THE WEEK: SEPT 19-23.


MoMA Premiere: Through the Weeping Glass: An Evening with the Quay Brothers

September 24, 2011

As part of a limited three-city tour that includes premieres in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, MoMA presents the Quay Brothers’Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum), a new work by the American-born, British-based independent filmmakers. In the tradition of their prior museum documentaries—The Phantom Museum (2003), on London’s Sir Henry Wellcome Collection, and Inventorium of Traces (2009), on Poland’s Lancut Castle—the Quays return to the city where they began their education as graphic designers to explore the medical collections of the Mütter Museum, part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Examining obscure archives, antique volumes, and artifacts, Through the Weeping Glass investigates marvels of pathology and anatomical oddities, finding poetry in the ill-fated, true-life stories of the “ossified man” Harry Eastlack and famed Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker. The documentary Behind the Scenes with the Quay Brothers, shot during production ofThrough the Weeping Glass, also premieres. Directors Stephen and Timothy Quay will be present to discuss the film with writer David Spolum and moderator Barbara London.

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.

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THE WEEK: Sept 14-16.

 ARIAS WITH A TWIST @ABRONS ART CENTER.
September 14-October 16
Wednesday-Saturday | 8 pm
Saturday Late Show | 10:30 pm
Sunday | 7 pm

This updated version of the original deliriously madcap fantasy once again features the soaring song stylings of demented diva Joey Arias surrounded by an eye-popping theatrical extravaganza conjured by a team of puppeteers under the direction of Basil Twist. Channeling lurid celluloid dreams, macabre nightmares and bizarre premonitions, the adventure begins with an alien abduction and concludes with a stupendous Busby Berkeley-esque finale. Along the way, the throaty chanteuse belts out pop, rock and jazz standards in addition to some original tunes by Alex Gifford as Twist and company work their magic with vintage marionettes, anatomically correct puppets and fantastical scenic elements.

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THE WEEKEND: July 22-24.

Inaugural Event of the New Atlantis 2020 Series with Special Musical Guest Andy J. Forest @ OBSERVATORY


A Lecture, Performance, and Party hosted by John Swenson, author of New Atlantis: Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans
Date: Saturday, July 23rd
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Night One of the New Atlantis 2020 Series
** Books will be available for sale and signing

“In New Orleans, it was the culture of the city—its musicians, its second-liners and Mardi Gras Indians, its chefs and trumpeters and sissy bounce rappers—who asserted for the future more than any political leadership or economic imperative. It was the refusal of the artists to let go of the idea of New Orleans that saved the city. NEW ATLANTIS tells this remarkable story and does so clearly, with considerable detail and affection.”
—David Simon, Producer of HBO’s Treme

New Orleans is under siege from a lethal combination of natural and man-made disasters. The effects of the flood following hurricane Katrina in 2005 are still being felt throughout New Orleans, while the rapid destruction of the south Louisiana wetlands that protect the city from hurricane surges brings the threat of future inundations.
Musicians have been in the forefront of efforts to educate the public about how to combat this threat even before Katrina; they have also led the economic recovery of New Orleans after the flood by returning quickly to restore the city’s cultural identity. Award winning author John Swenson’s book New Atlantis: Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans (Oxford University Press) details the struggle musicians have undertaken to rebuild New Orleans and speak out for its future.

Tonight, join us for the inaugural event of the new Observatory series New Atlantis 2020; this series, curated and moderated by John Swenson, will feature live performances, readings and discussions that will explore the relationship between the musicians of New Orleans and the rebuilding of the city after Katrina. Tonight’s event will will begin with a lavishly illustrated introductory lecture by Swenson, introducing us to the key themes and characters of the book. Next, award-winning New Orleans based musician and songwriter Andy J. Forest–who figures prominently in the book–will perform live at Observatory on guitar and harmonica. Following this performance, Swenson will moderate a Q and A with the musician, after which he will DJ a rich variety of New Orleans music while we enjoy some beer and wine.

