[note: many, if not most, of these links may no longer be working, but such is the nature of the digital. hopefully, the url and context are enough to help you find any further information you want. if not, feel free to contact me, and i’ll try to help.]
enero 2014
¡feliz año, difus@s!
i hope your holidays have been merry and bright, that 2013 has left you with many good memories (at least some of them “cultural”), and that 2014 arrives full of hope and joy. fair warning: this issue is a bit longer than any of the preceding (hence the section headings), but we’ve a lot of ground to cover…
looking back on the month
while december didn’t necessarily end the 2013 cultural calendar with a bang, many of the month’s offerings were terrific. the JACK quartet at sub culture was among my favorite evenings; the music was great, and the milieu was very, for lack of a better word, familial, such a refreshing change from the scenester-ism (more on the topic) and FOMO that plague so many events here in the city. if you have an interest in new (i.e., “contemporary classical”) music, follow these boys. similarly sincere, the scott walker tribute at le poisson rouge was great *not* because the music itself was great (it generally wasn’t) but because the event simply *was*—which made me grateful for this city where so many things can and do happen.
even with its artworld credentials and star power, bodycast at BAM was absolutely charming, even endearing (so now i need to spend more time with suzanne bocanegra’s work). my final performance of the year was, as you’ve probably already guessed, the closing night of daniel kitson’s analog.ue, which i loved more with each viewing (total: 6). kitson’s show might be, to borrow a phrase from yoga, the “fullest expression” of the qualities that all these december highlights shared: a deep dedication to the work, a sincere sense of humility (genuine selflessness, not cynical self-deprecation or delusional self-debasement), and a profound generosity of spirit…all of which resonate acutely during the holidays but are equally vital throughout the year.
looking back on the year
i don’t want to add to the burgeoning mound of year-end lists, but i do want to mention a few things the preceded this newsletter. one of the most gorgeous—both musically and visually—performances i saw was david et jonathas at BAM (another clip). the work itself (late 17th-century french) is remarkable in its portrayal of a love between two men (and biblical heroes, at that), and the production rendered the story honestly, without pushing too far or holding back. the costumes (vaguely late, late ottoman) and set design (a simple wooden box, the volumes of which changed to incredible dramatic effect) were exquisite, rigorously understated but remarkably expressive (as the best minimalism always is—and, oh, how much beth morrison projects could have learned from this show…). also at BAM this past spring was the laramie project cycle, which was elegantly staged and beautifully acted. seeing both parts on consecutive nights was, frankly, devastating, as the second part documents the seemingly inexorable pull of denial towards restoring the status quo after a potentially transformative moment of political and social rupture (cf., the global response to the financial crisis of 2008). that devastation, though, was more than offset by the hope that this theater-as-activism inspired; this work was as political as it was art, much more genuinely so than most putative “political art.”
two other shows that were, in their respective ways, politically engaged and deeply felt were the living theater’s we are here and the public theater’s here lies love. although the pairing may seem rather improbable (given their vast differences in content, style, and budget), their incorporation of the audience into the work—the audience was, in fact, constitutive of the work itself—was similarly integral. these shows positioned the audience as a collective political force rather than an inert, consuming mass (a la sleep no more, which is one of the most obnoxious, overrated, reprehensible pieces of middle-brow schlock i’ve ever suffered through, a desperate attempt to look like eyes wide shut and yet be as risk-free as leave it to beaver).
looking ahead to next year
january may be the doldrums for retail but not for the arts, as you’ll see below. before getting into the month ahead, i want to discuss a few imminent changes to “pablo difuso” and then draw your attention to some (potential) highlights for which advance ticket purchases might be advisable.
now that we’ve gone through a season of these “boletines” (newsletters, that is), i’m going to experiment a bit more with the format:
distribution: to streamline the dissemination of these newsletters, i’m going to move over to a more professional platform, like tinyletter or mailchimp. thus, you’ll either receive a “please confirm your subscription” or “please sign up using this platform” e-mail sometime during the next month.
calendar: rather than keep up the google calendar (which requires far more labor than i’d realized to keep it relevant), i’m going to include the entire month’s worth of listings in the e-mail. i’ll also try to figure out some other calendar option for those who want to subscribe to the long view.
website: i’m also going to launch a bare-bones website this month to (1) facilitate newsletter sign-up and (2) archive previous issues of the newsletter. i’m not sure the site will do much more than that, but, for now, that seems enough.
social media: in a word, no. no tweeting, no facebook, no pinterest, no instagram, nothing of the sort. why? “social media” is generally oxymoronic; “solipsistic media” (while, yes, more clearly semantically oxymoronic) would be a more accurate description. i’m with jonathan franzen on this one.
