Lower East Side Walk of the Week
10.18.06
2. Art, music, and film at international cultural centers
3. A bevy of international film festivals
4. Tommy Chong takes the stage at Comix
Volume 6, Number 20
October 18 — November 1, 2006
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View from "Romantic Moment on a Bench Looking Out at the Brooklyn Bridge:
A Musical" by Stefany Anne Golberg, Brooklyn Bridge Park
83 Orchard St. between Broome & Grand Sts.
212-680-5630
Kaight, of the many great boutiques on Orchard Street, is spacious, well lit, staffed with unpretentious and helpful staff — and subtly but entirely different from its neighbors. All the cashmere sweaters, cool shoes, great bags, excellent T-shirts, and cutting-edge jackets at Kaight are produced in a sustainable, environmentally conscious manner, by companies practicing ethical business. That means no sweatshops. That means the to-die-for cashmere sweaters are from a Mongolian herder’s co-op dedicated to the survival of their lifestyle and culture, Serfontaine’s jeans are organic cotton denim, and cool cowl-neck Lara Miller knits 100% bamboo (they feel like silk).
twi-ny/mdr
Kaight offers environmentally friendly clothing & accessories on Orchard St.
The shoes and belts are either vintage recycled leather or Beyond Skin (animal product free). Gorgeous silk tops, hot T-shirts, and jewelry are all of vintage recycled materials from Claudette, SDN, and Lulu Frost, respectively, while Jaime Pressly’s pieces are all Tencel (made 100% from wood pulp — who knew?) and Linda Loudermilk’s luxe items are organic cotton and wool. The same care that went into checking out the manufacturers went into the choice of pieces — the styles are pretty much impeccable. It’s that quiet attention to detail in both style and source that sets Kaight — owned by a former co-worker of ours, we must admit, but we love it nonetheless — miles apart from and ahead of its neighbors.
97/108 Orchard St. between Delancey & Broome Sts.
Public tours: $15
212-431-0233
Ongoing In the Tenement Windows: Above Ground, multimedia installation by Visible Collective
Tuesday, October 24 Rebecca Lepkoff, Peter Dans, and Suzanne Wasserman, LIFE ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE, PHOTOGRAPHS BY REBECCA LEPKOFF 1937-1950, book signing and discussion, free, 6:00
Wednesday, November 8 New York Gangster City, with T.J. English, Kevin Baker, and Thomas Kelly, free, 6:00
Wednesday, November 15 UP IS UP, BUT SO IS DOWN: NEW YORK’S DOWNTOWN LITERARY SCENE, 1974-1992, book launch party and panel discussion, $5, reservations required, 6:00
twi-ny/mdr
Two of Kara Collier-Ibañez’s unique still lifes hang at Orchard St. tattoo parlor
Invisible NYC
148 Orchard St.
Through November 11
Admission: free
212-228-1358
http://www.troydenningtattoo.com
http://karacollieribanez.com
Taking her cue from the seventeenth-century Dutch masters, poet, fashion designer, and artist Kara Collier-Ibañez photographs still-lifes and outdoor scenes and prints them on canvas, then frames the works, giving them the appearance of oil paintings. The result is a nostalgic collection of beautiful photos that play with light and shadow. In "NYC Sunset," the setting sun casts an orange glow over a city skyline. "Gourmet Dinner" is a carefully arranged fast-food meal from McDonald’s. The still-life "28 Days" is a comment on birth control, including a tampon and various pills. Ibañez paints the frame of "3 Buildings," extending the image. "Here Comes the Church" captures a familiar nearby neon cross (and is hung next to "Here Comes the Steeple.") These thirteen works line the front gallery space of Invisible NYC, a tattoo parlor run by tattoo artist Troy Denning and his wife, Jesse Lee, who curates the art shows. (The two got married in 2004 in the Jefferson Market Garden, inspiring an episode of SEX AND THE CITY.) Don’t worry; you don’t have to get a tattoo in order to check out the gallery.
twi-ny/mdr
Deceptive Thai eatery is a great find on Orchard St.
154 Orchard St.
212-677-4101
Don’t be misled by the small downstairs entry and bleak, narrow front hallway as you walk into Jeeb; beyond it is a colorfully wallpapered indoor room and a charming, enclosed back garden. Jeeb, which in Thai can mean dumpling, flirting, or hand gesture in dance, serves excellent Thai food, but don’t let the name fool you either; they also have big main courses that are gastronomic delights. We like to start with the mixed dumpling platter, including crispy vegetable, chicken, salmon, and seafood versions. (Other tapas choices include BBQ pork, Thai sausage, curry puff, Thai crape, golden calamari, and various rolls and pancakes, all between four and eight bucks.) Fresh mango salad comes with a spicy, tangy lime dressing. One of the chef’s signature dishes, E-Sarn Classic, is a plate of sliced marinated beef, a sensational and very spicy seafood papaya salad (with shrimp, scallop, and squid), and a pyramid of very tasty coconut sticky rice, which really soothes the heat. Vegetarian Choo-Choo consists of four large blocks of fried tofu with steamed mixed vegetables in a curry sauce. Also featured on the menu are duck, noodle and fried rice choices, stir-fry, and Thai soups and salads. For dessert, we went with the coconut glace, a coconut shell filled with coconut juice, coconut jelly, and coconut strips. Jeeb has quickly become one of our favorite spots on the Lower East Side.
twi-ny/mdr
The SKINny mixes art, drink, sports, and music on Orchard St.
174 Orchard St. between Houston & Stanton Sts.
No cover charge
212-228-3668
In October 2004, Houlihan’s refugees James Carrano, Sean Jarrell, and Dan Gaumond opened the SKINny, a sleek, narrow, high-ceilinged bar that is representative of the changing Lower East Side. The SKINny mixes retro cool (Pac-Man, classics-filled jukebox, Lava lamps, pool table) with lots of sports on two television sets and modern art shows curated by Carrano, himself an artist. The current exhibition features paintings by Christina Rintoul (don’t miss the creepy bug by the bar) and large-scale works by Steve Zolin, including the dark, decadent "Fallujah Saturday Night." DJs rekLES and Seanmotherf----inRoberts lead the Lewd rock-and-roll party the second and fourth Fridays of every month, while Lady Byrd and Dru Klein spin every first and third Thursday (with PBR, Jack, & Cuervo drink specials). Hi-Gloss pop and disco takes over every second Thursday, with DJ British Paul hosting Starf*ck every Monday. Drinks include the Flirtini, the X-rated Peach, and the Fusion Margarita.
From the Danish Beauty series, Keld Helmer-Petersen, 1973-95, digital C-print
Scandinavia House
58 Park Ave. at 38th St.
Tuesday — Saturday, 12 noon — 6:00 pm
Through November 11
Admission: $3
212-847-9746
http://www.scandinaviahouse.org
Organized by the Faulconer Gallery at Iowa’s Grinnell College, "Foto" looks at the state of Danish photography in the twenty-first century. More than ninety works from twenty-seven artists are on view, challenging and compelling images that reveal the next generation of artists — in addition to such older photographers as octogenarian Keld Helmer-Petersen — who have been relatively unsung in their own country, which does not have a rich, popular photographic history. These artists test the boundaries of traditional photography, exploring color, digital imagery, subject, and process. Nanna Bisp Büchert finds unique colors in her 2003 series of rusted ironscapes, while Helmer-Petersen digitally reinterprets images from his Danish Beauty series, including a gorgeous shot of a circuit box. Camilla Holmgren turns the camera on herself in various states of undress in "Don’t Look Now," a trio of uncomfortably erotic shots. Per Bak Jensen’s quartet of "Fallen and Partially Rotted Fruit," set against white backgrounds, are oddly appealing despite being inedible. Mystery shrouds Adam Jeppesen’s dark, complex pieces that hint at an unseen narrative, while there is a sad tenderness to Susanne Wellm’s "Most About Time…#2," a diptych in which.a hand gently touches a chair in the left scene, the hand gone in the right.
"Now that You Are Mine," Trine Søndergård, 1997, digital C-print
Finn Larsen’s Tree series of four narrow, vertical trees are bursting with life. Foosball enthusiasts will love Mads Ljungdahl’s large-scale Dreamteam, huge players with altered eyes and mouths. In Inger Lise Rasmussen’s gray photogravures, lone figures walk away from the camera, becoming part of the architecture. Trine Søndergård’s "Now that You Are Mine" consists of two digital C-prints, one of a Copenhagen hooker, the other of a bleak, tiny room with a natty mattress and a television, the prostitute’s awful lair. There’s menace just below the surface of Jacob Aue Sobol’s "Sabine," 6 inkjet prints of a Greenland woman he fell in love with. Charlotte C. Haslund-Christensen’s video installation, "JUMP," strings together dozens of seemingly unrelated images dissolving into each other, but if you pay close attention, you’ll find certain trends. And don’t forget Søren Lose’s digitally manipulated prints of 1960s beach vacations, each one consisting of three scanned images, in the AQ café.
Scandinavia House
Wednesdays at 6:30 & Saturdays at 3:00 through December 16
Tickets: $8
212-847-9746
http://www.scandinaviahouse.org
Scandinavia House, which always has interesting and exciting music programs, lectures, and film festivals, has just kicked off a series of controversial documentaries from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, tackling such topics as Guantanamo Bay, families in crisis, the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union, an examination of gay icon Tom of Finland, a child’s battle with gender identity, and a look into mass slaughter — and that’s only the first month of the festival.
Wednesday, October 18 GITMO — THE NEW RULES OF WAR (GITMO — VAD HÄNDER EGENTLIGEN PÅ GUANTÁNAMO) (Erik Gandini and Tarik Saleh, 2006), 6:30
Saturday, October 21 FAMILY (Sami Saif and Phie Ambo, 2001), 3:00
Wednesday, October 25 FOREVER YOURS (EVIG DIN) (Monica Csango, 2004) and Y IN VYBORG (HETKET JOTKA JÄIVÄT) (Pia Andell, 2005), 6:30
Saturday, October 28 THE SUBSTITUTE (VIKARIEN) (Åsa Black and Johan Palmgren, 2006), 3:00
Wednesday, November 1 HOW DO YOU LIKE ICELAND? (Kristín Ólafs, 2005) , 6:30
Saturday, November 4 DADDY AND THE MUSCLE FACTORY (Ilppo Pohjola, 1992) and 100% HUMAN (100% MENNESKE) (Trond Winterkjær and Jan Dalchow, 2004), 3:00
Wednesday, November 8 THE ANATOMY OF EVIL (ONDSKABENS ANATOMI) (Ove Nyholm, 2005), 6:30
Saturday, November 11 WHAT COMES AROUND — SEE EVERYTHING, FEEL EVERYTHING (SEN EDESTÄÄN LÖYTÄÄ) (John Webster, 2005), 3:00
Wednesday, November 15 THE ARMWRESTLER FROM SOLITUDE (ARMBRYTERSKAN FRAN ENSAMHETEN) (Lisa Munthe and Helen Ahlsson, 2004), 6:30
Saturday, November 18 THE GIRL FROM AUSCHWITZ (FLICKAN FRÅN AUSCHWITZ) (Stefan Jarl, 2006), 3:00
Wednesday, November 29 INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE INVISIBLE WORLD (ENQUÊTE SUR LE MONDE INVISIBLE) (Jean Michel Roux, 2002), 6:30
Saturday, December 2 UNDER NEW YORK (Jacob Thuesen, 1996) AND LOVE LETTERS FROM A CHILDREN’S PRISON (David Kinsella, 2005), 3:00
Wednesday, December 6 ICELANDIC COWBOYS (KÚREKAR NOR›URSINS) (Fridrik Þór Fridriksson, 1984), 6:30
Saturday, December 9 BLINDED ANGELS (BLINDE ENGLE) (Jon Bang Carlsen, 2006), 3:00
Wednesday, December 13 SMILING IN A WAR ZONE — AND THE ART OF FLYING TO KABUL (Simone Aaberg Kærn and Magnus Bejmar, 2004), 6:30
Saturday, December 16 THE CLOWN CHILDREN (KLOVNEBARNA) (Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, 2005) and Prostitution Behind the Veil (Nahid Persson, 2005), 3:00
Salvador Dalí
"Dalí riskes death inventing the counter-submarine," circa 1939-41
Instituto Cervantes New York at Amster Yard
211-215 East 49th St. between Second & Third Aves.
