INDIANA, JONAS & A LAST CRUSADE
Brotherly lov’: The Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato, co-stars of the Disney smash-sation CAMP ROCK, play the PNC Bank Arts Center Saturday.
FRIDAY
Hair! Long, beautiful HAIR! Long, straight, curly, fuzzy, snaggy, shaggy, ratty, matty, flaxen, waxen, knotted, polka-dotted — you get the drift. After lots of publicity and advance buzz that’s more than held its own against a major New York revival, the local professional staging of Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical opens tonight as the first full production of the Asbury Park-based ReVision Theatre Company, as well as the first of what’s hoped to be a long line of happenings hosted by the long-shuttered Carousel building. Check out Red Bank oRBit’s feature on what it took for a dedicated group of people to grow new Hair on a once-barren patch, right here.
While human hair can make a wondrous weave, there are those among us who favor fibers found elsewhere in nature and nurture. So it is that the folks from the Monmouth Museum have hit upon a flavorful way for you to get your minimum daily requirement of fiber, via the Fabulous Fiber installation kicking off with a reception from 6 to 8pm tonight. Continuing through September 21, the exhibition of trad and contempo works is being juried by award-winning fiber artists Joanie San Chirico and Geraldine Velasquez. The MM is perched on the Lincroft campus of Brookdale Community College; check here for needed details, and pick up the thread of MORE pulse-pounding offerings this weekend by READING ON.
Harsh my Nelo: the six-piece band from Austin, TX finds itself on the crimson banks of the Navesink tonight, as the latest stars of the Comcast-sponsored Songwriters in the Park series of free-for-alls.
Fronted by singer Reid Umstattd and augmenting their basic rock-combo template with sax, flute and spitvalves, Nelo have managed to cover a lot of critical and fan-community ground with just a single release to their credit. The band from the South by Southwest precincts of Austin, TX have spun the compass and wound up in Red Bank, where they appear tonight as stars of the free Songwriters in the Park series at Riverside Gardens. Presented by Brookdale CC’s listener-supported WBJB-FM, the twilight-time show starts at 7pm with an opening set by Shore-based bluesthinkers Outside the Box.
Favorite suns: Red Bank’s own Xol Azul is among the acts performing during this week’s edition of Street Life, in this case between 7 and 10pm Saturday outside the Dub.
SATURDAY
With an entertainment slate toplined by Jersey jukebox hero Glen Burtnik, the 33rd annual edition of the Clearwater Festival makes its musical stand for coastal care and enviro-vigilance today and tomorrow at Sunset Park in Asbury. Look here for Red Bank oRBit’s feature on some of the movers and shakers behind the Monmouth County Friends of Clearwater’s signature summer event.
He’s a dedicated folkie from the fast-lane freakout that is Maine. A one-man Great American Songbook whose interpretations of tin-pan standards have been heard at Asbury’s Plan B and other Shoreside showplaces. An edutaining entercator, and a favorite of the bear community to boot. Martin Swinger comes to the West Side outpost of The Galleria as part of this week’s Bank of America-sponsored Street Life series of live performances beneath the setting sun and stars. Red Bank’s Saturday night special feature has stepped up this season with some interesting acts; also busking it for the August 16 edition are Greg Durante (at Haagen Dazs), Helena Maria (at River’s Edge Cafe), plus TWO bands from RB: Holtz (at Ten Thousand Villlages) and Xol Azul (at the Dublin House). The series continues for two more Saturdays with upcoming visits from Josh Zuckerman, Eric Ginsberg, Virago, street-corner soprano Carly McIlvaine and more.
Last time we saw Todd Rundgren round these parts, he was at the PNC Arts Center, fronting for an absent Ric Ocasek in the curious pseudo-nostalgia act The New Cars. Well, curiouser and curiouser: this year the one-time Wizard and True Star is subbing for, one supposes, an absent John Lennon in a touring snake-oil show called It Was 40 Years Ago Today. A lip-to-label recreation of “the greatest album of all time” — that’s the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper in case you haven’t glommed that by this point — the production teams Rundgren (who had a lot to do with some of our all-time favorite albums) with Denny Laine (the former member of Wings and the Moody Blues whose 2007 appearance in Red Bank was among the least-attended events in recent memory) and Grammy love machine Christopher Cross. All participants will perform some of their own hits as well, promising an experience not unlike a Ringo-less All Starr Band. It all happens at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park; details and ducats right here.
