niners win!

ugh, the one time they actually air a niners game on a network on the east coast, shar's at the theatre. i caught that last 2 minutes of the game, but sad to have miss the entire beat down live.

great cate

must live oscar winner performance: cate blanchett in a street car named desire at bam. shar got these tickets months ago and sure glad she did. the run at bam harvey goes until december 20, but tickets to the general public are sold out. it pays to get tickets early. angela and i got the last pair of cushion seat which are literally padded mats with backs on the stage. it's the closest you can get to great cate.

she was luminous. you know way back when they used to compare complexions to alabaster? well i'd like to resurface this description for cate. she is the fairest of them all. her portrayal of the famed blanche dubois was perfect pitched. it can be easy to overdo the already emotionally meaty role of the whithering southern belle, but leave it to a true chameleon of an actress to balance narcissism and vulnerability. joel edgerton also does a good job matching cate's blanche with his beefy performance as stanley kowalski. the performance was well deserving of the four ovations it received tonight.

FINALLY...

...shar watched the mad men finale. thanks all for restraining conversation around me. it really is a feat not to gush about how perfectly scripted it was. virginia penned an illuminating commentary in her post. first thoughts - shar's ecstatic to have joanie back and glad the duo of peggy and don remains intact. not distraught over betty flying to reno.

what can i say, this finale is up there with my love of the wire. here's to the new sterling cooper draper pryce.

blind pilot covering gillian welch

wish shar was there to see israel and gang covering "look at miss ohio". one of my all time favorite gillian songs.

fltgc: new museum

limited fltgc: urs fischer at new museum. thanks to one bill bob todd. shar was able to get into the pricey and somewhat underwhelming contemporary museum in les. i haven't been back since the 24-hour free opening day. apparently urs was part of the "unmonumental" exhibition, but i can't recall the piece. anyhow, i had read a lukewarm review of the show in tony, so my expectations were low. i came out pleasantly in the middle. i enjoyed his large scale aluminum pieces on the fifth floor and melting pink light post a la dali. there was no photography but i was able to get these in the stairway to the fourth floor.

weiner and carrot fluorescents

or cucumber

fourth floor was sparse, but the subtle wallpaper was a nice touch and the cheeky double signage painted near the elevator. i almost missed the painted hook and the real hook side by side. funny enough the painted hook had the note to return the info card. the last floor of urs fischer's exhibit was the most disappointing to me. i dunno large scale images on chrome doesn't really send my art heart into a tizzy.

gobble gobble

happy turkey day everyone! thanks to friends coast to coast. thanks to mom and dad for calling me from a random bus tour in arizona. shar's truly grateful. hope your thanksgiving is slaptastic!

zee avi's tiny desk concert

big game

best way to feel the bay area pride: the big game. shar went out to stuyvesant town to mj armstrongs, the offical cal bar in new york. knocking back a pitcher of sierra, i watched the bears win against the cardinal, 34-28. it was just the crowd i needed to chant grrrrrr. even got a call into jason who was at stanford in the stands. cal beat the farm out of the rose bowl. sorry cardinal. no hard feelings but we are keeping the ax.

FLTGC: team gallery and glowlab

fltgc pairing: team gallery and glowlab. shar's never paired the two for fltgc in the past. it boggles my mind since they are a natural fit. only blocks away from each other. i suppose i pair them with deitch most of the time. so anyhoot, first up was team gal for the slater bradley if we were immortal exhibit. lots of joy division faux album covers based on obscure b-sides and so that were fabricated by bradley's imagination.



bradley, apparently more well-known for his video works, only has one in the exhibit, which was what captured my attention most. it consisted of four screens that projected sea foam. i'm a sucker for the beach. check it out. it's up until december 19.


at glowlab, alex lukas has his first solo show in new york. the eventuality of daybreak muses over disaster in some well-known cities. lukas takes old coffee table books and paints over cityscapes. i spotted chicago a few times and new york.

oh yes, and my sweet hometown sf.

lykke li covers...

"will you still love me tomorrow" and you can get it free here. lykke does the carole king written tune justice. is she a lost shirelle?

