Evolution and Innovation in Modern American Art, organized by the Whitney Museum of America Art: Daytime and Evening
Wed, Dec 3
Chef’s Chat: Eating and Cooking “Green” with Jay Weinstein, environmentalist and author of The Ethical Gourmet: How to Enjoy Great Food that is Humanely Raised, Sustainable, Nonendangered, and That Replenishes the Earth
In this edition of the 92nd Street Y's Tell Me Why podcast, host Julian Fleisher talks with Elliott Sharp, key figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City for over thirty years. As mentioned in our previous post with film maker Bert Shapiro, Sharp is coming to 92YTribeca on November 20 for an evening of performances and a screening of the documentary about him, Doing the Don't. For now, listen to the self-professed physics geek talk about his music, the famous people who have lived in his East Village apartment and his quick demonstration of Mongolian throat singing.
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92Y Q&A with Bert Shapiro: Film Maker, Doing the Don’t
On November 20, 92YTribeca will host Doing the Don’t: An Evening with Elliott Sharp & Friends. Sharp has been a key figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City for over thirty years, releasing over sixty-five recordings ranging from blues, jazz, and orchestral music to noise, no wave rock, and techno music. In addition to live performances with regular collaborators, the night will feature a screening of selections from documentary film maker Bert Shapiro’s Doing the Don’t, which examines Sharp’s journey from a would-be scholar of the physics to one of the most internationally acclaimed composers of the modern avant-garde. Here’s our Q&A with Shapiro.
What’s your background?
Being born in Europe in the late 1920’s and transported here in the 1960’s has had its advantages. There has been a lot to see and my brain seems to have a vault that stores moving images. My formative years were spent in London factories and on a farm. I lived through scenes rich in detail and filled with characters that were left over from Dickens stories. The London Blitz created its own daily stories and visuals. Moving parts of slow moving machines fascinated; cogs on harvesting equipment, inking rollers on printing presses – all had a rhythm that later was to delight when I discovered Leger’s “Ballet Mecanique.” Working as an apprentice in a small printing factory was a grim experience. But I saw that there was a “story” played out every day. The pressmen and the women bookbinders had worked together for years - this was their factory family. Their lives were proscribed by long workdays and short nights. Humor was an essential part of their interaction. With a background of machine clatter, some murmured Cockney ditties, others sang funny songs and one man danced like Chaplin. As a Jew I was an outsider - I was an observer. I don’t think that I went to the cinema more than a dozen times before I was 16 - it had little interest for me. Music brought joy, and some of my friends were violin and piano students. We formed a society to help “undiscovered artists” make a debut performance. I found myself in halls and homes well outside of my background – I was a spectator in an environment that was more interesting than the movies.
What attracted you to the idea of making a movie of Elliott Sharp? Did you know him beforehand? Were you a fan of his music?
I have known of Elliott’s music for several years and knew him as one of the prominent survivors of the “Downtown Music scene.” When we started speaking I was intrigued by his background as a young political activist and his intense interest in science and mathematics and his life-changing transition to music. The tenacious determination to pursue his own sounds in the face of the commercial music marketplace was passionate, courageous, impractical and unreasonable. Elliott’s belief in his work is admirable - perhaps it would influence others? I also was interested in giving a “human face” to the often-parodied avant-garde musician. I had heard that Elliott had on one occasion described a piece that he was composing as a “room-clearer.” It was a story that needed to be told.
Though you work almost improvisationally (i.e., without a storyboard or plan of action), you must still do some sort of pre-shooting fact-finding. What research did you do for Doing the Don’t?
I film alone as much as possible because I am looking for the unrehearsed, spontaneous moment. This is made easier because there is no intimidating crew or truckloads of equipment. Having a crew and equipment has obvious rewards particularly when post-production problems loom up. But working alone is a luxury that I find irresistible. I carry a small camera wherever I go and use it as a notebook. Editing with no story-board, no plan of action is fun – just spread out the thousands of frames like a massive jigsaw and watch for those “telling” clips yelling for attention. Ride the story that starts to appear and be ready to cut it or run with it, it nags, it gnaws it exhausts, exhilarates and excites.
The research consisted first of listening to his music. Then importantly by interviewing his wife, other musicians and friends. Through these interviews I was able to get the pieces of the puzzle. The picture started to become clear when I began filming Elliott performing and conducting and seeing his musical interaction in live performance. Also I began to learn of the Elliott Sharp impressive international reputation that amazingly exceeded the USA acknowledgment of his talents.
