this week in music

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL 2015: THE KITE APP

Kite introduces its app at Northside Innovation Conference and Expo party at the Counting Room (photo by twi-ny/ees)

The Northside Festival is known for music, but its Innovation Conference and Expo is shaping up on a SXSW model. Thursday’s launch party for the Kite social news feed app was packed, and Kite founder Trond Werner Hansen was on hand to give twi-ny an interview and insight into what Kite is all about. An app for Mac devices (downloadable on the App Store), Kite lets users read and share articles from any website. They can also follow other users to see what sites they read and share so each person’s news feed is socially curated. Users can follow other users who share content they like, just as they do on Instagram, but they’ll see news articles rather than photos. Kite is also a browser that can go to any website, so users can build whatever kind of feed they like — it’s not limited by who’s signed on to Kite — or who’s paid to be there. On the hot summer street corner of Berry and North Eleventh, twi-ny asked Trond — a tall, amiable Norwegian who lives in Bushwick and is well known for his work developing browser software for Mozilla and others: “Why Kite?” He gave three reasons:

Screenshot of sites Trond follows via Kite — and you can too

1) The Open Web. As a content platform, until now we have taken that for granted, but in the fall Apple is launching Apple News, and then you don’t have an open free platform anymore. Now they don’t have that control, but we don’t even want to go in that direction.

2) Convenience. You know people are starting to be pushed to individual apps — the CNN app, the New York Times app — and that’s just not the best way for the user. [News sites] should focus on making great content, not on making apps. Kite brings all sources into one container, but when you go to each of them, you go to their direct website, so they control their own thing, but they’re contained within one user experience, so that’s better for the user.

3) The social aspect. We’ve seen now that social curation of content works. I want to read what you read. So there’s two ways of curation: There’s the old-fashioned way — you go to CNN to see what kind of information they have curated for you, that works, and now we have the social curation that works, and Kite brings those two things together, kind of like the yin to the yang. And we also believe while Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or these other social networks cater to sharing, they were not specifically made for content sharing. For example, on Kite I can go on your profile and see what kind of curation comes to you. You can’t do that on Facebook.

“I’ve learned through doing the web browser for so many years that algorithmic curation of things generally doesn’t work over scale over time,” Trond added. “Social curation works; brand curation works. But not algorithmic curation. I like food, so then I’m gonna get food articles. It’s unpredictable. . . . Engineers love to do algorithmic things, because that’s what they can do with their machines. ‘Look, you enter cheese, you can get a lot of articles about cheese!’ But it’s not really valuable or interesting. You can see on the Kite app, when you click another person, you can see his feed and his sites, what he reads. It’s useful, it’s predictable, it’s not algorithmic.”

We clicked on Trond’s feed and it’s fascinating. Try Kite and save some screen space — no need to clutter your iPhone with separate apps from CNN, WSJ, NYT, BBC, Guardian, Economist, etc. ThisWeekInNewYork is starting a Kite feed now, and curious readers can download the app for free on the App Store; during the festival, which continues through June 14 and has a terrific app of its own, you can use the invite code: northside.

JOAN OF ARC AT THE STAKE

Joan of Arc (Marion Cotillard) and Brother Dominique (Éric Génovèse) contemplate her fate as the stake awaits (photo by Startraks Photo/Rex Shutterstock)

Who: Actors Marion Cotillard, Éric Génovèse, and Christian Gonon, the New York Choral Artists, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, conductor Alan Gilbert, the New York Philharmonic, and others
What: Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake
Where: Avery Fisher Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, 212-875-5030
When: Saturday, June 13, $50-$164, 8:00
Why: Director Côme de Bellescize’s concert staging of Swiss composer Arthur Honegger’s 1935 oratorio Joan of Arc at the Stake might occasionally be more than a bit head-scratching (a court of adults and children in animal costumes?), but the music, conducted by Alan Gilbert, is glorious, with the Philharmonic joined by the New York Choral Artists, who hover in the back like an angelic jury, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, composed of children in a dazzling spectrum of outfits. Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) stars as Joan of Arc, the fifteenth-century French nationalist heroine who is accused of being a witch and a heretic. The production works best when Joan and Brother Dominique (Éric Génovèse) examine her life and fate, on a central wooden rectangular stage featuring a threatening stake in front of hellish red lighting. Other standouts include Faith Sherman as Catherine and Simone Osborne as Marguerite. The eighty-minute presentation is divided into a prologue followed by eleven scenes, with such titles as “The Voices of Heaven,” “Joan Given Up to the Beasts,” and “The Sword of Joan,” leading to a powerful, emotional conclusion.

