Village Voice | Complete Issue

David Colosi's 'Imaginary Numbers'; Gerhard Richter at Marian Goodman; Josée Bienvenu's 'Toluca Editions'

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Let the viewer = x, David Colosi writes, introducing his gloriously dense and slyly comic "proof" of God's manmade existence. Guided by Wittgenstein's conjecture that one could construct serious philosophy from nothing but jokes, Colosi has created a kind of ontological vaudeville, filling numero...

Who Do We Have to Blow to Get Gay Marriage in New York?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

In Europe, Gay Pride parades are held each year on the occasion known as "Christopher Street Day"—a nod to the New York street that gave birth to the worldwide gay rights movement with the Stonewall riots.

But if this city once signified the leading edge of that movement, what does ...

Free Will Astrology: November 18 to 24, 2009

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

ARIES [March 21–April 19] "A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us," wrote Emerson. My wish for you, is that you will have many such days. In fact, I hope that you will be blessed over and over again with the hair-raising thrill of having...

No Safe Harbor for New York Tugboat Union

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

A gusty November wind was churning New York harbor into choppy, white-foamed waves last week as a group of members of the tugboat workers union talked about the dangers of their trade.

They sat in a cramped second-floor conference room at the headquarters of Local 333 of the United Marine...

Bill T. Jones' Great Divide

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Words and images from Bill T. Jones's Serenade/The Proposition flicker through my mind the way leaves swirl down from a wind-shaken tree. No matter how much I study their patterns or attempt to rake them into a mental pile, they elude easy interpretations—or rather offer a multiplici...

Levi Johnston Bares All in Exclusive Interview!

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Last week's happy hoopla had Levi Johnston—the whistle-blowing ex of Sarah Palin's teen-mama daughter—sweeping into town to take his clothes off for a Playgirl photographer named Greg Weiner.

If that didn't merit major column inches here, not...

Your Mama's Locks

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Dear Mexican: Why, oh, why do most Mexican women cut their long, black hair after reaching the pivotal age of 40? Not only do they cut it, but they then proceed to cut it short and dye it all shades of the most unnatural hair color for Mexicans: red. My own madre is guilty...

John Woo's Killer Instincts Return for Red Cliff

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

John Woo spent a decade navigating the big-studio minefield—longer than most foreign auteurs last in Hollywood before throwing in the towel. Beginning in earnest with an above-average Jean-Claude Van Damme programmer (Hard Target), Woo then produced one decent facsimile of his hyperk...

Nicolas Cage Makes Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant Almost Fun

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

The joke's on someone in Werner Herzog's awkwardly titled Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Possibly Abel Ferrara who, exploding in fury when he learned that the German conquistador was planning to remake his 1992 career movie, opined that Herzog and his accomplices (among them, ...

MOMA Brings Tim Burton's Outsider Art In

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

What will five months of feting by MOMA do to Tim Burton's perversely blockbusting outsider art? Probably nothing. Intensely devoted to a scissorhandful of pop-surrealist obsessions, Burton has, with few exceptions, been making the same semi-autobiographical film for almost 30 years: Misunderstoo...

For Broken Embraces, Almodóvar Still Believes in Almodóvar™

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

"Everything's already happened to me," admits Harry Caine, the blind, middle-aged filmmaker in Broken Embraces. "All that's left is to enjoy life." ¡Sí! His own sights set low these days in his latest movie, reformed bad boy Pedro Almodóvar has at least hit on a ...

Get Pummeled by Global Guilt-Tripping with Mammoth

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

English, Tagalog, and Thai are spoken in Swedish writer-director Lukas Moodysson's Mammoth, but he communicates only in the idiom of Crash and Babel: the Esperanto of feel-bad humanism. Moodysson's first two features, Show Me Love (1998) and Together (200...

Meet Tao Ruspoli's Glib, Posturing Fix

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

You wouldn't guess this by reading the film histories of the period, but, back in the day, most of us who were young and sentient scornfully dismissed the bogus counterculture costume dramas (like Easy Rider) that supposedly gave voice to our frustrations. One can only hope that a few of t...

