twi-ny recommended events

HILARY EASTON + COMPANY: LIGHT AND SHADE

Hilary Easton presents the world premiere of LIGHT AND SHADE at BAC this week

Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
October 14-17, $20
www.hilaryeaston.com
www.bacnyc.org

“I love dancing,” choreographer, dancer, teacher, and native New Yorker Hilary Easton explains in her artist’s statement. “I love inventing movement, watching it, doing it.” That joy comes through in her work, which has been presented since 1992 at such venues as PS122, Danspace Project, SummerStage, the American Dance Festival, and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors. New York-based Hilary Easton + Company will be holding the world premiere of their latest work, LIGHT AND SHADE, this week at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. The forty-five-minute duet will be performed by Michael Ingle and Emily Pope-Blackman, set to a sound score by Mike Rugnetta, with lighting design by Kathy Kaufmann and costumes by Madeleine Walach. The piece explores the many ways of experiencing intimacy, between the dancers onstage as well as between the performers and the audience.

ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY NIGHT

Alejandro Jodorowsky takes viewers on quite an acid trip in surreal Western EL TOPO

RABBIT MOVIE NIGHTS: EL TOPO AND THE HOLY MOUNTAIN
Rabbitholestudio
33 Washington St., Brooklyn
Wednesday, October 13, 7:00
Admission: free (two beers for $3)
718-852-1500
www.rabbitholestudio.com

EL TOPO (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)
Following the screening of several of his films and a personal appearance by the man himself at the Museum of Arts & Design, the New York City celebration of all things Alejandro Jodorowsky continues with a free double feature at Rabbitholestudio in DUMBO. It begins with the Chilean-born Mexican filmmaker’s acid Western EL TOPO, a psychedelic head trip that will blow your mind. Jodorowsky stars as the title character, a gunslinger traveling through a deserted landscape accompanied by his naked young son, who already knows his way around a firearm. After coming upon a town that has been decimated by a nasty group of marauders working for the Colonel, El Topo seeks violent revenge, eventually taking off with a woman and leaving his boy behind as he meets four masters on his path to proving he is the best there is. But soon El Topo is praying for redemption with a community of inbred cripples trapped in a cave. EL TOPO is a wild and bizarre journey through religious imagery, romance, and vengeance, a surreal spaghetti Western strained through the mad mind of Jodorowsky, widely hailed as the creator of the midnight movie. The film melds Bergman with Leone, Tod Browning’s FREAKS with Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy, filtered through Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s LONE WOLF AND CUB. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before and, despite your better instincts, will lure you into the cult of Jodorowsky.

The beautiful weirdness never ends in Jodorowsky cult classic THE HOLY MOUNTAIN

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973)
Rabbit Movie Night concludes with one of the strangest films ever made. Inspired by Rene Daumal’s MOUNT ANALOGUE: A NOVEL OF SYMBOLICALLY AUTHENTIC NON-EUCLIDEAN ADVENTURES IN MOUNTAIN CLIMBING, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s THE HOLY MOUNTAIN also involves symbolically non-Euclidean adventures in mountain climbing, funneled through Carlos Castaneda, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and magic mushrooms and LSD galore. What passes for narrative follows a Jesus look-alike thief (Horacio Salinas) and an alchemist with a thing for female nudity (Jodorowsky) on the path to enlightenment; along the way they encounter the mysterious Tarot, stigmata, stoning, eyeballs, frogs, flies, cold-blooded murder, naked young boys, chakra points, life-size plaster casts, Nazi dancers, sex, violence, blood, gambling, turning human waste into gold, death and rebirth, and the search for the secret of immortality via representatives of the planets, each with their own extremely bizarre story to tell. Jodorowsky, who is credited with having invented the midnight movie with the acid Western EL TOPO (1970), literally shatters religious iconography in a kaleidoscopic whirlwind of jaw-droppingly gorgeous and often inexplicable imagery composed from a surreal color palette, set to a score by free jazz trumpeter Don Cherry and Archies keyboardist Ron Frangipane. (Frangipane also worked with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who produced this film with their business manager, Allen Klein.) THE HOLY MOUNTAIN — which brings a whole new insight to Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle — is filled with psychedelic mysticism centered around the human search for transcendence in a wilderness of the sacred and profane. Jodorowsky’s work can move you deeply, but don’t expect it to make much sense. Sit back and let in pour in and over you — you’ll feel it. You may hate it, but you’ll feel it. Although you’ll definitely hate the very end.

