With the very recent passing of David Lynch “Pop surrealism” seems to have gone fluorescent in the art cognoscenti mass consciousness. and Kenny Scharf’s opus as on display at the Brant foundation study center is a non-stop escapist essay in the quasi-genre. Enter the biggest retrospective of Scharf since a 1995 exhibition in Monterey starting […]
Kenny Scharf at the Brant Foundation Read More »
Ghosts in the guitar. The wonderfully inventive Jules Reidy has been going through a period of transition of late. Affairs of the heart, a change in gender identity and a renewed interest in mysticism have all, it seems, led to Ghost/Spirit (CD, LP, download out Feb. 21 from Thrill Jockey). While they’re often heard in
MUSIC: Wiggly Air by Kurt Gottschalk Read More »
Spend time on social media, especially text-based sites like Bluesky (that’s what I use—and enjoy—now after deleting my account at the neo-Nazi’s site) and you eventually find people decrying a lack of media literacy. What they mean by that is the ability to see the difference between assertion and fact, to know what’s reporting and
JAZZ: “Evil is Always a Bad Stylist” Read More »
Hey, Good Lookin’! Hello! howdy! aloha! shalom! hola! bonjour! salve! Welcome to the February edition of “Tits Up Big Apple” where we explore the multi-cultural, multi-talented and inclusive music of Manhattan. All are welcome, and always will be, to enjoy all that this muse-sical muse has to offer. I’ll never let you gentle readers feel
The Medea Hoar’s month of music fore and aft Read More »
It’s not often you hear the story of a female serial killer, let alone one from the early 20th century. ‘The Giggling Granny,’ running from Jan. 9 – Jan. 26 at Theater for the New City, gives audiences a first-hand account from famous serial killer Nannie Doss herself as she regales how she murdered four
Calicho Arevala came to New York City from his native Colombia several years ago to work as an architect. “I did a variety of jobs as an architect. Project manager and so forth,” he says. Architect was an excellent day job. However, inspired by the energy and possibilities of New York, he soon commenced adventures
Inspired to Inspire: The Art of Calicho Arevala Read More »
Recently my friend and neighborhood-preservation hero Zack Weinstine of www.savegansevoortnyc.org shared a link to a feature-length documentary I didn’t know he had made. It’s called “Strange Days Diary NYC” and it’s his chronicle of year one of the covid pandemic, most of it shot around the far West Village, where, like Zack and his wife,
Pandemic diary filmed from Horatio Street Read More »
In the beating heart of Harlem, Ilon Gallery’s grand brownstone is bursting at the seams with artistic exuberance as it celebrates its 10-year anniversary with the vibrant exhibition eponymously titled “10”. This far-ranging showcase brings together an eclectic mix of painters, photographers, sculptors, cartoonists, AI and mixed-media artists from the gallery’s stable, deftly curated to
1980’s street art morphs into today’s Downtown Uptown show Read More »
Sixth time around. The British funk band Cymande’s fame was momentary 50 years ago or so. They released three notable albums [their self-titled 1972 debut, followed by Second Time Round (1973) and Promised Heights (1974)] with less essential efforts in 1981 and 2015, toured with Al Green and Patti Labelle and headlined at the Apollo before calling it quits. Their grooves
Wiggly Air, on music with Kurt Gottschalk Read More »
As a critic, I’m wary of addressing issues of taste. Taste is personal, it’s what we like and what we don’t—I love how in Italian you say you like something with “mi piace,” which means “it pleases me”—and there’s very little taste-wise that is truly bad. Bad taste, done with affection, is kitsch, which is
Jazz: Being Here, Now Read More »
