New York architects and designers Yoshiko Sato and Michael Morris and video artist and professor Paul Ryan have collaborated on a fascinating installation that will soothe your soul. On a raised rectangular platform, viewers are invited to take a seat on any of seven egg-shaped pods. Built into the platform are a trio of video monitors showing a loop of Ryan’s "Stationed on a Stone II," a twenty-five-minute silent film of the swirling ocean at Cape Cod. At the same time, the video is projected onto a mirror angled from the ceiling, projecting shadows over the entire platform. Meanwhile, cosmic blue diodes emerge from the eggs when they are sat upon. Intensely calming and meditative, "LightShowers" will envelop you in its captivating environment.
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William Kentridge, "Conservationists Ball," 1985, and "Sleeper 1 (Early State)," 1997
Priska C. Juschka Fine Art
547 West 27th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves., second floor
Through March 3
Admission: free
212-244-4320
http://www.priskajuschkafineart.com
South African artist William Kentridge, whose unique interpretation of Mozart’s THE MAGIC FLUTE is coming to BAM in April, is displaying a dozen etchings and charcoal drawings in the small Priska C. Juschka Fine Art gallery. Featured are a half-dozen versions of "Sleeper," in which a naked woman stretches out on her side, her right hand clutching her head as if trying to keep the real world out — or in. Each of the six etchings highlights different aspects of the work, as various parts become more recognizable and Kentridge adds aquatint and chalk over them. Also on view are two rare charcoals with pastel, the expressionistic "Conservationists Ball" and the snowy landscape "An Embarkation," as Kentridge infuses color into his usual black-and-white oeuvre.
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A crazy creature watches over Madsteez’s crazy world
Space Downtown Gallery
276 West 25th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Through February 28
Admission: free
California-based street artist Madsteez has taken over all of the Space Downtown Gallery, from the outside awning and the stairwell to the walls and even the bathrooms and skylights, with drawings, paintings, stickers, snowboards, stuffed animals, posters, and a gargantuan white creature. Madsteez is obsessed with pop culture; his multifaceted paintings feature Dennis Hopper, Michael Jackson, Snoop Dogg, and other familiar faces. The back wall contains dozens of his bizarre anime-like characters, both playful and vibrant with cartoonish color. Born Mark Paul Deren, Madsteez — also known as Mad5steez and Mr. Ween — is a marketing machine, selling lots of items at the concession table and having done commissions for Nike, Honda, Volkswagen, and several record labels. He’s also obsessed with the number four, which shows up in virtually all of his work. (He printed forty-four copies of his limited-edition book, and the price of all items for sale end in the number four as well.) He refuses to discuss why four is so important to him, although it might have something to do with his fourth-place finish in the 1985 Racquetball Championships, well before he was transformed by a visit to Indonesia that changed his life.
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Cabo Rojo provides Puerto Rican pleasure in Chelsea
254 Tenth Ave. between 24th & 25th Sts.
Closed Sunday
212-929-9752
After you’ve had your fill of experimental modern art, settle down into this sensational Cuban joint right around the corner. The waitstaff is warm and very friendly, happy to serve you any of the dozens of outstanding dishes. A small bowl of carne estofada — shredded beef with potatoes, onions, and peppers — and a heaping plate of red beans and yellow rice is a mere $7.50, and you won’t be able to finish it. We’ve also had the excellent bistec and pernil sandwiches ($4.25), along with generous portions of rice and pigeon peas and sweet plantains, all on the cheap. So stop in and enjoy rabos de res guisados, or chuletas asadas, or mondongo, or cabrito en fricase, or arroz con gandules, or bistec ensebollado, and wash it down with some tropical juices; your stomach— and your wallet — will thank you.
Chelsea Piers
23rd St. & the Hudson River
Saturday, February 17 Skating Club of New York Showcase, Sky Rink, free, 212-336-6100
Saturday, February 17
and
Sunday, February 18 2007 Chelsea Piers Gymnastics Invitational, the Field House, Pier 62 Headhouse, $10 adults, $5 children five to twelve, 212-336-6500, 8:00 am — 8:00 pm
Monday, February 19 Free General Skating on Presidents’ Day (not including skate rental), Sky Rink, Pier 61, 212-336-6100
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They packed them in tight at last year’s inaugural New York Comic Con
Jacob K. Javits Center
655 West 34th St.
February 23-25
Tickets: $30 online (Sunday only), $45 on-site, $65 weekend pass
888-605-6059
Last year’s inaugural New York Comic Con was both a smashing success and a staggering disappointment, as demand was so great that hundreds of people — including many who had purchased tickets — had to be turned away because of the huge crowds. So this year the convention has taken over more of the Javits Center and is advising everyone to get their tickets in advance, with the result being that online tickets for Saturday are already sold out, although there will be limited door sales. More than three hundred exhibitors will be showing off and selling all kinds of collectibles and effluvia, from majors such as Marvel, DC, Warner Bros., HarperCollins, Abrams, Random House, and TokyoPop to such great indies as VIZ Media, Giant Robot, Dark Horse, NBM, Media Blasters, and others. There’ll be toys, games, comic books, graphic novels, sneak-peek screenings, exclusives, autograph signings, and lots of giveaways, so make sure to bring a sturdy bag or score a hot freebie at the show.
Among the in-booth artists and panelists on hand will be Chuck D, Michael Buckley, Patrick McDonnell, Neil Swaab, Todd Allen, Stuart Moore, Stephen Vrattos, Kim Deitch, Jeff Smith, and Bill Sienkewicz, with Artist Alley including David Mack, Frank Cho, Dustin Nguyen, Gary Panter, Phil Jimenez, and dozens more. The guests of honor are Wes Craven, Paul Dini, Stephen King, Stan Lee, George Perez, Marc Silvestri, Jeff Smith, J. Michael Straczynski, and Brian K. Vaughan; among the many guests are Neal Adams, Alison Bechdel, Nicholas Brendan, Dennis Christopher, Mick Foley, R. Kikuo Johnson, Peter Mayhew, Takashi Okazaki, Greg Pak, Ray Park, Aaron Rosenberg, Eli Roth, and Public Enemy. Among our early favorites are Neal Shaffer and Joe Infurnari’s BORROWED TIME series from Oni Press, Brandon Burford’s Syncopated Comics, and a sneak peek at the forthcoming MAD’S GREATEST ARTISTS: THE COMPLETELY MAD DON MARTIN from Running Press. Below are only some of the myriad panel discussions, screenings, and artist talks being held at this year’s con.
Friday, February 23 TRAIN MAN: DENSHA OTOKO, 4:00
Friday, February 23 Gary Panter Spotlight, 5:00
Friday, February 23 Bill Plympton: SHUT-EYE HOTEL world premiere, 6:00
Friday, February 23 Stan Lee: An American Icon, 6:30
Friday, February 23 Alison Bechdel Spotlight, 8:00
Friday, February 23 Sci Fi Friday Night: THE DRESDEN FILES and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, 8:00 — 11:00
Saturday, February 24 HELLBOY BLOOD AND IRON: A Special Sneak Peak, with creator Mike Mignola and director Tad Stones, 10:00 am
Saturday, February 24 Masters of Superhero Art, with Neal Adams and George Perez, moderated by George Khoury, 12:30
Saturday, February 24 The African American Panel NYC, with Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Mark Davis, 2:00
Saturday, February 24 Kevin Smith Spotlight, 3:30
Saturday, February 24 HOSTEL 2, with director Eli Roth and stars Heather Mattarazzo, Bijou Phillips, and Roger Bart, 5:00
Saturday, February 24 Masters of Horror, with Mick Garris, John Landis, Meat Loaf, and Dennis Paoli, 6:30
Sunday, February, 25 China Mieville Spotlight, 11:00 am
Sunday, February, 25 Degrassi Spotlight, with writer J. Torres, illustrator Ramón Pérez, and actor Craig Manning, 12 noon
Sunday, February, 25 Political Cartoons: The Next Generation, with Ted Rall, Ruben Bolling, and Mikhaela B. Reid, 1:00
Sunday, February, 25 NYCC Comics School: Writing Under Pressure, with Christos Gage, Stuart Moore, Peter David, and Danny Fingeroth, 2:00
Sunday, February, 25 Living to Tell the Tale: Graphic Novel as Memoir, with Alison Bechdel, Adrian Tomine, Miriam Katin, and Bill Kartalopoulos, 3:00
Sunday, February, 25 The Jewish Side of Comics, with Danny Fingeroth, Rabbi Simcha Weinstein, Stan Mack, Neil Kleid, and Steven Bergson, 4:00
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The Black Widow prepares to sink one at Amsterdam Billiards
110 East 11th St. at Fourth Ave.
Rate: day $5.50-$6/hour, weekday night $7.50-$8.50/hour, weekend nights $8-$9/hour
Pool clinics: $24
212-496-8180
http://amsterdambilliardclub.com
After seventeen years on the Upper West Side, Amsterdam Billiards has moved downtown, the result of a demolition clause on their old building. Founders David Brenner and brothers Greg and Ethan Hunt have taken over the old Corner Billiards parlor, renovating the ten-thousand-square-foot space into a more upscale experience, featuring twenty-six pool tables, a fifty-foot zinc bar, seventeen forty-two-inch plasma-screen TVs, a small lounge with two video gambling games, and sandwiches from Eli Zabar. At the opening last month, the owners were joined by actor Paul "Side Pockets" Sorvino, pool legend Jeanette "the Black Widow" Lee, professionals Jennifer Baretta, Mika Immonen, Thorsten Hohmann, and house pro Tony Robles, and former figure-skating champion Tai Babilonia, who is engaged to Brenner. The men battled the women in a cool trick-shot competition; despite her nickname, the Black Widow proved to be a fun, goofy person — who started her career by waitressing at the uptown club.
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Lincoln stands proudly in Union Square Park, just north of Washington
Union Square Park
Broadway to Fourth Ave. between 14th & 17th Sts.
Admission: free
212-360-1311
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_newsroom
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park
On the north side of Union Square Park, the national historic landmark at the "union" of the old Bloomingdale Road and Bouwerie Lane, under a patch of trees, stands a tall, dark Abraham Lincoln, facing out at the crowd — and George Washington in the near distance. Henry Kirke Brown’s 1869 statue features our sixteenth president, his right hand on his chest, his cloak draped around him. (Lincoln originally stood in the southwest corner where Gandhi now resides.)
