Listings

ART

JULIAN LAVERDIERE Having co-conceived the twin towers of light, an artist who understands the power of the ephemeral and the ephemerality of power turns his attention to the perils of superpowerdom in “Goliath Concussed,” a show of symbolic anti-monuments. Three opalescent replicas of Napoleon’s tomb perch on dragster tires worthy of a demolition derby. A giant lantern, poised like a missile, has a Moorish lining. But pride of place goes to the cornerstone eagle from the demolished Penn Station. Replicated by digital casting, this avenging bird hurtles in centrifugal orbit, flinging its heft around (as Chris Burden did a while ago in an airborne bulldozer) and narrowly missing the walls. THROUGH MAY 24, Lehmann Maupin, 540 West 26th Street, 212-255-2923. (Levin)

TONY OURSLER His poltergeist projections, which have long since gone over the top into the realm of hysteria, apparition, and psychodrama, go a giant step further: into the dubious hyperspace of Internet-era intimacy. His latest object and image phantasms—which sport isolated facial features exaggerated by computer and projected onto trefoil or toroid fiberglass heads—woo us with winks, pouts, haiku, murmured nothings, or hostile desperation. He calls them “Caricatures,” but they’re something other than that. Think of them as grotesque emanations of the manipulative, flirtatious, jilted, exhibitionistic, collective virtual psyche. THROUGH JUNE 7, Metro Pictures, 519 West 24th Street, 212-206-7100. (Levin)

DANCE

AMY MARSHALL DANCE COMPANY The beauty of shows in downtown venues is discovering choreographers referencing, reinventing, and discarding styles as they emerge from under their elders’ wings. Amy Marshall, who performed with Taylor 2 for four years and David Parsons for a year, dances with her own troupe in her Gustav’s Wedding, Vertigo, and Sentido de Mujer. “My choreography is a reflection of the classical roots of those choreographers, rather than experimental theater,” she says. Her style shares the clarity of Taylor’s and Parson’s vocabularies, but adds emotional and dramatic nuances. THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY AT 7:30, Puffin Room, 435 Broome Street, 212-343-2881. (Mattingly)

SPLITSTREAM Artists carving their own niches in the performance world share the program: Witness their combinations of old and new, borrowed and bent. Paul Matteson, who graced stages across the country while dancing for David Dorfman, teams up with Lisa Gonzales, Jennifer Nugent, Karinne Keithley—all incredible performers—for his Failing Me Now. John Jasperse Company veteran Miguel Gutierrez presents I Succumb, performed by Anna Azrieli, Michelle Boule, Abby Crain, Jaime Fennelly, and Tarek Halaby. Luciana Achugar and Levi Gonzalez present Worthless Limbs. TUESDAY AT 7, Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, 212-924-0077. (Mattingly)

FILM

‘CZECH HORROR AND FANTASY ON FILM’ The distinctive Czech taste for black humor, the grotesque, and the folk-visionary informs this two-weekend series, which mixes the Kafkaesque political cinema of the ’60s with a healthy selection of movies by puppet surrealist Jan Svankmajer. The phantasmagoric ’70s cult film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders shows Sunday in a new 35mm print. OPENS SATURDAY, THROUGH MAY 25, American Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Avenue and 36th Street, Astoria, 718-784-0077. (Hoberman)

‘DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN’S DIARY’ Guy Maddin takes one of the oldest stories in movies and very nearly reinvents it as a silent—or rather Mahler-scored—feature. The look of the film—a dance performance shot on Super 8 through what might be an anamorphic snow globe—is powerfully seductive. This enraptured composition in mist, gauze, and Vaseline isn’t campy but it is funny—as well as overtly erotic, willfully archaic, and beautifully convulsive. OPENS WEDNESDAY, THROUGH MAY 27, Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, 212-727-8110. (Hoberman)

