twi-ny recommended events

RECORD STORE DAY 2015

Dave Grohl is the official ambassador for Record Store Day 2015

Multiple locations
Saturday, April 18
www.recordstoreday.com

“I found my calling in the back bin of a dark, dusty record store.” So says 2015 Record Store Day ambassador Dave Grohl, who speaks eloquently about the first vinyl disc he ever bought and the importance of independent record stores here. Now in its ninth year, Record Store Day, taking place on April 18, will send you back into your closet to consider setting up that turntable again, as music retailers around the city will be selling limited-edition seven-inch, ten-inch, and twelve-inch records; among the participating locations are Generation Records, Bleecker Street Records, Rebel Rebel, Other Music, Academy, Record Runner, Disc-o-Rama, Turntable Lab, Cake Shop, Jazz Record Center, and In Living Stereo. Below are only some of the hundreds of vinyl releases that will be available, although you’ll need to call ahead to see if the singles, EPs, and albums you want are being sold at your local store. “I believe that the power of the record store to inspire is still alive and well, and that their importance to our next generation of musicians is crucial,” Grohl concludes.

Adam & the Ants: Kings of the Wild Frontier/Ant Music
Alex Chilton: “Jesus Christ”
Bernard Herrmann: Psycho Music
Bob Dylan: The Basement Tapes (180g mono)
Brian Eno: My Squelchy Life
Buzzcocks: “The Way”
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band: Rough, Raw and Amazing
Courtney Barnett: “Kim’s Caravan”
D’Angelo: “The Charade”
David Bowie: “Changes” picture disc
Erasure: The Violent Flame Remixes
Foo Fighters: Songs from the Laundry Room
Grateful Dead: Wake Up to Find Out: Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale NY 3/29/90
Jeff Beck: “Love Is Blue”/“I’ve Been Drinking”; “Hi Ho Silver Lining”/“Beck’s Bolero”
Joan Jett: Flashback
Johnny Cash: Koncert v Praze (In Prague — Live)
Justin Townes Earle: Live at Grimey’s
Mike Watt + the Secondmen/EV Kain: “Shit on Me”/“Striking Out”
Mumford & Sons: “Believe”
Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds: In the Heat of the Moment
Robyn Hitchcock + Emma Swift: “Follow Your Money”/“Motion Pictures”
Steve Earle/Robert Johnson: Terraplane
Stooges: Have Some Fun: Live at Ungano’s
SWANS 12″ EP
Syd Barrett/R.E.M.: “Dark Globe”
Tegan & Sara: Live at Zia Records
The Baseball Project/The Minus 5: Redeyed in Austin
The Black Keys/Junior Kimbrough: “Meet Me in the City”
The Dixie Cups: Chapel of Love
The Flaming Lips: Bad Days, Brainville, This Here Giraffe
The Jesus & Mary Chain: Psychocandy. Live. Barrowlands
Those Darlins/Diarrhea Planet: Live at Pickathon
U2: Songs of Innocence Deluxe
Wu-Tang Clan: Protect Ya Neck

STRICTLY STURGES: THE PALM BEACH STORY & THE LADY EVE

Barbara Stanwyck lures Henry Fonda into her alluring trap in THE LADY EVE

THE LADY EVE (Preston Sturges, 1941) / THE PALM BEACH STORY (Preston Sturges, 1942)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Friday, April 17, and Saturday, April 18
Series runs through April 26
212-727-8110
filmforum.org

While it’s often lumped in with classic screwball comedies, Preston Sturges’s The Lady Eve is much darker and slower than its supposed brethren. An alluring, tough-talking Barbara Stanwyck is first seen as Jean Harrington, a con artist looking to trick a wealthy man on a cruise ship. At her side is her father, “Colonel” Harrington (Charles Coburn), a gambler and a cheat. As soon as Jean sees rich ale scion Charles Pike (a wonderfully innocent Henry Fonda), she digs her claws into the shy, humble man, challenging the Hays Code as she shows off her gams and leans into him with a heart-pounding sexiness. Pike, of course, falls for her, but when his right-hand man, Muggsy (William Demarest), discovers that she regularly preys on suckers, Charles is devastated. However, in this case, Jean’s feelings might actually be real, forcing her to go to extreme circumstances to try to get him back. Stanwyck is, well, a ball of fire as Jean/Eve, determined to win at all costs. Fonda, not usually known for his comedic abilities, is a riot as poor Hopsie, as Jean calls him; the looks on his face when she ratchets up the sex appeal are priceless, and a later scene when he keeps falling down at a party displays a surprising flair for physical comedy. The film was based on an original story by Irish playwright Monckton Hoffe, who was nominated for an Oscar. The opening and closing credits feature a corny animated snake in the Garden of Eden; in The Lady Eve, Stanwyck offers the apple, and Fonda can’t wait to take a bite. And there’s nothing shameful about that.

