twi-ny recommended events

BJORK: BIOPHILIA LIVE

Björk brings together music, nature, and technology in captivating ways in multimedia BIOPHILIA Live

Roseland Ballroom
239 West 52nd St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Monday, March 5, $75-$150
212-247-0200
www.roselandballroom.com
www.bjork.com

On Monday, March 5, Björk Guðmundsdóttir concludes a monthlong New York City residency that began with five shows at the New York Hall of Science, along with an educational program for children, followed by five more at the Roseland Ballroom. Melding together music, nature, and technology, Björk’s latest project, Biophilia, is a fascinating journey into art and science, a thrilling multimedia trip that travels from deep inside the human body into the vast cosmos and beyond. “The reason why Biophilia is on such a grand scale is that I can’t even attempt to explain sound and the world of rhythm and scales without looking into the solar system and atoms,” the forty-six-year-old former leader of the Icelandic band the Sugarcubes explains in the concert program. “For me that’s sort of the same world.” “Biophilia Live” is a captivating ninety-minute production that features all of the new album in addition to some older Björk favorites. Each of the Biophilia songs is introduced by the recorded voice of Sir David Attenborough and accompanied by animated videos projected from the innovative app onto eight two-sided screens hanging in a circle above the performers: Björk, percussionist Manu Delago, electronics master Matt Robertson, harpist Zeena Parkins, and the twenty-woman Icelandic chorus Graduale Nobili.

At Roseland, the stage has been moved to the center of the dance floor, and fans either sit or stand on all four sides, making for an involving and intimate experience. “My romantic genes is dominant / And it hungers for union / Universal intimacy / All embracing,” Björk sings on “Thunderbolt,” the opening track from Biophilia, and that’s exactly what she achieves in the show, an embracing intimacy that features a bevy of offbeat and unusual instruments, some adapted and/or invented specifically for Biophilia, from a gravity harp and a gameleste to a hang and a Tesla coil that turns electric bolts into sound. “To risk all is the end all and the beginning all,” she adds on “Moon,” as the show moves from the Big Bang far out into the future. Wearing a freaky reddish orange wig, elevator shoes, and a deep blue polyester sheath wildly padded at chest and hips, Björk uses all four sides of the stage, and the obvious fun she’s having spreads throughout the energized crowd. She playfully tosses in a few older songs, including Vespertine’s “Hidden Place” and its B-side, “Generous Palmstroke,” before going full-out for the encores, which on February 28 began with 1995’s dreamlike “Possibly Maybe,” then turned Roseland into a dance rave, closing the show with rollicking versions of 2008’s “Náttúra” and “Declare Independence” that had everyone up and grooving. If you can, grab the general admission side-stage seating and arrive early to get in the first row, which offers a spectacular view, the best seats we have ever had for a concert.

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS

The final draft of George Washington’s 1796 farewell address is among the many amazing artifacts in NYPL exhibit (photo by Jonathan Blanc/New York Public Library)

New York Public Library
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Gottesman Exhibition Hall
Fifth Ave. at 41st St.
Through Sunday, March 4, free, 1:00 – 5:00
www.nypl.org

Today is your last chance to catch the New York Public Library exhibit “Celebrating 100 Years,” featuring a treasure trove of more than 250 items of literary paraphernalia. Divided into Observation, Contemplation, Creativity, and Society, the display honors the centennial of the landmark Beaux-Arts building on Fifth Ave. between 40th & 42nd Sts., built by Carrère and Hastings and dedicated by President William Howard Taft in 1911. Curated by Thomas Mellins, “Celebrating 100 Years” includes a bevy of fascinating memorabilia, from a Gutenberg Bible to a copy of Mein Kampf, from Jack Kerouac’s glasses and rolling paper to Charles Dickens’s letter opener, from a lock of Mary Shelley’s hair to Charlotte Brontë’s traveling writing desk, from Malcolm X’s briefcase and hat to Virginia Woolf’s walking stick and diary, showing a page she wrote just four days before her suicide. There are photographs, prints, and drawings by Diane Arbus, Man Ray, Faith Ringgold, Lewis Wickes Hine, Otto Dix, Francisco Goya, and Vik Muniz, marked-up manuscripts, speeches, and scores from Jorge Luis Borges, George Washington, Ernest Hemingway, John Coltrane, and T. S. Eliot, a copy of “The Star-Spangled Banner” with a bad typo, letters from Pablo Picasso, Harry Houdini, and Groucho Marx, and self-portraits by Kiki Smith, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Chuck Close, and Käthe Kollwitz. The exhibit, a kind of wonderful self-portrait of the library’s holdings, looks at the past, with cuneiforms dating back to the third century BCE, as well as aims forward, with a peek into their impressive digital archives.