Liv Ullmann Retro at BAM

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

With her large, if rare, grin and high forehead, Liv Ullmann was always the least dreamy of the axiomatic New Wave–era actresses—she was no one's Anna Karina or Monica Vitti—and the most discomfitingly fierce. If any movie star has left her fang scars on our eyeballs out of shee...

Defamation Eyes the Modern Face of Anti-Semitism

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Jewish Israeli director Yoav Shamir's cheerfully incendiary documentary about the modern face of anti-Semitism begins with Shamir (Checkpoint) blundering, Michael Moore–style, through the New York offices of the Anti-Defamation League, where Abe Foxman and his minions dutifully rout out a "...

The War on Kids, a Critique of Public School Culture

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Cevin Soling's lively documentary lays out in hair-raising detail the authoritarian underpinnings of America's child-centered culture, in which a pervasive climate of fear distorts perception of the dangers posed by and to children. Marshalling an impressive array of level-headed wonks (sociologi...

The Dryly Comic My Dear Enemy at MOMA

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Tapping into a palpable strain of economic anxiety, My Dear Enemy turns the money quest of two hard-luck Seoul residents into a dryly comic modern odyssey. With its opening discussion of a land deal setting the tone of financial disquiet, Lee Yoon-ki's film then moves via fluid camera move...

Saintly White People Do the Saving in The Blind Side

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Another poor, massive, uneducated African-American teenager lumbers onto screens this month, two weeks after Precious and obviously timed as a pre-Thanksgiving-dinner lesson in the Golden Rule. But unlike the howling rage of Claireece Precious Jones, The Blind Side's Michael "Bi...

Buschel's Missing Person Gestures Towards Missing Profundity

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

John Rosow is a P.I., hired off a cold-call to trail a man. It turns out he's distinctly bad at his job—once he's got his mark in sight, he starts slamming martinis and, tall and unsteady, makes a conspicuous tail. Rosow—played by Michael Shannon, whose rumpled face suggests harrowing...

Aleksandr Sokurov's The Sun Meditates on Hirohito

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

The most perverse installment of Aleksandr Sokurov's dictator cycle, The Sun follows the Russian director's meditations on Hitler (Moloch, 1999) and Lenin (Taurus, 2000) with a curiously upbeat portrait of Japan's last divine emperor, Hirohito, in the immediate aftermat...

James DeMonaco's Debut, Staten Island

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Native son James DeMonaco overlaps three Staten Island stories, set amid strip-mall Italian joints, tasteless suburban manors, and ship graveyards: Vincent D'Onofrio plays Parmie, a stuffy-voiced, moon-faced mama's-boy mobster wearing Elizabeth Taylor frames; Ethan Hawke, looking nothing like a s...

The Pleasantly Mediocre Planet 51

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Like E.T. in reverse, this pleasantly mediocre CG animation tale lands an astronaut on a distant planet whose green, four-fingered, newt-ish inhabitants are living in an innocent, 1950s-style state of development. Fearing the brain-eating "humaniacs" they see at the movies, the Planet 51...

Twilight 2: Too Much Angst, Not Enough Saga

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Bella: I’m coming.
Edward: I don’t want you to.
—The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Worry not for the purity of your tween girls, global mothers. Where Catherine Hardwicke’s lively, irreverent take on the first book in the Twilight series at least made ...

Some Incredible Qingdao Cuisine Hits Flushing

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Not long ago, I found myself delighted by a restaurant in Flushing with the noncommittal name of Golden Palace, serving the cuisine of northeastern China. The owners hailed from Liaoning province, and the food was amazing. Instead of white rice, there were puffy, pale-yellow baos made from corn f...

West Africa Story: Fela! on Broadway

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

For a new musical with no cartoon-character tie-in, no jukebox of smash pop hits, and no boldface celebrity stars to thrive on Broadway in the waning post-apocalyptic months of 2009, the performances most crucial to success aren't necessarily given by the folks onstage, or behind it, or regarding...

