twi-ny recommended events

THE PIGLET PARTY

David Tanis cookbook has made it past the first two rounds

92YTribeca
200 Hudson St. at Canal St.
Tuesday, November 30, $38, 7:00
212-415-5500
www.92ytribeca.org
www.brownpapertickets.com/event/136148

The blog explosion has led to a surfeit of sites dedicated to food and drink, for everyone from elegant gourmet groupies to just plain meat-and-potatoes burger-lovin’ folk. One such site, food52, run by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, focuses on home cooking. “We love spending time in the kitchen,” they explain online, “and we believe that memorable cooking doesn’t have to be complicated or precious.” On November 30, Hesser and Stubbs will be joined by food writer Charlotte Druckman as hosts of the Piglet Party, celebrating the second annual Tournament of Cookbooks. Since November 9, sixteen cookbooks have been battling it out in a bracketed competition judged by such experts as Ezra Klein, Peter Kaminsky, Ree Drummond, Susan Orlean, Francis Lam, and Mario Batali. In round one, Bill Yosses and Melissa Clark’s THE PERFECT FINISH beat Kate Moses’s CAKEWALK before losing to Kim Boyce and Amy Scattergood’s GOOD TO THE GRAIN in round two, while David Tanis’s HEART OF THE ARTICHOKE has made it past Katie Caldesi’s COOK ITALY and Frank Falcinelli, Frank Castronovo, and Peter Meehan’s FRANKIES. Also surviving the first two rounds is Dorie Greenspan’s AROUND MY FRENCH TABLE, having disposed of Darnia Allen’s FORGOTTEN SKILLS OF COOKING and Sarah Marx Feldner’s A COOK’S JOURNEY. Winners are announced every Wednesday, with the champion being crowned on December 1, so everyone will party at 92YTribeca the night before, with food supplied by such local vendors as Van Leeuwen, June Taylor, Mexicue, Liddabit Sweets, Rick’s Picks, and Theo Peck, wine from Hanna Winery, and beer from Kelso of Brooklyn. And Frank Bruni, Chris Cosentino, Ben Leventhal, and Falcinelli will participate in a panel discussion on food porn. Tickets are $38, with $5 going to the nonprofit organization Wellness in the Schools.

EIKO & KOMA

Eiko & Koma will be making special appearances in December and January that examine their creative process (photo by Anna Lee Campbell)

Saturday, December 4, Delicious Movement Workshop, Japan Society, 333 East 47th St., $40, 1:00 – 5:00
Friday, January 21, Performance & Lecture, Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture, Miller Theatre, Columbia University, 116th St. & Broadway, free with RSVP
www.eikoandkoma.org

For nearly forty years, the Japanese team of Eiko & Koma have been choreographing and performing humanistic dances and site-specific events around the world, focusing on the intense, emotional beauty of slow physical movement. The MacArthur Fellowship winners, who have created such pieces as WHITE DANCE, BREATH, OFFERING, HUNGER, MOURNING, and THE CARAVAN PROJECT, will be presenting two special evenings that examine their working process. On December 4, Eiko & Koma will be at the Japan Society for the four-hour “Delicious Movement Workshop,” in which they will lead participants, who need no prior dance experience, through a series of mental and physical exercises that fall into their seventeen-part manifesto; “When we give workshops,” they note on their website, “we share what we think and what we do with the hope that other people can also enjoy the movements and images we like to be engaged in. In our class, people discover commonalities and differences between each other and with us.” Then, on January 21, Eiko & Koma will be at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre for a free performance and lecture in honor of the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture’s twenty-fifth anniversary; admission is free but advance RSVP is required.

TONY OURSLER / BRUCE NAUMAN

Tony Oursler, “Castouts,” mixed media, 2010 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

TONY OURSLER: PEAK
Lehmann Maupin, 201 Chrystie St. between Stanton & Rivingston Sts.
Tuesday – Saturday through December 4, 212-254-0054
www.lehmannmaupin.com
BRUCE NAUMAN: FOR CHILDREN / FOR BEGINNERS
Sperone Westwater, 257 Bowery at Stanton St.
Tuesday – Saturday through December 18, 212-999-7337
www.speronewestwater.com

Two longtime stars of the multimedia installation currently have exceptional exhibits right around the corner from each other on the Lower East Side. For decades, New York native Tony Oursler has been projecting faces and other images onto a multitude of objects, creating what appear to be living, breathing sculptures. His current show at Lehmann Maupin’s space on Chrystie St., “Peak,” consists of seven technologically virtuosic miniature dioramas in which theatrical scenes and performance art takes place, delving into obsession, festishism, and the human psyche. In “Artificial Hazard,” a man is trapped in a glass cage, an infantile face screaming behind him, a finger pointing upward in the corner. Numerous minuscule projections cover “Via Regia,” “Valley (Flowchart),” and “Castouts,” so be sure to scan every inch of the pieces, while a naked woman delivers a monologue in “Black Box” and a shirtless man seen in multiple sections of a chunk of disintegrating metal gets serious in “Mirror Return.” Meanwhile, Oursler’s companion to “Peak,” “Valley,” is currently on view at the online Adobe Museum of Digital Media.

