“There is no hiding now or ever / There’s no escape for us, it seems,” Matilda (Tillie) Perks sings on “Hounds,” one of ten tracks on the “debut” album by Montreal-based lo-fi dream-pop shoegazers Valleys. Formerly a trio that released the 2009 LP Sometimes Water Kills People, the 2010 EP Stoner, and the 2011 tour EP River Phoenix, Valleys is now firmly a duo, with Perks on vocals, guitar, keyboards, and sequencer and Marc St Louis on vocals, guitar, keyboards, and drums. (Pascal Oliver is no longer part of the group.) Valleys is escaping from their former incarnation, reintroducing themselves on their new record, Are You Going to Stand There and Talk Weird All Night? (Kanine, April 30, 2012), wiping away the past and starting again with a fresh, though still ethereal, sound. Valleys deals with loss and recovery on the disc, which features such songs as “Absolutely Everything All the Time,” “Living Normal,” “Exing Everything,” and “John, Meet Me at the Precipice.” Are You Going to Stand There and Talk Weird All Night? basks in a mysterious, otherworldly glow, created with the help of coproducer Alec Dippie, aka Orson Presence from the Monochrome Set, as tunes weave in and out of emotional highs and lows, with plenty of droning feedback throughout. Valleys will be at Glasslands on April 4 with Fol Chen and Softspot.
twi-ny recommended events
CARTE BLANCHE — SCOTT MACAULAY AND TWENTY YEARS OF FILMMAKER MAGAZINE: ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW
Miranda July is charming and delightful in her quirky ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW
ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW (Miranda July, 2005)
MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Friday, April 5, 4:00, and Wednesday, April 10, 4:00
Series runs April 4-15
Tickets: $12, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
www.mirandajuly.com
Winner of a Special Jury Prize at Sundance “for originality of vision,” performance artist Miranda July’s feature-film directorial debut is a success from start to finish, an original, engaging, and utterly charming romantic comedy that is as unique as it is familiar. July, who also wrote the screenplay, stars as a quirky young performance artist who is looking for a relationship in her rather mundane life. She immediately falls for a shoe salesman (John Hawkes) who is separating from his wife and trying to understand his kids (Brandon Ratcliff and Miles Thompson), who are having a strange online dalliance with a mystery e-mailer. Meanwhile, two high school girls (Najarra Townsend and Natasha Slayton) are sexually tormenting a bizarre loner (Brad Henke) who is sexually tormenting them right back, both humorously and dangerously. It’s nearly impossible to take your eyes off of July, whose innovative audio and visual installations and short films have been shown at the Andy Warhol Museum, the Whitney Biennial, the Kitchen, Lincoln Center, the Museum of Modern Art, Union Square Park, and the Rotterdam International Film Festival, among many other prestigious places. Me and You and Everyone We Know is screening at MoMA on April 5 & 10 as part of “Carte Blanche: Scott Macaulay and 20 Years of Filmmaker Magazine,” which celebrates the continuing success of the IFP publication that focuses on independent film from the filmmakers’ point of view. Curated by the magazine’s editor in chief, Scott Macaulay, the series runs April 4-15 and also includes such gems as Darren Aronofsky’s Pi, Nick Gomez’s Laws of Gravity, Errol Morris’s Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, Laura Poitras’s The Oath, and Todd Haynes’s Safe. “Me and You and Everyone We Know is a tremendously winning collection of interlocking stories dealing with love, longing, and the ways children and adults connect in our modern age, and it adeptly imports the concerns of July’s visual art to the world of feature films,” Macaulay writes on the MoMA website. “July was selected by Filmmaker as one its 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2004, and the film was on the cover of the magazine’s Spring 2005 issue.”
THE LIFE OF FILM — CELEBRATING A DECADE OF REVERSE SHOT: THE HEADLESS WOMAN
María Onetto is lost deep in thought through most of Lucrecia Martel’s Argentine drama
THE HEADLESS WOMAN (LA MUJER SIN CABEZA) (Lucrecia Martel, 2008)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Saturday, April 6, free with museum admission, 6:00
Series runs April 4-7
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.strandreleasing.com
Inspired by nightmares she has in which she commits murder, Lucrecia Martel’s The Headless Woman details a woman’s emotional and psychological reaction after having possibly killed someone. María Onetto gives a mesmerizingly cool, distant performance as Veronica, a middle-aged, upper-class wife and mother whose biggest worry appears to be the turtles that have infested the new pool built behind a veterinary office. But one afternoon, while out driving carelessly in her Mercedes along a twisting, barren road, she hits something. Not sure if it was a child, an adult, or an animal, she decides to continue on, telling no one what she has done. But when a poor, local boy goes missing, she begins to suspect that she might have killed him. An intriguing mix of Buñuel’s class-consciousness and Poe’s flair for suspense, The Headless Woman is an unusual kind of murder mystery. In Veronica, Argentine writer-director Martel (La Cienaga, The Holy Girl) has created a compelling protagonist/villain, played with expert calm and faraway eyes by Onetto.
