[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.]
marzo 2014
¡hola, difus@s!
february’s four short weeks—and mercilessly cold weather!—didn’t see me out and about quite as much as i might have liked (never mind the teaching, dissertating, and job searching), but they did offer some very memorable, enriching evenings, mostly of music. the JACK quartet at the morgan library and jordi savall with julliard415 at the baryshnikov arts center were spectacular live performances. the programs could hardly have been more different, with JACK playing all lachenmann (“difficult” would be the easiest label but an entirely unfair one, as the music was riveting in its experimentation and, as the new york times aptly put it, “profoundly human”) and jordi savall and julliard415 performing shakespearean stage music by the likes of johnson, locke, and purcell (seriously, something needs to be written about shakespeare’s current ubiquity in new york). despite such vast historical and historical differences, the performances shared everything that makes live music worth seeing: incomparable playing (these are all musicians at their finest), passionate conviction, and selfless devotion. seeing both while the olympics were in full swing, i couldn’t help thinking about the virtuosity celebrated at the games and that of these musicians…and finding the latter far more generous and inspiring.
the month’s other musical adventures were filmic: matthew barney’s river of fundament was as much an opera composed by jonathan bepler as anything (and the best bepler i’ve heard to date), godfrey reggio’s visitors featured a gorgeous score by philip glass, and the soundtrack to paolo sorrentino’s la grande bellezza was so good (everything from rafaella carra to david lang) that i bought it as a cd (!) import (!!) immediately (no, it’s not on itunes…and i couldn’t bring myself to torrent). apart from the integral—rather than incidental—scoring, the three films all had a very loose relationship to narrative but a strong commitment to stunning visuals. reggio’s temporally distorted, black-and-white cinematography is as formally elegant as it is exquisitely unsettling, like the film as a whole. similarly, sorrentino’s shots of rome’s architectural grandeur and intellectual decadence are seductively oneiric (which was the ultimate effect of the film itself), and toni servillo’s ferocious yet impassive reading (in the drag sense of the word) of pamela villoresi (?) is one of the best moments i’ve seen in film this year.
to some extent, my receptivity to both films was conditioned by having seen barney’s latest epic first. i’m still not sure what to make of it, but i’m reluctant to dismiss it as roundly as some—and even the most vehement critics should at least thank him for such open license to play with the word “shit.” barney’s keen eye, meticulous craft, and peerless moxie are, i think, indisputable, regardless of one’s assessment of their yield. lauding those qualities makes me feel like i’m talking about jeff koons—these are, indeed, what i admire in koons—but i’m much more a fan of barney, despite being at a loss to explain why in any coherent terms. sure, both koons and barney are, reductively speaking, about money (financial capitalism) and male ego, but i can’t find much else in koons while barney’s work at least suggests he’s after something else, as terminally inscrutable or impenetrable that something else is. perhaps the difference is that koons work strikes me as anti-poetic (“poetic” in the sense of “world-making”), an aggressively cynical response (“yeah. so?”) to peggy lee’s already cynical question “is that all there is?” (i’m partial to pj harvey and john parish’s cover of that classic.) barney’s work, on the other, presents such a fully imagined (and realized) world, even if one can never enter it…just, as he seems to be saying, one can never fully enter or understand another’s fantasies or desires. yet, as barthes’ a lover’s discourse: fragments so beautifully and achingly demonstrates, one can explore the specificity and universality of desire without lapsing into aesthetic hermeticism or, worse, cold solipsism.
even if the weather shows few signs of warming up soon, the cultural calendar does, as march has much to offer in almost every category:
art: what january was for the performing arts, march is for the visual arts—an explosion of fairs, with volta, nada, the art show, and others all popping up alongside the 101 year-old armory show. given my aversion to festivals and fairs (see last month’s issue), my priority is independent, whose scale, focus, and design are much more intimate and satisfying (think “boutique” versus the others’ “big box”). since buzz begets buzz, many of the galleries are turning out some worthwhile shows this month, too, so just walking through chelsea and the lower east side is a good idea, weather-permitting. among the gallery and museum shows i want to see this month are pawel althamer at the new museum, carrie mae weems (and, sure, the italian futurists) at the guggenheim, the whitney biennial, jasper johns at moma, and david altmejd at andrea rosen (closes march 8). as a complement (or corrective) to all that, the “masters of fire: copper age art from israel” at the institute for the study of the ancient world (itself a fascinating place) is high on my list, as is the iván navarro installation that just went up in madison square park.