Dinosaur Feathers Mix Choral Splendor with Snappy Drum Machines

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

It was in part from a series of dinosaur-themed picture books—specifically, the volume about the bizarre winged devil-turkey known as the archaeopteryx—that I first learned, as an eight-year-old, that the so-called terrible lizards were actually closer to giant plucked chickens. Greg ...

Rakim's Second Coming

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

The greatest rapper of all time? It used to be an easy call. A prodigiously gifted rhymer from way out in Wyandanch, Long Island, Rakim introduced himself in 1986 alongside DJ Eric B with the double-sided "Eric B Is President/My Melody" 12-inch and helped inaugurate hip-hop's ballyhooed Golden Er...

The Reigning Sound, Within Reason

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Greg Cartwright wrote a good chunk of the songbook for the '90s Memphis revival. With both the Compulsive Gamblers and the Oblivians, the frontman's take on rock 'n' roll, soul, and punk music made for a gutsy sound propelled by his expressive, raspy vocals; he also sat in with the Detroit Cobras...

The Trials of Kid Sister

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Translating online notoriety into honest-to-God record sales is extraordinarily difficult. Just ask the Internet-famous Kid Sister, who has spent the past two years just trying to finish her honest-to-God debut record.

In October 2007, the then-27-year-old Chicago rapper (real name: Melis...

Ragtime and The Brother/Sister Plays Spin Black American History into Folk Tales

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Drawn from E.L. Doctorow's popular novel, the 1998 musical Ragtime, now getting its first New York revival (Neil Simon Theatre), deals with blacks confronting white America. Tarell Alvin McCraney's trilogy, The Brother/Sister Plays, being given in repertory at the Public Theater, de...

The Provincetown Playhouse Meets the Ontological in The Verge

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

In greenhouses the world over, botanists work to create new flora—a showier orchid, a more fragrant rose. And in garrets, offices, and apartment corners, playwrights take up a similar challenge, recombining dramatic components into new forms. In 1921, Provincetown Playhouse founder Susan Gl...

Brits Off Broadway Should Toss Red Sea Fish Back

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

"Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside," trills the popular British holiday song. But a day at the beach isn't much fun when one has a deadly allergy to sunlight. Nor is it much of an outing to pass two days stuck inside a council flat with that sickly character, Ray, a retired London thug, and ...

Alan Ayckbourn Brings My Wonderful Day to 59E59Theaters’ Brits Off Broadway

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600

When children are seen and not heard, it’s easy to forget how much seeing and hearing they themselves are doing. Take Winnie Barnstairs, the almost-9-year-old sponge at the center of Alan Ayckbourn’s affectionate and fitfully charming farce My Wonderful Day.

BLOWIN' UP

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Watch as the giant balloons come to life around the American Museum of Natural History, in preparation for the parade the next day.
Wed., Nov. 25, 2009...

CALL GIRL

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Downtown drag star Linda Simpson is expanding her granny-game repertoire with her third—that's right, third—bingo night, Le Bingo at (le) poisson rouge, when she and Mister Showbiz Murray Hill bring a French article to the popular game every Wednesday. Why? "Bingo is my life!" exp...

ROCK 'N' BOWL

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
With Julian Casablancas of the Strokes out there getting loads of attention for his first solo album, you might wonder if Interpol frontman Paul Banks has come to regret releasing his own debut under the pseudonym Julian Plenti. I mean, how many sophisticated A-list New York post-punk solo re...

TURKEY TROT

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
In 1620, Pilgrims embarked on the Mayflower and sailed across the Atlantic in search of religious freedom. In 2009, a different set of pilgrims will embark on a quest through Gowanus, Park Slope, and Carroll Gardens in search of cash prizes and gift certificates. While the aim might not be qu...

CREATURE COMFORTS

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
We've long admired the films of Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss, in which they dress up in rat and bear costumes and go in search of adventures from Los Angeles to the Swiss Alps (The Point of Least Resistance, 1981, and The Right Way, 1983). Now, over 20 years later...

HERE COMES YOUR BAND

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Indie dynamics standard-bearers Pixies have been reunited for five years now, playing wave after wave of ballroom-size mutilation, and have somehow managed not to embarrass themselves. Sure, everything reeks of cash-in—selling a $495 vinyl box set, perpetually returning after frontman B...

