this week in music

NEW YORK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL: HAVA NAGILA

Documentary delves into the fascinating history behind traditional Jewish song that became an international sensation

Documentary delves into the fascinating history behind traditional Jewish song that became an international sensation

HAVA NAGILA (THE MOVIE) (Roberta Grossman, 2012)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
70 Lincoln Center Plaza, 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Tuesday, January 15, 6:00
Festival runs January 9-24
212-875-5601
www.thejewishmuseum.org
www.havanagilamovie.com
www.filmlinc.com

“What’s up with this song? So kitschy, yet so profound,” director and narrator Roberta Grossman says at the beginning of her rollicking documentary, Hava Nagila (The Movie). “And what’s the deal with the chair?” A staple at Jewish celebrations, primarily weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs, “Hava Nagila” instantly gets friends and family members out on the dance floor, forming a circle and doing the Hora. Grossman delves into the history and mystery of the catchy song, which over the years has been performed by an unlikely crew that has included Harry Belafonte, Connie Francis, Glen Campbell, Johnny Yune, and Regina Spektor, all of whom appear in the film and discuss the tune’s popularity. (There are also archival performances from all around the world as well as an anti-“Hava” song from Bob Dylan.) Also putting “Hava Nagila” into perspective are Yiddish theater veteran Leonard Nimoy, communications professor Josh Kun, and KlezKamp founder Henry Sapoznik, a “Hava” hater who says with a more than a touch of cynicism, “It’s relentless. It’s resilient. But then again, so are cockroaches,” a statement that exemplifies Grossman’s playful attitude, exemplified by her corny captioning and clever clips from such TV shows and movies as Laugh-In, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Danny Kaye Show, A Serious Man, Wedding Crashers, History of the World Part I, and Fiddler on the Roof. But she also reveals another side to the song, as described by professor James Loeffler, who explains, “‘Hava’ is a portal into a century and a half of Jewish history.” Grossman ( Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh) sets off on what she calls a “Hava Quest,” venturing to the village of Sadagora in Ukraine, the birthplace of the song, and later meeting with two warring families battling over authorship of the words and music. She traces its impact on the development of the State of Israel and the Jewish migration to suburban America, and, yes, she lays out precisely what the words of the song mean. Like the song itself, Hava Nagila (The Movie) is a fun and fanciful frolic into the fascinating story behind one of the most famous songs that so many know so little about. Hava Nagila, which opens March 1 at Lincoln Plaza, is screening January 15 at the twenty-second annual New York Jewish Film Festival, presented by the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, with Grossman on hand to participate in a Q&A following the show.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “MECHANICAL MAMMOTH” BY MYSTICAL WEAPONS

After bumping into each other when their bands were playing in San Francisco, Sean Lennon (the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Plastic Ono Band) and Greg Saunier (Deerhoof) improvised a jam and decided to form a new art rock supergroup. Mystical Weapons consists of Lennon, Saunier, and multimedia artist and activist Martha Colburn, who incorporates politics and pop culture in short animated collages that have included “Anti-fracture Mining Film,” “Triumph of the Wild,” “Join the Freedom Force,” “Dolls vs. Dictators vs. Deerhoof vs. Evil,” and the Deerhoof music video “Wrong Time Capsule.” On their eponymously titled debut album, which is streaming for free here through January 18, drummer Saunier and guitarist-keyboardist Lennon power through thirteen experimental instrumentals that venture across multiple genres, from psychedelia, futuristic noise, and prog rock to horror and spaghetti Western soundtracks and even a taste of Tin Pan Alley balladry on such tracks as “Impossible Shapes,” “Whispers of the Blue Tongue,” “Gross Domestic Happiness,” and “Gilbert Releases His Pet Salamander into the Wild.” Mystical Weapons will be at Big Sky Works in Brooklyn on Saturday, January 12, at 9:00, with Miles Robbins and DJ Alix Brown also on the bill. And yes, you can expect multiple mad drum solos.

UNDER THE RADAR

The Belarus Free Theatre will present MINSK 2011: A REPLY TO KATHY ACKER at the 2013 Under the Radar festival (photo by Nicolai Khalezin)

The Public Theater
425 Lafayette St. between East Fourth St. & Astor Pl.
January 9-20, free-$30 (most shows $20)
212-967-7555
www.undertheradarfestival.com