Joel McCrea, Claudette Colbert, and Rudy Vallée are caught up in a romantic triangle in Preston Sturges’s THE PALM BEACH STORY

Writer-director Sturges was on quite a roll in the early 1940s, making a string of memorable pictures that included The Great McGinty, Christmas in July, Sullivan’s Travels, Hail the Conquering Hero, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, and The Lady Eve. In the midst of that amazing run is The Palm Beach Story, one of the craziest of the classic screwball comedies. Running out of money, married couple Tom (Joel McCrea) and Geraldine Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) are preparing to leave their ritzy Park Ave. apartment until a straight-talking, shriveled old wienie king (Robert Dudley) hands Gerry a wad of cash so she doesn’t have to move out. She pays off their many bills, but Tom is suspicious of how she got the money, demanding to know if any sex was involved, a rather risqué question for a 1942 Hays Code-era romantic comedy. Gerry decides that she is no good for Tom and insists on getting a divorce even though they still love each other. So she grabs a train to Florida, meeting the wacky Ale & Quail Club and John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallée), a kind, soft-spoken gentleman who takes a liking to her and helps her out of a jam. Things reach a manic pace as Tom heads to Palm Beach as well, trying to save the marriage while fending off the advances of the Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor). McCrea and Colbert make a great comic duo, displaying a fiery sex appeal that is still hot all these years later. What’s not hot is the film’s use of black characters, who are horribly stereotyped and are even referred to as “colored” in the credits. It might have been a different time, but there aren’t a whole lot of quality movies that were that blatant about it. In addition, the shooting scene with the Ale & Quail Club goes way over the top. But when the film focuses on Tom and Gerry, caught up in their own endlessly charming game of cat and mouse, The Palm Beach Story shines. A double feature of The Lady Eve and The Palm Beach Story is playing Film Forum on April 17 & 18 as part of “Strictly Sturges,” a two-week series, continuing through April 26, that celebrates the career of the playwright, screenwriter, and director who was born Edmund Preston Biden in Chicago in 1895 and passed away in New York City in 1959. The festival consists of all of his directorial and screenwriting efforts; among the other upcoming double features are The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero, Mad Wednesday and Never Say Die, and The Great McGinty and The Great Moment, in addition to solo screenings of Christmas in July, Sullivan’s Travels, If I Were King, and others.

THOMAS HART BENTON’S “AMERICA TODAY” MURAL REDISCOVERED

Thomas Hart Benton, detail, “City Activities with Dance Hall” from “America Today,” egg tempera with oil glazing over Permalba on a gesso ground on linen mounted to wood panels with a honeycomb interior, 1930–31 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of AXA Equitable, 2012)

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gallery 746
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
Daily through April 19, recommended admission $12-$25
212-535-7710
www.metmuseum.org

Several years ago, I was giving a friend a tour of Midtown lobby art when I started to lead him into the AXA Equitable Center on Seventh Ave. between Fifty-First and Fifty-Second Sts. “Why are we going in here?” he asked, adding, “I worked here for six years.” We walked in and I pointed up at the walls, which contained Thomas Hart Benton’s swirling 1930-31 mural, “America Today.” Glancing around, he said, “I can’t believe I never noticed this before.” Upon recently encountering “America Today” at the Met — AXA donated the seminal work to the museum in December 2012 while undergoing renovations — I felt as if I’d never seen it before myself, even though I had marveled at its wonder dozens of times. It has been carefully reinstalled to its original dimensions, complete with zigzagging silver Art Deco elements cutting through each piece, as commissioned in 1930 by New School for Social Research director Alvin Johnson for a circular boardroom in Joseph Urban’s West Twelfth St. modernist building. You can now get up close and personal with Benton’s dramatic depiction of contemporary America, a country built by hardworking people as technology and industry grow at an unstoppable pace. Using egg tempera that he made himself with eggs given to him by the New School (in lieu of actual monetary payment), Missouri native Benton divided the work into ten panels, each one based on scenes he had witnessed during his travels across the country in the 1920s. “Every detail of every picture is a thing I myself have seen and known,” he said. “Every head is a real person drawn from life.” Among his models was one of his students, Jackson Pollock, who posed for several characters. The panels range from the futuristic “Instruments of Power” to the Jazz Age “City Activities with Dance Hall,” from the cotton-heavy “Deep South” to the fiery “Steel” and “Coal,” from “Outreaching Hands” grasping for more to “City Building,” with skyscrapers rising in the background while men toil in the foreground. In addition to being a dynamic piece of art, “America Today” serves as an important historical document, capturing a country obsessed with progress despite the coming Great Depression. Benton’s naturalistic flair and use of color, especially reds, which stand out in every panel, add dramatic impact and cinematic scope to his narrative of America’s resiliency and determination, a story that would be told very differently if Benton were around today to report on the state of things.

