Carlos Irrizary’s “Andy Warhol” is part of “Voces y Visiones” exhibit
SUPER SABADO
El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Ave. at 104th St.
Saturday, March 20, free, 11:00 am – 8:30 pm
212-831-7272
www.elmuseo.org
On the third Saturday of every month, the recently renovated El Museo del Barrio opens its doors for free, hosting a full day of special programming. On March 20, the schedule includes an art workshop in which kids can create a self-portrait using food and spices, storytelling with Carmen Peláez, a photo station, a screening of WHAT’S ON YOUR PLATE? (Catherine Gund, 2009), a spoken-word workshop with the Peace Poets, tortilla making, and a “Rainbow Racionality” performance. Although it’s in between temporary exhibitions right now (“Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement” opens on March 24, though if you’re good they’ll let you have an advance sneak peek), there will be gallery tours of the permanent display “Voces y Visiones: Four Decades Through El Museo del Barrio’s Permanent Collection,” which gives a terrific capsule history of the museum and its mission, with works going back to the Taíno Legacy through graphics and politics, traditional and devotional objects, abstraction, migration and language. And the café features some fine fare, homemade Latino plates (all under ten dollars) with an ever-changing menu; we highly recommend the spicy pulpo if it’s available.
Writer, director, songwriter, and star Rob Stefaniuk (PHIL THE ALIEN) was well aware that he was daring critics and audiences to attack his sophomore effort by titling the vampire rock-and-roll horror comedy SUCK. Well, it doesn’t. SUCK is a playful little piffle about the Winners, a loser of a group that is taking its last shot at the big time, going on a road trip from Toronto to New York City for a supposed CMJ showcase gig set up by their pitiful manager, Jeff (Kid in the Hall Dave Foley). But when bass player Jennifer (Jessica Paré) gets seduced and turned by master vampire Queeny (Dimitri Coats), the band starts getting popular, much to the chagrin of lead singer and songwriter Joey (Stefaniuk), who is not sure this is the best way to make it. Drummer Sam (Mike Lobel), guitarist Tyler (Paul Anthony), and Renfield-as-roadie Hugo (Alex Lifeson) have different ideas, as does afraid-of-the-dark vampire hunter Eddie Van Helsig (Malcolm McDowell). With teeth in neck – er, tongue in cheek – SUCK spoofs several genres in silly but fun ways, throwing in a little ROCKY HORROR here, some THIS IS SPINAL TAP there, and a dash of GET CRAZY over there, with hysterical guest appearances by Alice Cooper as a demonic bartender, Iggy Pop as a suburban record producer, Henry Rollins as an annoying radio host, and well-known vegan Moby as Beef Bellows, the lead singer of the Buffalo-based punk-rock band the Secretaries of Steak.
In April 2005, Neil Young underwent brain surgery for an aneurysm. Four months later, he gathered together friends for two special nights at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium, captured on film by Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme, who has previously helmed such fab music docs as STOP MAKING SENSE and STOREFRONT HITCHCOCK. NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD was an intimate portrait of man who looked death in the face and survived; the film featured acoustic songs primarily from Young’s beautiful PRAIRIE WIND album. But the Godfather of Grunge wasn’t about to let a little thing like a brain aneurysm stop him from rocking in the free world. As he continued his long-term project of reaching deep into his past for his archival box sets, he released CHROME DREAMS II in October 2007, a sequel to an unreleased 1977 album that was rumored to include such future Young classics as “Pocahontas,” “Like a Hurricane,” “Homegrown,” and “Powderfinger.” For CHROME DREAMS II, Young strapped on the electric guitar and held nothing back, joined by longtime partners in crime Ralph Molina on drums, Rick Rosas on bass, and Ben Keith on guitars and keyboards.
Fashion photographer and video director Floria Sigismondi makes an inauspicious feature debut with the bland, cliché-ridden biopic of the first major all-girl group in rock and roll history, the teenage band the Runaways. In 1975, record producer Kim Fowley (a scenery-devouring Michael Shannon) introduced guitarist Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) to drummer Sandy West (Stella Maeve); they were soon joined by guitarist Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton) and nubile singer Cherie Curie (Dakota Fanning). (Alia Shawkat plays bass player Robin, an amalgam of the band’s several bassists, which included at one time future Bangle Michael Steele.) Jett and Curie instantly bond, dreaming of great things while hanging out under the Hollywood sign before diving headfirst into the whole sex, drugs, and rock and roll thing. The film is based on Curie’s 2006 autobiography, NEON ANGEL, and Jett and her partner, Kenny Laguna, are among the executive producers, but that pedigree doesn’t help it from seeming forced and fake. Every scene is diagrammed, with no surprises or anything interesting to say. Sigismondi truncates the story to keep it at under two hours, but in doing so the plot takes gargantuan leaps that are completely unbelievable. Unfortunately, the film is more like Oliver Stone’s dreadful THE DOORS or Joan Freeman’s ridiculous SATISFACTION than Susan Seidelman’s SMITHEREENS or Lou Adler’s LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE FABULOUS STAINS. Of course, the soundtrack is terrific, with songs performed by the real Runaways as well as Stewart and Fanning, along with tunes from Nick Gilder, Suzi Quatro, the Stooges, the Sex Pistols, and David Bowie. In 1975, the Runaways exploded onto the music scene with “Cherry Bomb”; thirty-five years later, they return with a dud.
