twi-ny recommended events

JOHN DUBROW: NEW PAINTINGS

John Dubrow, “Self-Portrait,” oil on linen, 2009

Lori Bookstein Fine Art
138 Tenth Ave. between 17th & 18th Sts.
Tuesday – Saturday through October 30
Admission: free
212-750-0949
www.loribooksteinfineart.com

If you’ve seen some of John Dubrow’s previous shows at Lori Bookstein — the current one is his fifth solo presentation — you might be somewhat confused by its name, “New Paintings,” as several of the works will appear to be familiar. Indeed, Dubrow, born in Massachusetts in 1958 but based in New York City since 1983, has revisited three urban landscapes, breathing new life into them with his master brushstroke and innate sense of color. In the show’s six portraits (including poet Mark Strand, painters William Bailey, Tine Lundsfryd, and Ruth Miller, and a self-portrait), three park scenes, and one street scene, Dubrow infuses each piece with abstract spots of color that demand extended viewing as they slowly make their way to the forefront of the canvas, from the purple and gold in the lower right corner of “Bleecker Playground II” to the green tabletop in “Ruth Miller” to the yellow paper in “Mark Strand.” The combination of Dubrow’s intimate portraits of artists, done in their respective indoor work environments, and outdoor cityscapes, painted from memory and featuring blurred faces, makes for an exhilarating effect that should not be rushed through.

HIMALAYA FILM FESTIVAL

Kiran Krishna Shrestha’s BHEDAKO OON JASTO . . . IN SEARCH OF A SONG is part of first Himalaya Film Festival in New York City

Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St.
October 22-28
212-255-2243
www.quadcinema.com
www.himalayafilmfestival.us

Celebrating the natural beauty and history of its region, the Himalaya Film Festival has brought its self-described “visual feast” to the Netherland, Japan, and Estonia and makes its North American debut this week at the Quad. At 12:30 on Friday afternoon, Bhutan-based Tibetan artist Tashi Norbu will kick off the festival by painting a Buddha and chanting as part of the Himalayan Spirit Expo. The festival includes more than two dozen shorts, features, and documentaries, including PEOPLE OF DARKNESS (Dorji Wangchuk), JOURNEY OF A RED FRIDGE (Lucian Muntean & Natasa Stankovic), CHILDREN OF GOD (Yi Seung-jun), HOLY MEN AND FOOLS (Michael Yorke), and A ROUGH CUT ON THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LACHUMAN MAGAR (Dinesh Deokota), offering adventurous filmgoers “the chance to experience the Himalayan region, to travel beyond the image of the region as it is presented in regular movies, and meet the intriguing diversity and uniqueness of the Himalayas.”

CMJ BEST OF THE FEST: DEAN & BRITTA

Friday, October 22, NYU Skirball Center, 566 La Guardia Pl., $20-$30, 8:00
Friday, October 22, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St., $15, 11:30
www.myspace.com/deanandbritta
www.cmj2010.com

Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips will be doing double duty on Friday night at CMJ, first holding the final New York City performance ever of “13 Most Beautiful: Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests” at 8:00 at NYU’s Skirball Center before heading over to the Bowery Ballroom for “Dean Wareham Plays Galaxie 500.” Two years ago, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh commissioned Dean & Britta to compose scores for screen tests that the silver-haired artist shot at the Factory from 1964 to 1966; they searched through hundreds of the black-and-white films (each four minutes and sixteen seconds in length) until they decided on Lou Reed, Nico, Edie Sedgwick, Dennis Hopper, Paul America, Susan Bottomly, Ann Buchanan, Freddy Herko, Jane Holzer, Billy Name, Richard Rheem, Ingrid Superstar, and Mary Woronov. The result is a stunning collection of gorgeous instrumentals (“Silver Factory Theme,” “Incandescent Innocence”), covers (Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Keep It with Mine” and the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Not a Young Man Anymore”), “Knives from Bavaria” from the Dean & Britta record L’AVVENTURA, and other trippy tracks, including the phenomenal “Teenage Lightning (and Lonely Highways),” that the duo, accompanied by Anthony Lamarca and Matt Sumrow, will perform live at the Skirball while the screen tests are projected behind them. Then it’s off to the Bowery Ballroom, where Dean and Britta, who have been partners on- and offstage ever since Phillips joined Luna in 2005, will play songs from the brief tenure of the much-missed Galaxie 500, which released the Rough Trade albums TODAY (1988), ON FIRE (1989), and THIS IS OUR MUSIC (1990) once upon a time. Also on the bill are Crocodiles, Wakey! Wakey!, Brian Bonz & the Major Crimes, James Vincent McMorrow, and Young Buffalo.