film: this month’s film offerings rival those of the visual arts, with tarkovsky’s nostalghia at film forum topping my list. i saw a new 35mm print of this film at BAM last spring (probably the same that film forum is showing), and it’s sublime. full disclosure: nostalghia has been one of my three all-time favorites for almost a decade (calendar and in the mood for love are the other two…but i should probably revisit that list). though i’m no fan of james franco, i am curious to see his interior. leather bar at ifc; the crowd, at least, should make for great people-watching. the film society of lincoln center brings new films by ozon and gondry—both terrific directors—as part of its “rendezvous with french cinema,” AND you can catch catherine deneuve in person as either BAM or ifc as part of their participation in the series. the film society is also putting on its “new films / new directors” series, which is perfect for exploring the latest in world cinema. as if that all weren’t enough, film forum continues its “the complete hitchcock” series through the end of the month.
music: taylor mac, who shone in last year’s the good person of szechwan, continues his epic song cycle (which will, inshallah!, culminate in a 24-hour performance at the park avenue armory sometime in the future) with “taylor mac’s 24-decade history of popular music: the 1920s” at lincoln center. also performing at lincoln center this month is deer tick (for those of you with RISD / providence roots or a taste for good indie rock—“20 miles” was on heavy rotation on my itunes for most of one summer). for contemporary classical, the JACK quartet’s a free neighborhood concert in the bronx, courtesy of carnegie hall, should be excellent. for early music, stile antico’s concert at the church of st. mary the virgin and the charpentier program at the morgan (on both the 17th and 18th) are worth exploring.
dance: wayne macgregor is one of the few artists who manage to work with science in ways that are actually interesting (in marked contrast to, say, liz lerman’s “the matter of origins,” which i suffered through), and he’ll be at both the guggenheim and montclair state university this month. if you still need convincing, he choreographed radiohead’s “lotus flower” video. another rising young choreographer (and newly minted macarthur “genius”), kyle abraham, will be at the 92y as part of the annual harkness dance festival, as will the much more seasoned david dorfman (i didn’t care much for his last performance at BAM, but i’m willing to see him again). given how my taste in choreography (and philosophy) skew continental, the ballet du grand théâtre de genève at the joyce is also on my priority list.
theater: having missed the apparently stellar pig iron production of twelfth night at abrons this past month, i’m hoping beauty and the beast will offer some consolation. the other off off broadway production i want to catch is hobo grunt cycle at dixon place, and i want to hear the reading of getting lost at the japan society (because i’m a fan of the director, dan safer, and his company). the roundabout theater reprises sam mendes’ staging of cabaret, with michelle williams and alan cumming. (i’ll be seeing it in april, but i did catch a promotional screening of the movie…and i couldn’t get over how much alike lena dunham in any role and liza minelli’s sally bowles are…)
if you’re looking for even more to do, i highly recommend checking out platform for pedagogy, which has a comprehensive listing of public talks in the city. they’re pretty awesome.
abrazos,
p
march / marzo
1-27: the complete hitchcock (film)
1-2: the luckiest arab in belfast (theater)
1: brentano string quartet & vijay iyer, piano (music)
1-15: hobo grunt cycle (theater)
1-5: patrice chéreau: the love that dares (film)
5-13: interior. leather bar. (film)
5-11: tarkovsky’s nostalghia (film)
5: neighborhood concert: JACK quartet (music)
5: taylor mac’s 24-decade history of popular music: the 1920s (music)
6: charlemagne palestine, solo organ (music)
6-14: faye driscoll: thank you for coming (dance)
6: deer tick (music)
6-22: alban berg: wozzcek (opera)
7-9: netta yerushalmy (dance)
7: talea quartet (music)
8-16: rendezvous with french cinema (film)
8: stile antico: the phoenix rising (music)
9-10: nacho duato with martha graham dance company (dance)
12: wayne mcgregor and random dance: mind and movement (dance)
13-30: beauty and the beast (theater)
14-16: kyle abraham (dance)
15-23: wayne mcgregor | random dance: atomos (dance)
17-18: boston early music festival: charpentier, la descente d'orphée aux enfers and la couronne de fleurs (music)
19-30 new directors / new films (film)
20-22 beth gill: new work for the desert (dance)
20-22: lance gries: immanent field (dance)
20-22: rocío molina and rosario "la tremendita": afectos (dance)
21- : cabaret (theater)
21-23: david dorfman dance (dance)
21-22: okkyung lee (music)
25-30: ballet du grand théâtre de genève (dance)
29: michael gordon: rushes (music)
31: getting lost (theater)