Yearly Archives: 2011

EPIX OUTDOOR SCREENING ON THE INTREPID: THE CAPTAINS

Old Captain Kirk (William Shatner) battles it out with young Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) in Epix documentary THE CAPTAINS

Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
Pier 86, 12th Ave. & 46th St.
Saturday, July 30, free, gates at 7:30, film at 8:45
www.intrepidmuseum.org
www.epixhd.com

As far as we’re concerned, there is only one Star Trek captain, and his name is James T. Kirk, played by the ever-lovable William Shatner. Sure, we have a soft spot for the inimitable Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and we also got a kick out of Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) of Star Trek: Voyager. We never got quite as involved with Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) of Star Trek: Enterprise. In the Epix HD original documentary The Captains, writer-director-producer Shatner goes in search of all the other starship captains — each of the aforementioned leaders, in addition to Chris Pine, who played the young Kirk in J. J. Abrams’s recent Star Trek big-screen reboot — and he’ll do whatever it takes to get them to talk about their part in the continuing adventures of the Starship Enterprise and beyond. The film will be screening for free on Saturday night, July 30, on board the Intrepid, where Shatner will be on hand to introduce the movie and give out prizes. The first one thousand people to show up in costume — the Intrepid strongly advises against bringing anything that even resembles a weapon — will receive a commemorative Captains poster. The best costumes will vie for T-shirts and the opportunity to take a photo with Shatner. Epix is in the midst of Shatnerpalooza, offering online HD screenings of the first six Star Trek films in addition to such other stellar Shatner fare as The Intruder, Big Bad Mama, Pioneer Woman, Broken Angel, The Outer Limits, Disaster on the Coastliner, and William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet. (What, no Kingdom of the Spiders or the Esperanto classic Incubus?)

MARY HALVORSON QUINTET

The Mary Halvorson Quintet will feature new songs at Cornelia Street Café show (photo by Peter Gannushkin)

Cornelia Street Café
29 Cornelia St.
Friday, July 29, $15, 9:00 & 10:30
212-989-9319
www.maryhalvorson.com
www.corneliastreetcafe.com

Last July, we saw Mary Halvorson at the Whitney, playing one of Christian Marclay’s wind-up guitars as part of the “Festival” exhibition. An experimental avant-garde composer and musician, Halvorson has collaborated with the likes of Anthony Braxton, Marc Ribot, Jessica Pavone, Trevor Dunn, Taylor Ho Bynum, Elliott Sharp, and so many others during her fast-paced career. Born in Boston and based in Brooklyn, the barely thirty Halvorson is constantly playing in any number of bands and configurations. Last year she released the debut record of the Mary Halvorson Quintet, Saturn Sings (Firehouse 12, October 2010), consisting of Halvorson on guitar, John Hébert on bass, Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet, Jon Irabagon on alto sax, and Ches Smith on drums. Over the course of seven songs and more than sixty minutes, the group takes listeners on a fascinating journey, with Halvorson heading off into various stratospheres, propelled by unique twists on the horns and an adventurous rhythm section. Gorgeous tracks such as “Moon Traps in Seven Rings (No. 17),” “Sea Seizure (No. 19),” and “Crescent White Singe (No. 13)” venture out into thrilling, unexpected directions filled with myriad surprises, making Saturn Sings one of the freshest, and best, albums of 2010. On July 29, the quintet will be playing a special show at the Cornelia Street Café, concentrating on Halvorson’s compositions for their next disc, which they plan on recording in a two-day frenzy following the performance. Halvorson will also be at University of the Streets on East Seventh St. on Monday, August 1, playing guitar as part of Ches Smith & These Arches, with Smith on drums, Tony Malaby and Tim Berne on saxes, and Andrea Parkins on accordion.