Opening Reception, Zoe Beloff’s Amazing Hysteria Theatres at Coney Island
Friday, July 22 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Coney Island USA

1208 Surf Avenue

This Friday, Morbid Anatomy and The Great Coney Island Spectacularium cordially invite you to an opening reception to celebrate the launch of our short-term exhibition of “Four Hysterical Dramas” by Zoe Beloff. This exhibition will be on view at The Spectacularium from July 22nd until August 20th.

Four Hysterical Dramas
Beloff will present four miniature theaters housing depictions of actual hysterics filmed by doctors in Belgium,… Romania, and the United States. Updating a Victorian stage trick called “Pepper’s Ghost”, Beloff has transformed these patients into ghostly figures performing an endless loop of madness within the space of each diorama. Beloff was inspired by several remarkable developments at the end of the 19th century: the discovery of the unconscious by psychotherapists, doctors’ emerging practice of filming their hysterical patients with motion picture cameras, and the public’s fascination with madness which manifested itself in the emotive, hysterical behavior of actors in Parisian cabarets.

Opening reception for “Cosmosis”
Saturday, July 23 · 5:00pm – 8:00pm
Pochron Studios Gallery’s 2nd show of the 2011 season will explore the transference of cosmic energies.

The exact moment when a star is born. The series of events that leads to a sun becoming a black hole. A sudden shift in orbit and the inevitable collision of cosmic bodies.
Cosmosis seeks to explore how the these cosmological concepts could be applied to personal experience.
What dark matter has overtaken a light in your life?
Alternately, when has a spark been ignited in the darkness?
Was there ever a time that your orbit was diverted and where did it
take you?
Artists: Rebecca Memoli , Jason Orrell , John Jennison , Aubrey Roemer , Alice Meichi Li , Laura Galbraith, Megan Van Deusen , Jeff Moore


EVE @ SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS

Sat July 23rd 8-11

Judy Chicago, Mary Beth Edelson, Kim McCarty, Ayanah Moor, Alex Prager, Lisa Steele, Swoon, Stella Vine and Hannah Wilke.

Subliminal Projects Gallery is honored to present Eve, an important group exhibition of works by revolutionary female artists Judy
Chicago, Mary Beth Edelson, Kim McCarty, Ayanah Moor, Alex Prager, Lisa Steele, Swoon, Stella Vine and Hannah Wilke. Eve is a cultural icon and reinforces the idea of equality that feminism drives home. Eve is a composition of powerful female artists, stemming from the feminist era of the 1970’s to the present. The exhibition explores how individual perceptions of femininity are expressed through each artist’s specific genre. Eve is on view July 23rd through August 20th, 2011. A reception for the artists will be held Saturday, July 23rd, from 8-11p.m.

CHET ZAR AND CRAIG LAROTONDA @ LAST RITES.

Friday July 22nd:
Last Rites Gallery Opening Reception:
Doors open 7pm until 11pm
 No cover
 Refreshments served

Saturday July 23rd:
The unveiling of the all new Tattoo Theatre
Doors open 7pm until real late!
$10 cover charge after 10pm
18 and over
Refreshments served

Sunday July 24th
The Painting Lounge
Doors open 3pm until 11pm
No Cover
Refreshments served

IMAGE WARS@ ABRONS ART CENTER

July 21-September 3, 2011
Opening Reception: July 21, 6-8 pm
Image Wars addresses the representation of conflict in visual culture in an age of global crisis. This exhibition is curated by Miguel Amado and brings together works by Yevgeniy Fiks, Rinat Kotler, Michael Mandiberg, Carlos Noronha Feio, Mary Temple, and Kai-Oi Jay Yung. The artists in this exhibition mix archival documentation and fiction as well as research and personal reaction to daily events to comment on the articulation of geopolitics and the media in the “spectacularization” of warfare. The works on view examine the picturing of zones of conflict, from armed conflicts between countries trough dissent across national borders; the charismatic character of world leaders and unknown soldiers; and manifestations of both control and powerlessness in news and individual narratives.


