Yearly Archives: 2012

BLUE NOTE JAZZ FESTIVAL

The legendary Jimmy Scott will be part of the second annual Blue Note Jazz Festival this month (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The Blue Note, 131 West Third St., 212-475-8592
Highline Ballroom, 431 West 16th St.
B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42nd St., 212-997-4144
June 1-30
www.bluenotejazzfestival.com

Last year, the Blue Note celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with the inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival. The musical celebration is back June 10-30, with more than fifty shows at various New York City venues. Things take off in a big way on June 10, with Kate Davis playing the Blue Note Brunch, the Harlem Gospel Choir hosting its regular Sunday brunch at the B.B. King Blues Club, Béla Fleck and the Marcus Roberts Trio at the Blue Note, and Curumin and Céu at the Highline Ballroom. Among the plethora of exciting highlights are the Legendary Jimmy Scott at the Blue Note on June 11, Savion Glover with such special guests as McCoy Tyner, Jack DeJohnette, and Roy Haynes at the Blue Note June 12-17, Bootsy Collins at B.B. King’s on June 13, Little Richard at B.B.’s and Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) at the Apollo Theater on June 14 [ed. note: The Yasiin Bey show has been moved to October 28], Kathleen Battle with Cyrus Chestnut at the Blue Note June 19, Toshi Reagon & Allison Miller Present “Celebrate! The Great Women of Blues and Jazz” at the Highline Ballroom on June 21, Africa/Brass: McCoy Tyner & Charles Tolliver Big Band at the Blue Note June 21-24, the Rolling Stones Project ft Tim Ries with Bernard Fowler & Darryl Jones of the Rolling Stones at the Highline on June 22, An Evening with Leon Redbone at the Abrons Arts Center on June 23, Stanley Clarke & George Duke at B.B. King’s on June 26, Meshell Ndegeocello at the Highline on June 28, Cassandra Wilson at the Blue Note June 28-30, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars at the Highline on June 29, and the Adam Deitch Project closing things out as part of the Blue Note’s Late Night Groove Series on June 30.

EGG ROLLS & EGG CREAMS FESTIVAL ’12

Annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams fest flies into the Lower East Side on June 10

Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge St. between Canal & Division Sts.
Sunday, June 10, 12 noon – 4:00 pm
Admission: free
212-219-0302
www.eldridgestreet.org

The twelfth annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams block party will bring together the Jewish and Chinese communities of the Lower East Side on June 10 for what is always a fun day of food and drink, live music and dance, history, culture, and lots more. Among the highlights of the festival are the kosher egg creams and egg rolls, yarmulke and challah workshops, tea ceremonies, a genealogy clinic, Yiddish and Chinese lessons, Hebrew and Chinese calligraphy classes, mah jongg, cantorial songs, Jewish paper cutting and Chinese paper folding, face painting, and free tours (in English and Chinese) of the wonderfully renovated Eldridge St. Synagogue, which now boasts the East Window designed by Kiki Smith and Deborah Gans. In past years, the festival has included performances by the Chinatown Senior Center Folk Orchestra, Qi Shu Fang’s Peking Opera, the Shashmaqam Bukharan Jewish Cultural Group, Ray Muziker Klezmer Ensemble, and Cantor Eric Freeman, some of whom will be back again for this year’s multicultural party.

THE PRUITT-IGOE MYTH

Fascinating documentary tells the real story behind the rise and fall of iconic housing project in St. Louis

THE PRUITT-IGOE MYTH: AN URBAN HISTORY (Chad Freidrichs, 2011)
BAMcinématek
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Monday, June 11, free, 6:50
212-415-5500
www.bam.org
www.pruitt-igoe.com

