twi-ny recommended events

DAYLIFE

DayLife festival returns to Lower East Side for summer finale on September 15

Orchard St. between East Houston and Delancey Sts.
Sunday, September 15, free, 12 noon – 5:00 pm
www.lowereastsideny.com

The Lower East Side BID says goodbye to summer with DayLife, a block party featuring food, fashion, live music, food, sports, and other activities. (The LES welcomed the season with a DayLife party back on June 2.) Held on Sunday, September 15, from 12 noon to 5:00, the three-block festival will cover Orchard St. in AstroTurf between Houston & Delancey Sts. The music lineup, sponsored by the Living Room on the Tammany Hall Stage, begins at noon with DJ Twin T and continues with Catey Shaw, DJ Kai Song, Miwa Gemini, Michael Hunter, Norman Vlardimir, and Deja; the Hits, Lewis Lazar, Chances with Wolves, and Swaai Boys will play on Lost Weekend’s Leadbelly Stage. There will also be fitness challenges, badminton, urban croquet, yoga demonstrations, an art fair, face painting, and other family-friendly activities. Food will be supplied by more than two dozen local restaurants, including Antibes Bistro, Georgia’s BBQ, Goodfellas Brick Oven Pizza, the Meatball Shop, Melt Bakery, Mission Chinese, Pop Karma, Souvlaki GR, and Sweet Buttons Desserts.

THALIA DOCS — FAR OUT ISN’T FAR ENOUGH: THE TOMI UNGERER STORY

Illustrator Tomi Ungerer talks about his fascinating life in compelling documentary (photo by Sam Norval / Corner of the Cave Media)

FAR OUT ISN’T FAR ENOUGH: THE TOMI UNGERER STORY (Brad Bernstein, 2012)
Symphony Space, Leonard Nimoy Thalia
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
Sunday, September 15, 22, 29, and October 6, 13 $14, 2:15
212-864-5400
www.symphonyspace.org
www.faroutthemovie.com

“I am a self-taught raving maniac, but not as crazy as Tomi, or as great as Tomi,” Maurice Sendak says early on in Brad Bernstein’s engaging documentary, Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story, adding, “He was disarming and funny and not respectable at all.” Another children’s book legend, Jules Feiffer, feels similarly, explaining, “Tomi was this wonderfully brilliant, innovative madman.” Born in Alsace in 1931, Tomi Ungerer developed a remarkably diverse career as an illustrator, incorporating the emotional turmoil he suffered after losing his father when he was still a young child and then living under Nazi rule. In Far Out Isn’t Far Enough, Ungerer takes Bernstein and the audience on a fascinating journey through his personal and professional life, traveling to Strasbourg, Nova Scotia, New York City, and Ireland, which all served as home to him at one time or another as he wrote and illustrated such picture books as The Three Robbers and Crictor for editor Ursula Nordstrom, made bold political posters in support of the civil rights movement and against the Vietnam War, and published a book of erotic drawings, Fornicon, that ultimately led to a twenty-three-year exile from America during which he stopped making books for children. “I am full of contradictions, and why shouldn’t I be?” the now-eighty-one-year-old Ungerer says in the film. Ungerer discusses how he uses fear, tragedy, and trauma as underlying themes in his stories, trusting that kids can handle that amid the surreal nature of his entertaining tales. He opens up his archives, sharing family photographs and old film footage, which reveal that he’s been pushing the envelope for a very long time, unafraid of the consequences. He also visits the Eric Carle Museum to check out a retrospective of his work for children, appropriately titled “Tomi Ungerer: Chronicler of the Absurd.” Meanwhile, Rick Cikowski animates many of Ungerer’s drawings, bringing to life his characters, both for children and adults, adding another dimension to this wonderful documentary. Far Out Isn’t Far Enough is a lively, engaging film about a seminal literary figure with an infectious love of life and art, and a unique take on the ills of society, that is a joy to behold. The film is screening September 15 & 22 at Symphony Space as part of the Sunday Thalia Docs series.

BECOMING-CORPUS

LEIMAY’s BECOMING-CORPUS explores the nature of the human body (photo by Yara Travies)

BAM Fisher, Fishman Space
321 Ashland Pl.
Through September 15, $20
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.leimaymain.cavearts.org

