THE WEEK/WEEKEND: July 26-Aug 2.

CANNONBALL! curated by Vicki Sher
Frosch & Portmann
July 26 – August 19, 2012

Ky Anderson
Denise Kupferschmidt
Joshua Marsh
Gary Petersen
Lauren Seiden
Don Voisine
Paul Wackers
Tamara Zahaykevich

The Quavers/LAS RUBIAS DEL NORTE
Barbes
Saturday, July 28

Their sound is a re-invention, a nostalgic throwback to a time and place mostly imagined where Peruvian waltzes, Andean huaynos and Cuban Guajiras mix with French opera, Cowboy tunes and Bollywood classics. The result plays like a dreamy soundtrack with classical harmonies set to a Latin beat. Their new album, Ziguala is an attempt to imagine what a pop record would sound like had the global Latin influence which was so prevalent until the early 60’s had continued its course without interruption. The tracks on the album are re-interpretations of songs from Spain, France, Peru, India, Mexico, Greece, Venezuela, Colombia and Naples. Ziguala is not so much a latin record as it is a pop record that uses a latin vocabulary. Think of it as the opposite of Rock en Español, itself a Latin genre which uses a rock vocabulary.

Upstairs at the Square with CHERYL STRAYED AND THEO BLECKMANN
Barnes and Noble
August 2, 7pm

Barnes & Noble, Inc. today announced the next edition of “Upstairs at the Square,” described by Daily Candy as “an awesome literary salon on a date with an intimate rock concert,” at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in Manhattan (33 E. 17th St.). On Thursday, August 2, at 7.p.m., Cheryl Strayed, author of Tiny Beautiful Things (Vintage Books, July 10) and Theo Bleckmann, whose latest album is Hello Earth! – The Music of Kate Bush (Winter & Winter, March 13), join Katherine Lanpher to discuss and perform their work. Admission is free, and no tickets are required.

EVERYTHING HAPPENS ON MONDAYS: Cori Olinghouse / Kai Kleinbard / Shona Masarin (Ghost lines)
Roulette
Monday, July 30, 2012 @ 8:00 pm

Exploring the body as a conduit for transformation, Cori Olinghouse will present excerpts from her latest Ghost lines Project.  Inspired by ghost towns, silent era clown films, voguing, and eccentric dance, the characters in Ghost lines conjure a vaudevillian past as traces – remnants; as if rising from the dust, transmitting signals of light and shadow.

VOXIFY: BASAK YAVUZ
Cornelia St Cafe
Tuesday,  Jul 31 – 8:30PM

Basak Yavuz is a Turkish-born, New York City based vocalist, composer and arranger. From modern jazz to minimalism, from blues and world music to chromatic harmony, her music is eclectic, heartfelt, and has the just the right amount of biting honesty. Her songwriting covers the full range of human experience; it can be fragile or aggressive, beautifully simple or deceptively complex, and always tells a compelling story. She recently graduated from Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Peter Eldridge, Theo Bleckmann, and Darmon Meader, Dave Liebman and Phil Markowitz. She was the winner of the Nardis Jazz Vocal Competition in Istanbul, and has performed with her quintet in the Istanbul Jazz Festival twice. Her debut album is slated for release in late 2012, which will feature Peter Eldridge, Dave Liebman, and many other great musicians.

Yemen Blues (Lincoln Center Outdoors)
Aug 1 at 9:00
Damrosch Park Bandshell

A high-energy multinational hybrid of North African grooves, Middle Eastern modes, and American funk fleshed out with oud, gimbri, strings, and percussion, Yemen Blues is led by the charismatic Israeli-Yemenite singer Ravid Kahalani and go-to jazz bassist-arranger Omer Avital.

M’lumbo w/ special guest Gary Lucas
Joe’s Pub
July 29, 9:30pm
Watch Video

M’lumbo is a 8-piece multimedia jam band that crosses the boundaries of electronic, psychedelic, jazz, and world music. At this special performance the long-running shadowy and semi-legendary eight–piece band will celebrate the release of their twelfth album ’Tuning In to Tomorrow’ with  their special guestGrammy-nominated guitarist/songwriter Gary Lucas ‘The thinking man’s guitarist’-The New Yorker. The band includes Rob RayPaul-Alexandre MeurensVin VelosoCecil YoungDehran DuckworthJaz SawyerBrian O’Neill, Jarek Szczyglak and other suprises. Come experience the band live in rare form and be ready to party!

BASSON CD Release Party
The Grand Victory
August 2, 7pm

— the time has finally come to officially unleash Bassoon’s eponymous CD upon the world — join us for a killer show with venerable riff-contortionists STATS and equally dexterous bass-drum duo RADIATION BLACKBODY for an evening of intelligent ear damage —

Peter Stampfel and the Ether Frolic Mob/The Bushwick Gospel Singers
Jalopy
Saturday, July 28, 10pm

Peter Stampfel & the Ether Frolic Mob consists of whoever is available and up for it whenever. Stampfel is performing. What is Ether Frolic? Ether Frolic is when ether came into use in the 19th century, it was widely introduced by Ether Frolics–a stage would be rented, the audience would be charged, the ’show’ involved people inhaling ether on stage and carrying on in a manner not common to 19th century behavioral norms.

MOSTLY OTHER PEOPLE DO THE KILLING
Cornelia St Cafe
Thursday,  Jul 26 – 8:30PM 

Mostly Other People Do the Killing is a quartet founded on the idea that not only is jazz still alive and vibrant, but that it can and should be fun, engaging and thoroughly contemporary. Rather than settling into one style or historical period, MOPDtK fuses the entire spectrum of jazz and the various forms of improvised music it has spawned into a single, seamless melange of what they call “uber-jass.”