HORSE TRADE and RADIOTHEATRE Present THE 2nd H.P. LOVECRAFT FESTIVAL

Jul 07, 2011 through Sep 11, 2011 Limited Engagement
Don’t miss H.P.Lovecraft’s cult classics REANIMATOR and THE CALL OF CTHULHU.
Adapted, Directed, Sound/Music Design: Dan BianchiStarring: Frank Zilinyi, Erix WhittenSound Engineer: Sean BurnsNow, for the first time ever in the history of live theatre ….40 of the greatest stories from the grandmaster of american horror… presented by radiotheatre! complete with award winning sound design and original orchestral score!

The 1st Festival in March was a resounding success and attracted Lovecraftians from all over the world. Now, Horse Trade presents RadioTheatre in THE 2nd H.P.LOVECRAFT FESTIVAL which includes two of his greatest tales… REANIMATOR and THE CALL OF CTHULHU.FOR MORE INFO: www.radiotheatrenyc.com or www.horsetrade.info


CIVILIZATION AND IT’S DISCONTENTS @ NARS FOUNDATION.
Exhibition Artists include:
Nancy Drew, Stephanie Homa, Olek, Kikuko Tanaka and VanillaRoyal

New York Art Residency & Studios (NARS) Foundation is pleased to present Civilization and its Discontents, a group exhibition curated by the winner of the first NARS Emerging Curator Program: Cat Weaver. The exhibition includes work by Nancy Drew, Stephanie Homa, Olek, Kikuko Tanaka and VanillaRoyal.
If you’ve ever worn a T-shirt from a place you’ve never been, or felt elated by a song the language of which you did not understand, or dared to display a button for its color without paying mind to what it says, then you get it.

Glank @La Mama.
July 22 – July 24, 2011

GLANK is a “green” percussion performance art group that utilizes multiple anonymous performers in Clean Room Suits, audience interaction, multi-media elements, unique percussion inventions, and recycled materials. GLANK instruments include found object metalophones such as tuned saw blades, LP tanks, motorcycle gears, artillery shells, brake drums, air vents, etc…

“Summer Night” at The Frick Collection

Join us for a free after-hours viewing of the Frick’s two summer exhibitions, In a New Light: Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert and Turkish Taste at the Court of Marie-Antoinette, with opportunities to attend presentations and gallery talks, sketch in the Garden Court, and enjoy dance performances. Visitors of all ages over ten are welcome. Click here to download event schedule.


GBM Friday Show Fri Jul 22 11, 08:00 PM
(Brian Olin and Robert Pepper Duo, The Hot Solids, Cubehead, Loop B, ten minute caravan – A SERIES OF PLAYS IN THE BACKYARD
The Hot Solids /Brian Olin and Robert Pepper Duo/Cubehead/Loop B – ten minute caravan – A SERIES OF PLAYS IN THE BACKYARD)

LISTEN.


3rd Ward’s 4th Annual Pig Out!
Saturday, July 23, 2-9pm
195 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn, NY
FREE Admission

Come hungry and dance the afternoon away at our 4th Annual Pig Out,
a summery celebration of gut-splitting proportions. There’s something for every appetite, musical taste and creative bent. Feast on cheap innovative BBQ by The Brindle Room, cool down with summery drinks, and buy local, farm-fresh produce from Plovgh.

Live music from Union Street Preservation Society, Northern Bells, Alana & the Rough Gems  and DJs The Gorges Boys.

NewFest is dedicated to bringing together filmmakers and audiences in the building of a community that passionately supports giving greater visibility and voice to a wide range of expressions and representations of the LGBT experience.  We are committed to nurturing emerging LGBT and allied filmmakers. We support those artists who are willing to take risks in telling the stories that fully reflect the diversity and complexity of our lives. And we’re committed to bringing our audience stories that transform our vision of who we are and who we can be.

