this week in music

SOUND + VISION 2015 — JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN

Joe Strummer documentary is part of Julien Temple sidebar at “Sound + Vision” series at Lincoln Center

I WAS THERE: THE MUSIC DOCS OF JULIEN TEMPLE — JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN (Julien Temple, 2007)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
Saturday, August 1, 3:30
Festival runs July 29 – August 7
212-875-5050
www.filmlinc.com
www.joestrummerthemovie.com

Director Julien Temple, who has made two outstanding documentaries about the Sex Pistols (The Great Rock and Roll Swindle and The Filth and the Fury), turns his camera on Joe Strummer of the British punk group the Clash in The Future Is Unwritten. Temple collects remarkable home movies of Strummer, from his early days as young John Mellor, a career diplomat’s son, through his time as the leader of one of the most famous and controversial bands in the world and his death at the age of fifty from a congenital heart defect. Strummer’s friends and family gather around a campfire in Brooklyn’s Empire St.-Fulton Ferry Park and talk about Strummer’s life and career, sharing keen insight in a format that the musician loved; his campfire get-togethers came to be known as Strummerville, a place for people to assemble and discuss life, art, and anything else that came to mind. Temple adds lots of footage of the Clash in action, as well as clips from Strummer’s earlier band, the 101ers, made up of squatters fighting the power, and his last band, the Mescaleros. Temple also brings some of Strummer’s drawings to life, animating them in humorous ways. Strummer essentially narrates the film himself, as Temple includes audio excerpts from Strummer’s “Last Call” radio show and interviews he gave over the years. Temple, a close friend of Strummer’s, paints a fascinating portrait of the complex man, featuring stories from the likes of Bono, Johnny Depp, Flea, Mele Mel, Courtney Love Cobain, Martin Scorsese, Steve Jones, John Cusack, Matt Dillon, Steve Buscemi, Damien Hirst, Roland Gift, Don Letts, Mick Jones, and many others. And there’s lots of music as well, of course, including several versions of “White Riot.” The Future Is Unwritten is screening August 1 at 3:30 in the “I Was There: The Music Docs of Julien Temple” sidebar of Lincoln Center’s annual “Sound + Vision” series, which also includes The Filth and the Fury, The Clash: New Year’s Day ’77, Dave Davies: Kinkdom Come, Ray Davies: Imaginary Man, Glastonbury, Never Mind the Baubles: Christmas with the Sex Pistols, and The Liberty of Norton Folgate, with Temple on hand for various introductions and Q&As.

FIRST SATURDAY: CARIBBEAN HERITAGE

The Braata Folk Singers will help celebrate Caribbean Heritage at Brooklyn Museum on August 1 (photo © copyright Braata Productions)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, August 1, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

After taking last month off because of the July 4 holiday, the Brooklyn Museum’s free First Saturday program is back August 1 with a celebration of Caribbean Heritage in preparation for the annual New York Caribbean Carnival Parade on Labor Day. There will be live performances by BombaYo, the Braata Folk Singers, Cuban jazz pianist Elio Villafranca, and Klash City Sound System and Supa Frendz; a printmaking workshop; a pop-up carnival with poet Arielle John; a book club talk with Naomi Jackson about her new novel, The Star Side of Bird Hill; and screenings of Black Radical Imagination shorts, clips from Taboo Yardies hosted by director Selena Blake, Jonathan David Kane’s Papa Machete, followed by a Q&A with Kane, and Cecile Emeke’s webseries Ackee & Saltfish, followed by a talkback with Emeke. In addition, you can check out such exhibitions as “Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks,” “The Rise of Sneaker Culture,” “Kara Walker: ‘African Boy Attendant Curio (Bananas),’” “KAWS: ALONG THE WAY,” “Zanele Muholi: Isibonelo/Evidence,” and “FAILE: Savage/Sacred Young Minds.”

SUMMER OF MUSIC: ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS

ZIGGY STARDUST concert film will have a special free screening in Morningside Park on July 27, along with a look-a-like contest