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George Washington faces his troops at Union Square
At the south end of the park, site of numerous post-9/11 gatherings and protests, stands Brown’s sculpture of George Washington atop his horse. He’s depicted with his right hand reaching out to the future of America and blessing the troops, as he is shown at the moment he and his men have just recaptured New York from the British on November 25, 1783, known as Evacuation Day. (This equestrian statue was dedicated in 1865, the year of Lincoln’s assassination.) The Massachusetts-born Brown (1814-86), who worked in Albany and Brooklyn, also designed the Lincoln statue in Prospect Park. Among his other subjects were Henry Clay, Major General Nathanael Greene, and De Witt Clinton.
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Abe sits proudly in Midtown office building that bears his name
The Lincoln Building
60 East 442nd St. at Vanderbilt Ave.
Admission: free
http://www.thelincolnbuilding.com
In the lobby of this 1930 neo-Gothic tower designed by J.E.R. Carpenter, Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States, boldly sits next to the American flag. If the pose looks familiar, it’s because this bronze sculpture was the model Daniel Chester French (1850-1931) used when designing the somewhat larger version in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, the site carefully chosen by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. to deliver his "I have a dream" speech. Lincoln sits sternly on a square chair, his right hand firmly gripping the armrest, his left fist clenched, his jacket flowing; his right foot juts out ever so slightly, his sharp gaze staring straight ahead. On the marble walls by the nearby entrance to the subway station are a pair of famous quotes from the Great Emancipator, from his Gettysburg Address and second inaugural address. Among sculptor French’s other famous subjects cast in bronze are General Ulysses S. Grant, the Marquis de Lafayette, Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
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Furones’s colorful photos line plaza hall
Arcade at Park Ave. Plaza
55 East 52nd St. between Park & Madison Aves.
Admission: free
212-308-0643
http://www.churchill-books.com
Claude Emile Furones, the official photographer of Park Ave. Plaza (which was built by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and opened in 1982), is displaying an entirely different set of works in conjunction with Chartwell Booksellers. For nearly a quarter of a century, Furones has traveled the world with his camera, capturing stunning architectural shots bursting with bright colors and gorgeous geometric shapes. Seen from a distance, it is often difficult to tell that they are photographs, instead evoking the work of such modern-art masters as Mondrian and Rothko, especially in such shots as "Santa Fé Shuffle" (New Mexico, 1984), "Planks and Plaster" (Puerto Vallarta, 2005), and "Orange Door" (London, 2001). He finds magnificent repeated images and patterns in "Captured Colors" (New York, 2005), "Azuelo Bridge" (Seville, 1994), and "Peachtree Center" (Atlanta, 1994). Don’t miss the stunning reflections in the water in "Argos" (Seattle, 2001) or the lone horse on an abandoned wasteland in "Black Horse" (Death Valley, 2001). And Furones shows off a wry sense of humor in "Welcome to Bush Country!" (West Texas, 2000), a shot of a Hooters sign next to neon lights for the Bread of Life Mission with a picture of Jesus asking, "Who’s Your Daddy?" Splendidly curated by Chartwell’s Marcelo Picalomino, the photos not only line the narrow hallway in front of the bookstore but continue upstairs.
Chartwell Booksellers
Arcade at Park Ave. Plaza
55 East 52nd St. between Park & Madison Aves.
212-308-0643
http://www.churchill-books.com
This small bookstore in Park Ave. Plaza has a marvelous collection of Churchill memorabilia. In the back of the store are shelves and shelves of books by and about Sir Winston Churchill; the shelves also include a W.P. Condon caricature, typed signed letters, and other unique items. Also for sale are engraved serving mats and coffee spoons that were actually used by Churchill and his guests at the house of Chartwell itself. Don’t miss the display cases in the hall outside of the store, which have on view memorabilia galore.
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Crovello statue glitters in plaza mezzanine
Arcade at Park Ave. Plaza, mezzanine level
Admission: free
Take the escalator up one flight to see not only the rest of the "Color Absorbed" exhibit but also these two cool abstract bronze works by William Crovello, who designed the blue cube ("Cubed Curve") outside the Time-Life Building on Sixth Ave. On one side is "Argo," two wavy pieces of bronze. On the other side is "Pleiade," seven twisting, flat bronze pieces that serve as sculpture as well as funhouse mirrors, so don’t be afraid to walk back and forth and up and down around it. When you go back downstairs, stop and listen to Chuck Folds tickle the old ivories in front of the waterfall, every weekday between 12 noon and 3:00.
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Folkert de Jong shows Park Ave. that war is hell
The Lever House Art Collection
390 Park Ave. at 54th St.
Through March 3
Admission: free
Something crazy is going on inside the glass-encased Lever House lobby gallery on Park Ave. Dutch artist Folkert de Jong has installed "Gott Mit Uns (In God We Trust)," a graphic depiction of combat that is a sort of Gothic pop-art version of Otto Dix’s "War," Max Beckmann’s "Hell," and Francisco de Goya’s "Disasters of War." Using styrofoam, polystyrene, polyurethane, silicone rubber, metal, and wood, de Jong presents a group of life-size, grotesque, seriously injured soldiers on a museum-style circular couch, each one oozing congealed yellow liquid. Also hurt and bleeding are re-created artworks by Constantin Brancusi, and Jean Arp, as war and destruction know no boundaries. Meanwhile, in the northeast corner, a decrepit figure directs and films the action, as if it’s all being orchestrated for entertainment purposes. In addition, in the back are huge Pez dispensers of Civil War commander in chief Abraham Lincoln as well as C3PO, Chewbacca, and Emperor Palpatine from the STAR WARS trilogy. "Gott Mit Uns" actually blends well with Sarah Morris’s colorful "Robert Towne," which is still on the ceiling; what originally recalled city streets or L.A. freeways now brings to mind military grids.
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A piece of the Berlin Wall stands tall in Midtown
Urban Plaza
520 Madison Ave. between 52nd & 53rd Sts.
Admission: free
Outside 520 Madison Ave. are five actual segments of the Berlin Wall, which separated East Germany from West Germany from 1961 until 1989. Beginning in 1984, Thierry Noir and Christophe Bouchet, with Kiddy Citny and others, would sneak in and paint parts of the wall, which was illegal. Their reason for bringing artistic life to such an antifreedom symbol? "We are not trying to make the wall beautiful because in fact it’s absolutely impossible. Eighty persons have been killed trying to jump over the Berlin Wall to escape to West Berlin, so you can cover that wall with hundreds of kilos of colour, [but] it will stay the same." The graffiti on the pieces include cartoony big heads, robots, and other oddities. After the wall came down, others took possession of these muraled pieces and auctioned them off in Monaco. (The artists had wanted to auction them off for charity.)
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Water drips with meaning in ritzy Fifth Ave. store
Salvatore Ferragamo, second floor
661/665 Fifth Ave. at 53rd St.
Admission: free
212-759-3822
http://www.salvatoreferragamo.it
In the back room on the second floor of this flagship store, Ferragamo has installed "Water," featuring works by eleven artists that incorporate the life-sustaining liquid either conceptually, thematically, or indirectly. Rob Wynne’s poured-glass giant "Teardrops" drip down one wall. McKendree Key’s clothing floats away on top of the sea. Rain keeps falling in Oliver Boberg’s thirty-minute continuously looped "Landstrasse / Country Road." A chandelier drips water that freezes on a table in Vincent Mazeau’s "January Sun." Adam Cvijanovic’s "Glacier" floats perilously alone in the ocean. All the while, you’ll hear and see drops of water falling; see how long it takes you to figure out just how Peter Sarkisian does it in "Green Puddle." In explaining the group show, the accompanying pamphlet says, "For Salvatore Ferragamo, water is a constant presence in the brand’s consciousness — a source of inspiration, recreation, and an integrated part of the Italian lifestyle."
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Petra sells her heart on Fifth Ave.
Fortunoff
681 Fifth Ave. at 54th St.
Admission: free
212-758-6660
Supermodel Petra Nemcova stopped by Fortunoff on Fifth Ave. on February 8 to sign posters for fans and to introduce her new jewelry line, "Petra’s Infinite Heart Collection." Fortunoff is donating ten percent of the proceeds to Nemcova’s Happy Hearts Fund, which "brings humanitarian relief to children who have suffered loss or hardships as a result of natural, economic, or health-related disasters." The Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover girl lost her fiancée, Simon Atlee, in the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, suffering major injuries herself as well.
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
February 14-27
Tickets: $10
212-875-5600
This eighth annual festival features films from all over the world that have been overlooked during the past year or haven’t opened in New York City yet, as selected by the folks at Film Comment magazine. Some outstanding international directors are represented, including Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Johnnie To, Marco Bellocchio, Mamoru Oshii, and the great Aki Kaurismäki, as well as Paul Verhoeven returning to his Dutch roots, the controversial Jean-Claude Brisseau, and a look back at Frank Perry’s PLAY IT AS IT LAYS and Robert Aldrich’s TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING.
