Yearly Archives: 2011

KUROSAWA: YOJIMBO

Toshiro Mifune can’t believe what he sees in YOJIMBO.

Toshirō Mifune can’t believe what he sees in YOJIMBO, being shown in HD at Symphony Space

YOJIMBO (Akira Kurosawa, 1961)
Symphony Space, Leonard Nimoy Thalia
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
Sunday, August 7, 3:00
Series continues through August 28
212-864-5400
www.symphonyspace.org

Kuwabatake Sanjuro (Toshirō Mifune) is a lone samurai on the road following the end of the Tokugawa dynasty in yet another of Akira Kurosawa’s unforgettable masterpieces. Sanjuro comes to a town with two warring factions and plays each one off the other as a hired hand. Neo’s battles with myriad Agent Smiths are nothing compared to Yojimbo’s magnificent swordfights against growing bands of warriors that include the evil Unosuke (Tatsuya Nakadai), who is in possession of a new weapon that shoots bullets. Try watching this film and not think of several Clint Eastwood Westerns (including Sergio Leone’s pasta remake, A Fistful of Dollars) as well as High Noon. The film is being screened as part of Symphony Space’s “Kurosawa” series, featuring the first time ever many of the Japanese auteur’s finest films are being shown on the big screen in HD; coming up is High and Low on August 13, Hidden Fortress on August 14, Stray Dog on August 27, and Rashomon on August 28.

FLOAT: FIELD OF DREAMS

Socrates Sculpture Park
Vernon Blvd. & Broadway, Long Island City
Sunday, August 7, free, 1:00 – 5:00
Continues August 12, 13, 14, 21, 28
718-956-1819
www.socratessculpturepark.org

Socrates Sculpture Park’s summer biennial, “Float: Field of Dreams,” begins today with a series of site-specific performances in the beautiful Long Island City space. Curated by Cleopatra’s, the six-day series features works by such artists as Martin Soto Climent, Jules Gimbrone, MGM Grand, Stephen Lichty, Erica Magrey, Rachel Mason, Baker Overstreet, Georgia Sagri, Chris Verene: The Self-Esteem Salon with Jessica Grable, J. Patrick Walsh III, and Geo Wyeth. Among Sunday’s special events are “Jar Jar Stinky & Patchez present ZINE BRUNCH!” at 1:00, in which visitors can trade newly made magazines with the artists; at 3:00, Wyeth and Gimbrone, with Karel Van Beekom and Reenat Pinchas, will perform Every Thing On Stage, which combines storytelling, Wyeth’s “Arguments and Meditations for Saxophone and Voice,” lip reading, and Joan of Arc; at 4:00, Overstreet, in his stage persona “June,” will perform a tribute to the moon with a junkyard band; and at 5:00, Walsh III will drive an aluminum backpack deep underground, evoking the park’s former life as a landfill. “Float” continues through the end of the month, with further performances scheduled for August 12, 13, 14, 21, and 28. Today is also the last day to see the spring show, “Vista”; also on view are “Broadway Billboard: COCO144, COKUN” and “Open Space: El Museo’s Bienial — The (S) Files.”

ROCK YARD / BEACH PARTY

The Death Set will be part of JellyNYC show on Sunday afternoon at the Morgan in Brooklyn (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Rockbeach / Rock Yard
The Morgan, 25 Bogart St. between Rock & Varet Sts., free, 2:00
www.rockbeach.us
Beach Party
Beekman Beer Garden Beach Club, South Street Seaport, Pier 17, 89 South St., free, 3:00
www.beekmanbeergarden.com

Not very surprisingly, JellyNYC’s move to the Aviator Complex in the-middle-of-nowhere Brooklyn for their free summer concert series, after several blowout years at the McCarren Park pool and then the Williamsburg Waterfront in East River State Park, proved disastrous, as no one showed up. (Well, the exact numbers are in debate.) So after two Sundays, they’re now a lot closer to home, holding their next event on Sunday, August 7, at the Morgan in East Williamsburg, and they’ve changed the name from Rockbeach to Rock Yard. The lineup includes the Growlers, Japanther, the Death Set, Cerebral Ballzy, the So So Glos, and CSC Funk Band, running from 2:00 to 8:00. Meanwhile, Jelly veterans Mission of Burma, who played the Williamsburg Waterfront back in 2009, will be at the Beekman Beer Garden on the north side of Pier 17 on Sunday afternoon. The Labor Pool opens up at 3:00, with MoB scheduled to go on at 5:00, but doors open at 11:30, so you’re gonna have to get their early to snag a good spot.

HOLLYWOOD MUSICALS OF THE 1970s & 80s, PART 2: THE 1980s — GET CRAZY

Malcolm McDowell gets plenty crazy as rock god Reggie Wanker in Allan Arkush’s GET CRAZY

GET CRAZY (Allan Arkush, 1983)
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. at Second St.
Saturday, August 6, 7:00
Series continues through August 9
212-505-5181
www.anthologyfilmarchives.org