Becoming-Corpus is another mesmerizing, meditative multimedia production from director and choreographer Ximena Garnica and video and installation artist Shige Moriya, the principals behind the Brooklyn-based LEIMAY company (Floating Point Waves, Furnace). The seventy-minute piece opens with a breathtaking scene in which seven dancers (Masanori Asahara, Andrew Braddock, Andrea Jones, Liz McAuliffe, Denisa Musilova, Eija Ranta, and Savina Theodoru) stand still onstage, louvered black-and-white shadows projected across their bodies. Slowly they begin swaying, giving the impression that they are gently rocking on the sea. Meanwhile, Tommy Schell walks imperceptibly slowly across the back, a trip that will last all seventy minutes. Soon the dancers, five of whom are topless, start exploring their bodies as if they’ve just been born, in intricate ensemble movements that feature solos created by picking out individual dancers with spotlights. At one point they balance with their shoulders on the floor, their backs facing the audience, making them appear headless, arms and legs emerging as if they are hatching out of an egg. Birth is one of the subjects of the piece, as the dancers learn what their bodies are capable of by learning and experimenting with their limbs. The piece features an electronic score by Roland Ventura Toldeo, Christopher Loar, and Laddio Bolocko, with light projections by Moriya that create fascinating meshlike and shadowy elements directly on the dancers’ bodies and futuristic computer visuals on the floor and backdrop. A beautiful, elegant piece expertly performed with a playful dose of humor, Becoming-Corpus continues through September 15 at BAM Fisher’s Fishman Space, supplemented by an art installation in the Peter Jay Sharp Lobby that includes mixed-media representations of the creators’ and dancers’ faces, heads, and bodies as well as casts of Garnica and Moriya dangling from the ceiling, in addition to a specially designed “artifact” publication that details the development and process of the work. (There will be a post-show audience roundtable on September 13, the preshow “Tracing the Art” talk with Garnica and Moriya on September 14, and a closing night toast on September 15. To see our 2012 interview with Garnica and Moriya, please go here.)

THE SISTER ROSETTAS

terraNOVA Collective
IRT Theater
154 Christopher St.
Friday, September 13, 20, 27, $20-$25, 9:30
917-639-3166
www.terranovacollective.org

From 2006 to 2009, Ming Dynasty built a large local following, playing such clubs as the Continental, Arlene’s Grocery, and CBGB and releasing such discs as Yellow Tiger and Spaghetti Eastern. Led by former Plums frontman Eric Miranda and Taipei-based Moo Shoo Sweet Potato singer and bassist Ming Chan, Ming Dynasty mixed ’70s glam rock with Beatles-esque melodies and propulsive power pop on such songs as “Kung Fu Girl,” “Spy People,” “Bring Me Down,” and “Tangerine.” Ming Dynasty parted ways in 2009, but four days after bumping into musical theater actress and singer-songwriter Diana Oh on the corner of Bleecker and Lafayette, Miranda and Oh decided to revive Ming Dynasty’s music in a fresh new way. This month, the Sister Rosettas, named after gospel crossover star Sister Rosetta Tharpe, will make their debut with a Friday-night residency at the IRT Theater in conjunction with terraNOVA. The band consists of Oh on lead vocals, Miranda (who does a mean Neil Diamond impression) on vocals and lead guitar, Kole Smith on guitar, Philippe Arman on bass, and Matt Harrington on percussion, with Jessi D. Hill serving as creative director. Yesterday, Oh posted on Facebook that “we just had the best band practice ever on the planet of band practices. Everything came together like butter on bread, like sushi on rice, like crackers on cheese. The boys sang me ‘you have our blessings’ in four part harmonies into their microphones. I sang it back. And with that, we marry theatre with rock and roll. And rock and roll with theatre tomorrow night. What you thought you’d never see, you are about to see. And hear. And feel. And love.” The Sister Rosettas will be at the IRT Theater on September 13 with Christopher Gabriel Núñez, September 20 with Jes Tom, and September 27 with Lauren Hennessy.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “FALL BACK” BY ZOLA JESUS

Last summer, Zola Jesus gave one of the hottest performances at the Catalpa Festival on Randall’s Island, prancing across the stage, smashing cymbals, and climbing the scaffolding. Things are likely to be somewhat more subdued when Nika Roza Danilova, aka Zola Jesus, plays Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral in Brooklyn Heights on September 14, supporting her gorgeous new album, Versions (Sacred Bones, August 2013). In May 2012, Zola Jesus was invited to perform at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and she decided to do something different, teaming with industrial music guru J. G. Thirlwell (Foetus, Manorexia), who rearranged Zola Jesus’s songs for a string quartet, removing the electronic techno aspects and giving the songs a whole new life, with the vocals allowed to take off front and center. Zola Jesus and Thirlwell continued the collaboration on Versions, reinterpreting such songs from Danilova’s repertoire as “Avalanche,” “Fall Back,” “Hikikomori,” “Seekir,” and “In Your Nature,” which previously appeared on such albums as 2010’s Stridulum and 2011’s Conatus and the 2010 EP Valusia. On the new disc, Danilova is backed by the Mivos Quartet, consisting of Olivia De Prato and Joshua Modney on violins, Victor Lowrie on viola, and Mariel Roberts on cello, offering mesmerizing takes on Zola Jesus’s intimate songs about love and fear. “Oh, it hurts me / Yes, it hurts to let you in / But I won’t make a sound / when the crowd comes to call,” she sings on “Collapse.” The crowd will indeed be coming to call on Saturday night in Brooklyn, when Zola Jesus will be making very different yet still beautiful sounds, with Thirlwell and a string quartet.

