Wondering what to do with the last week of the year? Maybe 2010 hasn’t been steamy enough for you and you need a little more sexiness before counting down to 2011? If that sounds like your kinda heat – especially in this snowy weather, then get yourself to the 2010 BURLESQUE BLITZ! For Four Nights Only (December 27th through the 30th) at the Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) you can catch the hottest Burlesque in New York City.
I’ll be getting my fill of all things glamorous, glittery and gorgeous while being seduced by sweet sirens, beautiful boys and delicious drag queens. Come to some or come to all – but don’t miss what promises to be the hottest week of December!
My parents spent a great deal of money on my education. First they chose a strict parochial grammar school for 8 years, then I was sent off to an exclusive prep school for 4 years, and finally my education was capped off with a fancy private college. All this was done to ensure that I had a good working knowledge of the world. Yet my European-born mother still sadly shakes her head when I make such public blunders as exclaiming to a roomful of people that I have no idea where Holland is in relation to Norway. “I always thought they were the same place!” I remark, blithely, with not even a hint of embarrassment. “Aren’t they, though?” I go on – digging the hole deeper. Oh – American Education – how you failed me. Surely someone could have made politics, history, and geography stick in my brain in a way that made sense so that I don’t continually shame my family?
After spending a night with Colin Quinn as he delivered his one-man show Long Story Short(directed by Jerry Seinfeld) it’s obvious that he was that someone. Colin Quinn is like that teacher who comes into the urban school and makes all the tough kids love learning. But he already knows that. In fact, at some point during Long Story Short, he even does a spot on send-up of every To Sir With Love / Stand and Deliver / Dangerous Minds movie ever spit out by Hollywood — though his version ends with the teacher taking a job at the cushy prep school at the end of it all. The very prep school where I would have benefited so much! So you see how we’ve come full circle here. But wait! That’s only the introduction . . .
Anyone For A Swingin’ Threesome? is a trio of comedic One Act Plays put together by Just Ask Productions.
I like One Act collections, and collections of short stories. Besides being short, I also like that – as collections – they are of different origins (even if by the same author) and that the world of the story is of a completely different universe than the others in the collection. Yet often, as with this collection, they are held together by some subtle yet powerful thread of why they were collected together in the first place.
Don’t forget, boys and girls, that there is so much fun to be had at A VERY YOGA CHRISTMAS(3rd annual) you may not want to keep going for REAL CHRISTMAS. Does REAL CHRISTMAS have Coach (the greatest rock band in the world?) Mine doesn’t! Does REAL CHRISTMAS have comedy and music and dark weirdness? Mine doesn’t! Does REAL CHRISTMAS have A Holiday Man-Pain poem by Umberto MacDougal and a Steely Dan dance party from 8-9pm? MINE SURE DOESN’T! What about FREE CUPCAKES? No? Or Killy Dwyer’s world premier video Christmas Card “Getting Clean For Jesus’ Birthday”? No? NO?? What kinda sad REAL CHRISTMAS is that? Forget that! Instead, just make sure to be around for A VERY YOGA CHRISTMAS (3rd annual) where you’ll get all this and MORE.
Just head on down to UNDER St. Mark’s Theater (94 St. Mark’s Place [between 1st and Ave A]) this Thursday, December 23 at 8:00pm – 11:00pm
What? You don’t live in New York??? FIRST of all, there is NO hope for you. NONE. SECOND of all, there is a teensy tiny beam of YOGA CHRISTMAS HOPEfor you – because A VERY YOGA CHRISTMAS (3rd annual) will be live-streamed on the Internet at www.neuralimprints.com. So – I’ll either see you there, or you’ll see me there through the magic of the interwebs. I’ll be the cute one having the time of my life. Click Here for more info.
In the modern day of striking computer graphics, photo-shopped pictures and short attention spans, it is not easy to impress a sophisticated New York theater-goer with a hundred years old romance play in black and white, especially when it’s only acted in the form of ardent letters. Yet, the remarkably talented crew of Opus d’Amour manages to pull us into the story within minutes.
Just when you think that an Austin McCormick experience can’t get any more divine, any more sensual, or any more stunningly wicked, he whips up another tray of tempting treats which enthrall and delight you into a dumbfounded trance. Ahhh, Austin. You know what you and Company XIV have done to me. You’ve spoiled me for every other dance company in New York City. So yes, while others are flocking to (yawn) New York City Ballet to take in another predictable performance of George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” or pandering to Tinseltown’s “let’s get another take” and “we’ll fix that in the editing room” Black Swan – those who want the opportunity to have an amazing, mesmerizing, transcendent night of decadence, dance and debauchery will come to 303 Bond and let their senses be delighted.
After leaving a screening of Black Swan, I, undoubtedly along with the rest of the audience, felt moved and disturbed by Darren Aronofsky’s new ballet thriller BLACK SWAN. A creative masterpiece yet again from the mastermind who brought us heart wrenching reality films like Requiem for a Dream and 2008′s The Wrestler. However, this is Aronofsky at his absolute best.
Every now and then an artist comes into your life whose music is so dynamic, powerful and moving that you just have to know the stories behind the songs. When you’re lucky enough to know this artist personally, and he’s someone that you’ve always had a great time hanging out with, you’ve got no choice but to sit down in a noisy bar, buy him a drink (Arbita Turbo Dog), and find out where all this gut punching, heart wrenching, hand wringing music comes from.
Meet Joe Yoga – bass player for Kill The Band but amazing solo artist in his own right who currently has two albums in circulation. You can download (Free! December Only!) his first album The Dreamless Sea which is a compilation of his favorite songs from his earlier days. Life Out East is a full album of new songs that were written over a year and it’s currently available on iTunes.
Over the course of an evening Joe Yoga tells me how he’s able to juggle two different musical personas, how Life Out East will take you on a journey from heartbreak to healing, and even tells me a pretty funny joke. Eventually.
4 Cents Review – When 2 reviewers each give their 2 cents.
Today it takes both Tortora-Lees (Karen and Stephen) to give The Land Whale Murdersthe consideration it deserves.
For those of you who have already had the opportunity to experience a play by writer Jonathan A. Goldberg (such as The Luck of the Ibis) you’ll no doubt know what I mean when I say that it’s as if Goldberg lets both hands write two plays independently of each other simultaneously – one fully right brain, the other fully left – and then allows his subconscious to stitch them together till it all makes sense. This is his gift – this is where he succeeds when others fail. And this is why The Land Whale Murders is both difficult to describe, yet impossible to forget.
Okay, so – yeah . . . maybe Alter Ego is actually not usually appropriate for children. But you can be there, thinking of them! Because this Sunday – December 19th Alter Ego is having a very special Toys for Tots benefit performance party – at Fontana’swhich is exactly the place you wanna be thinking of wee Tots as you knock back your fifth tequila of the night and watch exotic belly dancing, alternative underground comedy, twisted freak folk music, avant garde antics, sultry modern dance, break-dancing straight from the streets, bawdy burlesque and Santa Elvis!
Entrance is free HOWEVER you MUST bring an *unwrapped* gift for a child. Cash donations are also accepted but not as fun.
Doors open at 7:30pm. Show starts downstairs at 8pm. Holiday fun party is upstairs in the main bar directly after the show until the wee wee hours!