PAUL NEWMAN: SLAP SHOT

Paul Newman is ready to do whatever it takes to win in classic hockey flick

SLAP SHOT (George Roy Hill, 1977)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Friday, July 29, $10, 7:00, and Sunday, July 31, free with museum admission, 4:00
Series continues through August 7
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.hansonbrothers.net

One of the best sports films ever made, Slap Shot is a riotously bloody look at minor-league hockey. Paul Newman — who declared this one of his favorite pictures — stars as Reggie Dunlop, an aging loser serving as player-coach of the Charlestown Chiefs. When the general manager (Strother Martin) tells him that the team is being shut down at the end of the season, Dunlop decides to send it off with a bang. Lying to his team that if the Chiefs fill the seats and start winning they will move to Florida, he incorporates a different style of play into their game, led by the brutal, vicious, and utterly hilarious Hanson brothers (real-life brothers Jeff and Steve Carlson and their Johnstown Jets teammate Dave Hanson), who never met an opponent they wouldn’t punch, trip, slash, spear, or slam face-first into the boards well after the whistle. Even Dunlop gets in on the fun, throwing his share of right hands. The only player not participating in the hijinks is Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean), who believes in sportsmanship and a more gentlemanly game of skill and beauty, not exactly what men like Ogie Oglethorpe (minor-league player Ned Dowd, whose sister, Nancy, wrote the book that the movie is based on, inspired by the real-life antics of the Johnstown Jets) have in mind. You don’t have to be a hockey fan to love Slap Shot, which is really, when it comes right down to it, just a little film about the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Slap Shot is screening July 29 & 31 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image’s tribute to Paul Newman, which continues July 30 with Torn Curtain (Alfred Hitchcock, 1966), July 30-31 with Hombre (Martin Ritt, 1967), and August 6-7 with Nobody’s Fool (Robert Benton, 1994) and Twilight (Robert Benton, 1998).

CHELSEA ART WALK 2011

Bernardi Roig will help light up the night at Claire Olive as Chelsea opens its galleries late on Thursday, with many special events (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations in Chelsea
Thursday, July 28, free, 5:00 – 8:00
www.artwalkchelsea.com

Tonight dozens of Chelsea galleries will stay open late, with many featuring artist and curator talks, exhibition walk-throughs, film screenings, live performances, and other special events. Scott Ogden will guide visitors through his “Twisted” show at Ricco Maresca, Faith Ringgold will be signing books at ACA Galleries, Claire Oliver will host an opening reception for “The Devil Can Cite Scripture” (with works by Judith Schaechter and Bernardi Roig), Porter/Contemporary lets visitors get in the picture for “A Polaroid Moment Within a Portrait Apart” with Jeff Ballinger, Horton Gallery will screen Miroslav Tichý: Tarzan Retired, and Mark Wagner will cut up dollar bills and give the pieces away at Pavel Zoubok. You can also play Ping-Pong at Nicholas Robinson, get shaved ice at Jenkins Johnson, and check out concerts by Autodrone at Monya Rowe, Genevieve White at Freight + Volume, and an acoustic show at RARE from a mystery group, among myriad other activities. A two-sided guide to the second annual Chelsea Art Walk can be found here.

MOUNTAIN MAN / BOBBY

Mountain Man will be at the Mercury Lounge tonight with BOBBY

Mercury Lounge
217 East Houston St.
Thursday, July 28, $12, 9:30
www.mercuryloungenyc.com
www.myspace.com/mountainmansquint
www.myspace.com/sickmilk

Mountain Man is not quite what you might expect. Instead of some country blues outfit, Mountain Man is an acoustic folkie trio consisting of Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, and Amelia Randall Meath, who favor quiet, introspective, harmony-based tunes, as evidenced by their debut album, Made the Harbor, which features such lilting songs as “Animal Tracks” and “Soft Skin,” and the new Live at the Wiltern (Partisan, July 2011). They’ll be at the Mercury Lounge on Thursday night with BOBBY, an oddball grindcore group based in Montague, Massachuestts, made up of Tom Greenberg, Martin Zimmerman (Chunk), Paolo Menuez (Pillow), Julian Labat (Crumbles), Roby Moulton (Moldy), and Mountain Man’s Sarle, combining offbeat instrumentation with changing melodies on such tunes as “Sore Spores” and “If It’s Dead Outside” from their eponymous debut (Partisan, June 2011).

