Showing posts with label Free Events. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Events. Show all posts

Friday, July 21, 2017

NYC Days 33 & 34: In Which I Get The Lowdown on Common. Ok? Go!


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LOWDOWN HUDSON MUSIC FEST 2017
If it is July and the location is Brookfield Place, it must be time for the Lowdown Hudson Music Fest.

Somewhere between 5:00 and 5:30pm, on a hot Tuesday afternoon, I stepped outside of the air-conditioned comfort of Brookfield Place to see what the weather was up to and immediately regretted my decision. In a word, the weather was Brutal. I returned in a rush to the soothing comfort of the Winter Garden, and did not leave it until around seven when the outside temperature had dropped to a more bearable level, aided by a breeze rolling in off the Hudson River to help it along.

By this time someone calling herself Lion Babe - yes, indeedy - was turning up the heat on stage with what I can only assume was the latest style in black rhythm and soul, or whatever it was she was modulating her way through. Lion Babe appears to be the latest in a long and illustrious line of gymnastic warblers who may or may not have something important to say, but I find forgettable once the song is over. In deed, minutes after she left the stage I could not recall one catchy melody or hook that might have made me want to hear more.

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However, the audience was lapping it up, and they were soon right into the hip hop beats of the main act, the man calling himself Common. I guess with a name like that there is nothing else you can do but work hard to show you are anything but common. Even my limited knowledge of this genre recalls that Common (born Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr in 1972), has been around since the early 1990s, and is one of the early practitioners of hip-hop music in New York City.

I'm sorry, but maybe I'm turning into the grumpy old man I swore I'd never be. Having come of age in the 1960s, I guess I was spoilt by so many great songwriters and singers who not only had something to say, but who also knew how to say it with a great melody line, a catchy hook, and lyrics that didn't make you blush in front of your mother (let alone your grandmother!) Maybe too, I needed to have been born in a ghetto in 1970s New York to really understand and appreciate hip hop music, and rap.

Both Lion Babe and Common, and their crews of very talented musicians drank gallons of water and poured it all out again in copious amounts of sweat, while they commanded the stage as only hard working musicians know how to do. I am not doubting their talent in the least. It's just that the genres these performers have chosen to work in consistently fails to move me. I am well aware that the fault lying at the heart of my lack of appreciation is entirely my own, and not that of the performers on stage on Tuesday night.

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OK GO
I first became aware of OK GO, like millions of other fans, via the band's first viral video for the song, Here It Goes Again, which quickly became known as 'the treadmill song'. If you've never seen it, head over to YouTube right now and take a look. You'll be happy you did. The group has gone on to make even more complicated one-take music videos that seemingly defy the imagination, and each video is more complex in terms of its planning and choreography than the previous one.

Needless to say, I was not going to pass up an opportunity to see the group performing in New York during my stay, especially since the show was free. As soon as the show started I realized that despite viewing their videos dozens of times on YouTube, I was totally unfamiliar with their music.

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How can this be?, I hear you ask.

After giving the matter some thought I know why. In watching the videos, I have been so engrossed in the complex visuals that I have not been focusing on the actual songs themselves. For me, the music was just the accompaniment to the visuals, and to the complicated choreography. Stripped of the visual element, I initially feared the songs might turn out to be dull and uninteresting, but I was delighted to find the songs stand up perfectly well on their own.

Of course, several of the songs were well known to me, but others, shorn of their visual elements, were truly being heard for the first time. With OK GO I was in my musical element. I was on familiar ground. Here is a genre of music I understand. Here is a group that also knows how to write great hooks with strong melodies that audience members can pick up quickly, and are able to join in on with little teaching or encouragement.

Like Lion Baby, Common, and Flint Eastwood (the opening act for the night), the four members of OK GO were pouring sweat on stage almost as fast as they could down the cold water they were consuming in an effort to remain hydrated. Like the professional musicians who preceded them, they gave their all, and the 90-minute performance has been one of the musical highlights of my trip to date.

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Tuesday 18, July | Expenses $85.53 ($111.05)
Wednesday 19, July | Expenses $16.85 ($21.15)
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Any questions, comments or suggestions? How about complaints or compliments? Let me know via the comments box below.

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

NYC Day 17: The Rubin Museum of Art

The start of the spiral staircase that rises through the Rubin Museum

SENIORS FREE FIRST MONDAY'S @ THE RUBIN MUSEUM, 150, West 17th Street.
I caught a 1-train the 19th street station which was less than a couple hundred yards from the Rubin museum. The museum provides free entry to seniors (normally USD$10.00) on the first Monday of each month, and I was more than happy to take advantage of the offer. I have been to the Rubin Museum on previous visits to New York and enjoyed my visit enough to make a return trip today. The two new major exhibitions this summer are The World Is Sound, which is part exhibition, part sound installation. The second exhibition, Henri Cartier-Bresson: India in Full Frame, features sixty-nine photographs taken by this much acclaimed photographer during several trips to India from the late 1940s through until the early 1960s.

The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room
Acoustic insulation in the Deep Listening room


The World Is Sound
This exhibition/installation juxtaposes sound art and Tibetan Buddhist ritual music cyclically, that is, from creation to death to rebirth. The work explores different dimensions of sound and listening and its many functions in Tibetan Buddhism. Some of the key concepts and terms explored through the exhibition encourage visitors to focus on ambient sounds, microtones, electronic music, drones (the musical type, not the modern flying craft), rhythm and polyrhythm, tone and timbre, and more besides.