Wednesday, February 14 Opening Night EXTERMINATING ANGELS (Jean-Claude Brisseau, 2006), 6:30
Wednesday, February 14 LONGING (Valeska Grisebach, 2006), 9:00
Thursday, February 15 EXILED (Johnnie To, 2006), 8:30
Friday, February 16 BARDO (Lin Tay-jou, 2005), 4:30 & 9:15
Friday, February 16 COLOSSAL YOUTH (Pedro Costa, 2006), 6:15
Saturday, February 17 SUMMER PALACE (Lou Ye, 2006), 1:15
Saturday, February 17 EXTERMINATING ANGELS (Jean-Claude Brisseau, 2006), 4:00
Saturday, February 17 PLAY IT AS IT LAYS (Frank Perry, 1972), 6:15
Saturday, February 17 RETRIBUTION (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2006), 8:15
Sunday, February 18 COLOSSAL YOUTH (Pedro Costa, 2006), 1:30
Sunday, February 18 RETRIBUTION (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2006), 4:30
Sunday, February 18 SUMMER PALACE (Lou Ye, 2006), 6:45
Monday, February 19 RETRIBUTION (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2006), 8:00
Wednesday, February 21 THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING (Marwan Hamed, 2006), 6:15
Wednesday, February 21 LONGING (Valeska Grisebach, 2006), 9:15
Thursday, February 22 LONGING (Valeska Grisebach, 2006), 4:30
Thursday, February 22 LIGHTS IN THE DUSK (Aki Kaurismäki, 2006), 9:00
Friday, February 23 TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING (director’s cut) (Robert Aldrich, 1977), 3:30
Friday, February 23 THE WEDDING DIRECTOR (Marco Bellocchio, 2006), 6:30
Friday, February 23 TACHIGUI: THE AMAZING LIVES OF THE FAST FOOD GRIFTERS (Mamoru Oshii, 2006), 8:30
Saturday, February 24 LONGING (Valeska Grisebach, 2006), 1:15
Saturday, February 24 TEN SKIES (James Benning, 2004), 5:40
Saturday, February 24 13 LAKES (James Benning, 2004), 3:00
Saturday, February 24 THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING (Marwan Hamed, 2006), 7:45
Sunday, February 25 TACHIGUI: THE AMAZING LIVES OF THE FAST FOOD GRIFTERS (Mamoru Oshii, 2006), 1:00
Sunday, February 25 SUMMER ’04 (Stefan Krohmer, 2006), 3:10
Sunday, February 25 TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING (director’s cut) (Robert Aldrich, 1977), 5:15
Sunday, February 25 THESE ENCOUNTERS OF THEIRS (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 2006), 8:15
Monday, February 26 THESE ENCOUNTERS OF THEIRS (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 2006), 6:30
Monday, February 26 SUMMER ’04 (Stefan Krohmer, 2006), 8:00
Tuesday, February 27 SUMMER ’04 (Stefan Krohmer, 2006), 4:00
Tuesday, February 27 Closing Night: BLACK BOOK (Paul Verhoeven, 2006), followed by a conversation with Paul Verhoeven, 6:30
Brand X Editions
Mike Cloud, "Large Abstract," 2007
Multiple locations
Open daily
Admission: free
http://www.lincolncenter.org/exhibitions
Through February 26 Harlem Is . . . Voices of Youth: a public art and education program of Community Works, featuring works by Harlem children, the Cork Gallery, concourse level, Avery Fisher Hall
Through March 3 "Mike Cloud: Black History Month": Lincoln Center honors Black History Month with a display of new works by Mike Cloud, in addition to pieces selected by him, the Gallery at Lincoln Center, concourse level, Metropolitan Opera House
Through March 5 Black Women Behind the Lens: a collection of twenty-three movie posters of films in which blacks played major roles behind the camera, including as directors, writers, producers, and costume designers, from 1964 to 2005, Walter Reade Theater, the Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery
Matthew Barney is one of the film artists celebrated at the Whitney
Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Ave. at 75th St.
Film and Video Gallery
Through April 1
Free with museum admission of $15
1-877-whitney
Whitney curator Chrissie Iles has put together an exciting collection of shorts and full-length films by and/or about art and artists, many of them cutting-edge, avant-garde works that helped shape generations of writers and directors. The expansive series includes films by Samuel Beckett, Robert Frank, Julian Schnabel, Larry Clark, Derek Jarman, Matthew Barney, Yoko Ono and John Lennon, Cindy Sherman, Marina Abramovic, Chantal Akerman, Jean-Luc Godard, Laurie Simmons, Isaac Julien, Ed Ruscha, Chris Marker, Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell, and many more. We’re considering just moving in to the Whitney for the next six weeks to see as many of these great works as possible.
Wednesdays through Fridays Douglas Gordon, FEATURE FILM; Shirin Neshat, ZARIN; Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, PULL MY DAISY; Samuel Beckett, FILM; and Johan Grimonprez, DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, 4:00
Crazy, man, crazy. Spend half an hour hanging with Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Alice Neel, and Larry Rivers, with music by David Amram and narration by Jack Kerouac. This is a rare chance to see this Beat classic on the big screen.
Saturday, February 17 First Features, Part 1: Cindy Sherman, OFFICE KILLER; David Salle, SEARCH AND DESTROY; and Robert Longo, JOHNNY MNEMONIC, 11:00 am
Sunday, February 18 First Features, Part 2: Larry Clark, KIDS, and Julian Schnabel, BASQUIAT, 11:30 am
Saturday, February 24
and
Sunday, February 25 Cut: Mark Wallinger, THE END; Dexter Dalwood, 1800; Clemens von Wedemeyer, OCCUPATION; Sharon Lockhart, TEATROS AMAZONAS; Wilhem Sasnal, MARFA; and Douglas Gordon, FEATURE FILM, 11:30 am
Saturday, February 24
and
Sunday, February 25 Narratives: Eija-Liisa Ahtila, CONSOLATION SERVICE; Laurie Simmons, THE MUSIC OF REGRET; Shirin Neshat, ZARIN; and Tacita Dean, THE UNCLES, 3:00
Saturday, March 3 Derek Jarman, BLUE; and Isaac Julien, THE ATTENDANT, 4:30
Saturday, March 3 Cinema into Art: Chris Marker, LA JETÉE; and Jean-Luc Godard, BREATHLESS, 11:30 am
Saturday, March 3 Destricted: Erotic films by Marina Abramovic, Matthew Barney, Marco Brambilla, Larry Clark, Gaspar Noé, Richard Prince, and Sam Taylor-Wood, 7:30
Sunday, March 4 Narratives: Matthew Barney, CREMASTER 2, 11:30 am
Sunday, March 4 Narratives: Matthew Barney, DRAWING RESTRAINT 9, 3:00
http://www.drawingrestraint.net
In our review of Matthew Barney’s expansive "Cremaster Cycle" retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2003, we wrote, "We have no idea what any of it means, but we love it." We feel sort of the same way about his latest film, DRAWING RESTRAINT 9, although we don’t quite love it, but we do get a little more of what it’s getting at. Barney’s two hour, fifteen minute, evenly paced avant-garde exploration is set aboard an actual Japanese whaling vessel. One at a time, a pair of "occidental guests" (Barney and his wife, Björk) are brought onto the ship and make their way down narrow hallways to separate rooms, where they are taken care of in fascinating yet confounding ways. Meanwhile, the crew is hard at work on deck creating a bizarre, carefully designed pool of oozy liquid that could be ambergris but looks more like tofu. (As the Guggenheim exhibit showed, Barney has a thing for oozy liquid, especially petroleum jelly.) There’s also a marching band with animals, a very strange tea ceremony (with virtually the only dialogue in the movie), cool repeated patterns and designs (in architecture, rocks, and flags), a ridiculous headpiece on Barney, some gorgeous shots of the setting sun, the best wrapping ever captured on celluloid, a Kubrickian monolithic sea stone that looks like a giant turd, and a stunning soundtrack by Björk, with help from Mayumi Miyata playing the sho, Leila digitally manipulating sounds on her computer, and Will Oldham singing lines from a letter a Japanese woman wrote to General MacArthur after he lifted the whaling moratorium. Although we can’t imagine who the audience is for this rather different kind of film – which actually keeps growing on us the more we think about it – it is an aesthetic treat for those adventurous enough to open their mind and take a chance on an unusual yet rewarding experience. Just don’t blame us if you can’t stand a minute of it, which is very possible.
Saturday, March 10 Andy Warhol, LONESOME COWBOYS, 11:15 am
Saturday, March 10 Andy Warhol, CHELSEA GIRLS, 3:30
Sunday, March 11 Art into Cinema: Yoko Ono and John Lennon, APOTHEOSIS; and Ed Ruscha, MIRACLE, 1975, 11:30 am
Sunday, March 11 Art into Cinema: Yvonne Rainer, LIVES OF PERFORMERS, 1:30
Sunday, March 11 Art into Cinema: Anthony McCall and Andrew Tyndall, ARGUMENT; Babette Mangolte, WHAT MAISIE KNEW; and Bruce Conner, LUKE, 3:00
Saturday, March 17 Hype My Light: Joseph Cornell, ROSE HOBART; and Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, PULL MY DAISY, 11:30 am
Saturday, March 17 Hype My Light: Samuel Beckett, FILM; and Rebecca Horn, BUSTER’S BEDROOM, 2:00
Sunday, March 18 Fear Eats the Soul: Yoko Ono and John Lennon, RAPE, 1969, 11:30 am
Sunday, March 18 Fear Eats the Soul: Johan Grimonprez, DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, 2:00
Sunday, March 18 Fear Eats the Soul: Tracy Emin, TOP SPOT, 4:00
Saturday, March 24 First Features, Part 2: Larry Clark, KIDS, and Julian Schnabel, BASQUIAT, 11:30 am
Sunday, March 25 First Features, Part 1: Cindy Sherman, OFFICE KILLER; David Salle, SEARCH AND DESTROY; and Robert Longo, JOHNNY MNEMONIC, 11:00 am
Saturday, March 31 Art into Cinema: Yoko Ono and John Lennon, APOTHEOSIS; and Ed Ruscha, MIRACLE, 1975, 11:30 am
Saturday, March 31 Art into Cinema: Yvonne Rainer, LIVES OF PERFORMERS, 1:30
Saturday, March 31 Art into Cinema: Anthony McCall and Andrew Tyndall, ARGUMENT; Babette Mangolte, WHAT MAISIE KNEW; and Bruce Conner, LUKE, 3:00
Sunday, April 1 Cinema into Art: Chantal Akerman, JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUSSELS, 11:30 am
Chantal Akerman’s groundbreaking film follows the drab life of the title character, who goes about her day nearly silently, moving agonizingly slowly, as she makes breakfast for her husband, sends him off to work, takes in a few johns, cleans the sink, etc. This ultimate feminist film was made with an all-female crew, and if it’s anything, it’s absolutely memorable, love it or hate it.
Sunday, April 1 Derek Jarman, BLUE; and Isaac Julien, THE ATTENDANT, 4:30
Melora Griffis, "Ghost Baby"
The Park Ave. Corner Store
821 Park Ave. at 75th St.
Through March 1
Admission: free
As you enter the new Park Ave. Corner Store, you will be greeted on your left by three huge babies, large, imposing figures who look out at you like they can’t believe what awaits them. Or maybe they’re just awed by their own ghostly presence. Painted by FOT (friend of twi-ny) Melora Griffis on six-foot-by-four-foot canvases, the babies appear to be from another century, trapped in old-fashioned white dresses. In one, a white baby floats against a dark background, while in another, a black baby with a small head is almost lost inside her enormous dress, which can’t even be held within the canvas. These are not cute little babies but powerful figures with a deep intelligence behind their uneven eyes, brought to life by Griffis’s careful use of color and extraordinary brushwork. Several smaller pieces are hung around the brand-new (December 2006) bookstore, which seems oddly spacious and roomy — just how will it stay in business on Park Ave. with so little merchandise and so much square footage? — as well as a horizontal painting, across from the three babies, of two lovers rolling around, the man in black, the woman in yellow, their mouths coming together as one, reminiscent of Munch’s "The Kiss." Perhaps the babies are so wide-eyed because they are forced now to watch what led to their conception?