MASTER CLASS: STEVE JAMES

NO CROSSOVER: THE TRIAL OF ALLEN IVERSON kicks off Master Class series with Steve James at the Maysles Institute

Maysles Institute
343 Malcolm X Blvd. between 127th & 128th Sts.
July 28 – August 4, suggested donation $10, 7:30
212-582-6050
www.mayslesinstitute.org

Award-winning director, producer, and editor Steve James has made some of the most fascinating, entertaining, and important documentaries of the past twenty years, delving into the American psyche through sports, death row, and inner-city violence. The Maysles Institute will be celebrating the release of his latest film, The Interrupters, a powerful examination of gang violence in Chicago, with Master Class, a series curated by Sylvia Savadjian that begins Thursday night with a screening of James’s No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson, a look back at a major event in the basketball superstar’s youth that took place in James’s own hometown of Hampton, Virginia. The film screens at 7:30 and will be followed by a Q&A and reception with James. On Friday night, the instant classic Hoop Dreams will be shown, a seminal work that follows the dreams of two high school athletes, William Gates and Arthur Agee, seeking to make it big in the NBA. The series continues August 4 with James and Peter Gilbert’s At the Death House Door and August 5-11 with The Interrupters; look for our rave reviews of both coming soon.

LOWDOWN HUDSON BLUES FESTIVAL

Taj Mahal will bring the blues to World Financial Center Plaza as part of three-day free festival

World Financial Center Plaza
220 Vesey St.
Thursday, July 28, and Friday, July 29, 6:00 – 9:30, and Saturday, July 30, 1:00 – 6:30
Admission: free
212-417-7050
www.artsworldfinancialcenter.com

As temperatures soar skyward, cool, free music is always a mainstay of summertime in New York City. Some legendary acts are on tap at the inaugural Lowdown Hudson Blues Festival, a three-day cavalcade of blues-infused live performance taking place downtown at World Financial Center Plaza, under the stars (and sun) along the river. The festival kicks off at 6:00 on Thursday with an evening featuring former Stevie Ray Vaughan sideman Mike Farris and his Roseland Rhythm Revue, Memphis singer/songwriter/upright bassist Amy LaVere, and culminating with a rare, free New York appearance by the ageless Taj Mahal, a performer for whom the term “legend” might seem almost desultory. Over his forty-plus year career, the Harlem-born Mahal has explored and expanded the boundaries of both acoustic and electric folk, blues, and world music. He’ll be performing here with his trio, consisting of Kester Smith on drums and Bill Rich on bass. Friday night presents another bill that promises to deliver on the “Lowdown” theme, highlighted by a collaboration between legendary genre-shredding guitarist James Blood Ulmer and string-shredding Black Rock Coalition founder Vernon Reid. Ulmer’s experiments in harmolodics and avant-garde jazz and Reid’s background in such bands as Living Colour should combine for an inquisitive spin on the blues they both revere. Ulmer is touring with the reunited Memphis Blood Blues, with whom he recorded The Sun Sessions album ten years ago. Toronto outfit the Beauties and California band the Growlers will open the show. The festival concludes Saturday with an afternoon slate comprising a bevy of blues-and-other acts. The day’s performers include New Orleans piano-legend-in-the-making Henry Butler, Steve Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra, local bluegrass-oriented Citigrass, Georgia soul singer Ryan Shaw, Blues Project cofounder Danny Kalb, and polymath minstrels Hazmat Modine. Overall, an amazingly diverse array of blues-oriented acts will be appearing over the three-day extravaganza, which should be one of the season’s musical highlights.