Bruce Nauman, “For Beginners (all the combinations of the thumb and fingers),” HD video installation (color, stereo sound), continuous play, 2010

Following the success of his multimedia “Topological Gardens” installation at the 2009 Venice Biennale, which earned him the Golden Lion, Indiana-born artist Bruce Nauman has put together the captivating “For Children / For Beginners” at Sperone Westwater on Bowery, just around the corner from Lehmann Maupin. The central piece of the show is the two-story-high HD video projection “For Beginners (all the combinations of the thumb and fingers),” with two large hands at the top, and two more at the bottom, closing fingers as an unseen voice calls out “thumb,” “first finger,” “second finger,” etc. However, what is said and what is seen do not necessarily match; in addition, the hands occasionally flip upside down while the background changes from white to black and Terry Allen’s piano soundscape echoes throughout the gallery (emerging from the far elevator). The work is supplemented with a pair of graphite drawings and a smaller monitor showing one pair of hands responding to instructions. As with his recent “Days” exhibit at MoMA (also part of the Venice Biennale), in which different voices came out of fourteen speakers all calling out the days of the week in varying order, “For Children / For Beginners” is both exhilarating and confounding, a trademark of Nauman’s work. But don’t bother trying to figure it all out; just let the meditative sound and images take you away. It’s fascinating to see how well the two shows work together, as Oursler and Nauman each uses very different sizes in their installations — with fingers playing a role in both exhibits.

MATISYAHU: FESTIVAL OF LIGHT

Matisyahu will once again ight the night at special Hanukkah shows (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple venues in Brooklyn and New Jersey
November 29 – December 5, $38
www.matisyahuworld.com

Matisyahu, the Hasidic reggae rapper formerly known as Matthew Paul Miller, will be celebrating Hanukkah again with his Festival of Light tour, which will burn bright for five nights November 29 – December 5. The man behind such praiseworthy songs as “King Without a Crown,” “Jerusalem (Out of the Darkness Comes Light),” “Late Night in Zion,” “Aish Tamid,” and “Tzama L’Choi Nafshi (Psalm 63:2-3)” — and who is also known to throw in a prayer or two during his live shows — will be at Brooklyn Bowl November 29 with Dub Trio, the Music Hall of Williamsburg November 30 with Tally Hall, Northern Lights in Clifton Park on December 1 with Dub Trio, then back at the Music Hall December 4 with DJ Rehka and December 5 with Moon Taxi. We’ve celebrated Hanukkah with Matisyahu in the past, and it’s a blast, a night of fun music and lots of dancing that you don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy. But just in care you are, Matisyahu has just released a special Hanukkah song, “Miracle,” that is currently streaming for free on his website. “There are so many Christmas songs out there,” he explains. “I wanted to give the Jewish kids something to be proud of.”

WINTER’S EVE AT LINCOLN SQUARE 2010

Broadway from 59th to 66th Sts.
Monday, November 29, 5:30
Admission: free but please bring can of food to Dante Park for City Harvest
www.winterseve.org

The Lincoln Square Business Improvement District’s eleventh annual Winter’s Eve party takes place on Monday, November 29, featuring live performances, food tastings, children’s activities, ice sculptures, street musicians, holiday singalongs, and much more. The festivities begin at 5:30 in Dante Park with the tree-lighting ceremony, with John Pizzarelli handling the honors this year. Chia’s Dance Party will get booties shaking in Dante Park at 6:00, 7:00, and 8:00, the Brazilian percussion ensemble Harlem Samba will do the same in Richard Tucker Park at the same times, violinist supreme Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul will be playing in the Winter’s Eve Dance Tent at 6:15 and 7:30, the Anat Cohen Quartet with Avishai Cohen will be joined by Pizzarelli for shows at 6:45 and 7:45 at the American Folk Art Museum, the David Rubenstein Atrium will host a Holiday Bhangra Party featuring Red Baraat at 7:00, Jane Seymour will sign copies of AMONG ANGELS at the Borders in the Time Warner Center at 7:00, Naturally 7 will highlight a cappella holiday songs at the Apple Store at 7:00, the Rose Rutledge Trio will play in the Time Warner Center at 7:30, and the Alice Farley Dance Theater will create site-specific pieces in front of Alice Tully Hall all night long, in addition to performances by the Hungry March Band, Mariachi Real de Mexico, Arm-of-the-Sea, the Raya Brass Band, the West Side Y’s Kids, the Youth Pride Chorus, and others. And the New York Institute of Technology will present the multimedia Festival of Lights in its auditorium. All events are free, although the food tastings will require small payments; however, the Lincoln Square BID asks that everyone bring a can of food to donate to City Harvest in exchange for all of the free fun.

