GUITAR MASH BENEFIT JAM | If you have an axe to grind, bring it and play along as the action unfolds on stage. If not, don’t fret — but do sing, because lyrics will be projected, along with tabs. It’s all in keeping with the Guitar Mash Benefit Jam’s participatory ethos, which encourages its audience to get in on the act. Featured performers worth emulating include Binky Griptite, Bill Kirchen, Brandon “Taz” Niederauer, and Bakithi Kumalo (composer of Paul Simon’s “Call Me Al” bassline). Even though you’ll provide some of the talent, this event is strictly pay-to-play. Welcome to show business, baby! No worries though, since proceeds from your ticket go to Guitar Mash, a nonprofit that provides opportunities for young guitarists from diverse cultures and ability levels to learn and play together.
Sun., Nov. 8, 12 p.m. at City Winery (155 Varick St. at Vandam St.). Tickets start at $50 (includes artisanal brunch). For reservations and info, visit GuitarMash.org. On Facebook at facebook/comGuitarMash, Twitter (@GuitarMashNYC) and YouTube: GuitarMashNYC. Venue info at citywinery.com/newyork.
MOBY-DICK: A MARATHON READING Like the elusive white whale it has an all-consuming obsession with, this collaboration between Moby-Dick Marathon NYC and the Whitney Museum of American Art is impossible to digest in one sitting. That’s why, in a nod to the epic sprawl of Herman Melville’s 1851 novel, it plays out over two days and doesn’t end until the iffy point at which the final page has been turned. Roughly 140 visual artists, writers, and Whitney staff are on the manifest of scheduled readers — including Kurt Anderson, Salman Rushdie, Heidi Julavits and Julia Pierpont. If that lineup dazzles, so too does the setting. Located just a (thematically appropriate) stone’s throw from the water, on a street named for a family from whom Melville descended, the Museum’s “Frank Stella: A Retrospective” exhibition includes selections from a series containing one work for each chapter of the book. Cross-disciplinary artist Amy Virginia Buchanan has called dibs on Chapter 40. Joined by the music collective Scouts, she’ll perform “Midnight, Forecastle,” a play-within-the-book.
At the Whitney Museum of American Art (99 Gansevoort St. btw. 10th Ave. & Washington St.) on Fri., Nov. 13, 11 a.m.–10 p.m. and Sat., Nov. 14, 11 a.m.–finish. Free with Museum admission ($22, $18 for students/seniors, free for members and those under 18). For more info, visit whitney.org. For info on the biennial Moby-Dick Marathon NYC (to return in 2016), visit mobydickmarathonnyc.org.
VAEFF: VIDEO ART AND EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL
Boundaries and borders are held in low regard at this annual three-day festival, which saves its respect for “conceptually and aesthetically arresting” cinema that innovates, provokes, and entertains — often within a single frame. That mission is accomplished in Marie Schuller’s 2012 short “Oyster,” which finds riders on London’s Central Line subway confronted by fetish model Anita de Bauch’s steely exhibitionism. It’s one of Schuller’s five surreal and exquisitely shot “fashion films” that are part of the “Beauty, Sex, and Shame” program. Work from David LaChapelle, Nick Knight, David Bertram, Eva Michon, Wong Ping and Carla Gannis will also be screened. The festival wraps up with a panel discussion featuring artists and curators, followed by a gala reception at the Downtown Community Television Center — where a photo shoot project puts a digital age spin on work from the early era of photography.
Thurs., Nov. 12, 7–9 p.m. Fri., Nov. 13, 7–11 p.m. Sat., Nov. 14, 7 p.m.–1 a.m. All screenings at the Tribeca Film Center (375 Greenwich St. btw. N. Moore & Franklin Sts.). Ticket prices vary ($15-35, with all-access passes & student tickets available). To purchase, and for full schedule, visit videoart.net.
—BY SCOTT STIFFLER
