Arts & Entertainment
I Love You
Thurs., Jan. 6
The last time I previewed an I Love You show, I wasn't wrong to evoke Hole and Sleater-Kinney and PJ Harvey. That's what came to mind when I listened to their five-song CD. But I'd never seen them liveand live, it's a whole different game. More Siouxsie than Courtney, more Poly Styrene than Liz Phair, I Love You singer and frontwoman Edi puts on a performance that'll make you embarrassed for not trying hard enough in whatever it is you do. The night I went, she rocked 'n' rolled while dressed up as Marie Antoinette (or was it the Queen of Hearts?) while an adorable lil' sidekick danced around in similar garb, in front of the stagetopless. I can't guarantee nudity for tonight's performance, just great old-style punk rock and a hell of a stage show.
Mercury Lounge, 217 E. Houston St. (betw. Ludlow & Essex Sts.), 212-260-4700; 7:30, $8.
Jeff Koyen
Michelle Shocked
Mon., Jan. 10
Michelle Shocked goes acoustic for an early set at Joe's Pub in support of her upcoming studio release (due out this month). Shocked owns and publishes her own complete catalog so is something of a figurehead for artistic independence. Plus, she kicks it with her singing. Shocked is joined by Raul Midon, the jazzy pop singer/guitarist whose debut disc (with a guest appearance by Jason Mraz) arrives early this year.
Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette St. (betw. E. 4th St. & Astor Pl.), 212-539-8778; 6:30, $30.
Alan Lockwood
GlobalFEST | Sat., Jan. 8
The second annual globalFEST, produced in connection with the World Music Institute in NY, Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) and World Music/CRASHarts of Boston, promises 13 acts from five continents on three stages. There's renegade New Yorkers such as the salsa-licious Spanish Harlem Orchestra and Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra; songstresses from Peru (Eva Ayllon), Argentina (Juana Molina) and shamisen boyos from Japan (Yoshida Brothers) and Poland (Warsaw Village Band); and Basement Bhangra's.
For me, it's the French cafe and Gypsy swing of Paris Combo and Guinea's Mory Kanté that'll sell the most tickets. Griot, kora player and singer Kanté is to Guinean dance-folk what DJ Rekha Caetano Veloso is to Brazillian Tropicalia: an untouchable master of form, funk and subtlety whose oral histories should be as historical as any holy text. After having not performed in New York City for 14 years, Kanté comes representing the acoustic funk of Sabou, a CD filled with ancient traditionalism kept sacred while being pushed into modernitya cool rootsy groove whose dusted nastiness makes the Dirty South seem as spotlessly gleaming as Kraftwerk's Dusseldorf studio in comparison. Like singer Salif Keita only chattier, Kanté's richly textured voice lives each portrait he paintseven if you can't tell what he's singing.
With Paris Combo and cosmopolitan cool singer Belle du Berry, you can't help but tell what's she's singing about. Even when she's singing in cheery picturesque jibberish ("I'm going round and round in my box, like a fish in a furnished apartment"), du Berry tops each moment of Paris Combo's electro-gypsy-jazz-Brazi-funk with seared sexuality and a pointed sense of universal consciousness so rare in Latin-lover lounge sounds. Their due-soon CD, Motifs, like the bebopping Django-like Living-Room, explores everything from the dread of boredom and the suffering of silence to modern romance to their multicultural mix. Bon appetit.
The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St. (betw. E. 4th St. & Astor Pl.), 212-539-8778; $40, 7:30.
A.D. Amorosi
Winter Jazzfest | Sun., Jan. 9
This wintry Jazzfest is a genre-jumping affair, one where the Dirty Detroit grit of saxophonist James Carter's Organ Trio meets trumpeter Dave Douglas going through his Miles vibe. (Douglas will hate me saying that.) Having recorded languid blues, muddled hiphop and music with Middle Eastern twists, Douglas spent 2004 on Strange Liberation, a CD that recalls Davis' moody twilight-toned Filles de Kilimanjaro. With his own new label, Greenleaf Music, Douglas is promising that its debut release, his own Mountain Passages, featuring tuba player Marcus Rojas and cellist Peggy Lee, will roll between contemplative solemnity and drunken ecstasy.
