Saturday, July 4, 2009



















Girls with Guitars, July 4, 2002 (c) LB
Second Avenue and East 3rd Street, New York

Friday, July 3, 2009

Winnowing through the Archive

The 4 Express takes me to the Bronx.
Through
a red door I enter a seemingly
impregnable
storage fortress
which contains the archive.

A recent visit yielded this
handwritten note,
perhaps a script
character note, retyped here until
OS-9 scanner gets hooked up, see?

"Hypocrisy, besides being the tribute
vice pays to virtue,
is also one of the artifices by which vice renders itself
more interesting."
Aldous Huxley, "Those Barren Leaves"

Sunday, June 28, 2009

On the Bowery


Wiser Than God at BLT, 270 Bowery, is a show in which all the artists were born before 1927, and are alive and thriving. Curated by Adrian Danatt and Jan Frank in response to the New Museum's Younger Than Jesus, Wiser Than God is open through August 2.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

AUTHOR'S PLIGHT

On East Tenth Street in a bookstore
Frederic Tuten’s “The Green Hour”
Is the last book on the far right
Of the second shelf from the floor.

Above it a label reads, Signed Copies.

Through the door, as though on cue,
A whitehaired man in overcoat
Bursts
into the store,
A marinade of indecision.

Slicing through the browsers

His long arm hooks
The last book on the far right
Of the second shelf from the floor

I pluck another copy and compare
The image of the author on the sleeve
With the face of the man at the counter
Paying for his book in the store




December 28 2003
New York

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

BURMA VJ: Monks In Exile Speak Out About The Saffron Revolution

New York, May 8, 2009--Three monks, leaders of the Saffron Revolution and now in exile in the US, speak out about the 2007 uprising against the Burmese military junta portrayed in Anders Østergaard's documentary BURMA VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country, made in collaboration with undercover video journalists working for the Democratic Voice of Burma. The monks form part of the All Burma Monks' alliance (ABMA) , located in Utica, which supports the many monks imprisoned in Burmese jails, where prisoners are not fed. ABMA also supports refugee monks who have escaped from incarceration and torture in Burma and works with other groups to promote human rights and democracy in Burma. See also the interview with Anders Østergaard and Khin Maung Win on this blog. BURMA VJ is currently in theatrical release and playing at the Film Forum in New York.

 

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

BURMA VJ: Anders Østergaard, Khin Maung Win, Interview

BURMA VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country ,  directed by Danish filmmaker Anders Østergaard uses camcorder and cellphone footage from undercover DVB reporters risking their lives. The story of the brutal quelling of the September 2007 monks'  uprising is narrated by an unseen protagonist, Joshua, a 27-year-old reporter  exiled in Thailand. 
Background--Burma, September 2007: An increase in fuel prices sparks extensive protests by students and activists against the military junta, a repressive regime that has held the country hostage for over 40 years. For the first time, they are joined in the streets of Rangoon by thousands of Buddhist monks (the saffron revolution). As the ranks of the protestors rise to 100,000, foreign news crews are banned and the internet is shut down. The Democratic Voice of Burma, a collective of 30 underground video journalists (VJs) record these dramatic events on handycams and cellphones and  smuggle the footage out of the country, broadcasting it worldwide from Norway via satellite. Risking torture and life imprisonment, the VJs  document the brutal clashes by the military and undercover police and the violence committed on the monks  themselves also becoming the targets of the authorities.