I was particularly interested to learn about the late Pauline Oliveros's concept which she called, Deep Listening. The brochure for this part of the exhibition contains four exercises that visitors can employ to help them focus deeply on tuning in to the sounds around them. One of these exercises she called, Ear Piece, and asks thirteen questions that encourage Deep Listening. Here are the first five and final two:
  1. Are you listening now?
  2. Are you listening to what you are now hearing?
  3. Are you hearing while you listen?
  4. Are you listening while you are hearing?
  5. Do you remember the last sound you heard before this question?
And so on, until the final two questions: Are you listening to sounds now or just hearing them? And... What sound is most meaningful to you?

Even working through the first five questions is harder than I thought it would be. After all, we live in a world where it is virtually impossible not to be surrounded by sounds that are loud, intrusive and constant. Especially here in New York City!


Henri Cartier-Bresson: India In Full Frame
In 1947 Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), co-founded the renowned Magnum photographic agency. Later that year he went to India for the first time and was in Delhi in January 1948 to meet with and photograph Mahatma Gandhi, who despite his diminutive physical size was one of the towering political figures of the 20th century. While Cartier-Bresson was not present when Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist on January 30, 1948, he was certainly present to document the subsequent funeral and the massive crowds of mourners who gathered to witness Gandhi's traditional cremation ceremony.

Above and below; images from the Cartier-Bresson exhibition

Above: Mahatma Gandhi's funeral pyre 


These images, and many others cemented Cartier-Bresson's reputation as one of the great photographers of the last century, and a selection of images from that period form an important part of the current exhibition at the Rubin Museum.

Many of the other photographs from the late 1940s capture a country that was right on the cusp of major political change, as India struggled to get out from under British colonial rule, a campaign that Gandhi was heavily involved in. For students of history, and of British colonial history and how that impacted on the Indian subcontinent, these images will surely be of interest. However, I suspect that other visitors will mostly regard them as historical curiosities - though hopefully interesting ones.

But Wait - There's More!
Apart from these two major exhibitions, the Rubin Museum also has a permanent collection of fascinating drawings, paintings, statuary and more from Tibet and other nearby regions that make this museum worthy of a visit. Like similar institutions, the Rubin programs a full calendar of ancillary events ranging from free (and fee paying) musical performances across a range of genres, film screenings, classes, lectures, events for children and families, and an annual Block Party that also includes free entry to the museum. This year the Block Party (which takes place on West 17th street between 6th and 7th avenues), will be on Sunday, July 16, from 1:00pm to 4:00pm.

If You Go
Rubin Museum of Art...
150, West 17th Street, New York, New York.

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Monday, July 3 | Expenses $15.00
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Sunday, May 26, 2013

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, America

~ The Memorial Day Weekend is considered the official start of summer in America, and I wish I was there to see the summer in. Since I’m not, I thought I might at least point lucky visitors and locals to a few of my favorite New York-centric websites and events.

Over the past 50 years, more than five million people have enjoyed free productions of plays by William Shakespeare at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. This year The Comedy of Errors is the Public Theater’s choice for their free annual Shakespeare In The Park production. The play kicks off Tuesday, May 28 and runs through until Sunday, June 30, 2013. All shows begin at 8:30 PM.​​​, and there is no intermission during the 90 minute performance.

Among the actors featuring in this year’s production will be Jesse Tyler Ferguson, one of the stars of Modern Family, Hamish Linklater, and Becky Ann Baker.
If you want to join the audience, you are advised to line up early on the day of performance.
​Free tickets are distributed on each performance day from 12:00 PM (midday) via the free lines at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Tickets are for the daily performance only. You can not line up to get tickets for the following day, or for an upcoming performance.
Once The Comedy of Errors finishes its run it will be followed by Love's Labour's Lost, A New Musical​, which is of course, a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Love's Labour's Lost. This production will run from July 23 - August 18​, 2013.

More information: Shakespeare In The Park…

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I have written about this website before here… This is my ‘go to’ site for cheap tickets to a whole range of events in New York City and beyond. Via Goldstar you can find tickets (many at half their box office price) to numerous theatre productions and major sporting events, as well as walking tours, harbor cruises and much more. The great thing about Goldstar is that discount tickets are available for similar events in more than 30 other cities across the United States.

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SummerStage is another annual arts and music program of New York’s, City Parks Foundation. It schedules a host of free events throughout the summer months, and 2013 will be no exception. As in previous years, the artists chosen for the 2013 program represent a wide range of genres and cultures, and perform in outdoor settings accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds. I was lucky to see one of my favourite performers, the late Gil Scott-Heron performing as part of the 2010 SummerStage concert series, and I am very grateful to the City Parks Foundation for giving me that opportunity.

SummerStage strives to develop a deep appreciation for contemporary, traditional, and emerging artists as well as the communities in which these artists originate. All SummerStage shows go on ‘rain or shine’, and are only cancelled if extreme weather events are forecasted.

You can follow SummerStage on Twitter and Like them on Facebook to keep up to date with the latest SummerStage fan content and contest opportunities.

More Information: Summerstage...

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Good things are said to come in three’s, and the above three sections point to three of the best in my experience. If you are visiting New York City for the first time, you are in for a treat, and I can only wish I was there with you. All things being equal, I plan on visiting America and New York City again next year, so you can be sure the next twelve months will be filled with much anticipation, and forward planning. I can hardly wait.
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