MICHAEL SAILSTORFER: TORNADO

Michael Sailstorfer’s “Tornado” welcomes visitors to Central Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Scholars’ Gate, Doris C. Freedman Plaza
Central Park entrance, 60th St. & Fifth Ave.
Extended through April 1
646-862-0933
www.publicartfund.org
tornado slideshow

Berlin-based multidisciplinary installation artist Michael Sailstorfer creates scenarios that appear to be trapped in time, with a mysterious past and an uncertain future. Such works as “1 zu 43 bis 47,” in which a broken popcorn stand has left food on the floor, and “Forest Cleaning,” a collaboration with Alfred Kurz in which a rectangular forest area has been shorn of its greenery, pose questions about physical space and the surrounding environment as well as life and death. For “Knots Like Clouds” in 2010, Sailstorfer repurposed truck tire inner tubes, which are associated with motion, by twisting them together and hanging them from gallery ceilings, ominous black clouds threatening just overhead. For his first U.S. commission, Sailstorfer has brought together dozens of these black clouds and placed them on a narrow, angled base for the site-specific installation “Tornado.” Rising more than thirty feet high at the Scholars’ Gate entrance to Central Park by the Plaza, “Tornado” evokes the trees around it as well as the taxis, buses, and trucks that zoom past all day long, once again melding physical space and its environment. In heavier winds, the piece shifts ever so slightly, suddenly bringing these urban materials to life, if only for a few seconds. Although it has a weightless appearance — it is, of course, filled with air — closer inspection reveals the metal rods and wires holding it in place, not allowing this playful storm system to wield its damage on an unsuspecting city.

SUNDAY SESSIONS

Mårten Spångberg will be at MoMA PS1 for a special performance and book signing (photo by Gaetano Cammarota)

MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Sunday, March 4, 1:00 – 6:00
Series continues through May 13
Suggested admission: $10 (free for MoMA ticket holders within thirty days of ticket)
718-784-2084
www.ps1.org

MoMA PS1’s weekly Sunday Sessions continues on March 4 with another afternoon of diverse, cutting-edge programming. Darren Bader, whose sculptures are on view in “Images” (and where salad is served on Saturdays and Mondays), will present “E-Party” under the Performance Dome, an exploration of the letter E[e] with Enya and Ed Hardy at 1:00, Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Eclisse at 2:30, and an experimental dance party at 4:30 with DJs Justin Strauss, Darshan Jesrani, and Domie Nation. At 3:00 in the Mini-Kunsthalle, dancer-choreographer Maria Hassabi has invited Swedish multidisciplinary artist Mårten Spångberg to give an hour-long comedic lecture in conjunction with the publication of his latest book, Spangbergianism, followed by a discussion moderated by André Lepecki. “It’s an exorcism, an attempt to engage in the lowest and dirtiest truths, delusions, opportunisms and what we don’t talk about. It shows no mercy,” Spångberg writes in the preface. Also at 3:00, ARTBOOK @ MOMA PS1 will present Lars Müller in conversation with Steven Holl in the museum lobby, followed by a book signing of Steven Holl: Color Light Time and Steven Holl: Scale. In addition, be sure to check out the current exhibitions, which include “Darren Bader: Images,” “Clifford Owens: Anthology,” “Frances Stark: My Best Thing,” and shows by Henry Taylor, Surasi Kusolwong, Rania Stephan, and the art collective Chim↑Pom.

GLOBUS FILM SERIES — LOVE WILL TEAR US APART: VIBRATOR

Rei (Shinobu Terajima) is in desperate need of human connection in tender, moving VIBRATOR

VIBRATOR (Ryūichi Hiroki, 2003)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Sunday, March 4, $12, 5:30
Series runs March 2-18
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Japan Society’s examination of twisted sex, erotic obsession, and violence focuses on the treatment of those issues in Japanese and Korean cinema, which often have similar narrative structures. On March 4 at 5:30, they will present the unusual road movie Vibrator. Based on the novel by Mari Akasaka, Ryūichi Hiroki’s film is a poetic journey of one woman’s desperate need for connection. Shinobu Terajima (Caterpillar) gives a subtly riveting performance as Rei, a thirty-one-year-old lonely bulimic freelance journalist who hears voices in her head. Shopping in a convenience store for beer and wine, she gets the urge to have a sexual encounter with a stranger, and in walks Okabe (Nao Omori), a younger blond truck driver. After a beautifully shot scene of their love making, Rei asks if she can join him on his travels, and the two set off on a surprisingly tender adventure. Winner of Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Haruhiko Arai), Best Actress (Terajima), and Best Supporting Actor (Omori) at the twenty-fifth Yokohoma Film Festival, Vibrator is a compelling psychological tale of a complex, troubled soul seeking to be touched by another human being. Hiroki ( I Am an S&M Writer, Tokyo Trash Baby) imbues the film with a gentle thoughtfulness that prevents turning the protagonists into clichéd characters; Vibrator is not so much about sexuality or eroticism as it is about the pain and anguish of loneliness. Among the other films screening this weekend at Japan Society are Ryuichi’s M, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Air Doll, Lee Yoon-ki’s My Dear Enemy, Shinya Tsukamoto’s A Snake of June, and Koji Wakamatsu’s Petrel Hotel Blue.

