Rosie Flores, the Rockabilly Filly, has been making sweet music for nearly five decades, since she was a teenage punk, but she still felt she had something to prove on her latest record, Working Girl’s Guitar (Bloodshot, October 2012). “This world’s a noisy place / Politicians in your face / So I don’t have a choice / I gotta raise my voice / I won’t apologize / for rockin’ through the night / Shoot my rhythm to the crowd / I’m little but I’m loud,” the sixty-two-year-old lifelong Texan declares on the album, on which she plays all the guitar parts in a determined effort to show off her impressive skills, which date back to her time as leader of Rosie and the Screamers and the Screamin’ Sirens. Incorporating infectious surf, rockabilly, pop, rock, country, folk, and blues, Flores mixes original numbers with such covers as the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” Elvis Presley’s “Too Much,” and Janis Martin’s “Drugstore Rock and Roll” and is joined by 1960s pop star Bobby Vee on “Love Must Have Passed Me By.” (Bobby’s son Tommy plays drums in Flores’s band.) On November 14, Flores will be at Mercury Lounge celebrating the release of Working Girl’s Guitar as well as paying tribute to one of her heroes, Martin, the “Female Elvis” who died five years ago at the age of sixty-seven. Flores, who coproduced Martin’s swan song, The Blanco Sessions (Cow Island, September 2012), will team up with opening act Marti Brom to perform several Martin tunes in addition to their own tunes.
Yearly Archives: 2012
THE VINYL BUS
The Beatles Mobile Pop-up Shop will make its way through Manhattan on Tuesday
THE BEATLES MOBILE POP-UP SHOP
Multiple locations
Tuesday, November 13
www.thebeatles.com
We grew up listening to John, Paul, George, and Ringo on something called LPs, vinyl records that were placed on a turntable and spun around a spindle at 33⅓ revolutions per minute. We could even play these black mono discs backward, which on such records as The Beatles (aka The White Album) provided clues to a mystery about one of these Liverpudlian moptops’ possible early death. Big deals were made when their music first came out on CD and, more recently, became available on iTunes, but now we’re going back to the basics, as fourteen of the once-in-a-lifetime group’s albums — including such classics as With the Beatles, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, a Hard Day’s Night, Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, Let It Be, The Beatles, and Help! — are being released on 180g heavyweight vinyl in the remastered stereo versions as well as a deluxe limited edition box set. To celebrate the event, a double-decker bus will be traveling through New York City on November 13 selling copies of the records and more, making stops at Seventh Ave. and Fiftieth St. at 9:30, 550 Broadway between Prince and Spring Sts. at 12 noon, and 160 Broadway in the Financial District at 2:30. In addition, In Living Stereo on Great Jones St. will be hosting a listening party for the new records on December 5 at 7:00. Be sure to step right up to this magical mystery tour, which is dying to take you away to experience what will always be the greatest band in rock-and-roll history. (For those of you kids out there, we mean John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.)
THE HEIRESS
Jessica Chastain and Dan Stevens make their Broadway debuts as Catherine and Morris in THE HEIRESS (photo by Joan Marcus)
Walter Kerr Theatre
219 West 48th St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Through February 10, $50 – $225
www.theheiressonbroadway.com
A star vehicle onstage and on the silver screen, Ruth and Augustus Goetz’s The Heiress, an adaptation of Henry James’s slim 1880 novel Washington Square, is set in 1850 New York City, where prominent society member Dr. Austin Sloper lives with his daughter, Catherine, a shy, awkward plain Jane he blames for the death of his beloved wife, who died in childbirth. Dr. Sloper asks his wife’s sister, Lavinia, to help Catherine break out of her shell, but he worries when a poor suitor named Morris Townsend comes calling, concerned that he’s really after his daughter’s rather substantial financial future. Over the years, the potent period drama has been performed by several all-star casts, with Wendy Hiller, Jane Alexander, Tony winner Cherry Jones, and Oscar winner Olivia de Havilland as Catherine, Basil Rathbone, Richard Kiley, Philip Bosco, and Ralph Richardson as Dr. Sloper, Peter Cookson, David Selby, Jon Tenney, and Montgomery Clift as Morris, and Patricia Collinge, Jan Miner, Tony winner Frances Sternhagen, and Miriam Hopkins as Aunt Lavinia.
Judith Ivey (right) steals the show in new production of THE HEIRESS starring Jessica Chastain (photo by Joan Marcus)
The latest incarnation, directed by Moisés Kaufman (The Laramie Project, 33 Variations), ends up being a mixed bag, with another big-time cast led by Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life, The Help) making her Broadway debut as Catherine, Oscar nominee David Strathairn (Goodnight, and Good Luck.) as her father, Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) in his Broadway debut as Morris, and multiple Tony winner Judith Ivey stealing the show as Lavinia. Taking place on a lush, elegant set by Derek McLane, the play is overly long at two hours and forty-five minutes with intermission, and Chastain’s portrayal of the mousey Catherine, who prefers to embroider rather than go out on the town, is somewhat dry and flat until it finally picks up steam late in the second act, when she finally decides to take action for herself. Strathairn is excellent as Dr. Sloper, a straightforward man who speaks candidly of his disappointment in Catherine, continually crushing her spirit. Stevens is solid as Morris, who professes his love for Catherine even after walking out on her, although the chemistry between Chastain and him never quite ignites. The play is most alive when Ivey is onstage, chattering away as Lavinia, her every movement and vocal twist a work of art, wearing fabulous black dresses that complement her niece’s more colorful gowns. All these years later, The Heiress is showing its age, but this new version still contains just enough memorable moments to make it worth revisiting.