OMGLEE!

must stamp of approval: glee cast on npr. shar hearts glee and so does the world apparently. i find myself just wanting them to sing and no need for plot. it's a treat to hear the behind the scenes tidbits from cast members lea michele, corey monteith and ai reject amber riley on xpn. no live renditions, but they did give insight on the process of how a song is picked for the show.

p.s. hey, that teaser last night with rachel as sandy from grease is true.

red shoes at film forum

much belated viewing: red shoes at film forum. this is a classic that i have been meaning to see for over ten years. shar's finally gotten the chance and it was great to see in all its remastered glory at film forum. kids, don't snooze it's running until thursday, so snap to it. it is nyt approved.

why do you want to dance?

why do you want to live?

the red shoes ballet and score are impeccable. makes me wanna see "an american in paris". mel, can i borrow your copy? you can really see it's influence on the gene kelly masterpiece. moira shearer can really hoof it. it's been back to back nights of red head goodness.

first listen: fever ray's live at lulea

best warm-up to a live performance: npr's first listen to fever ray's latest. it's up for two weeks prior to it's release november 23. can't wait to see karin in all her artsy fartsy darkness december 5.

neko case at beacon theatre

best live vocals: neko case at beacon theatre. shar's seen neko with the new pornographers (missed ya julie) but never solo. i shelled out the duckets to see her at the famed beacon theatre. that was a first for me as well. the theatre is gorgeous and reminds me of a mix of the paramount and warfield back home. i was up in the lower balcony, but still a nice bird's eye view of the flaming redhead siren.


the night was a good mix of her latest effort, "middle cyclone" and also a lot of my favs from "fox confessor brings the flood". neko started it off with "things that scare me" and then one of my all time favs "maybe sparrow". clad in a satin red dress, she said she got it at cougars 'r us. really she got it at a mall in boston. she and kelly barreled through "people got a lot of nerve", which just made me envision the cute video with the whale.



the evening was just what i was expecting and little more. lots more tracks played from "fox confessor" that were quite the treat - "that teenage feeling", "margaret vs. pauline"and "hold on, hold on".

shar got

friends, this is uber awesome 2010 slingshot organizer. it's just the thing you need to get you set for 2010. yes, shar is already planning for next year. i found out about it on the front page of needles & pens. i was going to wait until i went home for the hols, but the desire for the organizer was too great. so i researched new york retailers. lo and behold bluestockings radical books in les carried various colors. i went with the silver on beet. brooklyn purveyors of the 2010 slingshot organizer are:

beacon's closet
sodafine
spoonbill & sugartown books
vox pop

all in billyburg except for the later. i loved my moleskin this year, but for only $6 you can support slingshot's zine and get a schnazzy planner.

zee avi at housing works

must box her up and sell her performance: zee avi at housing works bookstore. zee is ahhhhh-dooraaah-able, and shar has raved about her before. i finally got to see the pint-sized lady last night and it was quite the treat despite the cramped, hot corner in the back.

she jumped in with "poppy" (my roomie's fav) which the audience was happy to contribute snaps. my roomie and i could not help but sing "the poppy took my baby away from me". a real treat followed. when zee covered interpol's "slow hands". i was only able to get two minutes of it.



i love when artists take a song and flip the sound. in this case a rather infused jangle of guitars against paul's gutteral vocals is transformed into a sweet acoustic driven ballad. zee continued to charm us with her first single "bitter heart", which the crowd was more than happy to sing along to. her only happy love song "honey bee" followed. she introduced "just you and me" as an existentialist's song. lastly, she "encored" with my fav her's (via morrissey) "the first of the gang to die".

hanna and i hit zee up for a group pic and learned she recently moved to billyburg. brooklynites, let's make her feel welcome. she's a gem!

fltgc: stages

best "group show" for a cause: stages. since my cohort was busy at another event, shar headed out on this solo effort. it was a treasure chest of a lot of my favs, such as os gemeos, yoshitomo nara, kaws and richard prince. there's a little video room in the back with cushy chairs to watch artist vignettes. i only got through one on tom sachs, but i'll prolly be back to see the exhibit again. the vid above does a good job describing the project and my pics of my favs.