Tuesday — Friday 12:30 — 6:30; Saturday 10:00 am — 1:30
Through January 20
Admission: free
212-308-7720
For his 1942 autobiography, surrealist Spanish artist Salvador Dalí created more than one hundred sketches and drawings, mostly using India ink on paper. These magnificent works are on view at the Instituto Cervantes, in its new home in the Amster Yard, presented in the order they appear in the book. Many of the works, some made on small, folded, and taped reused pieces of paper, include long descriptive notes for the publisher, such as "’Cubist’ portrait of King Alfonso XIII, sketch made immediately after our meeting," "Progect for an ultra-sophisticated oil lamp for the exclusive use of the aristocracy," "Gala as a child mounted on the unicorn of my fate," and "Dalí riskes death inventing the counter-submarine." That last drawing features a naked figure lying facedown on a lurid hammock, their head poking through the bottom, hair immersed ion a bucket of water, with a church off in the distance. Other outstanding works depict a hand grasping a fish; a line up drones making their way out of a factory, the rich owner smiling in a chair on a cloud of smoke, poor people begging for alms from the workers; an adult and a child casting long shadows on a bare horizon, heading toward a crescent moon ("Moi et ma mere"); a lone figure raising his ams as he comes upon eight skyscrapers in the shape of praying women ("New-York?"); a devilish face filled with animals; and various other false memories, spectral furniture and costumes, bleak landscapes, lobster telephones, skeletal beings, offbeat portraits and caricatures, clocks, insects, and his wife, Gala.
Wednesday, October 18 Surrealismos: Dalí y los suyos — Ciclo de cine: LA EDAD DE ORO (THE AGE OF GOLD) (Luis Buñuel, 1930), and UN PERRO ANDALUZ (AN ANDALUSIAN DOG) (Luis Buñuel, 1929), 6:00
Tuesday, October 24 Mirta Ojito: Conversaciones sobre libros. El Mañana: Memoria de un éxodo cubano, conferencia con Mirta Ojito, 7:00
Wednesday, October 25 Surrealismos: Dalí y los suyos — Ciclo de cine: ENSAYO DE UN CRIMEN (Luis Buñuel, 1955), and UN PERRO ANDALUZ (AN ANDALUSIAN DOG) (Luis Buñuel, 1929), 6:00
This hugely entertaining black comedy from Luis Buñuel is a simple film about the title character (played winningly by Ernesto Alonso), who is convinced he is a murderer because when he imagines killing someone, it comes true -- although someone else actually carries out the dirty deed. You’ll never forget the ballerina music box.
Thursday, October 26 Hispanic Society of America: Hispanism, Archaeology and Collecting, round table discussion with Constancio del Alamo, Manuel Bendala, Sebastián Celestino, Mitchell Codding, Jorge Maier, and Teresa Prados Toreira, 10:00 am
Thursday, November 2 Work in Progress: Juan Pérez Mercader: The Evolution of the Universe and of Life, lecture with Juan Pérez Mercader, 6:00
"Given #21," Inés Lombardi, 2001-2, C-print
Austrian Cultural Forum
11 E. 52nd St. between Madison & Fifth Aves.
Closed Sunday
Through October 28
Admission: free
212-319-5300
Through painting, photography, and film, a small group of Austrian artists take unique approaches to traditional landscapes, challenging the viewer with deceptively beautiful images. Alois Mosbacher’s nature paintings, all three featuring broad green strokes, contain crime stories with mysterious narratives; in "Volvo," a car is partially hidden in the woods, with no indication of why it is covered up, while in "Phenomenon," a faded white tree is bleeding a shocking green, as if it were shot by an unseen assailant. At first, Otto Muehl’s colorful "Pedras da Rainha" recalls such Impressionists as van Gogh, Cézanne, and Gauguin, but upon closer inspection you’ll see that the lone figure is actually going to the bathroom in the otherwise serene scene. Eva Schlegel’s calm shots of the sea and clouds appear to be two-dimensional, while the mountains in her screen prints on glass are willowy and fragile. Similarly, there is something lurking beneath Inés Lombardi’s seemingly peaceful video and photo series "Given." Heinz Greissing’s stripe paintings alternate vertical strips of the scene in front of him with the scene behind him, like bringing together the past and the future in a hard-to-see present. (Be sure to watch the video of Greissing at work.) Violent brushstrokes change the mood of Herbert Brandl’s abstract oil paintings, especially the largest, bathed in deep green. Otto Zitko’s site-specific wall mural adds swirling, shocking lines of red and black to the gallery. Don’t miss Herwik Turk and Gunter Stoger’s PARADISE_PARADOX, a pensive, confusing film that plays with perception and reality in agonizing yet thrilling ways. Filmed on the remains of the prehistoric Lake Bonneville in Utah, the film focuses straight ahead as the landscape appears to continually circle around the camera, the flat foreground and mountainous background passing by in impossible ways, with occasional people moving through the scene. Take a seat and try to relax as you stare into this mystical, magical work, which mixes Michael Snow’s WAVELENGTH with Hollis Frampton’s ZORN’S LEMMA, delivering a compelling alternate reality.
Thursday, October 19 Chamber Music: O. Mueller and S. Artzt, works by Eröd, Schreker, Urbanner, von Einem, and Zemlinsky, free but reservations required (reservations@acfny.org), 8:00
Wednesday, October 25
and
Friday, October 27 Sound of Song Series: The Sigmund Freud Project, works by Krenek, Mahler, Schoenberg, and Wolf, free but reservations required (reservations@acfny.org), 8:00
"La Sud estada is approaching," Adrian Doura, 2006, oil on canvas
PABLO BETTI: PAINTINGS
Consulate General of Argentina Art Gallery and Library
12 West 56th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Open weekdays 11:00 am — 5:00 pm
Doura through October 26, Betti through October 28
Admission: free
212-603-0440
http://www.congenargentinany.com
Using shifting shades and tones of color, Pablo Betti creates contemplative landscapes centered on barely visible horizons that virtually disappear into the works. His "Tierra" quartet uses flat earth tones, while his "Ultramar" trio is painted in a deep, dark blue. "Mystic Way" features a white path heading off into the distance, painted on a seemingly rusted canvas. Get up close to breathe in the shiny beauty of "Detras del Vidrio" ("Beyond the Glass"). Adrian Doura’s "del nido de un gorrion" series dominates the back gallery, massive urban landscapes that you’ll think are photographs at first. Doura’s attention to detail is remarkable, capturing individual office lights in skyscrapers, cars turning down twisting streets, the sea and clouds off in the distance, nature overtaken by the man-made city. Large-scale works such as the triptych "Open Flight," "La Rural 2," and "Landscape — Catalinas" offer spectacular views of a world in transition, a splendid counterpoint to Betti’s colorful, abstract horizons.
Bill Plympton’s HAIR HIGH animates horror fest
The Two Boots Pioneer Theater
155 East Third St. at Ave. A
Through October 31
Tickets: $9 unless otherwise noted
212-254-3300
http://www.twoboots.com/pioneer
Two Boots celebrates the Halloween season with a month of creatively creepy and gruesomely grisly low-budget horror flicks filled with chills and thrills — and lots of blood. A few issues ago we begged for BAD RONALD, the bizarre 1970s movie with Scott Jacobi as a warped teen, and lo and behold, here it is, screening on October 23. Look for us in the front row.
Wednesday, October 18
through
Wednesday, October 25 HAIR HIGH (Bill Plympton, 2005), 9:00 or 11:00
Friday, October 20 SOFT FOR DIGGING (J.T. Petty, 2001), with director present, 7:00
Saturday, October 21
and
Sunday, October 22 BIKINI BLOODBATH (Jon Gorman, 2006), 7:00
Monday, October 23 Bizarro Monday: BAD RONALD (Buzz Kulik, 1974), 7:00
Wednesday, October 25
through
Tuesday, October 31 THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (David Lee Fisher, 2005)
Friday, October 27 SOCIETY (Bryan Yuzna, 1989), 8:00
Friday, October 27 THE XXXORCIST (Doug Sakmann), 12 midnight
Saturday, October 28 All Night Cinematic Séance of Witch and Warlock Movies: SIMON: KING OF THE WITCHES; WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES; BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE; NIGHT OF THE DEMON (Jacques Tourneur); and THE HAUNTED PALACE, $25, séance begins at 9:00
Sunday, October 29 THE REDSUN TOWER (Fred Vogel, 2006), 7:00
Sunday, October 29 Don’t Go Back in the House, Bitch!, six-minute horror shorts from DVXUSER.com HorrorFest 2006, 9:00
Monday, October 30 Bizarro Monday: SQUIRM (Jeff Lieberman, 1976), director present, audience participation strongly encouraged, 6:30
Tuesday, October 31 DIE LOLA DIE: individual short films in which Lola Rock’N’Rolla gets killed, 7:00
French Institute Alliance Française
Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Park & Madison Aves.
October 19-21
Tickets: $10
212-355-6160
French cinema has always had a unique take on the cop film, and this series highlights a handful of police procedurals directed by former policemen, featuring such stars as Lino Ventura, Philippe Noiret, Annie Parillaud, Daniel Auteuil, and Gérard Depardieu. All screenings are followed by a Q&A with the director and/or screenwriter.
Thursday, October 19 LES TONTONS FLINGUEURS (Georges Lautner, 1963), followed by a Q&A with Lautner, 8:00
Friday, October 20 LES RIPOUX (Claude Zidi, 1984), followed by a Q&A with screenwriter Simon Michaël, 4:00
Friday, October 20 MIDI À SA PORTE… (Michel Alexandre, 2003) and LE COUSIN (Alain Corneau, 1997), followed by a Q&A with Alexandre, 8:00
Saturday, October 21 GANGSTERS (Olivier Marchal, 2002), followed by a Q&A with Marchal, 4:00
Saturday, October 21 UN BON FLIC (Olivier Marchal, 1999) and 36 QUAI DES ORFÈVRES (Olivier Marchal, 2004), followed by a Q&A with Marchal, 8:00
Francis Bacon shows off his stuff in film at the Dahesh
Dahesh Museum of Art
580 Madison Ave. at 57th St.
October 20-22
Free with museum admission of $10
212-759-0606
For more than two decades, Canada has hosted the Montreal International Festival of Films on Art, consisting of shorts, documentaries, videos, and feature films that look at the world of art. For three days, the Dahesh will be showing some of the best of this year’s festival, and it’s quite a deal — for ten bucks you get to see one of the below screenings in addition to checking out the excellent “Napoleon on the Nile” exhibit, which we will be raving about in an upcoming issue. Among the highlights of the three-day fest are MINOTAUROMAQUIA, PABLO IN THE LABYRINTH, an outstanding claymation short in which Pablo Picasso meets many of the subjects of his paintings, including creatures from “Guernica”; VISIONS FROM THE INFERNO, Peter Dimitrov’s documentary detailing painter Adolf Frankl’s harrowing Holocaust experience and how he incorporates that into his art; and BACON’S ARENA, a fanciful look at Francis Bacon’s mysterious life and loves, narrated by David Warner with a score by Brian Eno. Other films revolve around dance, architecture, and music.
Friday, October 20 MINOTAUROMAQUIA, PABLO IN THE LABYRINTH (Juan Pablo Etcheverry, 2004) and THE HERMITAGE DWELLERS (Aliona van der Horst, 2003), 12 noon
Friday, October 20 BERGMAN--A TRILOGY (Marie Nyreröd, 2004), 2:00
Saturday, October 21 BIRTH-DAY (Petra Lataster-Czisch and Peter Lataster, 2004) and RENÉ DEPESTRE: CHRONICLE OF A MARINE ANIMAL (Patrick Cazals, 2004), 12 noon
Saturday, October 21 BUILDING THE GHERKIN (Mirjam von Arx, 2005), 2:00
Saturday, October 21 WIREFRAME (POINT DE FUITE) (Oana Suteu, 2005) and TRACES, EMPREINTES DE FEMME (Katy Léna Ndiaye. 2004), 4:00
Sunday, October 22 PAUL KLEE--THE SILENCE OF THE ANGEL (Michael Gaumnitz, 2005) and VISIONS FROM THE INFERNO (Peter Dimitrov, 2004)
12 noon
Sunday, October 22 THE NIGHTINGALE (LE ROSSIGNOL) (Christian Chaudet, 2004) and MOZARTBALLS (Larry Weinstein, 2005), 2:00
Sunday, October 22 BACON’S ARENA (Adam Low, 2005), 4:00
Maximilian Schell gets passionate about the law at Fordham fest
James B.M. McNally Amphitheatre, Fordham Law School (JBMMA)
140 West 62nd St.
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (GWLT)
555 West 57th St.
Makor, Steinhardt Building (Makor)
35 West 67th St.
October 20-26
Tickets: $12 unless otherwise noted
http://www.fordhamfilmfestival.org
Not surprisingly, the first annual Fordham Law Film Festival features films about the legal system, with fab courtroom scenes, tense jury deliberations, and lighthearted congressional battles. The films being shown range from recent hits such as THANK YOU FOR SMOKING to such classics as the original 12 ANGRY MEN and JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG. Don’t miss the intense IN THE BEDROOM, an interesting inclusion in this series. All screenings are followed by a Q&A with district court judges, law professors, journalists, actors, a Nazi hunter, defense attorneys, DAs, and other legal professionals.
