twi-ny recommended events

JUDY CHICAGO

Judy Chicago and art historian Frances Borzello will discuss their new book on Frida Kahlo at the Brooklyn Museum on October 3 (photo by Donald Woodman)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Pkwy.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, third Floor
Sunday, October 3, free with suggested contribution of $10, 2:00
718-638-5000
www.brooklynmuseum.org

Judy Chicago, creator of the world famous “Dinner Party” installation currently at the Brooklyn Museum and one of the pioneers of feminist art, will make a special visit to the Eastern Parkway institution on Sunday afternoon, October 3, at 2:00, celebrating the release of her latest book, FRIDA KAHLO: FACE TO FACE (Prestel, September 2010, $65). Chicago will be joined by her collaborator, art historian Frances Borzello, in discussing Kahlo’s place as a painter of women’s portraits; in the book, Chicago and Borzello examine 120 such works by the renowned Mexican artist, looking at them from both a personal and professional angle. The discussion will be followed by a Q&A and book signing.

Before or after the book launch, be sure to save plenty of time to see “The Dinner Party,” which has found a long-term home in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art on the fourth floor. The world’s most remarkable dinner party is held at a triangular table that consists of three 48-foot sides with 13 place settings apiece, paying tribute to 39 women who helped shape and change the world. The plate design — a combination of a butterfly pattern and a vulva — and the embroidered silk covering are different for each historical figure, based on their life and accomplishments, which are listed in the accompanying booklet and on Heritage Panels in an adjoining room. Another 999 women are honored with their names inscribed in gold on the Heritage Floor beneath the table; Chicago arranged it so that women who were successful in the same field are placed together. For example, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other suffragists are written under Susan B. Anthony’s setting, and Harriet Tubman and other civil rights leaders are under Sojourner Truth’s setting. Chicago celebrates these women by using so-called feminine iconography, including embroidery, table setting, and tapestry weaving, all of which are generally associated with women, and placing the vulva front and center as an expression of not only life but power.

ART IN ODD PLACES: CHANCE

Paul Notzold’s “TXTual Healing” will project audience texts onto a 14th St. building as part of Art in Odd Places public art festival

14th St. between the Hudson & East Rivers
October 1-10
Admission: free
www.artinoddplaces.org

Everyday life in New York City is built around the idea of chance — risk as well as luck, both good and bad — as residents, tourists, workers, and other visitors are all part of a daily maelstrom filled with expected and unexpected encounters with friends and strangers, taxis and buses, parks and skyscrapers. If the city is its own massive museum, then its streets are like individual galleries, and with that in mind, curators Yaelle Amir and Petrushka Bazin have taken over 14th St. from October 1 to 10. “Chance” is the latest presentation from Art in Odd Places, which seeks to stretch the limits of public art. Playing off the themes of “proposition, luck, randomness, risk, and opportunity,” Amir and Bazin have gathered together more than two dozen site-specific projects that run the length of 14th St. from the Hudson to the East River, as passersby will come upon live music, dance, sound installations, interactive sculpture, and other participatory events. Perhaps you’ll find one of Sheryl Oring’s “To a Young Poet” envelopes, inside of which is an excerpt from Rainer Maria Rilke and a request for you to respond. Or maybe your movement will be incorporated into Simonetta Moro’s “Chance Drawing: Reverse Window Shopping” at Rags-a-Gogo. Make sure you have proper identification if you want to take one of notary public Carrie Dashow’s “Great Oaths.” Go ahead and answer that ringing phone, as it could be Christopher Dameron and Annika Newell’s “Silent Call” on the other end. Be brave and enter Einat Amir’s “Enough About You,” in which you’ll be put in a room with a stranger and then have a conversation. Although it might be raining anyway, you won’t want to get wet from BroLab Collective’s “Pump 14,” which will be transporting water down 14th St. via a manual bucket filtration system. Watch to see if Irvin Morazan, munching on Cheez Doodles while dressed in a Mayan-inspired headdress, is able to hail a cab in “Taxi!! Taxi!! Taxii!!” If someone is waving at you from across the street, be sure to wave back, because it’s probably part of Flux Factory’s “Sign a Waver.” And if three women suddenly start telling you stories on a street corner, it could very well be Jessica Ann Peavy’s “Two Lies and a Truth,” and it’s up to you to decide which rumor is real. Some of the events will continue all week, while others will take place only tonight, so check the schedule at the above website if you’re interested in a specific performance.

