ACME and Line C3 at Press Play First Thursdays Series
Feb. 5, Smack Mellon Gallery, 92 Plymouth St. (at Washington St.), Brooklyn, 718-834- 8761; 7, FREE
Smack Mellon sounds like a stage direction for Gallagher, but in fact it’s one of the better DUMBO galleries.This Thursday it hosts the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, a group of hot young classical musicians (such a thing exists!) and Line C3, a percussion quartet. ACME performs Trois Strophes sur le nom Sacher by the French composer Henri Dutilleux, while Line C3 beats out three shorter pieces. Kelso of Brooklyn provides beer, which is free. Kirsten Hassnefeld and Jennie C. Jones provide angular, jazz-inspired drawings, and ornate paper sculptures. Bottom Line: An orgy of cultural stimuli at a gallery down by the river.
Days of Being WildFeb. 5, Walter Reade Theater, 70 W. 63rd St. (betw. Broadway & Columbus Ave.), 212-875-5600; 7:30, $25
Hong Kong in 1960 was fucking dope. Days of Being Wild, the first installment of Wong Kar-wai’s trilogy of orgiastic films including In the Mood for Love and 2046,is full of saturated color, curls of cigarette smoke and the Belmondian cool of Leslie Cheung.There’s quite a lot of groping involved, including Cheung on Cheung and Cheung on Lau action.There is, promises the Young Friends of Film who put on the show, a “special guest” afterwards plus hors d’oeuvres and an open bar.That’s— wait for it—enough to put anyone in the mood for love. Bottom Line: Wong Kar-wai not go to this gathering of cinephiliac youth? Sure, it might throw in stark contrast your own uncoolness by Hong Kong 1960 standards but what doesn’t kill you makes you cooler.
Over Spilt MilkFeb. 7 through 8,
City Reliquary, 370 Metropolitan Ave. (betw. Havemeyer St. & Marcy
Ave.), Brooklyn, 718-782-4842; 12, FREE
Perhaps riding the Sean Penn Oscar hoo-hah, more likely just piggybacking a cliché but in any case interesting, this New York Food Museum exhibition is pretty much what it sounds like: an exploration of the place and taste of milk in Gotham. O.S.M. focuses on the Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative, a grassroots organization led by demagogue Meyer Parodneck that fought for affordable milk in the 1930s.There are pamphlets and old milk cartons. I’m lactose intolerant and still I found the exhibit worthwhile. Bottom Line: If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by. But bring your own cookies.
Dance-A-Raoke: Dance to the DeathFeb. 4, 92Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson St. (betw. Watts & Desbrosses Sts.), 212-601-1000; 6, $12
Generally speaking there are two schools of karaoke. One can be broadly called the Ineptics, the other Adeptics.Which school you belong to depends on whether you find heartfelt but off-key warbling endearing. I am, by nature, an Ineptic. Nothing is better than Wuthering Heights done bad. But in Dance-A-Raoke, where movement replaces music, I subscribe to the Adeptic school of thought. Bad dance is bad dance is bad dance.Thankfully this line up, including dancers from Pilobolus and Bill T. Jones, are all good dancers.Watch as they adeptly improvise around themes of death and dying which, in ballet at least, is a lively topic. Bottom Line: Watch Odette/Odile die spontaneously in a flurry of wing flaps and flexed feet.
Kyle’s Karaoke Korner For LoversFeb. 9, Otto’s Shrunken Head, 538 E. 14th St. (betw. Aves. A & B), 212-228-2240; 7, FREE As mentioned, there are two schools of Karaokeory: the Ineptics and the Adeptics. Kyle’s Korner, which features members of Ladybug Transistor and The Magic Caravan, manages to combine the two.The music and musicianship is first rate; the singing is often sub par. In the center of it all is a flame-headed Lothario named Kyle Forester. Fathers, seriously, lock up your wives and daughters. Since the songs have been rehearsed, the night is more amateur hour than legit karaoke, but if you want to behold the handsome charm that is Forester, come. Bottom Line: Tiki, cheap beer, horribly pronounced Portuguese. Does it get any moreromantic?
