this week in music

SUMMER STREETS 2010

The people will take over Park Ave. for three successive Saturdays during annual Summer Streets program (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Brooklyn Bridge to the top of Central Park
Saturday, August 7, 14, 21, 7:00 am – 1:00 pm
Admission: free
www.nyc.gov

Encouraging more New Yorkers to bike, jog, skate, and walk instead of using cars in the city, the third annual Summer Streets program returns for the next three Saturdays, closing several byways — primarily all of Park Ave. — to vehicular traffic between the Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park. The route features rest stops in Foley Square, SoHo, Midtown, and Uptown that will be hosting live entertainment and special activities, including dance classes, Dumpster pools, the New York Rangers Road Tour, the New York Knicks Groove Truck, tours of St. Bart’s, exercise classes, free bike rentals and repairs, Fringe Festival theater workshops, yoga, mini-concerts, and much more. It’s all part of the city’s continuing greening and health initiatives, but whatever the reason, it’s really cool to see Park Ave. cleared of cars, trucks, and buses on a summer Saturday morning.

HONG KONG DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL

Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival returns this weekend with lots of special events and activities

Meadow Lake, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens
Saturday, August 7, and Sunday, August 8
Admission: free
718-767-1776
www.hkdbf-ny.org

According to legend, when poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BCE) drowned himself after learning about the destruction of his village, local fishermen first tried to save his life but failed, then tossed dumplings into the river to prevent his body from being fodder for the fish. This story is memorialized every August with plenty of dumplings and dragon boat races in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. This weekend, such teams as Dragonflies, Syngent Seadogs, the New York Wall Street Dragons, Women in Canoe, Let’s Sink Together, the Puff Puff Dragons, and Knit Illustrated will battle it out on the water. The weekend will also feature a host of special activities and live performances, including the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York, Hsu-Nami, Malini Srinivasan and Her Dancers, Shaolin Kung Fu, Napua Davoy’s “Brave Cool World,” Carnegie Hall’s ACJW Ensemble, Morgan James and the Resistance, the Chinese Dance Company, Dana Leong and His Music, the American Bolero Dance Co., arts & crafts, face painting, and much more.

SUMMERSCREEN: STARSHIP TROOPERS

Yes, that’s Golden Girl Rue McClanahan as the biology teacher in STARSHIP TROOPERS


STARSHIP TROOPERS (Paul Verhoeven, 1997)
McCarren Park Ballfields
North 12th St. & Bedford Ave.
Wednesday, August 4, free
Live music at 6:15, movie screening at 8:30
www.summerscreen.org

While everyone else pays tribute to Rue McClanahan by watching reruns of THE GOLDEN GIRLS, you can honor the comedic actress at tonight’s free screening of Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 cult classic STARSHIP TROOPERS in McCarren Park. Based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein, the satirical sci-fi romp has a stellar cast that also includes Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Clancy Brown, Michael Ironside, and Neil Patrick Harris. Really! We’re not kidding. Be sure to get there around six to catch local bands Grooms and Food Stamps. There will also be food from San Loco, Asia Dog, and Porchetta, beer from Sixpoint, and an after-party at Pete’s Candy Store.

BLACK LIPS

The Black Lips and their rabid fans won’t have quite as much space to roam on board the Rocks Off Concert Cruise on August 2 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

ROCKS OFF CONCERT CRUISES
Pier 81, 41st St. & the West Side Highway
Monday, August 2, $25, 8:00
www.rocksoff.com
www.myspace.com/theblacklips

Over the last few years, Atlanta garage band the Black Lips have put on some of the most outrageous shows in the city, breaking bottles over their heads and catching their own spit at the Bowery Ballroom in March 2007, throwing a TP party at McCarren Park Pool in 2008 with King Khan, and then tearing through a barricade-busting extravaganza last year at the Williamsburg Waterfront in which the crowd lifted Jared Swilley high into the air while he continued playing guitar as other crazed fans were let onto the stage to dance wildly. The band was supposed to play a Boston Rock On Concert Cruise on July 29 but, per their website, “Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Black Lips were unable to make their flight from Atlanta to Boston.” We’re hoping they’ll have no such problem for their August 2 show aboard the Temptress as part of the Rocks Off Concert Cruises, although we have no idea what the promoters were thinking when they added the hysterically unpredictable group — and more important, their rabid, unpredictable fans — to the boat series. There’s no raised stage on the Temptress, and the primary viewing area is relatively small and intimate, so we don’t see how all hell can’t break loose. Of course, that could be a good thing too. Also on the bill are DJ Todd O-Phonic Todd, K HOLES, and Natural Child.

