twi-ny recommended events

WARM UP

Prepare for some massive crowds at weekly PS1 Warm Up (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MoMAPS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Saturdays from 2:00 to 9:00, July 3 – September 4
Tickets: $15 (free for Long Island City residents)
718-784-2084
www.ps1.org/warmup

One of the hottest, sweatiest weekly dance parties of every summer will get people moving and grooving beginning on July 3 when Warm Up returns to PS1 in Queens. The series features live bands and DJs from all over the world, including Spain, Sierra Leone, France, Sweden, Canada, and Brooklyn, playing in the shadow of Solid Obectives — Idenburg Liu’s “Pole Dance,” winner of the annual Young Architects Program and displayed in the courtyard. The opening-day lineup is a mere taste of things to come, with live sets from Delorean, Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang, and Glasser, with John Talabot and Korallreven manning the turntables. On the horizon are Kalup Linzy and JD Samson on July 24, Animal Collective DJ’ing on July 31, a DFA showcase with James Murphy and Pat Mahoney on August 7, DJ ?uestlove and These Are Powers on August 14, and Holy Ghost!, House of House, and DJ Mehdi on closing night, September 4. And don’t forget to check out the expansive “Greater New York” exhibition. PS1 is one of the treasures of New York City, with something to see and do in every little nook and cranny, so be prepared for anything and everything.

FIRST SATURDAYS: AMERICAN ICONS

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, July 3, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum’s monthly late-night party goes silver instead of red, white, and blue on July 3, paying tribute to the late Andy Warhol with a screening of Mary Harron’s 1996 flick I SHOT ANDY WARHOL, gallery talks on the new exhibit “Andy Warhol: The Last Decade,” Society HAE’s dance party “The Factory 2010,” a workshop in which participants can make a Warhol-like print, and “15 Minutes of Fame,” an art battle between Antony Zito, Lexi Bella, Concep, and Marthalicia Matarrita. In addition, the museum will be showing Alan Parker’s 1980 film FAME, and Brooklyn bands Analogue Transit and Dynasty Electric will perform live.

NYAFF / JAPAN CUTS: DEAR DOCTOR

Nurse Akemi (l.) knows something’s not quite right in DEAR DOCTOR

DEAR DOCTOR (DIA DOKUTA) (Miwa Nishikawa, 2009)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Saturday, July 3, 1:00
Sunday, July 4, 4:15
www.japansociety.org/japancuts
www.subwaycinema.com

In a close-knit rural village far from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, the police have arrived, investigating the mysterious disappearance of Dr. Ino (Tsurube Shofukutei), the local doctor who takes care of everyone’s medical needs, running the clinic and making regular house calls, a trusted figure often seen riding around on his motorized bike, greeting the citizens like an old friend. As the detectives question the residents, flashbacks depict the special relationship that existed between the well-compensated doctor — the town pays him $200,000 a year — and the people. Dr. Ino had recently been joined by an intern, med-school graduate Keisuke Soma (Eita), who showed up in a flashy convertible, upset he didn’t get a position in a Tokyo hospital, but even he was soon won over by Dr. Ino’s charm and skill. But when nurse Akemi Ohtake (Kimiko Yo) has to guide Ino through a difficult procedure and city doctor Ritsuko Torikai (Haruka Igawa) has doubts about how Ino is treating her ill mother (Kaoru Yachigusa), questions arise that bring some surprising answers. Winner of three major categories at the 2009 Hochi Film Awards — Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Eita), and Best Supporting Actress (Yachigusa) — DEAR DOCTOR is a warm, tender-hearted story written and directed by Miwa Nishikawa, who also earned accolades for her first two films, 2003’s WILD BERRIES and 2006’s SWAY. Shofukutei is terrific as Dr. Ino, a cross between Akira Emoto’s Dr. Akagi and Robin Williams’s Patch Adams (and we mean that in a good way). The solid cast also includes the ubiquitous Teruyuki Kagawa (SWAY, TOKYO SONATA, GOLDEN SLUMBER) as pharmaceutical supplier Masayoshi Saimon. DEAR DOCTOR is a real charmer.

ROCKS OFF: MR. SCRUFF

Mr. Scruff will be rocking the boat July 2 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

ROCKS OFF CONCERT CRUISES
Pier 81, 41st St. & the West Side Highway
Friday, July 2, $25, 8:00
www.rocksoff.com
www.myspace.com/mrscruffofficial

Manchester-based DJ Andy Carthy, better known as Mr. Scruff, will be rocking the boat like mad on July 2 when he unleashes his thumping jazzy repertoire aboard the Temptress. Back in October 2008, the self-described “DJ, Producer, Cartoonist & Tea Drinker” released the digital-download-only NINJA TUNA on his Ninja Tune label, his first full-length album in six years, featuring such tunes as “Test the Sound,” “Hairy Bumpercress,” and “Give Up to Get.” Then, last year, he put out a tenth anniversary special remastered edition of his breakthough record, KEEP IT UNREAL, featuring such previously unreleased tracks as “Vibraphone Boogie,” “Sky Blue,” “and “Ambiosound.” Mr. Scruff, who is somewhat obsessed with fish (making this venue rather perfect), has created some ridiculously adorable cartoon characters over the years, which he projects on screens during his shows, which often can go on for six hours or more, although there’s a three-hour limit on the cruise. Alcohol and food are served aboard the boat, but don’t expect to find any pickled spider.

