Kronos Quartet Tonight!

Oh, DAMN. We're going to miss this one. But you shouldn't. You know Kronos Quartet - they played the most beautiful music for the most depressing movie ever. I'm almost late for yoga, making this post, but I had to tell you about this (see how much I love you?):

Kronos Quartet with special guest
Gamelan Galak Tika
Kenge Kenge (New York Debut)
Friday, August 13 at 7:30
Damrosch Park Bandshell (62nd & Columbus)
FREE

From the Lincoln Center Outdoors website:
Visionary precision, fearless exploration, and unlimited scope have placed the Kronos Quartet at the forefront of contemporary music for nearly 40 years. Tonight’s far-reaching repertoire features works by Steve Reich, Café Tacuba, and the world premiere of Christine Southworth’s Super Collider. Performed by Kronos with the 14 musicians of Gamelan Galak Tika (Evan Ziporyn, artistic director) using the virtual Gamelan Elektrika, designed and developed by Harmonix’s Alex Rigopulos (of Guitar Hero and Rock Band), Super Collider juxtaposes two sound worlds and traditions, the string quartet and the ancient gamelan, through the unlimited sonic universe of electronics.

Up for grabs: Food Film Festival tickets

I've got four tickets to tonight's sold out NYC Food Film Festival event - Edible Adventure #001: Smokes, Ears & Ice Cream (there'll be pig ear sandwiches, people) and I won't be able to make it. The extravaganza features smoked meats from Fatty 'Cue (which you know you're dying to try but can't afford), ice cream from Max & Mina's, and other assorted goodies. The film program is a smattering of shorts on topics of produce, sex, and pork fat. And if all that hasn't won you over: it takes place at the Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City. That's almost tropical.

Message me for the tickets. Don't ever say I don't love you.

(Oh, and p.s.: Volunteering at last night's Asian street food event by Chef Brad Farmerie was a blast. Not to say I told you so, but...I told you so.)

(p.p.s. UPDATE: Check out the event and watch ticket winner Miranda's favorite videos on her blog!)

Alright. It's time...

...that we talk about SummerStage. Honestly, I've been avoiding this one because it's such a MASSIVE offering of events that I wasn't sure how to go about describing it to you - especially since I've not yet been to one of the performances. However, that will all change in a few hours - Mike and I are going to check out jazz with the McCoy Tyner Quartet in Central Park tonight. The show starts at 7, but true to form, Mike has just texted me that he and a dozen other people are already there, patiently awaiting the opening of the doors at 6 pm. I am a lucky lady.

I'll admit that I'm not familiar with most of this summer's performers (except Jimmy Cliff, who is apparently a doctor of something, according to the SummerStage website). That's one of the glories of free shows, though: because there's no financial commitment, you can explore music and performance that you wouldn't take a risk on if you had to buy the ticket. Be empowered by this freedom, my broke friends! There are 33 free concerts at the Main Stage at Rumsey Field alone from now through September, and additional shows throughout the five boroughs, spanning Afro Caribbean dance, Italian pop, Jamaican reggae, Turkish rock, Mexican folk dancing, and more. Good old American snarkiness puts in an appearance when contributors from The Daily Show do stand-up comedy on July 21. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs July 23 and 24, and beatbox artist Doug E. Fresh makes strange and amazing sounds on August 11. This is just a taste - you get the idea. Poke around the SummerStage website and see all that's in store.

Make your own kind of music

Each day I commute downtown at lunchtime via the N-R-W train at Times Square. I generally attempt to numb as many of my senses as possible, trying to forget the experience as it's happening. New York in the summer is a particular assault on one's delicate sensibilities - too loud, too hot, too goddamn PUNGENT (that's a nice way of saying "reeking of urine"). As a side note, I'm having an extremely difficult time negotiating crowded sidewalks lately - does that ever happen to you too>

Today, though, as I was shuffling along, the sound of a piano drifted toward me with the marvelous strangeness of music out of place - rich, full, lovely. It was a brief moment - I was, as always, running late - but it breathed a little life into my harried day.

British artist Luke Jerram has placed sixty pianos all over the five boroughs as a part of his installation "Play Me, I'm Yours". The pianos are an invitation to passersby to play, talk, engage, make music, pause for a moment, experience their space in a new way. Musicians (and would-be music-makers), yearn no longer for an instrument to charm - you've got from 9 am to 10 pm each day, now through July 5, to work your magic. You might just change someone's whole day.

Volunteer for the NYC Food Film Festival

NYC Food Film Festival 2010 Trailer from George Motz on Vimeo.

This is another example of an awesome event that you either can't afford or didn't get tickets in time for before it sold out - the 2010 NYC Food Film Festival is hosting a ton of chances to eat delicious food and watch films about that food - what better combination can you imagine? And here's your in: they are in desperate need of lots of volunteers. The festival begins Wednesday and runs through Sunday (July 23 - 27). The Food Bank for New York City receives all the proceeds, and they're coordinating the volunteer efforts - visit their online signup to get involved. The deadline to sign up has passed, but as a volunteer coordinator in a former life, I would bet my student loan money on them taking folks up until the 11th hour (but don't make them wait that long. Sign up now).