Daffodils bulbs will light up British Memorial Garden for Wales Week
Multiple locations
On March 1, Wales celebrates St. David’s Day, in honor of the country’s patron saint. That week the Welsh will flood into New York, holding special events throughout the city featuring chefs, artists, actors, gardeners, filmmakers, academics, and the first minister for Wales.
Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center
132 West 65th St.
Tickets: $15-$275
212-362-6000
http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season/production.aspx?id=8754
Thursday, February 22 Franco Zeffirelli’s production, conducted by Carlo Rizzi of the Welsh National Opera, with Hei-Kyung Hong and Dwayne Croft, 8:00
Robert Steele Gallery
511 W 25th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Closed Sunday & Monday
Admission: free
212-243-0165
http://www.robertsteelegallery.com
Friday, February 23
through
Saturday, March 3 The Project Room: Mali Morris
Sony Wonder Technology Lab High Definition Theater
Sony Atrium
550 Madison Ave. at 56th St.
Admission: free, but advance reservation recommended
212-833-7858
http://www.sonywondertechlab.com
Friday, February 23, 12 noon
through
Saturday, February 24 , 2:00 Animated films from around the world, presented in collaboration with the Wales International Center and Welsh broadcasting company S4C
Arsenal Gallery, Central Park
Fifth Ave. at 64th St.
Admission: free
212-360-1324, rsvp@parks.nyc.gov
Friday, February 23 Michael Houlihan, illustrated talk on the collections of the National Museum Wales, 6:00
United Nations Delegates Dining Room
46th St. at First Ave.
Reservations required: 212-963-7625
Monday, February 26
through
Friday, March 2 Lunch prepared daily by seven top chefs from Wales, 11:30 am — 2:30 pm
The Sony Atrium
550 Madison Ave. at 56th St.
Minimum donation: $40
212-682-7945, sarah@brithishmemorialgarden.org
http://britishmemorialgarden.org
Monday, February 26 Celebrate the Welsh presence in the British Memorial Garden with music by Welsh singer Mal Pope and the Trinity Chamber Choir and dramatized readings from Dylan Thomas by Kathleen Adnum and Kevin Matherick, 6:00
Barrow Street Theatre
27 Barrow St. at Seventh Ave.
http://www.barrowstreettheatre.com
Wednesday, February 28
through
Saturday, March 3 Hoipolloi theater company presents its award-winning multimedia performance, with Hugh Hughes and Sioned Rowlands
British Memorial Garden
Hanover Square
216 East 45th St.
Admission: free
http://britishmemorialgarden.org/eventsnew
Thursday, March 1 A presentation of 1,000 Tenby daffodil bulbs to the British Memorial Garden by the First Minister for Wales, with live music from the Lower School Chorus of the Town School New York in celebration of St. David’s Day, 2:30
Kellogg Center, Columbia University
420 West 118th St. at Amsterdam Ave., room 1501
Admission: free
Reservations: 646-792-8931, walesweek@hotmail.com
Friday, March 2 Lecture by Rt Hon Rhondri Morgan AM, first minister of Wales, introduced by Sylvia Ann Hewlett, 4:00
James Beard House
167 West 12th St.
Cost: $155
Reservations: 212-627-2308
Saturday, March 3 Cocktails and canapés followed by a five-course meal prepared by the Welsh Culinary Team, including Mike Bates, Mike Coram, Kurt Fleming, Colin Gray, Daniel Gray, Stuart Gray, and Doug Windsor, featuring such dishes as Welsh rarebit; smoked duck, chicken, Shiitake, and Savoy cabbage terrine with Cumberland sauce and micro-salad; Penderyn Welsh Whisky-chocolate tart with caramel-peanut butter parfait, cinnamon praline biscotti, spicy doughnut, and dried cherry syrup; and baby Welshcakes, 7:00
Trial in Mali takes some dangerous twists and turns
Film Forum
209 West Houston St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
February 14-27
Tickets: $10
212-727-8110
http://www.filmforum.org/films/bamako
In Bamako, a small town in the poor section of Hamdallaye in Mali, a trial is being held in a small courtyard, pitting the G8, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank against African society. While Chaka (Tiécoura Traoré) and Melé (Aissa Maiga) tend to their sick child, defense attorney Roland Rappaport goes toe-to-toe with plaintiff’s attorney William Bourdon, the only two white men amid this close-knit community fighting for a future that is trapped in a cycle of never-ending debt. When a gun goes missing, the very real threat of violence seethes just underneath the surface, waiting to explode at any moment. Written and directed by Abderrahmane Sissako (LIFE ON EARTH), BAMAKO, a selection of the 2006 New York Film Festival, is heartfelt but politically obvious, primarily preaching to the converted. To further his treatise on the evils of the West, Sissako includes part of a comic spaghetti Western in the middle of the film, starring Danny Glover (one of BAMAKO’s executive producers) as the hero.
Cecile de France brings an endearing charm to the City of Light
Opens Friday, February 16
Cecile de France is absolutely captivating in AVENUE MONTAIGNE, bringing an endearing charm to every second she’s on camera. The illegitimate offspring of Audrey Hepburn and Audrey Tatou, de France stars as Jessica, a young woman who ventures onto the fashionable Avenue Montaigne in Paris in search of her place in the world. She finagles a job waitressing at a popular bistro that serves as the center of the film, a place that attracts artistic folk from the nearby concert hall, auction house, and theater. At the theater, soap opera star Catherine Versen (Valérie Lemercier) desperately wants to be in the next Brian Sobinski (Sydney Pollack) film, while beloved longtime usher Claudie (Claudie Dani) is convincing herself she is ready to retire. At the concert hall, Jean-François Lefort (Albert Dupontel) is considering hanging it up as a successful classical pianist, much to the chagrin of his manager wife, Valentine (Laura Morante). And at the auction house, Jacques Grumberg (Claude Brasseur) is selling off his massive art collection and trying to reconnect with his son, Frédéric (Christopher Thompson). There’s a lot of talk about life and art, plenty of sexual intrigue, and some fine individual performances, but the film occasionally gets bogged down in heavy melodrama and unconvincing scenes. However, through it all, de France lights the way. AVENUE MONTAIGNE was directed by Daniele Thompson and cowritten by Thompson and her son, Christopher, who plays a major role in the film.
Hagen Keller
Sayar and Schendar play two very different soldiers in CLOSE TO HOME
Opens Friday, February 16
http://www.ifcfilms.com/closetohome
Smadar (Smadar Sayar) and Mirit (Naama Schendar) are two very different eighteen-year-olds thrust together by Israel’s compulsory military service in Vidi Bilu and Dalia Hager’s small but intriguing CLOSE TO HOME. Smadar and Mirit are assigned to register (racially profile) Palestinians as they pass through the area near the Jerusalem gate, checking IDs on the streets and on the buses. While Smadar is a rebellious spirit who is free with her sexuality and refuses to follow any rules, Mirit is meek and timid, still living at home with her parents, afraid to get in any kind of trouble. The movie takes a sudden turn when a terrorist bomb goes off on their beat, changing personal relationships and public and private responsibilities. Despite its controversial subject matter, CLOSE TO HOME hits close to home, a gentle, tender slice of life that is about a lot more than just young women in military service.
Tribute to Jean-Pierre Léaud
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Park & Madison Aves.
Tuesday, February 20, 12:30, 4:00 & 7:00
Tickets: $9
212-355-6160
Malaysian-born Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-Liang’s WHAT TIME IS IT THERE? is one heck of an existential hoot. When his father dies, Hsiao Kang, who sells watches on the street in Taipei, becomes obsessed with a strange woman who insists on buying Hsiao’s own watch and then leaves for Paris; with Truffaut’s THE 400 BLOWS (Ming-liang’s "all-time favorite film"); with urinating in whatever is near his bed instead of going to the bathroom; and with changing clocks to Paris time. Meanwhile, his mother is determined to follow ridiculous rituals to bring her husband back, and the woman in Paris goes through a number of bizarre events as well. There is not a single camera movement in the film (except for in the 400 BLOWS film clips); the scenes are shot by Benoît Delhomme in long takes, often lingering before and after any action — when there is any action. The dialogue is spare, ironic, and hysterical. If you like your movies straightforward and linear, then this is not for you. But we loved this riot of a film, so we suggest you give it a shot. And yes, that person sitting on the bench in the cemetery is exactly who you think it is.
Scott and Mary look for a way out in COCAINE ANGEL
Two Boots Pioneer Theater
155 East Third St. at Ave. A
February 21-27, 9:00
Tickets: $10
212-591-0434
http://www.twoboots.com/pioneer
http://www.cocaineangelmovie.com
Michael Tully’s directorial debut, COCAINE ANGEL, an international film festival favorite at Rotterdam, SXSW, and others, is a gripping tale of addiction. Screenwriter Damian Lahey stars as Scott, a drug-addled wastrel who wanders through life awkwardly, a bewildered look in his eyes, pathetically limping because of a nasty gash on his right foot. A Bukowski-like figure, Scott relies on booze and needles to get through his days as he tries to reconnect with his daughter, Stephanie (Haley and Ashleigh Summerlin). He hangs out with fellow losers Mary (Kelly Forester), Hurricane Mike (Richard Dawson), and Helen (Jamie Dawson) in a constant battle to find cash to make their next score, evoking such classic addiction films as DRUGSTORE COWBOY (Gus Van Sant, 1989), THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK (Jerry Schatzberg, 1971), and DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (Blake Edwards, 1962), without ever succumbing to genre clichés or tawdry melodrama. Tully, who produced the low-budget indie with Lahey in Jacksonville, Florida, begins and ends COCAINE ANGEL with home movies of a happier time, as Scott and his wife and daughter play together on a sunny beach; FOT (friend of twi-ny) Tully cleverly never shows what caused Scott to fall so hard, as if the same fate could happen to anyone. The soundtrack enhances the overall feeling of uneasy desperation, featuring compelling songs by Max Richter and a minimalist score by Brian Jenkins.
