twi-ny recommended events

POUNDCAKE

Poundcake will be at the Bowery Electric on June 1, featuring singer-guitarist Teddy Thompson, drummer Ethan Eubanks, and stand-up bassist Jeff Hill (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The Bowery Electric
327 Bowery between Bond & Great Jones Sts.
Wednesday, June 1, $8, 10:00
212-228-0228
www.theboweryelectric.com
www.teddythompson.com
poundcake live at city winery
On May 21 at City Winery, as Teddy Thompson fans were escorted to their reserved seats and ordered their food and drinks (including special bottles of Teddy Thompson wine), a surprisingly familiar face took the stage as part of the opening act. Announced as “Poundcake,” the three-piece band — consisting of guitar, stand-up bass, and drums — rambled through a good-time set of classic and obscure country and early rock covers, with the lead singer and the backup band making continuous tongue-in-cheek remarks about Teddy Thompson and how much the lead singer resembled the British-born, New York City-based son of Richard and Linda Thompson, who is currently touring behind his latest record, Bella, a deeply personal, poignant examination of a shattered relationship. Last year, Teddy Thompson, along with his drummer, Ethan Eubanks, and bassist, Jeff Hill, started doing gigs as Poundcake, without officially admitting who their ersatz leader was. Poundcake plays engaging sets that feature such tunes as Patsy Cline’s “Why Can’t He Be You,” the Everly Brothers’ “Wake Up Little Susie,” Elvis Presley’s “That’s All Right, Mama,” Chuck Berry’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” and Buddy Holly’s “It’s So Easy” and “Every Day,” the latter, on May 21, sung by Eubanks after several starts in which the drummer mangled the words and Thompson harassed him for it. The trio engages in funny, self-deprecating between-song banter, making for an extremely entertaining show. Poundcake will be headlining the Bowery Electric on June 1 at 10:00, preceded by Erik Deutch Band (9:00), Amy Miles (8:00), and Jem Warren (7:00).

MANHATTANHENGE 2011

SUNSET ON THE MANHATTAN GRID
East side of Manhattan
Monday, May 30, 8:17, and Tuesday, July 12, 8:25 pm
Admission: free
www.haydenplanetarium.org

Tonight at 8:17, the sun will align with Manhattan’s off-center (by thirty degrees) grid to send spectacular bursts of sunlight streaming across the streets. Coined by master astrophysicist and Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson in 2002, Manhattanhenge takes place twice a year; for 2011, those dates are May 30 and July 12 (at 8:35), when the sun will create “a radiant glow of light across Manhattan’s brick and steel canyons, simultaneously illuminating both the north and south sides of every cross street of the borough’s grid,” Tyson explains on the planetarium website. “A rare and beautiful sight. These two days happen to correspond with Memorial Day and Baseball’s All Star break. Future anthropologists might conclude that, via the Sun, the people who called themselves Americans worshiped War and Baseball.” Photographers will be lining up along the city’s wider thoroughfares on the east side, including Twenty-third, Thirty-fourth, Forty-second, and Fifty-seventh Sts., trying to capture that exact moment when the sun is half above the horizon, half below it. Wrongly called the Manhattan Solstice, the event “may just be a unique urban phenomenon in the world, if not the universe,” Tyson explains. Back in 1973, Bruce Springsteen wrote, “Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun,” but he was sure to add, “Oh, but Mama that’s where the fun is.” Tonight starting a little after eight, that is indeed where the fun is.

MAN MAN

Man Man will trip the life fantastic at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 31 and June 1

Music Hall of Williamsburg
66 North Sixth St.
Tuesday, May 31, and Wednesday, June 1, $16, 8:00
www.myspace.com/wearemanman
www.musichallofwilliamsburg.com