Who: D. A. Pennebaker, David Bowie fans and wannabes
What: Outdoor screening of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (D. A. Pennebaker, 1973), introduced by the director, preceded by Night of 1000 Bowies’ Dance Party and Look-a-Like Contest with DJ Cosmo Baker
When: Monday, July 27, free, 6:30
Where: Morningside Park, 113th St. & Morningside Dr.
Why: A few weeks ago, a young woman we work with had no idea who Ziggy Stardust was. Well, she’ll know all about the David Bowie alter ego if she attends what should be a wild night July 27 in Morningside Park, which begins with a dance party and Bowie look-alike contest, followed by a screening of Pennebaker’s 1973 film, with Pennebaker on hand to talk about the work, which documented the July 3, 1973, performance of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. Bowie’s record, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, came during a particularly fruitful period, right in between Hunky Dory and Aladdin Sane. The soundtrack features such Bowie greats as “Moonage Daydream,” “Space Oddity,” “Cracked Actor,” “Changes,” “Suffragette City,” and “Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide” as well as the Bowie-penned Mott the Hoople hit “All the Young Dudes” and covers of the Stones’ “Let’s Spend the Night Together” and the Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat.” The evening is presented by Maysles Cinema and Reel Harlem: The Historic Harlem Parks Film Festival.

NEW YORK CITY POETRY FESTIVAL

You can relax with a wide range of poetry at fifth annual festival on Governors Island (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Governors Island
Colonels Row
July 25-26, free (donation suggested), 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
newyorkcitypoetryfestival.com
new york city poetry festival slideshow

The fifth annual New York City Poetry Festival, which continues Sunday on Governors Island, honors Gotham’s literary heritage with three stages named after a trio of iconic landmarks, the Algonquin, the White Horse, and Chumley’s. Poets from dozens of publishing houses, university presses, and nonprofit organizations read their works, in addition to the open mic Ring of Daisies and other places where poetry just pops up. There are lots of booths, a food truck, and a beer garden that declares that “the psychiatrist is in.” Walking across the big field, you can listen as one poem from one location morphs into one from another and then one from another in a kind of audio rainbow of words and expression. You can make visible poetry with Rachel Ossip’s interactive “to touch” installation, add your own epitaph to Christine Stoddard’s “Word Graveyard,” get a word as part of Maya Stein and Amy Tingle’s Tandem Poetry Project, and hang out with Karl C. Leone’s “Dionysia: A Bacchic Ode” (featuring art by Alexis Myre, music by Larkin Grimm, and live performances by Daniel Benhamu, Aron Canter, Nettie Chickering, Jochem le Cointre, Eli Condon, Mateo d’Amato, Hailey Kemp, Rafeh Mahmud, Siever O’Connor-Aoki, Olivia Porter, Vanessa Rose, and Michelle Rosen). Be sure to also check out building 407b for the Children’s Poetry Festival, Amy Bassin and Mark Blickley’s “Dream Streams,” the analog participatory “Typewriter Project: The Subconscious of the City,” and the Poetry Brothel, where you can get an extremely private one-on-one reading for a small fee. As an added bonus, stop by LMCC’s “(Counter) Public Art, Intervention & Performance in Lower Manhattan from 1978-1993” exhibition at the Arts Center at Governors Island to see video of John Kelly’s Love of a Poet piece from 1990.

PARKSIDE EMPIRE STREET FESTIVAL

Who: Vivid Dreams, Kamutshima Dance Troupe, Lyrikal, the Bright Smoke, Alegba & Friends, Highyaziya, Camila Meza, Homegrown
What: First annual Parkside Empire Street Festival
Where: Flatbush Ave. between Beekman Pl. & Westbury Ct.
When: Sunday, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
Why: The Parkside Empire Flatbush Avenue Merchants Association and Hudson Companies Inc. have teamed up for a brand-new street festival on the southeast side of Prospect Park, with live music and dance, local vendors, raffles, a chicken recipe competition, a fashion show, arts and crafts, and more.

LOIZA FESTIVAL OF EL BARRIO

THE FESTIVAL OF SANTIAGO APOSTOL
105th St. between Park & Lexington Aves.
July 24-26, free
www.facebook.com

The annual celebration of James the Greater, known as the Loiza Festival del Barrio and the Festival of Santiago Apostol, takes place this weekend on East 105th St., three days that focus on the African influence of the Puerto Rican community of Loíza on New York City with live entertainment, family-friendly activities, a religious processional, and a tribute to those affected by the March 2014 gas explosion on 116th St. On Friday, Taino Towers Day: El Barrio Fuerte . . . !Basta Ya! features art workshops, storytelling, children’s games, and music by 5 en Plena and salsa music and dance from Swing y Sabor. On Saturday, there will be a special installation of La Casita/La’Kay (with Adrian “Viajero” Roman, Manny Vega, Sophia Dawson, David Zayas, and Damaris Cruz) and live music by DJ Geko Jones, the Palladium Mambo All Stars, !BOMBA YO!, Johnny Olivo & Herencia de Plena, Jose Mangual & Son Boricua, and !Retumba! On Sunday, the processional kicks off at 12:30 at Iglesia Catolica de la Santa Agonía, with Frankie Vasquez as Padrino and Olga Rosa as La Madrina, followed by live performances by Danza Fiesta, Legacy Women, Milteri Tucker y Bombazo Dance Company, Tipica 73, Evelyn Jimenez y Orgullo Taino, and the Family Affair Mambo Dance team.

