Archive for the ‘music’Category

MEDIA: Dynamic Duo Smiley & West Team Up

Featured above is Cornel West, Professor at Princeton University with talk show host Tavis Smiley.

The fusion of this dynamic duo Smiley & West is slotted to hit the airwaves this coming October with the launch of Tavis Smiley’s  Public Radio International (PRI) an energetic radio program covering thought provoking, intelligent and stimulating dialogue on every subject from news and politics to entertainment and culture. Tune-in one-hour for this weekly show that promises to bring listeners a broad spectrum of compelling guests and I’m sure some juicy debates will jump off between Tavis Smiley and Cornel West.

30

09 2010

SPARE BEATS: What’s Happening in June

Lots of great events happening this summer all around NYC such as films, visual art, design, food and more. Here is a breakdown of the ones that I’ve been able to find, the best part is some are free! Please leave a comment if I’ve left anything out or you want to share something interesting. Friday, June 18th, 2010 Soul of Brooklyn Launch Party Time:  7-11pm Description: Hosted by Brooklyn icon, Ralph McDaniels, The Soul of Brooklyn launch party will premiere the highly anticipated website and guide book that will highlight the unique African Diaspora cultural and business renaissance taking place in the great metropolis of Brooklyn, New York! Featured at the launch will be a special performance by “Blitz the Ambassador”, Brooklyn vendors, food, music, art and give-away items and more! There will also be a Soul of Brooklyn photography exhibition, featuring images by Malik Yusef at MoCADA. For a schedule of all events click: SOULOFBROOKLYN.COM SOUL OF BROOKLYN’S VIDEO:

The 4th Annual Food Film Fesitval Kicks-off from June 23-27th If you’re a foodie the 4ht Annual Food Film Festival offers some of the best of selections of places to eat while experiencing a diverse range of films all on food. Things jump off June 23rd-27th, 2010 in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Click the link for more details: http://www.nycfoodfilmfestival.com/ HOMO-HARLEM film festival showing from June 21-26, 2010 featured at the Maysles Cinema located at 343 Malcolm X Blvd, bet. 127th & 128th Streets. This is a week long film survey of the artists and personalities who’ve informed the gay aesthetic in Harlem. This event is curated by Michael Henry Adams and Valerie Jo Bradley. Fascinating line-up of films includes: The Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman; As I Remember it: Portrait of Dorothy West; Flag Wars; Tongue Untied: Still In Vogue; Black is…Black Ain’t; The Josephine Baker Story; and Naked White Roses. Check out the Maysles Cinema website for more information.

12

06 2010

On Point: A Taste of Japan

This is one of those all day Saturday events at the Japan Society that you should not pass up. Feast on everything the Japan Society has to offer at j-CATION: Taste Japan, a day-long event. Explore all the flavorful taste of Japan from, sweet, savory to spicy delights with the first-ever j-Cation, which promises to take you on trip to Japan without getting on an airplane.
Make sure to hang around until the evening to listen to the explosives sounds from DJ. AKI’s rocking beats, and some unusual drinks and morsel bites to satisfy your taste buds.

Beats by DJ. AKI:

05

04 2010

MUSIC: Melvin Van Peebles and the Burnt Sugar Arkestra

Excerpt from NYTIMES: He’s Got It Bad, or ‘Baad,’ for His Art, from Ben Sisario’s interview.

ASK Melvin Van Peebles about his legacy, and you get a snort, a grimace, a wave of the hand, a game-show error buzz and a finely punctuated “come on.”

Greg Tate, cultural critic and musician.

Burnt Sugar has been described as a “funk-rock-electronic-samba-soul-jazz-fusion whatever ensemble” and counts among its influences Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis, Funkadelic, Bad Brains, Band of Gypsys, Sun Ra and Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi. Bandleader Greg Tate “plays the band” using a technique called conduction, which gets its name from the field of physics, and was developed by jazz conductor Butch Morris. Employing a series of gestures, baton twirls, eye contact, and facial expressions that are used to communicate directions to the band, the bandleader can change the melodic and harmonic structure, creating a one-time composition that could not have been predicted nor repeated.