Through the New York LGBT film festival, presented annually since 1988, and year-round programming, NewFest celebrates fine domestic and international film as part of our mission to break through closet doors and glass ceilings everywhere.

FULL SCHEDULE.

POPSICKLE 2011: From Concentrate @ Gowanus Ballroom.

 The second annual POPSICKLE Festival unites Brooklyn-based poetry and prose reading series for a monster day of reading, performance, and screenings as well as book tables and a raffle with amazing prizes. POPSICKLE 2011 will take place on July 23rd at the amazing hybrid space known as GOWANUS BALLROOM = 55 9TH STREET = BROOKLYN NY.

With performances from:
Jason Helm + Julia Guez + Jon Sands + Roger Bonair-Agard + Will Edmiston + Paul Foster Johnson + Dorothea Lasky + Lonely Christopher + Megafortress + EJ McAdams + Becca Klaver + Angelina Dreem + Amy Jenkins + Courtney Ziegler + Jason Daniel Schwartz + Anna Fitzgerald + Carina Finn + Paul Legault + Chris Hosea + Ariana Reines + Jean-Paul Pecqueur + Paul Foster Johnson + Ben Pease + DJ Amourette And more TBA . . . .

SUPERCODA @ CAFE ORWELL
Friday, July 22nd. 8:30-12:30. The Super Coda presents a night of especially stupefying music that is way, way, way out there.
Featuring:
1 – Big Plastic Finger
http://bigplasticfinger.wo​rdpress.com/bios/

2 – Welf Dorr/Ben Stapp/Noel Brennan
http://www.allaboutjazz.co​m/php/musician.php?id=1378​5
http://www.benstapp.com/
http://www.noelbrennan.com​/FGH.html

3 – la-bruha-desi-la (Japan)
http://afrovisionary.tumbl​r.com/post/6058811257/la-b​ruha-desi-la-s-myself-firs​t-self-made-video

4 – Harvey Valdes/Damion Reid

http://www.youtube.com/wat​ch?v=ObBmkrYjKqk

 

Kostume Kult Presents FREAKKSHOW IV: Circus Nightmare
A Burning Man fundraiser with Reformata

Saturday Night, July 23rd, 9pm to 11am Sunday
Brooklyn Location TBA Friday (large, raw indoor/outdoor space with AC!)
Meet at Mothers (a bar) for shuttle bus pickup
near Graham Ave L train stop
at 347 Graham Ave betw. Metropolitan & Conselyea

Ticket Link: http://kostumekult.com/eve ​nts/freaKKshow4/
$20 limited presale
$25 door
Do circus freaks haunt your dreams? Do clowns creep you out? Does the sound of carnival music make you cry? well…
STEP RIGHT THIS WAY ladies and gentlemen and revisit those wonderful feelings with a night of Freaks, Geeks and Childhood Trauma Reenactment…

MORE:
Valerie Kuehne Cello @ SET GALLERY
Wu Fei @Barbes
Live Silkscreen Event @ Pandemic Gallery
2011 – GGRD – Queens of Pain and Brooklyn Bombshells vs. Philly and DC
Summer School Meetup @Eyebeam
Johnathan Vincent Wood (and more) @GBM Sat Jul 23 11, 08:00 PM
Black Francis (Pixies)w/ Reid Paley @ LPR.
Camera + Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer

The Handwritten Text @ Center for Book Arts

Drag Show Video Vérité @ Dixon Place
Readings from Supernatural Noir@KGB
The 5th Annual Pyschobilly Luau @ PA
Gareth Flowers Acousmatic and Home @ The Stone

LAST CALL:

Time Again @Sculpture Center
SPECIFIC OBJECT PRESENTS LAWRENCE WEINER’S PUBLISHED WORK FROM THE JEAN-NOEL HERLIN ARCHIVE @Susan Inglett

The Weekend: June 10-12.


