this week in literature

BROOKLYN COMICS AND GRAPHICS FESTIVAL

brooklyncomics

Our Lady of Conservation Church, 194 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Bedford Ave., 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Secret Project Robot, 128 River St. at Metropolitan Ave., 1:00 – 6:00 pm
Death by Audio, 49 South Second St. between Kent & Wythe, 9:00 – ?
Saturday, December 5, free
www.comicsandgraphicsfest.com

Many of the finest practitioners of the graphic novel will be on hand for what looks to be quite the excellent free three-part festival in Williamsburg today. The stellar lineup of guest artists includes Charles Burns, Dash Shaw, R. Sikoryak, Kim Deitch, Gary Panter, Adrian Tomine, and more than a dozen others, along with such exhibitors as Drawn & Quarterly, Le Dernier Cri, Nieves, House of Twelve, the collective Uninhabitable Mansions, and many more. Exhibitors and signings will take place at Our Lady of Conservation Church, with the exact schedule available at the above Web Site. Five panel discussions will be held down the street at Secret Project Robot every hour beginning at 1:00, including the great Ben Katchor talking about the great JULIUS KNIPL, REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHER and THE JEW OF NEW YORK, as well as his other works that chronicle old-time city life, at 3:00, followed by Bill Kartolopoulus moderating “Flatlands: Comics on the Picture Plane” with Lisa Hanawalt, Mark Newgarden, Ron Regé Jr., and David Sandlin. The fest concludes at Death by Audio, with live performances by such artists and bands as Kites, Ambergris, Sam Gas Can, Boogie Boarder, Nick Gazin, Graffiti Monsters, and Dubbknowdubb.

FIRST SATURDAYS: LIGHT UP THE SEASON

James Tissot, detail, “Jesus Goes Up Alone onto a Mountain to Pray,” opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, 1886−94

Brooklyn Museum of Art
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, December 5, free after 5:00 (some events require advance free tickets available an hour or two before showtime)
718-638-5000
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum’s monthly First Saturdays program welcomes in the holiday season with a flurry of free activity tonight, much of which surrounds the James Tissot exhibition “The Life of Christ,” including a rare screening of LA VIE DU CHRIST (THE LIFE OF CHRIST) (Alice Guy Blaché, 1906), a concert of liturgic music by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and a Young Voices gallery talk about the Tissot show. In addition, Pete Fornatale will discuss his new book, BACK TO THE GARDEN: THE STORY OF WOODSTOCK, in conjunction with the “Who Shot Rock & Roll” photography exhibit; there will be live performances by a trio of Dutch groups, Michael Varekamp’s Caribbean jazz ensemble, EveNi, and Lee-Ursus Alexander, in honor of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s travels to New York; the Hands-On Art workshop will teach participants how to make a stained-glass window; Beatlemania continues with a screening of Richard Lester’s 1964 classic comedy A HARD DAY’S NIGHT; and Soul Summit hosts the hot and sweaty dance party. There really is nothing quite like First Saturdays, an energizing mix of art, music, film, literature, dance, and more, held the first Saturday of every month to an ever-growing crowd.

JEREMY WADE: THERE IS NO END TO MORE

Jeremy Wade presents multimedia production at Japan Society this weekend (illustration © Hiroki Otsuka)

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
December 3-5, $20, 7:30
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Continuing its “Japan Transatlantic: Tokio-Berlin” performing arts series, the Japan Society will present the world premiere of the specially commissioned THERE IS NO END TO MORE by American choreographer Jeremy Wade this weekend. Wade, who won a Bessie Award for his 2006 DTW show, GLORY, combines text, animation, and manga video in this new multimedia production that cynically examines Japanese kawaii culture. Wade, who is currently based in Berlin, is the director and cowriter, with Marcos Rosales, of THERE IS NO END TO MORE, which will be performed by Jared Gradinger and features music by Brendan Dougherty, sets by architects Katja Mitte and Henning Ströh, and animation and video by Hiroki Otsuka.