BEN ROLSTON’S FABLES QUINTET
Cornelia St Cafe
Monday,  Jul 30 – 6:00PM

Bassist/Composer Ben Rolston brings his quintet to Cornelia Street Café to play music from his debut album Fables, released in April of 2012 on Envoi Recordings.

All We Are Saying: Bill Frisell Explores the Music of John Lennon
Le Poisson Rouge
Thu., August 02, 2012 / 6:30 PM

TUBA SKINNY @ Jalopy (7/31) andBarbes (Thu 08/02)

Summer Group Exhibition@Joshua Liner
Joshua Liner
August 2nd from 6-9pm

Joshua Liner Gallery is pleased to announce the 2012 Summer Group Exhibitionshowcasing 16 artists, including established gallery regulars and newcomers. This presentation will feature painting, sculpture, and drawing, with works by the following artists – Alfred Steiner, Clayton Brothers, Cleon Peterson, Damon Soule, Daniel Rich, David Ellis, Ian Francis, Jean-Pierre Roy, Kris Kuksi, Mars-1, Oliver Vernon, Pema Rinzin, Riusuke Fukahori, Tat Ito, Tiffany Bozic, and Tomokazu Matsuyama.

Summer Swells (Les Rogers)
Half Gallery
August 1-Sept 2nd

BOB JONES/JON SHOLLE DUO
Barbes
July 29, 7pm

Bob Jones started his career as singer in his father’s church choir. He was Andy Statman’s guitarist in his legendary klezmer quartet and currently plays with Boo Reiners in the Plunk Brothers, with the Danny Kalb Trio and with many Old Timey and Bluegrass musicians in the city.
Jon Sholle is a guitarist who has worked with such musicians as Vassar Clements, Larry Campbell, Keith Carradine, Allen Ginsberg, and Bela Fleck. He was a member of the David Grisman Quintet and has also released two solo albums on Rounder Records.

Get Weird: Antipop Consortium
New Museum
Fri, Jul 27, 2012 7:00 PM

Antipop Consortium is an alternative hip hop ensemble based in New York. Conceived in 1997 out of a series of daring collaborations at the “Rap Meets Poetry” sessions of the Nuyorican Poets Café, the group has developed a cerebral, visionary strain of hip hop that incorporates the fragmented rhythms of contemporary electronic music with the confrontational, interrogative stance of rap.

NICKY DA B, DJ RUSTY LAZER, ONRA (DJ SET), AND VERY SPECIAL GUESTS
Brooklyn Bowl
SAT, JULY 28, 2012

Nicky Da B is a new generation New Orleans Bounce artist who is coming into national prominence in the footsteps of Big Freedia. At 21 years old, Nicky has already shared the stage with all the legends of the Bounce community and has traveled with Rusty Lazer to New York for a run of amazing shows in January and March of this year, performing at Santos Party House, Brooklyn Bowl, Public Assembly and with luminaries such as Roxy Cottontail and many more.

Phil Kline: dreamcitynine (ongoing audio installation) LIVE PERFORMANCE
A live version of dreamcitynine, featuring 60 percussionists, will be performed on August 3
Lincoln Center
July 25-August 12

What better way to celebrate the John Cage centenary than with postmodern sounds of silence? Composer Phil Kline (Unsilent Night) draws upon the words and voices of Jim Jarmusch, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Bill T. Jones, and La Bruja, among sixty writers, artists, and musicians, for a GPS-based work inspired by Indeterminacy, Cage’s collection of one-minute epiphanies. Use your smartphone and a free downloadable audio app to trigger sixty koans scattered around the Lincoln Center campus. A podcast version will also be available.

JOE GALLANT’S ILLUMINATI ORCHESTRA CELEBRATES THE 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF “TERRAPIN STATION”
Brooklyn Bowl

FRI, JULY 27, 2012, DOORS: 6:00 PM

Joe Gallant’s 18-piece Illuminati Orchestra celebrates the 35th anniversary release of the Grateful Deads’ “Terrapin Station” album (on this very day!) with a groove-heavy set of bones-shaking Dead tunes and sonic surprises.

Animation Block Party: Kid Animation Program
BAM
Opens on Jul 28, 2012

The East Coast’s premier animation festival returns for its ninth edition, showcasing international works, award winners, experimental shorts, computer animation, student films, local cartoons, a special Animation for Kids show, and much more. On Saturday, July 28th BAM presents an animation trade-show, plus an exclusive evening after-party at the BAMcafé, with standup comedy and live music.

Exhibition Opening: Slightly Strange
Powerhouse Arena
Thursday, August 2, 7–9 PM

An exhibition of the unusual personal artwork of five contemporary children’s book illustrators

Urban Tango Trio
Joe’s Pub
7:30 PM – July 30

Latin-Grammy winner Octavio Brunetti on piano; Machiko Ozawa, former concertmaster of Orquesta Sinfonica Sinaloa de Las Artes, on violin; and acclaimed composer/arranger Pedro Giraudo on bass. Together, these three awesomely talented virtuoso musicians capture the passion and excitement of Argentine tango in a repertoire ranging from traditional favorites, to contemporary interpretations. They have dazzled audiences in New York, Washington DC, South Carolina, Virginia, and in Tokyo, Japan, with an upcoming tour to Japan this August.  This appearance at Joe’s Pub will debut their new repertoire, which they will feature on their tour and will be the basis of their next CD.

COMING UP:

Kimmo Pohjonen & Helsinki Nelson: Accordion Wrestling (U.S. premiere)
M. Ward,Yo La Tengo, Wyatt Cenac
The Fall of the American Movie Palace

THE WEEKEND: Sept 2-5.

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.

Continue reading

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.