SNOW DAY

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Alas, this winter, most of us won't be doing cliff jumps in the faraway reaches of China and Norway—or even in Upstate New York, for that matter (we prefer to live). Instead, we'll have to enjoy these stunts vicariously through the talented athletes in Warren Miller's Dynasty. The film,...

FEED MY BELLY

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
The Chili Takedown, the Mac and Cheese Takedown, the Fondue Takedown, the Lamb Takedown . . . the thought of attending another one of these is almost too much for our tummies to bear! Actually, on second thought, we think we may have room for tonight's return of the Chili Takedown. We've writ...

FOLK ON THE FRINGES

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
His most popular tag, "freak folk," implies some sort of birthright insanity; it's entirely possible that Venezuelan-born Devendra Banhart is crafting his peyote sheik persona deliberately in every step. (His middle name is Obi, after the Star Wars master, so expect no less of a plan.)...

A THREE-DAY VICE

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Are we the only ones that daydream of lavish revelry as the royal ruler Marie Antoinette glamorously once did? Not according to the hordes that attend the Victorian- and rococo-themed soirees that Dances of Vice extraordinarily puts together. And this month, they're stepping it up a notch. Fo...

THE HORROR!

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Aimed to send shivers down your spine, Brian Evenson's new book Baby Leg begins, "Night after night, Kraus dreamt of a woman with a normal leg and a baby leg. In the dream, she clomped about on her adult-sized knee and the baby leg, wielding an axe, lurching." Shudder. Tonight, Evenson...

FUCT UP

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Recently, in an interview with GQ, George Wendt (a/k/a Norm from Cheers) sang the praises of one of his favorite comedy shows, FUCT (Fordham Underground Comedy Troupe): "It's a really bizarre sketch show. It's, you know, lots of male nudity. They tase each other in the nuts. I t...

STORM WATCH

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Baseball is over for the year, the fates of our NFL teams are undecided though dubious—and it's time to turn to college hoops. Now in its third year, the Philly Hoops Classic picks seven schools and allows them to play two games at other participating schools before a grand finale over ...

PARTY ON

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
It wasn't in our Best Of issue, but here's a premium insider tip: The most popular place to be emo in New York is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Every day, you see the young things frowning pensively at the Chuck Closes in Modern Art, blasting Blonde Redhead through headphones while skulking throug...

LOONEY TUNES

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
You probably know Craig Robinson best as Darryl Philbin, the sarcastic warehouse foreman on The Office. The offbeat comedian has also been featured in films such as Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Knocked Up, and Pineapple Express. But you may not know that, besides being a t...

BLOOD SUCKERS

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
On the eve of The Twilight Saga: New Moon release, all the Kristen Stewart–, Robert Pattinson–, and Taylor Lautner–obsessed freaks (yes, we include ourselves in this group) can celebrate their favorite bloodsuckers at a range of events around town. Tonight, rejoice among other addicts...

THERE SHE IS . . .

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Love it or hate it, the G train—the subway line that connects Queens to Brooklyn—is having a moment, of sorts. A fresh take on the Miss Subways Pageant, the first-ever Miss G Train Pageant invites New Yorkers of all ages to compete for the Miss G Train crown. Cheer on the contesta...

CLASSICAL MASS

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Classical music repertoire is a curious paradox; the most performer and audience zeal is usually for famous pieces that date back centuries, not ambitious and (often) more technically demanding fare by current composers. It's ageism, this Vivaldi conspiracy! The upstart Metropolis Ensemble do...

'I Remember You: A Lyrics & Lyricists Centennial Tribute to Johnny Mercer'

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
What, you still haven't OD'd on Johnny Mercer during this seemingly unending centennial year? Then here's another night during which to revel in the master's words (usually) and music (sometimes). Mercer won't be on hand to celebrate the actual day 100 years ago on which he was born (he did do the ...

'Deep Sea Presents Patrice Scott'

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Long a leading DJ in Detroit's house scene, it's only in the last few years that Patrice Scott has been making his own music. It's been worth the wait, as those lucky enough to catch him at his first NYC appearance at House 'N' Home last spring learned. Influenced by Larry Heard and Roy Ayers—...