Friday, October 20 THANK YOU FOR SMOKING (Jason Reitman, 2006), followed by a discussion with Christopher Buckley and Thane Rosenbaum, JBMMA, 7:30
http://www.foxsearchlight.com/thankyouforsmoking
Jason Reitman, the son of producer/director Ivan Reitman (STRIPES, GHOST BUSTERS, DAVE), makes his sparkling feature-film debut with the brilliant THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, a devilishly delightful black comedy based on the novel by acerbic wit Christopher Buckley. Aaron Eckhart gives a career-making performance as Nick Naylor, a fast-talking, handsome, smarmy lobbyist for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, a Big Tobacco laboratory that, remarkably, cannot find a link between cigarettes and health risks. A master of spin, Naylor seems to even believe himself when he tells a young boy dying of cancer that he’s better off smoking. As a grandstanding senator (William H. Macy) plans congressional hearings on the evils of tobacco — especially on teenagers — Naylor is being groomed as the industry’s savior by his high-strung boss (J.K. Simmons) and the Captain (Robert Duvall) while trying to establish a meaningful relationship with his son (the suddenly ubiquitous Cameron Bright). The fine ensemble also features Katie Holmes as a hot young reporter who’ll go to virtually any length to get a story; Sam Elliott as the Marlboro Man, who is dying of lung cancer; Rob Lowe as a Zen-like Hollywood agent who is considering Naylor’s idea of making cigarette smoking cool in the movies again; and Dennis Miller and Joan Lunden as themselves, adding a bit of reality to the hysterical situation, which might not be as far off from the truth as we might think. Among the funniest scenes in this wicked film are Naylor’s weekly meetings with the M.O.D. Squad (the Merchants of Death), as the lobbyists for the alcohol (Maria Bello), tobacco (Eckhart), and firearms (David Koechner) industries playfully call themselves. The film is produced by David O. Sacks, who amassed his fortune when he sold his Internet baby, PayPal, to eBay in 2002 and headed straight for Hollywood. (Sacks also makes a cameo as an oil lobbyist.)
Saturday, October 21 12 ANGRY MEN (Sidney Lumet, 1957), followed by a conversation led by Boyd Gaines and Peter Friedman, JBMMA, 7:30
Sunday, October 22 THE ACCUSED (Jonathan Kaplan, 1988), followed by a discussion with Jeol Seidemann, Deborah Denno, and Roslyn Myers, JBMMA, 7:30
Monday, October 23 A CIVIL ACTION (Steven Zaillian, 1998), followed by a discussion with Denny Chin, Jack Ford, and Mathew Diller, GWLT, 7:30
Tuesday, October 24 A TIME TO KILL (Joel Schumacher, 1996), followed by a discussion with Benjamin Brafman and Delores Jones-Brown, GWLT, 7:30,
Wednesday, October 25 JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (Stanley Kramer, 1961)
followed by the discussion "How Far Does Guilt Go?" with Eli Rosenbaum and Maria Marcus, Makor, $15, 6:45
Thursday, October 26 IN THE BEDROOM (Todd Field, 2001), followed by the discussion "What if the Legal System Fails?" with Chris Cuomo and Daniel J. Kornstein, Makor, 15, 7:30
Actor Todd Field (ONCE AND AGAIN, EYES WIDE SHUT) made a stunning directorial debut with IN THE BEDROOM, a powerful study of a Maine family struggling to come to grips with tragedy. Tom Wilkinson (THE FULL MONTY) gave one of the best performances of 2001 as Matt Fowler, a charming, easygoing small-town doctor whose wife (Sissy Spacek) does not approve of their college-age son’s (Nick Stahl) summer fling with Natalie (Marisa Tomei), an older woman with two kids and a dangerous estranged husband (William Mapother). Violence soon strikes and strikes hard, and the surviving characters, so realistically distraught and confused, have trouble going on — until they start entertaining thoughts of revenge. The film, which won the Special Jury Prize for Acting at Sundance and was a selection of the New York Film Festival, is based on Andre Dubus’s short story "Assassins"; in an odd coincidence, Dubus, who had become friendly with Field, died on the director’s birthday in 1999.
WOMAN IN THE DUNES part of Donald Richie tribute
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
October 20-29
Tickets: $10
718-784-4520
http://www.ammi.org/site/screenings/index.html
Film historian Donald Richie has been celebrating Japanese cinema for more than fifty years, and now he and his work will be celebrated at the Museum of the Moving Image with a terrific handful of films by Kurosawa, Ozu, Teshigahara, and Richie himself, who will be on hand to introduce RASHOMON and his own films.
Friday, October 20 RASHOMON (Akira Kurosawa, 1951), introduced by Donald Richie, 7:30
Saturday, October 21 RASHOMON (Akira Kurosawa, 1951), introduced by Donald Richie, 5:00
Saturday, October 21 Films by Donald Richie: LIFE (Donald Richie, 1965), ATAMI BLUES (Donald Richie, 1962-67), DEAD YOUTH (Donald Richie, 1967), and FIVE FILOSOPHICAL FABLES (Donald Richie, 1967), with Donald Richie in person, 2:00
Sunday, October 22 TOKYO STORY (Yasujiro, Ozu. 1953), 3:00
Sunday, October 22 LATE SPRING (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949), 6:00
Friday, October 27 SAMURAI REBELLION (Masaki Kobayashi, 1967), 7:30
Saturday, October 28 SAMURAI REBELLION (Masaki Kobayashi, 1967), 2:00
Sunday, October 29 SAMURAI REBELLION (Masaki Kobayashi, 1967), 3:00
Saturday, October 28 WOMAN IN THE DUNES (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964), 5:00
Sunday, October 29 WOMAN IN THE DUNES (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964), 6:00
Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Sisyphean tale, based on Kobo Abe’s marvelous novel, tells the story of a man out in the desert looking for insects when he comes upon a village of people living in the sand dunes — and he is unknowingly sucked into their world. See the movie, but be sure to read the book as well; the scenes of the man trying to escape by climbing up the sand will feel oddly familiar to anyone who has ever been trapped in a seemingly inescapable situation. Teshigahara, who died in April 2001, adds surreal visual elements that make the film an unusually compelling though basically simple story. Abe also collaborated with Teshigahara on PITFALL (OTOSHIANA), THE FACE OF ANOTHER (TANIN NO KAO), and THE MAN WITHOUT A MAP (MOETSUKITA CHIZU).
Fatih Akin’s ISTANBUL HATIRASI is one of fest highlights
Village East Cinema
181 Second Ave. at 12th St.
October 21-28
Tickets: $10
212-229-1207
http://www.moonandstarsproject.org
http://citycinemas.moviefone.com
This eighth annual festival features films from some of Turkey’s most important and successful auteurs, as well as new and exciting works by less-well-known directors. One of our favorite Turkish filmmakers, Ferzan Özpetek, is represented by KARSI PENCERE (FACING WINDOWS), while DUVARA KARSI (HEAD-ON) director Fatih Akin checks in with the documentary ISTANBUL HATIRASI (CROSSING THE BRIDGE). The fest also looks back at the past with a screening of Nesli Cölgecen’s poignant 1986 classic ZUGURT AGA (THE AGHA).
Saturday, October 21 Short Films: ARIF’I BEKLERKEN (WAITING FOR ARIF) (Didem Yilmaz, 2006) and Contemporary Turkish Cinema: BABAM VE OGLUM (MY FATHER AND MY SON) (Çagan Irmak, 2005), 4:00
Saturday, October 21 Short Films: ÇARPISMA (CRASH) (Umut Aral, 2005) and Contemporary Turkish Cinema: ORGANIZE ISLER (ORGANIZED JOBS) (Yilmaz Erdogan, 2005), 7:00
Sunday, October 22 Short Films: RIZA KAPTAN (CAPTAIN RIZA) (Tolga Dilsiz, 2005) and Tribute Film: ZUGURT AGA (THE AGHA) (Nesli Cölgecen, 1986), 4:00
Sunday, October 22 Short Films: ENTROPI (ENTROPY) (Ozan Özdilek, 2005) and Contemporary Turkish Cinema: YOLDA (ON THE ROAD) (Erden Kyral, 2005), 7:00
Monday, October 23 Short Films: KIRMIZI KIREMIT (THE RED TILE) (Directed by Berna Çagirici, 2005) and Directors Abroad: KARSI PENCERE (FACING WINDOWS) (Ferzan Özpetek, 2003), 7:30
Tuesday, October 24 Short Films: LÂL (Dirk Schäefer, 2005) Without Borders: BIR TUTAM BAHARAT (A TOUCH OF SPICE) (Tassos Baulmetis, 2003), 7:30
Wednesday, October 25 Debut Films: PARDON (Mert Baykal, 2005), 7:00
Wednesday, October 25 Contemporary Turkish Cinema: IKI GENC KIZ (TWO GIRLS) (Kutlug Ataman, 2005), 9:00
Thursday, October 26 Tribute Film: ZUGURT AGA (THE AGHA) (Nesli Cölgecen, 1986), 7:00
Thursday, October 26 Contemporary Turkish Cinema: ORGANIZE ISLER (ORGANIZED JOBS) (Yilmaz Erdogan, 2005), 7:00
9:00
Friday, October 27 Short Films: SON TREN YOLCULUGU (LAST TRAIN RIDE) (Gokhan Okur, 2005) and Contemporary Turkish Cinema: YOLDA (ON THE ROAD) (Erden Kyral, 2005), 7:00
Friday, October 27 Short Films: ÇORAP (SOCKS CAN FLY) (Basak Doga Temur, 2004) and Contemporary Turkish Cinema: BABAM VE OGLUM (MY FATHER AND MY SON) (Çagan Irmak, 2005), 9:00
Saturday, October 28 Documentaries: OYUN (THE PLAY) (Pelin Esmer, 2005), 4:00
Saturday, October 28 Contemporary Turkish Cinema: ANLAT ISTANBUL (ISTANBUL TALES) (Umit Unal, Kudret Sabanci, Selim Demirdelen, Yucel Yolcu, and Omur Atay, 2005), 5:30
Saturday, October 28 Documentaries: ISTANBUL HATIRASI (CROSSING THE BRIDGE) (Fatih Akin, 2005), 8:00
MATADOR screens as part of Pedro fest at BAM
BAMcinématek / BAM Rose Cinemas
Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
October 27 — November 2
Tickets: $10
718-636-4100
With his VOLVER just having served as the centerpiece presentation of this year’s New York Film Festival, Pedro Almodóvar’s wild and wacky career is celebrated in this terrific collection of his works, dating back to 1986’s MATADOR. We particularly adore ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER and TALK TO HER, but it’s hard to go wrong with any of these unique, colorful films by one of cinema’s most unusual masters.
Saturday, October 28
through
Tuesday, October 31 LAW OF DESIRE (LA LEY DEL DESEO) (Pedro Almodóvar, 1987)
Friday, October 27
through
Thursday, November 2 WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (MUJERES AL BORDE DE UN ATAQUE DE NERVIOS) (Pedro Almodóvar, 1988)
Friday, October 27
through
Wednesday, November 1 MATADOR (Pedro Almodóvar, 1986)
Monday, October 30 TALK TO HER (HABLE CON ELLA) (Pedro Almodóvar, 2002), 6:50
Pedro Almodóvar followed up the remarkable Oscar-winning TODO SOBRE MI MADRE (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER) with this remarkable story of two men who become friends as they take care of two female coma patients in a private facility. You won’t be able to take your eyes off wide-eyed Javier Cámara as the simple-minded and oddly dedicated male nurse Benigno, who oversees the needs of patient-dancer Alicia (Leonor Watling), and Darío Grandinetti is outstanding as writer Marco Zuloaga, who falls hard for bullfighter and eventual patient Lydia (Rosario Flores). There are long stretches of little or no dialogue, including a riotous silent film-within-the-film and two performances by Pina Bausch’s TanzTheater, and a very clever Almodóvar slyly continues the theme by hiring a Spanish-speaking Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of the great silent-film star. HABLE CON ELLA is yet another treasure from one of the world’s most inventive filmmakers.