The Headless Woman is screening April 6 at 6:00 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image series “The Life of Film: Celebrating a Decade of Reverse Shot,” featuring four days of screenings, Q&As, and a panel discussion paying tribute to the tenth anniversary of the quarterly online film magazine founded by editors Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert (who curated this series) and writers Erik Syngle and Neal Block. In issue thirty-two, Eric Hynes reviewed The Headless Woman, writing, “In the films of Lucrecia Martel you’re challenged to pay attention well before you’re ready, to play catch-up, figuring out who’s related to whom and what is relevant. But as with the protagonist’s subsequent disorientation, your heightened yet bewildered state isn’t a set-up or effect — it’s the point. Martel sharpens your senses — and celebrates and rewards them — while compelling you to distrust them.” The screening will be introduced by Chris Wisniewski, Reverse Shot contributor and Moving Image deputy director for education and visitor experience. The series runs April 4-7, also presenting Shane Carruth’s Primer (with the director present), a preview screening of Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder, Miguel Gomes’s The Face You Deserve, Douglas Gordon and Phillippe Parreno’s Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (introduced by Hynes and followed by a roundtable discussion), and “Deborah Stratman and Dani Leventhal: Avant-Garde Voices,” featuring Stratman’s O’er the Land and Leventhal’s Draft 9 and Shayne’s Rectangle (introduced by Genevieve Yue).
WENDY OSSERMAN DANCE COMPANY: APPETITE
Wendy Osserman’s APPETITE will feed hungry dance fans at Theater for the New City April 4-7
Theater for the New City
155 First Ave. at Tenth St.
April 4-7, $10-$15
212-254-1109
www.wendyossermandance.org
www.theaterforthenewcity.net
New York City–raised dancer, choreographer, and teacher Wendy Osserman is following up last year’s politically infused Compromised with a new evening-length piece, Appetite. Running April 4-7 at Theater for the New City, Appetite examines the acquisitiveness of the body and mind through music and movement, exploring different ways of experiencing pleasure and conflict. The seventy-five-minute work will be performed by Osserman, Lauren Ferguson, and Emily Vetsch, with Briana Bartenieff, Hallie Hayne, Liliana Kelson, and Laurie Bennett, the dancers ranging in age from eleven to seventy. The score is by Skip La Plante, who builds homemade instruments out of trash and junk, with lighting design by Alex Bartenieff and costumes by longtime company dancer Cori Kresge.
NEW YORK KNICKERBOCKERS FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE
Knickerbockers have now gone forty years since capturing the 1972-73 NBA title (AP photo)
KNICKS vs. BUCKS
Madison Square Garden
Friday, April 5, $80-$430, 7:30
www.nba.com/knicks
www.thegarden.com
Madison Square Garden has seen its share of championship droughts, most famously the Rangers’ fifty-four years without a Stanley Cup, until Mark Messier, Brian Leetch, Mike Richter, Adam Graves, et al. changed all that in 1994. So the longest current streak belongs to the streaking Knickerbockers, who have won eight games in a row as they go after a title the club has not claimed since 1973, an almost unbelievable forty years. In the ’90s, the Patrick Ewing–led Knicks could not get past Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, and now it’s looking like the current team might never get past the Miami Heat and its triumvirate of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosch. Mike Woodson’s Knicks have had an up-and-down, inconsistent season filled with injuries and old-timers, getting streaky production from J. R. Smith, Steve Novak, Amar’e Stoudemire, Chris Copeland, and Kenyon Martin while Carmelo Anthony continues to prove he’s one of the best offensive players in the league. On Friday night, the 46-26 Knicks — who are sitting in second place in the East, behind only Miami, whom they visit on Tuesday, followed by a game in Atlanta on Wednesday — will take on the 35-37 Bucks, who are trying to hold on to the eighth and final playoff spot in the conference. During halftime, the team will honor the 1973 squad, which consisted of Dean Meminger (#7), Walt “Clyde” Frazier (#10), Dick Barnett (#12), Earl Monroe (#15), Henry Bibby (#17), Phil Jackson (#18), Willis Reed (#19), Dave DeBusschere (#22), Bill Bradley (#24), Jerry Lucas (#32), John Gianelli(#40), and Harthorne Wingo (#43), guided by masterful head coach and GM Red Holzman, along with assistant coach Dick McGuire and trainer Danny Whelan. Several of those players will be at the Garden to participate in the celebration, each one wondering, just as the fans are, when the Knicks will take home the NBA crown again.