While we await Douglas' debauch, Detroit saxophonist Cartera tenor man who came to Manhattan under the aegis of Lester Bowie in order to hook up with the New York Organ Ensemblekeeps his Hammond groove grinding with fellow Motor City men, drummer Leonard King Jr. and organist Gerard Gibbs.
But for a lot of ears, this gig is a chance to hear Los Angeles-born singer Gretchen Parlato after her victory in the 2004 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition. You could spruce up the compliments and say "voice like angel" and compare her to Sinatra in terms of dynamics and subtone, or Chet Baker in terms of cottony cool. You wouldn't be far off the mark. Parlato's sense of subtle rhythmic interplay and understated theatrical nuance takes the ache of Frank and implicates it throughout an improvisational-based esthetic that rests, most often, on Brazilian master-class moments from Caymmi and Jobim as well as classics by Parker, Gershwin and Bjork. As simple and restive as she sounds in print, her voicescatting, cooing, leaning back then soaringcan leap through complex tempo and rhythmic shifts as if riding rapids. Anyone who goes on after her will have their work cut out for them.
Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard St. (betw. B'way & Church St.), 212-219-3132; 6, $25.
A.D. Amorosi
Duets with Ghosts
Weds., Jan. 5
As led by classically trained pianist Daniel Kelly, Duets with Ghosts is a jazz quartet that plays alongside found and vintage recordings. The quartet of live musicians, including Dave Wood on guitar, Shanir Blumenkranz on bass and Chris Michael on drums, create original and improvised compositions to fit Kelly's sampled apparitions, bringing together two time periods in one live performance. The effect is rich, almost cinematic. Not to be missed.
Freddy's Bar & Backroom, 485 Dean St. (6th Ave.), Park Slope, 718-622-7035, 9:30, free.
Steven Psyllos
Theo Bleckmann
thurs., Jan. 6
Theo Bleckmann brings his Weimar Kabarett back to the intimate surroundings at Joe's Pub. The set is subtitled "German songs of war and peace, love and exile," and draws material from songs banned as degenerate during the Nazi era. Much of it has lyrics by Bertold Brecht; all of it gleams with Bleckmann's refined emotional tracery. Gary Versace offers a honed, resonant accompaniment on piano and accordion. Bleckmann's worked and recorded with Meridith Monk, Laurie Anderson, Ikue Mori and Elliott Sharp, among others. His own Anterroom arrives on Traumton early in '05; plus, he lends his prime vocalise to Matt Moran's pending disc of Charles Ives music.
Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette St. (betw. E. 4th St. & Astor Pl.), 212-539-8778; 7, $15.
Alan Lockwood
Lunchtime Organ Recital
Tues., Jan. 11
Why not? All you have to do is eat your Wendy's value meal a little bit quicker than usual, maybe skip the baked potato, head over to Central Synagogue, and allow yourself to be blown away by the most powerful, least-portable instrument going around today. You've always loved the occasional organ solos as featured in your favorite Tears for Fears songs; haven't you imagined there could be something more? Come see potential realized as Gregory D'Agostino plays works by Widor, Vierne, Langlais and Duruflé. Then, go back to work.
Central Synagogue, 652 Lexington Ave. (55th St.), 212-838-5122; 12:30, free.
Dan Migdal
Patricia Barber | Mon., Jan. 10
Though Barber is one of jazz's most brilliant live interpreters of song (hers, others), it's simply not fair that she's representing herself solely with a new Live: A Fortnight in France. This recording doesn't do justice to her dusky musicality, her odd poetic métier or her deconstructionist takes on popular song. That's not to say it isn't brash and ideal.
The disillusioned irony-laced sentiment (or pungency) of new songs "Whiteworld" and "Gotcha" fuses neatly with the gray sexuality of the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood." (Her forte is re-ripping others' classics into utter unrecognized-ness) The moldy languor of "Call Me" mixes well with the prickly prick-tease of "Pieces"; "Dansons la Gigue!" takes the suggestive words of the poet Verlaine and adds to them a haughtiness the guitarist might hold as his own. But she, Barber, lends Live a speechiness that's oddly disconcerting for the dry iced-over Barber. "Whiteworld" has an almost preachy feel that those connected to her cool vocalese and elegiac lyrical chilliness might be confounded by.