DOC NYC — AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY
Ai Weiwei lets the camera follow him everywhere in revealing documentary about art and activism
NEW YORK’S DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL — AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY (Alison Klayman, 2011)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Tuesday, November 13, $16.50, 9:15
212-924-7771
www.docnyc.net
aiweiweineversorry.com
“I consider myself more of a chess player,” Ai Weiwei says at the beginning of Never Sorry, Alison Klayman’s revealing documentary about the larger-than-life Chinese artist and dissident. “My opponent makes a move, I make a move. Now I’m waiting for my opponent to make the next move.” Over the last several years, Ai has become perhaps the most famous and controversial artist in the world, primarily since he participated in the design of Beijing National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, for the 2008 Summer Olympics, then denounced the Games on political grounds. Ai gives director, producer, and cinematographer Klayman, making her first full-length film, remarkable access to his personal and professional life as he gets physically abused by Chinese police, prepares to open major exhibits in Munich and London, and visits with his young son, Ai Lao, the result of a tryst with Wang Fen, an editor on his underground films. Klayman speaks with Ai Weiwei’s devoted wife, Lu Qing, an artist who publicly fought for his freedom when he disappeared in 2011; his mother, Gao Ying, who spent time in a labor camp with her dissident-poet husband, the late Ai Quing; and such fellow Chinese artists and critics as Chen Danqing, Feng Boyi, Hsieh Tehching, and Gu Changwei, who speak admiringly of Ai’s dedication to his art and his fearless search for the truth. A round man with a long, graying bear, Ai is a fascinating, complicated character, a gentle bull who openly criticizes his country because he loves it so much. He is a social media giant, making documentaries that are available for free on the internet and revolutionizing the way Twitter and the blogosphere are used. Ai risks his own freedom by demanding freedom for all, calling for government transparency before and after he is secretly arrested, not afraid of the potential repercussions. And he is also a proud cat lover — more than forty felines regularly roam around his studio — eagerly showing off one talented kitty that has a unique way of opening a door. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry shows Ai to be an honorable, supremely principled human being who has deep respect for the history of China and a fierce determination to improve its future, no matter the personal cost. The film completed its extended run at the IFC Center on November 8, but it will have an encore screening there on November 13, with Klayman on hand, as part of the DOC NYC festival, a week of nonfiction screenings that also includes such works as Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi’s 5 Broken Cameras, with Michael Moore in attendance; Rob Fruchtman and Lisa Fruchtman’s Sweet Dreams, with the directors and special guests participating in a discussion; and Mary Kerr’s Radioman, with the iconic New York character there to talk about himself and the film.
(To find out more about Ai Weiwei’s art, specifically his recent projects in New York City, please follow these links: “Sunflower Seeds,” “Circle of Animals: Zodiac Heads,” “Ai Weiwei: New York Photographs 1983-1993,” and “1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei.”
DOC NYC: TURNING
Antony and the Johnsons and Charles Atlas celebrate sexual identity and personal freedom in beautifully poignant TURNING
NEW YORK’S DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL: TURNING (Charles Atlas, 2012)
SVA Theatre
333 West 23rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Sunday, November 11, $20, 9:30
www.docnyc.net
www.turningfilm.com
In 2004, musician and composer Antony Hegarty and film and video pioneer Charles Atlas premiered their multimedia collaboration, Turning, at the Whitney Biennial. The performance featured Antony and the Johnsons playing songs in front of a large screen on which Atlas projected live multiple images of a parade of “beauties” who one at a time slowly turned on a circular platform, standing tall and proud. The production went on an international tour, which Atlas and Antony document in a beautiful, intimate film version that is making its U.S. premiere November 11 as part of the DOC NYC festival before opening theatrically on November 16. Atlas, a former filmmaker-in-residence with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and director of the widely hailed The Legend of Leigh Bowery, takes viewers behind the scenes as the cast rehearses, puts on their costumes and makeup, gets pep talks from Antony, and opens up about their lives. Throughout the film, the women — Julia Yasuda, Catrina Delapena, Honey Dijon, Joie Iacono, Joey Gabriel, Kembra Pfahler, Nomi Ruiz, Stacey Mark, Johanna Constantine, Eliza Douglas, and Morisane Sunny Shiroma, who come from very different backgrounds and professional disciplines — share their poignant, emotional stories, addressing deeply personal issues of androgyny, transsexuality, and other aspects of sexual and gender identity. The soundtrack features Antony and the Johnsons — violinist Maxim Moston, cellist Julia Kent, bassist Jeff Langston, guitarist and violinist Rob Moose, drummer Parker Kindred, pianist Thomas Bartlett, horn player Christian Biegai, and accordionist Will Holshouser — performing such hauntingly evocative songs as “Everything Is New,” “For Today I Am a Buoy,” “Kiss My Name,” “Twilight,” and “Spiralling” as the women celebrate the freedom to be themselves in a defiant, public way. “Are you a boy / Are you a girl,” Antony, himself a former member of the underground avant-garde LGBT performance troupe Blacklips, repeats in “I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy.” In the subtly powerful Turning, such labels don’t matter as a group of women face their future with confidence and hope. Antony and Atlas will be in attendance at the November 11 screening at the SVA Theatre to talk about the film, which will be followed by a free after-party, open to the general public, at the Bowery Electric, highlighted by a live performance by Nomi.