‘A WOMAN IS A WOMAN’ Jean-Luc Godard’s idea of a musical is, of course, the idea of a musical. Starring Anna Karina (as a stripper who wants to have a baby) and Jean-Paul Belmondo (as an eager-to-oblige slacker), in color and scope, it’s the grande folie of Godard’s early career. The print is new and so are the subtitles. OPENS FRIDAY, THROUGH MAY 29, Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, 212-727-8110. (Hoberman)

MUSIC

BLACK KEYS Ralph Carney’s nephew Patrick C. plays a drum’n’bass-era Mitch Mitchell to Dan Auerbach’s Jimi Hendrix, and who needs Noel Redding? Not these guys from Ohio. Auerbach could be a Stevie Ray Vaughan with more garage-pop in him—a flavor more apparent on the duo’s Alive debut than its blues-hewing Fat Possum follow-up. With the Legendary Shack Shakers and Darediablo. THURSDAY AT 7:30, Mercury Lounge, 217 East Houston Street, 212-260-4700. (Christgau)

DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL Say what you will about Dashboard’s emotive fans (my two cents: they’re dorks!), but singer Chris Carrabba has created a large-scale concert experience unlike virtually any other: He submerges himself in audience sing-along the way grunge frontdudes once dived into moshpits. And if you think lyrics like “your hair is everywhere” from “Screaming Infidelities” are too heavy, just consider the fact that he may well be singing about his cat, and we’re projecting our romantic dysfunction onto him. THURSDAY AT 8, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, 212-533-2111; FRIDAY AT 8:30, Village Underground, 130 West 3rd Street, 212-777-7745; SATURDAY AT 9, Maxwell’s, 1039 Washington Street, Hoboken, New Jersey, 201-653-1703; SUNDAY AT 8, Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, 212-219-3006. (Catucci)

FM KNIVES+A-FRAMES+DAN MELCHIOR If the nasally giddy and glammy and gripping hyperpop on Useless & Modern by Sacramento’s FM Knives had come out of Belfast in 1979, it might’ve beat the debut albums by the Stiff Little Fingers and Undertones, and definitely would’ve equaled the one by Starjets. Seattle’s A-Frames, who Thurston Moore is a big fan of, and who sound like the early Stranglers imitating early Kraftwerk, do two-minute staccato science-punk with lightning bolts sticking out and words about atomic particles and electric eyes. Fourteenth Street curmudgeon Dan Melchior chronicles ladies’ underwear and J.G. Ballard in rants that could pass for Mark E. Smith in a Mississippi Delta rest room. FRIDAY AT 8, Pianos, 158 Ludlow Street, 212-420-1466. (Eddy)

STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS+DEAD MEADOW Calling all indie-poppers, acidheads, prog geezers, and girls from Queens named Vanessa: SM & the Js’ latest non-statement unreels whorls of epic guitar and babbling-brook melodies perfect for basking in live. “(Do Not Feed the) Oyster” even ends with a concert-ready, applause-encouraging, rave-up outro. The darkly pastoral psych-metal threesome Dead Meadow may be from D.C., but they’ve expanded their minds way beyond straight-edge local post-punks Fugazi. With Azita on Thursday. WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY AT 8, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, 212-777-6800. (Catucci)

MASTODON+DYSRHYTHMIA+CEPHALIC CARNAGE+ UPHILL BATTLE This lineup could be metal’s future. Atlanta foursome Mastodon set lickety-split progcore to pachyderm-thick riffage and ferocious words about trilobites and sea monsters. Steve Albini-produced Philly trio Dysrhythmia churn out a heftily long-winded instrumental math/fusion/Zappa/Mahivishnu rock with no less gravity for its zillion attractive paradiddles. Denver’s vomit-vocaled grind-prog weirdos Cephalic Carnage can’t decide whether songs should last 20 seconds or 20 minutes, but know backwards stuff, spoken-word parts, silent interludes, and acoustic passages about cannibalism belong in there. Santa Barbara’s more orthodox Uphill Battle also scream a lot, albeit through time changes that Meshuggah and Converge beat them to. THURSDAY AT 8, Downtime, 251 West 30th Street, 212-695-2747. (Eddy)

