Andy Scott’s Kelpies will stand guard in Bryant Park through April 23 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Bryant Park, Fountain Terrace
Sixth Ave. at 41st St.
Sculptures on view through April 23
Festival runs through April 27 at multiple locations
www.thekelpies.co.uk
the kelpies slideshow
A pair of “proud equine guardians” have been posted at the Sixth Ave. and Forty-First St. entrance to Bryant Park, one at rest, head bowed, the other rearing up, neighing toward the sky. The fifteen-foot-high models, constructed of laser-cut steel plates, are the work of Scottish sculptor Andy Scott, smaller versions of the one-hundred-feet-high Kelpies — mythological waterborne equine creatures — he created for the Helix Parkland on the Forth & Clyde Canal near Falkirk, the artist’s father’s hometown, in central Scotland. The Kelpies, which will remain on view in Bryant Park through April 23, are part of the annual Scotland Week (Tartan Week) festivities, a celebration of Scottish culture taking place all over the city. On April 6, there will be a special Tartan Day Observance in Bryant Park at 12:30 with the New York Metro Pipe Band, the Highland Divas, and others, followed by a talk with Scott about the Kelpies at 3:00. That night, the Caledonian Collective will be hosting a concert at Webster Hall with the LaFontaines, Nina Nesbitt, Lau, and Hector Bizerk. Iona in Brooklyn will be presenting a Scottish fiddle workshop on April 7 with Katie McNally, followed by a Live Trad Session with McNally and Neil Pearlman; on April 8, Scottish Octopus with piper Andrew Forbes will be there, and on April 9 Troy MacGillivray will lead a Cape Breton fiddle workshop and a live session with Scottish Octopus. Also on April 9, Whisky Live takes place at Pier Sixty in Chelsea, with tastings, exhibitors, master classes, live music, and more. On April 10, Celtica will play Drom, while the Cape Breton Scots at Jalopy is highlighted by the work of musician and photographer Matt Diaz. Pop International Galleries is showing “As Others See Us” through April 10, and the 92nd St. Y is presenting “Scots Jews: Identity, Belonging, and the Future” through April 27, consisting of photos taken by Judah Passow. And you can see the double bill of Douglas Maxwell’s A Respectable Widow Takes to Vulgarity and Sabrina Mahfouz’s Clean performed by Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre Company through April 27 at 59E59.
As writer-director Drew Tobia’s debut feature, See You Next Tuesday, opens, Mona (Eleanore Pienta) is standing still, staring straight ahead, mouth slightly agape, the camera pulling back ever so slowly as Brian McOmber’s sweetly European-sounding score plays, revealing that she is in a supermarket, out-of-focus shoppers passing by behind her. The scene beautifully sets the stage for what is to follow, an uncomfortable yet charming black comedy about a pregnant young woman who seems to exist in a different world from everyone else. A cashier at a Brooklyn Key Food, Mona is about to give birth, but she refuses to see a doctor or take care of herself in any way. She lives alone in a miserable apartment that doesn’t have its own bathroom or telephone. When she’s desperate, she goes to her loser mother, May (Dana Eskelson), an unpleasant alcoholic who lacks a maternal instinct; she wants to be Mona’s friend instead of parent. Mona also seeks out her sister, Jordan (Molly Plunk), who is estranged from their mother and is living with her older girlfriend, Sylve (Keisha Zollar). Mona, May, and Jordan are not exactly the brightest bulbs on the planet; they take family dysfunction to a whole new level. But at the center of it all is Mona, a young woman with something significantly off about her, unable to understand her very serious situation, acting out like a child when she doesn’t get what she wants, passing judgment on others without a filter, drinking and smoking even though her baby could come at any minute. But through all the nastiness, all the bitterness, all the cringe-worthy moments — and there are plenty — Tobia (Leperfuck, Ladyfemmes) still manages to make us care about this crazy family, even though we would never want to meet any of these women in real life. Pienta is dazzling as the overemotional, unpredictable Mona, immersing herself deeply into this mentally unstable character who has no boundaries (and whom Mona created for her own video and photograph series).
Forty-five years ago, brothers Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin made the highly influential black-and-white documentary Salesman, an intimate portrait of four traveling door-to-door Bible salesmen: Jamie Baker, Raymond Martos, Charles McDevitt, and particularly Boston’s Paul Brennan. “Go out there and get ’em,” their boss, who doesn’t exactly follow the teachings of Jesus, declares as they prepare to spread the word of the Lord, although more to earn a living than as a religious calling. The shots of Brennan singing “If I Were a Rich Man” in the snow are priceless, but the end will haunt you. Without Salesman, there probably never would have been a Glengarry Glen Ross and so many other films. All these years later, this fascinating piece of Americana, which was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1992, still feels fresh and relevant in these hard times. The Maysles brothers went on to make a series of documentaries that redefined the genre, including Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens, and Albert’s Maysles Cinema in Harlem is devoted to nonfiction filmmaking. Salesman is screening April 4 at 4:00 at Neuehouse in the First Exposure section of the second annual First Time Fest, which celebrates the debut work of writers, directors, and producers; the eighty-seven-year-old Maysles will be on hand to discuss the seminal film. Among the other First Exposure presentations are Julie Taymor’s Titus, Peter Bogdanovich’s Targets, James Toback’s Fingers, Kelly Reichardt’s River of Grass, Michael Moore’s Roger & Me, and Jennie Livingston’s opening-night Paris Is Burning, with all of those directors present at the screenings; cinematographer Fred Elmes will discuss David Lynch’s Eraserhead. Ten films by first-time directors from around the world are in competition at this year’s festival, which runs April 3-7 at Neuehouse and Loews Village VII.