In 1954, the St. Louis Housing Authority completed a massive urban renewal project, Pruitt-Igoe, a thirty-three-building complex for low-income families that was like a city unto itself. Eighteen years later, mired in crime, violence, poverty, and horrifically unsanitary and unsafe conditions, Pruitt-Igoe was torn down, the implosion famously being shown on news channels around the country as an example of the failure of public policy planning. The short, contentious history of Pruitt-Igoe is explored in the revealing documentary The Pruitt-Igoe Myth. Director Chad Freidrichs (Jandek on Corwood, First Impersonator) revisits Pruitt-Igoe through archival footage, new interviews, and a drive past the site where the iconic housing development, designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, once stood, revealing the fascinating story of what was first a symbol of the post-WWII boom and then a prime example of the nation’s financial and racial problems of the 1970s. “It was like an oasis in the desert,” Ruby Russell remembers. “I never thought I would live in that kind of a surrounding.” But Brian King, who spent his childhood there, sees it a little differently. “It was hell on earth,” he says. Freidrichs speaks with urban historians Robert Fishman and Joseph Heathcott, sociologist Joyce Ladner, and former residents as they chronologically follow the rise and fall of “the poor man’s penthouse.” Narrated by actor Jason Henry, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth tells a shameful chapter in American history, one that should still be used today as a blueprint on what not to do. “It seemed to me that we were being penalized for being poor,” says former resident Jacqueline Williams. “That caused so much anger.” Named Best Documentary at several festivals and winner of the American Historical Association’s John E. O’Connor Film Award, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is screening for free at BAMcinématek on June 11 at 6:50, followed by a panel discussion with Freidrichs and urban housing and development experts.

BIG APPLE BARBECUE BLOCK PARTY

Jon Langford will kick off the musical festivities at the tenth annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Madison Square Park
23rd to 26th Sts. between Fifth & Madison Aves.
Saturday, June 9, and Sunday, June 10, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Admission: free; $8 per plate of barbecue, $4 per dessert
www.bigapplebbq.org
www.madisonsquarepark.org

The weather is not looking great for the first day of the tenth annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, but maybe that will help cut down on the ridiculously long lines that surround Madison Square Park. This year’s menu features baby back ribs from Mike Mills (Las Vegas), western Tennessee-style whole hog from Patrick Martin (Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint in Nashville), pulled pork shoulder from Garry Roark (Ubon’s Barbecue in Yazoo City), St. Louis-style ribs and fried pies from Joe Duncan (Baker’s Ribs in Dallas), beef brisket and sausage from Scott Roberts (Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, Texas), whole hog from Ed Mitchell (Raleigh), smoked sausage from Drew Robinson (Jim ’N Nick’s Bar-B-Q in Birmingham), pulled pork shoulder from Chris Lilly (Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q in Decatur, Alabama), beef brisket from Myron Mixon (Jack’s Old South in Unadilla, Georgia), whole hog from Rodney Scott (Scott’s Bar-B-Que in Hemingway, South Carolina), St. Louis-style ribs from Tommy Houston (Checkered Pig in Danville, Virginia), pulled pork shoulder from Jimmy Hagood (BlackJack Barbecue in Charleston), baby back ribs from Mike Emerson (Pappy’s Smokehouse in St. Louis), and ’cue from New York City joints Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, Blue Smoke, Hill Country, and Rack & Soul. The excellent music lineup begins with the Mekons’ Jon Langford on Saturday at 1:00, followed by JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound at 2:45 and Southern Culture on the Skids at 4:30 (check out our interview with SCOTS here); on Sunday, Roadside Graves takes the stage at 1:00, the Revelations featuring Tre Williams at 2:45, and Alejandro Escovedo and the Sensitive Boys at 4:30. Among the seminars, workshops, demonstrations, and film screenings are “Easy Ideas for Summer Staples” with Allie Lewis Clapp and Dawn Perry, “Signature Southern Dishes” with Norman King, “Ready, Set, Grill” with Billy Strynkowski, and “The Oyster Is Our World” with Chris Hastings. As always, our advice is to go with a large group of people, split up and wait on various different lines to get a wide range of food, then meet up at the music tent and enjoy.

SLEEP NO MORE

SLEEP NO MORE is finally coming to the end of its long run at the McKittrick Hotel (photo by Thom Kaine)

McKittrick Hotel
530 West 27th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Monday – Saturday, ongoing
866-811-4111
www.sleepnomorenyc.com

