this week in lectures, signings, panel discussions, workshops, and Q&As

THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: SUMMER HD FESTIVAL

HD festival gives opera lovers the chance to catch free screenings of recent Met performances

Lincoln Center, Josie Robertson Plaza
Columbus Ave. at 63rd St.
August 29 – September 5, free, starting time between 7:15 and 8:30
212-769-7028
www.metoperafamily.org

Hurricane Irene might have forced the cancellation of the first two nights of the Met’s Summer HD Festival, but the fat lady has not sung quite yet. Every night from August 29 through September 5, the Metropolitan Opera Guild will be presenting a free screening by the fountain in Josie Robertson Plaza of a previous Met performance, each one preceded at 3:00, 4:00, or 6:00 by an indoor ticketed lecture ($8-$12) given by a member of the Community Programs staff. (Many of these talks are already sold out, so be sure to get your tickets in advance.) Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra were stormed out, so the festival gets under way Monday night, August 29, at 8:30 with Susan Graham and Plácido Domingo in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, recorded live this past February. On August 30, Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna star in Puccini’s La Rondine (8:00) from January 2009, while August 30 features a February 2011 performance of John Adams’s Nixon in China (7:45), a collaboration with Peter Sellars. On September 1, Elīna Garanča and Alagna appear in Bizet’s Carmen (7:45), directed by Richard Eyre, from January 2010. The next night, Deborah Voigt gives her all in a January 2011 performance of Puccini’s La Fanciulla Del West (8:00). Stephen Wadsworth’s new production of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, from October 2010 with René Pape, will be shown on September 3 (7:15), with Natalie Dessay in Mary Zimmerman’s version of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (8:00), from March 2011, screening on September 4. The series concludes on Labor Day at 7:15 with Verdi’s Don Carlo, directed by Nicholas Hytner, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and starring Alagna, Marina Poplavskaya, Ferruccio Furlanetto, and Simon Keenlyside, filmed on December 11, 2010.

RYAN TRECARTIN: ANY EVER

Ryan Trecartin’s “Any Ever” consists of unique viewing environments in which to watch his rather unique films (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Thursday – Monday through September 5, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
Suggested admission: $10 (free for MoMA ticket holders within thirty days of ticket)
718-784-2084
www.ps1.org
summer open house sneak peek

Texas native Ryan Trecartin has come along at just the right time, the go-to artist for the YouTube / reality TV generation. The thirty-year-old multimedia artist makes color-drenched, amateurish films featuring himself and his friends in wacky outfits, speaking in high-pitched voices as they comment on various sociopolitical themes in crazy ways. For “Any Ever,” his exhibition at PS1 that continues through September 3, Trecartin has created individual viewing environments for seven of his films created between 2007 and 2010 in Miami, made in collaboration with Lizzie Fitch. Divided into two sections, Trill-ogy Comp, consisting of K-CoreaINC.K (section a), Sibling Topics (section a), and P.opular S.ky (section ish), and Re’Search Wait’S, comprising Ready, The Re’Search, Roamie View: History Enhancement, and Temp Stop, the exuberant films are set amid a partying world that celebrates gender identity and individuality while attacking global corporate culture, transumerism, and market research. The works are projected in sculptural viewing areas that often incorporate elements of the films, including airline seats, a white conference table, bleachers, comfortable raised couches, and other playful milieus. With “Any Ever,” Trecartin has created a loud, frenetic, in-your-face world that is one heckuva fun party, even if it gets repetitive when taken in all at once.

Don’t let the calm, relaxing entrance area fool you; Ryan Trecartin’s “Any Ever” multimedia installation is about to get a lot crazier (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

On August 31, MoMA PS1 will host a PopRally closing party for the exhibit, with MC Akeem_Ouch, live performances by AraabMUZIK, Glass Popcorn, and #HDBOYZ, guided tours of the show led by Veronica Gelbaum (who plays “Ready” in Re’Search Wait’S), appearances by Spicee Cajun, Raul de Nieves as Lindsay Lohan, DJs Telfar, Physical Therapy, and Fatima Al Qadiri, and other very strange guests. You can also catch “Any Ever” — as well as “Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception” (through September 12) and “Summer School presents Gus Van Sant and James Franco: My Own Private River” (through August 29) — at the final Warm Ups of the season, with Tanlines, NguzuNguzu, Teengirl Fantasy, Sun Araw, and Physical Therapy on August 27 (which has just been canceled, as PS1 will be closed on Saturday and Sunday because of Hurricane Irene) and Horse Meat Disco, Midnight Magic, Justin Miller, and BICEP on September 3, taking place in Interboro Partners’ “Holding Pattern” courtyard installation.

