twi-ny recommended events

QUIKSILVER PRO NEW YORK: CONCERTS CANCELED

Long Beach, Long Island (and other venues)
September 1-15, free
www.quiksilverpro.com

Things are about to get pretty extreme in Long Beach, and we’re not talking about any lingering aftereffects of Hurricane Irene. From September 1 through 15, the beachfront community will play host to Quiksilver Pro New York, two weeks of intense competitions (with $1 million in prizes at stake), live performances, and living on the edge. The festival officially gets under way Friday on Pier 54 in Hudson River Park, where the Tony Hawk Vert Jam will take place at 2:00 in a large halfpipe with appearances by Hawk, Kevin Staab, Jesse Fritsch, Mitchie Brusco, Sandro Dias, Neal Hendrix, and Elliot Sloan, followed by an after-party at the Standard Hotel. Then it’s back to Long Beach for surfing, volleyball, BMX demos, the Roxy Surf Camp, the Bravest Versus Finest Surf Comp, autograph signings, and other events and activities based in and around the Village. Among those on hands will be Corey Bohan, Allan Cooke, Craig Mast, Anthony Napolitan, Edwin DeLarosa, Josh Kalis, Matt Miller, Wes Kremer, Rob Wise, Jeremiah Smith, Alfredo Mancuso, Kelly Bolton, Brad Simms, Brett Banasiewicz, and Ryah Jordan. More than two dozen bands will hit the stage for free concerts, including Girl Talk, the English Beat, the Ettes, Interpol, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the Benjamins, the Max Weinberg Experience, Wavves, Neon Indian, and the Flaming Lips, while Kelly Slater & Friends will lead a benefit show on September 10. The festivities return to Manhattan on September 7 for the world premiere of Travis Rice’s snowboarding movie The Art of Flight at the Beacon, followed on September 8 by Roxy Fashion Night Out at the Roxy Store in SoHo. Oh, and did we mention that it’s all free?

Update (9/2/11): As it turns out, Long Beach is in fact still feeling the lingering aftereffects of Hurricane Irene, which has forced the cancellation of most of the special events that were scheduled to take place as part of Quiksilver Pro New York, including all of the free concerts as well as the autograph signings and demonstrations that were to take place in what was being called the Village, which is no more. However, there is a petition demanding that the concerts go on as planned; you can read and sign it here. The professional competition is still on, as is this afternoon’s Tony Hawk Vert Jam on Pier 54.

10 YEARS OF MAGNOLIA PICTURES: GREAT WORLD OF SOUND

Clarence (Kene Holliday) and Martin (Pat Healy) become traveling salesmen in the music biz in offbeat GREAT WORLD OF SOUND

GREAT WORLD OF SOUND (Craig Zobel, 2006)
BAMcinématek
BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Wednesday, August 31, 6:50
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.greatworldofsound.com

Craig Zobel’s debut feature film is a smart, subtle comedy set in the somewhat shadier corners of the music industry. Desperately in need of money and jobs, soft-spoken Martin (Pat Healy) and rambunctious Clarence (Kene Holliday) become traveling salesmen for GWS, a small music company that auditions wannabes, then asks them to pay (up front) upwards of thirty percent of the costs of producing their own CD. As Martin and Clarence get better and better at their sales pitch, they become more and more suspicious of the whole endeavor as they are ordered by company founder Layton (Robert Longstreet) and his right-hand man, Shank (John Baker), to sign up the hopefuls regardless of their talent level. Using the Maysles brothers’ outstanding documentary Salesman (1969) as a point of departure, Zobel adds the public’s seemingly insatiable demand for reality-show stardom — all of the musical performers in the film believed they were auditioning to make records, not appearing in a fiction film, resulting in a series of wonderful unscripted scenes. (The filmmakers revealed their true intentions at the end of each audition.) Healy (Undertow) and Holliday (who starred in such TV shows as Matlock and Carter Country and is now an evangelical minister) make a great team, both in good times and bad, as they each attempt to better their life — much the way the wannabe musicians try to as well. Great World of Sound is a terrific sleeper of a film that was a festival hit all over the world. It is screening August 31 at 6:50 at BAM as the last film in the “10 Years of Magnolia Pictures” series and will be followed by a Q&A with Zobel.

