twi-ny recommended events

THAT’S MONTGOMERY CLIFT, HONEY!

Montgomery Clift would join Marilyn Monroe in Hollywood Babylon five years after appearing together in THE MISFITS

BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
March 11-25
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

In “The Right Profile,” the Clash’s Joe Strummer famously declared, “That’s Montgomery Clift, honey!” in a song that referenced the Hollywood star’s troubled career and fatal struggle with pills and the bottle. Born in Nebraska in 1920, Clift quickly rose to fame in his first few films in the late 1940s, which included Academy Award nominations for his roles in THE SEARCH and A PLACE IN THE SUN. But his career took a tragic turn when he suffered severe facial disfigurements in a car accident while filming RAINTREE COUNTRY in 1956. In 1961, Clift starred in THE MISFITS, the John Huston film that featured the final screen appearances of both Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable; Clift made only three more movies before dying a broken man in his New York City bedroom in 1966, at the age of forty-five, guaranteeing himself a place in Hollywood Babylon alongside such other denizens as Monroe and James Dean. BAM is celebrating what would have been Clift’s ninetieth year with a two-week festival of eleven of his films, beginning March 11 with William Wyler’s THE HEIRESS and continuing through THE MISFITS on March 25. On March 14, Clift biographer Patricia Bosworth will introduce FROM HERE TO ETERNITY; the series also includes screenings of A PLACE IN THE SUN, THE HEIRESS, I CONFESS, RED RIVER, FREUD, and other Clift classics.

COU-COU BIJOUX: POUR VOUS

Cou-Cou Bijoux will perform pour vous at Dixon Place this weekend

Dixon Place
161A Chrystie St. between Rivington & Delancey Sts.
March 12-13, $10-$12, 9:00
212-219-0736
www.dixonplace.org

Chanteuse Cou-Cou Bijoux, one of the stars of this past winter’s Magnetic Cabaret at the Bubble Lounge, goes solo for two nights at Dixon Place this weekend, presenting a two-act show directed by Luke Harlan, with musical direction by Brooks “Babyface” Hartell. Written and performed by Cou-Cou alter ego Raquel Cion and with original songs by Dan Kilian, POUR VOUS promises an evening of bawdy burlesque and torch songs as Cou-Cou takes on “love and other misfortunes.” As she says, “It’s all pour vous!”

THE WILD DEER

The Wild Deer will run free at Local 269 on March 11

The Local 269
269 East Houston St. at Suffolk St.
Thursday, March 11, free, 8:00
212-228-9874
www.myspace.com/thewilddeernyc
www.myspace.com/thelocal269

The Wild Deer — singer Heath Mensher, guitarists Anthony Mullin and Ed Fingerling, bassist Ron Oestreicher, and drummer Brad Gunyon — take audiences on a bluesy ride through soulful classic rock sounds on such tunes as “Rise,” “River of Soul,” “God’s Eyes,” “Grass,” and “Your Way.” Not necessarily avid hunters, their name comes from poems by William Blake and Hafez and, according to songwriter Fingerling, “symbolizes our defenselessness to predators like corporate or government aggression.” Lead vocalist Mensher, who plays the blues harp in the band, also sings the blues about fatherhood on his Web site, Having a Baby Totally Sucks, or the Things They Are Scared to Tell a New Father, where he describes how much he loves his wife and daughter while sharing the hidden truths that come with being a new dad.

CHELSEA ART WALK: MARCH 2010

Shaq is a little too big to squeeze into Maurizio Cattelan’s elevators, which are less than a foot tall (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

SIZE DOES MATTER
FLAG Art Foundation
545 West 25th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Wednesday – Saturday 12 noon – 5:00 through May 27
Admission: free
212-206-0220
www.flagartfoundation.org
size does matter slideshow

Since 1992, Shaquille O’Neal has been a huge force in the NBA, using his massive 7’1 frame and 320-pound bulk to redefine the center position during his long career with the Magic, Lakers, Heat, Suns, and now Cavaliers. He has transcended the sport, also releasing music albums, starring in films (anyone remember KAZAAM?), and even being named an honorary U.S. marshal. Shaq has now turned art curator, selecting and/or commissioning all the works that make up “Size DOES Matter,” a well-organized if often obvious exhibition spread across two floors of Chelsea’s nonprofit FLAG Art Foundation. Ranging from Willard Wigan’s “Micro Shaq,” which has to be viewed through a microscope, to Robert Therrien’s enormous table and chairs that nearly burst through the ceiling, the show addresses scale and scope in fun, entertaining ways. When visitors first get off the elevator on the ninth floor, they are greeted by Maurizio Cattelan’s miniature working elevators; other stand-out selections include Ron Mueck’s desperately unhappy “Big Man,” Joe Fig’s small diorama of Jasper Johns at work, Tomoaki Suzuki’s tiny group of friends, Evan Penny’s elongated “Stretch #2,” and Ivan Witenstein’s “The Kiss,” in which a boy gives viewers the finger for walking in on him and his girlfriend in an intimate moment. Be sure to walk around Richard Dupont’s “Terminal Stage” and Therrien’s stacked plates to get their full effect.