JOHN ZORN SELECTS: PIERROT LE FOU

Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina star in Godard’s colorful crime musical, PIERROT LE FOU

PIERROT LE FOU (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. at Second St.
Saturday, September 14, 4:45, and Thursday, September 19, 9:15
Series runs September 12-30
212-505-5181
www.anthologyfilmarchives.org

Art, American consumerism, the Vietnam and Algerian wars, Hollywood, and the cinema itself get skewered in Jean-Luc Godard’s fab feaux gangster flick / road comedy / romance epic / musical Pierrot Le Fou. Based on Lionel White’s novel Obsession, the film follows the chaotic exploits of Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and Marianne Renoir (Anna Karina, Godard’s then-wife), former lovers who meet up again quite by accident. The bored Ferdinand immediately decides to leave his wife and family for the flirtatious, unpredictable Marianne, who insists on calling him Pierrot despite his protestations. Soon Ferdinand is caught in the middle of a freewheeling journey involving gun running, stolen cars, dead bodies, and half-truths, all the while not quite sure how much he can trust Marianne. Filmed in reverse-scene order without much of a script, the mostly improvised Pierrot Le Fou was shot in stunning color by Raoul Coutard. Many of Godard’s recurring themes and style appear in the movie, including jump cuts, confusing dialogue, written protests on walls, and characters speaking directly at the audience, who are more or less along for the same ride as Ferdinand. And as with many Godard films, the ending is a doozy.

PIERROT LE FOU is screening as part of “John Zorn Selects” series at Anthology Film Archives

Pierrot Le Fou is screening September 14 and 19 as part of the Anthology Film Archives series “John Zorn Selects,” comprising a dozen works chosen by the master experimental musician on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, focusing on the soundtracks. “Godard continues to be the ONLY director whose drop-the-needle strategies work for me — he alone commands a supreme knowledge of how previously existing music can be used in an overall sonic design, and his Histoire(s) du Cinéma is perhaps the highest level of this technique, reducing Hollywood’s attempts at the same approach to nostalgia, advertising, and cartoon silliness,” Zorn writes on the Anthology website. “But here in his early years he trusted the brilliant Georges Delerue to do his thing and the results are magnificent. This and Shoot the Piano Player are fabulous examples of 1960s French scoring — heavy on strings, lyricism, and moodiness. Pierrot holds a special place in my heart — I am really a Romantic, not a Postmodern — and this film’s music never ceases to reduce me to tears.” The festival runs September 12-30 and includes such other films as Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Michael Winner’s The Mechanic, Masahiro Shinoda’s Pale Flower, and Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil. From September 20 to 28, Anthology will present “A Pocketful of Firecrackers: The Film Scores of John Zorn,” consisting of such films as Marc Levin’s Protocols of Zion, Michael Glawogger’s Workingman’s Death, and Joseph Dorman’s Sholom Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness, but the real highlight are two nights of Zorn performing live to short films.

NITEHAWK BRUNCH SCREENINGS: THIS IS ENGLAND

Thomas “Tommo” Turgoose packs quite a punch in film debut, THIS IS ENGLAND

THIS IS ENGLAND (Shane Meadows, 2006)
Nitehawk Cinema
136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.
Saturday, September 14, and Sunday, September 15, 11:30 am
718-384-3980
www.nitehawkcinema.com

Based on elements from his own childhood, Shane Meadows’s This Is England is a powerful drama set in the tempestuous 1980s in the UK during the controversial Falklands War. Thirteen-year-old Thomas “Tommo” Turgoose makes a stunning debut as Shane, a twelve-year-old boy whose father recently died in the war and who gets picked on because he is short — and never backs away from the chance to defend himself and his dad. Shane is “adopted” by a goofy group of skinheads led by Woody (Joe Gilgun) who like to hang out at a local coffee shop and occasionally perform minor forms of anarchy. Shane also gets a small taste of romance from Smell (Rosamund Hanson), a sweetly innocent teen who dresses like a Boy George groupie. But when Combo (Stephen Graham) shows up, just released from prison, he causes a split among the friends, asking them to join him in his crazed nationalistic fervor fueled by hatred and racism. At that point, the film turns from a charming coming-of-age drama to an angry, politically charged story. Turgoose, a street-savvy underprivileged kid himself, is unforgettable as Shane, who learns fast about the hard, cold world. Graham (Snatch) is frightening as Combo, a ticking time bomb ready to explode at any moment. The excellent soundtrack features Culture Club, Percy Sledge, Soft Cell, the Specials, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, UK Subs, and several songs by Toots & the Maytals. Be sure not to show up late — the opening montage, beautifully summarizing Thatcher’s England, is simply awesome. Winner of the 2008 BAFTA for Best British Film, This Is England is being shown September 14 & 15 at 11:30 am as part of Nitehawk Cinema’s brunch series and will be followed by a Skype discussion with Robert “Bucket” Hingley of the ska band the Toasters.