The newly renovated Public Theater is home once again to the annual Under the Radar festival, two weeks of experimental works that challenge the traditional nature of theater. Iranian actor Afshin Hashemi uses household objects and toys to prepare for his impending doom in the Leev Theater Group’s Hamlet, Prince of Grief. Christina Anderson’s Hollow Roots, performed by April Matthis, examines race and gender. In Ganesh Versus the Third Reich, Australia’s Back to Back Theatre focuses on the Hindu god Ganesh’s attempts to reclaim the ancient swastika symbol from the Nazis. The Nature Theater of Oklahoma explores existence itself in the eleven-hour epic Life and Times. Fleur Elise Noble creates an alternate reality in the multimedia performance installation 2 Dimensional Life of Her. Toshiki Okada teams up with the Pig Iron Theatre Company for Zero Cost House. Taylor Mac will present A 20th Century Abridged Concert of the History of Popular Music in a mere ninety minutes. And Lemon Andersen’s work-in-progress ToasT looks at the black oral narrative tradition. In addition, UTR 2013 features such discussions as “The Role of the Everyman in Culture, Media and Art”; “The Six O’Clock News,” which offers insider tips to upcoming shows each night; and a two-day symposium of talks, performances, panels, and more. After checking out a show, most of which go for a mere twenty bucks, stop by the festival lounge, where you’re liable to meet members of the cast and crew and catch live music and DJ sets by the likes of Andersen, the Bengsons, JoAnnibal the Cannibal, Branden Jacob-Jenkins, AndrewAndrew, Suzan Lori-Parks with Dan Zanes, and others.

WRITER RESIDENCY AT PIANOS

Pianos
158 Ludlow St.
Tuesday, January 8 (10:00), 15 (8:00), 29 (8:00), $8
212-505-3733
www.pianosnyc.com
www.writertheband.com

Like Jeff the Brotherhood, in which brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall use drums and guitar to take off on sonic adventures that can go just about anywhere, Writer, consisting of siblings James and Andy Ralph, also has a knack for the anything-goes attitude. The California-born-and-raised duo recently moved to Brooklyn and released their debut album, Brotherface (3 Syllables, October 2012), twenty-eight minutes of outrageous psychedelic garage rock that is beautifully loud and raucous. Drummer James and lead singer and guitarist Andy, who sport the same “Brothers Ralph” tattoo, reference sounds from throughout rock history as they sit down for a “Family Dinner” (“Banging on the door / The cops are here now / The neighbors complained / Someone give them cops some cake”), consider heading south in “Barefoot Art” (“I was thinking about Mexico / and the dirty green lake at Campo / The fish were biting my legs and the sun my face / I just don’t want to go home”), and dive into the sea for “Miss Mermaid” (“Have you seen her underwater / Lungs are filling / Will she save me / Or just watch as I go down”). They slow things down considerably on “North Park Fairies,” which features the disc’s most unusual harmonies. The album concludes with a call for everyone to join them: “Oh yeah / Oh yeah / Oh yeah,” they repeat throughout “Dry Hands,” adding, “If you change your mind / we’ll be hanging out all night / blowing kisses to the planes / sharing bottles of champagne.” Writer, who recently toured with Os Mutantes, will be hanging out this month at Pianos, where they will be playing a three-show Tuesday-night residency beginning January 8 at 10:00 with Census, Cruisin’ USA, and DJ David McDaniel and continuing January 15 at 8:00 with the Spookfish, Shilpa Ray, Man Made Sun, and Cannibal Animal Machine and January 29 at 8:00 with Travis Trevisan, Phantasm, Man Made Sun, and Beats in the Attic.

THE CONTENDERS 2012: THE METAMORPHOSIS BY FRANZ KAFKA

The Quay Brothers adapt Franz Kafka’s THE METAMORPHOSIS as only they can

LIP-READING PUPPETS: THE CURATORS’ PRESCRIPTION FOR DECIPHERING THE QUAY BROTHERS: THE METAMORPHOSIS BY FRANZ KAFKA (The Quay Brothers, 2012)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Monday, January 7, 4:30
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 beginning at 9:30 am
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