That said, a little steam heat placed under Barber goes a long way to creating a new weirdly warm Patriciaone who promises, within, "Whiteworld," that a new, similar eight-song cycle is afoot.
Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St. (betw. MacDougal St. & 6th Ave.), 212-475-8592; 8 & 10:30, $10.
A.D. Amorosi
Yanira Castro's Beacon | Fri.-Sun., Jan. 7-23
For four years, Yanira Castro has been crafting small-scale choreographies into an odd array of public and private non-traditional spaces. In July 2000, she participated in the Judson House Project, a multimedia memorial to the history of that important site of early happenings and counterculture, before it was razed to make room for another NYU monstrosity. Castro found that providing such a unique environment for her movement created a specific, unexpected relationship between audience and performer. Last year's project, Cartography, clarified this theme by placing four intimate duets in spaces around the Old American Can Factory in Brooklyn. Castro and her collaborators (lighting designer/installation artist Roderick Murray and costumer Albert Sakhai) housed her movement, which can look quite formal or casually gestural, in haunting, evocative visual and aural worlds throughout this industrial complex while audience members perambulated from one environment to the next.
Castro's new project, Beacon, is set in the echoing, abandoned (and potentially cold as a witch's tit) pool of the Brooklyn Lyceum. Working with the same collaborators, plus four stunning dancers and composer Dan Siegler, Castro will seat the audience in pens within the space, separated by Plexiglas. While the dance only tacitly references the history of the public bathhouse, Castro's methodical vocabulary and background as a writer promise a poetics of movement that evokes claustrophobia and absence. After "osmosing everything" for years and looking to both film and dance forms for inspiration, Castro believes in this piece she has found a voice of her own, more specific and more personal. She says, "I'm no longer interested in the canon; what can I say?"
Brooklyn Lyceum, 227 4th Ave. (President St.), Park Slope, 212-924-0077; 7 & 9, $20.
Chris Dohse
Russ Meneve
Fri. & Sat., Jan. 7 & 8
The only thing funnier than Russ Meneve's humor is his casual, "by the way" deliverythat or the fact that he was once an accountant for Price Waterhouse. "I think I like food better than sex," goes one of the Jersey native's bits. "I was watching a porno the other day, and this pizza delivery guy was just giving it to this housewifeand all I could think was, 'Aw, that pizza's getting cold.' At least put it in the ovenhe's bending you over the stove anyway." Those boys by the watercooler sure do miss you, Russ.
Comedy Cellar, 117 MacDougal St. (Minetta Ln.), 212-254-3480; 12:30 a.m., $15, 2 drink min.
Sean Manning
Patrice o'neal
Thurs., Jan. 6
Patrice O'Neal is not big. I mean, he's physically a large specimen, a former Northeastern football recruit. But he's not a household name yet. That is a surprise, as he's maybe the funniest black comic since Eddie Murphy (yes, funnier even than Chappelle, Rock, Wallace or any Wayans brother). He has no shtick but delivers the jokes with precision timing, honed no doubt on the streets of Roxbury, MA. His bit Tough Crowd appearances didn't do him justice. He's, yes, big enough for his own prime-time special.
Caroline's on Broadway, 1626 B'way (50th St.), 212-757-4100; 10, $19.50, 2 drink min.
Lionel Beehner
Under the Radar Festival | Through Mon., Jan. 10
Under the Radar Festival spills the theatrical cornucopia at St. Ann's Warehouse for an extended weekend, courtesy of PS 122's former artistic director Mark Russell and Susan Feldman of Arts at St. Ann's. Pegged to the annual APAP Conference (when New York hosts arts presenters from around the nation), "Under the Radar" gives audiences here a packed and eclectic program of happening theater on rotating, day-long billsas well as upping the ante for the participating companies' tour bookings.