Thomas Hart Benton, “Outreaching Hands” from “America Today,” egg tempera with oil glazing over Permalba on a gesso ground on linen mounted to wood panels with a honeycomb interior, 1930–31 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of AXA Equitable, 2012)

“Thomas Hart Benton’s ‘America Today’ Mural” is supplemented with works that inspired Benton, including Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “The Harvesters,” Giorgio de Chirico’s “Ariadne,” James Lesesne Wells’s “Builders,” Reginald Marsh’s “The Bowery,” and Grant Wood’s “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” as well as other Benton paintings. There is also a very informative video presentation that follows the path of the mural from inception to installation at the Met. It’s quite a story, and quite a work.

REBELS OF THE NEON GOD

Ah Tze (Chen Chao-jung) and Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng) have strange connections in REBELS OF THE NEON GOD

REBELS OF THE NEON GOD (Tsai Ming-liang, 1992)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center: Howard Gilman Theater, 144 West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave., 212-875-5601
Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th St., 212-255-2243
Through Thursday, April 16
(Also April 17 at the Museum of the Moving Image)
bigworldpictures.org

If you’re going to make a movie with the awesome title Rebels of the Neon God, it better be a damn fine, supercool, unusual, even rebellious film. And that’s exactly what Malaysian-born Taiwanese filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang’s debut feature is, a damn fine, supercool, unusual, and rebellious film about teen angst and urban alienation in a changing Taipei. Written and directed by Tsai, who went on to make such other stunners as The River, The Hole, Vive l’Amour, and What Time Is It There?, among others, Rebels of the Neon God is a slowly paced minimalist tale of interrelated characters who come together in fascinating, unexpected ways. Lee Kang-sheng, whom Tsai discovered smoking a cigarette on the street (for the television piece Kids), stars as Hsiao-kang, a teenager who has decided to cash out of cram school without telling his parents. His father (Tien Miao), a cabdriver, and his mother (Lu Yi-ching), a spiritualist who believes that her son is the reincarnation of the rebel protection deity Nezha, don’t know what to do with their extremely quiet son, who seems to have little interest in life except for going to video arcades. Meanwhile, Ah Tze (Chen Chao-jung) is living an odd life himself, stealing change from public phone booths and becoming friendly with a young woman, Ah Kuei (Wang Yu-wen), who slept with his brother, Ah Bing (Jen Chang-bin). One afternoon, Ah Tze and Ah Kuei are on a scooter when they pull alongside Hsiao-kang and his father in a cab, and after getting honked at for blocking a lane, Ah Bing smashes the father’s side-view mirror, a deed that Hsiao-kang decides is not going to go unpunished.

Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng) finds a kindred spirit in James Dean in Tsai Ming-liang’s captivating debut feature

Inspired by the animated film Nezha Conquers the Dragon King and Nicholas Ray’s Rebel without a Cause, Tsai has crafted a mesmerizing, unpredictable, and wickedly dark comic tale that equates Hsiao-kang and Ah Tze in multiple ways; they both smash something, they both pleasure themselves, and they both experience problems with their mopeds, mirroring each other, although the latter is cool and disaffected while the former is peculiar and introverted. Tsai depicts Taipei as a city of crumbling infrastructure, falling apart as the population grows. The “neon god” of the title represents the video arcade games that draws in the teenagers; interestingly, the poster of James Dean that Hsiao-kang stands next to in the arcade, with Dean seemingly pointing at him, was already in the real-life arcade, not added as a prop. The title is also a nod to Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence,” in which the duo sings, “But my words like silent raindrops fell / And echoed in the wells of silence / And the people bowed and prayed / To the neon gods they made”; there is very little dialogue in the film, which relies on beautifully composed visuals and Huang Shu-jun’s infectious, deep-toned musical theme. In addition, Tsai begins his long fascination with water; not only is it pouring rain as the film begins, but Ah Tze lives in an apartment that is perpetually flooded, although he doesn’t seem to care much at all about it. In fact, it’s hard to tell just what the disenchanted youths in the film do care about. Lee would go on to portray a character named Hsiao-kang in most of Tsai’s works, evoking the relationship between Jean-Pierre Léaud and François Truffaut in the Antoine Doinel series; Tsai has even cast Léaud in What Time Is It There? and Face. Rebels of the Neon God is finally getting its U.S. theatrical release, in a new HD restoration at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Quad through April 16, before making its way to Queens on April 17 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image tribute to Tsai, which continues through April 26 with such other fine fare as I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, Journey to the West, Stray Dogs, and Goodbye, Dragon Inn.