WEST INDIAN AMERICAN DAY CARNIVAL SPECIAL EVENTS

Brooklyn Museum parking lot
Washington Ave. & Eastern Pkwy.
September 1-4
718-467-1797
www.wiadca.com

The West Indian American Day Carnival will host millions of spectators lining Eastern Parkway, thousands of marchers in elaborate, colorful costumes, and big trucks pumping out loud music on Labor Day, but the partying actually begins on September 1 outside at the Brooklyn Museum, with several hot concerts leading up to the parade. On Thursday, September 1, the Official Welcome to New York Event ($25, 7:00) features Dr Jay, Back to Basics, Anonymous, Casanovas, Mad Man Maddy, Trinibago Massive Rhythm Section, and many others. On Friday morning, the Official Stay in School Concert (free, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm) includes a fashion show, spoken word, karate, and live music and dance, while BrassFest ($45, 8:00) will get things moving and shaking that night with Patrice Roberts, Farmer Nappy, WCK, Skinny Fabulous, Lyrikal, Devyn, Kutters Rhythm Section, and Machel Montano HD & Kes the Band, “the only place to experience Road March King, the Soca Monarch King, and the Groovy Monarch Kings together.” On Saturday morning, the Junior Carnival ($2, 9:00) begins at Kingston Ave. & St. Johns and heads to the Brooklyn Museum, while that night is highlighted by the Steel Band Panorama Competition ($40, 8:00), with such competitors as Pan Sonatas, Casym, D’Radoes, Sesame Flyers, Harmony, Adlib, Despers USA, Pantonics, Crossfire, and Metro Steel Orchestra. And then, on Sunday, the annual Caribbean Gospel Fest 2011 ($20, 2:00) takes place in the afternoon, followed by Dimanche Gras ($35, 7:00), an all-night extravaganza with Sparrow, Devyn, David Rudder, Allrounder, Benjai, Swallow, Red Plastic Bag, Kofi, stilt walkers, rhythm masters, Golden Harps Steel Orchestra, and many more, all leading up to the best annual parade in the city.

XU BING: THE LIVING WORD

Chinese characters morph into birds in Xu Bing’s site-specific installation at the Morgan (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Ave. at 36th St.
Tuesday – Sunday through October 2, $10-$15 (free Friday 7:00 – 9:00)
212-685-0008
www.themorgan.org
the living word slideshow

Language, politics, history, and the journey toward enlightenment come together in delightful, meaningful ways in Xu Bing’s “The Living Word 3,” on view in Renzo Piano’s bright, modern Gilbert Court atrium in the Morgan Library through October 2. The third iteration of the work, previously shown in slightly different versions at the Smithsonian in 2001 and at the seminal 1989 Chinese Avant-Garde exhibition at the National Art Gallery in Beijing, was designed specifically for this space, as accompanying preparatory drawings attest. On a white board on the gallery floor, contemporary Chinese characters spell out the dictionary definition of “bird” (niao): “vertebrate animal, warm-blooded, oviparous, lung breather, body covered in feathers, bipedal, forelimbs modified as wings, usually able to fly.” The letters then begin to fly off from the upper-left-hand corner, reaching toward the sky. As they continue up, they go backward in time, morphing from Mao’s simplified text into older, standardized Chinese writing and eventually into ancient pictographs representing the word “bird” (鸟) while also changing colors, resulting in a rainbow effect that is heightened when seen against the green leaves of the trees in the atrium. As Xu, who is based in New York and Beijing, explains, “Buddhists believe that ‘if you look for harmony in the living word, then you will be able to reach Buddha; if you look for harmony in lifeless sentences, you will be unable to save yourself.’ . . . My work and my method of thinking have been my search for the living word.” As the words take flight, they celebrate freedom while evoking the censorship so prevalent in modern China, as evidenced by the recent arrest of one of Xu’s contemporaries, Ai Weiwei. And the Morgan is a fitting place for the work, an institution devoted to writing, filled with so many classic texts, original musical scores, and historical documents that honor language. Among the other exhibitions on view at the Morgan right now are the excellent “Jim Dine: The Glyptotek Drawings” (through September 4), the fun “Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists’ Enumerations from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art” (October 2), and “Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands” (September 4).

RON CARTER BIG BAND

Ron Carter’s Great Big Band will practically fill the Jazz Standard all by itself (photo by Jim Anderson)

Jazz Standard
116 East 27th St.
August 30 – September 4, $30, 7:30 & 9:30
212-576-2232
www.jazzstandard.net
www.roncarter.net