Cynthia Hopkins alt-country musical Accidental Nostalgia opens the fest (and continues this month for a return run at St. Ann's), along with Part 1 of Elevator Repair Service's full-text reading of the Great Gatsby, GATZ (which runs in full at the Performing Garage in Soho) and the Foundry Theater's K.I. from "Crime", with Oksana Mysina playing Katerina Ivanova from the margins of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. L.A.-based Herbert Siguenza plays Mario Moreno, the Mexican Charlie Chaplin, in ÁCantiflas!; Bay Area spoken word and tap man Marc Bamuthi Joseph brings his Word Becomes Flesh; Big Dance Theater melds Richard Nixon and Kaspar Hauser in Plan B; and New York's own Civilians do some 30 characters in Gone Missing, with music by Michael Friedman.
For more on the music tip, downtown's string juggernaut Ethel plays their tape/improv Streaming Ethel for one matinee"that's the cherry on top on Saturday," says Radar's co-mastermind Russell, "and it'll make for an afternoon of great theater. We wanted to get a mass of things going early in the year, to show viewers and producers the tip of the iceberg of a lot of creative theater work going on around the country."
St. Ann's Warehouse, 38 Water St. (betw. Dock & Main Sts.), Dumbo, 718-254-8779; www.artsatstanns.org, $15-$25, $40 festival pass.
Alan Lockwood
From Imagination to Reality: The Art of Science Fiction
Through Fri., Jan. 28
Between Interconnectedness | Through Sun., Jan. 16
Art and science are old companions, yet they rarely meet today, as science has become extremely complex and art increasingly self-absorbed. We normally think of art as the more inspiring practice, but two shows currently running explore the role of science as muse.
"From Imagination to Reality: The Art of Science Fiction"curated by Vincent Di Fate, a leading sci-fi illustrator and authoris on display at the New York Academy of Sciences. A small but impressive collection of paintings, the show considers aliens, androids, man-eating monsters, altered states, other worlds and dire predictions for this world.
Straight out of a sci-fi B-movie, the Academy is the perfect home for a "mad scientist." Located in a beautifully preserved, 1919 neo-Renaissance mansion, it still has its original, dark, Elizabethan-era woodwork, large creaky doors and tiled floor. Originally created as book covers, the finely painted illustrations of colorful bug-eyed monsters, irate cyborgs and stylish spaceships are on display in the main hallway and waiting room. Divided thematically, sci-fi film props punctuate the images, such as an alien rocket, the head of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, andgracing the 16th-century Florentine mantelthe severed hand of X.
Highly skilled, these sci-fi artists are unconcerned with contemporary art theory. And the ethical conundrums that do concern them border on the futuristic, like John Schoenherr's picture of an alienated astronaut, Michael Whelan's robot at the moment of self-awareness and Donato Giancola's depiction of species-to-species communication.
What's missing in the sci-fi art exhibit can be found in profusion at Smack Mellon's exhibition "Between Interconnectedness," curated by Suzanne Kim. Illustrating art theory, the seven artists use engineering and science's pictorial qualities to dress up their ideas, rather than explore ethics or future horizons.
Angie Drakopoulos applied the terminology and imagery of physics and biology to create a video, a deck of cards and a series of resin paintings. Her paintings apply the natural abstraction of cells and stars to create intriguing necklaces of dots and diagrams suspended in layers of milky resin.
Shown upstairs at this foundry-turned-spice warehouse-turned gallery, Eva Lee's three videos, titled The Liminal Series, blink hypnotic patterns and rhythms that also refer to the micro and macro.
David McQueen created kinetic landscapes. One portrays a desert with a slowly rising and setting sun (lamp); the other features snow falling on a cabin. The snow is made by spidery wire fingers striking suspended chalk cubes. Inside the tiny cabin, a camera feeds a live picture of the snowy scene to a back room, where yet another snow machine dusts the floor.
Though several of the works are visually serene and others mechanically entertaining, the rhetoric is overbearing, the artistic outcome meek, and the science a playful device.
