twi-ny recommended events

ELEGANT ELEGIES: THE FILMS OF MASAHIRO SHINODA

Masahiro Shinoda’s SAMURAI SPY is a genre film with many unexpected twists and turns

NYFF MASTERWORKS: SAMURAI SPY (IBUN SARUTOBI SASUKE) (Masahiro Shinoda, 1965)
New York Film Festival
Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Tuesday, October 5, 9:00, and Wednesday, October 6, 4:00
Series runs September 25 – October 10
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com

It’s fourteen years after the Battle of Sekigahara, and the Tokugawa is still battling the Toyotomi as spies cross the land, leaving paths of blood in their wake. Caught in the middle is Sartobi Sasuke (Koji Takahashi) of the Sanada clan, who is after the truth. This is not your average samurai flick — there’s a little sex, nudity, Christianity, dismemberment, and even leprosy, although the plot is plenty confusing; good luck trying to figure out who is on which side, but always keep a look out for those men in the mysterious masks, as well as Sakon (Tetsuro Tamba), the dude in the silly white costume. The minimalist, noirish score by Toru Takemitsu is right on. SAMURAI SPY is part of the NYFF Masterworks section of the forty-eighth New York Film Festival, in the series “Elegant Elegies: The Films of Masahiro Shinoda,” which honors the genre-bending Japanese New Wave auteur with screenings of such works as THE ASSASSIN, KILLERS ON PARADE, MOONLIGHT SERENADE, and PALE FLOWER.

RICHARD DAWKINS: THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

Richard Dawkins will discuss his latest book at a free discussion and signing September 29 at the Cooper Union

Cooper Union Great Hall
7 East Seventh St. at Third Ave.
Wednesday, September 29, free, 6:30
212-353-4196
www.cooper.edu
www.richarddawkins.net

In his latest book, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH: THE EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION, now available in paperback (Free Press, August 2010, $16.99), controversial scientist, philosopher, and atheist Richard Dawkins writes in the preface, “The evidence for evolution grows by the day, and has never been stronger. At the same time, paradoxically, ill-informed opposition is also stronger than I can remember. This book is my personal summary of the evidence that the ‘theory’ of evolution is actually a fact — as incontrovertible a fact as any in science.” Dawkins, who has also written such tomes as THE GOD DELUSION, THE SELFISH GENE, and A DEVIL’S CHAPLAIN, will be at the Cooper Union on September 29 for a free reading and discussion about THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, followed by a book signing. Dawkins loves the spotlight, so this should be an entertaining and enlightening evening.

WHATEVER BLOG PARTY

Shark? will be part of a great lineup of local bands playing the latest Whatever Blog Party at Glasslands (photo by Amy Grimm)

Glasslands Gallery
289 Kent Ave.
Wednesday, September 29, $8, 8:00
www.whatever-amy.blogspot.com
www.glasslands.blogspot.com

Amy Grimm, who runs the Whatever Blog, is holding her latest monthly party on September 29 at Glasslands, featuring an ultrahip lineup of indie bands, all for only eight bucks. Grimm writes that the Señors of Marseille “have a really full, rich sound with beautiful harmonies that hark back to Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, with a twist of ’90s Brit pop (think Supergrass and Cornershop) and a hint of old school R.E.M thrown in for good measure.” Shark? had to cancel their scheduled appearance at the July Whatever Blog Party, but they’re now back, “a mega rad Brooklyn band [that] has a really cool, very ’60s garage pop sound mixed in with some early R.E.M. with a sense of humor,” in Grimm’s words. Another New York City band, Bottle Up and Go, “has a really cool, distinctive sound that is kinda like if you put the White Stripes, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Zeppelin, and Little Richard in a blender,” Grimm explains on her site. “Bottle Up and Go is really primal and raw live.” After catching the Sundelles at Public Assembly during the Northside Festival, Grimm wrote, “I was very impressed. Their sound was very old school three chord punk done right.” In addition, there will be DJ sets by Nick Kinsey and Wyndham Boylan-Garnett from Diamond Doves and Elvis Perkins in Dearland. (For more on Amy, you can check out our twi-ny talk with her here).

WILLI DORNER: BODIES IN URBAN SPACES

Willi Dorner will lead audiences on a free tour of site-specific dance installations on Monday at sunset

Crossing the Line Festival
Central Plaza at Coenties Slip Park at Pearl St.
Between Broad St. & Hanover Sq.
Monday, September 27, free, 5:46 pm
www.fiaf.org

On Sunday morning at sunrise, multimedia choreographer Willi Dorner led people on a walk through the Wall Street area, encountering human sculptures who performed site-specific dances for the traveling audience. On Monday afternoon at sunset, the Vienna-based Dorner will lead another group on a free tour, once again filled with surprise performances incorporated into the urban design of Lower Manhattan. The two-part moving installation brings to a close FIAF’s annual Crossing the Line Festival, consisting of music, dance, art, literature, theater, forums, film, and more.