Man Man’s idea of a fantastic life is probably a lot different from yours. “And the scene, it turns so grisly / and the children, they are crying / You hand them black umbrellas / tell ’em that the world is dying,” they sing on the title track to their fourth album, Life Fantastic (Anti-, May 2011), continuing, “It’s how you hide your cards / It’s how you dress your scars / and let them breathe (breathe) / Life, fantastic… / Life, so tragic… / Life, fantastic…” Man Man has been displaying its unique worldview and unusual experimental sound since it formed in 2003, releasing such discs as 2008’s Rabbit Habits (with such fine tunage as “Mister Jung Stuffed” and “Mysteries of the Universe Unraveled”), 2006’s Six Demon Bag (“Black Mission Goggles,” “Van Helsing Boombox”), and 2004’s The Man in a Blue Turban with a Face (“Against the Peruvian Monster,” “10lb Moustache”), but they’ve gone a whole lot darker on their latest. Led by keyboardist and lyricist Honus Honus (Ryan Kattner), who seems to have emerged from his time in Los Angeles not exactly the happiest of campers, the Philly band also includes Pow Wow (Christopher Powell), Critter Cat (Russell Higbee), and Chang Wang (Billy Dufala). Life Fantastic is like a wild Brecht/Weill Gypsy carnival, with sweet musical flourishes from an endless array of horns, strings, xylophones, and various other forms of percussive and computerized madness, evoking a bit of David Bowie here, a shot of Frank Zappa there, and even Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart in places. “I’m racing through the dark / a headless Saint Bernard / to cauterize the scars / that line your dirty heart,” Honus proclaims on the album opener, “Knuckle Down.” On “Piranhas Club” he asks, “Is it all about the ebb and the flow / of losing your mind sometimes and letting go? / You feel like you can’t breathe / You’re outta control / The world is a shitshow / you barely can handle.” Man Man is well known for not putting on shit shows, instead driving crowds crazy with their exuberance, their face paint, and their constantly changing tempos and rhythms, giving audiences all they can handle and more. “Can you feel it? / It’s like a warm atomic cloud that’s raining down, washing over us,” Honus Honus sings on “Dark Arts.” You’ll be able to feel it when Man Man plays the Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 31 and June 1 with Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers; the first night is sold out, but tickets are still available for Wednesday night.

CRAFTING GENRE: KATHRYN BIGELOW — THE HURT LOCKER

Oscar winner THE HURT LOCKER is part of MoMA retrospective of director Kathryn Bigelow

THE HURT LOCKER (Kathryn Bigelow, 2009)
MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Sunday, June 5, 5:30
Monday, June 13, 8:00
Saturday, July 23, 5:00
Series runs June 1 – August 13
Tickets: $10, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk
212-708-9400
www.thehurtlocker-movie.com
www.moma.org

Based on embedded journalist Mark Boal’s experiences in Iraq, The Hurt Locker follows a three-member Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit as they are called in to defuse a series of dangerous situations involving various kinds of bombs, including IEDs and other life-threatening explosive devices. Team leader Will James (Jeremy Renner) is an expert bomb defuser and maverick who doesn’t follow protocol and likes to live on the edge. Spc. Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) is a greenhorn who just wants to survive the last forty days of their rotation. And Sgt. J. T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) likes to go by the book and take no unnecessary chances, which puts him in constant conflict with the unpredictable James. Recalling the second half of Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam drama Full Metal Jacket (1987), The Hurt Locker unfolds in a series of harrowing set pieces in which the EOD unit is called in to either safely detonate or defuse explosive devices while under the eyes of local Iraqis, any of whom could potentially be the bomber or a sniper. Director Kathryn Bigelow (Blue Steel, Point Break) masterfully builds suspense scene after scene, beginning with the edge-of-your-seat opener through to the gripping conclusion. The experiences of the EOD unit serve as a microcosm for modern warfare in general and the U.S. involvement in the Middle East specifically, placing viewers in the midst of a tense, bitter, psychologically and emotionally draining battle that can never be won. The outstanding cast also features Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, and Evangeline Lilly in small roles; many of the Iraqis were played by actual war refugees. Shot in Jordan not far from the Iraq border, The Hurt Locker is a remarkable story, one of the best war films of the decade.

With The Hurt Locker, Bigelow, who will turn sixty later this year, beat out her ex-husband, Avatar megadirector and producer James Cameron, for the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars at the 2010 Academy Awards. She has made a mere eight feature films in her thirty-year career, all of which will be shown during the MoMA retrospective “Crafting Genre: Kathryn Bigelow.” The series begins June 1 with Bigelow introducing her 1978 short about violence, Set-Up, and her full-length debut, 1982’s The Loveless, followed by a Q&A. Bigelow always adds a twist to her genre pictures, from the vampire thriller Near Dark (1987) and the police procedural Blue Steel (1989) to the futuristic sci-fi fantasy Strange Days (1995) and the historical murder mystery The Weight of Water (2000). And then there’s 1991’s Point Break, a modern surf-camp classic starring Keanu Reeves as an FBI agent determined to catch master bank robber Patrick Swayze; you’ve got to see it to believe it, and even then you’re likely to be completely flummoxed. (Be sure to allow extra time, as MoMA is also displaying storyboards, notes, two of Bigelow’s short experimental works, and other related paraphernalia in conjunction with the screenings.)

