BRIAN M. VIVEROS: RETURNING ART TO THE UNCLEAN @ LAST RITES.
Opening Reception: Saturday, Sept 3rd, 7:00pm-11:00pm.  Show runs Sept 3rd thru 25th, 2011.

Known for his strong and sensuous depictions of women, Brian M. Viveros is a master of contemporary iconography paying homage to the femme fatale. While he almost exclusively paints portraits, within the expressions of his women is conveyed such deep emotion and overwhelming sexuality that his work is undeniably erotic. Often without even a hint of nudity, the viewer is seduced with a mere pout and gaze from his subject’s faces.

In what will be Brian’s second showing at the gallery, the opening will feature an all new collection of original paintings, as well as special rare prints from the artist’s own collection; poster giveaway and signing; live “Smoking Army” performance; screening of Brian’s films along with his new short, and much more.

TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT @ THE BELL HOUSE.
Sunday, Sept 4th 

You bust your ass all week, at whatever soul crushing job you’re forced to do, in an economy that makes you too scared to quit… We feel your pain. Come join us to celebrate the long weekend that celebrates long weekends. It’s another ridiculously-awesome holiday mega-event with Boobs! Music! Pickles! and Booze!

Starring Nasty Canasta, Medianoche, Sapphire Jones, Tansy, and Mala Morrigan. Hosted by Doc Wasabassco. Live music from Alex Battles and The Whisky Rebellion: 8pm Doors in the Frontier Room. $10 Admission.

ERSTWHILE CURATED BY JON ABBEY@ THE STONE.

Bonnie Jones/Maria Chavez
Bonnie Jones (electronics, mics) Maria Chavez (turntable)
David Kirby
David Kirby (four tape recorders)
9/2 Friday (RK) 8 pm and 10pm

BRAIN CLOUD @ BARBES.
Mon 09/05 

“My brain is cloudy, my soul is upside-down… When I get that low-down feeling, I know the blues must be someplace around.” (Bob Wills) The Brain Cloud’s brand of western swing draws from the New Orleans-meets-Texas, strings-meet-horns, jazz-meets-country sound that Bob Wills perfected on his mid-1940’s Tiffany Transcriptions radio broadcasts. The Brain Cloud includes Dennis Lichtman (mandolin/fiddle/clarinet), Tamar Korn – of the Cangelosi Cards (vocals), Raphael McGregor (lap steel guitar), Skip Krevens (guitar), Andrew Hall (bass), and Kevin Dorn (drums), plus frequent guest appearances by Matt Munisteri (guitar) and Rob Hecht (fiddle).

 M SHANGHAI STRING BAND AND FRIENDS @ JALOPY.
Saturday, September 3 Show starts at 10:00

In 2002, the M SHANGHAI STRING BAND got together in the basement of a Chinese bistro in Brooklyn to share good food and play some music. This acoustic-culinary combination was too special not to repeat, and the band (named after the restaurant) was born. Their debut album “Up From the Ground Below” was recorded in the restaurant’s dining room. Its twenty songs were captured completely live in one day. At their CD release party, the MSSB played four live sets to a standing room only crowd. Brooklyn’s best kept secret was out.

TAR SANDS SIT IN @ WHITE HOUSE.

From August 20 and September 3, over 2,000 people are expected to take part in daily sit-ins in front of the White House. The participants include people from 48 US states and Canada.

Each day of the protest, 50-100 participants will gather at Lafayette Square Park at 10:30 AM and be available for interviews before risking arrest by sitting in at the White House fence at 11:00 AM. We anticipate participants will begin to be arrested within 30 minutes.

Throughout the two weeks, we will feature a number of spokespeople who can speak to the many different constituencies opposing the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Please check back to this page as the calendar evolves and more prominent figures join the sit-in.

PAPER VIEW, A SHOW OF WORKS ON PAPER @TRIBES
September 3 – September 24
Opening reception, Saturday, September 3 from 6 to 9

Poetry reading on opening night, September 3 at 7pm : Jeffrey Cyphers Wright and Ga Hae Park

Poetry reading Saturday, September 24 at 4pm : Jeffrey Cyphers Wright and Star Black

Gathering of the Tribes, 285 East Third Street (Between Ave C&D)

The legendary East Village salon space, Gathering of the Tribes presents a show of evocative and innovative works on paper by Gahae Park and Jeffrey Cyphers Wright. Both artists cut, paint and glue to achieve oppositional results. Gahae Park combines traditional painting techniques with a sculptural vision. By cutting small windows into paper she creates meditative layers. The results can read like an advent calendar in which each window opens to reveal a picture inside. These visual poems resemble musical scores while questioning notions of notation, purity, linearity and repetition. A Korean native, Park received an MFA in painting from Pratt and has been in 10 solo shows and scores of group shows. Her work has been reviewed in Art in America, Sculpture Magazine, NY Arts and Chelsea Now. She has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Edward F. Albee Foundation and was a resident at Art Omi.

THE DONKEYS/THE LATEBIRDS/DINOSAUR FEATHERS @ KNITTING FACTORY.
Fri, September 2, 2011

We would love to be able to say that the Donkeys are simply four California beach bums who love to surf, drink cheap beer and jam as the sun sets over the Pacific. The long legacy of music hailing from California – from Bakersfield to the Beach Boys, Sweetheart of the Rodeo through Slanted and Enchanted – has shaped our sense that everything and everyone “out west” is laid back, comfortable and cool. And to be fair, when it comes to the Donkeys, some of this mystique is true – two of the band’s members are indeed surfers, and all four have been known to down a six pack or two. But like California, the real-life Donkeys (best friends from Southern California, Timothy DeNardo, Jessie Gulati, Anthony Lukens and Sam Sprague) are much more… real. If their backstory contains those top-down cars and suntanned utopian surf tableaus, it also contains the malaise and the escape fantasies familiar to all suburban kids of the 80s and 90s. Miraculously, the music manages to comfortably communicate both moods at once. Any expression of existential ennui – “is this all there is?” – is simultaneously soothed by an unrushed guitar lick and a harmonized twang that becomes almost, dare we say, meditative.