JACKIE MCLEAN He turns 72 on Saturday, but he’s still the baby of the Harlem-bred bebop brigade, an early acolyte of Charlie Parker who had his own sound from the beginning. A caustic, radiant player, he made common cause with the New Music in the ’60s, creating with Grachan Moncur a valuable repertory and even recording with trumpet player Ornette Coleman, before disappearing into academia, making only periodic visits to Manhattanland. His Christmas weeks at the Vanguard are the stuff of modern legend, so call this sighting Christmas in May, a birthday present from an ageless wonder. WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY AT 8 AND 10, FRIDAY AND SATURDAY ALSO AT 11:30, Iridium, 1650 Broadway, 212-582-2121. (Giddins)

TED NASH A reliable saxophonist and clarinetist associated with the Jazz Composers Collective and several big bands, Nash has, as the leader of club gigs, taken the zeitgeist tack of appearing with various ensembles—in this instance, two in the same week. One might have thought Odeon would be enough, but the personnel for Still Evolved (Wednesday and Thursday only) suggests two visits may be warranted for the fun of it: Marcus Printup, who’s still evolving for sure, and the JCC’s primary rhythm team. Still, Odeon is the ensemble that’s carved its own territory, buoyed by Wycliffe Gordon’s tuba, spiced by violin and accordion, charmed by a book of old and new, and an attitude of agreeably raucous dignity. WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY AT 9 AND 11, Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, 212-255-4037. (Giddins)

BOBBY SHORT During an L.A. trip a few weeks back, the entertainer fainted in front of the Louis Vuitton shop. He must have seen a price tag, because there can’t be anything wrong with a man who just started year 35(!) at this posh venue as if popped out of a champagne bottle. Of course, he tootled “Just One of Those Things.” Since he added the horn section, he’s gotten even better. At this point in his performing life he is, in Porter’s shiny phrase, “the quintessence of joy.” TUESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY AT 8:45 AND 10:45, THROUGH JUNE 28, Café Carlyle, 35 East 76th Street, 212-570-7189 (Finkle)

‘AN EVENING WITH LINDA THOMPSON’ It was 17 years between solo albums for the former Mrs. Richard, and while the first one could have been livelier, the reason was that unlike Richard she sensed how much she needed a collaborator. Her vocalist-guitarist-songwriter son Teddy proved just the man for the job. He’ll back her at this show, which picks up on her celebrated 2002 Fashionably Late. MONDAY AT 8, TUESDAY AT 7, THROUGH MAY 21, Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, 212-239-6200. (Christgau)

PHOTO

RAY K. METZKER These 15 vintage prints from Metzker’s first public exhibition—all made in 1957 and ’58, during his first years at Chicago’s Institute of Design—are not just exceptionally confident for student work, they find the artist already in command of the visual vocabulary that defines his work to this day. Like Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan, both early influences, Metzker mines the rich, layered territory between representation and abstraction. His pictures, mostly urban street scenes, pivot around reflections, disjunctions, shapes, shadows, and light without ever feeling self-consciously arty, and there’s not a bad one here. THROUGH JUNE 27, Laurence Miller Gallery, 20 West 57th Street, 212-397-3930. (Aletti)

‘SYLVA’ With 65 pictures both classic and contemporary, this show of tree photographs is both seasonally appropriate and immensely satisfying. Cleverly, Meyerowitz mixes the idyllic and the eccentric, juxtaposing Zeke Berman’s tabletop maple-twig contraption with Susan Derges’s photogram of a leafy branch on a running stream and Jeff Whetstone’s camouflaged Deer Hunter perched high on a tree with Judy Dater’s famous shot of Imogen Cunningham coming across as a nymph-like nude on the other side of a thick trunk. There’s pleasure in profusion here (look for Gus Powell, Sally Mann, Ruth Bernhard) and a welcome woodland respite for the weary gallerygoer. THROUGH MAY 31, Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery, 120 Eleventh Avenue, at 20th Street, 212-414-2770. (Aletti)