'Biatch Corp Presents Abe Duque'

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Hollis-born Abe Duque has really been around, serving as both a US Marine and as a resident at Limelight back in the Alig days, collaborating with techno-sex-anthem producer Blake Baxter and Rancho Relaxo All Stars cohort John Selway, and remixing everyone from DJ Hell to the Pet Shop Boys. His thir...

'Maitre d’Airdrop Presents Kasper, Fred P, Soul Clap & Crazy Larry'

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Madrid's Kasper imports some minimal goodies from labels including Igloo, Net28, and Esperanza, while Brooklyn favorite Fred P supplies the local house that's making his Black Jazz Consortium work and Jus Ed's Underground Quality label so damn compelling. Their extended sets are bookended by Crazy L...

Ellery Eskelin Quartet

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Whether blowing tart and tempestuous or earthy and inviting, the tenor saxophonist has a sound that demands an emotional response from his listeners. And he hears things a bit different than mostâ€”hence the knotty individualism of his accordion/drums/reeds group. This foursome is ne...

Mark Helias Trio

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Jazz trios gain lots of ground when they increase their pliability, and bassist Helias has forged a career that gives his music plenty of elbow room. Amorphous one second, keenly designed the next, its plurality is its power. He's been working with a string of saxophonists of late, but this mercuria...

Julian Plenti+I'm In You

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Like Chris Gaines and Sasha Fierce before him, Paul Banks's alter ego, Julian Plenti, welcomes the opportunity for the Interpol frontman to do something different. Yet aside from growing a weak mustache, Julian Plenti continues Interpol's signature blend of bass throb and crypto-lyrics, engaging in ...

Melt Banana

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Heralded Japanese noise rock band Melt Banana's many varied forms of shrieking cacophony are, unsurprisingly, often referred to as "experimental grindcore." The spastic blasting drumming, the chirp-scream singing, the id-arousing guitar sirens, and angular indie pop moments just add extra ornamentat...

Dirty Projectors

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Despite a van crash earlier this summer, nothing could really derail Dave Longstreth and co. as they made 2009 their year, garnering mountainous critical accolades, scoring a New York cover, and even tucking BjÃ¶rk in among their triumvirate of ladies. No one could quite name that...

SEND IN THE CLOWNS

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Angela Lansbury has got to be the most prolific (if not the only) 84-year-old on the Broadway scene. She delighted us with her kooky-psychic dance in Blithe Spirit earlier this year, but kookiness takes a backseat in the new revival of Sondheim's A Little Night Music, a lovely tale of ...

GOBBLE GOBBLE

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Shoestring Magazine hosts a Thanksgiving dinner and wine and beer pairing, with ale provided by Sierra Nevada.
Sun., Nov. 22, 2-6 p.m., 2009...

Blowfly+Anal Cunt

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Easily the most inspired booking of the week, the Knitting Factory brings together the twin totems of vulgarity, a double bill of swear-laden, fluid-soaked low-jinks that seems to exist only to annoy Tipper Gore. A legend to dirty rappers everywhere, Blowfly was doing triple-X soul parodies as early...

'Until the Light Takes Us Launch Party'

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
This launch party for the black metal documentary Until the Light Takes Us features approximately zero black metal, instead focusing on indie rock dudes who use their solo projects as a way to explore wild new textures. Fenriz would be proud or maybe confused. Papa M is the long-simmering pos...

'Star Wars in Concert'

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
The music really was the best part of the Star Wars franchise. John Williams delivered a space opera that was brilliantly intricate and yet immediately accessible—he merged the emotional wallop of Wagner and Strauss with George Lucas's crackpot pop philosophy, thereby inflating the latte...

Maria Schneider Orchestra

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Big bands are having a heyday right now, and the imaginative composer's large ensemble is regularly cited as a prime prototype. That doesn't mean many younger groups can match Schneider's grace. It's her signature trait, and the way the gaggle of sectioneers and soloists unite to put some wind benea...