Tuesday, October 31 ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER (TODO SOBRE MI MADRE) (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999), 6:50
Wednesday, November 1 BAD EDUCATION (LA MALA EDUCACIÓN) (Pedro Almodóvar, 2004), 6:50
Thursday, November 2 FLOWER OF MY SECRET (LA FLOR DE ME SECRETO) (Pedro Almodóvar, 1995), 6:50
Chong Glass
Tommy Chong poses with his "weapons of mass destruction"
Comix
343 West 14th St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Friday and Saturday at 8:00 & 10:30, Sunday at 7:30
Tickets: $30
212-524-2500
Friday, October 27
through
Sunday, October 29 Tommy Chong brings his traveling comedy show to New York City, where he and his wife, Shelby, tell jokes, play music, and riff on Tommy’s recent bust, which has been the subject of both a book and a documentary film (see below)
Now available on DVD
On February 24, 2003, at 5:30 in the morning, Tommy Chong’s house in Pacific Palisades, California, was raided by heavily armed federal agents as part of Operation Pipe Dreams, a national antidrug initiative spearheaded by Attorney General John Ashcroft that netted dozens of sellers of drug paraphernalia, making a celebrity example out of Chong. But the only illegal substances they were after — or weapons of mass destruction, as Chong put it later — were bongs. Chong’s son Paris was the head of Chong Glass, which sold glass Tubes, Hammers, Handpipes, Sherlocks, and Sidecars, legally and with a permit — until the DEA’s repeated attempts to have them ship merchandise to Pennsylvania, which is illegal, finally won out in a case that certainly has aspects of entrapment. Chong was given the option of either accepting jail time or having his son and his wife, Shelby, go down with him; he took the deal. Chong’s friend Josh Gilbert follows Chong and Shelby as they prepare for Tommy’s nine-month incarceration, during which time the stoner comedian took to the media and the road, sharing his story and becoming an activist, something that was never before part of his plan. Gilbert mixes in scenes from Cheech & Chong films and live routines; archival footage of the duo’s appearances on shows hosted by Dick Clark, Tom Snyder, Dinah Shore, and Helen Reddy; home movies going back to Tommy’s childhood; and new interviews with George Thorogood, Jay Leno, Peter Coyote, Bill Maher, Cheech Marin, and others supporting Tommy’s fight against the feds. There are also clips from press conferences held by Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Ashcroft denouncing drug use, as well as a closer look at Mary Beth Buchanan, the local U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania who helped sting Chong Glass and was rewarded with a national post. The government pulled the store’s Web site from the Internet, but you can still see its remnants at the third URL listed above, where parts of it have been lovingly preserved by the folks at the Memory Hole.
The companion book to the documentary A/K/A TOMMY CHONG (Josh Gilbert, 2006) that played at Film Forum in June, THE I CHONG delves further into Tommy Chong’s mind and his reactions to being targeted by federal agents for selling drug paraphernalia over the Internet. Chong, half of the famed stoner comedy team Cheech and Chong (with Cheech Marin), believes he was a victim of entrapment because the current conservative administration made him a villain in the war on drugs — especially after he joked that the only weapons of mass destruction they could find were his bongs. So Chong did something he hadn’t done before — he became an outspoken activist both before and after spending nine months in prison. Whereas the film spent a lot of time speaking with Chong’s friends and family, in this slim book we get more of Chong’s take on what happened, including a far more detailed examination of his incarceration, as well as a fascinating look at his childhood. The book is simply written, an easy, entertaining read, except when Chong goes off on tangents about his spirituality and faith; fortunately, he doesn’t hit us over the head with his belief in the Lord and Jesus, but he comes awful close. The chapter titles are given in both Chinese and English, with such Zen names as "The Creative," "The Caldron," "Contemplation (Views)," "The Taming Power of the Great," and "Modesty." The book also features an eight-page color insert of family photos, including shots of some of Chong’s fellow inmates.
"Three Bags," Michael Spano, 2005, gelatin silver print
Laurence Miller Gallery
20 West 57th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves., third floor
Through November 4
Closed Sunday and Monday
Admission: free
212-397-3930
http://www.laurencemillergallery.com/currentexhibition.htm
Native New Yorker Michael Spano has again turned his camera on the streets of the city, this time capturing cars as they make their way in and around town. These enchanting shots freeze-frame private moments in what appear at first to be old photos, adding a touch of nostalgia to these recent shots of trucks, SUVs, and tourist buses. Spano also names each photo, usually based on some piece of text found in the shot. In "Diam" (a store sign in the background announces "diam," with the "ond" faded out), a woman sits in her car, waiting for the pedestrian traffic to stop and the light to change, while a passenger in the back seat brings his hand to his mouth. In "Crown," a crownlike piece of graffiti on a van appears to be resting near the head of a driver passing by. In "Three Bags," a woman in the midst of shopping hustles down the street, walking by a car that reflects the surrounding buildings. In "Liberty," a woman has come to a stop in front of the Marriott Marquis, seizing the opportunity to apply makeup. And in "57th & Lex," a dog sitting between two people in the front seat looks back at the photographer, the only one aware of what is going on.
"Night View, New York," 1932, gelatin silver print; printed later
Howard Greenberg Gallery
The Fuller Building
41 East 57th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Through November 4
Closed Sunday and Monday
Admission: free
212-334-0010
http://www.howardgreenberg.com
Starting her career working for Man Ray in Paris, Berenice Abbott quickly established her own style and went on to become one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century. Howard Greenberg and Commerce Graphics has put together this splendid exhibit of fifty-one of her photos, ranging from her 1926 Portraits in Palladium, Paris — New York series (a sleeping Jean Cocteau and a pensive James Joyce among them) to a pair of her 1958 Supersight pictures, extreme close-ups of a hand and an eye. The majority of the photographs were taken in New York City, including gorgeous shots of the Flatiron Building, Wall Street, Penn Station, the El, an Automat, and the A. Zito Bakery, where you can see condensation forming on the front window from freshly baked loaves. Our favorites are the vertical, narrow shot down Exchange Place and the remarkable "Night View, New York," for which Abbott used an extended exposure to capture a magical lighted city. One side gallery features eight works by Eugene Atget that Abbott owned, while another room holds nine images of Gotham by Rebecca Lepkoff; Lepkoff will be present for a public reception at the gallery on October 21 from 2:00 to 5:00, signing copies of her new book, LIFE ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE: PHOTOGRAPHS BY REBECCA LEPKOFF, 1937-1950. (Lepkoff will also be at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum on October 24 as part of a book signing and discussion; see above for more info.)
Arthur Carter, "Elliptical Loops,"
2005, bronze
Salander-O’Reilly Galleries
22 East 71st St.
Through November 4
Closed Sunday
Admission: free
212-879-6606
http://www.salander.com/exhibitions/index.html
Artist Arthur Carter creates twisting, swirling sculptures that both puzzle and captivate the mind. Carter, who is also the founder of the New York Observer, works primarily in bronze, sometimes adding colored patina to his geometric objects. The current display at Salander-O’Reilly contains ten pieces, along with twenty-eight engaging drawings. The titles of the works pretty much explain what they are, including “Overlapping Arcs at 90 Degrees with Inserted Membrane,” “Three Elements at 90 Degrees,” and “Parallel Ellipses Intersected by Acute Angles.” But the scientific titles don’t do justice to these enticing figures; stand in the middle of the gallery and you might think you are surrounded by models for really cool roller coasters — and don’t neglect to check out the bases, each one a work of art in itself. There is no beginning or end to “Continuous Elliptical Loops”; instead, it goes on infinitely. Three versions of “Elliptical Loops,” one blue, one green, one polished bronze, are surprisingly different despite nearly identical construction, the colors altering the mood of each work. “Intersecting Ellipses,” the only floor piece, is made of three flat ovals in blue patina. The flowing line of “Inverted Arcs at 180 Degrees with Parallel Chords” is captivating. Carter’s use of line is also evident in his drawings, which echo Mondrian, Leger, Miro, and even Joel Shapiro. As long as you’re at the Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, located in the elegant Julius Forstmann House, be sure to check out “Painting & Sculpture of Venice and the Veneto,” including works by Titian and Tintoretto; Kikuo Saito’s new paintings, in which he plays with abstract calligraphic figures and bright, bold colors; and “Corpora: Bodies of Christ,” a collection of “sculpture from Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Masters,” all featuring Jesus on the cross.
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Tickets: $10.75
212-924-7771
http://www.tidelandthemovie.com
You know you’re in trouble when a movie begins with the director telling you that a lot of people are not going to like it — and that he looked deep inside himself and found a little girl. Terry Gilliam, the former Monty Python animator and genius behind such thrilling work as TIME BANDITS (1981), BRAZIL (1985), THE FISHER KING (1991), and TWELVE MONKEYS (1995), offers just such a warning before the vile, abhorrent TIDELAND. Based on the novel by Mitch Cullin, the despicable, repulsive two-hour offense stars the annoying Jodelle Ferland as Jeliza-Rose, a disturbed and seriously endangered little girl with the parents from hell, Queen Gunhilda (an annoying Jennifer Tilly), a nasty chocoholic drug addict, and Noah (an annoying Jeff Bridges), a washed-up would-be rocker who has his daughter make the speedballs that send him on "vacation" every day. When bad things happen to her folks, Jeliza-Rose delves further into her bizarre, mixed-up fantasy world, which consists of mysteriously talking doll heads that she wears on her fingers, a muttering squirrel, an epileptic weirdo (an annoying Brendan Fletcher) who wants to slay a train he thinks is an evil dragon, and his sister, the witchlike Dell (an annoying Janet McTeer), who has an unhealthy fear of bees and likes taxidermy way too much — including stuffing humans. Gilliam considers this hideously unwatchable fantasy to be a mix of PSYCHO (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) and Lewis Carroll’s ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND; we consider it to be one of the ten worst films we’ve ever seen.
Melinda Page Hamilton harbors a dirty little secret in Bobcat Goldthwait film
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
143 East Houston St. between First & Second Aves.
Opens Friday, October 20
Tickets: $10.75
212-330-8182
http://www.landmarktheatres.com
http://www.sleepingdogsliethemovie.com
SLEEPING DOGS LIE, written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait — yes, that dude with the annoying voice from the POLICE ACADEMY movies — is an oddly charming, offbeat romantic comedy. As the film opens, Amy (Melinda Page Hamilton) is a lonely college student who suddenly decides to try something a little different — she pleasures her dog, but immediately regrets it. Eight years later, she is in a serious relationship with John (Bryce Johnson), who wants them to be completely honest with each other. Hesitant to share this one detail of her life, she ultimately confesses, believing love trumps all. How wrong she is. Hamilton (Sister Mary Bernard from DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES) is terrific in the lead role, playing a smart, attractive woman overwhelmed by this one secret. She gets comfort from a fellow teacher, Ed (Colby French), but none from her old-fashioned parents (Geoff Pierson and Bonita Friedericy) or her crystal-meth-smoking loser of a brother, Dougie (Jack Plotnick). Goldthwait, who has carved out a niche career for himself as a television director, including JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, CHAPELLE’S SHOW, CRANK YANKERS, and THE MAN SHOW, shot SLEEPING DOGS LIE in a mere sixteen days, putting together part of the crew from Craigslist. A truly indie film, it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year. Give it a try; you’re likely to be pleasantly surprised.
