Who: Ringo Starr and Steven Van Zandt
What: Illustrated discussion celebrating recent release of Ringo Starr’s memoirs, Photograph (Genesis, September 21, $50)
Where: The Strand, 828 Broadway at Twelfth St., 212-473-1452
When: Monday, October 26, free with advance purchase of Photograph, 2:00
Why: On his 1973 solo album, Down and Out, former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr sang, “Every time I see your face / It reminds me of the places we used to go / But all I’ve got is a photograph / And I realize you’re not coming back anymore.” Forty-two years later, he has published his memoirs in a book filled with stories and photographs from throughout his childhood and music career. On October 26, he will be at the Strand to talk about the book and his life, in conversation with Steven Van Zandt. The event is limited to the first two hundred people who have purchased the book from the Strand in advance; although Ringo will not be signing the books, each one comes with a limited edition bookplate with a reproduction of his signature. “These are shots that no one else could have. I just had the camera with me a lot of the time,” Ringo says about the photos in the book. “There’s a lot of shots of ‘the boys’ that only I could have taken. Together they chart the story of four lads from Liverpool trying to live normal lives amidst the frenzy that surrounded them.” Ringo will be back in town on October 31 with his All Starr Band for a Halloween show at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn that concludes their month-long North American Tour in conjunction with Ringo’s latest album, Postcards from Paradise.
Unless you’re a dedicated fan of table tennis, you’ve never seen Ping-Pong played quite like this. In Top Spin, first-time feature-film documentarians Sara Newens and Mina T. Son follow a trio of young Americans through the tournaments necessary to qualify for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team and compete in the London Games. At sixteen, Fremont, California, native Ariel Hsing is the youngest women’s national champion, a two-wing attacker who calls both Bill Gates and Warren Buffet “Uncle.” Seventeen-year-old Mineola, New York–born Michael Landers is a two-wing looper who is the youngest men’s national champion. And Lily Zhang is a fifteen-year-old all-around attacker from Palo Alto and the world #2 in under-fifteen girls, usually finishing right behind Ariel. Director-editor Newens and director-producer Son speak extensively with the three players and their parents, coaches, teachers, trainers, and friends while counting down the days to each event, fierce competitions in which Ariel, Michael, and Lily play against opponents who are sometimes more than twice their age. They dedicate their lives to their Olympic dreams, spending large amounts of time away from school and their friends and family as they attempt to make the low-ranked American Olympic squad that has little chance for a medal, without even a high-paying professional league in their future. Yet they battle on, despite the heavy odds against them. Much of the Ping-Pong action is mind-blowing, particularly a late match in which Michael returns slam after slam with amazing acumen and accuracy. The film is executive-produced by Jonathan Bricklin and Franck Raharinosy, cofounders of SPiN, the Ping-Pong social club on East Twenty-Third St. that is partly owned by Susan Sarandon, who appeared in Michael Tully’s indie film 
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