Critics' Picks
Monday, March 12, 2012
Theater / Critics' Picks Percussion as Contact Sport: Drum Spectacle TAO Tonight at Schermerhorn
Posted by Cayla Mackey on Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 5:03 AM
TAO: The Art of the Drum
Where: Schermerhorn Symphony Center
When: 7 p.m. Mon., March 12
Lots of awesome things have come out of Japan: samurai, ninjas, Harajuku fashion, geishas, the most reliable and progressive automobiles in the world, Yoko Ono, Hello Kitty and Pocky sticks, to name just a few. Another is taiko drumming — something you can experience at its finest through this show, a combination of martial arts, dance, theater and acrobatics so demanding that its performers train for years just to be able to perform it. Their daily workouts, which start at 5 a.m. and end at 10 p.m., include a 20-kilometer run, calisthenics, martial arts training and hours of dance, drum, and music practice. During the first 10 years, 400 trainees ran away, and between 2003 and 2008 40 people dropped out.
The result? Only the finest for your eyes to feast on. After more than a decade touring Japan, the group performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where they sold out for 25 straight days, and they’ve been touring ever since. TAO could be described as the Lord of the Dance or Drumline of Japan. Whatever you want to call it, this may be your only chance to see it this side of the Pacific in all its theatrical and hyper-real glory.
Check here for half-price tickets as part of the Schermerhorn's "March Madness" deal, ending today.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Critics' Picks Nest of Trash: Be Part of Instant Art Tonight in Germantown
Posted by Joe Nolan on Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 5:00 AM
- "Detail-Geode," Rhendi Greenwell
Where: Germantown
When: 7 p.m. Fri., March 9
The brainchild of Molly Lahym, Nest of Trash is a one-night-only art exhibit within an art installation. The primary installation will be built from reused and recycled materials, and various objects and debris will help define paths that lead viewers from work to work, artist to artist. Musician Dylan Ethier will be interviewing the show’s guests and mixing their responses into instant electronic compositions, while Matt Hamilton and Jeremy Mazza will be sourcing sounds from live microphones hidden around the room.
The show will also include work by Rhendi Greenwell, John Moore, Joshua Jones, Scott Metzger, Joe Silva and aerialist Leela Sophina. The location for tonight’s happening, 100 Taylor St., is an empty warehouse that seems primed for a second life as an art events spot.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Critics' Picks Don't Miss Cassandra Wilson Tonight at the Schermerhorn
Posted by Jim Ridley on Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 7:01 AM
By now you've probably already got tickets for jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson's performance tonight at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. She's performing at 8 p.m. with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and conductor Matt Catingub as part of the NSO's Jazz Series, in a program that includes a selection of Nat King Cole favorites ranging from "Route 66" and "Mona Lisa" to Eden Ahbez's "Nature Boy." (Your goofy trivia fact for the day: She'll also perform Cole's hit "Orange Colored Sky," whose author, Milton DeLugg, was also the music director for The Gong Show and penned the theme song "Hooray for Santy Claus" for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.)
But if you somehow still need convincing, check out her gorgeous cover of perhaps the prettiest song Jimi Hendrix ever wrote, "The Wind Cries Mary." It's not as bluesy and psychedelic as Hendrix's version, but her smoky vocals really bring out the woozy, melancholy beauty of the lyrics ("The traffic lights, they turn up blue tomorrow ..."). Good music for a grey Friday.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Critics' Picks Just What the Doctor Ordered: Exhibit Your Symptom at Zeitgeist
Posted by Jack Silverman on Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 5:03 AM
Where: Zeitgeist, 1819 21st Ave. S.
When: Tuesdays-Saturdays. Continues through Jan. 28
Year after year, Zeitgeist consistently puts on some of the most artistically satisfying and thought-provoking art events in Nashville. Even the title of this show — highlighting work by more than a dozen artists who will be featured in shows later this year — seems pointed, as if to push a button or start a conversation. Judging from the pieces featured in the press release — among them a slyly ironic photograph by Caroline Allison, a curious meditation on religious transportation by painter Patrick DeGuira, and a terra-cotta statuette by John Donovan that suggests ancient Chinese dynasties might have been watching the Cartoon Network — it should be a great way to shake off the post-holiday malaise. (Check out Sara Estes' write-up at ArtNowNashville.)
Other artists featured include Richard Feaster, Brady Haston, Alicia Henry, Megan Lightell, Vesna Pavlovic, Greg Pond, Terry Rowlett, Hans Schmitt-Matzen and Brent Stewart — not to mention Lain York, the gallery director, and architect Manuel Zeitlin, whose wife Janice owns the gallery. No telling if the exhibit will include a presentation by York and Zeitlin on the psychological toll of always being listed at the end of alphabetical artist rosters, but here’s hoping.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Film / Critics' Picks Blow-up, Kaboom: The Wages of Fear a Must-See at Belcourt This Weekend
Posted by Jim Ridley on Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 5:09 AM
The Wages of Fear
When: Jan. 13-15
Where: The Belcourt
Behold the greatest five-word high concept ever pitched for an action movie: “Nitro truck on bumpy road.” French suspense master Henri-Georges Clouzot’s legendary 1953 thriller starts off with an expository opening full of numbing tedium — but that’s precisely what’s required to explain why four itchy-fingered roughnecks in a Latin American hellhole would seize the chance to deliver two trucks full of volatile high explosives to an oil fire (for $2,000 apiece). Did we mention it’s over 300 miles of rocky road? On the edge of a cliff? Over a rickety wooden platform? With falling boulders? And that one rough jolt will reduce everyone involved to a smoking crater?
As Mike D’Angelo pointed out, Clouzot doesn’t use the typical Hitchcockian suspense mechanism of letting the audience in on some threat the characters don’t know. Instead, he lets the characters in on the danger as well — leaving us to bite our nails with them as they flinch at every modest jostle. Gallic badass Yves Montand became an international star with this role (which he reportedly almost skipped, rather than work with accused collaborator Clouzot); this is the restored version including the footage initially snipped for its 1950s U.S. release — which included some early swipes at ruthless American oil companies. Imagine.
(Hey, any chance of ever seeing William Friedkin’s 1977 remake Sorcerer on the big screen around here? We've posted the trailer below for comparison — dig that amazing Tangerine Dream synth score.)