Your Eye & Hand series attempts to capture “skills that may soon disappear in the high-tech production factories of the 21st century.” Are you making these films because you bemoan the loss of people who have these skills (e.g., wigmakers, cigar rollers) despite the relative lack of need for them anymore?
Preserving old skills may not be as important as trying to communicate the characteristics of the practitioners. There is the dignity expressed in the work and pride and good humor that needs to be preserved on film. This is what I am working to show in my Eye & Hand series.
Why did you move from the publishing industry to “very independent” filmmaking? Was there an allure to working in a visual and sound-based medium that attracted you?
After book publishing for more than 30 years it was time to get into my vault of images and memories and see if I could make sense of the accumulation. The technical challenges in making films were somewhat overcome, but my focus was on content with a continuing interest in passions.
With the explosion in amateur film making (due to cheaper digital video cameras, YouTube, Netflix DVD rentals, etc.), do you think your audience has developed a better, more educated appreciation to the art now that the “vocabulary” of film is so pervasive?
This is a transitional period analogous to the desktop publishing of several years ago and is driven by the fascination with technology, and its easy accessibility. The long-term value will be positive. Audiences will have easy access to personal and substantive films, made to professional standards. I remain a fascinated observer.
Just added by the clever programming elves at the new 92YTribeca!: “An Evening with Spring Awakening,” tonight at 7:30 pm. Spend some QT with the creative team behind the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical (scored by Duncan Sheik, choreography by Bill T. Jones) and enjoy cast performances for a mere $15. This is an excellent fall-back if, like me, you are seriously bummed you did not win the Digital Rush ticket lotto to see the show over the weekend. For the past three weekends.
Producer Tom Hulce will appear with David Cote, author of Spring Awakening: In The Flesh, which is out now from Simon & Schuster. They’ll be joined by marketing gurus Damian Bazadona and Mike Arauz to discuss the show coming together, and it’s life now and moving forward.
Check out the Q&A with Harry Shearer of Spinal Tap and Simpsons fame (not to mention a million other projects) on New York magazine’s Vulture blog.
You’ve merged music and comedy with Spinal Tap as well as your own albums. Is it difficult to keep it rooted so it doesn’t veer off into Dr. Demento “Witchdoctor” comedy territory?
No, my wife polices me strictly. She’s a very talented singer, songwriter, and musician, and she said, with typical British disdain, that it was okay for me to dip into funny music, but it damn well better sound like music.
To quote AC/DC, “Rock ‘n’ roll is just rock ‘n’ roll.” But judging from High Level Detainees’ album Songs of the Bushmen, it appears you think it can be much more. How does your music prove that AC/DC is just plain wrong?
Well, first of all, most of the music on Bushmen isn’t rock and roll, so maybe they’re still right. Also, when you’re that loud, who cares if you’re wrong? I do think music can be an effective form of satire. I was raised on Tom Lehrer and Stan Freberg and memorized most of their stuff, which I didn’t do with the spoken-word comedy I loved at the time. So, just from the standpoint of colonizing brain cells, music seems to be an effective way of making a point.
In the last few months, an oft-bandied-about thesis is that this is the most important presidential election ever. Your feelings are clear, but are you just pulling for your guy or do you agree with that?
I’m not even really pulling for “my guy.” I said at the beginning of this year that my vote was available to the first candidate in either party who said something substantive and cogent about the failure of the federal levees in New Orleans and the need to rebuild the coastal wetlands. That offer still stands. As to the importance of this election, I’d put 1860 up against it.
In a very limited tour supporting Songs of the Bushmen, Shearer will be performing with his band, The High-Value Detainees, at 92YTribeca this Saturday. This is the band’s second CD (their first was nominated for a Grammy), and only the second time they’ll be performing songs from Bushmen live—and the first time in New York City.
We’re honored to be occupying the Highbrow-Brilliant quadrant in this week’s New York magazine Approval Matrix (take that, Shake Shack!) and we hope you’ll find the programming lives up to the billing. To see for yourself, check out our downtown music, film and comedy events, plus talks, classes and more.