FIRST SATURDAYS: FIERCE, PHENOMENAL WOMEN

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, March 3, 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 honors “Fierce, Phenomenal Women” in its March First Saturday programming with a series of events celebrating the second sex. The evening will feature live performances by Alakande! Spread Joy!, Making Friendz, Fredericks Brown, the Brooklyn Ballet, and Queen Godis, artist and curator talks with Mary Lucier, Kate Gilmore, and Catherine Morris, a book talk with author Sara Marcus, a presentation of “The Bad Feminist Readings,” a newspaper illustration workshop, a dance party hosted by DJs Reborn, Moni, Selly, and shErOck, and an action station where visitors can contribute to a community panel inspired by Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party.” In addition, the galleries will be open late, giving visitors plenty of opportunity to check out “Playing House,” “Rachel Kneebone: Regarding Rodin,” “Raw/Cooked: Shura Chernozatonskaya,” “Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913–1919,” “Question Bridge: Black Males,” and “19th-Century Modern.”

ROTARY CLUB

Rotary Club will celebrate the release of SECOND YEAR IN SWINE in Red Hook on Saturday night

Red Hook Bait and Tackle
320 Van Brunt St.
Saturday, March 3, 9:00
www.rotaryclubnyc.com
www.redhookbaitandtackle.com

Among the many ways iTunes and other internet-based programs and websites have changed how we listen to music is by allowing us to create massive, nearly endless playlists of thousands of songs that just keep going. While there are some people out there who still flip over an LP to hear side two or eject one CD to put in another one, most of us double click and just let the music play, and play, and play, sometimes without even knowing the name of the band or the specific song rumbling through our heads. The art of the album has gotten lost in the shuffle. So when we were listening to Rotary Club’s new record, Second Year in Swine (Woodside, February 28, 2012), we found ourselves letting the music drift into the next band on our playlist, not realizing it until several songs in. But we are not pointing this out to say that Rotary Club does not have its own distinctive sound; in fact, they play a wide range of infectious indie pop that makes it hard to pigeonhole them into the flavor of the day. And it just so happens that we have taken to that next band on our playlist much as we have taken to Rotary Club, whose self-professed influences run the gamut from Syd Barrett and the Beatles to Love and the Kinks, from John Fahey to Brian Eno and Pere Ubu; to that mix we’d throw in Steely Dan, Thunderclap Newman, Cracker, and Richard Thompson. In fact, their previous record, 2007’s Vis-à-Vis, and the new one were produced by bassist extraordinaire Tony Maimone, who has worked over the years with Pere Ubu, the Mekons, They Might Be Giants, Ani DiFranco, Bob Mould, Frank Black, Megan Reilly, and many others, creating his own wide-ranging iTunes playlist. The result is a diverse little gem that is like its own iPod shuffle playlist; you never know what you’re going to hear next as Second Year in Swine veers from jazzy interludes and southern blues to wah-wah instrumentals and bright, cheery pop. “You know you want that second cup / of diminishing returns / Determined to repeat yourself / watch your flagship crash and burn / Rewards are worth the work / for these laurels can’t be bought / pushed or shoved or slipped / between the cracks / out a welcome that you’ve worn,” leader Tom Devaney sings on “Diminishing Returns,” and indeed, multiple listens to Second Year in Swine offer no such diminishing returns, instead providing plenty of rewarding moments. Rotary Club will be celebrating the release of the new album on March 3 at Red Hook Bait and Tackle, featuring former Boston boy and Fung Wah regular Devaney, who plays guitar with a unique finger-picking style, along with drummer Mike Savage, cellist Mike Lunapiena, bassist J. Johnson, and keyboardist Billy Donahue. Oh, and that next band on our iTunes? Actually, we’ve just circled back to the beginning of Second Year in Swine, starting all over again with “Get a Room,” so we can’t remember their name right now.