HOLIDAY MONDAYS: QUEENS MUSEUM OF ART

Sung Hwan Kim’s “From the Commanding Heights…*” is on view at the Queens Museum, which is offering free admission on Memorial Day

Queens Museum of Art
New York City Building
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Monday, May 30, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
718-592-9700
www.queensmuseum.org

The Queens Museum is usually closed on Monday, but on May 30 it will open its doors, offering free admission to its exhibits, free family-friendly tours, free open studio time, free refreshments, and more. Current special exhibitions include “Sung Hwan Kim: From the Commanding Heights…*,” comprising video and related drawings and sculpture by the Seoul-born, New York-based artist; “Not the Way You Remembered,” a group show of works incorporating unusual materials; “Future Perfect: Re-Constructing the 1939 New York World’s Fair”; Egyptian artist Hassan Khan’s four-channel video “The Hidden Location”; Indian-born Niyeti Chadha’s site-specific “A Script for a Landscape,” which deconstructs and reconstructs space in the museum’s second-floor gallery; and “Ghana Think Tank in Corona: Developing the First World,” which is set up in a multimedia-equipped trailer. As always, be sure to stop by the long-term exhibits “The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass” and “A Watershed Moment: Celebrating the Homecoming of the Relief Map of the New York City Water Supply System” as well as the spectacular “Panorama of the City of New York.”

DANCEAFRICA2011 — EXPRESSIONS AND ENCOUNTERS: AFRICAN, CUBAN, AND AMERICAN RHYTHMS

Cuba’s Ballet Folklórico Cutumba are part of the annual Memorial Day weekend DanceAfrica celebration at BAM

Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Through May 30, free – $50 (dance $20-$50, films $12, music and street fair free)
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Held in conjunction with the ¡Sí Cuba! Festival, BAM’s thirty-fourth annual celebration of African dance continues through Memorial Day with a bevy of great events centered around performances by Cuba’s Ballet Folklórico Cutumba, the Brooklyn-based BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble, the Bronx’s Bambara Drum and Dance Ensemble, and Philadelphia’s Kùlú Mèlé African Dance & Drum Ensemble in the Howard Gilman Opera House and led by the ever-welcome presence of Baba Chuck Davis; the Sunday show will be followed by an Artist Talk with Davis, Idalberto Banderas, and Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, moderated by Fernando Sáez (after which dancers will take to the streets in impromptu performances). BAMcinématek’s “FilmAfrica” series will screen such works as Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner A Screaming Man (Un homme qui crie) (2010), Souleymane Cissé’s Yeelen (Brightness) (1987), and Andrew Dosunmu’s 2011 New York-set Restless City (followed by a Q&A with the director). BAMcafé Live will host a free show by Miami’s the Nag Champayons on Saturday at 9:00, followed by a DanceAfrica Late-Night Dance Party with DJ Cato. And on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, beginning at noon each day, one of the best street fairs of the year will be held on Ashland Pl., the DanceAfrica Bazaar, featuring great food and drink, booths selling statues, clothing, shea butter, arts & crafts, and other cool goods, live music, and much more.

BLUE NOTE JAZZ FESTIVAL 2011

The McCoy Tyner Trio will kick off the inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival with special guest Savion Glover at the Highline Ballroom on June 1 (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

It might feel like the Blue Note has been around forever, but the intimate jazz nightclub only opened in 1981. It’s celebrating its thirtieth anniversary throughout the month of June with the inaugural Blue Note Jazz Festival, thirty days of shows at the Blue Note, the Highline Ballroom, and B.B. King’s Blues Club in Times Square, featuring legendary and emerging musicians who have graced the stage of the West Third St. venue. The festivities get under way June 1 with the McCoy Tyner Trio and Savion Glover at the Highline and continues with such stellar evenings as Bobby McFerrin with the Yellowjackets at the Highline (June 2), Larry Graham and Graham Central Station at B.B. King’s (June 3), Jim Hall & Ron Carter in the program “Alone Together, Again,” at the Blue Note (June 6), Eric Burdon & the Animals at B.B King’s (June 7), Hiromi’s Trio Project with Anthony Jackson and Simon Phillips at the Blue Note (June 7-12), Dengue Fever at the Highline (June 10), “Brian Wilson ‘Reimagines Gershwin’” at the Highline (June 11-13), Dave Brubeck at the Blue Note (June 13-15), Johnny Winter & Roomful of Blues at B.B. King’s (June 14), Meshell Ndegeocello covering Prince at the Highline (June 15) — and that’s only the first half of the month. The rest of June includes performances by Diane Schuur, Delbert McClinton, the Manhattan Transfer, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Roy Ayers with Pete Rock, Chris Botti, Eddie Palmieri & La Perfecta II, Youssou N’Dour, Milton Nascimento, Roberta Flack, Nancy Wilson, Kathleen Battle, Bootsy Collins, the Dave Holland Quintet, Jonny Lang, Joe Lovano, Al Kooper, an eighty-fifth birthday celebration with Jimmy Scott, a ninetieth-birthday party for Jon Hendricks (with Annie Ross), and various other special musical tributes with very cool multiple guests.