Michigan-born cellist and bassist Ron Carter is a true jazz legend, having played on thousands of recordings with such seminal and diverse figures as Eric Dolphy, Miles Davis, Milt Hinton, Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock, Harry Connick Jr., McCoy Tyner, Bill Frisell, Gil Scott-Heron, and even a Tribe Called Quest throughout his long career. But there’s one thing the musician, composer, and City College and Juilliard professor hasn’t done before, and that’s make a big band album — until now. Teaming up with Grammy-winning composer and arranger Robert M. Freedman, the seventy-four-year-old Carter has recorded Ron Carter’s Great Big Band (Sunnyside, September 13), a collection of thirteen brass-infused numbers with a cast of seventeen musicians. The album includes fresh takes on such Carter originals as “Opus 1.5 (Theme for C.B.)” and “Loose Change” as well as stirring versions of Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington’s “Caravan,” Dizzy Gillespie’s “Con Alma,” Cannonball Adderley’s “Sweet Emma,” W. C. Handy’s “Saint Louis Blues,” and Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints.” One of the standouts is Freedman’s own “Pork Chop,” with its intoxicating horn riffs and hot bass solo. The album ranges from noirish bop and lovely, subtle ballads to bright, polished showstoppers that call up familiar snippets from Broadway tunes, although it does occasionally veer into TV-theme-song territory. Carter will be bringing his big band to the Jazz Standard for a series of shows August 30 through September 4, featuring Jerry Dodgion, Steve Wilson, Wayne Escoffery, Scott Robinson, and Jay Brandford on reeds, Tony Kadleck, Jon Owens, Greg Gisbert, and Alex Norris on trumpets, Jason Jackson, Steve Davis, James Burton, and Douglas Purviance on trombones, Russell Malone on guitar, Mulgrew Miller on piano, Willie Jones III on drums, and the one and only Ron Carter on bass. Although the album won’t be released until September 13, it will be available for purchase during this exciting stand from one of jazz’s most innovative and endearing figures.

STEINUNN THÓRARINSDÓTTIR: BORDERS

Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir’s life-size sculptures fill Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza
47th St. between First & Second Aves.
Through September 30, free
www.nycgovparks.org
borders slideshow

Despite warnings to evacuate or at least stay inside during Hurricane Irene’s attack on the tristate area, more than two dozen figures continued to fill Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza all weekend long — and don’t plan on moving till the end of September. For “Borders,” Icelandic artist Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir has created twenty-six site-specific life-size sculptures of androgynous beings, thirteen silver aluminum statues facing thirteen rust-colored cast-iron replicas, standing, sitting on benches, and kneeling throughout the park. Thórarinsdóttir, who has installed such public works as “Horfur (Prospect)” and “Rætur” in her native Reykjavik and the expansive “Horizons” at Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park in Illinois, breathes unique life into each pair, with the figures crossing their arms as if concerned about something, walking toward each other in potential conversation, kneeling in supplication, or covering their nether regions, which are empty anyway. The works recall Antony Gormley’s “Event Horizon,” which took over Madison Square Park and surrounding Flatiron District buildings last year, thirty-one representations of Gormley himself, but whereas those were all identical (and mostly on rooftops), each pair of Thórarinsdóttir’s figures are different, fraught with emotion that makes visitors want to approach them, sit next to them, and help them with their problems. The opposing figures also provide a kind of guarded path that goes past the Japan Society and alongside the Katharine Hepburn Garden as it leads toward the United Nations at the east end. “Borders” is an engaging, welcoming exhibition that is well worth making a special trip for.

THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: SUMMER HD FESTIVAL

HD festival gives opera lovers the chance to catch free screenings of recent Met performances

Lincoln Center, Josie Robertson Plaza
Columbus Ave. at 63rd St.
August 29 – September 5, free, starting time between 7:15 and 8:30
212-769-7028
www.metoperafamily.org

Hurricane Irene might have forced the cancellation of the first two nights of the Met’s Summer HD Festival, but the fat lady has not sung quite yet. Every night from August 29 through September 5, the Metropolitan Opera Guild will be presenting a free screening by the fountain in Josie Robertson Plaza of a previous Met performance, each one preceded at 3:00, 4:00, or 6:00 by an indoor ticketed lecture ($8-$12) given by a member of the Community Programs staff. (Many of these talks are already sold out, so be sure to get your tickets in advance.) Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra were stormed out, so the festival gets under way Monday night, August 29, at 8:30 with Susan Graham and Plácido Domingo in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, recorded live this past February. On August 30, Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna star in Puccini’s La Rondine (8:00) from January 2009, while August 30 features a February 2011 performance of John Adams’s Nixon in China (7:45), a collaboration with Peter Sellars. On September 1, Elīna Garanča and Alagna appear in Bizet’s Carmen (7:45), directed by Richard Eyre, from January 2010. The next night, Deborah Voigt gives her all in a January 2011 performance of Puccini’s La Fanciulla Del West (8:00). Stephen Wadsworth’s new production of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, from October 2010 with René Pape, will be shown on September 3 (7:15), with Natalie Dessay in Mary Zimmerman’s version of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (8:00), from March 2011, screening on September 4. The series concludes on Labor Day at 7:15 with Verdi’s Don Carlo, directed by Nicholas Hytner, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and starring Alagna, Marina Poplavskaya, Ferruccio Furlanetto, and Simon Keenlyside, filmed on December 11, 2010.