New York Academy of Sciences, 2 E. 63rd St. (5th Ave.), 212-838-0230; 9-5, free.Smack Mellon, 56 Water St. (Main St.), Dumbo, 718-834-8761; 12-6, free.
Julia Morton
Un-Ho-Hum
Tues.-Sat., Jan. 4-8
You might say an exhibition lasting less than a week but advertising both an opening and a closing reception (6-9 p.m. on each day) has its priorities a bit confused. But this group show featuring "intentions in time and space" by Gigi Gatewood, Layla Lozano and other mixed-media locals has many reasons to celebrate. Foremost among them is RUN.EXE, a video painting by Transmodernist John Bonafede. Best known for his tombstone-style etchings of manhole covers, Bonafede's Abramovic-like use of body as both canvas and brush proves a unique commentary on human transitall the more pertinent in lieu of those impending fare hikes.
The Proposition Gallery, 559 W. 22nd St., 2nd fl. (11th Ave.), 212-242-0035, Tues.-Sat. 10-6, free.
Sean Manning
Chris Larson: Pause
Through Sat., Jan. 22
Life is on pause for further investigation. Using popular tv culture and real events to explore the American character, Pause, a sculpture by Chris Larson, is a study of duality and contrast.
Pause is a life-sized, room-sized wooden reconstruction of the Dukes of Hazzard's car, aka the "General E. Lee," smashing into the cabin of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. The outlandish humor of the piece drives us to question the artist's intent. Rugged individualism and righteous indignation come head to head in Larson's instructive, destructive display of raw lumber.
Rare Gallery, 521 W. 26th St. (10th Ave.), 212-268-1520; Tues.-Sat., 10-6, free.
Julia Morton
Sugar and Stress | Through Sat., Feb. 5
It's easy to see greatness in the artwork of respected masters, but how many of us would have seen potential in their earliest works? Dealers who show unknowns have the difficult (sweet and stressful) job of discovering those emerging talents. The Fredericks Freiser Gallery presents four new painters, each on display for the first time in a major group show. A test of the young artists' ability to create a buzz, the exhibit also puts the dealer's eye for good art on exhibit.
Selma Hafizovic paints porn. Camouflaged by thick strokes of harsh color, her seductive women appear through angled slices and hacked shapes. Loud and disturbing, Hafizovic bucks the recent wave of young women painting cheesecake nudes. We're looking at sex, but seeing hypocrisy, greed and violence. Not an easy subject to sell, this artist gets points for having the guts to step away from the easy-bake crowd to tackle an ugly truth.
Justin Craun paints adolescent males. Dummy Drone features an adult ventriloquist holding his dummy. And Psycho Private depicts a row of four teenaged boys, dressed in private-school uniforms, grinning at us through ski masks. In both pictures, the predominant colors are red, white and blue. Though arranged like a snapshot and filled with smiles, the mood is as anxious as the paint (which flies off the figures, drools or hangs in globs). Suggesting intimidation and exploitation by the powerful and privileged, Craun's subject is not news, but his alarmed approach is visually exciting.
Looking for a new way to paint the old abstract, Miyeon Lee edited and flattened ordinary objects, turning them into pure graphics. BCN is a mixture of thin horizontal lines in gray and white dissecting an almost vertical piece of folded red clothing. Harmony is a broken window with a curtain at one side. The cracks and shards of the pane are taped together, creating a star pattern. What do they mean? Nothing and anythingthey're abstracts. Gently challenging, they're also quite lovely.
Gregory Edwards has just two paintings displayed, the others have three each. The first, Future Primitive, a close-up of a wild spotted cat, looks like a black-light poster. The highly contrasted face is painted half in red and half in turquoise, with the background done in the opposite colors. The second painting, Nobody, is a head wearing a ribbed ski mask. Done in black and white, it's surrounded by a grayish smoke that goes black at the bottom of the small canvas. Perhaps a comment on concealment, it's harder to get a read on Edward's style.
The dealer saw something though, now it's your turn.
Fredericks Freiser Gallery, 504 W. 22nd St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-633-6555; call for times, free.