Also in Chelsea

Olafur Eliassion’s “Multiple shadow house” continues at Tanya Bonakdar through March 20 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Parents and children who visit the family-friendly “Size DOES Matter” should also stop by Tanya Bonakdar, where Olafur Eliassion’s “Multiple shadow house” is on view through March 20, encouraging people of all ages to walk through its mazelike structure and create ever-changing images on screens. Over the last few years, we’ve been following the intriguing short films of Guido van der Werve, catching his existential vision at the Hirshhorn and the Aldrich as well as on Governors Island. His latest, “Nummer twaalf,” at Luhring Augustine through March 13, consists of three sections that use chess as the starting point to examine humanity’s place in the universe, with van der Werve traveling to Mount St. Helens and the San Andreas Fault and getting lost in gorgeous landscapes as his original music composition and continuing chess moves link the set pieces. Erwin Loaf’s “Hotel & Dawn/Dusk,” at Hasted Hunt Kraeutler through March 20, equates a black world with a white one in his dual-screen projection, along with a compelling series of photographs of lonely women in hotel rooms. Horror movie fans should get a kick out of Gary Simmons’s “Midnight Matinee” at Metro Pictures through March 20, a collection of black-on-black pieces featuring the houses from THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, BURNT OFFERINGS, PSYCHO, and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE READING AND AWARDS CEREMONY

Edmund White is among the National Book Critics Circle nominees

The New School, Tishman Auditorium
66 West Twelfth St. at Fifth Ave.
Wednesday, March 10, and Thursday, March 11, free, 6:00
212-229-5353
www.newschool.edu
www.bookcritics.org

On January 23, the National Book Critics Circle announced the finalists for its 2009 awards, in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Autobiography, Biography, Criticism, and Poetry. Among the nominees are Bonnie Jo Campbell for AMERICAN SALVAGE, Tracy Kidder for STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS, William T. Vollmann for IMPERIAL, Edmund White for CITY BOY, Brad Gooch for FLANNERY: A LIFE, Stephen Burt for CLOSE CALLS WITH NONSENSE: READING NEW POETRY, and Rachel Zucker for MUSEUM OF ACCIDENTS. The New School celebrates the awards with its annual free two-day presentation, with many of the nominees reading from their works on March 10, followed the next night by the awards ceremony. In addition, JOyce Carol Oates will be receiving the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award. Both events are free and first come, first served.

UNDER GREAT NORTHERN LIGHTS

THE WHITE STRIPES UNDER GREAT NORTHERN LIGHTS (Emmett Malloy, 2009)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at Third St.
Wednesday, March 10, 8:00, and Thursday, March 11, 7:00 & 9:00
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.whitestripes.bside.com

In the summer of 2007, Jack White and Meg White, better known as the White Stripes, celebrated their tenth anniversary as a band by touring Canada for the first time, intent on playing every province. Their cross-country journey was documented by video director Emmett Malloy, with guitarist Jack and drummer Meg often setting up their instruments in offbeat, surprising venues, including their infamous one-note show. Although the film is having its official U.S. premiere this week at the SXSW festival in Austin, there will be sneak peeks at theaters across America, including three screenings at the IFC Center, in advance of its March 16 release on Blu-ray and DVD and as a live CD. One of the best bands in the world, the White Stripes recently saw several of their records (ELEPHANT, GET BEHIND ME SATAN, ICKY THUMP) named to numerous best-of-the-decade lists; now you can see them before everyone else does in what promises to be one damn cool concert film.

DIVINALE

WOMEN OF WINE WEEK
City Winery
155 Varick St.
March 8-13, $40-$75
212-608-0555
www.citywinery.com
www.divinale.com

We regularly feature great music events at City Winery, but we shouldn’t forget about how the venue got its name. From March 8 through 13, City Winery will be celebrating the women of wine with a festival of tastings, talks, dinners, and other special events. Today, International Women’s Day, features Cristina Mariani-May leading a tasting of Castello Banfi, Italy’s four-time International Winery of the Year that was started by Mariani-May’s grandfather in 1919. On March 9, winemaker Melissa Stackhouse helms a tasting of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from La Crema in Sonoma; on March 10, sommelier and wine director Mollie Battenhouse hosts a Women of Wine World Wine Tour with wine coaches and Cathy Corison, Laura Brunelli, Isabel Ferrando, and Brigitte Roch; March 11 is Working Women’s Evening, featuring food by Anne Burrell and Lee Anne Wong and wine poured by Master of Wine Lisa Granik; Alessia Antinori takes oenophiles on an afternoon Tuscan Wine Tour for lunch, followed at night by a BYOB Dinner Celebrating the Wines of Helen Turley, hosted by Granik, during which you can bring your own wine with no corkage fee; and the party concludes on March 13 with a Charity Grand Tasting of more than seventy wines produced by women, along with seminars, benefiting the Global Fund for Women.