kaws, the end

yoshitomo nara, fire

eric white, foyer

cai guo-qiang, tree with yellow blossoms

richard prince, i'm not coming home

os gemeos, o coletor de cabecas

tom sachs, lance's tequila bike for girls

ed ruscha, vital to the core

geoff mcfertridge, even the simplest shapes wish to become legos on day

niners win!

finally a win. oh my golly, shar wasn't sure she could take another loss. thanks michael lewis for grabbing that game ending interception.

tvb on pitchfork

soooooo shar was there, but did not make the pitchfork footage. if you haven't seen esau in action this is a nice teaser. i love how the 101 is in the background of the interview bit. making me more homesick. 43 more days until home time.

fantastic mr. fox at apple soho store

fantastic foursome: wes + meryl + jason + peter = fantastic. shar's a celluloid geek, so you could not stop her for heading to the apple soho store. the majority of the crowd was there to see multi-academy award winning meryl, but i was there for wes. hearing about what inspired him and the process of tackling a stop motion film was a unique opportunity. the furry stars of the film were present as well.



the hour panel discussion with q&a was filled with insightful and touching moments like when a young tike asked wes how to improve his own homemade stop motion film. ahhhh-dor-hable! or when jason chimed in on a question directed to wes about how he infuses his personality into his films. jason was called out as an egomaniac by peter travers, so it was especially chuckle worthy. how about a revelation that bill murray served as a stand in for a wolf. it was a memorable evening. needless to say i cannot wait to see this film.

why npr is hands down tops in shar's <3

seriously, SERIOUSLY the best commentary on the last 10 years of music. it was a lovely trip down memory lane. makes me wanna dig up my avalanches album. shar doesn't know what she would do without bob, stephen, robin and carrie.

camille & piers faccini

Camille & Piers Faccini - One of these things first - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

the hazy weather is making me day dream of being in paris and stumbling upon camile's haunting voice. this is a great re-imagining of nick drake's classic "one of these things first".

kenneth tin-kin hung at flaherty nyc

FLAHERTY NYC

Monday, November 9, 7:30 pm

The November installment of Flaherty NYC is entitled Experits with Animation and will feature short works by a number of artists prominent in the field, including Phil Solomon, Martha Colburn, Signe Baumane, and Jeff Scher. Select filmmakers will be taking part in a post-screening discussion of their work. Animated films come in all shapes and sizes. In the Experiments with Animation program, The Flaherty will bring together a broad spectrum of animated works, ranging from quirky and humorous to dark and haunting, and often falling somewhere in-between. The program is sponsored in part by the Leo Dratfield Endowment, honoring the late Charles Samu, an ardent supporter of animation. Featuring Works By: · Jesse Epstein (in person) Jesse Epstein was selected for "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine, for her series of short films on physical perfection, the latest of which, 34x25x36, was broadcast on P.O.V. this summer. · Steve Subotnick Steven Subotnick's animated films are associative explorations of themes found in history, folklore, and his own unconscious. He has worked as an animator, director, illustrator, author, and has taught animation at numerous institutions, including Rhode Island School of Design and Harvard University. · Jeff Scher (in person) Jeff Scher lives and makes films in Brooklyn, NY. His films may be seen on The New York Times blog, The Animated Life. Time Out New York said his "quicksilver shorts are like Muybridge motion studies for the MTV generation." · Phil Solomon Phil Solomon is an American experimental filmmaker and professor at Colorado University. In 2007, The Village Voice named Rehearsals for Retirement one of the top ten experimental films of that year. · Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung (in person) Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung makes socially conscious art using Hi-Definition video animation, video game, net.art, digital graphics and mixed-media installations. In 2008, Ken Johnson of The New York Times described Hung as a "fierce, funny and inventive political satirist." · Martha Colburn (in person) Born and raised in the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania (USA). Based in Holland and New York since 2000, Colburn is a self-taught filmmaker who has completed over 40 films since 1994. Her films have screened at Sundance, Rotterdam International and New York Film Festival, MoMA, and Cannes. · Signe Baumane Signe Baumane began her New York career working in the studio of Bill Plympton before starting her own studio in 2002. She has produced and co-produced, written, directed and designed more than 9 independent animated shorts, which have screened at such prestigious festivals as Tribeca, Sundance, Berlin, and Venice. TICKET INFORMATION: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ General admission tickets to the Flaherty NYC series at the Anthology Film Archives are $9. Tickets are $7 for students with valid I.D., and $6 for Anthology members with membership card. Tickets can be purchased at the Anthology box office the day of the show. For more information, call the Flaherty at 212-448-0457. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anthology Film Archives is located in the old Second Avenue Courthouse building in the East Village at 32 Second Ave. at the corner of 2nd Street.