Juan-Carlos Formell & Johnny's Dream Club

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Late '40s Havana meets the cradle of jazz on Johnny's Dream Club, Juan-Carlos Formell's dreamy and rhapsodic, yet subtly sizzling, new album. Rooted in the balladic "Feeling" sound that haunted bohemian Havana, and charting real and imaginary connections between Cuba and New Orleans, the bril...

Royksopp

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
The Norwegian dance duo's recent Junior is no less dreamy-bouncy than their 2001 classic Melody A.M., cuts from which will probably be scoring luxury-sedan spots until nobody can afford luxury sedans anymore. It is slightly shorter on the hooky melodies that transform this stuff into p...

Times New Viking+the Mad Scene

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Another way to look at Times New Viking's willfully lo-fi recordings is that they're a conceptual enforcement of volume. The music plays like it's blisteringly loud, even when it's not. Live, then, Times New Viking is just another very loud band, but one which has taken many fine lessons in decibel/...

Ray Davies

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Unlike many oldies acts, Davies has a deep, influential catalog that he can draw on at will, thrilling fans not just with the relatively few hits the Kinks had but also with the glorious obscurities that fans savor. He's reliving his catalog again but this time with a choir—like Townshend, he l...

Sonic Youth+Dinosaur Jr.

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Don't call The Eternal a comeback—they've been here for years. Mid-period fans are happy that they've gotten a hard sound again, even if it doesn't (thankfully) copy their supposed late '80s/early '90s prime. In any case, on stage, they've never been known for holding back the guitar scr...

The Job, aka The Sound of the Trumpets

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Dir. Ermanno Olmi (1961). This wryly serious comedy was made during the great economic boom of the early 1960s, when Italy was rapidly evolving from a rural to an industrial society. It's the account of a young man's entry into the work force in an alienating job, shot in impeccable black and white....

Voyage to Italy

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Dir. Roberto Rossellini (1953). This major work deals with the visit to Naples by an English couple (George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman). Bored and resentful of each other, their complacent attitudes are shaken by their contact with the Italian exuberance for life and death. Almost plotless, calm, an...

The Hoodlum

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Dir. Sidney Franklin (1919). In this comedic class fable, Mary falls for a young man who had been jailed because of her wealthy grandfather's dishonest practices. It's well acted, but the outstanding feature is the splendidly convincing sets of New York slum scenes created in Hollywood by talented d...

Canyon Passage

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Dir. Jacques Tourneur (1946). This great, dazzling, underrated and unconventional Western, Tourneur's first color movie, set in a pioneering Oregon town circa 1856 is not without its Fordian moments, but in spite of a few brawls, it's memorable largely for the director's concentration on the massive...

Pee-wee's Big Adventure

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Dir. Tim Burton (1985). Eccentric comic Paul Rubens provides a few real chuckles as a whiny nerd in Burton's surrealist fantasy directorial debut. There's some fine weird stuff, a great Elfman score, but not enough of a story to pad it out properly to feature length.
Wed., Nov. 18, 8 p...

Il grido

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni (1957). Michelangelo Antonioni’s warm-up for L’avventura is another tormented voyage through the ruined (inner) landscape of modern Italy—stunningly photographed and agonizingly acted.
Tue., Nov. 24, 2 & 6:15 p.m., 2009...

Mars Attacks!

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Dir. Tim Burton (1996). This may not be the first Hollywood blockbuster based on a bunch of old bubblegum cards, but it’s the boldly hyperreal standard against which all subsequent endeavors will be judged. No effect is too tacky—flaming cows, transposed heads, flying saucers over Las Vega...

What Time Is It There?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Dir. Tsai Ming-liang (2001). The poet laureate of Tapei’s urban anomie integrates Paris into his particular planet—the sense of urban solitude and geographical dislocation has affinities to the melancholy globalism mapped out by directors like Wim Wenders and Krysztof Kieçslowski, b...

Die Puppe

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Dir. Ernst Lubitsch (1919). This early Lubitsch comedy is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’s benign twin. A blatantly theatrical artifice, released in Germany the same year, it stars the charming Ossi Oswalda as a mechanical doll and then a girl pretending to be the doll. The movie was withhe...