THEATER

‘A BAD FRIEND’ Jules Feiffer, deeply missed at this paper, is famous for his work in eight panels, but his latest foray into political tragicomedy derives from only one: the House Un-American Activities Committee, whose notorious hearings in the McCarthy era proved once and for all that congressmen don’t need a pen of Feiffer’s acuity to turn them into a cartoon. Instead, Feiffer’s new play focuses on the damage blacklisting stirs up in an early-’50s Brooklyn family. Jerry Zaks’s cast features Larry Bryggman, Jonathan Hadary, and Jan Maxwell among its luminaries. PREVIEWS BEGIN THURSDAY, OPENS JUNE 9, Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center, 212-239-6200. (Feingold)

‘BOOBS! THE MUSICAL—THE WORLD ACCORDING TO RUTH WALLIS’ They called them “party records.” You hid them in the back of the phonograph cabinet, and only played them, for selected guests, when you were sure the kids were asleep. Their double-entendre treatment of sex and its variants may seem anodyne in these days of Comedy Central, but the nostalgic patina they’ve acquired may make them look like wit next to today’s gross-outs. Ruth Wallis, still with us, was their preeminent practitioner; this revue of her songs, compiled by Steve Mackes and Michael Whaley, won’t bring back repression, but may give smut a welcome touch of class. IN PREVIEWS, OPENS MONDAY, Triad, 158 West 72nd Street, 212-239-6200. (Feingold)

‘MOLLY’S DREAM’ A waitress has a fantasy, and discovers that love is just as likely to go haywire in dreams as in reality. Maria Irene Fornes’s 1968 play with songs has had workshops and showcases, but until now never a full New York production. I published it in 1971, but who ever listens to me? Daniel Aukin’s production, with music by Maury Loeb, features Matthew Maher, Patrick Boll, Toi Perkins, Dominic Bogart, and Bo Corre as Molly; David Neumann choreographs. IN PREVIEWS, OPENS FRIDAY, SoHo Rep, 46 Walker Street, 212-868-4444. (Feingold)

‘MONDO DRAMA’ Oh, what are those two Drama Department scamps, Douglas Carter Beane and Christopher Ashley, up to now? The boys who told you kiddie TV was a sparkling planet for escapees from the country-club set have decided that the world of culture deserves an Italian ’60s-style “shockumentary” exposé. Their prurient intercessor for the evening is, naturally, a stand-up comedienne—Caroline Rhea. Whether the campy approach will provide genuine shocks or just WASP-party joy buzzers remains to be seen. IN PREVIEWS, OPENS MAY 22, Greenwich House Theatre, 27 Barrow Street, 212-239-6200. (Feingold)

WORDS

MEGHAN DAUM “Memo to New Yorkers: this is what I found: a twelve-hundred-square-foot, five-room apartment. The rent in Prairie City: five hundred dollars.” So advises the narrator of Daum’s recently published, semi-autobiographical novel, The Quality of Life Report, who leaves Manhattan in search of peace (and more space) in the Midwest, only to become “a one-woman army of cultural imperialism.” Memo to readers: Daum admits loving her new home in Nebraska—but always keeps in mind that New York is just a short flight away. TUESDAY AT 7:30, Barnes & Noble, 4 Astor Place, 212-420-1322. (Meyer)

‘FRANK O’HARA: A CELEBRATION’ The late Joe LeSueur lived with the New York School poet par excellence for over nine years, and his recently published Digressions on Some Poems by Frank O’Hara is exactly that: intimate riffs on dedicated lines, or a man’s life as commentary to finished poems. Listen to poets, friends, and relations (from David Lehman to Hettie Jones) read from O’Hara’s work, gaze at the longtime MOMA employee’s favorite paintings (or slides thereof), and perhaps learn why LeSueur deemed Yukio Mishima a “size queen.” THURSDAY AT 7:30, New School, Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street, 212-229-5488. (De Krap)