BIG APPLE BARBECUE BLOCK PARTY 2015

There’s plenty of smokin’ good ’cue at annual BBQ block party in Madison Square Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Madison Square Park
23rd to 26th Sts. between Fifth & Madison Aves.
Saturday, June 13, and Sunday, June 14, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Admission: free; $9-$12 per plate of barbecue
Fast Pass: $125; BigPiggin’ Pass: $265
www.bigapplebbq.org
www.madisonsquarepark.org

The immensely popular and ridiculously crowded Big Apple Barbecue Block Party is upon us, as pitmasters from around the country gather in Madison Square Park and serve up some damn fine BBQ. The thirteenth annual event, being held June 13-14, features some old favorites as well as some up-and-comers: Mike Mills of the 17th Street Bar & Grill (Murphysboro, Illinois; baby back ribs with baked beans), Tim Love (the Woodshed Smokehouse, Dallas/Ft. Worth; lamb brisket with borracho beans), Chris Lilly of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q (Decatur, Alabama; pulled pork sandwich with spicy mustard coleslaw), Mike Emerson of Pappy’s Smokehouse (St. Louis; baby back ribs with baked beans), Jimmy Hagood of BlackJack Barbecue (Charleston, South Carolina; pulled pork with coleslaw), Wayne Mueller of Louie Mueller Barbecue (Taylor, Texas; Texas beef rib with pickled southern vegetables), Patrick Martin of Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint (Nashville; Western Tennessee whole hog sandwich with coleslaw), Garry Roark of Ubon’s Barbeque of Yazoo (Yazoo City, Mississippi; pulled pork shoulder sandwich with coleslaw), Scott Roberts of the Salt Lick Bar-B-Que (Driftwood, Texas; beef brisket, sausage, and coleslaw), Brad Orrison of the Shed Barbeque & Blues Joint (Ocean Springs, Mississippi; pulled whole hog sandwich with baked beans), John Wheeler of Memphis Barbecue Co. (Horn Lake, Mississippi; baby back ribs with baked beans), Drew Robinson of Jim N’ Nick’s Bar-B-Que (Birmingham, Alabama; smoked pork hot links with pimento cheese), Samuel Jones of the Skylight Inn (Ayden, North Carolina; chopped whole hog sandwich with coleslaw), and local purveyors Jean-Paul Bourgeois of Blue Smoke (pork spare ribs with pickled peppers), Charles Grund Jr. of Hill Country (beef brisket sandwich with sweet and spicy pickles), John Stage of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (beef brisket with BBQ beans), and Bill Durney of Hometown Bar-B-Que (Jamaican jerk St. Louis ribs with Caribbean slaw). The lines can get extremely long, so the best way to enjoy the event is to go with a bunch of friends, get on different lines, and then gather somewhere in the park to devour your meal (while also checking out Teresita Fernandez’s new mirrored installation, “Fata Morgana”). Each plate of ’cue will run you between nine and twelve bucks, with desserts from Sugaree’s and Robicelli’s. The FastPass is no more, so if you want to go VIP, you need to pick up the BigPiggin’ Pass, where for $275 you get your food brought to you in the comfort of the hospitality tent. Saturday’s music lineup consists of the Reed Turner Band at 1:00, Shook Twins at 2:45, and Andrew Combs at 4:30, while Sunday’s is Whiskey Shivers at 1:00, Nikki Lane at 2:45, and Jonny Fritz at 4:30.

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL 2015 VIDEO OF THE DAY: “DAMN, GIRL” BY HEEMS

Who: Heems
What: Northside Festival International Showcase
Where: McCarren Park, North Twelfth St., Lorimer St., and Manhattan Ave. between Bayard St. and Berry St. and Nassau Ave.
When: Friday, June 12, free with RSVP, 8:30
Why: Queens native and Das Racist cofounder Himanshu “Heems” Suri has struck out on his own, touring behind his debut solo album, Eat Pray Thug, which was released in March in conjunction with a similarly titled art exhibition at Aicon Gallery. The politically tinged record, with a deep personal connection, features such tracks as “So NY,” “Flag Shopping,” “Hubba Hubba,” “Al Q8a,” “Suicide by Cop,” and “Patriot Act.” Heems is playing a free show with St. Grandson, Sevdaliza, Oy, Jacco Gardner, Irie Maffia, and the Very Best on June 12 in McCarren Park as part of the Northside Festival, which runs through June 14 in venues all over Brooklyn’s north side, featuring innovation speakers, panel discussions, and a trade-show expo June 11-12, music June 11-14, and art walks June 13-14; among the other bands performing on June 12 are Morello Twins at Cameo, Sons of an Illustrious Father at Muchmore’s, Vomitface at Pet Rescue, Walking Shapes at the Polish National Church, and Beach Fossils at Rough Trade.

