New Series Features New York’s Most Macabre
By Anam Baig
Ronni Thomas, a filmmaker and oddity enthusiast, has created a new web series documenting the darkness, eccentricity and mystery of the uncharted and unimaginable happenings of New York City. Read more
The Bloody Apple
An exhibit of Weegee’s photographs proves that crime does pay
By Mark Peikert
In the pantheon of New Yorkers—Dorothy Parker, Andy Warhol, the Ramones—photographer Weegee may not be the first to spring to mind, but he may symbolize the contradictions of New York City better than anyone else. Driven, self-mythologizing and morbidly curious about the curiously morbid, Weegee spent a decade, from 1936 to 1947, chronicling the violence and urban beauty of life in the Big Apple. Read more
Flickers of Dance
Lincoln Center’s annual Dance on Camera Festival is a must-see
By Susan Reiter
Now in its 40th year, Dance on Camera is at a new level of maturity. The annual event at the Walter Reade Theater that once fit into a three-day weekend has expanded to fill five days, Jan. 27–31, and within its brief duration has its own opening night, centerpiece and closing night films. Read more
Singing about Love in an Alley
A revisal of ‘Porgy and Bess’ leaves the songs intact but distracts from the story
By Mark Peikert
Porgy and Bess has been something like this season’s highbrow Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Both shows came to Broadway trailing a wake of scandal and op-eds—except Porgy and Bess had Stephen Sondheim and the New York Times weighing in, while Spider-Man had the Post. And in both cases, what finally showed up on stage was…underwhelming.
What else could this revision of Porgy and Bess be? Director Diane Paulus and bookwriter/reviser Suzan-Lori Parks have streamlined the original four-hour work into a matinee-crowd-friendly two and a half hours, during which time most of the characters act incomprehensibly. Read more
Oh, Say Can You See The Met’s New American Wing
By Anam Baig
American art has made a comeback at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The third and final phase of the museum’s 10-year, $100 million project is complete, and 26 newly designed galleries will be opened to the public this Monday.
First opened in 1924, The Met’s American Wing originally only displayed decorative arts, such as furniture and silverware, through the medium of period rooms. In the 1930s, paintings started coming in, and by the 1980s, galleries were opened to display the paintings. Read more
This Is Your Brain on Music
The power of a playlist can affect productivity and happiness
By Aspen Matis
Columbia University psychiatry professor Galina Mindlin, MD, PhD, studies neuron connections and how such brain links can be strengthened by listening to the right music. Her new book, Your Playlist Can Change Your Life (co-authored by Joseph Cardillo and Don DuRousseau), distills her brain-training findings into playlists for the mood you want to be in. West Side Spirit spoke with Mindlin about music’s potential to alter mood, productivity and happiness, the existence of side-effect-free medicine and the North Pole’s hold on her mind. Read more
They Want to Break Free
‘Dedalus Lounge’ draws big talent to the intimate Interart Theater
Certain universal questions arise in every generation: What is the meaning of life? What lies in the Great Beyond? And perhaps most important of all: Are you gonna take me home tonight? Read more
Wheeldon and Dealin’
New York City Ballet returns with Balanchine and Wheeldon works
By Susan Reiter
Following a brief winter hibernation after its five-week Nutcracker onslaught, New York City Ballet returns to its primary business Tuesday, Jan. 17, when it opens its six-week winter repertory season. While the company’s repertory has been opened up to an increasing variety of choreographers in recent decades, the vast archive of George Balanchine’s exceptional ballets remains its mainstay. Read more
Thug Cinema
Guy Ritchie’s dastardly Sherlock Holmes reboot
By Armond White
Guy Ritchie’s calculations in his sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows are so low-down they’re almost diabolical. He has retooled the famous fictional detective character with no respect for either Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s literary creation or the ticket-buying audience. Against tradition (previous incarnations of Holmes emphasized mystery and deduction), Ritche panders to the current, degraded taste for blatancy and violence. Read more
The 21st Annual New York Jewish Film Festival
January marks the beginning of a new film festival season—and what better way to kick it off than with the 21st annual New York Jewish Film Festival, Jan. 11–26? Presented in partnership with The Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the festival promises to provide a diverse global perspective on the Jewish experience with 35 features and shorts from 11 countries, many of which will be followed by post-screening Q&As with filmmakers and special guests in attendance. Read more