The less you know about Punchdrunk’s dazzling production, Sleep No More, the better, but one thing you do need to know about this runaway success is that tickets continue to sell fast. Sleep No More takes place at the long-abandoned McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea, where guests are given masks and then left to wander on their own through the myriad rooms of the mysterious warehouse space, a different story going on behind every door and down each hallway. Don’t look for a linear narrative, although there are elements of Shakespeare’s Macbeth scattered about. Many of the rooms contain notebooks, diaries, postcards, letters, medical texts, and other paraphernalia that point toward the McKittrick, which was built in 1939 but shut down shortly thereafter, having been the site for some very questionable scientific experimentation, but don’t get too lost in that either. There are several ways to proceed through this spectacularly immersive theatrical experience; while some visitors prefer to go from room to room and floor to floor more or less in order, others select a character and follow him or her as they meet up with other characters, pause in a room to offer more personal hints at what’s going on, or coax a guest behind closed doors. Although we strongly suggest you get the early tickets and stay the entire three hours, you still won’t see everything, but don’t worry about that. Just catch what you can and let yourself get swept up in all the action, which includes contemporary dance, fighting, a bloody bath, detective work, interrogation, poisoning, nightclub performances, a fab dinner party, and virtually no dialogue. Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett and choreographer Maxine Doyle’s lighting, Barrett, Livi Vaughan, and Beatrice Minns’s sets, and Stephen Dobbie’s sound design combine to create a dark, spooky mood that is exhilarating and intoxicating. And the more you put into it, the more you get out of it; be adventurous, wear comfortable shoes, and try not to bring a bag, backpack, or coat, because everything needs to be checked. Advance reservations are a must and are scheduled every fifteen minutes between 7:30 and 8:30 Monday through Thursday and 7:00 to 8:00 and 11:00 to midnight on Friday and Saturday. A collaboration between Punchrunk and Emursive, Sleep No More was a hit in London and Boston before becoming New York City’s must-see theatrical event. [Ed. note: Sleep No More has been extended indefinitely as of fall 2014.]

SPAGHETTI WESTERNS: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Clint Eastwood is the Good in classic Sergio Leone operatic oater

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Sergio Leone, 1966)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
June 9, 10, 12, 21
Series runs through June 21
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org

One of the all-time-great spaghetti Westerns, Sergio Leone’s dusty three-hour operatic oater stars Clint Eastwood as the Good (Blondie), Lee Van Cleef as the Bad (Angel Eyes), and Eli Wallach as the Ugly (Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez, whose list of criminal offenses is a riot), three unique individuals after $200,000 in Confederate gold buried in a cemetery in the middle of nowhere. Nearly 20 minutes of never-before-seen footage added to the film several years ago, with Wallach and Eastwood overdubbing brand-new dialogue, so if you haven’t seen it in a while, it might just be time to catch it again, this time on the big screen as part of Film Forum’s impressive “Spaghetti Westerns” series. Ennio Morricone’s unforgettable score and Torino delli Colli’s gorgeous widescreen cinematography were also marvelously enhanced; their work in the scene when Tuco first comes upon the graveyard will make you dizzy with delight. And then comes one of the greatest finales in cinema history. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is screening at Film Forum on June 9, 10, 12, and 21, with the series continuing with such well-known classics and under-the-radar gems as Damiano Damiani’s A Bullet for the General, Giulio Petroni’s Death Rides a Horse, Monte Hellman’s China 9, Liberty 37, and Giulio Questi’s Django Kill . . . If You Live, Shoot!

PATAGONIA RISING

PATAGONIA RISING examines the fight against a major dam project in Chile

Patagonia Rising (Brian Lilla, 2011)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, June 8
212-924-3363
www.cinemavillage.com
patagoniarising.com

For generations, gauchos have been roaming through southern Chile, living off the land along the Baker and Pascua Rivers. But the lifestyle of these South American cowboys, as well as their surrounding environment, is being threatened by the potential construction of five dams along the two rivers. In Patagonia Rising, filmmaker Brian Lilla examines the hard-fought battle currently going on between the ranchers and farmers and hidroAysén, the global corporation behind the massive project. Lilla (Tale of Two Bondage Models, Ghetto Fabulous) speaks to such families as the Sanchezes, the Sandovals, and the Arratias, whose livelihoods and culture are being threatened; glaciologists who point out the environmental damage the dams can cause, especially given the climate change that is wreaking havoc in Patagonia; a hidroAysén general manager who explains that the project will bring much-needed energy resources to Chile while also being environmentally sound and sustainable; and other scientific experts and activists, as well as a few gauchos who are in favor of the dams. Patagonia Rising features beautiful shots of the region, but they are carefully situated to play on viewers’ sympathies in a mostly one-sided documentary earnestly narrated with a lack of authority by Carla Wilkins. The film comes off as a sounding board for the anti-dam movement, but it still raises important points about the future of the area and the possibility of developing alternative energy sources that would be more friendly to the land and its inhabitants.