Madsen & Carrey have problems with number 23
Opens Friday, February 23
Joel Schumacher’s THE NUMBER 23 is a disappointing psychological thriller about obsession and responsibility. Jim Carrey stars as Walter Sparrow, an Animal Control worker who becomes a little too engrossed in a strange novel his wife, Agatha (a woefully miscast Virginia Madsen), buys him for his birthday. The book details the writer’s obsession with the number 23 — an obsession that soon overtakes Walter as well. Carrey and Madsen also play characters in the novel’s noir detective tale, which hits a little too close to home for Walter. Although the film has its moments, it falls apart completely at the end, despite an unexpected twist that unfortunately devolves into sappy ridiculousness, with awful music to boot. The usually excellent Danny Huston is wasted as both a friend of Agatha’s and a doctor in the novel, and Ned the dog becomes way too much of a good thing. Given our own obsessions and compulsions, we really wanted to like this dark movie, but it just let us down too many times. (Yes indeed, for those of you counting on your computer screens, that last sentence, and this one too, has twenty-three words in it.) If you do end up getting sucked into the mysteries of the 23 enigma, there are plenty of conspiracy Web sites where you can follow the madness through the ages.
Hagen Keller
Ulriche Mühe keeps his eyes open in German thriller
Angelika Film Center
18 West Houston St. at Mercer St.
212-995-2000
http://www.city-cinemas.com/angelika
http://www.sonyclassics.com/thelivesofothers
Nominated for an Oscar this year for Best Foreign Language Film, THE LIVES OF OTHERS is a tense political thriller set in 1980s East Berlin. Ulriche Mühe gives a mesmerizing performance as Capt. Gerd Wiesler, an expert interrogator for the Stasi, the German Democratic Republic’s secret police, who keep a close watch on all suspicious activity — and to them, everything is suspicious. When powerful culture minister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme) tells Wiesler’s nervous yes-man boss, Lt. Col. Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur), to spy on noted playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), Wiesler takes the case, setting up audio surveillance on Dreyman and his actress girlfriend, Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). But when the ever-loyal, humorless, always stalwart Wiesler discovers that Hempf ordered the surveillance primarily because he has a thing for Sieland, Wiesler begins to reconsider the case — and the ultimate responsibility of the Stasi itself. And the more he learns, the more he understands. THE LIVES OF OTHERS was written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, making an extremely impressive feature-film debut, capturing a precarious, paranoid part of recent German history in which the vast majority of the nation was either being spied on or were informers themselves.
Luis Tosar and Leonor Watling excel in Spanish psychiatric farce
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Tickets: $10
212-924-3363
http://www.unconscious-themovie.com
Set amid the psychiatric world of Barcelona in 1913, Joaquín Oristrell’s UNCONSCIOUS is a strangely subdued madcap farce. Pedro Almodóvar veteran Leonor Watling stars as Alma, a pregnant woman whose psychiatrist husband, León (Alex Brendemühl), mysteriously disappears one day. Determined to find out why he left — and worried for his safety — Alma recruits her very formal, extremely rigid psychiatrist brother-in-law, Salvador (a fabulously mustached Luis Tosar), to help her find him. The two become a sort of Nick and Nora Charles, using their society and psychiatric connections to get to the bottom of what is quickly becoming a rather outrageous and very dangerous case. As Salvador spends more time with Alma, his wife, Olivia (Núria Prims), who is Alma’s sister, grows more distant, while the women’s father (Juanjo Puigcorbé), a well-respected psychiatrist preparing for the arrival of Sigmund Freud, acts more and more bizarre. The ending is filled with unexpected secrets galore, but Oristrell’s uneven pacing slows things down at key intervals. Interestingly, Oristrell wrote the script with Dominic Harari and Teresa De Pelegrí, whose 2006 slapstick comedy ONLY HUMAN (SERES QUERIDOS) went too crazy, needing a calming influence. Still, UNCONSCIOUS is an entertaining little farce.
In theaters now
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/seraphimfalls
In the snow-covered Ruby Mountains in 1868, Morsman Carver (Liam Neeson) is leading a small, paid posse to track down Gideon (Pierce Brosnan), a man who knows how to stay alive — even if it means killing to do so. But for much of this Western, first-time feature-film director David Von Ancken keeps the audience in the dark about why Carver is so hell-bent on capturing Gideon, leaving a fabulous ambiguity about just who is the good guy and who the bad guy, calling to mind the work of Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood and even John Ford (THE SEARCHERS). However, as the final showdown approaches, Van Ancken and co-screenwriter Abby Everett Jacques lose their focus, introducing bizarre, confusing elements that detract from what could have been one hell of an ending. (Just what is Anjelica Huston doing in this movie anyway?) Still, there’s a lot to admire here, especially Brosnan’s gritty, unrelenting, tough-as-nails performance.
Rinko Kikuchi desperately wants to communicate in BABEL
In theaters now
http://www.paramountvantage.com/babel
Fearing that the people of the world, who all spoke the same language, were capable of anything after building a tower that reached to the heavens, the Old Testament God confused their languages and scattered them all over the earth. The inability of people to communicate with one another is at the center of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s fascinating, compelling BABEL. The plot follows three stories that slowly intertwine. On vacation in Morocco, Susan (Cate Blanchett) is the victim of random gunfire by a small boy (Boubker Ait El Caid), sending her husband, Richard (Brad Pitt), into a frenzy to try to save her life. Meanwhile, their housekeeper, Amelia (Adriana Barraza), who is looking after their children, has to decide what to do with them on the day of her son’s wedding in Mexico, turning to her crazy nephew Santiago (Gael García Bernal) for help. And in Tokyo, Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi) is a deaf-mute teenager who desperately wants to fall in love, but all the boys she meets — and her father (the great Kôji Yakusho, from THE EEL, CURE, and SHALL WE DANCE?) — don’t take the time to listen to and understand her. Despite a couple of wrong turns, Iñárritu recovers to make BABEL a whirlwind of a movie, laying bear the tragic consequences that can occur when people refuse to simply communicate, even in the most basic of ways.
The film received seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay (Guillermo Arriaga), and Best Supporting Actress (both Barraza and Kikuchi). It also is part of the triple play of fabulous films by Mexican directors in 2006, along with Guillermo del Toro’s PAN’S LABYRINTH (nominated for six Oscars, including Best Foreign Language Film) and Alfonso Cuarón’s CHILDREN OF MEN (three Oscar nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay).
Clive Owen doesn’t like what he sees in CHILDREN OF MEN
In theaters now
http://www.thehumanprojectlives.org
It’s 2027, and there hasn’t been a baby born in the world in eighteen years. For some unknown reason, women have become infertile, leading to chaos around the globe. Only England perseveres, but it is on the brink of destruction as warring factions prepare for doomsday. Onetime revolutionary Theo (an even-keeled-as-ever Clive Owen) has settled down into a mundane life, but he’s thrust back into the middle of things when he is kidnapped by a radical organization run by his ex-wife, Julian (Julianne Moore), and her right-hand man, the hard-edged Luke (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Theo is forced to escort Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey), a young fugee (refugee), through the danger zone and to the Human Project, a supposed safe haven that might not actually exist. Also staring extinction in the face are Theo’s brother, Nigel (Danny Huston); Theo’s hippie friend, Jasper (a longhaired Michael Caine); and homeland security officer Syd (Peter Mullan). Based on the novel by P. D. James, the chilling CHILDREN OF MEN is a violent, prescient, nonstop thrill ride, moviemaking of the highest order, cowritten and directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN, HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN) and photographed in vibrant filth and muddiness by Emmanuel Lubezki. Stay through the credits for a tiny but critical coda.
Ofelia meets the Pale Man in Del Toro fairy tale
In theaters now
The closing night film of the 2006 New York Film Festival and now nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, PAN’S LABYRINTH is a breathtaking fairy tale set in 1944 Spain, shortly after the Spanish Civil War. When her mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil), marries Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez), young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) must move to the middle of the woods, where Vidal and his small group of soldiers are defending the last vestiges of Franco’s Fascist regime against a group of resistance fighters seeking peace and freedom for all. Led by a mysterious flying creature, the adventurous Ofelia makes her way through an ancient underground labyrinth, where she meets the Faun (HELLBOY’s Doug Jones), who tells her that she just might be the reborn, long-missing princess they’ve been waiting centuries for — but first she’ll have to perform three tasks to prove that she has returned to claim her throne. As Vidal shows more concern for the baby that Carmen is carrying than for Carmen herself — and also brutally tortures and kills anyone who gets in his way, whether it is one of the revolutionaries or one of his own people — Ofelia meets a dangerous yet engaging series of beings as she hopes for her fairy-tale dreams to come true and erase the nightmares of the real world. Del Toro (THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE) has cleverly balanced fantasy and reality, alternating between scenes of horror and graphic violence aboveground and below as seen through the eyes of a brave young girl trapped in both.
Now available on DVD
http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/littlemisssunshine
When little Olive (Abigail Breslin) suddenly makes it to the finals of the Little Miss Sunshine contest, her entire family piles into their aging VW bus and heads out on a bizarre road trip, with positive-thinking dad Richard (Greg Kinnear) behind the wheel, exhausted mom Sheryl (Toni Collette) by his side, wannabe-pilot Dwayne (Paul Dano) refusing to speak, recent suicide attemptee Uncle Frank (Steve Carell) trying to get over a crazy love triangle, and dirty old grandpa (Alan Arkin) cursing away in the back. Just about everything that can go wrong does as they desperately try to let in the least bit of sunshine into their absurd little lives. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is a charming little movie with an Eastern European indie sensibility, which might be why it has been so overhyped as something utterly fresh and original. While it might not be one of the best pictures of 2006 — despite its Oscar nomination — it still is a sweet, offbeat, fun flick. The DVD features several alternate endings.