Julia Morton
Thomas Ashcraft's Laboratory
Through Sat., Jan. 29
What's behind the long black curtain? Same planet..different world. It's the world inside Thomas Ashcraft's head. Chosen for exhibition by fellow artist and neighbor Bruce Nauman, Ashcraft's installation is a trip.
Dimly lit, the room is neatly arranged with draped lab tables, catalogued boxes and glass cases filled with mock artifacts. There are magnifying glasses, carefully posed lights and daily, logs that recount the installations progress.
The artifacts made of twigs, metals, coins and seeds are curious, but not as visually absorbing as the fantasy of scientific investigation this enveloping environment explores.
Cue Art Foundation, 511 W. 25th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-206-3583; Tues.-Sat., 10-6, free.
Julia Morton
Dalek
Sat., Jan. 8
At the forefront of the newer generation of graffiti artists turned pro is Dalek, who this week begins a three-week stint at McCaig-Welles Gallery, cited for Best Graffiti (Indoors) in the 2004 Best of Manhattan issue. He brings along with him new explorations of his odd little "space monkeys" that always seem to be maliciously smiling at the viewer from afar. Like Shepard Fairey's "Andre the Giant" grill, these characters were first seen on the avenues of most metropolitan communities across the world; now, they're the signature work of an internationally recognized artist. This exhibition is also a rare opportunity to purchase an inexpensive piece of graff history in the making.
McCaig-Welles Gallery, 129 Roebling St. (betw. N. 4th & N. 5th Sts.), Williamsburg, 718-384-8729; 8-10, free.
Steven Psyllos
Electronics Recycling | Sun., Jan. 9
There comes a day when you can blow no more. It's not that we're unimpressed with your saved game of Zeldaknocking on Gannon's door with two bottles of life potion, and every heart container full. We especially enjoy how you've chosen a biting nugget of profanity rather than your own name for the Link character, even if we did this some 13 years ago. Excitebike is another story. You were right all along; we could never touch your custom Excitebike course designs. They were the most optimal placements of ramps, jumps and oil slicks imaginable. Our tongues were held purely by jealousy.
Now that we've come clean, it's your turn to face the facts. You can blow into your Nintendo cartridges all you want; you can even use the trutsy, advanced technique of blowing through your shirt. You know very well that the blinking light on your NES is no longer a simple matter of dust. Your gray lady is 20 years old. It's time to put her down, and get a tax deduction.
Old computers, monitors, network devices, peripherals, components, tv's, VCRs, DVD players, A/V stuff, radios, stereos, cellphones, pagers, PDAs, phones, answering machinesall will graciously be taken off your hands this Sunday at Union Square Park. Of course, this is true of most every day in the park, but this promises to go down in a more organized fashion, thanks to the Lower East Side Ecology Center, the New York Community Trust, the Parks Dept. and their efforts to redistribute unwanted goods to the needy. You could always try your greedy luck in the flooded eBay electronics market, but are web-savvy customers going to let you unload your broke shit without giving some negative feedback in return? That's right, today's collection accepts devices, "working and non-working." At least drop off your pager, caveman.
Union Square Park, North Plaza, 17th St. (betw. B'way & Park Ave.), 212-407-4022; 9-5, free.
Dan Migdal
Counter-Inauguration Planning Meeting | Thurs., Jan. 6
Eight years ago I stood in the middle of the Washington DC mall with a buddy of mine and a flask of vodka in hand, marveling at how Bill Clinton had so smoothly handed defeat to an ailing Republican Party. I was interning at the time at the American Enterprise Institute. Little did I know that the walls around my cubicle housed some of the Right's greatest and most dangerous thinkers, as well as several future deputy cabinet secretaries and Bush appointees.
What was striking about that day was not that Clinton was being re-inaugurated for another four years. More shocking was the missing outrage among the far right. There were no protests that I could see. No boos or hissing or Heritage Foundation interns forming human chains. The right did not waste its time in protest but instead regrouped, redoubled its get-out-the-vote efforts, and waged an ideological and robust war against Clinton and his would-be successor.