among the roughly 140 events i’ve culled from 40 venues’ calendars, the following might well merit advance booking (if you’re willing to commit this far in advance…and i usually am):
film: chantal akerman’s one day pina asked is playing on february 1 at the film society at lincoln center, a rare chance to see this collaboration between two phenomenal artists. while matthew barney’s status as a “phenomenal artist” may be dubious (that he’s a both phenomenon and an artist may be less so), his river of fundament, playing at BAM from february 12 to 16, has me excited, even at almost 6 hours running time. (full disclosure: i’ve seen the cremaster cycle twice, once in just one sitting). he’ll also be speaking at the 92Y later in the spring.
dance: new york live arts has a great spring line-up, which includes personal favorites trisha brown and john jasperse, the joyce and lincoln center bring ballet preljocaj’s snow white to the david koch theater, and, after this fall’s and then, one thousand years of peace, i’m quite eager to see it (despite the higher ticket price)—and the costumes are by gaultier. also noteworthy are performances by recent macarthur “genius” kyle abraham and science-obsessed wayne macgregor.
music: if you’re looking for a good way to start valentine’s day evening (alone or accompanied), happy hour with cibo matto should be awesome. (“know your chicken” was a formative college music video experience for me.) more seriously, though, the JACK quartet plays the morgan library & museum, which is one of the most beautiful concert spaces in the city; if contemporary classical isn’t your thing, then see harry bicket conducting fidelio with the santa fe opera there later in the season. taylor mac (of last year’s the good person of szechwan) continues his brilliant exploration of american song at lincoln center (the whole series is worth a look). for early (or, earlier) music, jordi savall at juilliard415 at the baryshnikov arts center and the tallis scholars, presented by the miller theater, are good bets.
performance & theater: january brings a LOT of performance to town (see below), the most exciting of which happens at the abrons art center. abrons also has two theater works that intrigue me: beauty and the beast (imported from london’s new vic) and new york city player’s isolde. theater for a new audience brings the killer late in the season, and the park avenue armory brings kenneth branagh in macbeth in the early summer…in case you JUST haven’t had enough shakespeare lately (seriously, new york, how about a few living playwrights every now and then?). as disclosed in the first issue, theater’s not my highest priority, but i’m always open to suggestions.
looking ahead to this month
finally, the reason you’ve been reading this thing all along: this month. let’s cut to the chase:
performance & theater: festivals, festivals, festivals: COIL at PS122 (and partners), under the radar at the public theater (and partners), american realness festival at barons arts center (and partners), culturemart 2014 at HERE, and la mama’s squirts at la mama. festivals are a great chance to experiment, lots of crazy stuff on offer and generally reasonable ticket prices, so go nuts. the american realness festival is getting my top priority this year (juliana f. may, miguel gutierrez, and ishmael houston-jones & emily wexler), but i’ll try and get to the rest, too. the wooster group is back with cry, trojans! (troilus & cressida), and BAM brings frank langella in king lear. (seriously, HOW much shakespeare does this city need?)
dance: among the dance offerings included in the festivals above, heather kravats at the kitchen and michelle boulé at abrons look good. danspace project reprises tere o’connor’s bleed (which was at BAM in december) and brings okwui okpokwasili’s bronx gothic. the guggenheim’s works & process series has a great evening with 2wice magazine at the end of the month (abbott miller, principal at pentagram and the magazine’s creative director and editor, will be there).
music: if you missed nico muhly this past fall (which would seem a bit difficult, given his omnipresence—but i’m really a fan), he’ll be at le poisson rouge with pekka kuusisto on january 3. thurston moore is currently in residency through january 5 at the stone (if that name isn’t REALLY meaningful for you, don’t go; it’ll be that kind of crowd). BRIC is presenting a work-in-progress that i can’t resist: an opera about milli vanilli (as if anna nicole weren’t enough, right?). kamera baltica is performing at the 92Y at the end of the month, and hearing arvo pärt’s “cantus in memoriam benjamin britten” live is enough to make me go.
film: after you’ve caught up on all the oscar contenders (many of which are, in fact, quite good), venture into some less conventional territory. anthology film archives has a LOT of great art-related film this month, mostly in conjunction with the "rituals of rented island" show at the whitney; “further rituals of rented island” programs 7, 8, 11, and 13 are of most interest to me. (combining 7 and 8 would make for a marathon…but i tend to go for such things.) what has me most excited, though, is part one of the programming in conjunction with "macho man, tell it to my heart", julie ault’s show at artspace. the main feature looks great, but my real reason for going is the five-minute FGT video that precedes it. boy at film forum and an evening with william shatner asterisk are also promising.
art: almost all the museums are turning over their shows in the next few weeks, so if you haven’t made it to your favorite yet, go now. if you don’t have favorite, check out the frick and / or the new museum (they’re more manageable and less mobbed, if slightly so, than MoMA, the met, or the gugg). most of the galleries will also be changing shows, and i’m still working my way through artforum’s must-sees and critics’ picks. i’ll have more thoughtful recommendations next month, i promise.
abrazos,
pablo
[NOTE: a full list of roughly 40 january events accompanied the above, but i haven't figured out an easy way to insert a table into this squarespace page template yet...more reason to subscribe!]