Also
UME, Mercury Lounge, 7:00
Bad Rabbits, Pure Volume House, 8:00
Four Tet, Webster Hall, 8:30
Fishbone, (le) poisson rouge, 9:00
MiniBoone, Crash Mansion, 9:30
La Strada, Bruar Falls, 10:00
Shinobi Ninja, Sullivan Hall, 10:30
Takka Takka, Bruar Falls, 11:00
Hypernova, Cameo Gallery, 11:30
We Are Country Mice, Cake Shop, 11:50
Lower Dens, Rockwood Music Hall, 12 midnight
Nada Surf, Mercury Lounge, 1:00 am

GREGORY CREWDSON: SANCTUARY

Gregory Crewdson, “Untitled (17),” pigmented inkjet print, 2009

Gagosian Gallery
980 Madison Ave. between 76th & 77th Sts.
Tuesday – Saturday through October 30
Admission: free
212-744-2313
www.gagosian.com

Brooklyn native Gregory Crewdson makes a dramatic turn in his latest series of photographs, on view at the uptown Madison Ave. Gagosian Gallery through October 30. For years, Crewdson has been taking pictures of carefully arranged tableaux vivants that look like scenes from a never-made movie, filled with mystery and intrigue. For “Sanctuary,” Crewdson went to the famous Cinecittà Studios in Rome, a place where Italian and international directors have gone for decades to make the kind of films that Crewdson has alluded to in his previous work. But in this new series, the first he has done outside America, Crewdson shoots the bare bones of Cinecittà, the vacant streets and backlots, with no people present, just stark architecture overgrown with weeds and rusted scaffolding. Crewdson has returned to black and white for the first time in nearly fifteen years, giving the photos, taken either at sunrise or sunset, a haunting quality; in some ways they are a natural progression for the artist, as if they represent what is left after he completes his staged color photographs, leaving behind empty sets filled with similar mystery and intrigue. Many of the photos feature doorways and other openings and entrances (or exits) that serve as additional frames within the pictures; one even resembles a white movie screen. “As with much of my work,” Crewdson says about the series, “I looked at the blurred lines between reality and fiction, nature and artifice, and beauty and decay.” The result is another mesmerizing collection from one of the country’s most inventive photographers. (While at Gagosian, be sure to also check out “Dike Blair: Sculptures and Paintings,” in which the New York-based artist transforms the wooden crates that paintings and sculptures are shipped in into works of art themselves.)

FUV LIVE AT ZANKEL

Rita Houston is back for the sixth season of FUV Live at Zankel (photo by Lynda Shenkman Curtis)

Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall
Fifty-seventh St. at Seventh Ave.
Indigo Girls: Saturday, October 23, $42-$48, 10:00
Series continues through April 8
www.carnegiehall.org
www.wfuv.org/event/zankel

True New York City institutions Carnegie Hall, WFUV, and Rita Houston are teaming up again for their sixth season of FUV Live at Zankel, which in the past has featured such performers as the Cowboy Junkies, Shelby Lynne, Suzanne Vega, Rosanne Cash, Richie Havens, and Jorma Kaukonen playing intimate gigs at Zankel Hall. The series is curated by longtime radio host and FUV music director Houston, who selects the acts by thinking, “Who’s going to sound really good in this room?” Making its first appearance ever at Carnegie Hall, the Indigo Girls will play the downstairs listening room on October 23, followed by Martin Sexton’s Solo Holiday Show on December 11, the indefatigable Richard Thompson on March 19, and Edie Brickell introducing her new band, the Gaddabouts (with Steve Gadd on drums, Pino Palladino on bass, and Andy Fairweather Low on guitar), on April 8. The diverse group offers a good idea of the range of artists who can be heard on Fordham’s sixty-year-old station, home to such programs as “Woody’s Children” with Bob Sherman, “The Grateful Dead Hour,” “Sunday Breakfast” with John Platt, “Mixed Bag” with Pete Fornatale, “Vin Scelsa’s Idiot’s Delight,” and “The Whole Wide World with Rita Houston.” Get your tickets now to these Zankel Hall shows, because they will sell out.

CMJ BEST OF THE FEST: FLECK PR SHOWCASE

Kerry Davis and Two Tears will be serving up plenty of tasty garage rock and punk with Gringo Star, Howlies, and other bands at Fleck PR Showcase

Fontana’s
105 Eldridge St. between Broome & Grand Sts.
Thursday, October 21, 8:30
www.cmj2010.com
www.fleckpr.com