FIGMENT ON GOVERNOR’S ISLAND

JUNE 10-12

FIGMENT is a forum for the creation and display of participatory and interactive art by emerging artists across disciplines. FIGMENT began in July 2007 as a free, one-day participatory arts event on Governors Island in New York Harbor with over 2,600 participants. Since then, FIGMENT has grown significantly each year—in number of projects, duration, participants, volunteers, fundraising capability, exhibitions, locations, overall level of commitment and participation, and public support. (READ MORE.)
FULL LISTING OF EVENTS.

THE WEEKEND May 13-14.

MakerBot Make-A-Thon // Experience Cutting-Edge Rapid Prototyping

MakerBot Make-A-Thon
Saturday, May 14th, 2:00 – 6:00 pm
195 Morgan Avenue, Brooklyn NY
FREE

The MakerBot Thing-O-Matic is 1) a modern manufacturing breakthrough, and 2) also a lot of fun.

The 3rd Ward MakerBot Make-A-Thon is your chance to see these tiny factories in action, print awesome 3D objects and even a 3D portrait of yourself.

MakerBot Artist-in-Residence Kyle McDonald will be presenting his work turning the Xbox Kinect into a 3D Scanner.  He will scan you in his 3D Photo Booth, then print you using the MakerBot.

The Makerbot prints anything up to 4”x5”x5” with ABS and PLA (biodegradable) plastic. All you do is hit print, and the machine does all the work. Print 100 butterflies, an entire chess set — anything! And see a 9 foot-wide geodesic dome, printed entirely on the MakerBot.

Learn more about the MakerBot and the 3rd Ward Make-A-Thon in The New York Times here.

Plus, win prizes from MakerBotApress Books, and MAKE Magazine!

RSVPs are required at http://www.3rdward.com/rsvp

MakerBot Industries was named one of the top 20 startups in NYC, and has been featured in The New York Times, Wired, Make: Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, IEEE Spectrum, CNN, Financial Times, NPR, The Economist and others. For more information on MakerBot, click here and see photos of the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic here.

Learn more about Kyle McDonald’s Xbox Kinect hack in this 3rd Ward blog post.


BYE BYE KITTY @JAPAN SOCIETY. Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art
Friday, March 18 — Sunday, June 12

Bye Bye Kitty!!! is a radical departure from recent Japanese exhibitions. Moving far beyond the stereotypes of kawaii and otaku culture, Japan Society’s show features sixteen emerging and mid-career artists whose paintings, objects, photographs, videos, and installations meld traditional styles with challenging visions of Japan’s troubled present and uncertain future.

Buy the Catalog
Admission & Gallery Hours


MY W. B. YEATS

Timothy Donnelly, Philip Levine, and Rosanna Warren, with Eamon Grennan

Saturday, May 14, 2:30pm
MAP

An event curated by noted Irish poet Eamon Grennan, with American poets reading and responding to Yeats’ work and exploring the influence of this literary giant on their own poetry.

Co-sponsored by Culture Ireland, the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at Lincoln Center, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Admission is free.

Bruno Walter Auditorium
111 Amsterdam Avenue and 65th Street


THE BLACK LIGHT LOUNGE@ SECRET PROJECT ROBOT.

Saturday, May 14 8-11pm.
How awesome would it be to walk into a room filled salon style with black light posters and art!?  This Spring Secret Project Robot creates the long awaited fluorescent opulence.  Over 30 artists participate to transform the gallery into a black light cocktail lounge.

THE ART OF MONEY: PERSONAL FINANCE RESOURCES FOR ARTISTS
WEBSITE

Join the Department of Cultural Affairs, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, and Department of Consumer Affairs Office of Financial Empowerment for a day of FREE financial counseling sessions and workshops designed to help working artists, arts administrators, and independent workers reduce debt and manage credit.