LUKE JERRAM: PLAY ME, I’M YOURS

Anyone can tickle the ivories at pianos placed throughout the city (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations in all five boroughs
Through Monday, July 5
Admission: free
www.streetpianos.com/nyc2010

Sing for Hope, a nonprofit arts activist organization that brings music to schools, hospitals, and communities with underserved youth, has teamed up with multidisciplinary British artist Luke Jerram to present “Play Me, I’m Yours.” The interactive installation consists of sixty pianos placed throughout the five boroughs, in such locations as Lincoln Center, Joyce Kilmer Park, the Staten Island Zoo, the Coney Island boardwalk, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Tompkins Square Park, and Chelsea Market, where people can sit down and just play away, like they have previously done in São Paulo, London, Sydney, and Barcelona. Not many New Yorkers have pianos in their apartments, and they might not be good enough to get a gig at Carnegie Hall, but they can sit down on these benches and tickle the ivories to their heart’s content, bringing music to intersections, public parks and plazas, and other mostly outdoor spots, giving mini-concerts and inviting strangers to sing along. As Jerram notes on the official website: “Disrupting people’s negotiation of their city, the pianos are also aimed to provoke people into engaging, activating, and claiming ownership of their urban landscape.” The last few days will feature many special events, including, on July 1, a London–New York link in Times Square at 11:00 am, Ragtime Rick Pedro dashing from Greeley Square to Herald Square to Bryant Park to Times Square for successive lunchtime appearances, and That Guitar Man from Central Park, David Ippolito, joining pianist George Wurzbach at the Naumburg Bandshell at 1:00. The project comes to a close with Sing for Hope performances July 1-4 at Chelsea Market at 6:00, with the grand finale taking place on the four pianos at Lincoln Center from 2:00 to 6:00 on July 5, with special guest artists from across the musical spectrum.

NYAFF: SYMBOL

Hitoshi Matsumoto’s SYMBOL is a thrillingly bizarre cinematic experience

SYMBOL (Hitoshi Matsumoto, 2009)
New York Asian Film Festival
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Sunday, July 4, 1:00
Wednesday, July 7, 3:40
Series continues through July 8
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com
www.subwaycinema.com

Hitoshi Matsumoto’s SYMBOL is a mega-weird existential mind trip that would make Michel Gondry proud. The less you know going in, the better, so if you’re in the mood for a unique cinematic experience that constantly leads to more questions than answers, a brain warp that is part live-action video game, part investigation of humanity’s very existence, then hustle over to Lincoln Center to catch one of the best, and strangest, movies at this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.

If you need to know more before buying tickets, well, we’ll do our best to try to decipher the madness. The bizarre Japanese flick spends most of its time following two very different narratives that appear to have nothing to do with each other. In Mexico, a young boy prepares to watch his father, a masked wrestler known as Escargot Man, participate in an important match. Meanwhile, a Japanese man (director Hitoshi Matsumoto) in a Moe haircut and multicolored polka-dot pajamas finds himself trapped in an empty white room — until a multitude of cherubs appear and then disappear, leaving artistic representations of their gonads sticking out of the walls. He soon discovers that when he touches each penis, he is given a specific object, sometimes permanent, sometimes temporary, from sushi, a toothbrush, and a large vase to a rope, a key, and a door — the latter three showing up only for a very brief amount of time. Like a caveman or a child, he needs to figure out how he can use these tools to escape from his nightmare. Matsumoto (BIG MAN JAPAN), part of the immensely popular Japanese comedy duo Downtown, has created a wonderfully crazy tale that does all come together in the end — but in a completely unexpected way. The best thing to do is to just sit back and let it take you wherever it is that it’s going. Enjoy!

WORLD TEAMTENNIS

John McEnroe will once again lead the NY Sportimes in annual summer league

NY SPORTIMES
Randall’s Island
July 5-19
Individual game tickets: $40-$125
Season tickets: $150-$500
Free luxury buses from the east side
212-792-8500
www.nysportimes.com

On the heels of Wimbledon and with the U.S. Open starting later this summer, you can fill the tennis gap on Randall’s Island, where the Sportimes represent New York City in the World TeamTennis league — which, believe it or not, is now in its thirty-fifth year. Cofounded by Billie Jean King, the league features ten teams, each generally with at least one major star: the Boston Lobsters (James Blake), the Albany-based New York Buzz (Martina Hingis), the Kansas City Explorers (the Bryan brothers), the Newport Beach Breakers (Maria Sharapova), the Philadelphia Freedoms (Andy Roddick), the Sacramento Capitals (Michael Chang), the Springfield Lasers (Carly Gullickson), the St. Louis Aces (Lindsay Davenport, Anna Kournikova), the defending champion Washington Kastles (Venus and Serena Williams), and the NY Sportimes (Kim Clijsters, John McEnroe). The Sportimes’ home season gets under way Monday, July 5, taking on the Kastles, followed by the Lobsters on July 7, the Freedoms on July 11 (Kids Day), the Lasers on July 12 (Mom’s Night), the Freedoms again on July 14, the Kastles again on July 15, and then the Buzz on July 19. Free luxury bus service is offered at eight locations between Forty-Second St. & Second Ave. and 124th St. & Third Ave., shuttling tennis fans to and from Randall’s Island.