AN EVENING WITH PRESTON SINGLETARY

National Museum of the American Indian
George Gustave Heye Center, One Bowling Green
Thursday, August 25, free, 6:00
212-514-3700
www.nmai.si.edu
www.prestonsingletary.com

Tlingit artist Preston Singletary will be at the National Museum of the American Indian on August 25 at 6:00 to talk about his stunning exhibit, “Echoes, Fire, and Shadows.” Running through September 5, the midcareer retrospective consists of more than fifty glass sculptures and a wall mural that trace the artist’s twenty years of making ornamental, ceremonial, and unusual glass-blown and painted objects. “I sometimes hope that people will view my work on other levels not associated with ‘ethnic art,’” Singletary explains. “At the same time, it is this inspiration that gives my work its power. I see my work as an extension of tradition and a declaration that Native cultures are alive and developing new technologies and new ways of communicating the ancient codes and symbols of this land.” Also on view at the museum are “Small Spirits: Dolls from the National Museum of the American Indian” and “Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian.”

STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS: FREE ACOUSTIC IN-STORE PERFORMANCES

Thursday, August 25
Academy Annex, 95 North Sixth St., 718-218-8200, 6:00
Other Music, 15 East Fourth St., 212-477-8150, 9:00
www.matadorrecords.com

On “Tigers,” the opening track on Mirror Traffic (Matador, August 23, 2011), the brand-new album from Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Malkmus sings, “Trust me because I’m worth hating.” We’ve been trusting the king of indie pop since the early 1990s, when he was blowing our minds with such records as Slanted & Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain as leader of the seminal band Pavement. We hated when that group broke up, but they recently got back together and are rereleasing expanded editions of their classic discs, so it’s all good again. It’s also good that Malkmus’s fifth album with the Jicks, which currently also includes guitarist Mike Clark, bassist Joanna Bolme, and drummer Jake Morris, is another terrific effort, filled with pop gem after pop gem. On “Senator,” Malkmus may claim, “My duty to the Republique / is to use double speak because the Halo’s off,” but there’s little double speak by the indie god on these fifteen songs, from “No One (Is As I Are Be)” and “Brain Gallop” to “Stick Figures in Love” and “Gorgeous Georgie.” The songs travel all over the indie spectrum, sometimes within a single song, courtesy of another indie god, Beck, who produced the record. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks will be at Terminal 5 on September 26 with Holy Sons, but you don’t have to wait that long to see them, as they’ll be doing free in-store acoustic performances on August 25 at Academy Annex in Williamsburg at 6:00 and Other Music at 9:00, first come, first served. And as of this posting on August 24, you can stream the new album for free on NPR by clicking here.

FÜNF RÄUME

Esther Stocker’s black foam core interrupts a white space in unusual and unexpected ways(photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Austrian Cultural Forum
11 East 52nd St. between Madison & Fifth Aves.
Daily through September 5, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-319-5300
www.acfny.org
fünf räume slideshow

For “Fünf Räume,” or “Five Rooms,” the Austrian Cultural Forum invited a group of emerging Austrian artists to create site-specific installations in five gallery spaces, transforming four floors of the unusual Midtown glass tower, which was designed by Raimund Abraham. Curated by David Harper and Andreas Stadler, the works evoke politics, spirituality, and everyday life while questioning the nature of space. On the first floor, Italian-born Esther Stocker has attached black masking tape and foam core to the ceiling, which will continue to droop through the duration of the exhibition, closing in on visitors. Clemens Hollerer has placed broken slats of wood, painted in red, white, and blue, along the stairway wall, an ineffective barrier that was unable to serve its purpose, the colors evoking America (and perhaps the freedom given the artists to create whatever they wanted for the exhibition). Zenita Komad and Michael Kienzler have collaborated on “The Empty Mirror,” a chess-inspired collection of sixteen mirrored chairs that bounce light, words, and numbers onto the walls in a dizzying display of self-reflection. Komad and Kienzler, along with Sabine Kienzler, also made the untitled video at the entrance, showing a typewriter tapping out the New Testament quotation “At the beginning was the word” in both English and German. For “Adaption,” in the lower level, Valentin Ruhry created nonworking replicas of electrical outlets, light switches, and a temperature gauge, finding art in the most mundane of places while also examining functionality. Across from that, Ruhry greets viewers with an MDF panel that announces, “Hello World.” In the back of that room, Vancouver-born Daniel Domig’s “The Eyes Are Not Here, There Are No Eyes Here” combines painting and sculpture in a wooden construction that challenges the way paintings are usually displayed, revealing both sides of them within an interlocking series of wooden beams that makes them less accessible. And on the top floor, Italian-born Stocker has redesigned an all-white space in three dimensions, filling it with geometric shapes, made of black foam core, hanging from the ceiling, sticking out of the walls, and rising from the floor. Visitors can walk through this disconcerting room, a sort of artistic maze that comments on the fragility of life and art. “Fünf Räume” is an engaging yet confrontational exhibit that needs to be traversed very carefully. There will be curator-led gallery talks of the exhibit, which ends September 5, on August 24, 26, and 31 at 5:00.