Tim Robbins stars in high-octane political thriller set in Apartheid-era South Africa
Opens Friday, October 27
http://www.catchafiremovie.com
Australian director Phillip Noyce pulls off a political-thriller hat trick with the masterful CATCH A FIRE, following the success of his last two feature films, 2002’s double shot of THE QUIET AMERICAN and RABBIT-PROOF FENCE. Derek Luke (ANTWONE FISHER) stars as Patrick Chamusso, a hardworking family man who is a foreman at the Secunda oil refinery in South Africa in 1980. Avoiding politics, he makes a good living for his wife, Precious (the remarkably expressive Bonnie Henna), and their two young daughters (Onthatile Ramasodi and Ziizi Mahlati). But when he is dragged into a terrorism investigation at the plant and is viciously tortured by Colonel Nic Vos (a steadfast Tim Robbins) and his men, Patrick sees a very different side of Apartheid and soon considers becoming a Freedom Fighter, risking his life for his country. Based on a true story — and written by Shawn Slovo, the daughter of a prominent white leader of the anti-Apartheid movement — CATCH A FIRE is an impassioned, powerful look at not only the racism that existed for so long in South Africa but what drives men to do the things they do. Both Chamusso and Vos make critical decisions that impact the safety of their families as well as the nation, and both believe they are patriots. Marvelously acted and with a superb soundtrack (including songs by the Bongani Singing Group and Bob Marley), CATCH A FIRE is not merely a period piece but is a wake-up call to much of what is still going on in today’s dangerous world.
Opens Friday, October 27
http://www.deathofapresident.com
Gabriel Range’s gripping DEATH OF A PRESIDENT examines the October 19, 2007, assassination of George W. Bush. Set up like a BBC documentary, the film, winner of the International Critics’ Prize at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, mixes in archival footage of the president with (fictional) news reports and interviews with Bush’s Secret Service detail, his speechwriter, journalists, the FBI man in charge of the case, various suspects, and others directly and peripherally involved in what went down that tragic day. Range, who has made several drama-documentaries for British television (including THE DAY BRITAIN STOPPED), is very careful not to politicize the assassination or the reaction to it — DEATH OF A PRESIDENT is not a polarizing polemic that takes partisan sides. It is primarily about fear in a post-9/11 America, and it captures that world with respect and dignity despite its subject matter. "The advance condemnation of this film by politicians and pundits who have not seen — and may never see — this film," Range writes in his director’s statement, "reflects the landscape of fear in which we live today." Extremely well presented, DEATH OF A PRESIDENT is a fascinating document of our complex times.
Lincoln Plaza Cinemas
1886 Broadway between 62nd & 63rd Sts.
Opens Friday, October 27
Tickets: $10.75
212-757-0359
http://lincolnplaza.moviefone.com
Avant-garde theater genius Robert Wilson opens up about his life and art in ABSOLUTE WILSON, a revealing documentary by Katharina Otto-Bernstein. Wilson, the innovative — and notoriously private — director / designer / choreographer, was born and raised in a segregated religious community in Waco, Texas, where he suffered though a very complicated childhood with few friends and a serious stuttering problem. He eventually came out to his father — a man who never quite understood or accepted Wilson’s differences in ways that still haunt him today — and moved to New York City, where he became engaged in the radical theater of the 1960s. A master collaborator, over the years he has worked with Philip Glass, David Byrne, Tom Waits, William S. Burroughs, Jessye Norman, Lou Reed, and many others, in such monumental productions as EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH, THE BLACK RIDER, and The CIVIL warS. He has also been drawn to children with mental and physical challenges, resulting in such pieces as the eight-hour DEAFMAN GLANCE with Raymond Andrews and the Broadway flop A LETTER FOR QUEEN VICTORIA with Christopher Knowles. Among the talking heads sharing their thoughts about Wilson are Byrne, Norman, Glass, Susan Sontag, critics John Simon and John Rockwell, Byrd Hoffman (who runs the Byrd Hoffman Water Mill Foundation, where Wilson is artistic director), and Harvey Lichtenstein (the former president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music and namesake of the BAM Harvey Theater). Wilson’s theater is mesmerizing, confounding, mysterious, and always breathtaking — we’ve marveled at THE BLACK RIDER and WOYCECK, both at BAM — but perhaps most remarkable is the work Wilson did helping people in hospitals and mental institutions, inventing unique ways to teach them to communicate. Otto-Bernstein cleverly intercuts Wilson’s stories of his past with scenes from his productions (going back to the very beginning of his career), showing how life imitates art — and vice versa. ABSOLUTE WILSON is a must for Wilson fans — and any fan of art and the creative instinct.
© Werner Herzog Film
Werner Herzog takes to the stars in "science fiction fantasy"
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Friday, October 27, through Thursday, November 2
212-924-7771
http://wildblueyonder.wernerherzog.com
Werner Herzog takes to the skies and beyond in this thrilling "science fiction fantasy" set in the near future. Using archival footage of flight — from the very early days of aviation through more recent NASA missions — Herzog weaves together a marvelous tale of a bleak future for Earth. Brad Dourif (ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST, WISE BLOOD) stars as an alien from Andromeda who narrates the story from in front of an abandoned would-be shopping mall in a desolate landscape. In voice-overs eerily reminiscent of Martin Sheen’s in APOCALYPSE NOW, the alien delves into Roswell, the Galileo probe, and just how long it would actually take to get to Alpha Centauri as Herzog (GRIZZLY MAN, FITZCARRALDO, NOSFERATU) follows the adventures of a space shuttle crew desperately seeking a new, livable planet. The master director also throws in real mathematicians carefully explaining string theory and intergalactic science, making it that much easier to believe this pseudodocumentary, a lyrical poem that is a subtle metaphor for our own planet if we’re not more careful. Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize for Parallel Sections at the 2005 Venice Film Festival, THE WILD BLUE YONDER also features a dark, haunting score by Ernst Reijseger, with vocals by Senegalese singer Mola Sylla and a Sardinian shepherd choir.
Zeitgeist Films
Husband and wife Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Ebru Ceylan star in haunting CLIMATES
Film Forum
209 West Houston St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Opens Friday, October 27
Tickets: $10
212-727-8110
Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and a selection of the just-wrapped-up New York Film Festival, CLIMATES is a beautifully elegiac look at a desperate relationship set in modern-day Turkey. The film opens with Isa (writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan) and Bahar (Ebru Ceylan, Nuri’s real-life wife) visiting desert ruins. As he walks among ancient pillars, taking photos, she watches him from a distance; the silence is deafening. Later, on a beach, they agree to part ways; while he heads back into the arms of Serap (Nazan Kesal), a friend’s lover, she takes a job on a faraway television program, set in the bitter cold and snow. But Isa still can’t get the younger Bahar out of his mind. CLIMATES features long scenes of little dialogue, with cinematographer Gökhan Tiryaki alternating extreme close-ups with gorgeous, nearly empty landscapes, shot in HD digital video, with a haunting piano-based score. Ceylan’s follow-up to DISTANT, which won the 2003 Jury Grand Prix at Cannes, is a wrenching, challenging tale that will leave audiences emotionally exhausted.
Laura Linney and Robin Williams fall for each other in MAN OF THE YEAR
In theaters now
http://www.manoftheyearmovie.net
Barry Levinson reteams with Robin Williams (GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM, the disastrous TOYS) for MAN OF THE YEAR, an entertaining if flawed romantic comedy/political thriller. Williams stars as Tom Dobbs, a Bill Maher-like talk-show host who gets recruited by his fans to run for president. So he and his manager (Christopher Walken) and head writer (THE DAILY SHOW’s Lewis Black) go on the road, bringing a message of change to the American people. Meanwhile, Eleanor Green (Laura Linney) discovers that there is a critical problem with her company’s electronic voting machines that will affect the outcome of the election, but the firm’s CEO (Rick Roberts) and spokesman (Jeff Goldblum) care more about their soaring stock than who gets to sit in the Oval Office. Complicating things is the growing attraction between Dobbs and Green. Despite some seriously stale political jokes, obvious riffs on fake news shows, the oh-so-tired inclusion of real talking heads commenting on Dobbs’s chances for the White House (Chris Matthews, James Carville), and awful melodramatic music at the film’s climax, MAN OF THE YEAR manages to be funny, insightful, moving, and timely, coming out just before the crucial midterm elections and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ’s big Rolling Stone story about possible fraud involving voting machines.
Jordana Brewster is on the lookout for old Leatherface in prequel to remake
In theaters now
http://www.texaschainsawmovie.com
We’re not sure the world really needs yet another TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, what with all the sequels, remakes, and even THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE NEXT GENERATION (Kim Henkel, 1994), which featured Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey. Tobe Hooper’s 1974 original was a slasher classic, with the great Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface, but for thirty years people have been trying to capture that same grisly intensity, with little success. Perhaps the closest they’ve come is THE BEGINNING, the new prequel to the 2003 remake (which starred Jessica Biel). The cannibalistic quartet of R. Lee Ermey (Sheriff Hoyt), Uncle Monty (Terrence Evans), Luda Mae (Marietta Marich), and Tea Lady (Kathy Lamkin) are back for Jonathan Liebesman’s solid, scary flick that goes back to the birth of old Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski), somewhat explaining how he gained such a liking for butcher knives, chainsaws, and human skin. This time around, Taylor Handley and Matt Bomer play two very different brothers about to go to Vietnam, driving through the California desert with their girlfriends (Jordana Brewster and Diora Baird) for one last hurrah, but they sort of take a rather gruesome detour. Although the period music the filmmakers dug up is pretty lame, Steve Jablonsky’s original score builds the tension beautifully. Be prepared for lots of blood, torture, and genuine terror.
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.
The hardcore ’80s come screaming back in new doc
Village East Cinema
181 Second Ave. at 12th St.
Tickets: $10.75
212-529-6998
http://citycinemas.moviefone.com
http://www.sonyclassics.com/americanhardcore
If you love loud, fast, angry music circa 1980-86 — we know we do — you need to check out AMERICAN HARDCORE, a documentary about one of the smaller but nonetheless influential movements in American music. (Heck, even if that’s not your cup of tea, it’s still worth a visit.) A basic doc in the classic do-it-yourself sensibility that informed so much of the music scene it chronicles, AMERICAN HARDCORE features interviews with Henry Rollins, lead singer of Black Flag; H.R., the mercurial, difficult, but brilliant lead singer for the Bad Brains; Mike Watt of the Minutemen; and various personnel from the Circle Jerks, Minor Threat, and 7 Seconds. Tommy Stinson of the Replacements and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers weigh in as well. The abundance of old concert footage is fabulous, but director Paul Rachman and writer Steven Blush discovered much of it in shoeboxes in basements during their low-budget cross-country trip while making the movie, so the overall production quality is not high — which in some ways works better overall. The film does a good job of lovingly showing just how home-grown and amateurish the scene was and examining the importance of the scenes in Houston, Minneapolis, DC, Boston, and Southern California. The finale with graphic artist and cover designer Winston Smith calling for the next generation of hardcore is a riot.
Johnny Knoxville and friends have fun making number two
In theaters now
Johnny Knoxville and his merry band of marauders (Bam Margera, Steve-O, Wee Man, Preston Lacy, Ryan Dunn, and Chris Pontius) are back for another series of crazy practical jokes, disgusting displays of really stupid stunts, and ridiculous life-threatening activities involving speeding shopping carts, snakes and bees, rockets, bungee jumping, skateboarding, pistols and rifles, charging bulls, a well-hung horse, medicine balls, beer funnels, bodily excretions, and plenty of things that can’t be printed here. It’s gross-out comedy at its best — and worst. But most of all, it’s just really, really funny. The second go-round includes appearances by Tony Hawk, Luke Wilson, director Jay Chandraskehar (THE DUKES OF HAZZARD, BEERFEST), Mike Judge, John Waters, Rip Taylor, and Spike Jonze walking around town disguised as an old lady whose drooping boobs keep popping out.
In theaters now
http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/thelastkingofscotland
Forest Whitaker is absolutely mesmerizing 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://thescienceofsleep.imeem.com
Eclectic auteur Michel Gondry’s feature-length debut as both writer and director is a complex, confusing, kaleidoscopic stew that is as charming as it is frustrating. Gael García Bernal (THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES) stars as the juvenile but endearing Stephane, a young man in a silly hat who has trouble differentiating dreams from reality. The childlike Stephane becomes friends with his new neighbor, Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg, daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin), who still has plenty of the child left inside her as well. Stephane has a job his mother (Miou-Miou) got him, toiling for a small company that makes calendars, alongside the hysterical Guy (Alain Chabat), who can’t help constantly poking fun at coworkers Serge (Sacha Bourdo) and Martine (Aurélia Petit). Gondry, who gave us the brilliant ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND as well as the highly entertaining DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY and the bizarre HUMAN NATURE, uses low-tech green-screening and stop-motion animation to reveal Stephane’s fantasy world, bringing to mind such masters as Jan Svankmajer and the Brothers Quay. Unfortunately, just as Stephane can’t tell what’s real from what he’s dreaming, you’ll often have difficulty as well; some of the plot turns are downright infuriating, and Stephane’s TV show teeters on the edge of embarrassing. But you’ll also be hard-pressed not to leave the theater feeling like a kid in a candy store.
