Hey guys, TGIF and there’s a busy weekend ahead. Here’s what I’m thinking. Part of me wants to run out NOW to catch Black Swan, the new Darren Aronofsky movie with Natalie Portman but it’s not playing nearby (you gotta go to Chelsea and Union Square). Tonight I’d bet money that BAM has the best show in town with Red, Hot and New Orleans featuring Irma Thomas! Dr. John! Ivan Neville! Tomorrow for dang sure I’m going to stop in at the PS 321 Holiday Craft Fair to buy a scarf for my mother-in-law from that wonderful scarf guy. Saturday evening at Barbes there’s a screening of Soul Power, a doc about the Ali/Foreman fight in Zaire in 1974 (read more below). And on Sunday I am going to the 440 Gallery at 4:40 PM to hear my friend Rosemary Moore and her sister Honor Moore read their fiction. Click on read more to see the whole list with all the details you really need like time and links and more.
Movies
This weekend at BAM: Social Network, 127 Hours, Tiny Furniture, Love and Other Drugs
This weekend at the Pavilion: Unstoppable, Burlesque, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Love and Other Drugs, Morning Glory, Care Bears: Share Bear Shines
Saturday at 8PM at Barbes: Miss Wit Designs presents a special screening of Soul Power. US. 2008. In 1974, in Kinshasa, Zaire, as Muhammad Ali is waiting for his rumble in the jungle with George Foreman, Hugh Masekela and Stewart Levine organized a three day music festival featuring an unbelievable lineup of the best R&B, African and salsa musicians of the time. James Brown, Bill Withers, Celia Cruz, Yomo Toro, Franco, Rochereau, The Spinners, Miriam Makeba – the list goes on. The plane ride from New York to Zaire, with most of Fania’s roster jamming for hours would alone be worth the price of admission but the highlights are plentiful: James Brown and Muhammad Ali talking about black power, Ray Baretto on the street of Kinshasa – and of course, unbelievable performances.
Music:
Friday at 10PM Barbes: Las Rubias Del Norte. 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.
This weekend at 8PM at BAM: Red, Hot and New Orleans with Irma Thomas and Dr. John, Ivan Neville and MORE. From its deep traditions of jazz, blues, funk, and “second line” sounds to the more raucous “bounce” music scene, an exceptional group of emerging artists and established legends assembles to celebrate the resurgent and resilient sound of New Orleans, a city whose spirit has influenced countless artists and styles. This program is produced by BAM in association with The Red Hot Organization in recognition of World AIDS Day (Dec 1). Part of the proceeds will benefit New Orleans’ NO/AIDS Task Force.
Dec 1-4 at at 8PM at Issue Project Room: Darmstadt Classics of the Avant-Garde: Essential Repertoire: “an adoration and exploration of the experimental tradition in classical music, named “one of the most significant presentations of the season” by Time Out New York.
Saturday at the Jewish Music Cafe (doors open 8:30PM): Special Chanukah Concert with The David Ross Band. with special guests. Shem’s Disciples · Shir Soul a cappella · Dov Hoschander of The Gift and more.
Saturday December 4th at 8PM Launch Pad in Crown Heights: Global Pulse presents “Bridging The Gap” – Peace in Our Community with Guitar player, dancer w/ spoken words, photographer, female drum group. Each presents a piece based on the theme of “Bridging The Gap”
Theater
Through December 12 at St. Ann’s Warehouse: Knee High Theater’s Red Shoes: “No little girl who sees the Kneehigh Theater’s adaptation of “The Red Shoes” (not that any little girl should) will leave with sweet dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. This imaginative, so-ugly-it’s-beautiful production, at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn through Dec. 12, is more likely to inspire nightmares involving severed body parts, public humiliation and concentration camps.” Ben Brantley in the NY Times.
Through December 19 at the Gallery Players in Park Slope: Dancing at Lughnasa Brian Friel’s haunting and beautiful Irish masterpiece opens December 4 under the direction of Heather Siobhan Curran.
Literary
Sunday at 4:40PM at the 440 Gallery: 440 Gallery’s reading and artist talk series takes on two new curators this fall, fiction writer Cathy Chung and poet Cecily Parks. They present author Honor Moore playwright and fiction writer Rosemary Moore and memoirist R. Dwayne Betts.