Contact Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Flaherty/International Film Seminars email: ifs@flahertyseminar.org phone: 212-448-0458 web: www.flahertyseminar.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

sharocks first saturday at brooklyn musuem

must all ages brooklyn monthly event: first saturdays at brooklyn museum. seriously, shar's always had a ball at these events. the people are great and i always end up running into someone there (yay kimberly). i got there at the start to catch the beets set. i've been curious about this crew from jackson heights. maybe it was coming off the girls concert last night, but the beets were subpar for me. i was toe tappin' yet slightly underwhelmed.

there were a ton of photogs in place for the opportunity to capture rock moments. they could post them to the first saturday flickr and possibly get comments from bob gruen. shar's nowhere near a rock photog but i do take pics at concerts. here is my best effort that won't be on flickr.





the beets were a nice warm up to the who shot rock and roll: a photographic history, 1955 to present exhibit. from portraits to intimate behind the scenes, it was a trip down rock's memory lane. i was particularly taken by henry diltz's slide show. go check it out. it's up until january 31.

girls at bowery ballroom

best met expectations: girls at bowery ballroom. shar's been anticipating the show for months. in fact so much that multiple listens of album have gotten me a bit homesick for the fog and the sf bay.

chris owens' vocals were impeccable against the sometimes distorted cacophony of electric guitar, but mostly his lyrics of heartbreak filled an empty place in my heart of hearts. they played my favs "ghost mouth", "laura", and "lust for life". on the later the crowd erupted in dance. other noteworthy tidbits was the revelation that "headache" was the first song chris wrote. they also treated us to some treats like the b-side, "solitude" from hellhole ratrace (hhrr) 10" and the new tune "oh boy".

they encored with "lauren marie", which is also one of my highly regarded tracks. but chris really pulled out a doozy covering my all time favorite daniel johnston's song "true love will find you in the end". i got a bit of footage, but again filmed it the wrong way sorry.


i did also snag the set list from the new guitarist. it includes guitar tunes too. notice the extra special daniel johnston cover wasn't listed. emilio of the dig was promoting their show post show and was also stoked about the cover. he said beck does a sweet version. it's aight. i have been partial to basia's take, but chris might have hit it particularly home for me. so especially fitting to end the concert with an uplifting ditty.

fltgc: team gallery, artist's space, deitch, 92ytribeca

belated fltgc: team gallery and artist's space. jac and i were sidetracked last week, so we hit up what we intended on last week. first up was team with mutean/rosenblum's untitled. both jac and i were interested when we saw the write up and pic in tony. we both were taken by the notes attached to the paintings.

when one's heart has been broken into, all sorts of weakness are free to enter, shame, anger, stupid indignation, stupid fears - stupid laughter, too

the best way to take people is to to take them for what they think they are. then leave them alone.

because there is no escape from what does not exist.

my fav was the later. the note and the image kinda suits how i'm feeling lately.

next up was marc camille chaimowicz's enough tiranny recalled, 1972-2009. this was our first venture back to the newly renovated artists space, which is now much more open. we dreamed of how awesome it would be to live in the space. chaimowicz has turned the space into a den of lights, found objects and pools of fishes.

we threw in a few more galleries for good measure. at deitch wooster, kristin baker has a vibrant exhibit up entitled splitting twilight. it just opened yesterday and going on until december 19.




last up was 92ytribeca, jac has been walking by the exhibit everyday. jessica dressner has an exhibit up on chinese astrology. dude, we had to support our people. her's her take on mine and jac's sign. isn't it cute?

she and denny renshaw collab with sufjan steven's ablum art and the BQE film.