You've got a friend...who wants you to see more free music

I had no intentions of posting this one, not because of how early in the morning you must be there, but for a number of other reasons:

1. The Toyota Concert Series? Perhaps more aptly named the "Safety First Concert Series"...or maybe the "View at Your Own Risk Concert Series"?

2. How inclined are you to battle a herd of French 13 year olds on vacation or Midwestern grandmas with frosted hair at 7 am? About as likely as I am? (=not at all. Summer subway travel is perilous enough, especially now that one of my jobs is in Times Square.)

3. Honestly, something about the Today Show just gives me the creeps. Always has.

HOWEVER, when I learned that James Taylor and Carole King will be giving a short free concert tomorrow morning, I decided that I can suspend my judgment for just a day. The duo's Troubadour Reunion tour has been selling out stadiums all over the place, and their voices both still sound amazing. Bonus: on Carole King's website, you can enter a contest to win tickets to the show of your choice (which I probably am silly to tell you, since I want to skew the odds in my own favor, of course. But I can't help. I like you.) (And on that front: when you're down and troubled, and you need a helping hand...visit James Taylor's website and watch his heartbreakingly earnest entreaty to join his email list. You'll hope that he's adopting grandchildren.)

So anyway, the concert starts at 7 am, and they recommend you get there by 6. It's at 49th Street and Rockefeller Plaza. Details on other upcoming shows are here.

5/14 Sting
5/21 The Script
5/28 OneRepublic

6/3 “American Idol” winner and runner-up
6/4 Justin Bieber
6/8 Christina Aguilera
6/11 Rascal Flatts
6/15 Katherine Jenkins & David Foster (in studio)
6/16 Andre Rieu (Plaza)
6/18 James Taylor and Carole King
6/23 Herbie Hancock & India Arie (in studio
6/25 Maxwell
7/2 Maroon 5
7/9 Lady Gaga
7/16 Enrique Iglesias
7/23 John Mayer
7/30 Carrie Underwood
8/6 Train
8/13 Ke$ha
8/20 Keith Urban
8/27 Katy Perry

See concerts you'd never be able to afford if they were indoors

Okay, this one I selfishly wanted to keep under my hat. There are SO many amazing performers coming to the Prospect Park Bandshell as part of Celebrate Brooklyn this summer, and honestly, I want a big old spot on the lawn all for me and my peeps. Back in San Francisco, my husband would rise each summer Sunday at 5 am (no joke), take a cab to Stern Grove (our most beloved summertime free music venue, and where we got married), and reserve a space for us and 20 of our closest friends for the day's concert. (I rolled in around noon, after a busy morning of elaborate picnic treat creation.) He refused to tell people how early he got there for fear someone would beat us to our favorite spot (it only happened once in four years).



The good news: there's plenty of space at the Prospect Park Bandshell, and I'm happy to share the news. We arrived for Allen Toussaint on Saturday only half an hour early, and there was a huge amount of lawn space near two adorable little girls with a hula hoop, which was amusing and also infuriatingly tempting. So the moral of the story: Chelsea, quit being so stingy. There's room for everyone to have fun.

My top picks of the season: Ozomatli on July 9, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings on August 7, and whoa - Sonic Youth on July 31! (Did you know Kim Gordon is also making art now? Random.) The bandshell is at 9th Street & Prospect Park West in Brooklyn. The bad news: you can't bring your own beer - they sell it there for a painful $6 - but I'm pretty sure that the "no cooler" rule is not strictly enforced, so at least you can smuggle in sandwiches.

Wednesday 6/9: Norah Jones
Saturday 6/12: Allen Toussaint; Davell Crawford
Thursday 6/17: Eugene Mirman & Pretty Good Friends
Friday 6/18: JG Thirwell's Steroid Maximus; Dr. Lonnie Smith
Saturday 6/19: Bitches Brew Revisited with Graham Haynes, James Blood Ulmer, DJ Logic, more
Thursday 6/24: Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club featuring Omara Portuondo; Nelida Tirado
Friday 6/25: Kid Koala; Hess is More
Saturday 6/26: Texas Tornados; Red Clay Ramblers
Thursday 7/1: Zoom: Zvi Dance; Son Lux with Lottdance
Friday 7/2: Fab 5; Uzalu
Thursday 7/8: Itutu: Armitage Gone!; Dance featuring Burkina Electric
Friday 7/9: Ozomatli; Fidel Nadal; Toy Selectah
Sunday 7/11: OkayAfrica with The Roots; Talib Kweli, and more
Saturday 7/17: African Festival with Konono No. 1, Omar Pene, Super Diamono, more
Thursday 7/22: The Chaplin Mutuals: Carl Davis; The Two Man Gentlemen Band
Friday 7/23: Bomba Estereo; La Selecta Allstar; Navegante
Saturday 7/24: Field of Dreams (Un Mundo Nuevo): Andres Levin & The Bruce High Quality Foundation
Thursday 7/29: MI21: Mother India 21st Century Remix with DJ Tigerstyle; Falu
Friday 7/30: The Swell Season; The Low Anthem
Saturday 7/31: Sonic Youth; Grass Widow; Talk Normal
Thursday 8/5: Metric; Joan as Police Woman; Holly Miranda
Friday 8/6: House of Usher: Marco Benevento; White Magic
Saturday 8/7: Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings; Budos Band, more
Sunday 8/8: Brady Rymer; Elizabeth Mitchell