92YTribeca’s opening night was nothing short of amazing. Both John Vanderslice and Michael Showalter christened the stage with performances that set high standards for upcoming musicians and comedians. The reviews are in and Brooklyn Socialite says:
[Vanderslice] put on a great show, visibly elated to be performing at 92Y Tribeca...a great inaugural act! I had a blast. The space was very well orchestrated. There are gallery spaces displaying the exhibit “Goddess, Mouse, and Man” featuring the etchings of Lauren Weinstein, Tom Hart, and Matthew Thurber.
The “nicest man in indie rock” John Vanderslice played an awesome show as part of the opening night of the brand new 92Y Tribeca, an arts, entertainment and cultural center in downtown New York. During which, the analog-obsessed, singer-songwriter did little to dispel his moniker. He enthusiastically gave home-baked cranberry almond cookies to the audience and even went so far as to hug quite literally everybody in the room (yours truly included). He also raffled off gummy vitamins (yes, such a thing exists) to whoever could answer a trivia question about your favorite political pawn/plumber, Joe.
David Schwimmer and “Fault Lines” Cast at 92YTribeca
Sitcom legend David Schwimmer and the cast (pictured above) of his directorial debut play Fault Lines will help celebrate the opening weekend of 92YTribeca on Sunday, October 19. Schwimmer will be on hand with playwright Stephen Belber, artistic director Geoffrey Nauffts and castmembers Josh Lucas, Noah Emmerich, Dominic Fumusa and Jennifer Mudge for a discussion of the hit off-Broadway play. Here’s what Times theater critic Jason Zinoman had to say about Fault Lines:
Dude. It’s an important word in the lexicon of the average, beer-swilling American male, employed frequently as a term of endearment, exclamation (Duuuude!) or even informal title (First Dude). So when Bill (Josh Lucas), a graphic designer who has settled down in a life of marriage and nightly episodes of “Charlie Rose,” tells his old friend Jim (Dominic Fumusa), still single and sleeping around, to stop calling him “dude,” it feels like a harsh break-up. Looking shocked and even a bit hurt, Jim replies exasperatedly, “You don’t see yourself as a dude?”
Stephen Belber’s enjoyable if flawed “Fault Lines” is part of a genre — call it Dude Plays — about vaguely homoerotic male friendship in which the towel-slapping banter usually hides much deeper divides. One of the best examples in the last decade was Mr. Belber’s own breakthrough “Tape,” which shares a twisty plot about a reunion, themes of deception and moral responsibility and a dispute about a sexual incident long ago. The excellent Mr. Fumusa also starred in that play’s 2002 premiere by the Naked Angels theater company, which has produced this play as well.
Read the full review. Fans of 92YTribeca can receive a special 50% discount on tickets by clicking here.
Beastie Boy Adam Yauch’s passions for basketball and music collide in his new film, Gunnin’ for that #1 Spot, a documentary about eight basketball players at a legendary court in Harlem, set to a soundtrack of raw hip-hop. On October 23rd, Yauch will be on hand at 92YTribeca for a screening of the new film, to talk about the project and his experiences in the world of indie films.
Here’s what Melena Ryzik of the New York Times had to say about Yauch in an article from September 8:
Of course, it’s been a long time since MCA, born Adam Yauch, was known only as a hip-hop artist. In the 1990s he and his band mates founded an indie record label, Grand Royal, and a related magazine; both eventually folded. Under the name Nathanial Hörnblowér, he has directed many of the Beastie Boys’ music videos and their 2006 concert film, which was shot by fans. This year, under his own name, he released “Gunnin’ for That #1 Spot,” a documentary about high school basketball players.
Now, despite some formidable odds, he is pursuing his cinematic interests with a new division of his company, Oscilloscope, which acquires, produces and distributes independent movies.
As part of Oscilloscope Laboratories, which includes a recording studio and production facilities, Oscilloscope Pictures will operate in a model similar to an independent record label, Mr. Yauch, 44, said over green tea in a de facto conference room at his TriBeCa office.
“What I really liked about indie record labels — the indie record labels that I liked, anyway — is that things were done in-house,” he said. Unlike most independent film distributors, which outsource nonglamorous aspects of moviemaking like poster design, marketing and DVD production, Oscilloscope’s employees — a tour revealed 10 young guys in skate shoes and headphones bent over laptops — will handle everything themselves, including handpicking which theaters their films will end up at.
On November 20, 92YTribeca will host 