One of the most underrated, little-seen rock-and-roll movies ever made, Get Crazy should be a cult classic. Directed by Allan (Rock ‘n’ Roll High School) Arkush, Get Crazy evokes the closing of the Fillmore East as Neil Allen (Daniel Stern) and Willy Loman (Gail Edwards) help put together a New Year’s Eve farewell concert for the beloved Saturn Theater, which the conniving Colin Beverly (Ed Begley Jr.) is trying to steal out from under Max Wolfe (Allen Garfield). Among the special guests at the show are Bill Henderson as the Muddy Waters clone King Blues, Captain Cloud (Howard Kaylan of the Turtles) and the Rainbow Telegraph, and Nada (Kid Creole Coconut Lori Eastside) with Piggy (Lee Ving of Fear), but the movie is stolen by Malcolm McDowell as the Mick Jagger ripoff Reggie Wanker, who literally lets his member do the talking, and Lou Reed as the Dylan/Donovan homage Auden, a folksinger desperate to write a song before the show, so he spends most of the film riding around in a cab, rambling on about whatever is right in front of him. And be sure to keep an eye out for John Densmore, Fabian, Bobby Sherman, Clint Howard, Linnea Quigley, and Paul Bartel. In addition to the live numbers, the soundtrack includes songs by Sparks, Marshall Crenshaw, the Ramones, and Reed, whose awesome “Little Sister” plays over the closing credits. Extremely silly but still loads of fun Get Crazy is screening August 6 at Anthology Film Archives as part of the series Hollywood Musicals of the 1970s & 80s, Part 2, which continues through August 9 with such classics and not-so-classics as Walter Hill’s Streets of Fire, John Landis’s The Blues Brothers, Robert Altman’s Popeye, John Waters’s Cry-Baby, and David Byrne’s True Stories.

FIRST SATURDAYS: CARIBBEAN COUNTDOWN

The Cool and Deadly will play at Brooklyn Museum First Saturday program on August 6

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, August 6, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum is getting its annual Caribbean celebration under way early this year with a full slate of activities as part of its free August First Saturdays program. Things get going at 5:00 with Tribal Legacy leading a funky reggae get-down. At 6:00, visitors have their choice of curator Rich Aste giving a talk on the new acquisition “Free Women of Color With Their Children and Servants in a Landscape” and a screening of Frances-Anne Solomon’s 1995 Trinidad drama What My Mother Told Me. At 6:30, Trinidad native Hazelle Goodman will perform her one-woman show, Don’t Get Me Started, and the Hands-on Art workshop will offer participants the chance to decorate fabrics with Afro-Caribbean designs. At 7:00, NYU associate professor of anthropology Aisha Khan will discuss South Asian and Islamic cultural influences on the museum’s holdings. At 8:00, DJ Spice will get the monthly dance party going, with the Cool and Deadly and DJ Jillionaire highlighting the Afro-Punk Festival at 8:30. As always, the galleries are open until 11:00, giving everyone the chance to see such exhibitions as “Vishnu: Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Savior,” “reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio,” “Lorna Simpson: Gathered,” “Skylar Fein: Black Lincoln for Dooky Chase,” “Split Second: Indian Paintings,” “Four Bathers by Degas and Bonnard,” and “Sam Taylor-Wood: Ghosts.”

HIP HOP GENERATION NEXT ’11: FROM THE SOUTH BRONX TO EAST ASIA BLOCK PARTY

Simpson St. between 163rd & Barretto Sts.
Saturday, August 6, free, 2:00 – 8:00
www.dancinginthestreets.org
www.casita.us

The three-week, four-event Hip Hop Generation Next ’11 festival comes to a close on August 6 with a blowout block party, following the Ladies of Hip Hop Festival (July 15-17), STEPYAGAMEUP (July 23-24), and Hip Hop Kung Fu (August 2-3). Presented with the Casita Maria Center for Arts in Education, the celebration, which focuses on the burgeoning cultural connections between the Bronx and Korea and Japan, will be hosted by Jorge “Popmaster Fabei” Pabon and Brandon “Peace” Albright and feature such performers as DJ Doc, the Abrazos Orchestra, Emilio “Buddha Stretch” Austin Jr. & the Hip Hop / Kung Fu ensemble, XXL Freshman Fred the Godson, Illstyle & Peace Productions, KR3TS, Full Circle with Gabriel “Kwikstep” Dionisio and Ana “Rokafella” Garcia, the all-woman urban dance collective MAWU, Misnomer(S), SnapShot & WandeePop, GrandWizzard Theodore, and the Ghanaian/Bronx collaboration “hiplife.” There will also be graffiti art projects, Double Dutch, workshops, ciphers, and other activities in what should be one of the hottest street festivals of the summer.

STORM KING ART CENTER FAMILY DAY

Storm King Family Day will feature special activities for adults and children

Storm King Art Center
Old Pleasant Hill Road, Mountainville
Saturday, August 6, $8-$12, 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
www.stormking.org

As part of its continuing fiftieth anniversary celebration, Storm King Art Center will be hosting Family Day on Saturday, August 6. The beautiful indoor-outdoor museum, which features gorgeous sculptures placed throughout its five hundred acres, has scheduled a series of workshops, including one led by New York City sculptor Chakaia Booker; live classical music with a teaching element for kids; and other family-friendly entertainment and activities, all free with regular admission. Picnicking is allowed, and there will also be a special cookout available from the Storm King Café. If you don’t have a car, you can get to the Hudson Valley institution by Coach USA bus from Port Authority. At any given time you can find some 100 works of art from the collection situated all around the grounds, selected from approximately 150 of the most talented artists of the last hundred years, including Magdalena Abakanowicz, George Rickey, Carl Andre, Barbara Hepworth, Mia Westerlund Roosen, Lucas Samaras, Lynda Benglis, Donald Judd, Mel Kendrick, David Smith, Louise Bourgeois, Grace Knowlton, Fritz Koenig, Daniel Buren, Yayoi Kusama, Alexander Calder, Sol Lewitt, Maya Lin, Roy Lichtenstein, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Mark di Suvero, Jean Dubuffet, Henry Moore, Nam June Paik, Beverly Pepper, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Andy Goldsworthy, Robert Grosvenor, and Adolph Gottlieb. In addition, Storm King is currently showing “5+5: New Perspectives,” combining five artists from the permanent collection with five artists new to Storm King, and “The View from Here: Storm King at Fifty,” which looks at the center’s history. A day at Storm King is always a treat even without a special event, so Family Day should make it that much better.