SATURDAY, MAY 14, 2011
Information Fair, Workshops and Counseling Sessions 12 PM – 5 PM
Post Event Reception 5 PM – 7 PM
Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation | 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216

OPENING REMARKS BY
Kate D. LevinCommissioner, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
Marty MarkowitzBrooklyn Borough President
Jimmy Van BramerNew York City Council Member and Chair of the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries & International Intergroup Relations
Domenic M. Recchia, Jr., New York City Council Member and Chair of the Finance Committee
Colvin GrannumPresident, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
Danny SimmonsChair of New York State Council on the Arts and Artist



Love Your Library Day!

Saturday, May 14, 10 AM – 3 PM
Central Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza

As Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) faces a city budget cut that could reduce library hours, materials and free programs, we need your support!

Show your elected officials how much you love BPL by coming to this important, fun event on Central Library’s Plaza.

10 AM – 3 PM: Book, T-shirt and tote bag sale
10 AM – 12 PM: Performance by BPL’s own Lost in the Stacks
12 – 1 PM: Advocacy rally
1 PM: Performance by Vo-Duo, a group inspired by the vodou music traditions of Haiti

You can also use our computers to email your elected officials to say NO to budget cuts and remind them how much your library means to you.

Suggested donation for the event is $5. This donation, as well as proceeds from book, T-shirt and tote bag sales, will help purchase new library materials.


CROSSING ART GALLERY
Saturday, May 14 from 6 to 9 PM

136-17 39th Avenue
Flushing, NY 11354

QMAD, Queens Media Arts Development, in partnership with Crossing Art Gallery, presents the First Annual Performance Art Festival of Queens featuring new works by local, national and international performance artists.  This year’s program, ITINERANT, focuses on works that treat notions of displacement, delivery, and transformation.  Participating artists use performance narratives and actions that evoke immediacy and intimacy to bridge the gap of communication and distance. (READ MORE.)


Shadow-stalkers and Resurrected Chickens:
Animals on the Road to Paradise

Saturday, May 14 at 7 pm
$5 admission
MAP

Stories about the journey to paradise, in religious and literary traditions, feature animals as both obstacles and allies.
In Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf, Grendel is the “shadow-stalker” the hero must slay
to prove himself and attain an earthly paradise; on the medieval pilgrimage trail to Santiago de Compostela, Spain,
there is still an ornate chicken coop housing a pure white rooster and hen in the cathedral in one town
to commemorate a pilgrim’s miraculous escape from disaster.

What beasts block our roads or assist us on the way?

Rev. Craig Townsend presents an evening of tales, images, and soundscape evoking and exploring
the human-animal interactions that illuminate both the journey and its goal.  

Craig Townsend is an Episcopal priest serving as Vicar at St. James’ Church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
He has a Ph.D. from Harvard that, while focused on American religious history, also entailed
the study of the world’s major religious traditions.

Please visit the Proteus Gowanus website for more news and information about upcoming events.

SXIP SHIREY’s B-DAY at Joe’s Pub.
Saturday, May 14 at 9 pm
MAP

It’s my birthday next month and as a present to myself I’m doing a big “solo show” at Joe’s Pub with some of my very favorite NYC artists who I haven’t had a chance to perform with much or at all. (Aside from Adam but…he’s ADAM) Adam Matta, Ned Rothenberg, Terry Dame, Rachelle Garniez, Racheal Price, Sonny Singh and Xavier.

I will be presenting an expanded version of the Sxipenspiel. I also have a new device called a gravity marble tree…and a perfect Sam Cook styled R & B tune to be sung by Xaxier. I am going to do “Ring My Bell with Rachel Price and I’ll be performing an improv piece with the amazing Ned Rothenberg. PLUS I do a rendition of a composition by Shelley Segal.Very exited to announce that Mathias Kunzli will be the percussionist for the evening.


A brief interview with Sxip about the show and participants:

THE 22: Variations and experiments in breath seem to play a large role in both yours and Ned’s work. Besides the fact that you both play reed instruments do you feel you push the boundaries of the human body as a musical tool?