This is the one we’ve been waiting for. Many of the shows at the CMJ Music Marathon, which features more than 1,200 bands playing some one hundred venues, are sponsored by music magazines and websites, public relations firms, beverage companies, and other music-related businesses. On Thursday night, Fleck PR, which specializes in garage rock and punk, will be presenting seven of their artists, including three that help make this one of the best lineups of the festival. The evening begins with L.A.’s Nightmare and the Cat, followed by NYC’s Two Tears, Atlanta’s Gringo Star, Brooklyn’s hunters, Atlanta’s Howlies, Brooklyn’s Stalkers, and the Lower East Side’s Doppelganger. We’re particularly looking forward to seeing Two Tears, Gringo Star, and Howlies. We first fell for Gringo Star and their punk-injected southern garage rock with a twist at the 2008 CMJ, where they played songs from their debut disc, ALL Y’ALL; they’re headed back to the studio to record a new album, and it’s about time. (They’ll also be playing the Cameo Gallery on Friday night and Ace of Clubs on Saturday.) Last month we raved about former “one lady band” Kerry Davis, now known as Two Tears, who blasts short bursts of experimental bluesy garage punk with such titles as “Eat People,” “Die Tonight,” and “Shit Fucking Job.” Howlies have just followed up their February 2009 debut, TRIPPIN’ WITH HOWLIES, with the stunningly awesome five-track EP STUNNED, the illegitimate child of mid-’60s Stones and late-’70s Ramones, with bold dashes of southern rock and surf punk thrown in for very good measure. (Howlies will also be at the Living Room and Union Hall on Thursday night before the Fontana’s gig, followed by shows Friday afternoon at the Heartland Brewery and Friday night at Piano’s.)

Also
Savoir Adore, Public Assembly, 3:30; Bowery Electric, 7:15
New Collisions, R Bar, 8:00
Franz Nicolay, Coco 66, 8:15
French Horn Rebellion, the Studio at Webster Hall, 9:15
Hsu-nami, Fat Baby, 10:15
Reggie Watts, Comix, 11:00
Hypernova, R Bar, 11:00
Das Racist, Santos Party House, 11:30
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 11:30
Drink Up Buttercup, Bowery Electric, 11:45

DANBERT NOBACON

Danbert Nobacon will be spreading anarchy in Brooklyn with new book and song cycle (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Word Brooklyn
126 Franklin St. at Milton St.
Saturday, October 23, free, 7:30
718-383-0096
www.danbertnobacon.com
www.wordbrooklyn.com
www.exterminatingangel.com

Anarchist, writer, musician, comedian, and activist Danbert Nobacon might not be dumping ice buckets on British deputy prime ministers these days (as he famously did to John Prescott in 1998), but that doesn’t mean the former Chumbawumba lead singer and keyboardist still isn’t fighting the power. Born Nigel Hunter in Leeds in 1959, Nobacon, now a father of ten-year-old twins and living in the quiet, rustic environs of Washington State, will be at the Brooklyn indie bookstore WORD on Saturday night, reading from his brand-new book, 3 DEAD PRINCES (Exterminating Angel, October 2010, $13), and performing songs from his latest record, WOEBEGONE (Verbal Burlesque, October 2010). Billed as “An Anarchist Fairy Tale,” 3 DEAD PRINCES follows the trials and tribulations of thirteen-year-old princess Alexandra Stormybald Wilson, who finds herself at the center of a potentially epic battle between the Oosarians and the Morainians after accidentally killing Mercurio, the future king of Morainia who, unfortunately for him, got way too fresh with the teenager known as Stormy. Ordered to protect her, the Fool takes Stormy on a magical adventure where she meets the Gricklegrack, the Witch in the Ditch, Giggle Monkeys, and various other smakobbed probbers, nymphemoms, quizzleprinks, blasfenemies, wangodmatists, and gatoriles with differing views on transkinkery, regaliocol, and other pompiffery. Accompanied by black-and-white illustrations by film director Alex Cox (SID & NANCY, REPO MAN), 3 DEAD PRINCES also manages to comment on religion, politics, evolution, and the environment in clever and playful ways and concludes with a fascinating Author’s Response that delves into the anarchist theories of Peter Kropotkin and scientist E. O Wilson and David Sloan Wilson, making it a fun read for adults and children alike.

Nobacon creates a much darker fantasy world in WOEBEGONE, a song cycle for a futuristic noir novel he hasn’t written yet. Traveling from 1620 Jamestown to 1993 Chicago to 2025 Leeds, Nobacon, joined by the Seattle Gothic folk band the Bad Things, tells the tale of poor Johnny Woebegone, who is “mixed up in the head” in a “natural world recoiling in horror,” as Nobacon describes in a short story that comes in the twenty-four-page lyrics booklet. Constantly besieged by the devil and his minions, Johnny shares his sad tale of woe in such songs as “Frank Woebegone’s Lament,” “Lilithiana Red,” and “Lost Lost Weekend,” with Jimmy “Pickpocket” Berg, Gregory “Captain Panto” Miles, Beau Stanislov “the Gypsy” Herbert, Austin “Mad Wilcox” Quist, “Lord” Steve Kamke, and Funi “La Fantastica” McLaughlin joining him on mandolin, organ, banjo, dobro, saw, accordion, sousaphone, and other instruments, resulting in a compelling atmosphere that mixes Kurt Weill with Tom Waits, all built around Nobacon’s gruff, throaty voice. But don’t let all the darkness and devilry scare you off; Nobacon is an excellent live performer with a wry sense of humor, if you couldn’t tell, so this rare appearance in Brooklyn should make for quite a night.