The magnificent Quay Brothers survey exhibition at MoMA, “Quay Brothers: On Deciphering the Pharmacist’s Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets,” comes to a close today with the third and final screening of their latest masterpiece, a forty-minute adaptation of Franz Kafka’s seminal novella The Metamorphosis. In the 1970s, Philadelphia-born twins Stephen and Timothy Quay made a series of pencil drawings based on Kafka’s 1915 story about a traveling salesman named Gregor Samsa who wakes up one morning to find he has been transformed into a giant insect. In 1980, the Quays made the rarely shown six-minute short Ein Brudermord, inspired by the Kafka short story that translates as “A Fratricide.” So they jumped at the chance when Russian-born concert pianist Mikhail Rudy asked them to make a film set to a score he had put together featuring the music of Kafka’s fellow Czech artist, Leoŝ Janáček, as part of a special program for Paris’s Cité de la musique. “The images need to float independently from the music to allow one to better ‘see’ the music and ‘hear’ the moving image,” the twins wrote in a correspondence with Rudy. Black, white, and gray dominate the screen as Gregor’s parents, small puppets whose heads slightly bobble when they walk, have great difficulty dealing with their son’s new form. But Gregor’s sister, Greta, shows compassion for him, playing the violin and bringing him food; her humanity is emphasized in that she is portrayed by an actual living, breathing woman, not a puppet, a rarity in the Quays’ oeuvre. The only color comes from bloodred streaks on the insect Gregor and the pieces of apple his father throws at him. The music, performed live by Rudy — his piano was supposed to be onstage, melding with the visuals, but MoMA’s Roy and Niuta Titus Theater cannot accommodate that — includes Janáček’s Piano Sonata 1.X.1905, “On an Overgrown Path,” and “In the Mists,” adding haunting beauty to the heartbreaking story, which the Quays and Rudy infuse with powerful emotion. This North American premiere — the project has been performed only once before, at Cité de la musique last March — reveals the Quays to once again be unique and exceptional interpreters of classic literature and music, resulting in another film that dazzles the senses. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is screening January 7 at 4:30 not only as part of MoMA’s “Lip-Reading Puppets: The Curators’ Prescription for Deciphering the Quay Brothers” but also in the annual series “The Contenders,” consisting of exemplary films the museum believes will stand the test of time; upcoming entries include Sally Potter’s Ginger and Rosa, Raoul Ruiz’s Night Across the Street, and Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.

FIRST SATURDAYS: OUTSIDE THE FRAME

Mickalene Thomas will be at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday night to discuss beauty, race, and gender with fellow artist Carrie Mae Weems and curator Eugene Tsai (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, January 5, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum’s free First Saturday program for January is highlighted by what should be a fascinating discussion, with artist Mickalene Thomas and one of her major influences, award-winning photographer and videographer Carrie Mae Weems, in conversation with curator Eugene Tsai; Thomas’s “Origin of the Universe” continues at the museum through January 20, while her smaller gallery shows in Chelsea and on the Lower East Side, “How to Organize a Room Around a Striking Piece of Art,” are on view through January 5. Also on the schedule that night are live music by Ljova and the Kontraband, Lez Zeppelin, Das Racist’s Himanshu “Heems” Suri, Prince Rama’s Taraka and Nimai Larson, who have formed the Now Age, and Company Stefanie Batten Bland, which will perform A Place of Sun, a dance piece inspired by the BP oil spill. In addition, Writers for the 99% will discuss their book, Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action that Changed America, Catherine Morris will give a curator talk on the exhibition “Materializing ‘Six Years’: Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art,” an art workshop will teach participants to get creative with frames, and Art House Co-op, Trade School, and the Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory will lead interactive educational activities. Also on view at the museum now are “GO: a community-curated open studio project,” “Raw/Cooked: Duron Jackson,” Yoko Ono’s “Wish Tree,” and “Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company” as well as long-term installations and the permanent collection.

COIL 2013

Multiple venues
January 3-19, $20-$30 per performance, $75 passport for five shows, $122 for ten
www.ps122.org

Every January, Performance Space 122 uncoils its COIL festival, several weeks of cutting-edge experimental dance, theater, art, and music. The 2013 winter celebration runs January 3-19 at multiple venues in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens but not at PS122 itself, which is undergoing a major renovation. COIL actually got an early start last month with Kristen Kosmas’s There There at the Chocolate Factory (through January 12), in which a woman has to suddenly replace Christopher Walken in a one-person show with the help of her Russian translator. Radiohole presents the world premiere of Inflatable Frankenstein at the Kitchen January 5-19, offering an unusual look at Mary Shelley’s book and James Whale’s film. In fall 2011, Emily Johnson brought her dazzlingly original The Thank-You Bar to New York Live Arts; now she and her Catalyst company is bringing Niicugni to the Baryshnikov Arts Center, a work that explores time and place. Annie Dorsen and Anne Juren examine femininity through a magic show with nudity in Magical, making its U.S. premiere January 15-19 at New York Live Arts. The BodyCartography Project follows up its 2011 COIL presentation, Symptom, with Super Nature, an ecological dance at Abrons Arts Center with live music by Zeena Parkins and scenic installation by Emmett Ramstad that is also part of the fourth annual American Realness festival. Other performances include the return of Pavel Zuštiak / Palissimo’s Amidst and Brian Rogers’s Hot Box. From January 15 to 18, COIL will host SPAN, a free noon dialogue with some of the artists, and the annual Red + White Party takes place January 13 at SPiN NYC with Ping-Pong, the Vintage DJ, and the National Theater of the United States of America. COIL offers a great opportunity to experience exciting new directions in the multidisciplinary arts, and with most tickets no more than twenty dollars and running times less than seventy minutes, you can’t give much of an excuse not to check a few things out.