Somewhere between musical theatre and improvised comedy, ‘Musical! the Musical!’ is a fully improvised Broadway-style production that’s different every time it’s performed. The show begins with the cast soliciting ideas from the audience for a musical based on a famous story from a book, play, movie or person’s life. And once the idea’s in place, the cast takes over and creates a complete musical production.
July 18, 2010
Music at the Court of the Grand Dukes
For the first time in many years, a fabulous collection of antique musical instruments that has hitherto been accessible only to academics will be on display to the public. The collection of some 40 instruments, once the property of the Medicis, and are mostly of the violin family. The exhibits include the famous 1690 ‘Medici Viola’ by Stradivarius, which has been added to temporarily in occasion of this exhibition bringing the number of pieces on display to 80.
July 16, 2010
Mandalay
Vietnamese cooking has seen a resurgence and now falls into the ‘cool’ arena for Los Angeles foodies. Mandalay however has always had certain panache with an interior that’ll take you straight back to Saigon. The entrees are innovative like sea bass in garlic and basil sauce and more traditional like chao tom, a grilled shrimp pate wrapped around a sugar cane and served with peanut sauce and rice paper. However, unlike chao tom which can be bought cheaply from a street vendor in Saigon, you can probably purchase the street vendor’s entire cart for what you’ll pay for it at Mandalay.
July 12, 2010
Films at the Skyline
The Skyline Club in San Lorenzo returns to its tried and tested formula of offering punters Sunday evening cinema. With a programme which takes in recent classics by Pedro Almodovar and Woody Allen, as well as the likes of ‘East is East’ and Kumble’s ‘Cruel Intentions’, there should be something for everyone. The bar is open for tea and cocktails throughout the screenings, as is the club’s very dark, upper balcony. Membership of the ‘Arci’ cultural association – available at door – is required.
July 11, 2010
The Warehouse
141 E 140th St between Grand Concourse and Walton Ave, Bronx (718-992-5974)
Subway: 4 to 138th St. Sat 10pm-6am.
Most New York itineraries fail to include a visit to a gay black hip-hop and house club in the South Bronx. But adventurous and streetwise visitors will find the Warehouse a uniquely New York experience. Plummeting crime rates notwithstanding, the South Bronx is still probably one of the city’s–hell, the nation’s–worst areas. Once inside the club, though, you’ll find a peaceful, friendly, attitude-free crowd. It’s overwhelmingly black and queer, but all are welcome. The ground floor vibrates to the sounds of top-shelf hip-hop and R&B–neither too commercial nor too obscure. meanwhile, on the surprisingly large main floor, New York-style urban house, ranging from tribal and funky sample tracks to vocal anthems, rules.
July 5, 2010
OH
Known for her interest in language and the way we are manipulated by it, American artist Jenny Holzer uses illuminated lettering to create short, snappy visual statements, which often offer a commentary on social or political issues. Until the middle of April, hundreds of neon soundbites will be displayed on the ceiling of the New National Gallery, as well as in a number of prominent outdoor places in the city centre. ‘OH’ is inspired by Holzer’s time spent in Berlin.
July 1, 2010
Rugby Union: NSW Waratahs vs Waikato Chiefs
The Super 12 competition kicks off in Sydney with the underachieving Waratahs hosting the Waikato Chiefs from New Zealand. After five years of failure, the coach Bob Dwyer, desperate for some form to show through, organised a dinner where the present team could mingle with the greats of the past, including David Campese and Nick Farr-Jones. It was hoped that some sense of history would infuse the current players with a better perspective on their role as custodians of the game. Let’s see if it worked.
June 27, 2010
Jordi Teixidor
An exhibition of recent work from one of Spain’s most respected abstract painters. Teixidor started painting in the 1960s in his native Valencia and was influenced by minimalism, pop art, and the support-surfaces movement. A period spent living in New York also left its mark as his own language began to emerge – geometric, pure and ordered principally in terms of colour. This exhibition, in the public gallery at the downtown end of the Rambla, includes around 50 paintings and sculptures created since the middle 1990s.
June 24, 2010
Ray Charles
‘Living legend’ is one of the most overused cliches in music writing. But with Ray Charles, it merits dusting off and recycling. What else can one say about the man who virtually single-handedly invented soul music having taught himself to play the piano after being struck blind by glaucoma? There isn’t space here to do justice to the variety and breadth of his back catalogue, but if we get even a small sniff of it here, we’ll come away happy.
June 23, 2010
International Accordion Festival
The world’s finest accordion players descend on Vienna for 18 concerts at 14 different venues, kicking off with Austria’s finest Otto Lechner at the Jugendstil Theater in the grounds of the Steinhof psychiatric hospital. The festival includes practitioners of Klezmer, Balkan styles and traditional English, Scottish and French music. From further afield, there is a Cajun night at the Szene Wien and a tribute to the great Astor Piazzola. The festival conludes with a performance at the Konzerthaus by Alan Bern and John Zorn collaborator Guy Klucevsek.