RAFAEL SANCHEZ: THE LIMIT AS THE BODY APPROACHES ZERO

Rafael Sanchez's performance series at Exit Art concludes today with a six-hour extravaganza

Exit Art
475 Tenth Ave. at 36th St.
Saturday, July 31, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
Exhibition continues through August 25 (closed Sunday & Monday)
212-966-7745
www.exitart.org

Since his solo show “The Limit as the Body Approaches” opened at Exit Art, Newark-born artist Rafael Sanchez has been presenting live performances on weekends, examining street fashion, chaos, masculinity, sexuality, love, and music. The performances conclude today with five pieces beginning at 12 noon and continuing through 6:00 pm, including “Can’t Keep Running Away” about avoidance coping; a reenactment of a Bad Brains song; “Habibi Adid,” in which Sanchez will be in a plexiglas case being filled with sand, honey, and ants; an improvised performance with four acquaintances of Sanchez; and “Diamond Sea (Part Two),” set to the Sonic Youth song.

LATINO CULTURAL FESTIVAL

Contra-Tiempo Urban Latin Dance Theatre kicks off annual Latino Cultural Festival in Queens on July 29

Queens Theatre in the Park
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
July 29 – August 8, free (with RSVP) – $35
718-760-0064
www.queenstheatre.org

The fourteenth annual Latino Cultural Festival, celebrating the ever-growing Latino community in Queens, launches tonight at the Claire Shulman Playhouse with L.A.-based Contra-Tiempo Urban Latin Dance Theatre ($30-$35), kicking off eleven days of music, film, dance, and comedy. Tomorrow night, Yomo Toro ($20-$25), the Jimi Hendrix of Salsa, takes over the main stage, followed by Pistolera and its offshoot, the bilingual group Moona Luna, on Saturday (free). The festival also features “Tango y Vida” (August 1, $30-$35), the Alejandro Caceres Dance Companay’s “Dilei” (August 3, free), a screening of Natalia Almada’s Mexican drama AL OTRO LADO (August 4, free), an open mic night hosted by Bonafide Rojas (August 4, free), a tango dance party with Los Chantas Tango Quartet (August 4, free), an evening of Latin American music with Leon Gieco, Claudia Acuña, Aquiles Baez, and Lucia Pulido (August 5, $20-$25), Cuban singer-songwriter Carlos Varela (August 6, $25-$30), Colombian superstar Jorge Velosa (August 7, $25-$30), and Peruvian Grammy winner Susana Baca (August 8, $25-$30). If you buy tickets for multiple shows, you get a twenty percent discount, and most free events require advance RSVP.

HARLEM WEEK

Multiple locations in Harlem around 135th St.
Through August 29
Admission to most events: free
www.harlemweek.com

Harlem Week is under way, and it’s much more than just seven days of special events and cultural activities; it actually continues through the end of August, featuring health and job fairs, a college expo, swimming, tennis, basketball, charity runs, and farmers markets in addition to film screenings and live music and dance, most of which is free. Tonight, Jazzmobile presents Houston Person in U.S. Grant National Memorial Park, while tomorrow the Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series continues with a performance at the Jackie Robinson Park Bandshell. On August 3, National Night Out will feature outdoor concerts, followed the next night by Tia Fuller in the Jazzmobile. (Future Jazzmobile musicians include Wycliffe Gordon on August 10, Akiko Tsuruga on August 18, and Jimmy Heath on August 21.) On August 7-8, ArtCrawl Harlem ($40-$55) will take art lovers on a trolley tour of such galleries as Casa Frela, the Dwyer Cultural Center, the LeRoy Neiman Art Center, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, followed by a reception with food, wine, and music. August 14 (“Summer in the City”) and 15 (Harlem Day), the NYC Children’s Festival is chock-full of special events and activities, with “Dancing in the Street” paying tribute to Bob Marley, the annual “Uptown Saturday Nite” celebration, free outdoor film screenings in St. Nicholas Park, “A Salute to the Children of Haiti,” a business expo, crafts markets, fashion shows, and more.