SOLAR-POWERED FILM SERIES: AN EVENING WITH MATTHEW MODINE

Matthew Modine will be at Solar One on August 25 to present several of his short films, including the trailer for JESUS WAS A COMMIE (photo by Harry Borden)

Solar One
East 23rd St. & the FDR Dr.
Thursday, August 25, free, 8:00
www.greenedgenyc.org
www.solar1.org

The Solar-Powered Film Series continues on August 25 with a special evening with actor, activist, filmmaker, photographer, Bicycle for a Day founder, writer, and New York Knicks fan Matthew Modine. The star of such films as Birdy, Full Metal Jacket, and Memphis Belle will be at Solar One on Thursday night, presenting several of his short works, which he served in various configurations as writer, editor, director, cinematographer, and/or producer. Among the selections are When I Was a Boy, made with Todd Field; Smoking, a collaboration with David Sedaris; Ecce Pirate, which stars Chris Masterson; as well as To Kill an American, I Think I Thought, and the trailer for his next short, Jesus Was a Commie. Modine will participate in an audience Q&A and signing afterward. The series, organized by Solar One with Green Edge NYC, continues August 26 with Peter Bull’s Dirty Business, which looks at clean coal, and August 27 with Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Home, narrated by Glenn Close.

CARTE BLANCHE: DIETER KOSSLICK, THE CULINARY CINEASTE — SIDEWAYS

Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church discuss merlot and more in Alexander Payne’s SIDEWAYS

SIDEWAYS (Alexander Payne, 2004)
MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Wednesday, August 24, 7:00; Friday, August 26, 4:00
Series runs August 22-30
Tickets: $10, 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
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
www2.foxsearchlight.com/sideways

Eating, drinking, and going to the movies — three great things that go great together. In 2007, Dieter Kosslick, the Culinary Cineaste and director of the Berlin International Film Festival, introduced the series “Eat, Drink, See Movies” to the Berlinale, pairing films with specific meals. The German Slow Foodie has now put together a similar program for the Museum of Modern Art, teaming up with Gabriel Kreuther, executive chef of the Modern, to offer special drinks and dishes to accompany screenings of food-related films from MoMA’s vast library. First up is Stanley Tucci’s Big Night, screening tonight at 7:00, with Sepia Risotto with Gold Leaf added to the Modern’s menu. For the merlot-intensive Sideways (August 24 & 26), the Modern will be serving “Three Expressions of Pinot Noir, Paired with Charcuterie,” including Domaine Cornu “Les Barigards” with Vella Dry Jack Cheese, Becker Pinot Noir Estate with Iberico Ham, and Copain Gouttes d’Art with Quail Terrine. Alexander Payne’s fourth film, following the underseen Citizen Ruth, the excellent Election, and the overrated About Schmidt, is fabulously entertaining from start to finish, a smart, inventive, very funny dark comedy about friendship and love set in California wine country. Paul Giamatti stars as Miles, a schlumpy wine connoisseur who is having trouble getting over his divorce and the failure of his massive novel to get published. His best friend, Jack (Thomas Haden Church), is getting married, so the two head off on a road trip, with Miles looking forward to sampling fine wine, and Jack anticipating sampling fine women. While Jack finds what he is looking for in Stephanie (Sandra Oh, who was married to Payne at the time), Miles seems hell-bent on not allowing himself to enjoy life, even as a beautiful woman with a deep appreciation of the grape (the excellent Virginia Madsen in what should have been a career-redefining performance) shows an interest in him. You definitely do not have to be a wine drinker to fall in love with this marvelous movie, one of the best of 2004; it was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Madsen), and Best Supporting Actor (Haden Church), and screenwriters Jim Taylor and Payne won for Best Adapted Screenplay.

BABETTE’S FEAST is on the menu both onscreen and at the Modern as part of culinary series

Kosslick’s series continues through August 30 with such tasty treats as David Gelb’s Jiro Dreams of Sushi on August 23 (followed by a panel discussion with Kosslick, Kreuther, Ruth Reichl, and chef Michael Romano; the Modern, meanwhile, will be serving Crudo Trio), Sandra Nettlebeck’s Mostly Martha (Vitello Tonato), Marcel Carne’s Harvest (Eckerton Hill Farm Heirloom Tomato Terrine), Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Feast (Blini with Crème Fraîche and American Sturgeon Caviar), Brad Bird’s Ratatouille (Ratatouille Panna Cotta with Yellow Tomato Coulis), and D. A. Pennebaker’s Kings of Pastry (Trio of Desserts), among other cinematic culinary delights.