THE DARKNESS OF DAY: RECENT FILMS BY JAY ROSENBLATT

Jay Rosenblatt’s remarkable THE DARKNESS OF DAY will have its New York premiere October 13-18 at MoMA

MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
October 13-18
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.moma.org
www.jayrosenblattfilms.com

Watching his films, it’s easy to see how Jay Rosenblatt was formerly a therapist and has a master’s degree in counseling psychology. Born in New York and based in San Francisco for many years, Rosenblatt makes what he calls “long shorts,” “diary films,” and “short shorts” composed primarily of found and archival footage and home movies. Combining the images with existing text and classical or original music, he creates mesmerizing, poetic, deeply philosophical works that explore the nature of life and loss. From October 13 to 18, MoMA will be presenting the New York premiere of Rosenblatt’s latest masterpiece, THE DARKNESS OF DAY (2009), a twenty-six-minute examination of suicide inspired by the self-inflicted deaths of two people he knew. Using footage rescued from school Dumpsters, Rosenblatt incorporates industrial and educational films about suicide, touching on such well-known cases as the Hemingway family and the first man to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge as well as that of a Japanese woman who leaped into a volcano, setting off a rash of copycats. Beverly Berning and Richard J. Silberg narrate the film, which includes readings from a suicide victim’s journal, in a steady monotone that is a trademark of Rosenblatt’s work. THE DARKNESS OF DAY is both fascinating and frightening, perhaps the most honest look at suicide we’ve ever seen.

AFRAID SO is one of five poignant films by Jay Rosenblatt being shown at MoMA

Four other films will be screened along with THE DARKNESS OF DAY. In I JUST WANTED TO BE SOMEBODY (2006), Rosenblatt follows orange juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant’s war against gays in the 1970s. The three-minute PRAYER (2001) was part of Underground Zero, a project spearheaded by Rosenblatt and frequent collaborator Caveh Zahedi in which some 150 independent filmmakers were asked to make short films in response to the events of September 11, 2001; Rosenblatt combines shots of Muslims praying with a score by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. In the three-minute AFRAID SO (2006), Garrison Keillor reads from a poem by Jeanne Marie Beaumont that asks questions that all can be answered by the title while Rosenblatt shows related images; among the questions are “Is this going to hurt?,” “Will it leave a scar?,” “Are you contagious?,” and “Will I have to put him to sleep?” Rosenblatt opens up his own wounds in the multiple award-winning PHANTOM LIMB (2005), in which the producer, writer, director, and editor compares the death of his younger brother at the age of seven to the phantom limb syndrome experienced by people after losing an arm or a leg but still feeling it is there. Over a melancholic score featuring pieces by Arvo Pärt and Benjamin Britten, Rosenblatt intercuts home movies of him and his brother with narration about his family and new interviews with a man who experiences the phantom limb phenomenon, an expert on life after death, and a cemetery owner. PHANTOM LIMB is a beautiful yet harrowing film, a powerful journey into memory and loss. Despite their often very serious subject matter, Rosenblatt’s films are absolutely thrilling to watch, intellectually stimulating, visually vibrant, and emotionally powerful. Rosenblatt will be at MoMA to introduce the 7:00 program on October 13.

LOS CAMPESINOS!

Los Campesinos! are unlikely to be boring at two area shows (photo by Jon Bergman)

Music Hall of Williamsburg
66 North Sixth St.
Friday, October 15, and Saturday, October 16, $21.40, 9:00
www.myspace.com/loscampesinos
www.musichallofwilliamsburg.com

Los Campesinos! fully deserve the exclamation point at the end of their name, as they do everything in a big way. There’s plenty of big and nothing dull about their latest full-length album, ROMANCE IS BORING (Arts & Crafts, January 2010), fifteen blasts of loud, hip-shaking power pop that mixes in ’80s new wave, punk, funk, and blaring horns into its anthemic, aggressive party rock (and we mean that in a good way). Their follow-up to 2007’s STICKING FINGERS INTO SOCKETS, 2008’s HOLD ON NOW, YOUNGSTER, and last year’s WE ARE BEAUTIFUL, WE ARE DOOMED, the disc emits the endless glee of Matt & Kim and the deep, dark yearning of My Bloody Valentine. The seven-piece Cardiff band sings about vomit and physics (“In Media Res”), phallic cake and cauterized ventricles (“Romance Is Boring”), toilet walls and huffing a Sharpie (the driving “We’ve Got your Back [Documented Emotional Breakdown Number 2]”), erections and heat rash (the synth-heavy “A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; or, Letters from Me to Charlotte”), plugholes and piss-soaked jeans (the relatively calm “Coda: A Burn Scar in the Shape of the Sooner State”), and petrol and dog shot (the orchestral “I Just Sighed, I Just Sighed, Just So You Know”) in songs that are as fanciful as their titles. Everything they are about is encapsulated in the epic-sounding “This Is a Flag. There Is No Wind,” a three-and-a-half-minute journey through indie music. Then, just this past August, Los Campesinos! released a four-song remix follow-up EP to ROMANCE IS BORING called ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS, which makes sure you don’t get bored with the former, which we weren’t, but we’re psyched to be able to hear the Princess Version of “Romance Is Boring,” “Letters from Me to Charlotte (RSVP),” “Straight in at 101/It’s Never Enough,” and “(All’s Well that Ends) In Media Res.” Los Campesinos! played Irving Plaza earlier this year, and now they’re back for two shows at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on October 15-16, with Byrds of Paradise and Johnny Foreigner.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: COLIN QUINN’S LONG STORY SHORT

