twi-ny recommended events

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.

DIALOG IN THE DARK

A group gets ready to experience Dialog in the Dark, which opened at the South Street Seaport on August 20

11 Fulton St., South Street Seaport
Daily 10:00 am – 7:00 or 9:00 pm
Timed tickets: $18-$22.50
1-888-926-3437
www.dialognyc.com

During the last few days, New York and New Jersey residents stocked up on candles, batteries, and flashlights just in case their power went out. But what if you lived every day in near or total darkness? Dialog in the Dark, a new immersive exhibition at the South Street Seaport, simulates what it might be like for sighted people to suddenly live in complete darkness. Premier Exhibitions, the company behind “Bodies . . . The Exhibition” (which is held in the same building), in partnership with Dialogue Social Enterprise, Lighthouse International, and Fairway, has brought to the city the long-running Dialog in the Dark, a sixty-minute excursion in which a group of eight to ten people are given authentic walking canes and then led by a visually impaired or blind guide through totally dark rooms that re-create indoor and outdoor places in New York. Inside each space, visitors are asked to figure out where they are and what is in the room by using only their senses of touch, hearing, and smell. Be prepared to go up and down small ramps and steps, reach out for doorways and walls, bump into seats, and grasp for handrails as you make your way through each installation. And don’t be shy, because you will regularly, if accidentally, be touching other people, and at times some of you may get caught up in a corner together. The designers of DITD have used unique textures to mimic the feel of these familiar environments, but we’re not going to tell you quite what to expect, as it’s more fun to figure that out on your own. And in order to do that, don’t hold back and wait for the others to do the work for you; forge ahead and be adventurous (while following the explicit instructions of your guide). At the end of your journey, you’ll all sit down and discuss your experience, and you’ll be able to ask your guide just about anything you want, about the project and themselves.

Dialog in the Dark began more than twenty years ago in Germany and has since expanded to more than one hundred cities in more than thirty countries, where more than seventy million people have gone through the site-specific installations, led by more than 7,700 guides. DITD’s mission “is to facilitate social inclusion of marginalized people across the world,” with its primary goals to “raise awareness and create tolerance for Otherness in the general public and thereby overcome barriers between ‘us’ and ‘them’ [and to] create jobs for disadvantaged people by turning deficits into potentials and thereby strengthening their self-esteem.” They stress that some eighty percent of vision loss is correctable or preventable and encourage everyone to get regular eye exams. After the tour is over, a gallery provides biographical information on all the guides, who have come together to form their own little community and are all happy to talk about what our guide, Stephanie, called a “transforming experience” for them too, as well as details about such diseases as retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma, hermianopia, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration. Thus, DITD is meant to be educational as well as a whole lot of fun as it challenges you to face one of most people’s greatest fears. Upcoming special events include Dining in the Dark, a four-course meal served in total darkness, and the singles party Dating in the Dark.