There a a lot important things going on in the world. Karzai is known as “The Mayor of Kabul” because that’s the only part of Afghanistan that he has any control over, Iraq is a quagmire, and the jobless rolls are still growing. Luckily, you can always trust our corporate media to stay on top of the really important stories. I’m sure the fact that Warner Brothers (maker of Harry Potter movies) and Time are both owned by AOL Time Warner has nothing to do with it.
Culture reminder: The Museum Mile Festival is today from 6-9. All of the museums from 82nd Street to 104th Street along Fifth Avenue have free admission, plus the avenue itself is closed to traffic and has bands, entertainment, etc.
Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek have worked together since October 1994. Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 8 years. Rotterdam’s heterogeneous, multicultural street scene remains a major source of inspiration for Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, although since 1998 they have also worked in cities abroad.
They call their series Exactitudes: a contraction of exact and attitude. By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people’s attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity. The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element.
I haven’t posted much lately, so here are a few items of note:
After 18 years, the U.S. has decided to start contributing to, and getting active with, UNESCO, the UN’s cultural arm. They’ve decided it might be a useful tool as part of the “War on Terrorism.” When the Republicans say they’re getting interested in culture, it’s time to get worried.
The Guardian has an interview with Susan Sarandon. My friend the lovely and talented Anees sent me the URL. We recently watched Bull Durham, since I hadn’t seen it in over a decade, and James had never seen it. One of my favorite lines in the movie is spoken by her character:
The world is made for people who aren’t cursed with self-awareness.
Cabinet Magazine has a graph illustrating the destruction of the idea of public domain by our copyright system and the abuse of it by corporations.
Fresh Tracks is exactly the kind of thing I look for at DTW: a showcase of emerging choreagraphers and performance artists. Beyond a doubt the highlight of the show was the last work: “American Crane Standards” by Ann Liv Young. The title comes from a brand of toilets — the company no longer exists — which are carried out by the two dancers at the beginning of the piece. I have borrowed an image from her web site so you can see an example. It’s a photo of one of the truly great moments in the work, so I hesitated to put it up.
I’m a lousy dance critic — I just know what I like — so I will post the New Yorker blurb that recommended seeing her:
Ann Liv Young’s madcap choreography mocks strip-club routines, cheerleading, and feminine demureness with dancers who know how to flout the male gaze while flaunting their stuff. This week, only days after her college graduation, Young presents “American Crane Standards” as part of Dance Theatre Workshop’s “Fresh Tracks” showcase of up-and-coming choreographers. Two women in mint-green skirts and chiffon blouses lug parti-colored toilets onto the stage and undertake a synchronized dance, responding to verbal cues barked from offstage. The toilets, pink, green, and yellow, coordinate perfectly with the deadpan dames who straddle them, performing midair splits. Endlessly inventive, tacitly confrontational, the show is as fun to discuss as it is to watch.
She also does purses and skirts. Maybe I can commission an interesting bag. I at least need to get her in touch with my friend Kim Johnson, who runs Johnson on Orchard Street.
Update: Here is a video of an excerpt of the piece:
See, I read Liz Smith for the culture. I only saw this story in her column — that the bronze dancing satyr found four years ago by Sicilian fishermen, and believed to be by Praxiteles(!) has gone on display at the Palazzo Montecitorio, the Italian Parliament.
World-premiere songs commissioned by Sequitur:
Elena Kats-Chernin
Ned Rorem
Victoria Bond
Stephen Coxe
William Rhoads
Robert Maggio
Robert Carl
Frances Thorne
And classic cabaret favorites by:
Marc Blitzstein
Kurt Weill
Michael John LaChiusa
Noel Coward
Francine Trester