SXIP SHIREY: I don’t think I am pushing the boundaries of the human body honestly. Back in my 20s when I wanted to be a punk Michael Hedges I ended up with tendinitis for two years. The first time Ned saw me play he commented on how tense I held my body when I played. He plays with such a focused relaxed quality and puts the intensity just in music. He circular breaths beautifully, which is pushing the body in a sense, but really what is great about him is the calm control of tones that are ever evolving and unwieldy. My playing is definitely a product directly of what my body is doing. Modern dancers sense this and they love my performance, but I don’t think I’m pushing the body, I am pushing the instrument. Oh shit..I just reread the question. I see what you are asking now. I didn’t think of breath as pushing the boundaries of the human body as a musical tool, I just did it. Breath is a rhythm we all understand deeply, it is the most intimate rhythm we make that we can easily hear (unlike a heart beat), there is incredible power in making this intimate sound epic. I am ever creating a palette of compelling of sounds that that I can draw from to take me and the audience to effective places.

THE 22: What are you thoughts on the traditions in music versus the basic elemental pleasure of sound? Is either more important?

SXIP SHIREY: I am finding this question hard to answer. It’s not that either is important or not important. It’s just not the issue. I make sound and music because I have to. It’s what I have to do, sometimes it’s a song with guitar, sometimes it’s playing folks songs, sometimes it’s rolling marbles in glass bowls, sometimes it’s tweaking virtual synths on the computer. It’s all the same to me.

THE 22: What about each of these musician’s appeal to you in collaboration and why did you chose to share this birthday celebration with them?

SXIP SHIREY:They are musicians who have an immediately strong seductive presence the moment they play or sing. They are people I simply like hearing and will go out to hear when I am in NYC. I thought it would be great to actually play with them. Most of them are not my normal collaborators.

THE 22: Can you tell us a little about the SxipenspieI and gravity marble tree?

SXIP SHIREY: The Sxipenspiel is perhaps my favorite birthday gift of all time. I was on tour with Amanda Palmer and Jason Webely’s Evelyn Evelyn tour and my birthday fell on a day we were in Berlin. Amanda and Neil went to a flea market in Berlin and bought these great bicycle bells that do a trilling long tone. They mounted them on a candlestick with a bent copper pipe at the top and dubbed it “The Sxipenspiel”. It’s a totally awkward instrument that sounds somehow amazing. I’ve learned to play it gracefully and I play it a lot. There is something magical sounding about it.

Bells historically are used to give us directions. “it’s time to go to church” “come to the door I am here” ” the egg is done cooking”. There is certain power to use them as a compositional element because their sound stimulates those parts of the brain.

Also check out the WSJ article.

THE 22 MAGAZINE PRESENTS: The Three Furies, Writing with a Vengeance

Sunday, May 15—5:00pm
A Gathering of the Tribes
285 East Third Street (between Ave C & D) #2
(212) 674-3778
A GATHERING OF THE TRIBES
THE 22 MAGAZINE
MAP

Known as “the Angry Ones” in Greek myth, the Furies were a trio of vengeful women born from the blood drops of the castrated appendage of Uranus (whose Titan son, Cronus, did him a dirty turn). They were psychological tormentors, the personification of vindictiveness and retribution. In art they were represented as winged creatures wearing nothing but snakes. In this reading by emerging writers Jamey Bradbury, Ansel Elkins, and Thera Webb—recent graduates of the MFA program in creative writing at University of North Carolina-Greensboro—they will forego niceties and read from an unforgiving selection of their latest work. If you’re bored with bucolic love poems, or have recently be wronged by a paramour, this Gathering of the Tribes is the place to savor the sweet taste of revenge.

Ansel Elkins

has poems appearing this spring in Boston Review, Mississippi Review, Ninth Letter, The American Scholar, The Believer and The Southern Review. She is one of four winners of the 2011 “Discovery”/Boston Review poetry prize. She lives in North Carolina.

Jamey Bradbury

has appeared in Black Warrior Review and is forthcoming in Zone 3. She is a literary assistant in Vermont, and is working on her first novel and a collection of short stories.