Helen Hayes Theatre
240 West 44th St.
October 23 – January 8, $59-$150
www.colinquinnlongstoryshort.com
www.hayestheatre.com

This past summer, Colin Quinn’s one-man show, LONG STORY SHORT, had a limited run downtown at the Bleecker Street Theatre. It’s now moving uptown to Broadway, where it is scheduled for an eleven-week limited engagement at the Helen Hayes Theatre starting October 22. We’ve been following the career of the Brooklyn-born Irish comedian since his days at MTV as the sidekick for the game show REMOTE CONTROL and then on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, where he anchored “Weekend Update” for several seasons. Of course, he’ll always have a place in our heart because of his great music video “Going Back to Brooklyn.” More recently, he hosted TOUGH CROWD on Comedy Central and is a regular guest on THE OPIE & ANTHONY SHOW. The gruff-voiced Quinn, who has always been on the cusp of breaking through, promises to give the “History of the World in 75 Minutes” in LONG STORY SHORT, which is directed by another Brooklyn-born comedian, Jerry Seinfeld. Be prepared for a very different perspective on our illustrious past.

Colin Quinn’s one-man show, directed by Jerry Seinfeld, is moving to Broadway, and twi-ny has free tickets to give away

This Week in New York has four pairs of tickets to give away for free, good for select performances between October 23 and November 30. To enter to win a pair, send your name and daytime phone number to contest@twi-ny.com no later than Friday, October 15, at 12 noon. All entrants must be at least twenty-one years of age. Four winners will be chosen at random. Good luck!

COLUMBUS PARK

Columbus statue rises high in Brooklyn’s Columbus Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Between Adams St., Cadman Plaza West, and Joralemon St.
Admission: free
www.nyc.gov/parks

In 1971, the 4.14-acre park in front of the New York State Supreme Court Building in Brooklyn was renamed Columbus Park, in honor of the Italian explorer. At the center of the park is a tall statue of its namesake, Christopher Columbus. Carved in the 1860s by expatriate artist Emma Stebbins in Rome, the statue rises high in the paved park. (Stebbins also designed the “Angel of the Waters” in the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.), Although the statue was given to New York City in 1869, it was initially installed in 1934 in Columbus Park in Manhattan’s Chinatown, then moved to its current location in 1971, where it is joined by John Quincy Adams Ward’s 1891 statue of abolitionist, clergyman, and possible adulterer Henry Ward Beecher, which sits upon a pedestal by Richard Morris Hunt, and Anneta Duveen’s 1972 bust of Robert Francis Kennedy, which includes inspirational quotes from the onetime U.S. attorney general, senator, and presidential hopeful. The park is also home to the Borough Hall Greenmarket, which has been selling fruits, vegetables, baked goods, seafood, meat and dairy products, and other local, fresh delights for twenty-five years; the market is open Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm.

COLUMBUS DAY PARADE

The Columbus Day Parade will march up Fifth Ave. today (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Fifth Ave. from 47th to 72nd Sts.
Monday, October 11, free, 11:30 am – 3:00 pm
www.columbuscitizensfd.org

The Columbus Day Parade used to celebrate the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. The only problem was that there were already people living there. So now it “celebrates the spirit of exploration and courage that inspired Christopher Columbus’s 1492 expedition and the important contributions Italian-Americans have made to the United States.” Beginning at 11:30 this morning at 47th St., high school marching bands, community organizations, folk groups, and more will make their way up Fifth Ave., dancing, singing, and paying tribute to the vast history of Italians in America. This year’s sixty-sixth annual parade, led by Grand Marshal Maria Bartiromo and honorees Frank Bisignano (the CEO of JPMorganChase) and Jason DeSena Trennert (the founder of Strategas Research Partners), features special live performances from PINOCCHIO, THE ITALIAN MUSICAL. Related events include a wreath laying at Columbus Circle at 9:30 and a cultural exhibition at Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal.