Arts & Events: November 2009 Archives

Paul Broderick makes good use of composition and leading lines in today's PotD. The tracks lead you straight away towards Boston and vanish at the small bridge in the distance.

Mummies If you are among the apparent majority of Boston residents who has the day off today, you have little excuse not to high-tail it to the MFA for its Free Community Day, featuring free admission to its ongoing mummy exhibit The Secrets of Tomb 10A: Egypt 2000 BC. Museum of Fine Arts, 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Free.

Amar Raavi took a trip up to the sky walk in the Prudential Center and captured some of the wonderful sights of the Back Bay. With 111 Huntington and the Christian Science reflecting pool dominating the foreground, Boston just seems to go on forever.

Pie Instead of buying the last can of One Pie and dropping it in the food drive bin (we know who you are), stop by Bella Luna tonight and eat some pie for charity. It's better to donate money than food to JP charity Community Servings anyway, and we need that can of One Pie for our pumpkin flan, thank you. Bella Luna, 284 Amory St., Jamaica Plain, 8 p.m. $10/$25 donations.

Erinhard00 makes great use of lighting and a long exposure in today's photo. The star trails give you a good sense of the length of the exposure and the foreground looks spot on.

Soundtracks The NEC marks the 71st anniversary of Kristallnacht with a performance of Quincy Jones's gripping soundtrack for The Pawnbroker (1963), Sidney Lumet's groundbreaking story of a Holocaust survivor's struggle in a world still in the grips of prejudice and the markers of genocidal violence remain chillingly present. Organized by Ran Blake, the concert features the Storyboard Noir Ensemble, the NEC Jazz Orchestra, and the NEC Jewish Music Ensemble. Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, 30 Gainsborough St., 8 p.m. Free. More information.

Sunday, November 8 All day: Harvard Book Store’s annual frequent buyer sale. Customers who have signed up for a Frequent Buyer Card BEFORE November 8th will be eligible to receive 20% off all purchases of new, used and bargain books, as well as data-based Print on Demand titles and non-book items throughout the store.

Noise The Northeast and Power Electronics showcase concludes tonight with a slew of greater Boston's angry young men and their effects pedals. The bill includes Consumer Electronics, Suffering Bastard, Cathode Terror Secretion, and Japanese Torture Comedy Hour, which claims to sound like "Boyd Rice as a Sanrio character." O'Brien's Pub, 3 Harvard Ave., Allston, 3 p.m. $25.

Pythons The Brattle's Python-A-Thon is a brave endeavor—we're not sure we could endure an entire day of Monty Python fans in our own house. But it's necessary and vital that something like this happen. It includes all the Monty Python movies and a few episodes of the television show. If you go and you already know all the jokes, please keep them to yourself. Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge. More information.

Bostonist caught the new George Clooney flick, Men Who Stare at Goats, last night. Despite being a little over the top, the film is an often-entertaining (if ultimately somewhat pointless) ride through the PsyOps of the New Earth Army, with The Dude as guide (you could pretend that Jeff Bridges is playing a different character here, but he's really not). From killing goats to locating long-lost idols and nemeses, the psychic abilities of Clooney's character ("Jedi warrior" Lyn Cassady) prove remarkably effective, at least within the fictional realm. The film's a sort of Fear and Loathing in Baghdad with a little Catch-22 mixed in, plus some Kevin Spacey going borderline Nazi (it's mostly the mustache, but he's also quite an asshole to his fellow Earth Army members). Perhaps more important than Cassady's excessive tan and his appropriately groovy mental prowess, though, is the subtle yet sustained presence of Boston in the film.

jameswilsonphoto has another great Film Friday shot. This photo is much like his others with great contrast and a good use of available light. The framing of the shot works well and makes the subject of the photo appear larger than life.

Movies Argentinian cinema is in great shape these days, and Lisandro Alonso is a big reason why. The HFA runs through the young director's four films this weekend to give Bostonians a glimpse at a promising talent who is not screened often enough in this country. The series kicks off today with Los Muertos (2004), which follows "the enigmatic journey of a newly released convict through the sweltering heart of the jungle," and Fantasma (2006), a companion piece that follows the star of Los Muertos as he wanders through Teatro San Martin looking for the premiere of his film. Alonso will be on hand to tell you why. Harvard Film Archive, Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge, 7 p.m. $12. More information.

BGLewandowski was able to pair cool blues and warm reds in today's PotD. The photo has a sufficient depth of field to give you fine detail in both the leaf and the wood, and the great shadows add another dimension to the subject.

There's a scene in Daniel Burman's Empty Nest--a film we reviewed earlier this year for a screening sponsored by the Boston Jewish Film Festival--where the two main characters, a husband and wife, arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport and are summarily subjected to a search of their possessions, the passport authorities doubting their intentions. Suddenly the wife puts a stop to it. "We're Jewish," she says, "I know the dances," and just as quickly she and the agents break into a rendition of an Israeli folk dance. It's a punctuated moment of glee in what had been a mostly tempered affair.