STANLEY CLARKE BAND FEATURING HIROMI

Hiromi and Stanley Clarke will team up again for a week at the Blue Note (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Blue Note
131 West Third St.
September 28 – October 3, $25-$45, 8:00 & 10:30
212-475-8592
www.bluenote.net
www.stanleyclarke.com
summerstage slideshow

Back in late June, the Stanley Clarke Band, joined by Japanese pianist wunderkind Hiromi, played an inspiring free show at SummerStage as part of the Carefusion Jazz Festival, with legendary promoter George Wein in attendance. Clarke was in great spirits, wandering across the stage from keyboardist Ruslan Sirota to drummer Ronald Bruner Jr. to Hiromi, part fan, part orchestra leader. Clarke moved from electric to stand-up bass effortlessly, playing the fusion that has made him one of the jazz world’s best for four decades. As on that beautiful night in Central Park (which was opened by the amazing McCoy Tyner), the quartet will be featuring songs from their latest album, simply titled THE STANLEY CLARKE BAND (Heads Up, June 2010), which includes such tracks as “Soldier,” “Fulani,” “Labyrinth,” and “How Is the Weather Up There?” The record also contains the superbly titled “Larry Has Traveled 11 Miles and Waited a Lifetime for the Return of Vishnu’s Report” and a horn-laden tribute to Sonny Rollins on the occasion of the saxophone colossus’s eightieth birthday. Clarke and his band will be at the Blue Note for twelve shows over six nights from September 28 through October 3, offering plenty of opportunities to catch this terrific group, sounding as good as ever.

TEENAGE FANCLUB

Teenage Fanclub gets a little too lost in the shadows on first record in five years

Monday, September 27, and Tuesday, September 28, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St., $25, 9:00
Thursday, September 30, Williamsburg Waterfront, $37.50, 5:30
www.myspace.com/theteenagefanclub

It’s been twenty years since Teenage Fanclub came on the scene with A CATHOLIC EDUCATION, then breaking through in the U.S. with 1992’s grungy BANDWAGONESQUE, which featured such hits as “Star Sign,” “The Concept,” and “What You Do to Me.” The Glasgow band is now back with its first studio album in five years, SHADOWS (Merge, June 2010), and over the course of twelve songs and forty-eight minutes, they show that they are not nearly as edgy as they once were. Guitarists Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley, bassist Gerard Love — who alternate songwriting duties and lead vocals — and drummer Francis MacDonald still wear their influences on their sleeves, evoking the Byrds, Neil Young, Big Star, and Jerry Garcia, but they need a wake-up call from these sleepy, treacly tunes. (Listeners will need a few wake-up calls as well.) In fact, they sing about waking up several times on the album, on the TV-theme-song-like “Baby Lee,” the tepid “Shock and Awe,” and the mundane “The Past.” “Give yourself a wake-up call,” McGinley sings on the latter, “let the past come back to rescue you.” Teenage Fanclub will have to let the past rescue them when they come to New York this week for two headlining shows at the Bowery Ballroom, September 27 with the Radar Brothers and September 28 with the Radar Brothers and the Clean, before opening for Belle & Sebastian on September 30 at the Williamsburg Waterfront.

ATLANTIC ANTIC

Annual Atlantic Antic street festival winds through the brownstones of Brooklyn

Atlantic Ave. from Hicks St. to Fourth Ave.
Sunday, September 26, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Admission: free
www.atlanticave.org

The thirty-sixth annual Atlantic Antic will fill Atlantic Ave. with frantic festivalgoers eager for the latest in art, music, food, and other forms of culture. Some one million people will be wandering among the six hundred vendors, buying tchotchkes, getting a bite to eat (look out for lobster rolls from the Red Hook Lobster Pound and desserts from Whimsy and Spice), taking their kids on pony rides, and checking out dozens of bands across ten stages; we heartily recommend the Demolition String Band at Hank’s, Shark? at Roebling Inn / Future Sounds at 2:55, Les Sans Culottes at Last Exit at 4:00, and Dinosaur Feathers at Roebling Inn / Future Sounds at 5:00. There will also be storytelling, face painting, belly-dancing lessons, drum circles, balloon sculptures, and much more. In conjunction with the Atlantic Antic, the MTA will be hosting the seventeenth annual Transit Museum Bus Festival, held on Boerum Pl. between State St. and Atlantic Ave., with newly restored vehicles, the Patcher, the AutoCar, the MetroCard Bus, the Tunnel Wrecker, children’s workshops, and free admission to the New York Transit Museum.