TED RALL

yearofloving

THE YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY (NBM, October 15, 2009, $18.95)
MoCCA Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
594 Broadway, suite 401
Thursday, December 3, $5, 7:00 pm
212-254-3511
www.moccany.org
www.nbmpub.com

In the summer of 1984, Columbia student Ted Rall suddenly found himself with no money and no place to live. To survive, he went on an unending quest using the only thing he apparently had left – his sex appeal. Going to bars, protest events, parties, the dorms, and anywhere else women might be, he hooked up primarily to have a place to sleep. Rall, who has published such successful politically driven works as THE SILK ROAD TO RUIN and TO AFGHANISTAN AND BACK, tells his compelling personal story in the excellent graphic novel THE YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY, which features fab full-color illustrations by Pablo G. Callejo (BLUESMAN). Throughout the story, Rall does not portray himself as some hot stud muffin hopping from bed to bed with reckless abandon, a master conqueror of women; instead, he merely goes with the flow, doing his best to be at least a little considerate until things start getting a bit out of hand. In his foreword, Rall writes that the book “is a chronicle of desperation, of how easy it is for anyone – even a white male attending an Ivy League school – to fall off the merry-go-round of U.S.-style laissez faire capitalism.” And to put it all in proper perspective, the Happy Hooker herself, Xaviera Hollander, contributes an introduction. Rall will be discussing his “annus horribilis” and signing copies of the book at MoCCA on December 3 at 7:00.

ART AND LITERATURE

Salman Rushdie will participate in special presentation at the Cooper Union on December 1

GREAT EVENING IN THE GREAT HALL
The Great Hall at the Cooper Union
7 East Seventh St. at Astor Pl.
Tuesday, December 1, free, 6:30
212-353-4195
www.cooper.edu/month.html

The Cooper Union’s 150th anniversary celebration continues with a special free evening of art and literature with an all-star lineup. Writers Tony Kushner, Salman Rushdie, and Siri Hustvedt will read from their own works, while Isaiah Sheffer and Olympia Dukakis will read selections from W. H. Auden and Mark Twain. Dynamic vocalist Capathia Jenkins and guitarist Louis Rosen, who have set music to poems by Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, and Maya Angelou, will also perform. The exquisite evening will be directed by Michael Unger.

I SLEPT WITH JOEY RAMONE

Leigh and McNeil will discuss Joey Ramone in B&N conversation on December 1

MICKEY LEIGH / LEGS McNEIL
Barnes & Noble TriBeCa
97 Warren St.
Tuesday, December 1, free, 7:00
212-587-5389
www.books.simonandschuster.com
www.store-locator.barnesandnoble.com

No, I SLEPT WITH JOEY RAMONE (Touchstone, December 1, 2009, $26) is not a juicy tell-all about the late, beloved leader of punk progenitors the Ramones. Instead, it’s an intimate family memoir written by Jeffry Hyman’s brother, Mickey Leigh, with the legendary Legs McNeil. “Jeff was as happy a kid as you could find in Forest Hills in the 1950s: rolling down the grassy hills laughing; standing up, spinning round and round in circles with his long gangly arm outstretched; then falling over like a drunken monkey,” Leigh writes in the first chapter, “I Slept with Joey Ramone – and His Mother Too!” He continues, “Jeff would coax me to join him but warned, ‘Don’t throw up on me.’ I did both of the above.” The book includes an eight-page black-and-white insert of photos dating back to 1952 and even showing Joey with McNeil back in the day, with Ramone reading a TWILIGHT ZONE book and Legs delving into a copy of Billboard. Leigh and McNeil will be sharing their memories of Joey and talking about the book at the TriBeCa B&N on December 1 at 7:00.

THE RED BOOK DIALOGUES

C.G. Jung (1875-1961); Page 105 from the Red Book; 1914-1930; Pigments on paper; Courtesy of the Foundation of the Works of C.G. Jung

C. G. Jung, page 105 from THE RED BOOK, pigments on paper, 1914-30 (courtesy of the Foundation of the Works of C. G. Jung)

Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Tickets: $15-$25 ($7 student rate for some programs)
Through January 24
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org/redbook

In conjunction with the intriguing exhibit “The Red Book of C. G. Jung,” the Rubin Museum is continuing its special Red Book Dialogues series, as artists of all kinds sit down with psychoanalysts and discuss a specific folio from Jung’s unpublished tome, which is on view in the gallery right outside the auditorium. The series has already featured programs with Gloria Vanderbilt, Albert Maysles, Alice Walker, and David Byrne; up next are such figures as performance artist Marina Abramovic on December 3, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik on December 7, theater director Andre Gregory on December 9, filmmaker Jonathan Demme on January 11, composer John Adams on January 13, and poet Tracy K. Smith on January 24.