MACY’S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE 2010

The pilgrims arrive for another Turkey Day in NYC (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The pilgrims arrive for another Turkey Day in NYC, hoping this year not to get wet (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

77th St. & Central Park West to 34th St. & Seventh Ave.
Thursday, November 25, free, 9:00 am – 12 noon
212-494-4495
www.macys.com

In 1924, a bunch of Macy’s employees joined forces and held the first Macy’s Christmas Parade, as it was then known. This year Macy’s celebrates the eighty-fourth edition of this beloved American event. (For those of you going crazy trying to figure out how 1924 to 2010 makes 84, the parade was canceled from 1942 through 1944 because of World War II.) This year’s lineup features such floats as the Pillsbury Doughboy, Kung Fu Panda, “Super Cute” Hello Kitty, Kermit the Frog, Horton the Elephant, Spider-Man, Snoopy, and Pikachu along with such floats as 123 Sesame Street, Jolly Polly Pirate Ship, Elves Raise the Roof, Dora’s Christmas Carol Adventure, and Mount Rushmore’s American Pride, all essentially advertising for your holiday dollars. Also participating in the fun will be a dozen marching bands, tens of thousands of cheerleaders, the Big Apple Circus, the U.S. Pizza Team, lots and lots of clowns, and lip-synched performances by such celebrities as India.Arie, Jimmy Fallon & the Roots, Miranda Cosgrove, Arlo Guthrie, Kylie Minogue, Eric Hutchinson, Jessica Simpson, Michael Grimm, Gladys Knight, Kanye West, and various Broadway musical casts.

To get a head start on the parade, head on over to Central Park West and Columbus Ave. between 77th & 81st Sts. the day before, November 24, from approximately 3:00 to 10:00 to check out the Big Balloon Blow-up. Watching the annual inflation-eve blow-up of Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons is a growing tradition, with crowds getting bigger and bigger every year, but it’s still a thrill to see the giant characters raised from the ground, reborn every Thanksgiving to march in a parade viewed by millions and millions of people around the world.

KAWASAKI’S ROSE

Martin Huba as Pavel with Daniela Kolarova as Jana in a scene from KAWASAKI’S ROSE

KAWASAKI’S ROSE
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
November 24 – December 7
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
www.menemshafilms.com

Inspired by the success of THE LIVES OF OTHERS, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Oscar-winning 2006 drama about the German secret police, the Czech team of writer Petr Jarchovsky and director Jan Hrebejk (DIVIDED WE FALL, BEAUTY IN TROUBLE) tackle a similar subject from a different point of view in the powerful KAWASAKI’S ROSE. After discovering that her mystery illness is not terminal cancer, Lucie (Lenka Vlasáková) returns home to her husband, Ludek (Milan Mikulcik), and daughter, Bara (Anna Simonová), only to find out that Ludek is once again seeing his former lover, Radka (Petra Hrebícková). Ludek and Radka are working on a documentary about Lucie’s father, Pavel (Martin Huba), who is about to receive the coveted Czech memory prize in honor of his work with disabled children since the Velvet Revolution. But when Lucie understandably refuses to accept Radka’s gesture of friendship, Ludek decides to get even after being given Pavel’s complete dossier, which reveals that the beloved doctor and his wife, Jana (Daniela Kolárová), have been keeping some very damaging secrets that could tear apart their family. Like THE LIVES OF OTHERS, KAWASAKI’S ROSE is a nearly flawless film, with well-drawn characters, a compelling, emotional story, and a gripping narrative structure, always offering something unexpected. The performances are uniformly excellent, the script subtle and intelligent. Curiously, the only misstep, and thankfully it’s just a minor tangent, involves the title figure, Mr. Kawasaki (Isao Onoda), a painter who was taken in by Jana’s onetime lover, anarchist sculptor Borek (Antonin Kratochvil). Kawasaki seems completely unnecessary, existing merely as a metaphor both within the film and outside it, referring to master mathematician and paper folder Toshikazu Kawasaki and his famed origami rose that flows out from the center. Hrebejk will be at Film Forum for the 7:50 show on November 27.