LINCOLN CENTER OUT OF DOORS: RANDY NEWMAN

Randy Newman will be performing a free outdoor concert at Lincoln Center on July 25

Damrosch Park Bandshell
Amsterdam Ave. between 62nd & 63rd Sts.
Saturday, July 25, free, 7:00
randynewman.com
lcoutofdoors.org

Singer-songwriter Randy Newman has had his trigger finger on the pulse of the dark side of America for five decades, with a particularly wry focus on the south and the economy. Melding pop, rock, blues, folk, and Tin Pan Alley, the seventy-one-year-old Newman, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, has been commenting on the state of things for nearly fifty years, and he’ll be making a rare appearance in New York City on July 25, playing a free show in Damrosch Park as part of the Lincoln Center Out of Doors summer festival, along with Wycliffe Gordon and His International All-Stars and Lil Buck. The sardonic, cynical, bitterly funny Newman was born in Los Angeles and spent parts of his childhood in Louisiana, and he got a good look at both Hollywood and New Orleans. He mixes the flavor of both in clever songs filled with sarcastic, ironic humor, bittersweet romance, and sharp insight. He celebrates capitalism, in his own unique way, in such songs as “It’s Money That I Love” (“Used to worry about the poor / But I don’t worry anymore / Used to worry about the black man / Now I don’t worry about the black man / Used to worry about the starving children of India / You know what I say now about the starving children of India? / I say, ‘Oh mama’ / It’s money that I love”) and “It’s Money That Matters.” He takes on fame in “Lonely at the Top” and “My Life Is Good” (“The other afternoon / My wife and I / Took a little ride into / Beverly Hills / Went to the private school / Our oldest child attends / Many famous people send their children there / This teacher says to us / ‘We have a problem here / This child just will not do / A thing I tell him to / And he’s such a big old thing / He hurts the other children / All the games they play, he plays so rough’ / Hold it, teacher / Wait a minute / Maybe my ears are clogged or somethin’ / Maybe I’m not understanding / The English language / Dear, you don’t seem to realize / My life is good, you old bag”). An atheist, he tackles religion in such tracks as “God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)” (“I recoil in horror from the foulness of thee / From the squalor and the filth and the misery / How we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me / That’s why I love mankind”) and “Harps and Angels. He also has written tender, heartbreaking ballads (“Marie,” “Real Emotional Girl”) and songs made popular by others (“You Can Leave Your Hat On” by Joe Cocker, “Mama Told Me Not to Come” by Three Dog Night). But it’s his songs about race that resonate the most now.

After releasing six studio records in the first eleven years of his career, Newman has made only four in the last thirty-five years, instead following in the footsteps of his uncles and cousins, composing soundtracks for more than two dozen films, from A Bug’s Life, Cars, and the Toy Story series to Ragtime, The Natural, and Meet the Parents, earning twenty Oscar nominations (with two wins) to go along with three Emmys and six Grammys. But Newman is nothing if not a political junkie, and he’s never shied away from hot-button topics, from slavery and racism in “Christmas in Capetown” and “Rednecks” to poverty in “Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)” and “The World Isn’t Fair.” Singing such lines as “In America you’ll get food to eat / Won’t have to run through the jungle / And scuff up your feet / You’ll just sing about Jesus and drink wine all day / It’s great to be an American” in “Sail Away” and “They got little baby legs / That stand so low / You got to pick ’em up / Just to say hello” in “Short People,” Newman has found himself misunderstood and becoming the subject of controversy. But we need Randy Newman, perhaps more than ever now, as wealth inequality grows, racism keeps rising up, and wars seem inevitable. “No one likes us — I don’t know why / We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try / But all around, even our old friends put us down / Let’s drop the big one and see what happens,” he offers in “Political Science,” continuing, “We give them money — but are they grateful? / No, they’re spiteful and they’re hateful / They don’t respect us — so let’s surprise them / We’ll drop the big one and pulverize them.” In his 2007 song “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country,” a public response to what he deemed the failures of the Bush administration, Newman sang, “The end of an Empire is messy at best / And this Empire is ending / Like all the rest / Like the Spanish Armada adrift on the sea / We’re adrift in the land of the brave and the home of the free.” On Saturday night we’ll hear what thoughts he has on America today.