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL 2015 VIDEO OF THE DAY: “CHAINSAW MORNING” BY RINGO DEATHSTARR

Who: Ringo Deathstarr
What: Rocky Road showcase at the Northside Festival
Where: The Grand Victory, 245 Grand St., 347-529-6610
When: Thursday, June 11, $13, 10:30
Why: Sure, Ringo Deathstarr has one of the best band names ever, but the Austin trio also knows its way around trippy psychedelia shoegazing, taking listeners on its own version of a magical mystery tour on such records as God’s Dream and Mauve. Elliot Frazier, Daniel Coborn, and G. G. Alex are headlining the Rocky Road showcase at Northside Festival on Thursday night at the Grand Victory with Casual Strangers, New Myths, Armstrong Leigh, and RIG1. The Northside Festival runs through June 14 in venues all over Brooklyn’s north side, featuring film June 8-10, innovation speakers, panel discussions, and a trade-show expo June 11-12, music June 11-14, and art walks June 13-14; among the other bands performing on June 11 are White Suns at Aviv, Health at Baby’s All Right, Femi Kuti & the Positive Force at Brooklyn Bowl, the Rosewood Girl at Pete’s Candy Store, and Sharkmuffin at the Gutter.

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL 2015 VIDEO OF THE DAY: “HUNGER” BY ZOLA JESUS

Who: Zola Jesus
What: Scenic & Northside Festival Present
Where: Warsaw @ the Polish National Home, 261 Driggs Ave. at Eckford St., 718-387-0505
When: Sunday, June 14, $25, 10:45
Why: Zola Jesus’s dark, gothic sound and style has been building buzz for quite a while now. It’s a treat to see her again, this time at Northside; the last place we saw her was when she went wild onstage at the 2012 Catalpa Festival on Randall’s Island, so we’re, um, hungry for more. Zola Jesus will be at Warsaw on Sunday night with Container, and Blanck Mass. The Northside Festival runs June 8-14 in venues all over Brooklyn’s north side, featuring film June 8-10, innovation speakers, panel discussions, and a trade-show expo June 11-12, music June 11-14, and art walks June 13-14; among the other bands performing on June 14 are Sleigh Bells at 50 Kent Avenue, Hard Nips at Black Bear Bar, Future Punx at Cameo, Viet Cong at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, and Sun Ra Arkestra at Rough Trade.

MUSEUM MILE FESTIVAL 2015

Uptown institutions stay open late and open their doors for free for Museum Mile Festival

Multiple locations on Fifth Ave. between 82nd & 105th Sts.
Tuesday, June 9, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Admission: free
www.museummilefestival.org

There’s really only one main problem with the annual Museum Mile Festival: It’s too short. On Tuesday, June 9, from 6:00 to 9:00, nine uptown art and cultural institutions will open their doors for free and fill Fifth Ave. between 82nd & 105th Sts. with family-friendly activities for the thirty-sixth year. There will be live outdoor performances by Calpulli Mexican Dance Company, Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, Evolfo, Kim David Smith, the Martha Graham Dance Company, Sammie & Trudie’s Imagination Playhouse, Silly Billy the Very Funny Clown, and Magic Brian, in addition to face painting, art workshops, chalk drawing, and more. The participating museums (with at least one of their current shows listed here) are El Museo del Barrio (“Under the Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa — Art and Film”), the Museum of the City of New York (“Saving Place: 50 Years of New York City Landmarks”), the Jewish Museum (“Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television,” “Laurie Simmons: How We See”), the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (“How Posters Work,” “Making Design”), the National Academy (“The Annual 2015: The Depth of the Surface”), the Guggenheim (“Storylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim”), the Neue Galerie (“Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold”), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (“Van Gogh: Irises and Roses,” “Robert Motherwell: Lyric Suite”), along with the Africa Center (which is building a new home). Don’t try to do too much, because it can get rather crowded; just pick one or two exhibitions in one or two museums and enjoy.