The Week/Weekend: Sept 13-20.

Exhibition / “Harry Smith: String Figures”
300 Nevins St (Cabinet)
20 September – 3 November 2012

Cabinet is pleased to present “Harry Smith: String Figures,” an exhibition drawn from the collection of John Cohen. Organized by painter Terry Winters, the show features twenty-two string figures created by Smith (1923–1991), the legendary artist, filmmaker, and ethnomusicologist.

BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL
Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2012, 10am-6pm

On Sunday, September 23, 2012, from 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., a record 280+ top national and international authors and participants will join bibliophiles, booksellers and literary organizations on 14 stages at Brooklyn Borough Hall (209 Joralemon Street) and Plaza, Columbus Park, St. Francis College, Brooklyn Heights Public Library, Brooklyn Law School, the Brooklyn Historical Society and St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church for the seventh annual Brooklyn Book Festival.

Michael Chabon @Greenlight
Sep 17 2012 7:30 pm
Greenlight Bookstore

In his first novel in five years, beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author Michael Chabon provides a kaleidoscopic vision of urban America in transition, as witnessed by two intimately intertwined families in Oakland, California. Telegraph Avenue encompasses race, family, sexuality, gentrification, politics, jazz, funk, comics, kung fu, and a talking parrot, all with dazzling style and deep compassion. Chabon will read from his novel and answer audience questions before signing books.

Date the Time – Molly Dilworth
Reception: September 20, 6-8pm
Recess

On August 17, 2012 Molly Dilworth will begin work on Date the Time, as part of Recess’s signature program, Session. Session invites artists to use Recess’s public space as studio, exhibition venue and grounds for experimentation. For Date the Time, Dilworth will create a series of banners and flags, bearing patterns generated from user-submitted photos. Addressing digital content using traditional folk art techniques, Dilworth will distill issues of labor and consumer rights from unexpected sources.

Wendy White: Pix Vää
Leo Koenig
Opens September 13 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

In the large-scale “Fotobild” paintings, White continues to conjoin component canvases and then secures commercial storefront awnings above and atop painted canvases. These awnings and armatures, fabricated at a sign shop in Chinatown, feature human-scale snapshots that White has culled from her digital and print archives.

Stealth Reflections
Mighty Tanaka
September 14

Stealth Reflections pulls back the layers of consciousness and exposes the viewer to an awakening of self reflection.  Through his work, Miguel Ovalle seeks to reveal the inner psyche of the human condition through a myriad of interpretations and techniques.  His steadfast approach defines his meticulous attention for detail.

Tessa Farmer & Amon Tobin Control Over Nature
Spencer Brownstone Gallery
September 15 – October 6, 2012

Spencer Brownstone Gallery is pleased to present ‘Control Over Nature’, an exhibition by Tessa Farmer in collaboration with an acoustical installation by Amon Tobin. For her second show at the gallery, Tessa has teamed up with Amon Tobin to mark his September 14th performance at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom. With his groundbreaking audio/visual live show ISAM 2.0, the electronic music pioneer joined forces with Farmer for an extraordinary collaborative installation combining his sound design and elements from ‘ISAM’, alongside Farmer’s trademark sculptures (constructed from bits of organic material, such as roots, dead insects and bones). Hovering with a rarefied, jewel-like beauty, Tessa’s tiny spectacles resound with a theurgist exotica: their specimen forms evolve as something alien and futuristic. The collaboration perfectly captures the themes surrounding ‘ISAM’: sensory deprivation, disorienting situationism and the mechanization of natural things.

Wondering Around Wandering
Saturday, September 15, 6:00–11:00pm
983 Dean Street

Join us for the grand opening of Wondering Around Wandering, and don’t miss Pulled: A Catalog of Screenprinting, making its final stop after a year of traveling.


Fishtank Ensemble
/Baby Soda Jazz Band
Jalopy
Sat, Sept 15th

Fishtank Ensemble is a band that offers a unique blend of Gypsy, Balkan, Flamenco, Klezmer and original tunes. The arrangements are always surprising and include instruments from many countries such as violin, accordion, flamenco and gypsy jazz guitar, shamisen, bass, saw and voice./Baby Soda! Developed by hoboes, perfected through science… Baby Soda is on the cutting edge of a new movement loosely known as street jazz; with an eclectic set of influences ranging from New Orleans brass bands, jug music, southern gospel and hot jazz.