In theaters now
It’s tradition versus modernization in Stephen Frears’s re-creation of the Royal Family’s reaction to the death of Princess Diana on August 31, 1997. While the world mourns, Queen Elizabeth II (a stoic Helen Mirren), Prince Philip (an acerbic James Cromwell), and the Queen Mum (Sylvia Syms) just continue their daily routine as if nothing has happened. They take Diana and Prince Charles’s (Alex Jennings) children up to Balmoral to hunt stag, refusing to publicly acknowledge the tragedy. Meanwhile, Tony Blair (Michael Sheen, reprising the role from Frears’s 2003 British television movie THE DEAL) has been swept into the office of prime minister in a landslide victory for forward-thinking change. Noting the public response to Diana’s death, Blair implores the queen to respond, but protocol, pride, and dignity get in the way. Frears cleverly, if obviously, displays the differences between the old and the new in depicting the simple home life of the Blairs against the opulence of the Royal Family, each way of life representing the ever-growing gap in British society. Through exhaustive research, screenwriter Peter Morgan imagines the relationship between Blair and the queen, including numerous private conversations held over the phone and in person, and as intriguing as they are, there’s just no way to know how much of it really happened. (A similar fate befell THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, in which cowriter Morgan imagined conversations Idi Amin had with a made-up character.) THE QUEEN, up for Best Picture, is a compelling film, with solid acting (Cromwell is a screaming riot, and Mirren earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress) and appropriately calm direction, but it never quite reaches the heights it aspires to.
In theaters now
http://iwojimathemovie.warnerbros.com
Clint Eastwood examines ones of the most important battles of WWII from the point of view of the Japanese soldiers who lost there in the compelling, violent LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. Ken Watanabe (THE LAST SAMURAI, BATMAN BEGINS) stars as General Kuribayashi, a proud military man given the impossible task of defending the island of Iwo Jima from the oncoming American troops. The movie is primarily seen through the eyes of young Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), an innocent young baker swept up into the war, suddenly surrounded by blood, guts, and old-fashioned honor. He watches and continues to survive as men fall all around him and officers, including Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), Ito (Shido Nakamura), Fujita (Hiroshi Watanabe), and Okubo (Eijiro Ozaki), fight each other over how best to proceed, surrender, or take the honorable way out. Eastwood and screenwriter Iris Yamashita have pulled off quite a feat, humanizing an enemy that has primarily been shown only as evil automatons in previous WWII movies.
In theaters now
http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/notesonascandal
Oscar-nominated Cate Blanchett delivers the best female performance of the year in the tantalizing NOTES ON A SCANDAL, based on the novel by Zoe Heller. Blanchett plays Sheba Hart, a beautiful, married art teacher who gets into a bit of trouble with one of her students (Andrew Simpson). When history teacher Barbara Covett (Oscar-nominated Judi Dench) discovers her secret, the frumpy, lonely battle-ax decides to use the knowledge to get closer to the young teacher. But we’ve already told you too much. Blanchett imbues the damaged Sheba with a heartbreaking complexity, while Dench infuses the very formal Barbara with graceful mischief and a surprisingly wicked sense of humor. The film virtually explodes every time they’re on screen together, which thankfully is much of the time. Richard Eyre (STAGE BEAUTY, IRIS, THE PLOUGHMAN’S LUNCH) directs NOTES ON A SCANDAL with a careful hand, not letting the acting get too out of control while also avoiding campy sentimentality.
In theaters now
http://thedeparted.warnerbros.com
Based on Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s awesome INFERNAL AFFAIRS (2002), Martin Scorsese’s relatively faithful remake, THE DEPARTED, has been moved from Hong Kong to the mean streets of Boston, where it is hard to tell cop from criminal. Just out of the academy, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) rises quickly to detective in the Special Investigations Unit, but he’s actually in cahoots with master crime lord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Meanwhile, Billy Costigan (an excellent Leonardo DiCaprio), training to become a cop, is sent deep undercover (including a prison stint) to infiltrate Costello’s gang, with only Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Sergeant Dignam (a very funny and foul-mouthed Mark Wahlberg) aware of the secret mission. Sullivan and Costigan are like opposite sides of the same persona; in between them stands Costello — and Madolyn (Vera Farmiga), a psychiatrist who is in a relationship with one and is doctor to the other. As both the cops and the criminals search desperately for their respective rats, no one can trust each other, leading to lots of blood and a spectacular finale. Nicholson has a field day as the aging gangster, chewing up mounds of scenery in his first film with Scorsese, who has returned to peak form with his best film since 1990s GOODFELLAS, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Director. The film is also up for Best Picture.
In theaters now
http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/thelastkingofscotland
Forest Whitaker is absolutely mesmerizing in his Oscar-nominated role as General Idi Amin in Kevin MacDonald’s THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, demanding viewers’ attention every time he appears on-screen, a dominating, bigger-than-life presence. Unfortunately, the rest of the film lets him down, failing to come close to his overpowering performance. The movie is based on Giles Foden’s award-winning novel, in which the author created a composite character, Nicholas Garrigan, a Scottish doctor who becomes a close confidant of Amin’s. What might have worked in the book falls apart on camera in a series of hard-to-believe scenes that actually never happened. As played by James McAvoy, Garrigan is goofy and lightweight from the very beginning, unable to compete with the massive Whitaker as Amin. He makes a play for his boss’s wife (Gillian Anderson), thinks he doesn’t have to play the political game with a British operative (Simon McBurney), and takes a liking to one of Amin’s mistreated wives (Kerry Washington). While it is fascinating to watch the rise and fall of the President for Life, his relationship with Garrigan is hard to swallow — mostly because it’s not true. And even those bits and pieces that are factual have been twisted and changed to increase emotional impact, ending up with manipulated melodrama instead of what really happened — which is a shame, since MacDonald’s first two films, the well-regarded ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER and TOUCHING THE VOID, were both documentaries.
In theaters now
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thepursuitofhappyness
Will Smith takes the serious route in THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS, a well-meaning, poignant, but eventually overwrought drama of class, race, and society, inspired by a true story. Smith stars as Chris Gardner, a determined husband and father who gambles his life savings on a bone-density machine. He makes sales calls on doctors, pushing the machine, but they’re not biting, leaving him in desperate straits. With his wife (Thandie Newton) threatening to leave and his son, Christopher (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, Will’s real-life son with Jada Pinkett), caught in the middle, Gardner suddenly believes that his life can change for the better if he first gets an internship at Dean Witter, then wins the single job that is available. (This is, after all, the wild and woolly Reagan ’80s.) Rapper-comedian-action-hero Smith turns in a good performance as Gardner, as he keeps hitting wall after wall trying to feed, clothe, and shelter his family, but his struggles become repetitive and ponderous. As ridiculous as he looks carrying around and protecting what looks to be a typewriter (the bone-density machine), he looks even more silly chasing around homeless people on the streets of San Francisco to recover missing ones. Newton is wasted in a one-note role, although Jaden makes a fine feature-film debut playing alongside his dad, in the first English-language movie from Italian director Gabriele Muccino.
The Mooney Suzuki headline a groovy show at Rebel
Rebel
251 West 30th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Thursday, February 15
Tickets: $14
212-695-2747
http://myspace.com/generalsampmajors
http://www.myspace.com/johan4all
http://www.myspace.com/rebelnyc
Retro indie darlings the Mooney Suzuki were alive & amplified at a sweet and wild post-Valentine’s Day gig at the relatively new Rebel club on West 30th St., debuting songs from their upcoming album, HAVE MERCY. Taking the stage after Norway’s Johan and New York City’s own Generals & Majors, lead singer and guitarist Sammy James Jr., lead guitarist Graham Tyler, drummer Will Rockwell-Scott, and bassist Reno Bo delivered a rousing set of good old-fashioned garage-band rock and roll. Gleefully sporting guitar lines from Neil Young, the Who, the James Gang, and even the Georgia Satellites, the MS played hard and fast — and with a contagious boyish charm — propelled by some giant bass lines and the 4/4 beat of true believers. With great hair and sweaty shirts, they kicked ass on "Half of My Heart," "My Dear Persephone," "Oh Sweet Susannah," "Alive & Amplified," "Natural Fact," "Singin’ a Song About Today," and tunes from the soon-to-be-released HAVE MERCY, including the awesome "First Comes Love" and the closer, a memorable alt-country paean to mind-altering drugs and alcohol. Get these boys on a record label fast!
Prester will tickle the ivories at St. Marks concert
St. Marks Church
131 East Tenth St. at Second Ave.
Tickets: $5-$15
Sunday, February 18 Innovative pianist presents works by Bach, Chopin, and Debussy as well as the New York premiere of his own composition, "Sonata #1 in Fm," 2:30
Folk legend David Bromberg tours behind first new album in seventeen years
Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St. between East Fourth St. & Astor Pl.
Friday, February 23, 7:00
Tickets: $30
212-539-8778
The incomparable David Bromberg returns to New York City for a pair of intimate shows at Joe’s Pub, which promise to be very different from his recent performances at such venues as B.B. King’s and even, back in the day, the Bottom Line. Bromberg is about to release his first new album in seventeen years, the outstanding TRY ME ONE MORE TIME (Appleseed Recordings, February 27, 2007), a collection of sixteen old and new favorites that combine folk, blues, ragtime, and bluegrass like nobody’s business. He’s mixing things up for his current three-month tour, playing gigs with the David Bromberg Quartet, the Bromberg Big Band, and the Angel Band, but he’s doing only four solo shows, the two at Joe’s Pub on February 13 and 23 as well as February 15 in Philly and February 24 in Princeton (with Natalie MacMaster). The guitar virtuoso and fine violin maker opens the record with the title track, a rewrite of a 1931 Marshall Owens song, and follows that with traditional tunes as well as covers of Robert Johnson, Bob Dylan, Blind Willie McTell, and the Reverend Gary Davis, whom Bromberg studied with while helping the blues legend get around in the mid-’60s. Bromberg gets things going on the album with "Try Me One More Time," playing an oh-so-sweet slide guitar as a woman begs him to take her back. Although Bromberg calls the album "a folk music record" in the liner notes, it’s really more of a blues affair, although "When First Unto This Country" is classic folk in both the story and the way Bromberg tells it, as is "East Virginia" and "Lonesome Roving Wolves." "Trying to Get Home" is so personal to Bromberg, he can barely get all the words out. (Make sure to read his emotional passage in the accompanying booklet, in which he briefly discusses each song — where it came from, how he’s changed it, who the original artist was, and what it means to him.) As always, Bromberg’s sense of humor and clear love of what he is doing is infectious; we only wish the record were longer than its not-quite-fifty-minutes length. Thankfully, the shows will not be as brief.