WE ARE: JONATHAN EHRENBERG & MEREDITH JAMES
Sep 01, 2011 – Sep 05, 2011 Opening Reception: Friday, Sept 2 7-11 PM

“In my videos, I layer rough materials like plaster, cloth, and cardboard to create a textured environment that resembles a three-dimensional, inhabitable painting. While my sets, characters, and plots feel surreal and stylized, they also have a sense of emotional truth. My goal is to bring viewers into an alternate world where logic and physical laws are suspended while depictions of emotion become vivid and honest. I want the story to feel real to the viewer in the way that a fantastic dream can feel real—on a visceral level.

BERLIN BURLESQUE @ GALAPAGOS.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 2

Berlin Burlesque explores burlesque – the very birth of burlesque – in 1920s Weimar Berlin.  There was a magnificent freedom and sexuality in Weimar Berlin; the artists and thinkers that inhabited this little world were well aware of the undercurrents that lurked, and they were the first to feel the changes that were rapidly unfolding around them. The worlds of literature, music, cabaret, and the whispers and experiences of a special kind of liberation gave rise to an extraordinary experience of culture and sensuality. As the right and left collided in the decadence of the dens and cabarets of Berlin through the 1920s, burlesque was born. Featured performers include the incredible Cassandra Rosebeetle, Lisa Natoli, Harvest Moon, Jason Mejias, and Eric Gorsuch. Hosted by the incomparable DUTCHESS VON SCOUTINGTON

EXHIBITIONS: 19TH-CENTURY MODERN @ BROOKLYN MUSEUM.
September 2, 2011–April 1, 2012

Decorative Arts Galleries, 4th Floor

Featuring more than forty items from the Brooklyn Museum’s collection of American and European decorative arts, 19th-Century Modern will focus on the emergence of Modernism, a design aesthetic based in part on the machine as a source of artistic inspiration.

SUPERCODA @ CAFE ORWELL: 

Mayhem. Sonic Folklore. The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast. Featuring:
Meaghan Burke/Bernd Klug, Ches Smith, Loop B (Brazil), Anthony Coleman/Andrew Hock, Mike Daily as Birdorgan.
26 FRIDAY. 8-midnightish. 

Aliza Simons – euphonium
Brad Henkel – trumpet
Jason Anastasoff – bass
Joey Molinaro – violin
Valerie Kuehne – cello
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124704750962122
SATURDAY 9/3. 8-midnight. 5 SOLOS, 1 NIGHT 

Ti Femme (Amsterdam), Mike Gamble, Spencer Zahn….and I may play a song or two, we’ll see.
SUNDAY 9/4. 7-10 

The Brother Reverend, Crawl Babies, Snowboots, We Run@Glasslands.
Gunsling Birds/Horse’s Mouth/Will Stratton @ Pete’s Candy Store
NY Moth StorySLAM: Chutzpah @ Southpaw
PHANTASMAGORIA CIRCUS SIDE SHOW @ Bookspace
The Met HD Summer Encores @Lincoln Center
Bizarro Fiction #2: Reading It, Understanding It, Writing It
Dames Do Digital @ SVA. 
Sappho’s Journey @ Goodbye Blue Monday (LABOR DAY EXPO)
Light Ayslum@ Union Pool.
DASH by David Matterhorn @ John McWhinnie.
Maureen Shields Solo Exhibition @ AG Gallery
West Indian American Carnival/Parade
PS 1 Warm Up
Beleza NYC presents: Brazillian Day Celebration w/ Johnson do Cavaco, 2Guedinho Band, & special guest Eliano Braz & more @ LPR
THEATER OF THE ARCADE: Five Classic Video Games Adapted for the Stage @ The Brick.
JEREMY DANNEMAN – SOLO @UOTS
ONE RING ZERO @Barbes.
Central Park Moonlight Ride
MAGIC HAND @ Art Blog Art Blog
Solitaire: A Play About Women & the Egyptian Revolution

COMING UP NEXT WEEK:

WHITE SWALLOW READING SERIES: B.C. EDWARDS LL BEN FAMA LL ELY SHIPLEY @ CORNELIA.
Tuesday, September 6 · 6:00pm – 7:30pm

B.C. EDWARDS lives in Brooklyn. He is the recipient of the 2011 Hudson Prize put out by Black Lawrence Press which will be publishing his collection of short fiction, The Aversive Clause in 2012 and his collection of poetry From the Standard Cyclopedia of Recipes in 2013. His work can be found in Red Line Blues, The Sink Review, Food-i-Corp, Hobart and others. His short story “Illfit” is being adapted into a piece by the Royal Ballet of Flanders.

BEN FAMA is the author of the chapbook Aquarius Rising (UDP 2009) and NEW WAVES (Minutes Books). He is the founding editor of Supermachine Poetry Journal. His work has been featured in GlitterPony, notnostrums, LIT, Poor Claudia, and on the Best American Poetry Blog, among others. He has contributed tips to gawker, words to urban dictionary, and has an ongoing correspondence with Lady Gaga.

ELY SHIPLEY’s first book, Boy with Flowers, won the 2007 Barrow Street Press book prize judged by Carl Phillips, the 2009 Thom Gunn Award, and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. His writing appears in the Western Humanities Review, Prairie Schooner, Diagram, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. He holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah and currently teaches at Baruch College, CUNY.

Hosted by Angelo Nikolopoulos
$7 cover includes a house drink