MULTIMEDIA ARTIST TALK: KEHINDE WILEY AND DJ SPOOKY

Who: Kehinde Wiley and DJ Spooky
What: Interactive multimedia talk
Where: Brooklyn Museum, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 200 Eastern Pkwy. at Washington St., 718-638-5000
When: Thursday, April 16, $16 (includes museum admission), 7:00
Why: Kehinde Wiley and DJ Spooky will team up at the Brooklyn Museum to discuss Wiley’s midcareer retrospective, “Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic,” featuring five dozen of his unique portraits and sculptures. The evening will include a talk, a performance by Paul D. Miller, better known as That Subliminal Kid, DJ Spooky, and a Q&A.

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL FREE EVENTS

Free thirtieth anniversary screening of BACK TO THE FUTURE at the Tribeca Film Festival should be a hot ticket

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
Multiple locations
April 16-26, free
tribecafilm.com

The Tribeca Film Festival can get rather pricey, with tickets for screenings followed by Q&As running $38.50, while special events such as the Monty Python appearance at the Beacon reaches $355. Below are eleven TFF 2015 programs that won’t cost you a cent.

Thursday, April 16
Tribeca Talks Master Class — ARC Adorama Rental Company: The Producers, with Matt Parker, Olivia Wilde, Carly Hugo, and Alex Orlovsky, moderated by Tatiana Seigel, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, 333 West 23rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves., 2:30

Friday, April 17
Tribeca Talks Script & Screen: Act Your Age, with Felix Thompson, Jeppe Ronde, and Ido Mizrahy, moderated by Gordon Cox, Barnes & Noble Union Square, 33 East 17th St., 1:00

Tribeca Talks Master Class: Get the Look, with Catherine Martin and Hamish Bowles, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, 333 West 23rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves., 2:30

Saturday, April 18
Tribeca Talks Script & Screen: The Beauty of Angst, with Reed Morano, David Osit, Malika Zouhali-Worrall, and Sibs Shongwe-La Mer, moderated by Eric Kohn, Barnes & Noble Union Square, 33 East 17th St., 1:00

Sunday, April 19
Tribeca Family Festival: Downtown Youth Behind the Camera, featuring works by young filmmakers, SVA Theater 1 Silas, 333 West 23rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves., 11:00 am

Tribeca Talks Script & Screen: This Is the Real Life, with Pamela Romanowsky, Kevin Kerslake, Zachary Treitz, and Nick Sandow, moderated by Ross Miller, Barnes & Noble Union Square, 33 East 17th St., 1:00

Monday, April 20
Tribeca Talks Master Class: CNN Films Capture Reality, with Liz Garbus, Rachel Boynton, and Roger Ross Williams, moderated by Eric Hynes, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, 333 West 23rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves., 2:30

Tuesday, April 21
Tribeca Talks Master Class — The Dolby Institute: The Sound of the Coens, with Carter Burwell and Skip Lievsay, moderated by Glenn Kiser, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, 333 West 23rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves., 2:30

Saturday, April 25
Tribeca Family Festival Street Fair, Greenwich St. from Hubert to Chambers Sts., 10:00 am

Tribeca/ESPN Sports Day, North Moore St. from Greenwich to West Sts., 10:00 am

Back to the Future — Thirtieth Anniversary Screening, BMCC Tribeca PAC, 199 Chambers St., 6:00

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “GURDJIEFF’S DAUGHTER” BY LAURA MARLING

Who: Laura Marling
What: New album and tour
Where: The Town Hall, 123 West 43rd St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves., 800-982-2787
When: Monday, August 3, $30-$40, 8:00
Why: Just in case you missed twenty-five-year-old British folk singer-songwriter Laura Marling when she played Warsaw on March 23, celebrating the release of her fifth full-length album, Short Movie (Ribbon, March 23), you can catch the three-time Mercury Prize nominee again this summer, when she’ll be at Town Hall on August 3. In the meantime, you should check out her latest video, “Gurdjieff’s Daughter,” which is, essentially, a short movie itself, featuring such friends of hers as Rostam Batmanglij, Jonathan Wilson, Marika Hackman, Rhian Rees, and Hanne Steen. Among the other songs on the record are “False Hope,” “I Feel Your Love,” and the title track. The album closes with “Worship Me,” to which we can only say, “Okay.”