Cotton will be hosting concert for the exonerated Alan Crotzer
The Living Room
154 Ludlow St. between Stanton & Rivington Sts.
Saturday, February 24
Advance tickets: $24 — sold out, but limited tickets will be available at the door
212-533-7235
Danielia Cotton will be hosting a special night of music to benefit the recently exonerated Alan Crotzer, who spent twenty-four years (of a 130-year sentence) in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was freed as a result of DNA evidence and the hard work of Sam Roberts, Cotton’s husband. If you can’t make it to the show, you can donate to Crotzer’s cause by making checks out to the nonprofit Kol Echad, c/o Sam and Danielia Roberts, 147 West 22nd St., #8-S, New York, NY 10011.
Born and raised in Chinatown, security director Henry Chang sets his debut novel on the streets of Lower Manhattan, where Detective Jack Yu is on the case. Dealing with the recent death of his father, which causes him to look back at his own lonely life, Yu is trying to track down a serial rapist as well as the murderer of a prominent Chinatown crime lord. Yu knows every nook and cranny of the area, willing to go places and talk to people his fellow Caucasian officers won’t; they prefer to let Chinatown take care of itself. As the circle of clues envelops the Hip Ching, the Red Circle Triad, the Fuk Chou, the Ghost Legion, the Black Dragons, a lovestruck limo driver, and a mysterious nightclub floozy, Yu finds himself in ever-more-dangerous territory. CHINATOWN BEAT is told in short chapters seen from different characters’ points of view, resulting in some confusion, and the writing is relatively standard. But Chang’s knowledge of the way things work in Chinatown, as well as his inclusion of many interesting Chinese terms and phrases, lifts this tale a notch above your basic potboiler.
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Fraunces Tavern Museum
54 Pearl St. at Broad St.
Closed Sunday & Monday
Admission: $4
212-425-1778
http://sonsoftherevolution.org
Ongoing The Elizabeth and Stanley DeForest Scott Collection
Rocky Sullivan’s Pub
129 Lexington Ave. between 28th & 29th Sts.
Admission: free
212-725-3871
Wednesday, February 14 Evan Mandery, DREAMING OF GWEN STEFANI, 8:00
Obivia
201 Lafayette St.
Admission: free, including open champagne bar 8:00-9:00
Wednesday, February 14 Sexy + scary costume party (costumes encouraged but not required), sponsored by LetsMeetOut.com, hosted by Julia Allison, who will offer dating advice and strategies, 8:00-12 midnight
New Tang Dynasty Television
Radio City Music Hall
1260 Sixth Ave. at 50th St.
Tickets: $42.50-$184.50
888-260-6221
Wednesday, February 14
through
Saturday, February 17 New Year celebration featuring Eastern and Western music, dance, and other special acts
92nd St. Y
1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd St.
Tickets: $20
212-415-5500
Wednesday, February 14
through
Sunday, February 18 Leesaar/The Company: Part II
Wednesday, February 21
through
Sunday, February 25 Claire Porter/Portables: Words Away from Home, world premiere
Wednesday, February 28
through
Sunday, March 4 Joe Chvala & the Flying Foot Forum: Flying Feet, world premiere
Sage Theater
711 Seventh Ave. between 47th & 48th Sts.
Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00
Tickets: $50
212-302-6665
http://www.nowthatyouveseenmenaked.com
Wednesday, February 14
through
Saturday, April 7 Musical sketch comedy celebrating the more ridiculous aspects of dating and relationships
St. Agnes Branch
New York Public Library
444 Amsterdam Ave. near 81st St.
Wednesdays at 2:00 pm
Admission: free
212-877-4380
Wednesday, February 14 ZOU ZOU (Marc Allégret, 1934)
Wednesday, February 21 LANGSTON HUGHES: THE DREAM KEEPER (St. Clair Bourne, 1988)
Wednesday, February 28 JUKE JOINT (Spencer Williams, 1947)
The Great Hall at the Cooper Union
7 East Seventh St. at Third Ave.
Admission: free
212-219-1222
Thursday, February 15 Jim Oakes, lecture and book signing, 6:30
India House (Marine Room)
One Hanover Sq.
Admission: free, but advance online reservations required
212-566-6700
http://www.downtownny.com/thirdthursdays
Thursday, February 15 Mark Kurlansky, THE BIG OYSTER: HISTORY ON THE HALF SHELL, 7:00
New York Philomusica Chamber Ensemble
Broadway Presbyterian Church
Broadway at 114th St.
Tickets: $35
212-580-9933
Thursday, February 15 Seminar series examining the resistance to the new by contemporary audiences, featuring works by Beethoven, Bartók, Michael Berkeley, and A. Robert Johnson, 8:00
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace
28 East 20th St. between Park Ave. & Broadway
Admission: free, but reservations recommended
212-260-1616
Thursday, February 15 Christopher M. Finan, ALFRED E. SMITH, THE HAPPY WARRIOR
Donnell Library Center
New York Public Library
20 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Admission: free
212-621-0619
Thursday, February 15 AFRICA SINGS (Joseph Best, 1936) and SONG OF AFRICA (Emil Nofal, 1951), 2:30
Thursday, February 22 COME BACK AFRICA (Lionel Rogosin, 1959), 2:30
National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts
1083 Fifth Ave. between 89th & 90th Sts.
Admission: $5 (includes entry to exhibits at National Academy)
212-369-4880
http://www.nationalacademy.org
Friday, February 16 David Cohen, David Grosz, Carol Kino, and Roberta Smith discuss Gillian Carnegie at Andrea Rosen, Lisa Hoke at Elizabeth Harris, Josiah McElheny at MoMA, Philip Taaffe at Gagosian, and Corban Walker at PaceWildenstein, with National Academy galleries open prior to panel, 6:45
BAMcinématek
Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Bimonthly Fridays at 10:00 am; sixty-five and older only
Free admission, popcorn, and soda
Advance reservations required: 718-636-4122
Friday, February 16 THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (Joseph Sargent, 1974)
BAMcinématek
Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
February 16-21
Tickets: $10
718-636-4100
Friday, February 16 African Stories Program: COLOBANE EXPRESS (Khady Sylla, 2001), THE GREAT BAZAAR (Licinio Azevedo, 2005), and ROTATING SQUARE (Ahmed Hassouna, 2002), 2:00
Friday, February 16 Haitian Program: HAITI: THROUGH MY EYES (Jephte Bastien, 2005) and WHEN LIFE IS A DREAM (Charles Gervais, 2005), 4:30
Friday, February 16 Brooklyn Stories Program: THE MEETING (Jeremiah Jahi, 2005), ONE MORE TRY (Patrick Ulysse, 2006), and BUSHWICK HOMECOMINGS (Stefanie Joshua, 2006), all screenings followed by Q&A with the director, 6:50
Friday, February 16 SHOOT THE MESSENGER (Ngozi Onwurah, 2006), followed by a Q&A with the director, 9:15
Saturday, February 17 HOMECOMING (Norman Maake, 2005), 2:00
Saturday, February 17 DRY SEASON (DARATT) (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, 2006), 4:30
Saturday, February 17 DIARY OF A TIRED BLACK MAN (Tim Alexander, 2006), followed by a Q&A with director, 6:50
Saturday, February 17 MARIA BETHANIA: MUSIC IS PERFUME, (Georges Gachot, 2005), 9:30
Sunday, February 18 MASAI: THE RAIN WARRIORS (Pascal Plisson, 2005), 2:00
Sunday, February 18 Leaders of the Caribbean program: FRANTZ FANON: HIS LIFE, HIS STRUGGLE, HIS WORK (Cheikh Djemai, 2001) and CATCH A FIRE (Menelik Shabazz, 1995), 4:30
Sunday, February 18 SORRY AIN'T ENOUGH (Emily Blake, 2005), 6:50
Sunday, February 18 GOOD-BYE MOMO (ADIOS MOMO) (Leonardo Ricagni, 2005), followed by a theatrical release party, 9:15
Monday, February 19 Haitian Program: HAITI: THROUGH MY EYES (Jephte Bastien, 2005) and WHEN LIFE IS A DREAM (Charles Gervais, 2005), 2:00
Monday, February 19 Leaders of the Caribbean program: FRANTZ FANON: HIS LIFE, HIS STRUGGLE, HIS WORK (Cheikh Djemai, 2001) and CATCH A FIRE (Menelik Shabazz, 1995), 4:30
Monday, February 19 DRY SEASON (DARATT) (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, 2006), 6:50
Monday, February 19 Afro-Cuba Yesterday and Today: THE LAST RUMBA OF PAPA MONTERO (Octavio Cortazar, 1992), and WHERE IS SARA GOMEZ? (Alessandra Muller, 2005), 9:15
Tuesday, February 20 Afro-Latino Music Program: SONS OF BENKOS (Lucas Silva, 2003), and HANDS OF GOD (Delia Ackerman, 2004), 4:30
Tuesday, February 20 SHOOT THE MESSENGER (Ngozi Onwurah, 2006), 6:50
Tuesday, February 20 SORRY AIN'T ENOUGH (Emily Blake, 2005), followed by a Q&A with the producers, 9:30
Wednesday, February 21 HOMECOMING (Norman Maake, 2005), 4:30
Wednesday, February 21 MARIA BETHANIA: MUSIC IS PERFUME, (Georges Gachot, 2005), 9:15
Wednesday, February 21 Afro-Latino Music Program: SONS OF BENKOS (Lucas Silva, 2003), and HANDS OF GOD (Delia Ackerman, 2004), 6:50
Wednesday, February 21 MARIA BETHANIA: MUSIC IS PERFUME, (Georges Gachot, 2005), 9:15
The River Room, Riverbank State Park
Riverside Dr. at 145th St.
Friday & Saturday nights at 9:00 & 10:30
Cover charge: $5
212-491-1500
http://www.theriverroomofharlem.com
Friday, February 16
and
Saturday, February 17 The Primordial Jazz Funktet
Friday, February 23 The Albert Rivera Quartet
Saturday, February 24 The Vitaly Golovnev Quartet
Morris-Jumel Mansion
65 Jumel Terr. between 160th & 162nd Sts.
212-923-8008
Saturday, February 17 Celebration of the birth of America’s first president, with folk balladeer Rich Bala at 1:00, a lecture by Dr. Philip Briggs on Glover’s Brigade at 2:00, in addition to craft making and food, free, 12 noon — 4:00 pm
Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden
421 East 61st St. between First and York Aves.
Admission: $10 adults, $5 children under twelve
212-838-6878
Saturday, February 17 Early nineteenth-century celebration, featuring period dance ensemble, historical reenactments, cookies and cider, and tours of the museum, reservations strongly suggested, 1:00
Charles A. Dana Discovery Center
Inside the park at 110th St. between Fifth & Lenox Aves.