    

Last night, Bostonist had the pleasure of meeting the Portland Cello Project, an enjoyable blend of classical, rock, and pop songs played out on cello strings. From Manuel De Falla's "Danza Del Fuego" to Britney Spears' "Toxic," the group ran the gamut of sounds both typical for and atypical of the classical instrument. PCP member Anna Fritz played her own composition, "Breath and Bone," a gentle rumination on interpersonal relationships. The band moved through other arrangements, including a Norfolk and Western song and the Halo theme. Adam Thompson of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down judged an audience singalong to a string version of Outkast's "Hey Ya," accompanied by Thao member Willis Thompson on drums. Boston received a 7.9 on the Pitchfork scale for its "Hey Ya" skills, besting Milwaukee, tying Urbana, Illinois; and eking by Montreal. Toronto, however, remains in the lead. Justin Power joined the group on for a few songs, upping the indie ante on stage. Throughout the evening, PCP seemed perturbed by the noise from Throwed, the "Indie / Electro Dance Party" happening upstairs at the Middle East, so finish the evening the band fought back with its "Toxic" cover, creating a clash between cello and silicone as disturbing as the clown mobs PCP frontman Douglas Jenkins described encountering at a dual ICP/PCP show in Detroit.

Ed O'Connor took a shot of the Kennedy Greenway carousel on the last day before it was removed for the winter. The long exposure gives us the light streaks and soft, dreamy appearance of the shot.

Eli and Ben, the opening film for this year's Boston Jewish Film Festival, is a far more muted affair than last year's The Deal. In this post-Madoff world, the showy tale of a Hollywood flim-flam man whose defining strength is his ability to talk story, the ability to effortlessly pile layers of lies on top of each other, is somehow out of step and no longer palatable. There's been too much artifice already. Times call for quieter, more restrained movies such as this one, a coming-of-age story that looks not so much at the loss of an innocence as a genealogy of morality. Bonus: Eli and Ben also happens to be a pretty good movie.

Booze Blanchard's Grand Wine Tasting is basically the best semi-annual event on JP's Centre Street. The evening includes samples of more than 100 wines from throughout the world, and all of the wines featured in the tasting will be on sale at 20 percent off. There's also a fair bit of snacking to be done. Veteran's tip: The best snacks usually go out last. Blanchard's Wine and Spirits, 741 Centre St., Jamaica Plain, 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Free.

                     

Like we said on Monday, the New England Revolution came through with a win against the Chicago Fire in their first MLS playoff game of the season on Sunday. Bostonist was there to watch and came away with a couple of photos. The Revs face Chicago again on Saturday, this time in the Windy City. Play was sloppy at times in the first match. Though the first goal was made on a sweet header by Emmanuel Osei, the team's second goal (by Shalrie Joseph) came only after what seemed like hours of muddled chaos in front of the net. Let's hope the team can pull it together this weekend with some strong passing and smart shots.

JHamel took what is normally portrayed as an ugly subject and made it into art. This photo of the water treatment plant on Deer Island resembles a Frank Gehry masterpiece, and teaches us an important lesson on using perspective and framing to enhance your subject.

Minimalism [nec]shivaree, the "attack wing of NEC's new music program," performs three benchmark pieces that span two and half decades of American minimalism. Steve Reich's Piano Phase (1967) might be the best known of the three; it was Reich's first attempt to integrate the phasing effects of his tape experiments into live, instrumental music. No less stunning is Morton Feldman's iconoclastic Why Patterns? (1978), in which three soloists play three separate patterns that eventually interlock with each other. ("The compositional concentration is solely on which pattern should be reiterated and for how long," Feldman said of the piece.) The third piece, Mario Davidovsky's Synchronism X (1992) pairs live guitar with a prerecorded electronic piece. Directed by Stephen Drury. Williams Hall, New England Conservatory, 30 Gainsborough St., 8 p.m. Free. More information.

Either Readredreedreeds found this as amusing a concept as we did, or he's just tired of Halloween. A cute, quirky shot like this shows why it's a good idea to always have your camera around.

Reaction to Jay Leno at 10pm has been mixed at best. The show's numbers are down from the Tonight Show slot (now handled by Conan), but steady or up from lead-ins. Broadcasting and Cable magazine interviewed Leno about the difficulty of dealing with his new position in the TV lineup. Jay comes across as level-headed and realistic almost to the point of being boring, emphasizing repeatedly that going on at 10 is his "job" these days. Though he'd be willing to go back to the 11:35 time slot, he likes "the challenge of 10 o'clock," and emphasizes that he's not bitter about Conan's new position:

Dancing Hipsters The funkiest Canadians since Ladies' Choice, Junior Boys rock a blue-eyed electro throwback vibe that smooths down the edges and gets asses on the dancefloor. A more potent cure for what ails you than l'assurance-maladie, provided that what ails you is an unwillingness to get funky and not, say, tuberculosis. Middle East Downstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, 8 p.m. $13.