Who Gives a Sh*t About Literary Magazines?
Mon Sep 17, 7:00PM
BookCourt

Randy Rosenthal (editor of The Coffin Factory) and panelists Lorin Stein (editor of The Paris Review), Rob Spillman (editor of Tin House), and John Freeman (editor of Granta) discuss the impact of literary magazines in contemporary culture.

Survival
War of Words
Strange Tales of Liaozhai

Kris Bowers & Carson Adjacent
The NY Theremin Society Presents: GOOD Vibrations – Theremin X 4 FT Dorit Chrysler, Michael Evans, Rob Schwimmer and Allison Sniffin
Eleh (US Debut) + Lary 7
PRACTICE! W/ IKEBE SHAKEDOWN + OSEKRE AND THE LUCKY BASTARDS + THE FORTHRIGHTS + TUNDE ADEBIMBE/ OHAL GREITZER/ DAREN HO/ RYAN SAWYER/ C. SPENCER YEH QUINTET
Best American Poetry 2012
My Heart Is An Idiot: FOUND Magazine’s 10th Anniversary Tour!
LIGHT OBJECTS
MECANICA POPULAR
LIGHTNING BOLT
R. SIKORYAK & FRIENDS: CAROUSEL

The Channel
Joseph Keckler + Mac Wellman
ASBA’s 15th Annual International
NYC HONEY FESTIVAL
EatSleepDraw (5 Years)
Chris Watson + Marcus Davidson
AURAL DYSTOPIA
ALESSANDRO PESSOLI: FIRED PEOPLE
REYES & STEEL
Beth Cavener Stichter: Come Undone
Liza LaCroix
Masami Teraoka: Cloisters Inquisition    
Metropolis: Alexis Duque
Richard Estes / New York by Night
BARNEY KULOK: BUILDING
Ralph Humphrey
Assembly 2012
Sunday Paintings for a Rainy Day
Nate Wooley + Mazen Kerbaj
TAKESHI MURATA: SYNTHESIZERS
Crossing the Line 2012
Printed Matter, Inc. presents Contemporary Artists’ Books Conference in conjunction with The NY Art Book Fair
SHABOYGEN BY STEVEN AND WILLIAM LADD
Luisa Rabbia
INNER CIRCLE MUSIC FESTIVAL: PETROS KLAMPANIS TRIO
Wildlife in the Post-Natural Age
Thomas Hirschhorn “Concordia, Concordia”
ANDREA ZITTEL: Fluid Panel State
Alexander Hahn

Allison Evans
Sally Mann: Upon Reflection
POST NATURAL
Occupy Your BFF
Lucie Fontaine : Estate
New York School Artists
Respect Sextet and Loadbang
SIGHTLINES: HELEN SEAR
Opera on Tap: BRIDES ON FIRE!!!
Red Baraat w/ M.A.K.U. SoundSystem
Mount Eerie w/ Loren Connors

LIGHTNESS OF BEING
CARL MAGUIRE, FAR FROM ALMOST ALWAYS
Charles Jarboe   New Paintings
CALEB CAIN MARCUS: PORTRAIT OF ICE
FITZGERALD & STAPLETON: WAGE
Teresita Fernández & Mr.
HAIRY SANDS/SOURCE OF YELLOW
GUYI-GUYI by Pereferia Teatro
DAVE COLE
Miriam (BAM 30th Next Wave Fest)
BEAT FESTIVAL
Andra Ursuta: Aboveground Animation
Trey Speegle: Good Luck With That
THE JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW
Pictures from the Moon: A Symposium on Holograms and Art
MIVOS QUARTET
Nublu 10 Years w/ performances by Wax Poetic, Hess is More, Love Trio and Clark Gayton
Gallow Green

COMING UP:

The Secret City – NEW YORK
Cave Canem at The New School Presents: Natasha Trethaway and Metta Sama
Crossing the Line
Devotchka
The Mountain Goats
Adults in the Dark: Avant-Garde Animation (MAD)

THE WEEKEND: SEPT 23-25.

KRONOS QUARTET: Awakening: A Musical Meditation on the Anniversary of 9/11

Part of the 2011 Next Wave Festival
Sep 21—24, 2011 at 7:30pm 

Pioneering contemporary music ensemble Kronos Quartet (More Than Four, 2007 Next Wave) returns to BAM with a heartfelt program comprising 12 compositions—including works by Michael Gordon, Terry Riley, Osvaldo Golijov and Gustavo Santaolalla, and John Oswald—plus gripping arrangements of traditional songs from around the globe. This stirring collection of works reflects upon those instances where traditional language fails us, and music steps in to restore what violinist David Harrington refers to as “equilibrium in the midst of imbalance.”

