Volume 78 – Number 29 / December 17 – 23, 2008 West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933
The A-list
Compiled by sarah norris
Music
Bon Iver
Installation
Diaphany
“Diaphany,” a light installation created by Carol Salmanson, uses the architecture of its location as the starting point for its design. The west window’s mullions, center window’s sill, and east window’s fire escape railing and ladder are all incorporated into the installation’s geometry. “Diaphany” includes 2,642 LEDs of six colors and two shapes, fluorescents, and more than 30 colors of gel filters at varying distances from the windows, forming hard edges and soft blends, as well as large and small forms. The result is like a futuristic, rainbow-bright stained glass window. The lights will be on seven days a week from 8 a.m.-10 p.m. through mid-January. Mixed Greens Gallery. 531 W. 26th St. 212-331-8888, mixedgreens.com. carolsalmanson.com.
Film
It’s a Wonderful Life
A holiday tradition at IFC Center, now in its third year, the one-week run of Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946) offers the chance to revisit or discover this landmark of American independent filmmaking on the big screen. Capra s paean to small-town values and the ordinary guy who does the right thing is a tale of redemption, with James Stewart as a man who comes to the end of his rope one Christmas Eve, and Donna Reed as the high school sweetheart who became his wife. The story — including a run on the bank — is as revelant today as it was 60 years ago. On a different note, the 1984 horror classic “Gremlins” will be screened at midnight on 12/19 and 12/20. Friday, Dec. 19 through Thurs., Dec. 25. IFC Center. 323 Sixth Ave. 212-924-7771, ifccenter.com.
Musical
Beauty and the Beast
The current show from Literally Alive, a NYC -based children’s theatre company that produces original musicals based on classic children’s literature, is “Beauty and the Beast.” This 75-minute adaptation, based on the original book by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont, is appropriate for all ages. Each performance is prefaced by an interactive arts workshop, in which the audience learns about the original book and how it was turned into a musical, and discusses the themes of the show and how the arts bring literature to life. Then the kids and their families make Beauty and Beast masks to take home as souvenirs. Through Dec. 30. $25 adults, $20 children. $5 additional charge for the workshop for child only (parents are no charge for workshop). The Players Theatre. 115 MacDougal St. (betw. Third & Bleecker). 212-352-3101, literallyalive.com.
Debra Berger and Brianna Hurley as Beauty and her sister
Photography
High Line
“High Line: New Photographs by James Bleecker” is a show of 12 monumentally scaled prints. It opened with a November reception benefiting Friends of the High Line, a private, non-profit advocacy group credited with saving the High Line – an abandoned elevated freight railway that once serviced the warehouses of Chelsea and the Meatpacking District – from demolition, and for spearheading its transformation into a park-in-the-sky. New York City will open the High Line Park in the spring, and Bleecker’s exhibit has been extended into next month and the gallery will host a public reception and tour with the artist on January 7 at 6:30 p.m. Through Jan. 17. Allen Sheppard Gallery. 530 W. 25th St. 212-989-9919, allensheppardgallery.com.
Photo by James Bleecker