(trailer) Burnt Sugar with Special Guest: Melvin Van Peebles. Sun Jan 10 at Joe’s Pub from amy gail on Vimeo.

More of Burnt Sugar Live in Paris:

04

04 2010

ART: Nick Cave’s “Soundsuits” Shimming Down

In the areas of fiber arts and performance art, one name reins supreme: Nick Cave. Not to be confused with the musician, Nick Cave, the fiber/performance artist creates “sound suits from found objects, including beads connected like tiny seeds of creativity, glass or plastic pieces strung together to form intricate patterns that suggest Brazilian or Caribbean carnival themes. These suits might also be layered with twigs and flowing hair, which from a distance looks like trees dancing in the woods, from some weird fairy tale.

This Cranbrook Design school graduate—who also serves as chair of the Fashion Design Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago—has created new artistic boundaries as he adapts old with new art techniques. With a unique mix of fibers and other materials, he has produced furniture, clothing and much more. This new relationship between contemporary art, crafts, and fashion was evident in the 2007 “Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting” exhibition mounted by the Museum of Art and Design.

Soundsuit: This funky style is made of a diverse collection of found objects.

But this movement of sorts almost didn’t happen.

Sometime in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the interest in knitting started to fade, followed closely by the dwindling number of yarns shops throughout New York City. Today, knitting has emerged as a viable fiber art form, with a different twist that leans towards free-form, stylized garments, or products that are a combination of materials. These materials feature a mix of fibers with varied textures, as well as found objects from nature, even buttons or beads.

Cave’s work has forced other fiber artists and artists in other disciplines to reexamine their own material references. Whether you have the experience of witnessing Cave’s suits in performances, or as immobile figures in a gallery, you can still experience the sound and visual dialogue his pieces provoke. His work speaks to viewers with a cacophony of sounds heard over and over again.

Nick Cave's "Soundsuits" at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City

Cave had previously danced with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. One day he began to pay attention to the cacophony of sounds that came form his costume, which was mostly made of twigs. As he moved his body, each twig bushed against another and produced barely audible but regular sounds. Similar sounds came from other dancers who were gyrating to the beat of accompanying drums.

He had found a muse who would inspire his new art form—himself.

His canvases of his own or other dancers’ bodies expanded to include skintight leotards, to loose fitting garments with deep hoods. His materials now include beads, bangles, and sequins. No objects are off-limits; nor any subject. He has pulled together references from the social and political issues of the day, using for example, his own state of blackness as a silhouette; and in a nod to the Rodney King trial, a piece that expresses the freedom—or lack thereof—of the black male body, this time tied with materials that look like rope. The most ornate work can resemble over-sized deities, similar to spiritual figures from the African Yoruba tradition, or the Brazilian Candomble.
Nick Cave is represented by the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City.

more links to Nick Cave soundsuits.

15

03 2010

ART: Check out the Arts in Chinatown

Creating Spaces for the Arts in Chinatown from Asian American Arts Alliance on Vimeo.

This video was launched in February 2010 by The Asian American Arts Alliance to promote greater cultural awareness of the art happenings in New York City’s Chinatown community. The program is part of the Chinatown Arts Marketing Program, the video was shot and edited by David Hou.
Amy Chin, an Arts Management Consultant, who also serves on the Mayor’s Cultural Advisory Committee  is one of the many cultural ambassadors featured in this short video which leads you through an exciting glimpse into the artistic endeavors that makes Manhattan’s Chinatown a gem among many other Chinatowns in cities throughout the United States.
Chin, states that New York’s Chinatown has a living culture beyond storefronts. This Chinese community is booming with an influx of younger people, where as the Chinatowns of other cities tend to be populated with first immigrants or seniors.

08

03 2010

Got Til it’s Gone, by Janet Jackson

02

03 2010