TINDERBOX MUSIC FESTIVAL
Freak folksters CocoRosie are one of the headliners of the 2012 Tinderbox Music Festival at Webster Hall
Webster Hall
125 East 11th St. between Second & Third Aves.
Saturday, November 11, $25-$30, 1:00 – 12 midnight
www.websterhall.com
www.tinderboxmusicfestival.com
Perhaps more than any other recent election, this year’s presidential battle featured intense debate over who would do more for women. One event that has been doing a lot for women recently is the Tinderbox Music Festival, now in its third year of highlighting female artists and building a community where underserved high school girls can foster their musical and literary abilities. Founded by singer-songwriter Alyson Greenfield, Tinderbox is associated with the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, a nonprofit grass-roots organization whose mission is to “empower girls and women through music education, volunteerism, and activities that foster self-respect, leadership skills, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration,” as well as Girls Write Now, which concentrates on “mentoring the next generation of women writers.” This year’s festival, in which a portion of the proceeds will also go to New York Cares’ Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, takes place November 11 at Webster Hall, with more than three dozen female-fronted bands and solo performers from multiple genres playing on three stages for eleven hours. Among the highlights are indie favorite CocoRosie, the unpredictable Jean Grae, the hard-rocking Hard Nips, electro-popsters I Am Lightyear, experimental singer-songwriters Greenfield and Lili Haydn, pop-rockers jENNiNGS, and such other acts as Charlene Kaye & the Brilliant Eyes, Computer Magic, Ducky, Michelle Citrin, Shuteye, Likwuid, Vagina Panther, and Pink Veins, representing Willie Mae. Don’t be surprised if the phrase “binders full of women” shows up more than a few times.
DOC NYC: DAVID BROMBERG UNSUNG TREASURE
David Bromberg talks about his life and sings the blues in illuminating new documentary
NEW YORK’S DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL: DAVID BROMBERG UNSUNG TREASURE (Beth Toni Kruvant, 2012)
SVA Theatre
333 West 23rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Sunday, November 11, $16.50, 4:45
www.docnyc.net
www.goodfootageproductions.com
The delightful new documentary David Bromberg Unsung Treasure sings the well-deserved praises of a rather unusual character — a white, Jewish bluesman from ritzy Tarrytown, New York. For more than forty years, masterful guitarist and songwriter David Bromberg has been singing his entertaining brand of the blues and bluegrass, either solo, with his Big Band, or with the Angel Band. A consummate musician, engaging raconteur, and outstanding live performer, he trained with the Rev. Gary Davis before going on to play with such superstars as Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, George Harrison, Jerry Jeff Walker, and a litany of others. A big man with an ever-present beard, mustache, and glasses, Bromberg is an utterly charming figure, speaking honestly and openly about his life and career, often mentioning how deeply he was affected by the way he was raised and how that helped instill the blues in him. Beth Toni Kruvant (The Right to Be Wrong, Heart of Stone) traces his early years through wonderful archival footage and old photographs, then delves into his departure from playing music in the late 1980s and 1990s, when he and his wife, singer Nancy Josephson, moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where he established a well-respected violin-making business and worked tirelessly to help resuscitate the city. But in 2007, Bromberg began a comeback with the solo record Try Me One More Time, followed last year by Use Me, featuring collaborations with a diverse group of musicians, including Vince Gill, Dr. John, and Keb’ Mo’, who appear in the film and talk about the affable, engaging Bromberg with great affection. Unsung Treasure is indeed about an American unsung treasure, a gregarious, giving, and humble man who plays the blues like nobody’s business.
David Bromberg Unsung Treasure is screening November 11 at 4:45 at the SVA Theatre, with Kruvant and Bromberg in attendance, as part of DOC NYC, a weeklong celebration of nonfiction film at SVA and the IFC Center comprising more than seventy documentaries, along with panel discussions and master classes. Among the other music films are Artifact, about Jared Leto’s band, Thirty Seconds to Mars, and their battle with their record label; Drew DeNicola & Olivia Mori’s Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, with Big Star member Jody Stephens on hand to talk about the highly influential band with the film’s directors and producer as well as record producer John Fry; Greg Whiteley’s New York Doll, about punk bassist turned Mormon librarian Arthur “Killer” Kane; and Andy Grieve and Lauren Lazin’s Can’t Stand Losing You, a look at the life and career of Police drummer Andy Summers, with Summers, Grieve, and producer Norman Golightly participating in a discussion.