Anyone even remotely familiar with the trial and tribulations of the hard-luck Boston Red Sox baseball team knows about the curse of the Bambino. Basically, after winning 5 of the first 15 World Series, the Red Sox sold the great Babe Ruth to the Yankees and have yet to win another. ‘The Curse of the Bambino’ takes a lighthearted look at Red Sox history from the sale of Ruth right on up through to the 1986 World Series that the Red Sox, sadly, lost.
July 15, 2010
July 12, 2010
Roni Size Reprazent
With a new album, ‘In The Mode’ to promote, Roni Size and Reprazent return to Japan for the first time since their appearance at the Fuji Festival in July. On the new album the group exhibit a more hardcore edge than on the Mercury award-winning ‘New Forms’ that preceded it, and lacks the instant appeal of that classic album. But give it a chance and it grows on you with strong contributions from such luminaries as Method Man, Rahzel and Zach De La Rocha.
Comments Off
July 11, 2010
June 30, 2010
Ramon Casas
While Gaudí and the Modernista architects were building Barcelona, Ramon Casas was painting it – portraits, nudes, scenes of family life and depictions of city events. This major exhibition surveys the work of Impressionist-influenced Casas who, along with Santiago Rusiñol, was one of the two key Barcelona painters of the city’s vibrant 1890s, a period of bourgeois economic prosperity accompanied by cultural flowering and surging nationalism. Around 100 works are on show, including many of his most noted turn-of-the-century paintings, and also a section of drawings.
Comments Off
June 20, 2010
Tanjas Nachtclub
Immerse yourself in the unpredictable world of alternative Berlin cabaret at this new show at one of the city’s most talked-about venues. Hosted by chanson singer and gay party promoter Tanja Ries, the bash takes place every Sunday night at the Trompete, a classy subterranean lounge-bar which is owned by one of Germany’s most famous actors, Ben Becker. With appearances expected by a host of Berlin stars, Tanjas Nachtclub runs the gamut of cabaret entertainment, absorbing everything from literature and performance to stand-up and sketches. In German.
Comments Off
June 17, 2010
Psychedelic Furs
Though they officially disbanded in 1991, the Psychedelic Furs cannot help but be dragged back in time to relive the 1980s with a crowd of New Wave thirtysomethings at the House of Blues. Purveyors of a lush, atmospheric synth pop, the Furs occupied a poppish post-punk genre that was equal parts danceable and gloomy. Fronted by Richard Butler’s trademark gruff vocals, the Furs survived on singles like ‘Love My Way’ and the title track from the uber-1980s film, ‘Pretty In Pink’.
Comments Off
June 8, 2010
Arkadiya
Apparently the treatment was especially developed in Hollywood for actors because of their unhealthy Hollywood lifestyles. What is it? Enemas that’s what. One enema costs $50 with a course of four recommended. It is only then that you will feel your youth and your beauty return, or so they say. It’s completely pain free and in fact supposed to be a refreshing clean out to the system. Yet another fad from the body-obsessed Los Angelians.
Comments Off
June 2, 2010
The Taming of the Shrew: Kate’s Comeback
Staged at a the Komische opera house in East Berlin, this new choreography by Richard Wehrlock draws inspiration from both Shakespeare’s comedy, ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and the Hollywood musical ‘Kiss Me Kate’. Using a combination of ballet, slapstick and cabaret, ‘The Taming of the Shrew: Kate’s Comeback’, revolves around the comic events on a film set in Italy in the 1950s. The soundtrack mixes up tracks by Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota, who composed many scores for Italian director Frederico Fellini.
Comments Off
May 30, 2010
Brooklyn Museum of Art
200 Eastern Pkwy at Washington Ave, Park Slope, Brooklyn (718-638-5000)
Subway: 2, 3 to Eastern Pkwy. Wed-Fri 10am-5pm; Sat 11am-9pm; Sun 11am-6pm. Suggested donation $4, students $2, seniors $1.50; concessions $1-$10. AmEx, MC, V (gift shop only).
The Brooklyn Museum, founded 176 years ago, recently appended the word Art to its name as part of a campaign to draw wider attention to the world-class collections inside this gorgeous 19th-century Beaux Arts building. The african art and pre-Columbian textile galleries are especially impressive, and the Native American collection is outstanding. There are many works from the ancient Middle East and extensive holdings of American painting and sculpture by such masters as Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins and John Singer Sargent. And don’t miss the Egyptian galleries: The Rubin Gallery’s gold-and-silver-gilded ibis coffin, for instance, is sublime. Two floors up, the Rodin sculpture court is surrounded by paintings by French contemporaries such as Monet and Degas. The 1999-2000 season includes a large show imported from London, ‘SENSATION: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection,’ which will include bad boy Damien Hirst’s pickled pig and absolutely fabulous work by Mona Hatoum, Sarah Lucas, Chris Ofili and Rachel Whiteread. There’s also an informal café (which closes at 4pm) and a children’s museum.
Comments Off
May 25, 2010
London Dungeon
28-34 Tooley Street, SE1 (020 7403 7221)
London Bridge tube/rail. Open Oct-Mar 10am-5pm (last entry) daily; Apr-Sept 10am-5.30pm daily. Admission £9.95; £6.50 4s-14s; £8.50 students; £6.50 OAPs, disabled; free under-5s, wheelchair users. Credit AmEx, MC, £TC, V.
Website: http://www.dungeons.com
It’s hard not to feel uneasy about the glorification of pain, horror and death at the London Dungeon; it’s equally hard to deny that the punters – and gore-adoring older kids in particular – love it: they pile in by the coachload. Peer through railings amid a dank, dark, musty maze of gloomy arches and eerie nooks, and thrill at the scenes of medieval torture and the screams as the rack is tightened another notch. Groups of visitors are herded into a mock courtroom, before being sentenced by a åjudge’. The punishment, it seems, is a scary boat ride that, frankly, isn’t. The last part of the museum centres on one of the grizzliest episodes from British history – the ever-popular tale of jolly old woman-mutilator Jack the Ripper: actors in costume take you on the hunt for the madman through rooms made to look like the East End (in pre-curry house days). New from Easter 2000 is Firestorm! 1666 , an exhibition about the Great Fire of London. Chilling and fun or exploitative and sick? Only you can decide.
Comments Off