Inn theaters now
http://www.fearlessthemovie.com
Jet Li says goodbye to the martial arts genre with this overly worshipful yet still entertaining tribute to Wushu legend Huo Yuanjia. As a young child, Huo (Zhu Qilong) is weak and sickly yet yearns to become a martial arts master like his father (Collin Chou). He trains instead of studying, so when he grows up, Huo (Li) indeed becomes a championship-caliber fighter, but fighting is all he knows. He has learned none of the true ways of Wushu that his father taught; instead of using the special techniques to better his body, mind, and soul, he is obsessed with winning, feeding his own ego — and soon pays a heavy price. Ready to give up on life, he is taken in by a poor farming village, where a blind woman (Sun Li) helps him reevaluate his existence. With Westerners opening up China (in the first decade of the twentieth century), Huo is ready to defend what foreigners are calling "the Weak Man of the East." A labor of love for Li, FEARLESS plays a little too loosely with some of the facts, Huo’s transformation is way too diagrammed, and too many of his challengers are ROCKY III-like stereotypes, but Li is able to rise above the melodrama. The action scenes, choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping (THE MATRIX, KILL BILL, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON), are, as expected, great to watch, and director Ronny Yu (BRIDE OF CHUCKY, THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR) keeps things moving at a decent pace. It’ll be interesting to see what Li (ROMEO MUST DIE, KISS OF THE DRAGON, HERO) does next, now that he’s leaving this ever-evolving genre that has been gaining more and more respect from mainstream audiences.
Jacques Denarnaud
Ethereal dance troupe returns to BAM for first time since 2002
2006 Next Wave Festival
Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Tickets: $20-$60
718-636-4100
Sankai Juku, the Butoh dance company whose awe-inspiring HIBIKI blew away BAM audiences (and twi-ny) in 2002, returns to Brooklyn with KAGEMI — BEYOND THE METAPHORS OF MIRRORS. Directed, choreographed, and designed by troupe founder Ushio Amagatsu, KAGEMI is a meditation on the human body and nature, on water and mirrors, on reflections both inward and outward. Danced by seven extremely talented men — including Amagatsu and Sankai Juku cofounder Semimaru — KAGEMI is divided into seven sections, with such mystical titles as “Wind in the Water Depths,” “Echoings of Gaze and Return Gaze,” and “Infinite Dialogue.” The dancers, their bodies and egg-like shaven heads covered in white chalk, in a series of beautiful, unique, often sparse costumes, first emerge from under a patch of lotus leaves, which rises to the ceiling; the rest of the performance takes place between the bottom of the ocean and the leaves, as the men intricately weave in between each other, bending, twisting, or extending just a finger, every movement almost interminably slow and deeply reflective. The dancers go through the cycles of nature and the universe — birth, death, rebirth — to an evocative, pensive score by Takeshi Kako and Yoichiro Yoshikawa. Although not quite as overwhelming as HIBIKI — much of the movement here is repetitive, and what narrative there is is difficult to follow — KAGEMI is still demanding and challenging, unutterably strange and moving — and it’s also deceptively short, at only eighty-five minutes, sans intermission.
L-P Lorentz
Unique take on Ibsen play comes to the BAM Harvey
2006 Next Wave Festival
Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton Street between Ashland Pl. & Rockwell Pl.
Tickets: $20-$50
718-636-4100
Wednesday, October 25
through
Sunday, October 29 National Theatre of Norway, Oslo production of the Henrik Ibsen play, directed by Eirik Stubø
Saturday, October 28 Bamtalk: Ibsen in the 21st Century, BAM Hillman Attic Studio, $10, 3:00
http://www.holtzbrinckpublishers.com
Last week we raved about Augusten Burroughs’s amazing memoir RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, which has now been made into a major motion picture. Burroughs’s latest book, POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS, is a collection of very funny, often snarky stories about Burroughs’s wild life and unique take on people and situations. In these twenty-five tales, Burroughs explains his fear of the Tooth Fairy, his need to wear a Harvard shirt even though he never went to any college, bargaining for John Updike’s death, briefly cutting sails for a living, peeping on Uma Thurman, his wild friendship with Druggy Debby, wanting to become a cop, a vacation gone terribly wrong, getting nose bleeds while on a book tour, his rather disgusting skin problem, convincing a friend to take out a full-page personal ad in the Voice, spending summers with his grandmothers, his attempts to stop smoking, living with the dog from hell, and his inability to break up with Mr. Wrong. Burroughs has an unabashed enthusiasm for sharing his opinion on just about everything and everyone, and he is such a good writer, you’ll forgive him when he goes over the line — which he does often, in extremely hysterical ways. You’ll hate yourself for laughing, but you’ll laugh yourself silly nonetheless.
Phillip Hoose’s slim but elegant memoir recounts his love of baseball since he was a young boy. At the age of nine, he and his family moved to the car-racing town of Speedway, Indiana, in December 1955. Phillip was a baseball fanatic, reading everything he could about the sport and his favorite team, the New York Yankees, yet he couldn’t play worth a damn. He was always chosen last in pickup games, and he was often called a moron by the other kids. But he had something that no one else in school had — his father’s first cousin was Don Larsen, a pitcher for the Bronx Bombers. After learning that, Phillip becomes even more consumed with baseball, writing to Larsen, meeting many of the players, and following the Yankees’ championship drive, leading up to one of the greatest moments in sports history, Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Told with a self-deprecating sense of humor and illustrated with black-and-white photos, PERFECT, ONCE REMOVED, being published on the fiftieth anniversary of Larsen’s amazing feat, is a sweet look at one boy’s coming-of-age in 1950s America — and a good way for die-hard Yankees fans to keep baseball in their minds while the Mets battle for the 2006 pennant and World Series championship.
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Trinity Church Wall Street
Broadway at Wall Street
Admission: free, but reservations required, 212-602-0880, RabbleRouser@TrinityWallStreet.org
http://www.trinitywallstreet.org
Wednesday, October 18 Archbishop Desmond Tutu in conversation with his biographer, John Allen, author of RABBLE-ROUSER FOR PEACE: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF DESMOND TUTU, moderated by John Hockenberry, reception at 5:00, conversation at 6:15, book signing at 7:15
Various venues
Through October 22
Admission: free (some theatrical productions and comedy shows charge admission)
212-764-9600
http://www.fashioncenter.com/arts
Second annual event featuring open studios, live performances, and more, including art shows at 520 Eighth Avenue Gallery, A Taste of Art, Jungle Studios NY (@ Remy’s Studio), Moti Hasson Gallery, Lower East Side Printshop, Exit Art, Hosfelt Gallery, New Art Center, Hunter College Times Square Gallery, chashama presents, EFA Gallery, M!WAA, Medialia…rack and Hamper Gallery, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Mitchell Schorr Studios, studio 37, New Dance Group Arts Center, Actors Movement Conservatory’s Garment District Theatre, Vasari Classic Artists’ Oil Colors, Tribeca Potters, Van Deb editions, and Loading Bays: a public art project by chashama
Various stores
Through October 22
All treatments: $50
212-352-8098
More than one hundred spas in the metropolitan area will be offering special $50 treatments during the third annual Spa Week, including Coconut Milk Pedicure with Warm Cream Hand Treatment at Allure, 30 Min Z-Peel at Exhale, 45 Min Brown Sugar Body Scrub Featuring Dry Body Brushing at Oasis, 45 Min Mango/Ginger Brown Sugar Scrub with Vichy Shower at Finesse, 30 Min Radiofrequency Collagen Treatment at Serenity, 45 Min Qi-Gong Foot Reflexology or Facial Treatment at Graceful Services, Lemon Verbena Pedicure with Complimentary Pass to the Water Lounge at Great Jones, 45 Min Dead Sea Salt Scrub with Platza Treatment at Body by Brooklyn, 50 Min Detoxifying Seaweed Facial or 30 Min Microdermabrasion Treatment at Canela, 45 Min Blueberry Smoothie Exfoliating Facial at Cloud 9, 60 Min Chocolate Layer or Deep Pore Cleansing Facial at DeFranco Spagnolo, 45 Min Mom to Be Massage at Edamame Maternity, 45 Min Sandy Beach Salt Scrub at Eden Day, 30 Min Hot Stone Massage with 30 Min Steam, Sauna & Jacuzzi at Essential Therapy, 60 Min Gerard’s Caviar Rejuvenating or Vitamin Facial at Gerard’s, Four Layer Vitamin C Facial, Glycolic Exfoli-Facial or Manuka Facial at Glow, 75 Min Anti-Aging Facial: Mature Skin Replenishing Solution at Lancôme The Boutique, 50 Min Microdermabrasion Treatment at Moonflower, 45 Min Coconut or Bamboo Body Polish at Providence, 50 Min Thai Ceremony Massage with Warm Herbal Poultices at Restore, 45 Min Choice of Smooth Synergy Signaure Facial Including Extractions or Smooth Synergy Antioxidant Pomegranate Peel at Smooth Synergy, and 60 Min Sesame Compress or Chinese Pearl Facial at Yin Beauty, among many others, but you better book them fast.
542 West 27th St. between Tent & Eleventh Aves.
Thursdays through Sundays plus October 30-31
Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at the door
877-340-3002
Through Tuesday, October 31 The Nightmare on 27th St., featuring animatronics, a 3D maze, the Hostel Asylum, Psycho Bathroom, SAW II Room, Skull Alley, DUSK ’TIL DAWN Room, 3D Circus of Death, and more, 7:30 pm — 1:00 am
One venue in each borough
Tickets: evenings $20-$25, afternoons $15-$20
212-307-6226
http://www.hauntedhousenyc.com
Through Thursday, November 2 Guided tour of thirteen chambers of horrors, at the Point in the Bronx (940 Garrison Ave.), the Brooklyn Lyceum (227 Fourth Ave.), the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center (107 Suffolk St.), Roy Wilkins Park in Queens (Baisley Blvd. & 177th St.), and Colony Hall at Seaview Hospital on Staten Island (460 Brielle Ave.)
Rose’s Turn
55 Grove St. at Seventh Ave. & West Fourth St.
Admission: $5
212-366-5438
http://www.myspace.com/em_comedy
Wednesday, October 18, 25
and
Wednesday, November 1 New weekly stand-up comedy show hosted by Emily Epstein, Elon James White, and Raquel D’Apice, 9:00
Angel Orensanz Foundation Center for the Arts
172 Norfolk St. between Houston & Delancey Sts.
917-930-6106
Thursday, October 19 Metropolis Ensemble kicks off its second season with the New York premiere of David Schiff’s "All About Love," along with Monteverdi’s "Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda" and Gallagher’s "Conspiracy of Curtains," $20, 8:00
Lincoln Center Great Performers
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, Rose Building
165 West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave., tenth floor
Tickets: $30
212-875-5050
Thursday, October 19 Anne-Marie McDermott, piano: Bach, Goldberg Variations, 10:30
Friday, October 20 Jeremy Denk, piano, all-Bach recital: Tocatta in D major, BWV 912; Partita No. 3 in A minor, BWV 827; Partita No. 4 in D major, BWV 828, 10:30
Saturday, October 21 Sergey Schepkin, all-Bach recital: Capriccio on the Departure of His Most Beloved Brother in B-flat major, BWV 992; Partita No. 6 in E minor, BWV 830; Italian Concerto, BWV 971, 10:30
Animazing Gallery
461 Broome St. between Greene & Mercer Sts.
Admission: free, RSVP suggested, rsvp here
212-226-7374
Thursday, October 19 Opening of new Karen Shelton exhibit as part of THE EARLY SHOW’s Week of Wishes, 6:00 — 9:00
Friday, October 20
through
Sunday, October 22 Debut of new paintings by breast cancer survivor Karen Shelton, including silent auction (with such items as Broadway show tickets, spa packages, and a trip to a French castle), with proceeds benefiting the National Breast Cancer Foundation and the American-Italian Cancer Foundation
Jacob Javits Convention Center
Eleventh Ave. between 34th & 39th Sts.