A Sundance and Berlin  festival award winner, the film opens May 20 at the Film Forum, New York  in this its theatrical premiere.
Interview with Anders Østergaard and Khin Maung Win, deputy director of the Democratic Voice of Burma in exile was filmed by Liza Béar and originally posted on http://squaringoff.blip.tv.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Monday, May 11, 2009

René Ricard Reading "The Secret" at Poet Insurgency, Marble Cemetery

May 9, 2007--While Samantha the raven presides over the Marble Cemetery on Second Street, last Saturday Marble Cemetery 41 Second Avenue was host to the Poet Insurgency--none more seductive than René Ricard, here featured.
Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Saturday, May 9, 2009

FIXER: THE TAKING OF AJMAL NAQSHBANDI: Tribeca FF Press Conference

Directed by Ian Olds (Occupation: Dremaland), Fixer: Ajmal Naqshbandi initially follows the relationship between an Afghan intrepreter (fixer) and his client, US journalist Christian Parenti. Six months later, Ajmal is kidnapped by the Taliban with the Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo. Mastrogiacomo is released in exchange for the release of five Taliban prisoners, while Naqshbandi is beheaded by his captors. ". . .Ajmal was not simply an innocent bystander--collateral damage in a brutal war . . .To do justice to the man and the truth, Ajmal's story had to be told in the context of journalism and the escalating crisis in Afghanistan." [from Ian Olds' director's statement]. This post consists of excerpts from the second half of the Tribeca FF press conference, held at the DirectTV Press Center. The film won the Best Documentary award at Tribeca. The broadcast rights have been acquired by HBO Documentary Films. It will be aired in August.
Formats available:Quicktime (.mov)

Friday, May 1, 2009

Garapa: Director Jose Padilha: Tribeca Film Festival

April 29,2009--Award-winning Brazilian director Jose Padilha (Bus 174, Elite Squad) discusses his new documentary Garapa. Shot in the impoverished North East region of Brazil, this powerful and moving documentary chronicles the effects of hunger and malnutrition on three separate families. The last screening of this film at the Tribeca Film Festival will be on Saturday May 2nd at AWC Loews, 66 Third Avenue at 11th Street, New York. The film opens theatrically in Brazil on May 29.
Formats available:Quicktime (.mov)

Monday, April 6, 2009

Simone Forti Dance Constructions 1961

New York, March 7 2009--Simone Forti flew in from California to present three of her Dance Constructions 1961 as part of a Performance Workshop at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Shown here is Huddle. The performances took placeat the center of the gallery while videos of other performances were being projected on the surrounding walls. Also included in the program was Yvonne Rainer's Trio A, performed by Ian White, Jimmy Robert and Pat Catterson.


Sunday, February 22, 2009

Opening: Serkan Ozkaya at Slag; Closing: James Nares at Paul Kasmin

New York, February 19, 2008--The first solo show by Turkish artist Serkan Ozkaya opened at Slag, 548 West 28th Street and 11th Avenue. On February 21, James Nares's exhibition of paintings, video and works on paper closed at Paul Kasmin; unfortunately circumstances had prevented me from attending the opening.

Formats available:Quicktime (.mov)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Gomorrah: Matteo Garrrone Interview

New York, October 2, 2008--Winner of the 2008 Cannes Golden Palm, Gomorrah premiered in New York at the New York Film Festival and is now in theatrical release. The film, directed by Matteo Garrone, is adapted from Roberto Saviano's 2006 bestseller about the international influence of the organized crime empire based in Naples known as the Camorra. Garrone's script follows five characters variously caught or trying to escape from its clutches through interweaving stories that chronicle the Camorra's reach from haute couture to toxic waste. Neapolitan director/actor Toni Servillo heads a cast that includes Salvatore Cantalupo,   Gianfelice  Imparato, Maria Nazionale. Superbly shot and mounted on a vast scale, Gomorrah provides an interior look at the workings of an infamously coldblooded institution that seeks to understand rather than glamorize. Filmed by Liza Bear at the New York Film Festival.
Formats available:Quicktime (.mov)

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Bush Tetras Benefit for Laura Kennedy Liver Fund

Please submit contributions to the Laura Kennedy Liver Fund, 906 West 22nd Street,
Minneapolis, MN 55405. Laura Kennedy is in need of a liver transplant.
Formats available:Quicktime (.mov)

Monday, January 5, 2009

Goodnight, Sweetheart

New York, December 20th 2008-- Margi Taylor at the piano; with Rachel Murdy, singing and dancing at a Greenwich Village Christmas party.