October 2012: NYC

Tribes

This long-running Off-Broadway play directed by David Cromer is so intimate and so intense!!! Tribes concerns a family who has raised their deaf-from-birth son without the benefit of sign language so that he's forced to assimilate to their world. As you might expect, the shit hits the fan when he meets (and falls in love with) a young woman who is currently going deaf and who opens his eyes to a new whole world. The Barrow Street Theater, which also hosted the NYC engagement of Cromer's brilliant version of Our Town, is my new favorite black box theater. The in-the-round presentation of Tribes features a brilliant, realistic kitchen/living room set (by Scott Pask) that makes you feel like you are eves-dropping during most of the show. Subtitles are also used to great effect when the characters are signing. The intimacy definitely heightens the emotions (during one moment I was crying for no reason I could easily rationalize). While the ending may not be as satisfying as I would have hoped, this production is one that I would see again and again if able.

Graces Jones at Roseland

This was the reason I added another trip to NYC this year!!! Grace rarely records or performs anymore (this was her first concert at Roseland since the 1970s!) so I jumped at the chance to see her (my first time!), especially since I missed the handful of shows she did promoting her most recent album, Hurricane, in 2008. Despite technical difficulties, which were entertaining on their own, Grace Jones can still rock out and defines Art Rock! The show rightly concentrated on her best material, the stuff she recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas in the early 1980s, and featured a quick costume change between each number. My favorite was the mirror ball bowler hat she wore, which transformed the ballroom into disco heaven. I recorded the entire show (except for the very end when my phone ran out of memory) and offer the following clip for your viewing enjoyment. Hopefully, I will still be able to hula-hoop like Grace when I'm 64!

Discovering Columbus by Tatzu Nishi

Nishi's art is all about making people see things that they usually take for granted in a completely new way. And what better way to see a statue high up on a pedestal than to build an upscale living room around it to make it look likes it's sitting on a coffee table! Brilliant idea and execution!

The Scream at MoMA

One of the four "screams" by Edvard Munch is now on view in America!!! This is the one that was recently sold at auction to a private bidder for an all-time record price for a work of art ($119.9M). The other three will probably never leave Norway, so it's thrilling to be able to see one up close and in person. This is the most colorful of the four (the color is actually shocking in person), but the image is no less haunting and the strokes are no less angry. See it while you can!

The Quay Brothers at MoMA

I was completely unfamiliar with the Quay Brothers, but this exhibit of their work, including macabre dioramas and set pieces from their films, made me an instant fan. I can also imagine that Tim Burton must be a fan because I can definitely see an influence. Can't wait to watch their collection of short films, called Phantom Museums, which was a must buy after seeing this.

The Performers

This is about the worst play I've ever seen on Broadway despite some decent acting talent and celebrity power (the main reason to go). It concerns a journalist (and his wife) covering his high school friend turned porn star (and his porn star wife) for the Adult Video News awards in Vegas, which results in all sorts of drama in both couples' lives. It sounds ripe for a situational comedy, but it's so bland and all the humor comes from one-liners (and there are a few good ones; my favorite: "Who do I have to fist to get a drink in here?") as opposed to coming from characters. The main highlight: seeing Cheyenne Jackson (as Mandrew!) doing pushups in nothing but a tight pair of bikini briefs! A beautiful site to say the least, but otherwise this is bad, bad, bad.

Regarding Warhol at the Met

This exhibit shows just how influential my favorite visual artist was and still is! About half of the work is Warhol's, but the other half is by other artists that he influenced. The exhibit is smartly broken into 5 sections: Daily News: From Banality to Disaster; Portraiture: Celebrity and Power; Queer Studies: Shifting Identities; Consuming Images: Appropriation, Abstraction, and Seriality; and No Boundaries: Business, Collaboration, and Spectacle. A smart, well-thought out exhibit!

I love the new panoramic mode on the iPhone. It's the perfect way to capture the Egyptian wing of the Met, which became a nice respite from Hurricane Sandy.