Everyone knows what happened next. Clintonism lost and Rove entered our kitchen conversations. What's worrisome is that Democrats have not learned from their mistakes. They continue to spout the same platitudes and promises, which is Mozart to the ears of New Yorkers, but elevator music to most of the country.
In three weeks our commander in chief will be inaugurated for a second term. Washington DC, come January 20, will be full of well-wishers waving at his motorcade, some with five fingers, some with one. To join the latter category, meet at Judson Memorial Church this Thursday.
Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Sq. S. (Thompson St. side), 212-477-0351; 7pm, free.
Lionel Beehner
Makor's Pins and Pints
Sat., Jan. 8
It's finally safe for Jewish singles to engage in awkward matchmaking events at Bowlmor Lanes again. Just weeks ago, it was uncovered that the Ramallah-based Palestine Commercial Services Company had invested $1.3 million in the downtown bowling hot spot on behalf ofwho else?Yasser Arafat. Arafat, an avid disco-bowler in his day, was said to have approached his beloved sport with such vigor that it seemed he was trying to drive the pins "out into the sea." Bowlmor parent-company, Strike Holdings, has since returned the departed chairman's investment, encouraging Jewish recreation, and subsequent procreation, to proceed as usual.
Bowlmor Lanes, 110 University Pl., (betw. 12th & 13th Sts.), 212-255-8188; 9, $60.
Dan Migdal
Non-Fiction Books & Paper Fair
Sat., Jan. 8
Back in 1992, some famous artist was selling hand-made pieces of paper at the Guggenheim for several thousand dollars a sheet. We thought it was ridiculous back then, but who knew? In a world where paper is becoming as much a thing of the past as shoehorns and Phoenicians, maybe one day that misaligned photocopy you're about to crumple up and throw away will be a much-sought-after collectors item. Fine antique paper and dusty books about other things long gone come together at this annual fair that, if nothing else, helps remind us what weird shit people used to use, think and create in those forgotten days before laptops, TiVo and iPods.
Tip Top Shoe Bldg., 155 W. 72nd St., 4th fl. (B'way), 212-579-0689; 10-2, free.
Jim Knipfel
Dia de los Reyes Parade
Thurs., Jan. 6
Three Kings Day is the last of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and for many is the traditional gift-giving day. On the night of Jan. 5, eager children leave shoeboxes full of hay under their beds for the camels of the Magi, hoping that when they wake the hay will be replaced with presents.
Today's parade, which is organized by El Museo del Barrio, features camels, sheep, horses, tall puppets, floats, costumes and music. The fun begins at 10 a.m. at 106th St. and 5th Ave. The Three Kingsthis year, it's community leaders Moises Perez and Augustin Díaz and local poet Jesus "Papoleto" Melendezwill lead the way to El Museo's Teatro Heckscher, where those same eager kids who traded hay for Bratz dolls will get even more gifts handed to them by los Reyes themselves. Inside, students of Ballet Hispanico and Grupo Folklrico Tepeyac will perform (unfortunately, the show is already sold out).
106th St. (5th Ave.), 212-660-7144; 10, free; those wishing to march in the parade should show up at 8:30 a.m. to register.
Brett Gelbord
Dance on Camera Festival 2005
Jan. 7, 8, 14, 15, 21 & 22
Celebrating its 33rd year, the Dance on Camera Festival features documentaries on sacred trance-inducing dances (The Gods of Bali), the importance of ceremonial dance in the Pueblo Indian culture (Dancing from the Heart), tributes to the great Michael Powell (The Red Shoes), dance and design (Somewhere In Between) and the lives and struggles of modern dancers (Carmen and Geoffrey). The scope of this festival is its greatest asset. For those not patient enough to sit through documentaries from early-20th-century Russia, consider instead one of the many docs in which the body's movement is a starting point. Of particular note are Counter Phrases 2 by Thierry de Mey in Program 7, Amelia by Edouard Lock in Program 6, and the eight short films of Program 4: Short Stories from Around the World.
Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, 165 W. 65th St. (betw. B'way & Amsterdam Ave.), 212- 875-5601; call for times, $10, $7 st.
Steven Psyllos