Tickets: $60
1-866-468-7619
Friday, October 20
and
Saturday, October 21 Two-day fest featuring brews from nearly one hundred breweries, including Abita, Allagash, Belhaven, Ommegang, Duvel Moortgat, Dogfish Head, Goose Island, Great Lakes, Long Island Meadery, Magic Hat, El Aquila, Spaten-Franziskaner, Dinkelacjer-Schwaben, Paper City, Rogue, Smuttynose, and Zywiec
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at Waverly Pl.
Tickets: $10.75
212-924-7771
Friday, October 20
and
Saturday, October 21 ZOMBIE AMERICAN and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (George Romero, 1968), presented by King of Horror-Burlesque J. Cannibal, with zombie-walk competition, undead striptease, black cat burlesque, and more, 12 midnight
The Metropolitan Pavilion, fourth floor
125 West 18th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Admission: $12 daily
1-800-856-8069
http://www.posterfair.com/htdocs/calendar.htm
http://www.metropolitanevents.com
Friday, October 20
through
Sunday, October 22 Thirty-first annual event, featuring more than two dozen international dealers and more than ten thousand posters for sale
The Town Hall
123 West 43rd St. between Sixth Ave. & Broadway
Tickets: $45-$50
212-840-2824
http://www.the-townhall-nyc.org
Friday, October 20 Music Is in the Air: A Tribute to Jerome Kern, with Lari White, Cady Huffman, Michel Bell, Stephen Bogardus Nancy Anderson Leslie Kritzer, Julia Murney, Deven May, Michael Winther, Ron Bohmer, Joyce Chittick, Sean Martin Hingston, Noah Racey, Julie Reyburn, and Carolyn Montgomery, 8:00
Saturday, October 21 Emily Skinner & Alice Ripley Sing Broadway!, 8:00
Sunday, October 22 Broadway Originals! with Helen Gallager, Joanna Gleason, Debbie Gravitte, Liz Callaway, Kevin Chamberlin, Nancy Dussault, Mary Testa Cheyenne Jackson, Christiane Noll, Noah Racey & Nancy Lemenager, and Chip Zien, 8:00
Coney Island Sideshows by the Seashore
3006 West 12th St. at Surf Ave.
Admission: $8 adults, $5 kids under twelve
718-372-5159
http://www.coneyisland.com/creepshow.shtml
Friday, October 20
through
Sunday, October 22 Adult-oriented spookhouse, including creepy tour of building, lots of freaks, and live entertainment, 7:00 — 11:00 pm
Wednesday, October 25
through
Tuesday, October 31 Adult-oriented spookhouse, including creepy tour of building, lots of freaks, and live entertainment, 7:00 — 11:00 pm
All events approximately 11:00 am - 6:00 pm unless otherwise noted
Admission: free
http://www.clearviewfestival.com
Friday, October 20 Financial Community Day Festival Series: Maiden Lane between Water & South Sts.
Saturday, October 21 Washington Square Festival: Waverly Pl. between Broadway & Fifth Ave.
Sunday, October 22 The Great Third Ave. Fair: Third Ave. between 23rd & 34th Sts.
Sunday, October 22 Upper Broadway Harvest Festival: Broadway between
96th & 110th Sts.
Saturday, October 28 Americana Jazz Festival: 52nd St. between Madison & Seventh Aves.
Saturday, October 28 Park Ave. South Autumn Fair: Park Ave. South between 17th & 23rd Sts.
Saturday, October 28 Astor Pl. Festival: Astor Pl. between Lafayette St. & Broadway
Sunday, October 29 The Seventh Ave. Autumn Carnival: Seventh Ave. between 47th & 57th Sts.
Merchant’s House Museum
29 East Fourth St. between Lafayette St. and the Bowery
212-777-1089
http://www.merchantshouse.com/a_calendar.htm
Friday, October 20, 27
and
Saturday, October 21, 28 Grim, Gruesome & Ghostly: Tour "Manhattan’s Most Haunted House" by Candlelight, reservations strongly suggested, $20, 7:00 — 10:00
Sunday, October 29 From Parlor to Grave: Re-creating a Mid-19th-century Funeral, including march to New York Marble Cemetery with black armbands, $10, 3:00
Tuesday, October 31 Last day to see the exhibition "Every Day Knocking at the Gates of the Grave": Illness & Death in a 19th-Century Home, 12 noon — 5:00
Tuesday, October 31 Simon Loekle Reads Poe and Other Masters of Gothic Horror, $10, 6:30
Multiple venues
Admission: free
347-834-2544
http://geminiartist.com/openstudioindex.html
Saturday, October 21 More than sixty Bushwick artists will be opening the doors of their studios to the public; in addition, there will be a cabaret parade and variety show, mobile Ping-Pong, a wine tasting, outdoor theater, live music, film screenings, and a late-night Halloween party, 12 noon - 8:00 pm
Various closed-off Chinatown streets between Canal & Worth Sts.
Admission: free
Tasting plates: $1-$2
http://www.explorechinatown.com
Saturday, October 21 Fifth annual event, featuring dishes from more than fifty restaurants, tea houses, bakeries, and food shops, including Bo Ky, Buddha Bodai Vegetarian Restaurant, Chanoodle, Doyers Vietnamese, Fay Da Bakery, Jaya Malaysian Restaurant, Marco Polo Noodle Shop, Nom Wah Tea Parlor, Peking Duck House, Pho Viet Huong, Ping's Seafood, Shanghai Garden, Silk Road Café, Singapore Café, Ten Ren's Tea Time, Thai Son, and Wo Hop, in addition to lion dances, arts and crafts, and live performances, 1:00 — 6:00
Bronx Zoo/Prospect Park Zoo/Central Park Zoo/Queens Zoo/New York Aquarium
All weekend special events 11:30 am — 4:30 pm
Children under twelve and in costume free with adults
Saturday, October 21, 28
and
Sunday, October 22, 29 Annual festival featuring magic shows, storytelling, sing-along hayrides, live music, face painting, pumpkin picking and painting, trick-or-treat-bag workshops, cats, bats, and rats, and a spooktacular Halloween celebration, as well as a special Sea Monsters Weekend at the New York Aquarium October 28-29
Micro Museum
123 Smith St. between Dean & Pacific Sts.
718-797-3116
Saturday, October 21 20/20 Haunted Maze Party celebrating the Micro Museum’s twentieth anniversary, featuring the Haunted Maze and live performances, $20, 7:00 - 10:00 pm
Saturday, October 21
and
Saturday, October 28 Haunted Maze featuring mixed-media installations, evil clowns, interactive art, and more, $2, 12 noon — 7:00 pm
Union Square Park
14th St. & Broadway
Admission: free
212-252-2350
http://www.AnimalAllianceNYC.org
Sunday, October 22 Rescued cats and dogs for adoption, children’s activities, microchipping ($25), and more, 11:00 am — 4:00 pm
Hammerstein Ballroom
311 West 34th St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Tickets: $150 children, $250 adults
917-589-8578
Sunday, October 22 Annual benefit for the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation, featuring games, prizes, treats, face painting, international dishes, singing and dancing, and more, 3:00 — 6:00
www.mirukim.com
Miru Kim, "Luv Tunnel"
Lila Dharma Center
302 Bowery between Bleecker & Houston Sts.
Open Sundays 1:00 — 4:00 through October 29
Admission: free
212-254-2130
http://www.theidproject.com/arts/fall06show.htm
Sunday, October 22, 29 Art show featuring beautiful photographs by Agatha Wasilewska and Lina Bertucci, wonderful fabric installations by Nomi Kleinman, an amazing multiple self-portrait and the five-panel "The Five Elements" by Juan-Carlos Castro, and provocative mounted photos by Miru Kim in addition to works by Amy Angeles, Sophie Barbasch, Nancy Brett, Karla Carballar, Jon Coffelt, Jason Cohen, Erin Koch, Ma Lynch, Sarah Merenda, Tyler Mitter, Gala Narezo, Nicole Parcher, Jenn Ross, and Riva Weinstein
Mia Miyamoto dances at DNA
Dance New Amsterdam
280 Broadway at Chambers St.
Tickets: $17
212-625-8369
Monday, October 23
and
Tuesday, October 24 Contemporary Dance Unit Zero to Infinity performs new production, choreographed by Mai Miyamoto, danced by Yoshinori Ito, Mai Miyamoto, Akemi Nishi, Aoi Nishimura, Kokoro Ohba, Ryoji Sasamoto, and Ran Yoshida, and with music by Bach, Steve Reich, and dumb type, 8:00
Carnegie Hall
Isaac Stern Auditorium
881 Seventh Ave. at 57th St.
Tickets: $20
212-247-7800
Tuesday, October 24 Concert featuring the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra (consisting of winners of the Sphinx Competition for young black and Latino string players) and debut of the Harlem Quartet, 6:00
Barbès
376 Ninth St. at Sixth Ave.
Park Slope, Brooklyn
Suggested donation: $8
718-965-9177
http://www.barbesbrooklyn.com/calendar.html
Thursday, October 26 All-girl quartet plays all-American repertoire, 10:00
twi-ny/mdr
The Pond at Bryant Park kicks off second year on October 27
Bryant Park Lawn
Between 40th & 42nd Sts. and Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Through January 2007
http://www.bryantpark.org/amenities/thepond.php
Friday, October 27 Last October, this seventeen-hundred-square-foot state-of-the-art ice-skating rink opened on the Bryant Park lawn, and it’s set to begin its second season as part of the annual Fetes de Noel holiday celebration.
Grand Central Terminal
Vanderbilt Hall
Admission: free
http://www.grandcentralterminal.com
Friday, October 27, 1:00 – 7:00
and
Saturday, October 28 Celebrating the best of traditional and modern Tokyo, with workshops and demonstrations (lantern making, wood block printing, bamboo screen creations), Masayo Ishigure playing the koto, digital art and ukioyo-e exhibitions, a 3-D tour, and more, 9:00 am - 7:00 pm
Animazing Gallery
461 Broome St. between Greene & Mercer Sts.
Admission: free, RSVP suggested, rsvp@animazing.com
212-226-7374
Friday, October 27, 6:00 — 9:00
and
Saturday, October 28, 2:00 — 6:00 Celebration of the fortieth anniversary of IT’S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN (Bill Melendez, 1966), with 3-D animation sculptor David Kracov unveiling his new "outside of the box" PEANUTS works
The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Ave. at 112th St.
212-316-7540
Friday, October 27 Halloween Extravaganza & Procession of Ghouls: Screening of NOSFERATU (F.W. Murnau, 1922), followed by procession of puppets, creatures, and special effects, $15, 7:00 & 10:00
Saturday, October 28 Morning of the Gargoyles: A Family Halloween Workshop, ages four and up, $5 per child with adult, 10:00 am
Saturday, October 28 Crypt Crawl candlelight tour, reservations required, $10, 10:00 & 11:00 am, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 pm
The Metropolitan Pavilion
125 West 18th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Admission: $10 in advance, $15 at the door (children twelve and under free)
631-957-7036
http://www.metropolitanevents.com
http://www.everything4festaitaliana.com
Friday, October 27
and
Saturday, October 28 Festival of Italian food, art, fashion, music, literature, and wine, featuring appearances by Prince Lorenzo Borghese, Mary Ann Esposito, Angelo Saverino, Sean Crosby, Pierre Finkelstein, and Cristina Fontanelli, 11:00/12 noon — 8:00
The Skyscraper Museum
39 Battery Pl.
Free with museum admission of $5
212-945-6324
Saturday, October 28 Children ages four to nine will learn how to make their own costumes (RSVP required by October 27), 10:30 am
Metropolitan Museum of Art Uris Center for Education
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Free with museum admission, reservations required
212-650-2833, diadelosmuertos@metmuseum.org
Saturday, October 28 Bilingual celebration for families, featuring films, tours, and music, 11:00 am — 1:00 pm
El Museo del Barrio
12300 Fifth Ave. at 104th St.
Admission: free but registration required
212-660-7144, diadelosmuertos@elmuseo.org
Saturday, October 28 Festival honoring ancestors and celebrating the cycle of life and death, with altar-making, cut-paper workshops, pan de muertos (sweet bread), live music and dance, and paying tribute at the communal altar, 11:00 am — 3:00 pm
World Financial Center Winter Garden
225 Vesey St.
Admission: free
212-945-2600
http://www.worldfinancialcenter.com/calendar
Saturday, October 28 Annual Halloween pumpkin party, featuring face painting, pumpkin decorating, storytelling, and the Magical Great Pumpkin, 12 noon — 4:00 pm
National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution
George Gustav Heye Center
Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House
1 Bowling Green
Admission: free
212-514-3737
Saturday, October 28 Performances, storytelling, and workshops honoring the memory of the departed, featuring Danza Mexica Cetiliztli Nauhcampa, musician Michael Heralda, and the Dedication of the Altar, 1:00 — 5:00 pm
Central Park
Charles A. Dana Discovery Center
Inside the park at 110th St. between Fifth & Lenox Aves.