THE LIFE OF FILM — CELEBRATING A DECADE OF REVERSE SHOT: PRIMER
Shane Carruth’s PRIMER kicks off Reverse Shot series at Museum of the Moving Image
PRIMER (Shane Carruth, 2004)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Thursday, April 4, $20, 7:00
Series runs April 4-7
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.erbpfilm.com
Former engineer and first-time filmmaker Shane Carruth wrote, directed, edited, scored, and stars in Primer, an utterly confusing, confounding, and ultimately uninvolving tale of two engineers (Carruth and David Sullivan) who accidentally develop a machine that breaks through the time-space continuum and can create doubles of — well, it’s better not to get too specific, because we’re not really sure what it’s all about and what really happens. That can sometimes be a good thing, but not this time around, we’re afraid. Carruth, who made the film for a mere seven grand, is purposefully vague, but it’s to his own detriment, resulting in a story that plays more like an episode of a mediocre sci-fi series than the intriguing, unique, imaginative movie he wanted to make, even if it did win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Carruth wouldn’t make another film for nine years, the romantic thriller Upstream Color, which he wrote, directed, produced, and stars in and opens in New York City on April 5. Primer kicks off the Museum of the Moving Image series “The Life of Film: Celebrating a Decade of Reverse Shot” on April 4, with Carruth on hand to talk about his work. The festival consists of four days of screenings, Q&As, and a panel discussion paying tribute to the tenth anniversary of the quarterly online film magazine founded by editors Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert (who curated this series) and writers Erik Syngle and Neal Block. We might not have cared much for Primer, but Reverse Shot’s Matthew Plouffe had this to say about it in the autumn 2004 issue: “Irrespective of Shane Carruth’s heroic story or the film’s potential effect on American cinema, Primer ranks among the brightest beacons of uncompromised creative light to hit the silver screens of Utah in recent history. It’s hard to believe. The posh festival that has steadily spiraled into a mire of mediocrity over the last decade finally got it right. Shane Carruth deserves every accolade thrown his way, and if Primer signals what we’ve got to look forward to, his Sundance honors won’t be the last.”
DARRYL STRAWBERRY REJOINS METS
Darryl Strawberry wants to bring that championship feeling back to Mets
Citi Field
123-01 Roosevelt Ave.
April 1 – September 29
718-507-6387
www.newyork.mets.mlb.com
mets spring training slideshow
It’s strawberry season again in Queens. Darryl Strawberry, that is. From 1983 to 1990, the Crenshaw High School graduate propelled the New York Mets, belting 252 homers while leading them to a world championship in 1986 and the NLCS in 1988. He finished his career with a five-year stint with the Yankees, winning three more World Series titles, retiring with a total of 335 four-baggers and 1,000 RBIs. But seeing how troubled the Mets currently are in the outfield, this past weekend Strawberry reached out to manager Terry Collins and GM Sandy Alderson, offering his help, and the two men gladly accepted.
“I want to be the straw that stirs the drink again,” Strawberry said. “The restaurant might not have worked out, but I still want to show Queens what I’ve got and that I can make a difference,” he said, referring to his Douglaston barbecue joint, Strawberry’s Sports Grill, which closed last October.
When asked about Strawberry’s age — the eight-time all-star is fifty-one, born less than a month before the Mets played their first-ever game, against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 11, 1962 — Collins, who is sixty-three, pulled no punches.
“Look, Satchel Paige pitched till he was fifty-nine,” Collins explained. “Julio Franco was forty-nine when he retired a few years back. [Carlton] Fisk and [Pete] Rose played into their mid-forties. Minne Minoso was fifty-four. I betcha Gordie Howe is still skating somewhere. Darryl has shown us what he’s got, and what he’s got is a lot left in the tank.”
Strawberry will be trying to rescue a franchise in serious decline, suffering through recent financial woes and horrific late-season collapses that have made them a laughingstock in the baseball world. The current roster features a less-than-stellar group of no-name outfielders, consisting of Mike Baxter, Marlon Byrd, Collin Cowgill, Lucas Duda, Jordany Valdespin, and Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who have a grand total of 132 homers combined, with 82 of those dingers coming off the bat of the thirty-five-year-old Byrd.
“We were a special team in 1986, and I think this team can regain that feeling with the right chemistry. Ronnie [Darling] and Keith [Hernandez] are up in the booth, so maybe we can get them on the field too if we need to,” Strawberry joked after taking a secret batting practice at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie. “And hey, Doc will be in Queens as well on July 21,” he added, referring to Dwight Gooden All-Star Bobblehead Day.
It remains to be seen whether Strawberry, who signed a one-year, incentive-laden contract, is the real deal or whether this was just a financial decision to help fill the many expected empty seats at Citi Field. Like they say, “A fool and his money….” It is April 1, after all.