THE HEIST

Walter Matthau tries to get to the bottom of a bizarre subway robbery in THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE, which kicks off three-week heist festival at Film Forum

Walter Matthau tries to get to the bottom of a bizarre subway heist in THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE

THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (Joseph Sargent, 1974)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
October 1-2
Series runs through October 21
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org

Loosely adapted from the book by John Godey, THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE wonderfully captures the cynicism of 1970s New York City. Four heavily armed and mustached men — Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw), Mr. Green (Martin Balsam), Mr. Gray (Hector Elizondo), and Mr. Brown (Earl Hindman), colorful pseudonyms that influenced Quentin Tarantino’s RESERVOIR DOGS — hijack an uptown 4 train, demanding one million dollars in one hour from a nearly bankrupt city or else they will kill all eighteen passengers, one at a time, minute by minute. The hapless mayor (Lee Wallace) is in bed with the flu, so Deputy Mayor Warren LaSalle (Tony Roberts) takes charge on the political end while transit detective Lt. Zachary Garber (a great Walter Matthau) and Inspector Daniels (Julius Harris) of the NYPD team up to try to figure out just how in the world the criminals expect to get away with the seemingly impossible heist. Directed by Joseph Sargent (SYBIL), the film offers a nostalgic look back at a bygone era, before technology radically changed the way trains are run and police work is handled. The film also features a very funny, laconic Jerry Stiller as Lt. Rico Patrone and the beloved Kenneth McMillan as the borough commander. The film was remade as a television movie in 1998, starring Edward James Olmos, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Lorraine Bracco, and as an embarrassingly bad big-budget bomb in 2009 by Tony Scott, who we’re hoping won’t ruin his upcoming remake of THE WARRIORS as well.

Robert Redford, Paul Sand, and George Segal form an offbeat band of crooks in Peter Yates’s THE HOT ROCK (courtesy Photofest)

THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE, which is being shown as part of a double feature October 1-2 with Don Siegel’s underrated CHARLEY VARRICK, in which Matthau stars as a small-time crook who gets a little too lucky, kicks off the three-week series “The Heist” at Film Forum, an exciting collection of thirty-seven films featuring unique attempts at stealing audience’s hearts and minds. Who doesn’t love a good caper movie? Programmer extraordinaire Bruce Goldstein certainly does, as seen by the awesome lineup he has put together, which includes Jules Dassin’s classics TOPKAPI (1964) and RIFIFI (1955); Sidney Lumet’s suspenseful THE ANDERSON TAPES (1971), screening with William Friedkin’s fluffy but fun THE BRINK’S JOB (1978); an inspired double bill of Norman Jewison’s THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968) and Peter Yates’s very funny THE HOT ROCK (1972), in which Robert Redford, Geoge Segal, Paul Sand, and Ron Leibman break into the Brooklyn Museum; Quentin Tarantino’s violent bloodbath RESERVOIR DOGS (1992); a double play of the great Sterling Hayden in John Huston’s THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950) and Stanley Kubrick’s THE KILLING (1956); and a Nouvelle Vague pairing of Jean-Luc Godard’s BAND OF OUTSIDERS (1964) and Jean-Pierre Melville’s BOB LE FLAMBEUR (1955). Keep watching twi-ny for select reviews and further recommendations as the series continues.

CHILE PEPPER FIESTA

Brooklyn Botanic Garden
900 Washington Ave.
Saturday, October 2, $10-$15, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
718-623-7200
www.bbg.org