Indie-film Jones: A tweenage Chris Strompolos in a tender moment from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: THE ADAPTATION, the no-budget recreation that Chris and two friends shot in their neighborhood over the course of seven years.
Forget the Holy Grail, the Crystal Skull and all those other tchotchkes fussed over by Indiana Jones and company. There exists a cinematic curiosity, once only whispered about by oddball film freaks, that became one of the most legendary finds of all time upon its first public showing in 2003. The handiwork of Mississippi neighbors Eric Zala, Chris Strompolos and Jayson Lamb, Raiders of the Lost Ark: the Adaptation is a shot-by-shot recreation of the 1981 blockbuster done by three guys who, when they started their nearly decade-long project, were a bunch of 12-year olds who had access only to their memories of countless viewings. With the blessing of the emperor Spielberg, the filmmakers have toured the country with their $5,000 opus, finally landing on the Jersey Shore tonight in a special screening at that inimitable alternative arts space known as the Asbury Lanes.
She was one of the most famous women of her day; a member of the legendary Algonquin Round Table, a tireless advocate for progressive social causes and a celebrated writer of stories, magazine articles, criticism, Oscar-nominated screenplays and some of the most irresistibly quotable soundbites ever. She also liked liquor, dogs, and socializing in nothing more than a hat. Although Dorothy Parker went to her grave in 1967 calling herself a “true New Yorker,” she was born in Long Branch, where a monument marks the site of the West End summer cottage in which she made her entrance on August 22, 1893. Saturday marks the third annual Dorothy Parker Day, a day-long celebration that begins at 10am with the annual Dorothy Parker Dog Parade, departing from the parking area of St. Michael’s Church and featuring a Blessing of the Dogs, after which dogs and owners of all shapes and sizes are invited to participate in a walk around scenic Takanassee Lake and along Ocean Avenue to the site of Parker’s Birthplace marker. Participants are encouraged to dress their dog as a favorite literary character; there will be prizes awarded to the best-dressed canines and the first 30 dogs to attend will be given “doggie gift bags” of items from the area’s most exclusive dog boutiques.
Jesse’s Café in West End will host an “Algonquin Round Table Luncheon” from 12 to 1:30pm (plus dinner beginning at 4:30), featuring Open Mic performances of Dorothy’s writings; reservations can be made by calling (732) 229-6999. At 2pm, the Long Branch Free Public Library is the scene for a free program of readings and performance pieces, with Parker’s words delivered by a collection of fans, friends from the community and even a few city officials. A trio of NJ Rep company actors will perform in a pair of short Parker pieces, and young Long Branch residents Carlos Garcia and Luisa Perez will salute the spirit of Dorothy with a demonstration of dances from Parker’s day. Attendees are encouraged to dress up as Dorothy for the library event. The public is also invited to toast the legacy of Dorothy Parker during an informal reception at The Mix Lounge, from 4pm.
Parker Poesy: Adapted from stories by Dorothy Parker, THE LITTLE HOURS stars (left to right) Maria Couch, Brooke Davis, Warren Kelley, Kim Carson and Ashley Puckett Gonzales.
SUNDAY
Speaking of Mrs. Parker — as if one could ever get enough — there are five more chances to catch the world premiere engagement of The Little Hours this weekend at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, where the musical by the late composer David Bucknam wraps its run on Sunday with showtimes at 2 and 7pm. A two-part piece of work — the first act is an amalgam of four short stories, and the second is a tuneful take on her early story “Such a Pretty Little Picture,” with a five-woman, one-man cast summoning the letter and the spirit of Dorothy under the direction of Alan Souza. Take it here for tickets.
An outdoor music series that continues long past the time the others have thrown in the towel — almost a month beyond Labor Day, in fact — the Sunday evening sessions at the gazebo near the Atlantic Highlands Municipal Harbor are decidedly old-school, low-key, often corny affairs that nevertheless offer some rare opportunities to hear certain styles of niche-Americana music performed in public. This week presents a chance to catch Old-Time Country Music Hall of Famers Jim Murphy and the Pine Barons in a setting that’s free of charge and much closer to home than the Albert Music Hall stomping grounds where the acclaimed bluegrass musicians make their regular stand. Upcoming weeks promise everything from big band to polka to mummers; chasing the sun in a place where the bracing bay breezes ultimately announce when summer’s come and gone.
Posted
August 15, 2008
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