Thera Webb

is a radical feminist and resident of Brooklyn. She received her MFA in poetry from UNC Greensboro, and has had work in Fiction (JP) and Forklift, Ohio. Her chapbook, On The Shoulders of the Bear, was released this fall from Fractious Press. 


LOVE IS BLIND @ Littlefield this Wens.


In Search Of Singles

Love Is Blind, a show that’s half cabaret and half live dating game, seeks singles to play the game. They have the cabaret part down, but the show needs you on-stage answering outrageous questions, as the audience witnesses the spectacle.

Hosted by Sarah Sims Erwin (aka: DJ Sims, and formerly with The Fun Club), Love Is Blind features more than the dating game. It’s got the lovable song stylings of Finsbury Park and Lady Adrienne; the twisted dance theater group Movementpants Dance; and a little something balloon-y by the host. And after the show, dance to Love Is Blind’s resident DJ, Blind Eye Sees All. Proper footwear = rug cutting bliss.

$5 admission gets you a Love Lottery ticket which gives you a chance to play (or give your ticket to a friend to better their chance to win). Contestants will be picked live at the event.

Spread the word. Spread the love.

For more information, visit www.loveisblindnyc.com or Facebook www.facebook.com/loveisblindnyc

SPECIAL OFFER:
If you RSVP to their Facebook event you get a Sims-made Love Is Blind button.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=220174487992988

Love Is Blind
at Littlefield
this Wednesday, May 11
622 Degraw Street
Gowanus, Brooklyn  11217
$5
doors at 7:30 pm; show at 8 pm

Snakes, a Big Apple and the Garden (of Eden) State

Snakes, a Big Apple and the Garden (of Eden) State
Tuesday, May 10 at 7pm
Proteus Gowanus

MAP

Photo by Sarah Brigden {http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahb365/}

Join us for a multimedia tour of the decadence and divinity of two New Jersey Utopian communities founded in the 19th century: one for pleasure, the other for purity.
Edith Gonzalez presents two faces of the utopian mind of the 19th century: Ocean Grove, which remains to this day a “religious resort”, while Asbury Park, a secular pleasure zone, has faced more worldly ups and downs. Since their respective founding side by side on the NJ coast, these two communities have been engaged in a dynamic dialogue of morality.

Edith Gonzalez is an historical anthropologist specializing in nineteenth-century systems of power, and a native New Yorker with a deep and abiding love for New Jersey.

DEEP/SHALLOW TONIGHT.

DEEP/SHALLOW OPENS APRIL 29TH

ANNOUNCING THE OPENING EVENT FOR DEEP / SHALLOW
Friday, April 29th 7:00pm to 10:00pm
at The Gowanus Studio Space
166 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, Brooklyn


Reference material is as often heavily researched as it is happened upon. Artworks in DEEP/SHALLOW were made in response to The Library’s collection of books and other printed materials donated from artists’ own reference libraries. The appropriation of these resources forces a contextual continuity (which normally occurs organically and over time) across disciplines, content and processes. DEEP/SHALLOW will be on view at The Gowanus Studio Space from April 29th through May 29th 2011.

FANNY ALLIÉ / GABRIELA ALVA CAL Y MAYOR / JILL AUCKENTHALER / NATALIA PORTER / BEN COHEN / NOAH BREUER / JONATHAN BUTT / ANGELA CONANT / HECTOR CANONGE / GRAYSON COX / KENDRA SULLIVAN / DYLAN GAUTHIER / EMILY ELSEN / BEKA GOEDDE / HALEY HUGHES / KATIE MERZ / RACHEL OSTROW / SARAH NICOLE PHILLIPS / FRANCESCO SIMETI / NICHOLE VAN BEEK / JOHN WHITLOCK

INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION/PERFORMANCE BY ROB ANDREWS
Votive Door (K) is a way station. A system that requires containers. We are a channel. Breath is a channel. No library without librarians!

POSTER BY JOHN WHITLOCK
BEER SPONSORED BY KELSO OF BROOKLYN

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