Cuddle Magic

Tonight at the Knitting Facotry, 8pm, opening for Nat Baldwin of the Dirty Projectors.

Herewith, a track recorded (by just a portion of the many piece band) in the fall of 2009 at the Jalopey Theatre.

[Recording by Jake K. Leckie. Photo mine, Nevada City, CA.]

My mother has thoroughly mastered the art of condensation

"She chiefly communicates with us by means of telegrams, and her telegrams are rather inscrutable. They say women don't know how to write them, but my mother has thoroughly mastered the art of condensation. 'Tired America, hot weather awful, return to England with niece, first steamer decent cabin.' That's the sort of message we get from her--that was the last that came. But there had been another before, which I think contained the first mention of the niece. 'Changed hotel, very bad, impudent clerk, address here. Taken sister's girl, died last year, go to Europe, two sisters, quite independent.' Over that my father and I have scarcely stopped puzzling; it seems to admit of so many interpretations."

[Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady, 1881]

nota bene:

'Tired America, hot weather awful, return to England with niece, first steamer decent cabin.'

[91 characters]

'Changed hotel, very bad, impudent clerk, address here. Taken sister's girl, died last year, go to Europe, two sisters, quite independent.'

[138 characters]

We may have been ready for Twitter long before we thought we were.

Super what?

Stephane Wrembel (in a quartet) conjures Django Reinhardt every Sunday night at Barbes in Park Slope.

Here, a song of his from the Vicky Cristina Barcelona soundtrack.

Night Catches Us

Artfully filmed, the tone is at once breezy and comfortable--set deep within a Philadelphia neighborhood full of barbecues and lazy porch play in the summer of 1976--and tense, as the characters try to both defend and escape their violent past.

Powerful performances by Kerry Washington and Anthony Mackie, and great to see Jamie Hector and Wendell Pierce play roles that pay homage to the ones they perfected in The Wire.

Interesting, though sometimes jarring, use of archival photos and footage, and yes, a stirring and sweltering score written by the Roots.

[photo courtesy Magnolia Pictures]

Facelift

[Photo via Gothamist via NYPL]

If you stay inside, you are protected

People like us

"People like us have no time for happiness."

[Gunhild Borkman, John Gabriel Borkman
Frank McGuinness's adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's 1896 play

At BAM through February 6]