Read the full program here.

Continue reading

THE WEEKEND: SEPT 16-18.

GRAND OPENING @ROULETTE – Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and John Zorn/GRAND OPENING – COSA BRAVA featuring Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, Zeena Parkins, Matthias Bossi, Shahzad Ismaily, and the Norman Conquest
Sat Sep 17 – 8:00 PM and Sun Sep 18 – 8:00 PM

Three legends of the New York Underground combine forces for an evening of extreme improvised music. “The most important multimedia artist of our time,”(LA Times), Laurie Anderson is best known for her multimedia presentations and musical recordings that have challenged and delighted audiences around the world for more than 30 years. Tonight Anderson teams up with husband Lou Reed – arguably one of the most influential musicians in rock history whose band, the Velvet Underground, redefined the music of the late ’60s. Also joining them tonight is maverick composer/performer and godfather of the Downtown New York scene, John Zorn.

Continue reading

Support This Project: Secret City, Butt Kapinski.

Beyond having amazing art  The Secret City has an enviable roster of performers. One of them being the hilarious Butt Kapinski.

Read more about Butt below and take a moment to watch her at work.

And then help the SC with your Nikwels and Diwums.

About Butt:

Deanna Fleysher (not only the mind behind Butt but helped direct Red Bastard) is a performer, director and teacher. Inspired by clown, improv comedy, commedia dell-arte and bouffon, she creates comedy which tackles the thornier topics of being human. Deanna relies on improvisation and collaboration as tools of creation. She has performed at various seedy joints around New York City including Galapagos, Symphony Space, Lincoln Center and many others. (READ MORE.)

Continue reading

THE MAST: “Wild Poppies” by Matt Mowatt.

ALBUM REVIEW:
THE MAST
“WILD POPPIES”
by Matt Mowatt
RELEASES: June 21, 2011
BUY ALBUM.

CD RELEASE SHOW:
THURS, JULY 7, 2011 @ Le Poisson Rouge, NYC, 7PM
CD RELEASE SHOW, get tix HERE


“Trump” Wild Poppies, 2011 BUY ALBUM.

“Wild Poppies” Wild Poppies, 2011 BUY ALBUM.

I had always thought that the djembe was an instrument solely relegated to the living room of a stoned and nude Matthew McConaughey. To the sandal clad college kid; or perhaps set in the corner of some ecologically sound mansion as a decorative gesture of cultural awareness. It’s refreshing to have one’s stereotypes shattered. The Mast’s new album Wild Poppies -and their djembe- did just that.

The ethereal vocals of Haale, whose riffs conjure scenes of panoramic deserts, compliment the unfolding complexity of Matt Kilmer’s poly-rhythmic drumming (using not only the djembe, but also a frame drum a bass drum, a floor tom, and cymbals) and invoke a sort of blooming, colorful landscape of layers, organically grown. I think of a toned down Kills, a hyperactive (or perhaps simply active) Mazzy Star, a straightforward Blonde Redhead. In spite of these comparisons, and in a music world saturated with tuned glossy duos, The Mast has carved out a niche all their own, weaving together a sound both simulated and organic.

Song titles like “The Lake” and “Hummingbird,” and lyrics such as “gold dust of the sun has settled, brightens my mind,” or “rolling over the reeds, rolling over mounds of earth, from my head to feet, oh land, the grand masseuse,” reinforce the earthiness of the sound. Despite the fact that the cover art, a fractal image of poppies grown in the band’s backyard, invites the psychedelic, to label their music as simply psychedelic, electronic or rock/pop would be off the mark. Much like their self-proclaimed symbol, The Mast’s strength lies in its ability to merge the best of all three in symbiotic sound.

WATCH THE ALBUM TRAILER. 

The Mast will play THURS, JULY 7, 2011 @ Le Poisson Rouge for the release of their album “Wild Poppies.”

ABOUT MATT MOWATT: Matthew Mowatt is currently working as a freelance editor and English teacher in Paris, France. He’s  searching for publishers to accept his first finished novella and in the meantime, he seeks out musicians and writers for entertainment of the inspirational kind. He occasionally contributes to his own fanless blog (fairweather chronicles) when he’s licked by life.