The Errand Boy

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Dir. Jerry Lewis (1962). Jerry Lewis wreaks havoc on a movie studio in this under-appreciated classic—wildly self-reflexive but considerably less overweening than the maestro’s post Nutty Professor comedies.
Wed., Nov. 18, 7 p.m., 2009...

Big Star

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
In Space, these Memphis power-pop legends' overdue studio follow-up to 1978's revered Third/Sister Lovers, didn't exactly convince anyone that the Big Star magic was still alive. That said, Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens—along with Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of the Posies, who ...

Less Than Jake

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
These ska-punk survivors sounded surprisingly vital on last year's GNV FLA, their return to Indieville following a decade-long major-label stint that never quite earned them the big mainstream breakthrough they seemed to be chasing. The farm leagues are probably a better fit for Less Than Jak...

Camera Obscura+Papercuts

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Sometime protégées of Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch, Scottish indie rockers Camera Obscura have hit a winning streak with critics for their last few releases. . . not that you could tell from their music. No matter how many major keys the band plays, frontwoman Tracyanne Campbell ...

Carole Bufford

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Bufford is an instance of big gifts coming in small packages. When she shops, she undoubtedly heads for the petite division, but when she sings, she goes for the big time. She recently was named second runner-up in the Room's annual talent contest, but that underestimates her abilities. Watch her ta...

Tori Ensemble

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
The Korean-American ensemble reprises its well-received 2008 work, "The Five Directions of Arirang," which combines traditional instrumentation and music from around Korea with improvisation. Cellist Erik Friedlander and saxophonist Ned Rothenberg join Yoon Jeong Heo (geomungo, or "black zither"), K...

Land of Talk

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
In a perfect world, Montreal three-piece Land of Talk would rule Canada's indie landscape with an iron fist. Yet their career remains a waltz around successâ€”for every mammoth step forward the band takes (getting signed to Saddle Creek), sudden tragedy forces them to take a step bac...

Rain Machine

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
As if vocalist-guitarist Kyp Malone didn't have enough creative space in TV on the Radio—who recently announced a year-long hiatus—he's gotten even more meditative, lyrically and musically, in his solo project Rain Machine. In lead single "Smiling Black Faces," he addresses racism head on ...

The Feelies

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Ah, such a nice homecoming for these Jersey boys and girl. While they were a sensation at Battery Park last year opening for Sonic Youth, this is their real stomping ground and home turf (for decades now), where they've been known to perform multi-sets and encores. Hands down, this is the best place...

Devo

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
New Wave legends and cultural anti-theorists Devo are celebrating their 35th anniversary with a pair of epic shows: Playing their taut landmark Q: Are We Not Men? tonight and their best-selling Freedom of Choice tomorrow. Who cares if pointless nostalgia trips are "Devo" or not; the Mo...

Jack Rose+Chris Forsyth+Corridors

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Tonight three excellent, and predominantly acoustic-based, axe-slingers explore the intersection of the guitar and the drone. Philly-based Rose has carved out a name for himself as one of the finest and most innovative U.S. finger-style players, smartly melding John Fahey's sun-drenched blues and ra...

NOT-SO-SWEET DREAMS

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Len Jenkin writes plays that renders American history as nightmare—a troubled landscape of motels, tenements, and the occasional miniature golf course. Now Jenkin turns his funhouse mirror on an international phenomenon, the nightclub act. Stephen Mellor and Deirdre O’Connell perform songs...

HARD BALL

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
If it weren’t for his roles in ensemble films, you might assume that Roger Guenveur Smith does not play well with others. Like his half-sister, Anna Deavere Smith, he has made a career as a solo artist. In this latest show he plays two men, Dodger Juan Marichal and Giant John Roseboro, baseball...

HOLIDAY ROMANCE

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
With that jolly belly and impressive beard, St. Nick could make quite a hit among bears, though that velvet outfit may be a little much. But apparently, as Jeffrey Solomon's theatrical mockumentary details, Mr. Claus doesn’t do the bar scene—instead trying to reconcile with his longtime lo...