Admission: free
212-860-1370
Saturday, February 17 Twenty-second annual winter celebration, with Half Moon Sword and live music, 1:30 & 3:00
Lighthouse International Academy Theater
110 East 60th St. between Lexington & Park Aves.
Tickets: $5
888-778-7575
http://www.lighthouse.org/events
Saturday, February 17 Screening of the nominees for Best Animated Short and Best Live-Action Short, 12 noon & 4:00
Makor
Steinhardt Building
35 West 67th St. between Amsterdam & Columbus Aves.
Tickets: $5
212-601-1000
Saturday, February 17 TOOTSIE (Syndey Pollack, 1982), shoulda’won the Oscar: Dustin Hoffman, 8:00
Saturday, February 24 BREAKING THE WAVES (Lars Von Trier, 1996), shoulda’won the Oscar: Emily Watson, 8:00
China Institute
125 East 65th St.
Admission: free
212-744-8181
Sunday, February 18 Annual tradition featuring acrobats and martial artists, 11:00 am
MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Tickets: $10, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk
212-708-9400
Sunday, February 18 THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT (Ruby Yang, 2006), RECYCLED LIFE (Leslie Iwerks, 2006), REHEARSING A DREAM (Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon, 2006), and TWO HANDS (Nathaniel Kahn, 2006), 2:00
South Street Seaport Museum
12 Fulton St. between Front & South Sts.
Free with museum admission of $6-$8
212-748-8568
Sunday, February 18 Special program featuring historical reenactments, interactive activities, and invisible ink experiments, 1:00
The New School for General Studies
Theresa Lang Community and Student Center
55 West 13th St., second floor
Admission: free but reservations required, rsvp@pga-ny.org
212-229-5488
Tuesday, February 20 Panel discussion moderated by Shelly Palmer, with Eric D. Alterman, Nicholas Butterworth, Dan Melinger, and Eric Wachtmeister, hosted by Jeff Dachis and Marc Scarpa, 7:00
Jimmy’s No. 43
43 East Seventh St. between Second & Third Aves.
Admission: Probably free
212-982-3006
Wednesday, February 21 A brand-new parody women’s talk show, with sketches, “experts,” special guests, and more, complete with “commercials,” 8:00
Center for Jewish History
Forchheimer Auditorium
15 West 16th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Admission: $10
917-606-8200
Wednesday, February 21 CROSSING DELANCEY (Joan Micklin Silver, 1988), followed by discussion with Beth Wenger, 7:00
Wednesday, February 28 ARGUING THE WORLD (Joseph Dorman, 1998), followed by discussion with Dr. Henry Feingold, 7:00
CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Ave. at 34th St.
Admission: free
212-817-8215
Thursday, February 22 An Evening with Contemporary Russian Artists: panel discussion with Andre Aciman, Keith Gessen, Laura Vapnyar, Gary Shteyngart, and Albert Fayngold, 6:30
APT
419 West 13th St. between Ninth Ave. & Washington St.
Admission: free
212-414-4245
Thursday, February 22 Round 2, featuring DJ sets from Supervixen, Cowboy Mark, DJ: Unknown, Dopewerewolf, and Alonzo (live PA), presented by Black Van Records, 10:00 pm – 4:00 am
School of Visual Arts, third-floor amphitheater
209 East 23rd St. between Second & Third Aves.
212-592-2010
Thursday, February 22 The Honors Program Lecture: British photographer and sculptor Steven Pippin, free, 7:00
Friday, February 23 Artists Talk on Art — Andy Warhol: The Legacy, panel discussion with Vincent Freeman, Donald Sheridan, and Brian Appel, moderated by Doug Sheer, $3-$7, 7:00
660 Twelfth Ave. at 49th St.
Admission: free
917-650-3760
http://www.fountainexhibit.com
Thursday February 22 Reception and opening, 5:00 pm – 12 midnight
Friday, February 23
through
Monday February 26 Second annual independent art fair featuring works from Williamsburg galleries, including Capla Kesting, Ch’i Contemporary Fine Art, Front Room, Steven Gagnon, Glowlab, McCaig-Welles, New Improved Art, Outrageous Look, and Yum Yum Factory, 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Art Dealers Association of America
Park Avenue Armory, Park Ave. at 67th St.
Admission: $20
212-766-9200
http://www.artdealers.org/artshow
Thursday, February 22
through
Monday, February 26 Artwork from seventy ADAA galleries will be on view and for sale, with all admission proceeds benefiting the Henry Street Settlement
The Puck Building
295 Houston St. at Lafayette St.
Advance tickets: 212-744-8181 ext137/139
Friday, February 23 Annual Chinese New Year Soirée sponsored by the China Institute Young Associates, this year in the form of a 1930 Shanghai Casino Nightclub, with a marketplace and wine reception, followed by a casino, dancing, open bar, cultural performances , and more in the Skylight Ballroom, red-and-gold-themed festive attire or black tie optional, $75 ($100 with membership), 7:30 pm — 12:30 am
Friday, February 23 Annual Chinese New Year Family Celebration, featuring Lion Dance, acrobats, fortune-tellers, arts & crafts, auctions, and more in the Grand Ballroom, $350
Town Hall
123 West 43rd St. between Sixth Ave. & Broadway
Tickets: $40-$45
212-840-2824
http://www.the-townhall-nyc.org
Friday, February 23 Andrea Marcovicci and a chamber orchestra take the audience on a sentimental journey through the WWII era, featuring songs by Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Jule Styne, and others, 8:00
BAMcafé live
Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House Café
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
No cover, no minimum
718-636-4100
http://bam.org/events/bamcafelive
Friday, February 23 Hungry March Band and Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, with DJ Tikka Masala, 9:30 pm — 2:00 am
Saturday, February 24 ART JAM, with Radio Wonderland, Dynasty Handbag, Bora Yoon, Daisy Spurs, the F&*kerettes, and DJ Designer Imposter, cohosted by Jennifer Miller and Earl Dax, 9:30 pm — 2:00 am
Piers 94
Twelfth Ave. at 55th St.
Admission: $20
212-645-6440
Friday, February 23
through
Monday, February 26 The ninth annual International Fair of New Art, featuring contemporary art from nearly 150 international galleries, with free shuttle bus service to and from the Pulse show at the Armory on Lexington & 26th St., 12 noon - 8:00 pm
69th Regiment Armory
Lexington Ave. at 26th St.
General admission: $15
212-255-2327
Friday, February 23
through
Sunday, February 26 Second annual art show, featuring works from more than sixty galleries across fifteen countries, with free shuttle bus service to and from the Armory Show at Pier 94
Park South Hotel
122 East 28th St. between Park & Lexington Aves.
Admission: $8
917-273-8621
Friday, February 23
through
Monday, February 26 Featuring fifty contemporary art exhibitors primarily from around the United States as well as panel discussions
ScopePavilion, Damrosch Park, the Tent at Lincoln Center
62nd St. between Amsterdan & Columbus Aves.
212-268-1522
Friday, February 23
through
Monday, February 26 Sixth annual show, featuring sixty-five participants from twenty countries, including Brain Factory from Korea, heliumcowboy artspace from Germany, Greener Pastures from Canada, leo bahia arte from Brazil, Shine Art Space from China, takefloor from Tokyo, the Flat/Massimi Carasi from Italy, art affairs from the Netherlands, Claudine Papillon from France, Crown from Switzerland, Galleri K from Oslo, and dozens of art galleries from all over the United States.
256 Grand St. between Driggs & Roebling Sts.
Admission: $7, open bar from 8:00 to 9:00
718-599-1000
http://www.myspace.com/thetrashbar
Saturday, February 24 Trashy garage surf garbage punk rock, with andtheybecamegod, 9:00; Kissy Kamikaze, 10:00; Undersea Explosion, 11:00; Stiff Mickeys, 12 midnight; Cocked & Loaded, 1:00
Scholar’s Garden at the Staten Island Botanical Garden
1000 Richmond Terr.
Admission: $8
718-273-8200
Sunday, February 25 Celebrating the Year of the Pig, 1:00 — 3:00
Brooklyn College Whitman Auditorium
2900 Bedford Ave.
718-951-4500
Tickets: $5
http://www.csb.brooklyn.cuny.edu
Monday, February 26 Jewish Writing After Roth: readings and panel discussion with Nathan Englander, Myla Goldberg, and Alice Mattison, moderated by Leonard Lopate; 7:00
B.B. King Blues Club & Grill
237 West 42nd St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Tickets: $25-$29
212-997-4144
Monday, February 26 Acoustic Duo Show by guitarist who has performed with Crazy Horse, Grin, and the E Street Band, 8:00
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery between Houston & Bleecker Sts.
Tickets: $5 or pay what you want
212-614-0505
Monday, February 26 Variety show featuring music, jugglers, stun-gun electro-crash savages, and other offbeat, innovative acts, 8:00
Brooklyn College Campus
New York Blood Center Mobile Unit on Campus Rd.
Admission: free
718-951-4505
Monday. February 26
through
Wednesday, February 28 Healthy donors between the ages of seventeen and seventy-five are encouraged to give blood; every blood donor will receive two free tickets to an opening weekend game (April 14-15) between the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals, sponsored by Brooklyn/Staten Island Blood Services, a division of the New York Blood Center, 12 noon – 5:30
Location to be announced to participants on day of event
Tickets: $11 members, $22 nonmembers
Tuesday, February 27 A new kind of dating experience designed to examine human interactions in intimate settings and make as many matches as possible through unique challenges, breaking down the wall between participants and audience, with single people wearing white and those in a relationship wearing black; free drinks will be supplied by Brooklyn Brewery and Absolut Vodka, 8:00
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Admission: free but must RSVP
http://www.newyork-tokyo.com/rsvp
Wednesday, February 28 North American Premiere of UDON (Katsuyuki Motohiro, 2006), followed by a special udon noodle demonstration, presented by New York-Tokyo, 7:00