Admission: free
212-860-1370
Saturday, October 28 Sixteenth annual event, featuring headdress-making workshop, lawn games, costume parade, jack-o’-lantern and costume contests, and sunset flotilla of candlelit pumpkins on the Harlem Meer, 4:00 - 7:00
Park Ave. Armory
643 Park Ave.
Tickets: $10-$120
917-721-1760
Saturday, October 28 Featuring open bar, body-painted bartenders and masseuses, live DJs, and more, 9:00 pm — 3:00 am
Fort Totten Parade Grounds
212th St. and Bell Blvd.
Admission: free
718-352-4793
Saturday, October 28 Second annual New York City Department of Parks & Recreation event, featuring arts and crafts, pumpkins, games, hay rides, and more, 12 noon — 4:00 PM
Prospect Park
Lefferts Historic House / Audubon Center
Admission: free
718-965-8999
Saturday, October 28 Annual Halloween Haunted Walk and Carnival, featuring monsters on Lookout Hill, carnival on the Nethermead, live music, hayrides, games, candy, and more, 12 noon — 3:00
Saturday, October 28
and
Saturday, October 29 Haunted Carousel, Scary Stories from the Past, Skeleton Scharen-Knippen Cut-Outs, Creepy Crawly Halloween, and more, 12 noon — 5:00
South Street Seaport Pier 17
Admission: $5 (includes Halloween treat for children ten and under)
212-748-8758
http://www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org
Saturday, October 28
and
Sunday, October 29 Family program aboard the Peking, with face painting, arts & crafts, storytelling, and a haunted room, 12 noon — 5:00 pm
Brooklyn Children’s Museum
145 Brooklyn Ave. at St. Marks Ave.
Admission: $5
718-735-4400
Saturday, October 28
and
Sunday, October 29 Festival featuring arts & crafts, face painting, storytelling, and more, 11:00 am (concerts by Maria Sangiolo on Saturday and Francis Mbappe on Sunday at 1:30 & 3:00)
Hudson River Park
Pier 54, West 14th St. & the West Side Highway
Admission: free (some activities $2)
212-533-park
http://www.hudsonriverpark.org
Saturday, October 28
and
Sunday, October 29 Featuring a haunted house, face painting, wax hands, rides, and the Maze of Horrors, 12 noon — 9:00 pm
Green-Wood Cemetery Landmark Gothic Archway, Brooklyn
Fifth Ave. at 25th St. entrance
718-788-7850
http://www.green-wood.com/toursbydate.asp
Saturday, October 28
and
Sunday, October 29 Two Historic Fund Tours, with tales of murder, mayhem, spirits, and ghosts, $15, 1:00
twi-ny/mdr
Winding staircase leads up Grand Army Plaza arch to NOSFERATU
Rabbit Hole Ensemble
Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch
Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn
Saturday at 2:00 & 7:00
Sunday at 2:00 & 5:00
Suggested donation: $10
718-686-6624 / reservations@rabbitholeensemble.com
http://www.rabbitholeensemble.com
Saturday, October 28
and
Sunday, October 29 The nonprofit Rabbit Hole Ensemble presents its adaptation of the classic vampire story NOSFERATU, set inside the arch at Grand Army Plaza; performances will also be held November 4-5
Queens Farm Museum
73-50 Little Neck Parkway
Admission: $4 (hayrides additional $2)
718-347-3243
http://www.queensfarm.org/events.html
Saturday, October 28
through
Tuesday, October 31 Haunted house, hayrides, apple and pumpkin treats, and more, closed Monday, 4:00 — 7:00
Tompkins Square Park
Ninth St. at Ave. B
Admission: $5 raffle ticket for iPod Nano
http://www.whoswalkingwhodogtraining.com
Sunday, October 29 Sixteenth annual event, with dogs and owners competing in several categories, including best dog with kid and best trick, with prizes, photographers, gift baskets, and more, 12 noon
Sony Wonder Technology Lab
Sony Atrium
56th St. at Madison Ave.
Admission: free, but space limited
212-833-8100
http://www.sonywondertechlab.com
Sunday, October 29 Hands-on activities, film screenings (including SESAME STREET: ELMO SAYS BOO at 2:00), goodie bags, raffle prizes, and more, 12 noon — 4:00 pm
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Cherry Esplanade
1000 Washington Ave.
Admission: $5 adults, children under sixteen free
718-623-7200
Sunday, October 29 Gourd sculpture, shrunken apple heads, Thai pumpkin carvings, Dia de los Muertos: An Offering of Flowers, recycled junk instruments, sassafras leaf ghost portraits, corn grinding, Brazilian hand drumming, phantom photos, petting zoo, giant puppets, storytelling and songs, Ghouls and Gourds Tattoo Parlor, carnivorous plant feedings, live performances by Astrograss, Rebecca Frezza & Big Truck, the Merles, Billy Jonas, and Hot Peas ’N Butter, and a costume parade, 12 noon — 4:30
Grand Central Terminal
Vanderbilt Hall
Admission: free
http://www.halloweekend2006.com
http://www.grandcentralterminal.com
Sunday, October 29 Halloween celebration featuring the Grand Pumpkin Patch, pumpkin carving, the World of Ralph Lee, live performances by Hazmat Modine, trick-or-treat treasure maps, and more, 2:00 am — 6:00 pm
Queens Museum of Art
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Admission: free with suggested museum admission of $5
718-592-9700
Sunday, October 29 Aztec folklore, dance, live music, open-mic poetry, craft workshops, altar making, traditional Mexican food, and contests, 2:00 - 8:00
FIT Haft Auditorium
227 West 27th St. at Seventh Ave.
Sunday, October 29, 2:30
Tickets: $25-$100
718-296-0233
http://www.qishufang.com/2006festival.htm
This past June, we attended a special preview performance of the sixth annual Peking Opera Festival, presented at Flushing Town Hall. The three pieces, "The Monkey King Havoc in Imperial Stables," "Stealing the Official Seal," and "The Case of Chen Shi-Mei," performed in Chinese without English translation, included martial arts, acrobatics, dance, and ornate, elaborate costumes and colorfully painted faces. The show is worth it for the fabulous music alone, including such instruments as opera fiddle, opera erhu, bamboo flute, min erhu, small and large gongs, moon guitar, hai flute, and suona horn. The festival continues on October 29 at FIT with a production of "Monkey King Fights the White-Bone Demon Three Times," starring Cheng He Ping and Qi Shu Fang. The New York-based company was started by Qi Shu Fang in 1988 and has been playing all over the world ever since.
Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle
35 East 76th St. at Madison Ave.
High tea: $24
212-744-1600
http://www.thecarlyle.com/dine4.cfm
Sunday, October 29 Special high tea, with candy, ghost stories, live spooky music by Tina DeVaron, tea, and a menu that includes Bemelmans Buggy Burgers, Brainy Banana Splits, and Hot Sludge Sundaes, adults and children encouraged to come in costume, reservations required, 12 noon — 4:00 pm
The Delancey
168 Delancey St. between Clinton & Attorney Sts.
Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at the door
917-378-5012
http://www.charmedbystarr.com/Eventspage.htm
Sunday, October 29 A Most Spellbinding Event, featuring live music, theater, dance, and DJs, with costume contest, free food, tarot card readings, fashion show, Gothic bellydancing class, and more, with proceeds benefiting breast cancer research, 6:00 pm - dawn
Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden
421 East 61st St.
212-838-6878
Sunday, October 29 Children's Halloween Party, old-fashioned party featuring fortune-telling, treats, and a costume parade, reservations recommended, $10 adults, $5 children, 1:00
Monday, October 30
and
Tuesday, October 31 An Evening with Poe, read and reenacted by Kevin Mitchell Martin, reservations required, $17, 6:15 & 8:00
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. at Second St.
Admission: free but RSVP required (on Web site)
Monday, October 30 JUST FOR KICKS: A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT SNEAKERS, HIP-HOP & THE CORPORATE GAME (Thibaut de Longeville & Lisa Leone, 2005), preceded by the RETAIL MAFIA documentary short, with a welcome reception featuring Qool DJ Marv and postscreening Q&A and cocktail reception with executive producer Thierry Daher, 8:00
Riverside Park
Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Monument
91st St. & Riverside Dr.
Admission: free
http://www.riversideparkfund.org/Calendar.htm
Tuesday, October 31 Annual celebration and costume parade following bagpipers to the Hippo Playground, with free cider and donuts, 3:45 - 5:00
Webster Hall
125 East Eleventh St. between Third & Fourth Aves.
Tickets: $28; open bar $80
Tuesday, October 31 Thirty-third annual official NYC Halloween Parade after-party, doors open at 8:00, open bar 8:00 — 10:00, full frontal runway fashion show 10:30, Rocky Horror Revue with Shane Savant at 11:00, the Queen of Pop Madonna Experience 11:30, one-hundred-person dance troupe 1:00, surprise performance 1:30, $5,000 costume contest 2:00
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West & 79th St.
Admission: $9
212-769-5200
Tuesday, October 31 Eleventh annual spooktacular event featuring arts and crafts, trick-or-treating, David Grover and the Big Bear Band, Madeline, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Curious George, Pig from the If You Give… books, origami, monster meal packages ($16), "Spooky Skies" in the Hayden Planetarium ($12, advance registration strongly suggested), and arts and crafts; come in costume and go trick-or-treating through the exhibits, 4:00 — 7:00 pm
Trinity Church
Broadway at Wall St.
Admission: free
212-602-0800
http://www.trinitywallstreet.org
Tuesday, October 31 Ghosts and Graveyard Fun, with games, crafts, storytelling, a haunted house, a pumpkin patch, an All Hallows Eve liturgy, and treats in the churchyard, 4:00 — 7:00, followed by Silent Scream: THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (Wallace Worsley, 1923) with live organ accompaniment by Cameron Carpenter, 7:30
Sixth Ave. from Spring to 22nd Sts.
Marchers meet at 6:30, parade starts at 7:00
Admission: free
Tuesday, October 31 Thirty-third annual parade: "The Village Hearth," with an ancient Celtic communal fire, led by dancing Jack-o-Lantern and Squash Blossom Giant Puppets and featuring more than fifty bands, dance groups, and more
Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Admission: free
718-636-4100
http://www.bam.org/education/bamboo
Tuesday, October 31 Third annual street festival featuring free trick-or-treat bags, a haunted garden, children’s costume contest, and carnival performances (jugglers, fire-eaters, clowns, and more), 4:00 — 7:00 pm
Seventh Ave. from 12th St. to Union St.
Admission: free
http://www.parkslopeciviccouncil.org
Tuesday, October 31 Twenty-first annual parade for children and families, with the Headless Horsewoman, Paprika, and the Eternal Buzz Brass Band, 6:30 pm, preceded by party at the Prospect Park YMCA at 357 Ninth St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves., 4:30 — 6:30 pm
Theater for the New City
155 First Ave. at Tenth St.
Outdoor entertainment: free, 5:00 to 8:00 pm
Indoor tickets: $20, 8:00 pm to 1:00 am
212-254-1109
http://www.theaterforthenewcity.net/halloween
Tuesday, October 31 Thirtieth annual event features Malachy McCourt, Penny Arcade, Billionaires for Bush, N.Y. Ukulele Festival, Samurai Sword Soul, GWAABO, Iration Squad, British Music Hall, and the Red and Black Masque medieval ritual show, with psychic readers, gothic belly dancing, stilt walkers, mythical creatures, vaudeville acts, Hellsouls in the lobby, the Witches’ Cauldron grand buffet, and Monsters and Miracles Costume Parade and contest at 11:30, with live music from the Great Paprika Band and the Hot Lavendar Swing Band
Snug Harbor Cultural Center Music Hall
1000 Richmond Terr.
718-815-SNUG
Tuesday, October 31 THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (Jim Sharman, 1975), $10, plus $7 for audience participation party bag, 10:00