Things are going to get mighty spicy at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Saturday as the annual Chile Pepper Fiesta arrives, ready to burn through an afternoon of special events galore. There will be fiery cooking demonstrations by Dave Schuttenberg of Cabrito (12:30), Corwin Kave of Fatty Crab and Fatty ’Cue (2:00), Karthik Kumar of Brick Lane Curry House (3:30), and Simon Glenn of Tchoup Shop (5:00), along with plenty of tantalizing tastings that should go well with cocktails prepared by spicy mixologist Kara Newman, who will also be signing copies of her recently published book SPICE & ICE. Chocolate lovers can participate in the Brooklyn Chile Chocolate Takedown and partake of particularly peppery chocolate desserts, hot cocoa, and chocolatey beer. The Chile Goddess will be offering gardening tips at the Lily Pool Terrace (1:00 – 5:00), and tours of the garden’s chile plants are scheduled for 3:00 and 4:00. Live music, featuring bands from international regions that love their chile peppers, will run all day on the Cherry Esplanade Stage, with Mandingo Ambassadors (West Africa, 12:15), Red Baraat! (North India, 1:45), Atlas Soul (North Africa / Middle East, 3:15), and Boukman Eksperyans (Haiti, 4:45). Dawn Drake & Zapote (12 noon & 3:15) and the Ukuladies (1:15 & 4:15) will grace the Chile Chocolate Stage at the Meadow. Rain or shine, it should be one helluva hot time.

THE FALL AFFORDABLE ART FAIR NEW YORK CITY

7W New York
7 West 34th St.
September 30 – October 3, $15-$20 per day
www.aafnyc.com

The Affordable Art Fair has been a mainstay of the spring season, but it is now holding its first-ever New York City fall fair. From September 30 through October 3, more than seventy-five exhibitors will be selling contemporary art, including paintings, drawings, photography, and sculpture, with prices ranging from $100 to $10,000. The fair will also feature such workshops as “How to Live with Art” and “Get Your Art On: Navigating the Landscape of Collecting” and daily open studios. And as a bonus, admission is free Friday night from 6:00 to 8:00. It doesn’t get much more affordable than that.

NEW YORK 19th CENTURY PUB CRAWL

Meet at Bridge Cafe
279 Water St.
Saturday, October 2, 4:00
Pay as you go, including $10 cocktail specials
www.19thcpubcrawl.com

There’s room for only fifty people at the New York 19th Century Pub Crawl, which begins Saturday at 4:00 at the Bridge Cafe, a onetime brothel that is the oldest continuous drinking establishment in the city and where pub crawlers will start off with an Old Fashioned, ten-year-old Glen Grant, and specially prepared hors d’oeuvres. The drinking tour will continue with a history talk at Swift Hibernian Lounge with Bowmore 12 Year Old, the original Cock-Tail, and mini-sausages, followed by Glenrothes 1998 at Rye House and stops at the venerable institutions the Old Town and Pete’s Tavern. Advance RSVP and nineteenth-century dress are strongly suggested for this unique evening of old-fashioned fun, where pub crawlers will learn plenty about scotch as well as Jonathan Swift, O. Henry, and East Village history.

SEVEN WORKS BY TRISHA BROWN

Stephen Petronio walks down the outside of the Whitney as part of Trisha Brown “Off the Wall” show at the Whitney (photo by twi-ny/mdr)



OFF THE WALL: PART 2
Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Ave. at 75th St.
September 30 – October 3, free with museum admission of $12-$18
212-570-3600
www.whitney.org
Stephen Petronio: “Man Walking Down the Side of a Building” slideshow

The Trisha Brown Dance Company continues its fortieth anniversary celebration with four days of live performance art at the Whitney, re-creating seminal works inside a second-floor gallery, in the museum’s outdoor sculpture court, and down the side of the building. The exciting weekend begins Thursday afternoon at 3:30 with “Falling Duet I,” “Leaning Duets I,” “Walking on the Wall,” and “Spanish Dance” in the Mildred & Herbert Lee Galleries, along with films and the sound installation “Skymap,” and will be repeated on October 1 at 3:30 & 7:00 and October 2-3 at 12 noon and 3:30. “Floor of the Forest” will be staged by members of the 2010-11 Second Avenue Dance Company at 4:30 in the sculpture court on Thursday and repeated numerous times through Sunday. Yesterday people marveled as a woman made her way down the outside facade of the Whitney, but that was no mere daredevil; it was choreographer Elizabeth Streb rehearsing Brown’s “Man Walking Down the Side of a Building,” which will be performed by Stephen Petronio Thursday at 5:00 and Saturday at 1:30 and 5:00 and by Streb Friday at 5:00 and Sunday at 1:30 and 5:00.